moonslav59

Ex cept the one time I wish they did ignore it: the trade deadline!

That crying did not lead to any changes, unless you think Cora buckled to the river of tears on June 10th.

I doubt he's traded, too, but if they really want to stay below the tax line they are right up against, they will need to dump some salary somewhere. Could they dump Hicks off on someone by adding a nice prospect or two with him, a la Ottavino & German for cash?

What are the chances Mata turns into something very useful? I'm not expecting anything great in 2023, although something could happen, but he seems like he could a plus, very soon.

Saying expectations were too high does not absolve Bloom of the many mistakes he made, and most were his trades. If you want to discount the McGuire trade, because he had mistakenly signed Diekman, then you should discount the JBJ trade, because that never happens, if Bloom didn't sign renfroe in the first place. It's hard for me to hold the Betts trade against Bloom, because it seems a trade was forced, and from all reports, there wasn't really anything significantly better out there to get back- maybe marginally better. The Beni trade was weird. I think they had issues with him going off on his own with conditioning and looked to save about $3M by dealing him and deepening the farm. One could argue we used the $3M savings to fill his OF slot with Renfroe, but one could also say we filled it with marwin. The JBJ-Renfroe trade was horrific. There is no sugar coating it. It was bad on so many levels, including its affect on going over the lux tax line. I don't think these three trades not happening would have led to us winning a ring, though. On the flip side, the Pivetta and McGuire trades were good. The Schwarber, Robles, Iggy, TShaw and Pham trades helped for short periods and gave up next to nothing. The Ottavino trade looks decent, even if German does not do well. The worst part about all these trades is that just about all of them involved us getting prospects in return, but no great ones. Most were marginal. A few still have some hopes, but many are already out of our system or showing no more hope than the day we got them. Some remaining hope: German Wong EValdez & WAbreu Winckowski Hamilton Ferguson & Rosier Luis de la Rosa Very little hope: Binelas Koss RHern Gambrell Gone: Seabold Downs Rosario, Potts and many others Bloom has done much better with Rule 5, waivers and minor league FAs: Whitlock Schreiber Refsnyder Kelly Arroyo Ort

It seemed like Cora resisted even the notion that we have someone defined as the traditional closer. We were losing so many games due to blown saves in traditional closer game situations. It seemed like a no-brainer to just make a choice and ride with it. If Houck or Whitlock failed, then try the other one. It sucked we needed Houck to start early in the season, and then tried Whitlock for a while in the rotation, but there were ample opportunities to try one as the closer. June 10th was when Houck became the traditional closer. WTF!

The worst part about that was that Hill had proven he was one of the best pitchers we had facing batters for the third time, yet they ley other go 3 deep but not Hill.

Okay, but your list was in response to my post that you don't read.

I'm guessing this was on Cora, but it was likely discussed by all.

Just curious why you responded to a post by me with a list I had just posted. I block cookies.

That was the biggest head-scratcher, to me, last season. The whole piggy back thingy with Houck just made it worse.

I had already posted these numbers. There is a first time for everything... well, maybe not this one.

The Twins got Michael A Taylor from the Royals for what appears to be scraps.

Like Nate, he is capable of giving us a full season or close to one, but until you see it, you remain skeptical.

You expected improvement within that context? The team has averaged 84 wins, the last 2 seasons- exactly what it was in 2019. Just the farm, alone was a massive drag on team building, especially when it started 2 years before DD even left. He had very few guys producing well at pre-arb costs, then, he forced to cut the budget. Is there really no way your expectations were set a bit too high?

He should be well rested, too. Sale's arm is like a 29 year olds! (LOL)

Believe it or not, I was you saying these same things you are saying about Arroyo a couple years ago. On some things, I like to keep expectations low. I like Arroyo, a lot. They guy can hit pretty well and his D is not half bad. I actually have more faith in Sale than Arroyo, but don't ask me why. I have 10 GS as the over under on Paxton. That might be 6-7 starts too high.

True, but I like both better than Arroyo, but the time could be pretty much split, evenly.

Give him a few minutes.

It really does, but I wonder why you and others seem seem to discount the context with Bloom. 2019 Sox went 84-78 Cut $60M from budget, including Betts, 1/2 Price and Porcello. (Added $20 of that $60M before '21 and $30M more before '22.) Inherited these contracts: $145M/5 Sale- 11 GS/48 IP in 3 years w 3.17 ERA $51M/3 Nate- 61 GS/340 IP in 3 seasons w 3.79 ERA $28M/2 Pedey- 0 PAs '20 to '21 $12M/2 ERod- missed 2020 season Inherited farm that produced only Houck from mid 2017 to mid 2022 (5 years) Context matters.

It's hard to figure what to expect, let alone what someone else expects. Are there many examples of players who missed so much time, and then suddenly started playing 150+ games a few years in a row? Probably. Is it common? I'd like to know. With a guy like Arroyo, it's hard to know if so many seasons with few games players was about injuries or just not being good enough. He played 119 games in AA back in 2016, then minors + majors= 59 '17 68 '18 49 '19 15 '20 (short season) 68 '21 91 '22 You ask a good question, but I'll ask, why should we expect 100+ games from him, let alone 150+? He does have a 102 OPS+ since 2020, which for a middle IF'er is very nice, but it's just 535 PAs, combined

He'd be last on that list, too.

Iggy, who is still available, is not the SS he used to be, but he seems like a good fit for our needs, since Kike at SS seems to be the call, and Andrus will want too many years. Josh Harrison might be the guy we end up with at 2B, leaving Arroyo as depth at middle IF.

I thought you were responding to the part of the post about Soto, but it's clearly about Bogey. My bad.

It looks like 2B, SS and CF look to be the only positions still a bit in flux, although it appears Duvall is the CF'er and Kike will be handed the SS job. 2B is Arroyo's to keep, if he can stay healthy. Kike is probably the best defender at all three positions. My depth chart CF Kike Duvall Tapia Refsnyder Duran 2B Kike Arroyo EValdez Hamilton Goodrum NR EDiaz NR SS Kike Arroyo Hamilton EDiaz NR CKoss NR Mayer NR