moonslav59

Just don't say he hates him.

You mean someone actually said "we got Cora, and we got Bloom." Man, the lies on this site are overwhelming, at time. Thanks for the morning laugh. You read an article that gives a guy's opinion. You agree with it. It becomes fact. Look, it is obvious they really like Cora. Not a single poster has hinted otherwise. They apparently offered him a promotion. They obviously care what he thinks, and I'm sure he was at worst, consulted on the Bloom decision. He may have had a dump Bloom bullhorn. He may have been no more outspoken on the idea of firing him as anyone else in the room. Did JH, Kennedy and others value his opinion more than their own or others? How the hell do any of us know? Yes, some posters were optimistic about Bloom being able to bring some of the TB mojo to Boston. The guy "wrote the book." He did mostly what he was told to do. He built up the farm and the 40 man foundation, pretty well. You might disagree, but I read an article.... He sucked in other areas, and the phrase "paralyzed by indecision" and his inability to go the extra mile to get the guys he wanted got him rightfully fired. Your expectation for what a GM could do after 2019 was different from mine and others. Fine. You seem to take issue with anyone even bringing up the enormous difficulties any GM would have had with the budget and mandates handed to Bloom in late 2019. Bloom failed. You can fantasize all you want about there being some great numbered legion of Bloom lovers who thought he'd work miracles in 2-3 years, but as usual, you "misread the room."

How do you know what I think? I have no idea how much influence Cora had on the firing, and neither do you, as of now. He may have been the biggest fact, or they may have made up their minds before or after consulting him on his opinion. I don't think Cora wanted Bloom back, but that is based on his displeasure with the lack of deadline moves. It's conjecture- precisely the thing you bash us over the head for daring to state as an opinion.

There are only 13 position players on a roster and 2 are catchers. That leaves 11 players for 7 positions. One or two platoons can work well, as the guy not starting can be a sub or PH'er, later in the game. Our OF took a big step forward, in 2023, but part of that was Duvall and a guy, Yoshida, who may be the FT DH, next year. I'm fine starting the year with a Duran-Ref platoon in LF. Both hit over .800 with their splits. Handing CF to one or both of Rafaela or Abreu is a gamble, and there is a good chance one starts the season in AAA, unless we bring back Duvall or some other big RH bat. Dugo in RF is pretty steady and a decent defender. If we replace him with Duvall, we may not lose much on D. I'm not see a platoon anywhere else. Both Urias and Reyes hit RH'd. I guess, if EValdez makes the 26, we could see a platoon at 2B, but the D would be severely weakened. I think our catching core will be a plus on D, next year. The O is at question.

I never said Cora didn't have a hand, but I do think even if he begged to keep Bloom, they'd have fired him anyway. We know this is not true, and maybe Cora was one of the first and or loudest "Fire Bloom" guys in the system, but it was not his call. I think firing Bloom was a unanimous choice. They did not need Cora's blessing, suggestion or advice. Do you think he was the main guy who made it happen?

You keep saying the same thing over and over. It did not take Cora to get Bloom fired. Talk about misreading the room.

Seems clear as day, to me. Cora is not in charge, or else it would mean he offered himself the job, then refused. Very curious, indeed.

As long as it's a make believe committee.

Can anybody be fully in charge?

I'm hoping we hire a make believe person.

It turns out it's everybody's fault, except Cora.

Thanks. We'd have never guessed such a wide disparity.

Yup. Every part of the team, except maybe the pen went into long funks. The D sucked all year long! The bats carried us for a while. The rotation carried us for a while, even during a few "pen games," but the weaknesses finally doomed us. There were too many to overcome, even if we made a deadline trade or two.

There is not reason to think the Yanks will have less injuries, next year. Their roster is full of injury-prone players or over 30 guys bound to decline. They have some big name players who rate to still be great in 2024, but so many holes to fill, it will take a huge wallet-opening, this winter to begin to fix them all. Maybe some rising prospects will do the trick on a couple, but there are way more than a couple to fill.

I give up. We had one of the best hitting SSs in MLB, last year and won the same 78 games. We could go on like this forever, with neither proving anything.

The old guys may finally decline, and that is not a long shot. I do think having a rotation that actually eats innings and set up guys that can go 2-4 IP, often would take a lot of heat off Martin and Jansen. Long Relief: Houck, Crawford, Whitlock (Maybe Pivetta, if we add 3 SP and Sale is healthy) Murphy, Walter, Gambrell and Wikelman in reserve 7th-8th RP: Winckowski, Schreiber, Bernardino (maybe Joely, if we take the option) Kelly, Robertson and Mata in reserve. 8th-9th RP: Jansen & Martin It's an awesome pen, on paper, but of course, anything can go wrong.

Using errors and Flg% is near meaningless. Our D was way worse, this year.

I have not doubted you have the best pitcher and hitter of the two teams. It's not even close. Judge may be more injury prone than Devers, but he's still better. BTW, Story was an All Star, too. (Not last year, but he was hurt.) LeMahieu and Rizzo should continue age decline, along with some others. Some players who were injured will likely return, but they will be replaced by others on the IL. It is is the nature of your roster. I would not count on Rodon, but he does have a better chance of 25+ GS'd than Sale. You are right, your rotation blows us away. Your pen does not. We need to add an ace and a solid #2/3 or two solid #2s. If not, you will still have a major edge there, and that is a key area to be better at, granted. Our offense looks way better. Our defense should be worse than yours, but it will be better due to... Yoshi to DH (Duran/Ref more in LF and less in CF) Rafaela/Abreu in CR (not Duran/Duvall) Story at SS (not Kike) Urias/Reyes at 2B (not the circus carousel of '23) Maybe Wong and McGuire mature and improve. 1B, 3B and RF stay the same. You guys lost Bader on D.

Add two solid SP'ers and there is no need to tinker with the pen, except maybe trade a RHP for a LHP. We need one big RHB (CF or 2B, maybe RF, if we trade Dugo.) The D will be better without any outside additions: Story at SS, Rafaela/Abreu in CF (not Duran), Duran & Ref in LF (not Yoshi). We have just 3 major holes, but yes, they are very deep holes. Other teams have more holes, but they look shallower.

Indeed. I have always been very respectful of DD's role in helping build up the foundation, as well as his and Ben's role in the period between Devers and Casas/Bello (both DD guys.)

I think Bloom was a goner, no matter what Cora thought.

If the foundation built leads to something special, a few might look back and be thankful. Most will claim the new guy is the major reason we won.

That '21 team did have some nice big bats, but they also had some duds: The worst 4 OPS+ batters in the top 9 by PAs 2021 53 Mariwn 77 Vaz 107 Dalbec 107 Verduog 2023: 62 Kike 80 Wong 100 Dugo 109 Yoshi The 2021 team had better hitting (106 OPS+ to 100 OPS+,) but they also had better fielding and ERA+ (110 to 101.)

Every Sox ring team was very different than the others. 2004 and 2007 were the closest. Teams win the WS using various methods. Trying to come up with similar teams as we had before might work very well, or not. The 2021 team is the one you choose to try and copy? How about 2004: Pedro 33 GS, Schill 32 GS (Lowe, Wake & Arroyo all over 29 GS) 2007: Schill 24, Beckett 30 (Dice K and Wake over 31) 2013: Lester 33, Lackey 29 (Dempdter & Douby 27+) Buch with an awesome 16 2018: Sale 27, Price 30, Porcello 33, ERod 23 & Nate with a big 11. Yes, we had hitting, too, but the rings come with aces, as in plural. We have none, now.

We'd be better with Chapman, but I'm old school, I guess. Fix the weakest areas, first. While corner IF is a weak area, it's not near the weakest.