moonslav59

I had really hoped we'd take the $80-90M for this winter's spending budget and add just 5-6 players. More quality over quantity, but I guess Bloom & Co. felt we needed more depth. I think, going forward, we will start seeing less and less 1 year "bridge deals." We should start seeing some kids (Bello, Casas, Mayer, Rafaela, and maybe Mata, Walter, Kelly and others) with 4-6 years control winning FT jobs, while Yoshida, Story, Devers, Whitlock, Bello, Houck, Schreiber and McGuire hold some slots for 3 or more years to come. There is a lot of comfort in stability. I'm not sure I've ever seen a Sox 40 man roster change over, so quickly. Trevor Story was signed 11 months ago and is 18th on the 40 man roster seniority list! Whitlock has been on the Sox for 2 seasons and is ranked 11th in seniority. Verdugo was added almost 3 years to the day and is 5th! If Bobby Dee and Barsier ever get traded or DFA'd, he'll be 3rd.

Guilty as charged. I still think it's weird than any fans throws shadows on over half an organization.

I think someone mentioned Andrus may retire, but a few million is quite an incentive.

There has been some talk about just how much credit Bloom should get for building up the farm. Some seem to doubt he's built much up, at all. Almost every trade Bloom has made, even for ML talent, included a prospect or two coming our way. It doesn't seem like any of those trades have led to concrete positive results, to date, but the jury is still out on many prospects. Prospects traded for: Wong and Downs (with Verdugo) for Betts, Price and cash Jeffrey Springs (prospect?) for Sam Travis Hudson Potts & Jeisson Rosario for Moreland Jacob Wallace for Pillar (Wyatt Mills for J Wallace) Winckowski, de la Rosa, Gambrell, F Valdez (with Cordero) for Beni Seabold (with Pivetta) for Workman & Hembree (Seabold traded for PTBNL or cash) F German (with Ottavino) for cash Theo Denlinger for F German Ronaldo Hernandez & Nick Sogard for Springs & Mazza Christian Koss for Yoan Aybar David Hamilton & Alex Binelas (wtih JBJ) for Renfroe Enmanuel Valdez & Wilyer Abreu for Vazquez Max Ferguson & Corey Rozier (with Hosmer) for Groome Minor deals: Leon for Adenys Bautista and Osich for Zach Bryant plus others The trade addition outlook still has some promise, but we have yet to see anything good at the ML, yet. MiLFA/Waivers/Rule 5... Garrett Whitlock Zach Kelly Rob Refsnyder (not a prospect) Kaleb Ort Pretty good group of players, here. Drafted (SP ranking) Pretty nice list 1. Mayer 5. Yorke 7. Romero 9. Anthony 15. Jordan 18. Hickey 19. E R-C 20. Kavadas 21. Coffey 23. Drohan 27. Brannon 29. Uberstine IFA (SP ranking) Nice list with more to move up, this year 3. Bleis 28. Paez Not Traded (DD's kids) Very nice job by DD 2. Casas 4. Rafaela 6. Mata 8. Walter 10. Peralez 11. Paulino 12. Wikelman 13. Murphy 14. Lugo 16. Bonaci

No doubt, I keep the ball rolling. I just can't see someone who shows such disdain for over half of the people who are the Red Sox as someone "staying with the team to the end." I'm not saying giving up on the team in July is much better, but I still watched every game afterwards and cheered for every player, even Brasier and Duran. I might say a few suck or should be DFA'd, but not half. I wouldn't nickname a rookie "Stinkin'" either. It's more about the sheer number than a bad name here and there. People show their love in different ways, I guess. I just don't see being so overly critical as being a good fan, but I know that is just my twisted idea of what being a fan means. To each his own. I love all my sisters and parents but often say bad things to them.

We may need an IF'er more- Niko Goodrum? (soxprospects projects him on the 26.)

If Mondesi is out, as expected, I think EValdez will be on the bench and Dalbec or Duran fight for the 26th slot. Maybe they give Hamilton the IF depth slot.

Andrus Wacha

On the Yoshida signing https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/02/04/sports/mlb-japanese-players/

Good point.

I totally understand being more attached to homegrown players. It was a wonderful time, when we were watching Lester, Betts, Bogey, JBJ and later Devers, as well as many good role players, all on the same team. This year's team is barely recognizable, and most of our returning good players are at different positions, now (Kike at SS, Dugo in RF, Whitlock in the rotation and Houck still TBD'd.) It's hard to feel close attachments to the players, which is really the best part of being a fan. I will say, many of the winning teams of the past were near total rehauls. Even the 2007 team was very different from 2004's. 2013 was a massive overhaul from even 2012. 2018 had little left over from 2013, but all had their fair share of homegrown players. I find it hard to blame Bloom for the lack of homnegrowners. The Betts trade was forced, and the Bogey price tag may have been too high for JH to accept. The fact that Houck is the only homegrown player worth mentioning since Devers is not something I pin on Bloom, either. In 3-4 years, we can talk about Bloom's bounty or lack of homegrowners. Just like we are just now, seeing or are about to see the fruits of DD's homegrowners.

I'm not upset about the nicknames. I counter points I disagree with, like everyone else. If someone said Bloom never makes any mistakes 24/7, I'd counter them, too. I don't see much of that, though. Many of the criticisms of Bloom are well founded, and I've been highly critical of many of his moves, yet I'm viewed as being a Bloom apologist and a DD basher, when I don't see myself as being close to either of those two things. I have no issues with what DD did, and have no problems with the consequences of some of his actions. I don't even blame him for extending Sale, but that doesn't mean I don't factor in Sale's budget hit and near zero production under Bloom's watch. I know DD made some mistakes, but he did a great job, so I'm glad he was our GM. That does not change the facts about the low-end loaded farm he left Bloom. It was worth it, to me, but I don't ignore it happened, so DD can be viewed as the perfect saint. Any GM who stepped into the situation the Sox were in after 2019 would have had their hands full, regardless of some nice stars headlining the roster. 5 stars, some of them always hurt or sputtering as they moved out of prime was not enough to expect winning records out of the gate. Cutting $60M (basically Betts, half-Price and Porcello) is not something any GM can build on. Having just Houck join the roster from the farm, after Devers in the summer of 2017 is a crippling fact. Okay, I've repeated it ad nauseam, but when you add that to the rest, the task was daunting. I hardly hear a peep about that from the Bloom bashers. They look only at records, ticket prices and the fact that we still had a high budget, despite much of it being Sale, ERod, Pedey and other inherited players who had up and down years from 2020-2022. The other context I think is neglected if not totally ignored is what should be expected from FA signings in the $1M to $10M range. To think a GM could hit more than they miss, when having to spend on mostly players between $1M and 7M is laughable. No, I won't change their mind, but I will speak up, when I think their points lack context or logic. I'm far from perfect and have my obsessions, too. I try to apologize when I go too far and admit when I have been wrong.

It depends on Mondesi, Sale and Paxton's health, but assuming all are ready... 1. Yoshida LF 2. Kike SS/2B 3. Devers 3B 4. Turner DH 5. Casas 1B 6. Verdugo RF 7. Duvall CF 8. Arroyo 2B/Mondesi SS 9. McGuire C Bench: Wong C, Refsnyder OF, EValdez 2B/1B/DH or Duran OF (I'd take EValdez) SP1. Sale SP2. Kluber SP3. Whitlock SP4. Bello SP5. Pivetta SP6. Paxton RP1. Jansen RP2. Martin RP3. Houck RP4. Schreiber RP5. Rodriguez RP6. Brasier RP7. Bleier

I wouldn't say I'm "polite," but to me, it comes down to the sheer number of players and Sox personnel some posters attack, mercilessly. A colorful name, here and there is funny, and Winckowski did not do much to deserve any praise. I get that. We've almost all screamed for Brasier & Ort to be DFA's. We've all pretty muched used the word "sucked" on a player here and there, but to me, if you bash about half of your team and management, non-stop, I question the claim that you are "saying with the team to the end." I don't expect fans to blindly praise players doing nothing praiseworthy, but to me, assigning disdainful nicknames to players who are just getting their feet wet, as well as vets like Kike & Story, I think it goes too far, I clearly have a different view than most here, so maybe I'm missing something important. It's hard to gauge motives and feelings in print form, so maybe I'm reading too much into some things posters say out of frustration and anger, but it's one thing to hurl an insult in a game thread than to say a player is Stinkin' Winkin" to a player with just 70 IP under his belt, in the month of February.

My idea of what a "sleeper" is, is not someone like Blies, who is highly touted by the media and ranking services.

Bloom has certainly done enough head-scratchingly bad moves and enough just plain bad moves to warrant criticism. It's the blaming of anything and everything on him that brings out the defending posts. It's the lack of any context usage, so often, that creates a situation where it looks like those that are responding are viewed as never seeing any fault in Bloom (and JH for that matter.) Bloom has made a lot of mistakes, as most GMs do, especially those in situations where they have to make so many, each year. JH has made some financial decisions that upset the high ticket-paying fanbase and fans that expect a championship caliber team, every year. It's all understandable. It's the degree of disdain and criticism, that to me, goes over the top and then some, but hey, that's just me. Apparently, I'm in a small minority of Sox Nation.

We all do that to varying degrees. Most of us don't assign disdainful nicknames. Most of us don't attack more members of the Sox than they praise. And, apparently, the majority matters most.

Oh no, don't say "hate," because he never used those exact words. He shows so much love towards Henry, Kennedy, Bloom, Cora, Dalbec, Story, Kike, Cordero, Duran & Downs, Stinkin' Winkin, Sale, Pivetta, Barnes, Houck and on and on... Only Swihart's Ghost showed more disdain towards Sox players and management. Well, maybe some Yankee & Mariner fans, too.

I'm not deflecting blame to anyone. I'd prefer not to even be obsessed with the whole notion of blame. How can I blame DD, when I agree with everything he did and have said that more times than the "5 year farm drought?" I'm not even a big fan of Bloom. I may be suggesting he be let go, after this year. I simply point out the circumstances he was handed, that have way more to do with the higher ups than DD, but as always, you miss the real points. If you truly believe any GM could have done significantly better under the multiple challenging areas Bloom inherited, then so be it. I think you are missing something major, but I guess I should expect that from you. What GM can take a 84-78 team, be forced to trade Betts & Price, not replace Porcello, then watch 3 of his highest paid carry-overs give next to nothing (Sale, ERod & Pedey, gut the budget by $60M, and through it all, get next to no farm help? You can ignore those facts all you want, and boy you do, but it's not spin: it's reality. You pay top ticket prices and think that has something to do with Bloom's success and expectations. Yes, you bash Henry, too. Good for you! You've been a "fan" (note the quotations) for longer than me. You have the majority of Sox Nation on your side, at least in your own mind. You convince yourself, through 24/7 bashing of just about everything that has to do with the Sox, from JH to kennedy to Bloom to Cora to Stinkin Winkin and call that "staying" with your team. You literally, crack me up. No lie: I'm laughing out loud.

You call all this "staying with the Sox?" I liked to see how you treat teams you dislike. You may really believe you are a good fan, but to me, a good fan likes his team. Just my opinion. Maybe I'm warped. I know I'm in the minority, so don't go there.

I guess I kinda felt like he was going to really prove me right, then fell off a cliff after a couple nice years.

Looks like 2 good picks. Lugo seems to be coming into what some expected a while ago. I'm going to go: Sleeper: Wilyer Abreu MiLB to be noticed: Elmer R-C

I gave up naming my "sleeper" after T Shaw and then Ockimey.

You mean like extending Sale and Nate, instead of Betts and a no opt out Bogey? Pure genius! (Note: I love what DD did. No beef from me on his reign or the consequences.)

Funny how the strawman builder speaks of others grasping at straws.