moonslav59

I doubt he'd answer that question directly. (Some, here, seem to think it was Bloom's choice to not spend big.)

Pretty much all of it in a nutshell.

Nope. According to this site. The GM makes all the calls and is 100% responsible for the .500 record. (LOL)

Good point. His D did improve, and "production" can come in many forms. His run generating value surely did decline and that continued into 2023. It was a different Bogey, but necessarily a worse one. bWAR has him almost identical from 2018-2019 (12.2) as 2021-2022 (10.9). He's on pace for about a 3.8 bWAR, this year in what should be more games played than 2021 or 2022. He's on pace for a 3.7 fWAR, this year.

Good points. I do think the comments about Bloom trading Betts was a major throwing him under the bus move. It had to be an organizational choice made.

All true. The new regime (or interim one) is 1-1 or .500.

15 games to go, and we are tied with the Yanks and just one game away from .500. It wasn't really injuries that caused all this. We had about the amount one should have expected, and several were known going into the season. We saw some major help from the farm, but even that was not enough. The recent play from Rafaela & Abreu is encouraging, but the sample size is way too small to count on either to be solid FT contributors, next year. We had some exciting moments during the season, and a couple times it seemed enough to tease some of us into thinking, "Could this be real?" When you think about all that went right this year, it only helps magnify the shortcomings. Bello & Casas were more than anyone could realistically hope for, so early in their careers. Wong & McGuire came pretty damn close to what Vaz and Plawecki had been giving us- again, sooner in Wong's career than I expected. Our OF went from one of the worst to one of the best, overnight. JT replaced JD seamlessly. Crawford & Wink were both very pleasant surprises. Bernardino, too, after he was added to the 26. Jansen and Martin fixed a major issue from 2022, but those two were not enough to carry the pen through what it was asked to do, way too often, namely to go 5+ innings a game. Reyes brought some needed stability to the MI, but it was way too little and way too late. The Mehs: At the start of the year, I thought we'd be lucky to get 32-33 starts out of Paxton + Sale combined. They are at 36, but the combined 4.60 some odd ERA was not very helpful. Devers did not give what I expected, but he came close. His defense did not improve and hurt us often. Pivetta got himself demoted, then just about redeemed himself. Duvall did pretty good, when healthy. Dugo was about what he has been for years. Refsnyder struggles as the season went on, but he still did okay vs LHPs. Yoshida could be placed in the ugly category, so I put him right before it. The Ugly The Middle Infield killed us about as much as the rotation. Kike was a complete disaster and Yang just fixed the D for a short while, but his O was god-awful. The rotation was a lop-sided merry-go-round. Kluber sucked. Houck and Whitlock were hurt, jerked around and ineffective when they did pitch. A Major disappointment. I know I am in a tiny minority, but for the most part, I enjoyed watching this team. (More so than 2022, anyway.) I expected better results, and watching losses is not fun for any of us, but we were in most of those losses to the end, and the games were interesting, to say the least. Being a big fan of defense made it very difficult to enjoy far too many times. Watching us leave the bases loaded multiple times in some of those 1 or 2 run losses, hurt like hell, but the games had suspense and excitement, for the most part This end to the season hurts. I wanted to believe the team that was doing well or very well, at various points in the season was who this team really was, but it looks like that was all a big tease. I still like the foundation we have, going forward. I'm hopeful our farm can and will continue to add players, each year. Guys like Teel, Anthony, Mayer and Wikelman maybe be less than a year or year and a half away. Bello, Casas, Wong, Rafaela, Abreu and others could continue to grow. I don't see why they shouldn't. I'm hopeful the next GM makes better choices and places the focus on pitching and quality over quantity, but that has to come from the top for it to work with any GM, IMO. I wish the season was ending on a better note, but it is what it is. Beating out the Yankees in the standings does give us something to cheer for, but it is hard for anyone to be optimistic about that, right now.

Well put. If the parameters don't change, I'm not sure any GM can work miracles.

No doubt, but that doesn't change the fact that he has not been the 2018 Bogey for 3 years, and he's not getting any younger. I find it kind of ironic that posters who have thought the Sox have sucked for 4 years wanted Bloom to keep all the players that were part of those teams. Vaz and Beni are shells of themselves- no disrespect intended. JT was a great guy for replacing JD. Losing Bogey hurt like hell, as did losing Nate, but they took mega deals, elsewhere. Time to move on.

That kinda knocks the wind out of the sails.

Probably never crossed their minds, although some new minds are coming in.

Refsnyder has our best OPS vs LHPs since 2021. Story is going to have to pick up some RH'd bat slack, but yes, Duvall and Rafaela have a lot to do to help make up for the loss of JT.

Wikelman was not sharp, today, in POR's loss: 5IP, 5H, 2ER, 3BB, 5K Teel homered! (2-4) as did Binelas. Anthony 2-4 as was Jordan

Ideally, we could just buy all our needs: 3 SP'ers 1 big RH'd bat that can play RF 1 solid LH'd RP minor league depth that is ML ready in April (middle IF, OF, 1B, Pitching) I've all but given up on this dream. I think trades may be the way we fill 1-2 of these slots, and we have to give to get.

Yoshida is such a ground out machine.

Turner will not take the option, so he will be a FA. We rarely bring back our guys who reach free agency, and with Yoshi so well suited for DH, I think JT is as good as gone. I would like to see us bring back Duvall, as long as the cost and years are not too much. I don't really want Duvall in CF, and since Duran and Ref are best suited for LF, I could see an OF like this: LF: Duran, Refsnyder (Yoshi/Abreu/Reyes) CF: Rafaela, Abreu (Duran/Reyes) RF: Duvall (Abreu/Refsnyder/Reyes) If we can't get something useful for Dugo, I'd keep him and maybe trade Duran while his stock appears high. LF: Abreu, Refsnyder (Yoshi) CF: Rafaela (Abreu) RF: Dugo (Abreu)

Not untrue, but it works better than your ownership group overly loyal to Cashman.

More lies and more obsession with posters not the Sox. I disagree with Max, Bell, notin and many others, often. It rarely gets heated, because they don't lie or twist my positions into strawmen. I'm not "playing the victim." I'm giving a reason why I post, so much. Another is that I don't live near or work with any Sox fans. I'm still not sure why that bothers you, but clearly it does. I guess it happens to the sanctimonious types like you, sometimes.

He was at 2.60 for us before today.

Robertson was obtained by trading Kike to LAD. He could amount to something useful, someday. Weiss is a waiver wire dumpster dive.

With Yoshi moving to DH, Duran and his defense might be best served in LF.

Yes, and they need to change their philosophy, at the top, as in spending patterns.

Exactly, and if the kid never amounted to anything, what was lost? Same with the JD failed trade and the subsequent drop in draft slots on the comp picks. He thought he was "worth more."

Neither is obsessing over posters on a Sox blog and their number of posts. I have OCD. This is one of 3 places I channel it. If it bothers you, just put me on ignore. What's your excuse?

It gets worse when the team is losing. I admit, I have not helped make this place more inviting and keep arguments going on for too long. I'm not expecting any others to admit their part in the "endless banter," but I'm not arguing with myself.