moonslav59

Lambasted, yes, but I am still very far away from hoping we have an ownership change Very much further away than wanting a manager and or GM change, too..

Eflin might have been enough, alone (instead of Kluber) to make us still be in his race, as we speak. Getting Eflin and Wacha, instead of Kluber might have even been doable while keeping us under the tax line. (Non tendering Brasier could have made that a surety, assuming Eflin would have taken more money to come here.)

You have been spot on, all morning, and I don't disagree, here, but I do think the budget, especially if Bloom was told to stay $6-10M under the tax line, played a major role is what happened. We needed to build up the pen, badly. Nobody disputes that. One could argue, we could have used one more Chris Martin, but I think Bloom did a fine job maximizing his return on investments made to the pen. Not signing Martin or Jansen, so we could add another SP'er would not have been a good choice. We needed to replace some offense and fill the SS position, while also starring down the fact that our OF was one of the worst in MLB, last year and in my 50 years of being a Sox fan. He had to spend there. One could argue, he should have spent more on JT and Duvall. so we'd have them for more than just one year. It was a huge but winning roll of the dice to not spend on catching. (I recall some posters wanting us to go big an a FA catcher.) He spent pretty big on the OF with Yoshida and Duvall, and it could easily and rightfully be argued that the money spent on Yoshida (and Kike from the summer extension) to be spent on pitching. That looks to be on Bloom, but there was talk that the Sox system had been super high on Yoshida for years, so maybe signing him was more of a group choice than Bloom insisting on it. Still, he's the the guy making the choices, so that has to be a valid criticism. Bloom did not spend much on 1B/DH. The JT signing was masterful, except in length. The dice roll on Casas worked, too. The dice roll on Kike & Co. at SS was perhaps almost as big a blunder as neglecting the rotation. The fact is, he spent on the pen, the OF, DH/1B and was mostly a success in those areas, as a whole. Robbing Peter to pay Paul was something most of us felt and still feel he should have done, and that's on him. I'm not arguing Bloom having $6-10M more would have solved the rotation problem, but it could have helped. (Wacha cost less. Eflin or Nate over Kluber would fit, and so on...) Bloom needed to do more for the rotation than he did, There is no sugar coating that. The 8-9 guys we had looked okay, but okay rotations rarely reach glory.

.Nobody from the Sox top brass led me to have some hope for Mata, Walter and Murphy. Yes, I was always worried about Mata's health and the idea that the pen was likely a better spot for him, but he did have a sub .600 OPS Against, last season. Murphy fell apart, in the second half of 2022, but he had a great first half. I think he led the team in OPS Against until June or July. He still ended up at .687 as he led the whole farm in IP. Walter had some nice numbers, too. He had a .585 OPS Against and 75 Ks to just 7 BBs in 58 IP. I'm not sure why guys like Houck and Bello carry over their AAA numbers or even do better in the bigs, but so many promising pitchers, by the numbers, suck when called up by the Sox. It's not like none of these three had s***** stuff in the minors. One big point is that we ended up having to count on our 9-10-11-12 guys more than most teams end up having to do. We knew we had some injuries and injury prone pitchers, but I can't really blame anyone for not predicting we'd have all those missed starts by Whitlock, Houck, Saale, Paxton, and even Bello missed a couple, early on. Pivetta was demoted, as was Kluber, but then Kluber went on the IL. 8-9 pitchers is probably what most good teams plan on, and I'm not sure many other teams have significant;y better 10's, 11's and 12's than ours were believed to be back in March. To me, our rotation problem has been- choosing quantity over quality and durability/dependability. Until we build up the rotation from the top and stop trying to improve our #4 and 5's, we won't win, again. Bello would be a great #3 and okay as our Number 2. Houck would be a great #5 and okay as a #4. Pivetta would be better used as our #6, but would be okay as our #5. Same with Crawford. These two would be very nice 6's and 7's. We need two solid and dependable SP'ers, this winter. Even adding one ace who gives us 33 starts, alone would not be enough. Two solid #'s might be enough, but we need 2 not 1. 3 would be even nicer, but that is a pipedream, as probably even 2 is.

I’m not so sure it was Bloom who made the choice not to offer Eflin more money, but your point is well-taken. We needed minimum 2 guys from a list like Nate, Eflin, Wacha and maybe Lugo. Kluber as a third guy might have made sense, at the time- even as the second guy would have been understandable. I just can’t bring myself to believe it was Bloom’s choice to not leave a bunch of cash under the tax line on the table, and no, it’s not out of some sort of Bloom worship some here think I do. Yes, Bllom can rightfully be blamed for spending on Kluber, Mondesi, Brasier, Kike and Barnes, instead of______. Have at it. I agree.

Well said and in less words than I’d have been able to use!

Like I think it was you who said, a while ago, no Sox pitcher has been overtaxed with innings pitched, so who is at fault for the pitching collapse, if blaming someone is the task at hand? I agree on it not being Cora.

This year or next?

Not unfair at all, although the Raffy one hadn’t even started. I have no issues with Raffy’s money if he plays 1B, either. Certainly all 3 look bad or questionable, right now. I’ve never had issues with criticising Bloom on things he is responsible or largely responsible for. Have at it, please.

I still think he’s best in LF but better than Teoscar in RF.

I don’t think they looked to be bad extended depth. None were thought of as our number 6 or 7 or even 8 or 9, if you thought Wink could have been starter depth in March. We knew Paxton and Sale would miss time, and I remember saying that counting on both to combine for 32 starts was pushing it, but to me we had more quantity than quality, but some potential in 8-9, then the three you listed. Sale Paxton Kluber Houck Whitlock Bello Paxton Crawford Winckowski Mata, Walter and Murphy were 10, 11 and12th, until the choice was made never to start Wink, so maybe 9-10-11th. I still don’t think, at the time, that was a bad position to hold.

I disagree, and the idea is Casas or Duran would do the trick if packaged with 1-2 second tier guys like Hickey, Yorke, Romero or maybe Walter + Murphy counted as 1. I don’t think some recent deals gave anymore. I suppose a Casas and Duran package would gain a lot of interest but that’s a lot of potential future leaving us.

Not many managers want to get another job with another team, and although many here think Cora sucks, he’d have several teams wanting him, if he was fired. I hope we keep him, but this team is really reeling and lost.

Red means counted on to be solid plus. How can you view Rizzo as being average compared to all 1Bmen? Some pen guys could be red. You mention the chances of a vet or young guy stepping up to red, but the same chance exists that a red guy gets hurt or declined below red. IMO, you might have 4 red guys in your line up, yet you say you think you only need to add just two bats. Please explain.

Do we have any MLB ready prospects in AAA or AA that we might want to give a look at the ML level? We could DFA some FAs to be to make room of the 40 and 27. On 40: Dalbec Murphy Robertson Weiss Not on 40 (Rule 5 anyway?): S Scott G Gambrell J Hagenman Wikelman DFA guys we will likely non tender, anyway? Garza Llovera Barraclough Jacques FAs? Paxton Duvall

Today, MLB.com projected the A's would pass the Royals and not have the worst record in 2023. They forgot the Royals play us.

Our last pick was Teel from college. 10 of our top 12 picks were from college. I hope you were just being sarcastic?

You need to get over this. If a HS shortstop is the best bet draft choice, I'd hope we draft 20 in a row. That's the way it should be. That's the way it is for every team for every draft.

For the same reasons you and I really like Casas, other GMs do, too. I am 100% convinced Devers would be better on D at 1B, in maybe 1 month. It's not like 1B defense is at the top of the priority list, but improving the D at 1B and 3B would be a significant plus. I'm not fine with Duvall in CF or RF. He's best in LF, which is position we are already overloaded. If we traded Duran or Dugo, then maybe...

I think having Houck, Pivetta and Crawford scheduled as your 3-4-5, is asking for trouble and a repeat of 2023. If it ends up being them due to injury, okay, but we cannot sign just one SP'er, have Bello as the #2 and go with what we got to fill in the rest. If we do, I'll be looking at 2025 on day one of 2024.

Kluber, once we struck out on Eflin.

I'm not against the idea. I do wonder about the Sox not wanting to move Casas to DH, so early in his journey. I know you are not arguing the Sox will do this but only that they should, and I'm liking the idea more and more, as I think about it.

Looking at the fWAR Leaders in 2023 Pitching, I can't help but notice all the ex-Sox pitchers and one that we apparently came close to signing (Eflin): 5.1 Wheeler 4.8 Strider 4.7 Gausman 4.6 Gray 4.0 Gallen 4.0 Eflin 12. Pablo Lopez 3.6 (no link to a trade with Sox, but listing anyway) 14. Luis Castillo 3.2 (see Lopez) 15. Nate 3.1 21. Senga 2.9 22. ERod 2.8 41. Seth Lugo 2.2 50. Wacha 2.0 Were available, recently: 31. Stroman 2.5 35. Civale 2.4 49. Walker 2.0

MVP Outlook: AL: It has to be a lock for Ohtani. He's the best hitter in the AL and a damn good pitcher, too. The race is really about who finishes second? fWAR 6.5 Ohtani + 2.3 pitching fWAR = 8.8 5.3 JRod 5.2 Robert 5.0 Whitt 4.7 Semien 4.4 Jose Ramirez 4.3 Tucker The NL race is still open, but two guys are clearly the front runners: 7.8 Betts .317 38 116 (Great D 6.7 Acuna .337 30 83 (1st timer with 30 and maybe 35 HRs and 60 and maybe 70 SBs) But... 6.9 Freeman .338 25 111 5.2 Lindor .251 24 85 4.9 Kim .277 17 76 4.6 Olsen .268 43 103 4.6 Riley .278 32 98

I wonder why GOOGLE missed it.