moonslav59

I know you have. I may think far too few. I may think providing context and background is not apologizing or supporting, but some may see or take it differently.

I agree that fWAR is more accurate, but I do think they favor FIP related stats too heavily.

Another total misrepresentation of my position, but what else is new? When a manager makes thousands of choices each season, is it not possible to disagree with many choices and still think he is a good manager? Is it possible to think, "I'd have done _____," but Cora did that and still not think he was wrong? I'd say, "hell yah," especially when I often add, "He knows more about the situation than I do." Often, I have said, "I'd have started Refsnyer," hten find out he was hurt or had bad splits vs that pitcher, afterwards, so in cases like that, Cora was likely right, and I was wrong. I have no issues with being wrong, and I will admit it when I find out I was wrong. BTW, the statement was, "I disagree with the move Cora made, but that doesn't mean I think HE was wrong."

We agree on this. All 2024 plans should be based on 0 GS'd by Sale.

But it often sounds like the bashers think there is a huge Bloom apologist legion on this site.

I've said hundreds of time, my view is in the minority and maybe even a tiny minority on many aspects of how Sox fans view the team and direction of the team. I have no issues with that, but when someone says or implies that because they think more people agree with them, it somehow strengthens their position, I take issue with that. Most fans and people, at least in our society, live in the here and now and some don't care about context or diving deeper into the hows and whys of things. I try not to be like that, and I know I come across as sounding like my view is better than theirs, but it is what it is. GMs are judged by results and almost totally in hindsight. That has been the way for many years. It may or may not be fair, but to me, context is needed, and not just about GMs signing a player with a great health history, only to see the guy get hurt, early in the contract, but also about all the many aspects that affect a GM's success, and in this case, immediate success or lack of it. I try to provide that context, and it comes across as being apologetic and some might view it see being overly defensive. I have been highly critical of many moves Bloom has made. I've given him grades of lower than C in some areas, while viewing others as "incomplete, but again, when given the context of the budget he was given and the amount of holes he needed to fill each off season, what should be expected? 75% hits on contracts from $3M/1 to $10M/1?? To me, it's laughable to blame him for not doing better than the 50-60% he has given us, depending on how you grade each move. When I hear a poster say "every move he makes sucks," or "most of his moves and non moves suck," I cringe. I provided lists all all the major and minor moves he's made and asked those who are highly critical of his moves to tell me how many were failures, and I don't think any even tried to give me a number. They harp on JBJ, Kluber, Richards and Story, but seemingly forget all the good moves, some very low cost hits Off the top of my head, I think Bloom deserves these grades: C to C- on ML roster construction, but maybe C+, if you look at expectations per contract dollars B on budget management and the lessening of deadwood contracts he inherited INC on farm building, but I like what I'm seeing and am grateful some of his immediate moves have helped out, including... 1. Not trading away and having faith in Bello, DDuran, Casas, Wong and others 2. Adding ML ready prospects via trade or other ways that have already contributed, like Winckowski, Whitlock, Bernardino and Wong. 3. Maybe improving our development process of prospects, including pitchers, which we have not seen much of, except for maybe Houck (Bello, Crawford, Wink, Murphy, Walter...) Do those grades look like someone who is a huge Bloom supporter or apologist? .

I probably wouldn't sound like an apologist, so much, if at all, if so many posters weren't blaming Bloom for things out of his control, things that are more the fault of others, posts not providing context or just being untruthful about some analysis. If most posters were saying Bloom has been one of our best GMs in Sox history, I'd be viewed as being anti-Bloom for arguing otherwise, all day.

It's hard to find those ranking numbers for bWAR or FUBAR.

There seems to be more bashers.

Yes, many of his stats do not look like top #3 RP'er numbers, but how many teams have 3 RP'ers at 0.4 or better? He does have a 1.4 bWAR.

The least picked category, but also the one in the middle.

I know there are about as many different fans as there are fans, and I get how some people just like to criticize much more than others (or can't help themselves.) I get that. I also don't think what the majority of fans think has anything to do with what I think is right or wrong.

So, even the ear test beats stats and metrics, for you.

This year, he has been better than the "middle." Yes, of course Martin is in a category above Wink, but Wink probably compares favorably to most team's #3 RP,er, so that's why I mentioned our top 3 RP'ers rank pretty highly, as do our top 2. Some of Wink's numbers don't rank all that highly, but he has been an essential part of our pen and team success, this year. He is mid to higher leverage eating innings at a good pace. If you add Pivetta as a RP'er and Crawford, you could probably go 4-5 deep and look pretty good, too.

And when you look at how close we are to being at the same ranking in every category, I don't think we should read too much into one ranking being 1 or 2 slots from another.

Agreed, and our poorer record vs weaker teams is the main reason we are this far behind. We need to gain some ground, before we lay the stronger teams, and then keep up our winning percentage vs those stronger teams. We have yet to play the Astros, and probably have to go, at least 4-3 vs them. We need to also win vs TOR, so we can see those TWO GAME SWINGS help us jump one of both of these two teams in the standings.

I gave up on the hopes we could win a ring, earlier than others, but I still watched every game and cheered for every player to be a success. Yes, I thought we should have had a sell off, so the team could be better going forward- like this year, too. I liked the Diekman and Vaz trades, and they both might still prove to be helpful. We see things differently, including what we think being a fan (or good fan) means. As for my word choices, I'd prefer to say "bash" instead of "constant, repetitive and excessive criticism." It's shorter and more colorful.

Good ole eye test, again.

Must be just blind luck.

Here is a look at other team's leaders: BAL has 11 players over 100 PAs and a .717 OPS, but their leaders are not close to ours: .838 O'Hearn .813 Rutschman .801 Mullins .801 Santander .791 Henderson .791 Mountcastle .784 Hicks .763 Hays .761 Westburg The Rays have 9 guys over 240 PAs and a .753 OPS: .901 Diaz .856 Paredes .847 Raley .814 Franco .806 J Lowe .788 Arozarena .775 H Ramirez .773 Siri .753 B Lowe TOR has 8 guys over 235 PAs and a .729 OPS .846 Bichette .815 Belt .802 Chapman .787 Guerrero .769 Merrifield .751 Kiermaier .745 Jansen .729 Springer

Sox ERA Leaders 20-40 IP 1.41 Martin 2.61 Bernardino 3.05 Jansen 3.23 Murphy 3.33 Schreiber (Walter is at 3.07 with 14.2 IP) 40+ IP 2.86 Winckowski 3.36 Paxton 3.64 Bello 3.80 Crawford 4.16 Pivetta 4.58 Sale The killers: 5.05 Houck (67.2) 7.04 Kluber (55 IP) 5.23 Whitlock (51.2) 5.28 Bleier (30.2) 6.26 K Ort (23.0) 5.85 Jacques (20.0) 6.55 Joely (11.0) 6.75 Dermody (4.0) Offense OPS Leaders .846 Devers .845 Duran .839 Yoshida .832 Casas .827 Turner .826 Duvall .800 Reyes .772 Verdugo

Many ugly losses, too.

Woo's game was postponed. POR lost 7-4. Hickey 2-4 w HR and 2B Rosier 1-4 w 2B Bonaci 1-3 w 2BB GRE lost 8-7 Teel 3-5 w 2B (1.336 OPS) Castro 2-4 Decker 2-5 w 3B Lopez 3-4 SAL won 9-8 Mejicano 3-4 w 2B AHern 3-5 w 2B Montero 2-3 w 2B Feliz 2-3 w BB Asigen 2-4 w 3B

Add Wink, and we have a pretty awesome top 3. Quite a chance from 2022.

Good night all around for the Sox. A rarity. Everyone lost, except BAL, who we probably wanted them to beat HOU. Updated WC Standings TBR +4.0 HOU +1.5 TOR --- SEA -1.5 BOS -4.0 NYY -5.0 LAA -6.5 We need to pass two teams with 47 games to go: -2.5 SEA (3 in loss column) -4.0 TOR (3 in loss column) -5.5 HOU (5 in loss column) -8.0 TEX (8 in loss column) We have the 12th best record in MLB at 60-55. That's on pace for 85 wins (84.56.) -1.5 from 11th (MIL) -2.0 from 10th (SFG) -2.5 from 9th (SEA) -3.5 from 8th (PHI) -4.0 from 7th (TOR) That being said, we are also just... +1.0 from 15th/16th/17th/18th tie (CIN, MIN, CHC, NYY) +2.5 19th LAA +3.0 20th AZ +4.5 21st CLE +5.0 22nd SDP