moonslav59

I did say that and nothing has changed. My point was mostly about years 1-3, and those (not you) who keep saying he's had 4 years to build a winner. It's been 5 years between Devers and Bello with no farm help, except Houck. It's been 4 years from the Sale extension to the Story signing in March 2022. We should have been better after the Story signing and into this year. I am not saying Bloom has done a good job spending, even when he had more spending to do (starting March 2022.) I see it this way: Bloom overachieved in 2021 by getting us much farther than we should have gone. The 2022 season might have gone better, if Story was not hurt. Bloom knew he was hurt when he signed him, so it's no excuse. The spending was still somewhat limited, and as I have said before, I think his 2022 signings were better than 2021's (Wacha, Hill, Strahm), but it was the decline of production by carry-over vets that killed the '22 season more than Story and the JBJ trade. Again, no excuses. 2022 could have gone better had we not traded for JBJ and spent Story's money on better pitching than Richards. The 2023 season is not over. To me, this still is Bloom's legacy season- or make or break to me- maybe not to JH. He lost a lot of talent, but much of it was in decline or injured in 2022, so I thought his increased budget would allow him to put his stamp on the team and show what he can do. I expected us to spend $7-9M more, but maybe he will at the deadline. I liked the Yoshida, Duvall, Jansen and Martin signings. I thought the Kluber deal looked better than the Richards and Perez deals. I had hoped we'd have brought back Wacha, and I felt his deal was a reasonable one, and the Eflin near missed killed us. The Kike extension hurt. The injuries focused on just 2 areas- P and SS have been devastating, and the Sale injury should not be counted against Bloom, but the luck of Paxton cancels that out. The Kluber signing may end up being the key mistake. The others look fine, to me- one by one, but when taken overall, too much was spent on hitting and not SPing and defense. That's a mistake Bloom owns. I do not think Bloom has done a good job building this ML roster for 2023, so far. That could change, if people get healthy and the bats hit nearer to their April numbers than afterwards. There seems to be too many ifs to overcome, this year, but IMO, we don't need all the ifs to work out to make the playoffs, and then, it's a crapshoot, right? If we suck, this year, I'm not moving the goalposts. Bloom owns it. He added injury prone players. He had a decent budget to work with. He had farm infusion for one (Bello, Casas & Duran, to name 3.) That excuse is gone, now. The reset hurt, but he still had a lot to spend. He chose to spend over 90% on everything else but the rotation. The interesting thing is that our rotation has actually done pretty well, since the first 3 weeks of the season, despite missing one-third of our best starters GS'd due to injuries. The rotation depth has kept us alive. The D and now the O has been killing us. Bloom fixed the pen, finally. If the rotation can get a couple arms back, we just might see Bloom's "legacy" improve.

OPS Against (40+ IP) .571 Dobbins .600 Rogers .601 Nail .609 Perales .619 Wikelman A+ .669 Bastardo A+ .672 Drohan AA/AAA .700 J Paez .703 I Coffey A+/AA .703 Van Belle AA Notables .824 Walter AAA .881 Murphy AAA 30-39 IP .523 Bolden A .575 Denlinger AA/AAA .590 Troye A+/AA .594 de la Rosa A

Farm OPS Leaders (150+ ABs) 1.061 Dalbec AAA (19 HRs) .931 Hickey A+/AA (12 HRs) .922 Fitzy AAA (10 HRs) .915 Bonaci A+ .914 Jordan A+ (11 HRs) .878 Meidroth A+/AA (46 BB/46 K) .826 Kavadas AA (13 HRs/ .396 OBP) .825 DHamilton AAA (11 Hrs/ 27 SB) .823 Yorke AA (26 XBHs) .823 S Scott AA/AAA (.368 OBP) .816 WAbreu AAA (.366 OBP) .814 Rosier AA/AAA (.363 OBP) .803 Anthony A/A+ (49 BB/ 51 K) .797 Mayer A+/AA (13 HRs/ 30 XBHs) (Gone: .888 Goodrum/.886 Affaro) Notables: .786 RHern .757 Binelas .753 Rafaela AA/AAA .716 Paulino A+ .685 CCoffey A .639 Ravelo A .636 Ferguson A+/AAA (23 SB) .603 McDonough AA/AAA Under 150 ABs/ Over 45 ABs 1.030 Joh. Garcia 1.015 Arias .968 Musett .963 Cespedes .924 Asigen .910 EValdez .895 Alexis Hernandez .886 Nunez

It's both strange and hurtful that all our players on the 60 Day IL are pitchers or Short Stops. P: Sale, Schreiber, Kelly, Mills SS: Story, Change, Reyes Shorter ILs: P: Whitlock, Houck, Joely, Kluber, Bleier (Paxton on Pat leave) C: McGuire All-in-all, 13 of our 14 players on the IL or PAT list are pitchers or SSs. Only McGuire plays another position. (14 of 15, if you count Sherriff/ 15 of 16 counting Mata.) We've used 27 pitchers before the All Star Break, one being Reyes, so really 26. I thought we had good depth, this year- more "quantity than quality," but not bad on the quality side. Kluber and Pivetta pitched themselves into demotions, but still remain on the 40. (Pivetta is actually contributing from the pen.) Pitchers I viewed as good ML ready depth from the farm have not really given us much: Mata, Walter, Murphy, Kelly and Mills. We've had to dig deep into our system as well as grab some pitchers from the waiver wire or by trade. Some have done okay. One can argue about who our 13 pitchers would be, if all were healthy, and it can be argued that Bello might have started on the farm, but here is my 13: Opening Day All Healthy SP: Sale, Paxton, Bello, Kluber, Pivetta RP: Jansen, Martin, Houck, Whitlock, Schreiber, Bleier, Brasier, Joely That leaves the replacements as... Crawford (drafted '17) Winckowski (Beni trade) Others... Waivers: Bernardino J Garza Trade: Taylor Scott (for cash) Zack Littell (for cash) later was waived From system: Walter (drafted '19) Murphy (drafted '19) Kelly (FA in '20) on 60 day IL Ort (minor league Rule 5 in '20) Sherriff (FA) on IL, now Jacques (minor league Rule 5) Dermody (signed as FA) later waived

He's made some blunders, for sure. I was highly critical of the JBJ trade (re: "Head scratcher"), the Richards and Diekman signings and more. He did have other options, for sure, like spending more on pitching than hitting. I get that, but again, getting no help from the farm, seeing virtually every carry-over vet decline, even the ones in their prime, while having to manage a tough budget system for 5 years, again I ask what should be expected? It looks like some expected him to hit on 85-95% of his signings and trades, because even that might not have been enough. The Story signing made sense, to me, since I felt all along that Bogey was not coming back. He could have had a sell-off last deadline, but may have been told not to do it. Sure, he could have not signed Richards and Kluber, but what else do GMs normally get for $10M/1? Should he have not signed Renfroe, so he could spend $3M more on a SP'er and gotten a much better one? I look at the price range he had and think he did about as expected to maybe little worse with the Kluber, Richards, Perez I, Perez II, Wacha and Hill signings. The first Kike signing was decent- this one, not. The Barnes extensión sucked. The Betts and Beni trades look good, in context. The JBJ trade sucked. The Pivetta, Schwarber, Diekman and Vaz trades look good to me. One bad trade out of about a dozen. The Whitlock, Scheiber, Refsnyder, Arroyo and other finds have helped, but he has surely swung and missed on many more low level deals- as expected. Again, he had about 18 roster slots to fill in 2020 while slashing the budget. He had about 12-14 to fill before 2021 and precious little budget space. He had more money in 2022, but still about 10 slots to fill- not enough to get top quality players, unless you put all the eggs in 1-2 baskets. No help from the farm on filling any slots, except Houck, Dalbec and the recent call-ups in 2023. No doubt, we could go back and name names of FAs who overperformed expectations and say, "He should have outbid the Rays for Eflin and re-signed Perez for 2022," but I don't think it's realistic to expect any GM to get 75% of his moves right, especially when needing to bargain hunt for 3 of his 4 years in control. How many GM build winners with no farm help but Houck and a slashed budget year 1, followed by slow increases the next 3? There maybe be 1 or 2, but it's certainly not something to be expected.

Chang and Reyes with 2 hits, tonight as they rehab with Woo. Reyes homered. EValdez 3-3 w HR and BB Yorke went 2-4 w POR Binelas homered again

So, JH doesn't know how to "delegate?" I guess when JH was resetting several times, before, including the 2013 ring season, he must have had other higher priorities. It's so obvious, right?

I posted in green to show sarcasm. My point was JH & Co. can have many high priorities and give all of them the full attention and resources they need to be as successful as possible, whether other priorities are existent or not. I know what "top" priority means, and what "high priority" means. I doubt that some other priority being higher means the Sox would suffer in any way. They don't have to rob Peter to pay Paul. If you believe that, don't talk to me about minutiae. BTW, I have more other interests than you can dream of. No need to project what you don't know.

Honestly, I don't know. He could trade for 1-2, if they don't mind giving up some good prospects. I could see him going after Snell and maybe keep Paxton. (Urias or Montgomery?) Closer: Josh Hader? SS; DeJung or Ahmed Rosario

Unlikely? Maybe, but... Houck should be back after the break. Whitlock's elbow issues is reportedly just a bone bruise, so he should be back around the same time. I'd never count on Sale to come back, but I said the same about Paxton, so who knows? We have about 4 weeks to get a better feel for how the rotation is shaping up. I'd say, if we are close and the rotation is looking healthier, I'd lean towards buying, but not by trading away top prospects for just a rental. If they look injured or slow to recover, I'd sell anyone not part of our longer term plans, including 1.5 year players that are post-prime (not Dugo & Pivetta. Assume Sale is untradeable.) We could spend big, this coming winter and have a better roster and deeper farm by selling. Assume we sell all 0.5 and 1.5 controlled players, here is the base to work with and add to: (I'll assume Story at SS, but we could add a SS and keep Story at 2B.) C Wong/McGuire (Hamilton/Hickey) 1B Casas/Dalbec (Kavadas/Jordan) 2B _____/ Arroyo/DHamilton/EValdez (Yorke) SS Story/Chang/Reyes (Mayer) 3B Devers LF _____/Refsnyder/Yoshida CF Duran (Rafaela) RF Dugo (Abreu) DH Yoshida/Refsnyder/Dalbec (EValdez/Kavadas/Meidroth) SP1 ______ SP2 Bello SP3 ______ SP4 ______ SP5 Sale/Whitlock/Houck/Pivetta/Crawford (Drohan, Mata, Walter, Murphy) RP1 Houck RP2 Whitlock RP3 ______ RP4 Schreiber RP5 Winckowski RP6 Crawford RP7 Pivetta.Bleier/Joely/Mills (Kelly/Guerrero/Denlinger/Fernandez) Instead of signing 8-11 FAs every year, let's go with 6. SP1, SP3, SP4, 2B/SS, LF, RP If we go over the line, we don't have to settle on $7-10M starters and $7M OF'ers.

I guess it's impossible for multi billionaires to have more than one high priority thing going on at the same time. They all get rich by hyper-focusing on just one thing at a time.

Look at the 2020 team and this one: the budget, the farm and the foundation going forward. You see spinning in place? The record, yes. The roster and system, no. That being said, much of the system is speculative and not proven.

What GM builds a winner with just Houck comin up from the system over a 5 year stretch? I'm not defending Bloom or saying he's done a good job, but that situation was absurd. Add to that mandated massive budget cuts that tore away a generational talent like Betts, without allowing the "money saved" to be spent until 3 years later. Add to that injuries and decline from just about every vet he inherited. None of this was his making. I just don't see how anyone can have expected a winning team with all that baggage.

We’ve used 27 pitchers before the AS break. (One was Reyes.) It’s hard to plan for depth that deep.

BAL has lost 6 of 7. Maybe they soon become the easiest target to pass. Of course, we’d have to win to do that.

We can pay all of his 2023 contract and maybe pay down some of 2024 to improve the return. I doubt Sale comes back before the deadline, so it would be a big gamble for a team to get him on August 1st. Might we think trading Crawford while his stock is high be something they consider?

Well said. Spending more on moderate deals makes more sense, but it’s not easy hitting those right, too. You get what you pay for. If pitchers making $20-40M fail more often than not, why do so many expect Bloom to hit on most of his signings at $5-10M? Blooms largest pitcher signings: $M 16 x 2 Jansen 9 x 2 Martin 10 x 1 Kluber 10 x 1 Richards 7 x 1 Wacha 6 x 1 Perez and 5 x 1 Perez II 5 x 1 Hill 4 x 2 Diekman (Barnes extension 9 x 2)

We need middle IF, and Story may DH for a while before playing SS or 2B. I think Duvall would go before Kike. The pitcher would be Paxton or Sale, depending on being in or out at the deadline.

We were 46-39, last year after 85 games- better than now. We ended July 3-12 and 4-16, and that was that. I think we may do better, this July, but who knows?

Paxton won the pitcher of the month award. Last time a Sox pitcher did it was Sale in 2018.

I'm not sure I remember a top 10 Sox prospects playing so many positions in the minors, and playing them well. GS 187 CF 47 SS 22 2B 18 3B 9 LF 1 RF He's played about 2/3 in the OF.

Drohan with another rough start at AAA 4IP, 7H, 5R, 3ER, 2BB, 5K (5.19 ERA POR won again 2-4 Mayer w BB 2-5 Yorke 2-5 Binelas w HR 1-4 Hickey w HR & BB 1-3 Kavadas w 3B & 2BB 1-4 Chang w BB Rogers got whacked as GRE lost Jordan 3-4 w 11th HR (.914 OPS) maybe ready for promotion to AA? SAL won Monegro still has a 0.00 ERA after 5 IP of shutout ball. 2-3 Mejicano w HR & BB (.809 OPS) 0-4 Ravelo w 4Ks

NYY and HOU won. BAL lost. +3.0 BAL +0.0 NYY & HOU -2.0 TOR -2.5 LAA -4.0 BOS -5.5 CLE & SEA MIN is in 1st at 42-43 CLE -0.5 ALC DET -4.0 ALC CWS -5.5 ALC Only OAK and KCR are more than 5.5 games behind a playoff slot in the AL! BOS -13.0 TBR -6.0 BAL -4.0 NYY & HOU -2.0 TOR -1.5 LAA We need to pass 3 of these teams (or TEX not HOU)

Injury report by Covers: Return Date: 7/4? Yoshida (leg) 7/4? Duvall (sickness) early July McGuire (oblique) Unknown: Houck (face) maybe after AS break? Whitlock (elbow) maybe miss one start? Sale (shoulder) maybe early August Schreiber (back- comes off 60 day in mid July) Joely (shoulder- comes off 15 day in mid July) Kelly (elbow- maybe early Sept) Reyes (oblique) Chang (wrist) Kluber (shoulder) Mills (elbow) Mondesi (knee)

I feel better about returning injured players this year over last year. Sale: I saw he still has it, this year. Last year, not only did I not know, if he was going to pitch, I did not know he'd be any good, if he did. True, this injury may make that question and answer the same, but I do feel slightly better. Duval is a damn good player. He had a bad injury for a hitter, but I do think he improves before the deadline. Story is a damn good player and an athlete. I do think he will be better than 2022, when he returns. I do worry about his D at SS, but if Chang can play SS and Story 2B, we might be a greatly improved team. (Add Reyes, if one does not make it. Forget about Mondesi.) Houck & Whitlock have done very well for us from 2021-2022. I'm confident both can return to a better place than they were earlier, this year. Schreiber, Bleier, Joely, Kelly, Mills offer a lot of options for pen help. Schreiber could be a difference maker. McGuire come back, soon. Will all these guys come back and do great? NO WAY! Ask yourself how many need to. I'll venture an answer: 2 from Sale, Whitlock and Houck (This may be the biggest reach.) 2 from Story, Chang, Reyes and Mondesi 2 from Schreiber, Duvall, McGuire or 1 with a 3 for 3 or 3 for 4 from above. What are the odds we get 5 back and producing, not the 6 I suggested we need? Would that be enough? Story, Houck, Whitlock, Schreiber and McGuire?