moonslav59

When you have a GM who drafts almost all HS players early in the draft, certainly he can not be definitively graded after 3.4 years. He's had 3 drafts, one of which was shortened. All prospects missed a season during those 3.4 years. His improvement of the farm is almost all speculative, and pundits have gotten farm rankings wrong, before, but it appears he has done what he was told to do. Don't trade any top farm players. (Aldo Ramirez and Jason Groome have been the highest ranked prospects traded, so far.) Acquire farm depth via trades (almost all trades involved adding a prospect or more.) Build 40 man roster depth with younger and younger players than what we started with at the end of 2019.

I was on the front seat of the sign Andrus wagon. He is having a tough season, so far, but I did feel like we needed better than Chang and Mondesi.

You are confusing me with another poster. Yes, I said "Mookie who?" as a way to compliment how well Wong and Dugo were, doing at the time, and not to denigrate Mookie, but surely, it can be taken that way. I never commented on his lead off skills. That as someone else. That statement is a blatant lie that you double down on without checking the facts, as usual. Back to ignore. Betts was and still is an excellent lead off hitter. There is zero chance I said anything otherwise.

I did not say I was looking at AAV.

Well- said, and this does not reflect the fact that Kimbrell and Kelly were not re-signed after 2018, and nobody was added at the deadline. The budget crunching actually started during DD's last season, and maybe that was a major reason for tension between him and top brass that led to his departure. I want to add one thing: GMs often add player (or let them go) based on past numbers and trends. Bloom added guys like Kluber, Jansen, Martin, Turner and Duvall based on what they did last year or in the last 2-3 years. You hope they continue doing what they just did, but they don't always follow what was hoped for. It seems to be the fad to look at how well guys like Nate, JD, Wacha and even Strahm are doing now, and pining away with what ifs. I can just picture this board's reaction, if Bloom did nothing more than just b ring back last year's team- you know, the one he "sucked at constructing," right? BTW, it's a pipedream to think we could have signed all our own players and stayed under the tax line- let alone added a Yoshida or Jansen, Martin, Duvall combo. All the talk of 4 years and us being no better is missing some major context. 1. The farm looks way better, and we've already seen more farm input than the time period from after the Devers call up to when DD departed in 2019. 2. The roster depth is light years better than what we had at the end of 2019, and that's before the mandated Betts/Price trade. 3. The big named players that led us to 3 division titles and that magical 2018 season were not the same players from 2019-2022 or 2020-2022. We are accused of living in the past with Kike, Duvall, and maybe implied with Kluber, Jansen, Martin and Turner, but how it this different from those who see the stars of 2018 as being the same guys from 2020-2022? The fact is, Bloom inherited some great talent- a solid but rather small foundation of extremely successful talent, but let's look at what they produced after DD left, and then think, how is it Bloom's fault so many fell way short of the production levels they once had, and then to top it off, he was supposed to predict somehow, that some would return to greatness in 2023. It's really quite comical, to me. Sale: 35-23 3.08 from 2017-2019/ 29-12 2.56 from '17-'18 extended by DD. Only 22 GS'd from 2020-2023 (half, this year!) That's 4 seasons at 3.94 ERA. Bogaerts: .914 OPS '18-'19 (56 HR and 220 RBI in 291 gms) .851 OPS '20-'22 (49 HRs and 180 RBI in 350 gms) JD: .985 OPS from 2018-2019 (79 HRs and 235 RBI in 296 gms/2 yrs) .805 OPS (51 HRs and 188 RBI in 341 gms/3 yrs) JBJ: .765 OPS from '15-'19 (.727 '17-'19) No re-signed after 2020 (.814 OPS in 217 PAs in 2020) Devers: Has a career best .916 OPS in 2019 and has been at .859 since. (Yes, Bloom is responsible for extending him and paying his arbs.) Then, the guys not brought back after 2018, 2019 or forced to be traded away after 2019: Betts: .991 OPS 2018-2019 (.893 career OPS w BOS ending in 2019) Price: 39-19 3.74 from 2016-2018 (46-24 3.84 career w BOS ended '19) Porcello: 50-28 3.99 '16-'18 (73-55 4.43 career w BOS ending in 2019) Pearce: .747 OPS '18-'19, including awesome '18 playoffs. Kimbrel: 2.44 ERA/0.096 WHIP & 108 Saves in 3 yrs ending in 2018. Joe Kelly: 3.64 ERA '17-'18 and big '18 playoffs. Ended time in BOS after 2018. These are facts. Somehow, it is Bloom's fault all these guys declined, were forced to be traded or were let go from the end of 2018 to the start of 2020 (The Bloom era.) Add to this, massive budget cuts and an apparent strategy to not trade prospects to improve the MLB club, and what should have been expected? Seriously, in this light, how are some fans thinking this is Bloom's fault? This is clearly the major reason for the decline. Somehow, Bloom was supposed to replace this production on $3M to $10M/1 contracts. It is comical to think anyone could have done much better. Sure, he has made some blunders- some major (like the JBJ trade, going over the tax line in 2022 & spending nearly all of last winter's budget on everything but the rotation,) but it is hard for me to think a $10M/1 contract can ever be viewed as a major blunder. He has made as many good moves as bad, if not more. He has built up a farm that had given us just Tanner Houck since the 2017 call-up of Devers. He has built up the roster depth that has kept us in the playoff race and near .500, this year. That being said, I expected better than .500 by year 4, and this is essentially Bloom's team, now- sans Sale. Last winter was his "legacy winter," as I called it, and I'm not backing down from that. He deserves to be criticized for counting on Sale & Paxton to anchor the rotation. He got the Kluber signing terribly wrong. He refuses to trade future capital for an ace. (This may be a JH mandate.) This remains his make or break season, IMO, but he may be given another year, no matter what happens. The season is not over, despite the loss of Sale (again.) It's not looking good. I've got nothing to point to that proves we should be in the playoff race until late September, but the team does deserve a chance to play the season out. We have Story and Schreiber returning, soon and maybe Mondesi and Sale, later. Our rotation seems to be improving. The bats and pen need to pick it up, a little more, and we need to win most of these close games. It's a lot to ask, I know. I can understand why so many fans are pissed or angry. I'm not happy with our results, so far, either, but let's put some perspective into what the real team Bloom inherited. It was not the same player production of 2018 and/or 2019 Bloom got from DD. In several cases, it wasn't even close. Romanticizing about the talent Bloom inherited seems to be what raised many fan's expectations to an unreasonable level. JH's decision to massively slash the budget going into 2020, and not really getting back to the 2019 level until this year are major factors to consider when grading out Bloom & Co.

They couldn't afford to pay all of Price's deal and more than their initial offer made to Betts, apparently. That was a massive chunk of change they unloaded, when combining salaries, and the final push off the steep embankment, if you catch my drift.

Another head scratcher. Despite Iggy's decline on D at SS, he's still light years better than Kike on D.

Only if the budget changes to allow us to sign some complimentary pieces, along the way. Why no mention of Bogey?

I took you off ignore for a second, and sure enough- WOW! What a freakin lie. Nothing changes.

Not really. If we had Bogey, we would not have Yoshida, Turner, Duvall and more. I do find it very predictable that all the talk is about JD, who nobody was clamouring for and Nate, who a few were clamoring for vs the constant Bogey drum beat from the day he signed with LAD up to his slump.

Certainly more hopeful than two to four years ago, but who am I to talk. I'm living in the past.

We keep losing too many games we had a good shot at winnings. The season started out pretty well, and then poof. Now, each series seems to follow the seasonal model: win the first game, then poof. Win today, and start a new and better trend.

GMs are supposed to know the future? I wonder why we hear about Nate and JD, and even Wacha, but all the blather about losing Bogey has gone deathly silent. That was the biggest blunder by Bloom, according to this site just 2 months ago.

How about a .731 OPS and 11 RBI in 15 games? The RBIs are Renfroesqe. The recent OPS is not great but does show signs of improvement.

And he is hitting well, this year.

Crawford given rotation role. Bleis will have season ending shoulder surgery.

Yes, or pay all of a salary of tge player(s) we trade away to improve the return package.

He only did the buy-sell thingy, last summer. In 2020, he traded 2 pen arms for Pivetta and Seabold, but I’m not sure that counts as a “buy.” There is no cap issue, unless we become serious buyers, so it won’t be about trying to stay under or not. We have a few one year guys, but more have another year or more of control than the last 2-3 years, but they could be sold off, too. There is a ways to go before we get to the buy/sell or both choice, and a few key pieces coming off the IL before or near the deadline, so who knows where we will be in 7 weeks. Just a couple weeks ago, we were looking at a playoff slot. Surely, we could be back like that again.

Also, had just one of our3 SSs been healthy, Story/Mondesi/Chang, and we could have used another or Arroyo/Kike at 2B and Kike in CF, Duval in LF. That’s not a bad defense. The SS situation snowballed into 3 downgrades at important defensive positions.

Not that a .726 OPS over his last 55 PAs is good, but if Kike can hit that and play CF\2B, that’s good enough for FT. Maybe he can find the magic from 2021 and other seasons, but I won’t hold my breath.

Somebody brought part I to the top

Other GMs know this, but maybe one thinks they can “fix” him better than we can.

They did play Chang. Plus, they don’t have to bench Kike, in fact he seems to be heating up his bat. The moves suggested were Reyes or Hamilton at SS, and Kike could play 2B or CF (before Duval returned.)

Yorke went 2-4, tonight with an HR and BB. Rafaela 2-3w BB Meidroth 3-4 w 2B Mayer 1-4 w HR Kavadas and Hickey went 0-9 w 6 Ks.

As was the JD deal, the Bogey opt out extension, the Nate extension, bringing Back Pearce and not Kimbrell or Kelly…