moonslav59

based is fact.

Well said, and Price and Sale were not the only two who were never the same. Many other vets went on to decline or get hurt, or both over the next 4-5 years- some not right away. Porcello was not brought back or replaced. Some poo-poo'd his value, but he sure at innings, and we all know how we could have used that over the last 2-3 years. We did not replace Kimbrell and Kelly until 2023. ERod missed 2020, and was gone after 2021. Nate had one great full season after 2018, and it's no coincidence that was the one year we made the playoffs after 2018. The pen has been constructed with yarn and patches since 2018. This is the first year we even tried to make it better. On the O side, many players took longer to show decline, or had some up and down seasons along the way, but losing Betts right off the bat, to start Bloom's era, is a pretty big punch in the gut to an organization. Beni was 23 when he hit .830. He never came close, afterwards, even on other teams. He's at .695, this year at age 28. JD was a great addition to the Sox- no doubt- no disrespect, but players get older. While he aged better than most, he did drop off, some. '18-'19: 1306 PAs .317 79 235 (per 162: .317 43 129) '20-'22: 1467 PAs .269 51 188 (per 162: .269 24 89) Bogey's D improved, but his O production dropped: '18-'19: 1278 PAs .300 56 2210 (31 HRs and 123 RBI per 162 gms) '20-'22:1459 PAs .301 49 180 (23 HRs and 83 RBI per 162) JBJ was still a big plus on D and had an OK .728 OPS fromm '18-'19 He had a better 2020 season, but was gone- only to return a shell of himself. Devers has been pretty steady. The role players at starters who were not studs were not really replaced in kind, either: Moreland (.758 in '18), Nunez (.677), Holt (.774), Pearce (.901) and others. People see that 2018 for what it was: a great team, but some assumed that was the team Bloom essentially inherited, but it was not. Even the players with the same names were mostly not the same guys.

The other argument could be that he left a much better foundation than he started with: 26 man, 40 man, farm and budget.

Thanks for this. I'm not a big fan of Law, who seems to short-change the Sox a bit, but he was spot on, here.

The did spend a lot extending Sale, Bogey and Nate, so the spending really dropped off after 2019 not before it. Yes, we lost Kimbrell and Kelly, but the raises to the vets is what happens when you have a core of winning players for 3 years straight. Eventually, you reach a point, where you can't pay them all. The Astros don't pay them all, but they kept their pipeline going. It's about having a balanced approach. We should try it sometime.

Did Bloom "assemble" Casas, Duran, Devers. Bloom did add some stinkers, but some were decent fielders playing out of position (Kike at SS, Duvall in CF...) I'm not defending Bloom: our D sucks, and he was the guy who could have done something about it, and choce to improve the pen and offense, instead of the rotation and defense.

Why not just try a GM who has a balanced approach?

If a GM wants to keep working as a GM, they pretty much have to shut up and take the abuse. It's weird how once they retire, you don't see them returning the abuse at those who canned them and then threw them under the bus. (Maybe they do, and I just miss it.) The sick part about the whole process is that it always starts with flowery language about what a great job so and so did, and how "professional" he was, while at the same moment, spreading out your minions feeding the press all the crap we are reading, now.

Didn't they use those words after 2022?

Agree, but linking it to fully blaming Bloom is where the shorthand goes off the rails, IMO.

They are all over the map on finding things to throw blame on Bloom and not themselves. There is a sizeable brigade on this board that feels strongly that Bloom hoarded prospects and made building for the future his top priority, at the expense of the here and now current ML team. I seem to recall, at most trade deadlines, most here wanted us to be buyers not sellers. He usually played it halfway or chose neither. Doing that, opened him up for being ripped from both sides: The here and now bunch and the long term outlook bunch. I will add, playing it halfway is the worst choice, IMO..

Wonder why that is an excuse for a manager but not a GM. Was Bloom supposed to know a big chunk of the vest were going to get hurt, decline or both, and do what? Trade them right before their decline, even if they were fan faves? (THat is what the Rays are famous for.)

I'd say his big mistake this year was sticking with Kike at SS, even after we got Reyes. (I'd have even played DHam there, longer or tried Arroyo at SS. Hell, bring up Rafaela a few months earlier, but maybe that was Bloom's call on Raff.)

As most people know, I'm a big Cora fan, despite the mistakes he has made over his career. I seriously doubt he goes anywhere, but the new guy in charge might have a different idea.

The guy could throw a perfect game, and I still would not count on him for even 1 IP, next year.

He looks thinner than he has at other times.

Back then, that was good but not great. Now, it nearly leads the team. Not sure why we ever moved away from that philosophy.

Turner has met all his PA targets and will earn the full $1M bonus.

He's still young. Let's see how he does at higher levels.

Here is how Soxprospects.com projects next year's roster: C: Wong & McGuire 1B: Casas 2B: Reyes & Urias SS: Story 3B: Devers LF: Duran & Refsnyder CF: Duvall signed & Rafaela RF: Verdugo DH: Yoshida SP: Bello, Sale, Crawford, Paxton signed, Acquisition, Acquisition RP: Jansen, Martin, Wink, Houck, Whitlock, Pivetta, Schreiber, Murphy, Bernardino (Trade candidates: Mata & Joely) AAA C: Scott 1B: Kavadas 2B: Yorke SS: DHam 3B: Meidroth LF: Rosier CF: Abreu RF: Dalbec DH: EValdez SP: Walter, Drohan, Gambrell, Van Belle, Hagenman RP: Kelly, Jacques, Robertson, Guerrero, Polito, RFern, Zeferjahn

Abreu is sure impressing, early.

Let's hope Bello can keep the Jays out of the playoffs.

So my call on Turner passing JD in OPS by season's end looks like yet another wrong call, by me. While Turner did bring his OPS up by a lot, he kinds leveled off since September 1st. I had expected JD to drop off more as the season went on, but he missed a lot of time, so that never really happened. As it stands, now... .865 JD (370 PAs) .831 Turner (510 PAs) JD was at .931 May 31 .881 June 30 (hit .793 in June) .872 July 30 (hit .839) .856 Aug 31 (played in 7 games at .604) .865 Sep 15 (5 games at 1.014) JT was at... .755 May 31 (.792 in May) .792 June 30 (.865 in June) .837 July 31 (.986 in July) .845 Aug 31 (.890 in Aug) .827 Sep 15 (.647 in 12 games) I still really liked watching JT play for us, and miss the great games JD gave us for so many years.

LOL. Gammons. LMAO!

For those who cling to traditional stats, these are frightening: Per 162 games: 2018-2019: .300 31 123 (.914 OPS) Even 2018-2020: .300 31 116 (.907 OPS) But, YIKES!!!! 2021-2023: .291 21 75 (.820 OPS) Now, he enters the post 30 years. I'm big on defense at SS, so I should mention that his improved defense is significant and does add value. DRS -29 from 2017-2019 (+0.4 UZR/150) -12 from 2021-2023 (+1.8) It is a bit worrisome, when the SS ranked 27th out of 27 SSs in DRS since 2017 is seeing his offense drop so steeply from ages 28-30. (He is ranked 15th out of 27 in UZR/150 at +0.6 from 2014 to today.)