moonslav59

Good thing putting teams together for specific 2 calendar week stretches is not a GM's job description.

Are you saying we had more min wage rookies playing during that period? BTW, I agree on your opinion on the Sale deal. He deserved it and easily could have made that deal look like a great one for the team.

Next, you'll say Duran has always been your favorite player.

Maybe some better pen depth guys would have done better than this parade of clowns had they not gotten hurt, either. Not that all these guys were locks to do better, but some had promise: Joely: while a 4.28 ERA and 1.39 WHIP from '20-'22 is not good, it's better than the ones we used. Kelly was ranked 27t on SPs in DEC '22. Mills might not have done better, but its hard to imagine worse. Mata was widely viewed as our best ML ready prospects before he got hurt. His ranking of 6th on SP's in DEC was the highest ranked pitcher on the Sox farm. We ended reaching down to Murphy and Walter, among other prospects, too The other thing is just how many SP'ers and RP/SP types have gone down with injuries. Having to move so many RP's to the rotation or to pitch pen games killed us. It's hard to name who our true starting 5 would have been had they all been healthy, but pick any 5 and look at how much the others could have helped the pen, had they not been needed to start. (Pivetta is unique, as he was demoted, did well in the pen, then went back to the rotation.) Pick 5 and imagine the rest as deep pen help: Sale Paxton Whitlock Bello Kluber Paxton Houck Crawford (Winckowski has not been used as a SP.)

It might be getting close to the time to start the 2024 thread.

You are not a pretender. No issues, here.

I still watched and cheered for every game, and I admitted I bailed. Was saying Casas was "My boy," pretending or just sarcasm?

Telling truths is not throwing stones. At least I admit my mistakes and apologize. I've confronted you with your actual quotes, and you have never once admitted you even made a typo mistake. Okay, I admit I throw stones at pretender fans, but I'm not sorry. I mispoke when I said I do not thow stones. I was wrong. There. See how easy it is to admit a mistake?

Talk about total BS. I can't even begin to address all the lies and misinformation. It's obvious to all you don't hate Cora, or Bloom, or JH, or... lmao.

Sure seems like one is happy to be right about them "sucking," although being over .500 is hardly that. When someone complains about about everyone in management and more than half the players, why cheer for the team? I get no sense of hope we do better. It's all, "see I told you, we'd suck, and Bloom is to blame." They disappeared when the team was doing well. Okay, maybe they don't actually want us to suck, but the actions (or "eye test) tell me otherwise. Just my opinion.

I don't see a contradiction on this. I get how people express their disappointments in differing ways, especially on the game threads. Everyone has the right to express their opinions, even if way out there or is in a way that make me wonder about what being a fan means to them. It does not surprise me that those who have been critical of the team management for years all but disappeared when the team was doing well, then come running from far and wide the minute we start struggling to puff out their chests and say "I told you so," without actually saying those words. To me, it seems like at least one poster is celebrating being right about this team sucking, when we still have a winning record due to the more times we played pretty well. We are not this bad. We are not as good as it looked like we were back a couple weeks ago, either. We are somewhere in between. It looks like we may end up with 80-84 wins. That's better than the naysayers projected, but no way can they take any enjoyment from that, of the fact that our future looks way brighter than it did before and after 2020. It's gotta be win now or nothing. I guess 29 teams have s***** GMs, every year, because now is all that matters. Look, I get it. I've lived in this instant gratification society for over 60 years, and if I don't get what I want, it's gotta be someone else's fault. Throwing blame is the nation's new great pastime. Then, to top it, off they gloat that they are boast about being in the majority- like that makes them right and the minority wrong. I'm really not trying to throw stones, although it certainly sounds like it, especially towards one poster. I'm not trying to say my way is better, or that I am above the disappointment and anger, either. I do feel differently about what being a good fan means, and say it when I feel it. I know I am in a tiny minority in trying to see the good in each season and being somewhat content on feeling our future is looking brighter, so the here and now can be stomached more easily. It's just the gloating that makes me question why some even bother being a fan. I don't see what they get out of it. This team I follow had a real tough situation 5 years ago. For many reasons, the walls came crumbling down. It's the basis for the blame game running amok. Some seem to enjoy wallowing in it. I guess I could say, good for them, but I don't really wish them good tiding on that twisted journey.

How about 8-14 before the deadline, the last 2 years combined in the 11 games before it? They were also 1-8 in the 3 games before the deadline over the last 3 years.

What's your read on Romero?

Shuffling the bottom of the pen feeders has not worked.

I had hoped "the sacrifices" would last maybe 2-3 years. I hoped the rebuilding the farm that would not be as easy with all the new rules and restrictions that hurt winning and high spending teams would happen, more quickly, but I think we have to give all those high pick HS players have to be given time to mature. For fans that are restless or only care about the here and now, that falls on their deaf ears, but to me, it could be the formation of the essential building blocks of the next winning era. It sucked going 5 years with just one playoff trip. Nobody is enjoying this. That being said, we choose to be doom and gloom or optimistic, or somewhere in between. I think expectations have a lot to do with the happiness/excitement meter of each fan. I've actually enjoyed watching all but a few games, this season. There were certainly some real stinkers, including last night's game, but many of our losses were closely fought battles that had something worthwhile to cheer for. The season is not over, yet, but our backs are too the wall, and most of Sox Nation checking out for the year or releasing years of anger here and according to one poster all over "the big corner" that is Sox Nation. I never expected others to accept the sacrifice that was sure to come, and it seems like those who refused to accept that hard times were coming, are the ones most angry, now. In the"live for the moment" society we have become, it's totally understandable and predictable. They take comfort in being in the majority, while eone even seems to celebrate being right about how much this year's team sucks, despite the fact that the "optimists" appear to be closer to predicting our win totals, this year than they did. True, there is still plenty of time for us to lose over 81 games, and maybe that is something they can cheer for, now.

I see it more as a moving post.

He did keep "the right ones," whether he even knew who some of them were, or not. Devers Bello Casas Duran Crawford Houck Maybe Rafaela, Perales and Wikelman Some other question could be asked: Are those 6-10 players enough to pass along after being in control for just over 4 years? Was the budget sound and relatively free of sunken costs? Did the core vet players passed along produce at expected levels, based on their previous production and advancing age? Like I've said many times, I'm glad DD was our GM. That 3 year period capped off by a special 2018 season was worth every bit of the sacrifices we faced afterwards- starting in 2019.

It should have been and to me, still was. It looks like he will be back and maybe even extended. I'll be watching the budget to see if the plan has changed.

I'd have called up Walter, and as you like to say, "He's on the 40, already."

Don't even start going there.

I did not count Pivetta, but yes, most of the money comes from jansen & Martin plus the Barnes payments to MIA. 16 Jansen 8.0 Martin 5.6 Barnes 3.5 Bleier 2.0 Brasier 1.5 Joely (Not counting $10 Kluber) Name a season we paid more.

These guys crack me up.

The poster using him as a reference is very revealing.

Far from happiness, no doubt, but to me, there has been a glimmer of hope added to the gloom & doom. Despite the fact that our three top pitchers going into the season, Sale, Houck and Whitlock, combined for an ERA over 5.00, we still managed to be over .500 for most of the year. I know that's not what we wanted, but that is a good sign, if those guys, or 2 out of 3 of them, ever come around. It's been fun watching the younger players mature before my eyes.To see so many do so was surprising and uplifting, to me. Bello Casas Duran Wong Crawford Winckowski Murphy and some brief glimpses of hopes from others. Our core of young players has grown in numbers and quality: 23: Casas 24: Bello, Robertson 25 Winckowski, Murphy 26 Devers, Duran, Urias, Walter 27 Houck, Crawford, Whitlock, Wong, Verdugo 28 McGuire 29 Yoshida, Schreiber, Reyes Other teams have more and or better younger players, but we are improving. Not much else to be optimistic about, right now.

I agree. IMO, the punting has gone on long enough. We have not been at the point where some targeted big spending would have been enough to get us to glory. It feels like we are close, now. The play we got from Bello, Duran, Casas, Wink, Crawford and Wong was great, and getting four kids to all mature at the same time, in one season, is a fantastic thing, but the lack of hardly anything for 5 years before them has taken its toll- perhaps an insurmountable one for another year or two. Bloom's choice of mostly HS draftees over the year has delayed any idea of continuous farm infusions beyond the six I mentioned. We do have a lot of players that are very close to ML ready, but not many seem to be on the level of the top 3-4 on that list, except maybe Rafaela. I'm not sure we see Mayer until 2025. Is JH & Co. really going to wait until 2025 and beyond? That goes well beyond the traditional 5 year plan talk. Certainly, some mistakes and "mysterious moves" were made, especially as you pointed out with pitching, and I'll narrow it further to SP';ing. Of all the places to swing and miss, last winter, the rotation was the worst. The Kluber signing stung, badly. Our SS defense was a close second. The pen would have been fine, or even great, had we not had to raid it for the rotation injuries and demotions. The Yoshida, Duvall, Jansen and Martin signings and gambles on Casas, Wong, Duran and others seemed to work, okay, but it wasn't enough to compensate for the weak rotation, poor defense and overly taxed pen. I doubt throwing an extra $10-25M at the budget would have won us a ring, but I do think we were close enough where that might have inched us into the playoffs. The damn luxury tax fiasco from last year is at least partially responsible for that, although I wonder if JH would have spent more, regardless. This winter will be very closely watched by Sox fans, and as always the vulture media types.