moonslav59

You better be joking.

Enlightening list when paired with their results. What's the chances anyone else joins Mata on this list? Bello Walter Perales Wikelman Rodriguez-Cruz Paez

It does look like bad luck was a factor for a few of our better looking pitcher prospects, but every team has a list of promising pitchers that got hurt or had something happen to keep them from shining. I'm hopeful on a couple of our current pitchers, and Kopech may still rise to a high level. The point still stands: we have gone too long, whether it be due to bad luck, bad picks, bad development of a little of each. We need to turn it around. Maybe new personnel on the player scouting and development staff is called for, but who knows?

Are you 100% sure DD did all he could to talk JH into going higher on Betts? I'm not disagreeing with you, but we just don't know. Maybe JH told DD he could choose between $350 for Betts or $150M on Sale + $200M on Bogey, but not both, and DD chose the latter.

...and he never got back up.

You mean MVP was cherry-picking quotes?

Who are the Sox that are actually injured as we speak? Story Mondesi As far as we know, these guys are currently "good to go," right? Sale Paxton Whitlock Houck Casas

Wish we had signed Fulmer for $4.1M. I guess Brasier is da man.

I'm just glad the Sox did not go for him.

Fulmer to Cubs for only $4M.

Had no injuries or other diversions took place, how many of these guys look like "aces?" Would any have become an ace had they been in another system? If the answer is yes, we need serious changes made, and quickly.

I had hopes Bloom would bring in some Rays personnel.

$6M x 4 seems rather low.

We do need to develop an ace every now and again. Teams like Milwaukee, Miami and Astros, among others seem to have homegrown, multiple ace-types, non-stop. It doesn't seem like we've shaken up our pipeline system in years, so I'm not sure we can realistically expect one, anytime soon. That leaves trading young everyday players for an ace- like we did with HRam and Moncada or rolling the dice on a FA, where the odds are almost like needing snake eyes to win. Scouting other teams' farm and MLB systems very well is one way to get an ace before they become one. That's not easy to do. Do we need a wholesale change in our scouting and developing system or maybe just add some pitching experts to it? What's a legit plan to get us one?

Who is open to trading an ace? According to BTV, here are the top value pitchers where years and salary count a lot: Manoah 150 Alcantara 144 McClanahan 128 Kirby 93 F Valdez 86 Webb 82 Burnes 78 Cease 76 Gilbert 73 Javier 67 Fried 66 Peralta 64 Gallen 63 Bieber 61 Ottani 61 Singer 52 Woodruff 51 Lodolo 49 McKenzie 48 Rasmussen 47 L Garcia 46 Saurez 46 Gonsolin 45 Greene 44 Detmers 42 J Ryan & Sandoval 41 Skubai 40 P Lopez 39 T Rogers 37 D May 36 Urias & Gausman 35 Whitlock 34 Bello 33 Nola, Springs & Ashby 33 Blue= listed as "Medium" trade availability It might take Mayer (65.1) to get someone like Singer. I doubt we'd get Javier straight up for Mayer. BTV accepts Casas + Romero & Murphy for Singer. Also... Houck, Rafaela, Romero & Yorke for Singer Do you do that? Is Singer even an ace?

IMO, the trade or the extension/signing was fine, but both makes it tip to the no side. Maybe trading for someone just about to become an ace (and his team does not know it, yet) is the best way, but that involves some luck or extremely good scouting.

I would on Price. Lackey is a close call, only because he missed a season and had a really bad one, too.

I was razzing jacko about him saying we lost our "ace" in Nate.

Grads in '22: Bello, Crawford, Winckowski, Wong, Ort & Duran Experience in '22: 2. Casas 23. Kelly 2023: 4. Rafaela 6. Mata 5. Yorke 9. Walter 13. Murphy 17. E Valdez 26. Hamilton 27. Fernandez (33. C Koss, 38. RHern, 41. T Broadway, 48. O Mosqueda, 57. C Shugart) 2024: 1. Mayer (late '23???) 14. Lugo 20. Kavadas 22. Drohan 24. Abreu (35. Binelas, 39. Jimenez, 40. S Scott, 46. T Denlinger) 2025: 11. Paulina 12. Gonzalez 15. Jordan 16. Bonaci 18. Hickey 29. Guerrero 30. McDonough (37. J Salazar, C Meidroth, A Bastardo, J Encarnacion) 2026: 3. Bleis 7. Romero 10. Perales 19. E R-C 21. Coffey 25. Brannon 28. Paez (31. M Alcantara, 32. F Encarnacion)

Some think the Price signing was worth it, but certainly it's debatable. The Lackey signing helped in 2013, but I'm not sure you can call him an ace. Of course you can't go by just one team and its history, but 3 of our 4 rings were won by trading for an ace or aces or having a homegrown ace (Lester): 2004: Pedro & Schilling 2007: Schilling & Beckett 2018: Sale (Porcello was not an ace, except in 2017. We also traded for Nate at the deadline, and he became our "playoff ace.") I tend to agree with your point: finding an ace via free agency is an extreme gamble. Of course, many WS winners have had FA aces or solid #2s.

You lost your closer, and I'm not even talking about Nasty.

Pretty much all but Sale are on Bloom, now. This is nearly a complete Bloom team. We may end up top 5 in spending, and that is why I see this season as being fully on Bloom. I don't see 2020-2022 in the same light. I don't expect others to see it the way I do, nor do I think I am right and they are wrong. I just see it the way I do and say what I feel. I'm optimistic about our future- something I haven't felt in a long time- even under DD. The farm looks as strong and deep as I've seen since Theo. We have some young players who recently graduated that look very promising. We have Devers forevers- something I have wanted for years. I like the Yoshida signing. I think we made some good deals getting Turner, Kluber, Jansen and Martin. I'm worried about Duvall's D and Mondesi's health. I'm worried about a lot more, but so are almost all teams. I like our chances, this year, and I like the extended future, even more. I know many fans disagree. Let the games begin!

I don't really see it as "defending Bloom," but I can see how it looks that way. The guy had an incredibly tight budget, year one. Even after freeing the Sox of Betts' contract and half of Price's he was handed about $20M but had over a dozen high need slots to fill. I think you'd agree 2020 was not a year we could have added a costly ace, nor did we have prospects to trade for one. 2021 saw some more money to be spent, I think like $40M, but again, we needed 8-10 slots filled. Had we signed an ace, we'd have very little to spend on the other slots. We needed more than one SP'er, but I'm fine with thinking it would have been better to sign one, instead of Richards ($10M) and Perez ($6M). Add Paxton's money, too. I'm not sure Bloom was allowed to match their AAV for more years, though, but if yes, I'd agree he had a hand in making a questionable choice. Even all 3's money plus Marwin and a couple other duds, don't get us who could we have signed, longer term? To me, I'm not even sure Bloom was handed a decent budget until the Story signing. It seemed like an afterthought or reactionary decision by JH. If he had that money, at the start of 2021-22's winter, who should he have signed? I'm just not seeing anything that jumps out as a big miss by Bloom or any GM. I've always wanted us to build the rotation from the top, but that doesn't mean just grab the best SP'er on the market each year. The thing about this winter is that Bloom had a big budget. If you count Kike's summer extension, he had enough to sign an ace, if he wanted. True, it might mean no Yoshida and others, but it was his choice. Again, though, I didn't see any ace I felt was worth large and long. A large and short might have been there, like Verlander, but at his age, I can see why he passed on him.

Last winter, I did not like the FA market and suggested shorter term deals for older guys like Verlander or Scherzer. This winter, I'd rather we signed Verlander at $43M x 2 than deGrom or Rodon, and I didn't like anyone else. I liked Castillo, but SEA gave up a lot, then extended him near FA market value. I don't mean to beat around the bush, but I just haven't seen anyone, recently, where I said, yes, that was a good deal. BTW, I thought the Price deal was an overpay, but I expected much better from him than I do from Rodon or deGrom. In earlier years, there was Bauer (OMG!), Cole (OK) and Starsburg (Ugh.) In hindsight there isn't much better. I'm not pissed we haven't added an ace, because I haven't seen a deal even close to my liking.

But, what do I know? I thought Price was one of "those guys" you go all in on. (I also liked Scherzer, the year before.) I liked the Sale extension.