moonslav59

That was the question. We know your answer. I doubt we win at least 6 of the next9 to get us over .500 at the break, but if we do, the next15 games before the deadline could change things. I still have very thin hopes.

I think he was given 4 major objectives: (In order of importance over first 4 years) 1. Build farm to a sustainable and respectable system. 2. Get the budget under control (lessen dead weight/long term deals) 3. Build a foundation of supporting cast players. 4. Try to give the impression we can or might compete every season (starting after 2020.) Going forward, the order may shift to 3, 4 and 1-2 tied for 3rd with #4 becoming actual competition and not just the perception of doing so.

What will it take for us to think we might want to be buyers- not sellers- at the deadline? 2 of 3 @ TOR 4 of 6 v TEX & OAK before the all star break and... 4 of 6 on road trip v CHC & OAK 3 of 5 v NYM (3) & NYM (2) 2 of 3 @ SFG

Rafaela hit his first AAA homer: Dalbec his 19th, as Woo swept 2. POR shut out NH. I Coffey went 6 IP, 3H, 0ER, 2BB, 4K Hickey homered. Kavadas went 1-3 w BB. GRE won 6-1 Blalock 6IP, 5H, 1ER, 0BB, 4K 2-5 Paulino w HR 2-5 Anthony 1-2 Lopez w 3BB

I really thought this would be Bloom's "legacy" or "make or break season," because I felt he'd have enough to spend and to put his stamp on the team. Only Sale is dragging the budget down as a non Bloom guy. I'm not sure JH is viewing this as make or break, especially if the idea is to go over the line, next year. If JH brought Bloom on board to build up the farm and foundation, then he must be fine with waiting longer for the results. (He did pull the plug on Ben's rebuild plan, so I still have some doubts.) I admire what Bloom did building up the pen. It looks like he's done a good job building up the farm, foundation, while bettering the long term budget outlook. I had hoped the rotation would be better, and the amount of resources spent on it went down from 2022. The win-loss records seem to be the big sticking point with many fans, and it's not rocket science to know why. I hate watching us lose over and over, too, and my opinion will change, if we suck, again, this year, but I'm not so sure JH will can him, if we suck by game 162.

"I got that backwards." Dipre, for sure.

The 3 wild cards do keep more teams in it, but even with one, just 3 AL teams would be over 6 games behind, right now. I think it’s 7 or 8 NL teams.

Every Sox fan I knew was aware that ownership would not go that extra mile to get it done. We all knew it was about pitching, and the Sox never went out and got one. The “near misses” were not the result of the owner going all in. Lonborg was no ownership brilliance. Tiant was not either. Clemens took no special ownership intrusions. The Pedro trade marked the seed change, and that was before JH, but it took the change of vision to bring Schilling, Beckett, Lackey, Sale and Price aboard. That just never happened, before.

I would not be at all surprised, if we had no rings had JH not been our owner. I guess one can call this praise, but to me, it’s just describing reality. The previous owners seemed content on just coming close and giving fans the perception that we were “close.” JH hired the right guys and spent what was needed to get us over the top, as well as rearing a few times. I’m happy he was and still is the owner. One can poo poo the 4 rings in 20 years all they want. I’m not so sure about the idea of rolling the dice on hopes a replacement ownership will come close to that.

Yes. I view that trade as a good one.

True, but 2 top 15 prospects for 2 months of Vaz…

Doing what we did last summer didn’t help the image, either. Getting next to nothing firBogey, Nate, Wacha, JD and Hill was the bigger failure. Look what we got for Vaz. We might be surprised at what we could get by paying down all these deals as we trade them. Note: I’m not supporting the fire Sale idea, right now, but I’m being pulled in that direction with every loss.

There are a lot of teams in the race, and several will not want add salary or might, if it’s not too much. Expanding the teams involved in the bidding should help on any returns.

Henry has shown he spends in cycles. This is becoming a long down cycle, but I still think he will spend big, again.

Agreed, but it's a fine line to walk, and keeping the fans is often about keeping the perception alive and well. He needs to be careful not to lose too many fans, There is no guarantee they will come back, once lost.

I totally agree, and just because many owners start cutting the budget or long term commitments before a sale, doesn't mean that is what Henry is doing. Besides, he just locked up Devers forevers.

If we pay most or all of Jansen and Martin's deals, they would both be worth more than Pivetta.

I think Valentine should count. They thought he was for real, when they signed him.

Eventually, yes, but we should not expect the next ownership group will do better than 4 rings in 20 years.

If we end up selling, which it looks more and more like that's the way we are headed, then we do have a few pieces other teams would want, and we could expand the amount of teams making offers by offering to pay much or even all of their remaining salaries to sweeten the return. We could also choose this time to trade off longer term assets we no longer think will be productive into the time frame of the rebuild. Who those players might be is unclear, but I have to think Dalbec might be one. (Maybe we "sell high" on Dalbec, Wink and or Crawford.) The sell list would include: Paxton Jansen Martin Turner Duvall Kike Kluber Maybe Story, Verdugo or Pivetta None of these guys, even when packaged will bring us anything amazing, but we could get lucky with a prospect or two. It's hard to imagine us buying and getting what we need by trading Dalbec and Duvall.

My guess is that even if JH sells the team, the next owner will be worse.

Indeed, so if just about every pitcher does better in the pen, let's just move them all there! LOL!

That has gone up and down, some, but not by much, when 5 over .500 or at .500. BTW, fangraphs has 16%. It's not easy when the other 4 division teams are over 58%.

They pretty much have to, IMO. I think people look at the failures or Kluber, Richards and Perez and think Bloom cannot recognize an ace when he sees one, but those guys were $7-10M signings and were not expected to be aces. Aces are hard to find. The success rate of FA ace signings is below 50%.

2.25 SP 2.45 RP Papelbon (Ooops, only 3 GS) The thing is, RP'ers sometimes come in with 1-2 outs, which greatly improves on their chances not to have a run charged to them. They start with that advantage.