moonslav59

As Max will tell you, it's all about defense.

He was never going to stay onboard for massive budget cuts. He'd have quit, himself, if they told him to trade Betts and Price. It probably killed him not to be allowed to bring Kimbrell back or trade more prospects at the 2019 deadline. Just my opinion. BTW, the team was 76-68 on 9/9/19 and had dropped 5 of their last 7 games.

Indeed, but one thing to notice: the Astros had a 6 pitcher rotation, not long ago, with all homegrown starters. The Dodgers have a long list of homegrown SP'ers that have been big pluses to them. We need to add 3 solid SP'er, this winter to be a top contender. We can't keep hoping Crawford will be our ace for a month- or Houck- or Whitlock- or Pivetta... Even Bello should really be counted on as a solid #3 or decent #2. Sale cannot be counted on for even 1 GS in 2024, so one could argue we need 4 SP'er, but I'm okay with Pivetta or Houck as our #5.

The Sox defense right now, with or without Rafaela, is almost decent. -Max We agree on a lot of things, and I value your contributions, but I can't disagree more on this. This is the worst defensive Sox team I have ever seen, and it's not even close to last year's bad D team.

So we have finally identified the leader of the BAC (Bloom Apologist Club.) Apparently, there are dozens of members on this site.

It’s not a good plan, but until we add a Bello to the staff every year or two, there are not many other options.

Agreed. I’m not reading so much into Rafaela’s stat at SS, though. We won’t get an ace for Rafaela. We’d have to add a lot more, and I doubt anyone is Sox managements is for trading 3-4 prospects. I think trading Mayer plus one other player or prospect for a solid pitcher makes more sense. Not that the Sox brass uses any “sense,” when making choices like this. There is a viable argument to keep all the kids and just spend big for pitchers and pray we do better than most do on this.

I love great D, especially at SS, and my choice now would be neither, but if I had to chose, I'd take the guy who plays 150 games a year. (I'd also move him to 3B or 2B, when we have a SS that is ML ready.)

Yet, they persist. LOL

I have always felt we should have kept Betts. Had we just replaced his and half Prices budget space, not to mention Porcello and others, it might not have been 5, either.

I do think they felt we'd be better than this, by now. I'm not sure they were thinking ring in '23 (a 4 year plan.) I'm not sure we can count 2020 as a year of any plan, because they did nothing to improve the long term outlook, except maybe add Pivetta, but surely 2020 should count. It's been nearly 4 full seasons, now. Next year is 5. I mentioned 6 years, because I have no idea, if they plan on "going for it" in 2024. I think they have a strong enough foundation to do it, and that would be a 4-5 year plans, but I give up trying to project what the Eff these guys are thinking. I'm not "for" a 6 year plan..

Even if it is all on upper management, I'm not at the place where I want them replaced with some unknown new ownership group. I doubt we can do better than 4 rings in 2 decades. I'm not happy with the recent results, but I am cutting them more slack than some, it seems.

Says a lot about you.

At least Story still has time to give something plus. Sale has one year left and has given next to nothing for 4 years of the 5. 4 years 26 starts 4.14 ERA That's 26 out of a possible 142 starts or 18%. Story is not off to a better start, but 112 games out of 300 is over 33%, and a .705 OPS is about the same as a 4.14 ERA, IMO. At least Story knows how to grab a groundball and throw the guy out at 1B.

...and it took over 6 years of tanking to build this Astros team. Trying to build a team like them by halfway tanking is more difficult, but it seems upper management thinks ... "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!"

Where did I say you have to do that? I do know what gloating is. You don't.

You think I act like a big superfan. All I can say is I think being optimistic about the team you want to win is better than being overly pessimistic about them. You obviously have issues with people actually trying to enjoy watching their team, even as they lose. Yes, I gave up on the Sox chances, last year, but i still watched every game and rooted like hell for the to prove me wrong. You, on the otherhand, stopped watching us as we were winning, and blamed it on a "watered down product." Cheers to you- superfan!

I'm glad you brought up the Astros- a team I know well, as I have lived in its suburbs for over 15 years. If you want to use them as an example of a 6 year plan, there's was longer than 6: 89-73 in 2005, then 82-80 in 2006. 51-76 wins for 6 years from 2007 to 2014, thn a year kinda like our 2023 season at 86-76 in 2015. Them sucking, badly is a major reason they are so good now. It's not even open to debate.

I don't really see it as defending Bloom, because I expected him to do better than he has done, even with limited resources and no upper management behind an effort to "win now." To be honest, I don't know who is behind this 5+ year plan that seems to be in place. That is why I hate to throw darts at someone who may not deserve it. If I knew Bloom talked upper management into huge budget cuts an no major prospect trades, I'd be firmly on the side of the Bloom cirtics, although I'd still think well of his work on establishing a foundation of younger players and a better looking farm. I can name over a dozen moves Bloom made that I did not like at the time, yet I feel like some think I jump to his defense on everything. I haven't graded any of his winter moves very highly. Yes, higher than many, but not anywhere near unreasonable. I swear to God, if nobody criticized Bloom for things out of his control or likely out of his control, I'd hardly post about him or "defend" him. He has not done a good job finding "gems in the rough," as I expected he would. He's found some, but not as much as I hoped he would do. He has not done well, so far, on his bigger signings and trades. He's done okay to good on mid level moves, except for SP'ers.

What if was JH & Co's idea to tell Bloom it's a 6 year plan?

If it would do them some good, I'd have no problem DFA'in Llovera, garza or someone else to add them to te40 and have a look-see, but I don't see any value in calling up players not ready.

Gloating is way different from criticism, but I don't expect you to know the difference. This team and management deserve a lot of criticism. Nobody is saying otherwise. Yes, I criticize excessive gloom and doom talk, and you criticize what you think is excessive optimism. I don't ever say no criticism is warranted. It is, and I join in on plenty of it.

So? What's wrong with thinking and saying we look to be getting better? Are you so locked up in the here and now that you can't even comprehend others are not just like you? At least I understand or try to understand where you and many others are coming from. You act like I'm another species for being optimistic and actually believing we had a chance, this year. To me, that's what being a fan is about. If you can't deal with that, so be it. I get the anger and feeling of great disappointment. 5 years is a long time with just one moment of near glory (2021.) It doesn't thrill me to watch this, but not everyone has to play the blame game and act like it's the end of the world, and we should all give up hope just because all young players are nothing but "suspects.".

"Excuse" for what? Posting in bold? Yes, I freely admit I am obsessed with the Sox. I have battled OCD my whole life. I have improved quite a bit by channeling most of it into 3 areas: my work, contract bridge and the Sox. Go ahead and shoot me for being optimistic about the Sox and being obsessed with the Sox. I do think I'd rather be obsessed with the Sox than obsessed about someone else being obsessed and optimistic about the Sox. The obtuseness is firmly in your court. By the way, I have a life outside here. I teach ESL at a low eco-dis school. I spend hours and hours beyond school hours to insure our 500+ ESL kiddos get the education they deserve. I crunch numbers and data to help with that. My wife and I also care for her schizophrenic sister. Stop pretending you know what my life is like, and acting obtuse.

Thanks, bell. These drive by posters crack me up. Speaking of which, I'm shocked there has been no Stork troll sighting, today.