moonslav59

There once was a note Pure and easy Playin' so free, like a breath rippling by..."

Huge win! Please, please, please... no letdowns playing the A's!

1,000 injuries? Have faith. When the first stringers return- no more Jacques, Garza, Ort...

BAL is killing NYY 14-0. (Severino got shelled.) SEA is up on HOU 4-1 in the 8th. CWS are up on TOR 3-2 in the 5th, but TOR won game 1. For what it is worth, TBR lost to PHI 3-1.

Turner has been a damn good hitter for many years. He's the kind of player that had he been a Sox player and signed with another team for this season, many on this board would be crying about how "Bloom let him walk." However, when we sign a guy like him, we hear crying about how we let JD walk.

I'd prefer we sign 4 guys at $25M x 5 than 1 at $50M x 10. I might even prefer 6 guys at $16.5M x 5.

Again, no slight on JD. I loved him in a Sox uniform. OPS before tonight: .848 JD .815 Turner OPS since June 7th: .670 JD .927 Turner

On the farm, today... The good news: the Sox DSL BLue team threw a no hitter. The bad news: the Sox DSL Red team was the team that was no hit. FCL Sox won 6-1 over ATL. SAL is winning 7-3 as E R-C went 4 IP, 3H, 1ER, 3BB, 6K Coffey 1-3 w BB Castro 1-2 w 2BB AHern 2-3 w BB GRE is tied 2-2 POR won 7-1 Dobbins 5.2IP, 4H, 1ER, 2BB, 10K Lugo 3-3 Rosier 2-4 w HR McDonough 1-2 w HR & BB Binelas 1-3 w 2B & BB Yorke & Mayer 1-4 Woo is losing 5-1 EValdez is 3-3

100%

One could do this with ever GM that spends this much money in one winter

Indeed. I felt like the quantity over quality was need from ‘20 to ‘22 but not ‘23.

If there was just one WC team, 3 teams would be within 4.5 games of BAL, who is playing poorly, of late. 7 teams would be within 8.5 games from BAL. There are 8 teams within 8 games of their division leader, so it’s kinda not the 3rd WC as much as divisional races.

CLE is 2 GB in the ALC but 5.5 behind the WC. DET is 5.5 GB but out of the WC race. CWS are about the same as DET.

The main thing keeping teams in the AL playoff race is both the 3 WC teams and a first place team in the ALC having a losing record. CLE, DET and CWS are closer to first place than the 4th team behind the e WC race.

I’ve asked for one name countless times. It’s total strawman. Many assume by trying to add context you are praising Sox leadership. IMO, Bloom was given 3 major tasks: 1. Rebuild the farm and establish a continually replenishing farm system. Grade: incomplete, although I did not expect results like Whitlock, Wink and Wong, so quickly. 2. Fix the budget and phase out long term deadweight deals. Grade: incomplete, although the Story signing looks like it could go that way. 3. Put reasonably competitive teams on the field, starting in 2022- not ring teams but decent teams fans should want to watch. Grade D, although the 2021 surprise brings it up to a C, to me. I had thought 2023 would show more improvement than it has, so far, but we are just half way through the season. Looking at all the injuries, almost exclusively in just two areas: P and SS, I think .500 seems reasonable. This is not taking Bloom off the hook. Despite the reset mandate, he has enough resources and finally some help from the farm to expect a little better than .500.

I expected dead last in 2020, maybe 4th in ‘21. The good ‘21 season got me overly excited about what bloom and Cora had done and we’re doing, but if you asked me what our combined record would be back before 2020 and for the next 4 years, I’d probably have said about .500 would be good, as long as the farm, foundation and budget were looking better. If I knew the spending would be like it was, I’d have said under but near .500 would be a plus.

You are right. There are very few really bad teams. The AL only has two teams out of it: OAK and KCR.

I thought the Story signing made sense, even figuring he might miss a year, as I felt they knew all along Bogey was not coming back. Story at SS from 2022-2024 maybe missing a season with elbow surgery. Story at 2B from 2025-2027 as Mayer takes SS. $140M/5 would not have been bad, if Story hit okay and fielded close to GG levels at SS or 2B. All in all, it looks like a bust out of the gate. It was his first big signing, and he missed. Yoshida looks okay, despite him likely being best used as a DH. Devers is looking more questionable, but I still like the move, especially in light of losing Betts and Bogey.

That's how I have seen it since the salary dump before 2020. I had hopes we'd think that time was 2023, but we decided to reset. Had we not gone over in 2022, maybe we might have splurged. I'm not going to say 2024 should be the year, and maybe we wait for Mayer to go large and long. That might be 2025.

To be honest, considering basically no farm help for 5 years, a mandated trade of Betts w Price, massive new spending budget cuts for 3 years (counting 2019) and declining production or a ton of IL time from just about every vet- even some still in prime, how can expectations be higher than what the team gave us in 2019 (84-78?) One could argue coming close would be a surprise. I do think, starting with the Story signing, expectations should have risen, somewhat. With still no contributing farm help until this year, I'm not sure 84-78 should have been the expectation, either. Looking at the results and lower expectations, I don't think grading Bloom would be as harsh as we see here. The 2021 season, to me, was a big plus. 2022 was a let down, but to me, not by as much as '21 was a plus. 2023 is still an incomplete grade. All in all I would not say Bloom has not done a good job on the MLB roster, but he hasn't been horrible, either- within the context I brought up. I'd give a C, maybe. The farm grade is tougher to call, but it looks like a pretty solid B, to me. We've already seen Whitlock, Wink and Wong from Bloom's farm, despite mostly HS draftees. The long term budget looks way better than it did in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, so I have to give a grade higher than C. Of course, Story could be a bust, and Yoshida and Devers could be letdowns, but it looks better than Price, Sale, Porcello and others.

The Nate signing is still pending on the final grade.

Do these guys compare notes or get ideas from each other?

I'd do the exact same deal and add Mata or Wikelman- maybe both.

Imagine if we had signed Eflin ($40M/3) and Swanson ($177M/7). That's $38M/yr. -10 Kluber -10 Kike -7 Duvall -3 Mondesi I think we'd still be under the tax line, but we'd have more longer term debt.

To switch from being a Sox fan to another team? Wow! I'm not hearing that on New England radio talk shows.