moonslav59

I always listen to Bellhorn. More than even you!

Yesterday or earlier?

I don't consider how it makes me feel. When you post nonsense or points that need context, or outright fabrications on other's views and statements, I reply. It's really that simple. Maybe if you stop overanalyzing my positions and motives, you'd see things more clearly, but I doubt your comprehension skills would allow anything clearer than what we see, everyday.

Again, I never said he was blameless. All signings and decisions are put on the GM, usually in hindsight. My issue with Red was that he implied Bloom had something to do with the "medicals," as he called it, and he hinted at thinking maybe he did n't even read them. If people want or feel the need to assign blame and always narrow it to just one person, fine, but it seems obsessive and relentless, to me. That's not the same as saying Bloom is blameless or shouldn't be held accountable for choices made. I'm not an obsessive blamer. I don't feel the need to pin things on one guy to make my world all neat and tidy. I try to see context and circumstances people making the decisions are under. IMO, the deck was stacked against Bloom for minute one. It's not "excuse making:" it's just facts. He did not create the farm that has only produced Houck since mid 2017. He did not create a budget that forced the Betts-Price trade and barely replaced departing players, afterwards, until March 2022. I have not been happy with many Bloom choices, including several at the time they were made, but my expectations were not set too high, when the budget demands players only being paid $3-10M on 1 year deals. This whole "where are the results?" rant seems somewhat hollow, to me. Yes, we could have done better. Yes, Bloom could have done better. He has done a few things right. He was hired to build up the farm, and it seems like he has done that. He was hired to try and make the team seem competitive along the way, and he's had mixed results. We overperformed in '21 and underperformed in '22. He was finally given a decent winter budget to spend, this winter, and I think he focused too much of the money on positions lower on my priority list. Each moves looks okay, one by one, but not getting a SS and top SP'er looks like a mistake, to me. It looks like we are, again, down to hoping Chris Freakin' Sale is resurrected. Although I questioned the strategy of adding a SS, last spring, I liked the Story signing. We needed a RH'd bat with some power. It looks like a real bas signing, now, and of course Bloom can and should be blamed- just like all GMs are. The fact that Story was known to have arm issues does add to the issue. I never denied this. He apparently trusted the results of the physical and chose to take on the risk. He did this even more so with the Paxton signing, last winter. DD did it with the Sale & Nate signings. The JD signing involved a medical concern that turned out not to matter. It's the nature of the GM job. I get it. That doesn't mean I have to agree with the relentless and obsessive finger pointing and lack of contextualization.

Just pointing out you obsessiveness. It's not "someone;" it's you. No sky falling.

Again, you are constructing someone else. It's obvious just about everything is Bloom's fault to you. There is a lot I don't like about what Bloom has done, including a couple things you don't even blame him for. You just choose to interpret my posts wrongly and assign meanings not there or even implied. I'd say that "must be tough to think that way all the time," but since you are oblivious to it all, I'm guessing your La-La land is pretty sweet, for you.

How about seeing this as just another way of blaming Bloom for everything? So, we should now blame Bloom for not forcing Story to have surgery on top of the signing of him?

Nobody is disputing this, and what this has to do with a brown nose, only you know. Yes, the medical staff knew about the issues with the elbow. Who is saying this is not true? They must have cleared him to play and reported the risk was low enough to be worth the risk. What are we missing? Bloom erred by believing the report? Bloom did not read the report? Bloom disregarded the strong warnings about the risk of injury and signed him anyway? This is what you are implying. Tell us where we are wrong and you are right. Have you read the report? I didn't think so.

So, now we need: SS 2B SP or RP Maybe an upgrade at C and RF

It really is this simple. Some posters just love to overanalyze and assign blame to the same guy for everything.

Agreed, but there has to be an upper limit where the percentage of the total player budget just gets too high to be able to support a good enough 39 other players to remain competitive. Of course, a strong farm that is continuously injecting new talent onto the roster helps, a lot.

Only if we spend it or spend enough where it would have put us under, instead of over. If this is the wasted year many seem to already be thinking it will be, then why spend, now? Every little bit might help for the ten years starting in 2024. Who knows?

I get it. I just never heard of upfront payments not counting towards this year's pay. Unless we get right up to the line, this year, it might have made more sense to spread it out to lessen the hit over the next 10 years.

This whole situation sucks. I was just trying to convince myself we had a chance to improve, perhaps by a lot, this year. Now, I'm thinking about Mayer, Rafaela, EValdez, Mata, Walter, Kelly, German, Murphy, Crawford and finding out once and for all if any of these guys are worth keeping around another year or more: Winckowski Seabold Duran Dalbec Ort Brasier/Taylor....

I knew about the signing bonus getting spread out and into the AAV, but it seems like a strange loophole that he can be paid now and not count towards 2023. The fact that they chose to not have it start, now, makes me think they plan on spending more, this winter or summer, or else they would have tried to lessen the tax hit over the extension part of the deal by a million or so, each year. What's left to spend on? Andrus & Fulmer? There has been no talk of adding another pitcher. Maybe trade for a high-priced catcher and or SS and or 2Bman?

But 90 over 87 might matter.

I still don't get how they can pay him a signing bonus in 2023 but it counts in the 2024 and beyond deal, but I guess it's allowed.

Now, the updated article says the lux tax hit will be $31.1M starting in 2024, not $29.1M as started earlier this morning. As reported last night, that keeps his 2023 luxury tax hit at $17.5MM (the sum of the one-year deal he agreed to in order to avoid arbitration), while the $31.35MM luxury hit on his extension will go into effect in 2024. Before, they wrote this... According to Speier, some of that money will be deferred. Doing so will bring the deal’s luxury tax hit for the 2024-33 campaigns to a bit above $29MM. That suggests the contract’s net present value is actually somewhere around the $290MM range. A straight ten-year, $313.5MM contract would’ve had a luxury tax number of $31.35MM, on the other hand.

If Rafaela is fast-tracked, my guess is we'd see Kike at SS and Rafaela in CF. Maybe, by season's end, we'll see Mayer at SS, Kike at 2B and Rafaela in CF.

I've been advocating signing Andrus or trading for a SS like Rojas or Crawford (SFG) all winter long. I still am.

With inflation, I guess $300M is the new $250M. Of all our stars who deserved over $300M, it was Betts. To me, Devers was second and Bogey 3rd. Yes, defense issues clouded both of these two's value calculations, but is there another $290M player you wished we signed, instead?

The Devers contract details were finally announced. The tax hit begins in 2024, which seems strange to me, unless we plan on spending $20-21M more, this season. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/01/rafael-devers-extension-goes-into-effect-in-2024-for-luxury-tax-purposes.html There are deferrals included, so the "tax hit" after 2023 will be about $29+M not $31+M, as previously thought. The signing bonus part, again, looks confusing, since it appears he gets that, now, but it doesn't count on this year's tax line. Go figure. Here is the MLBTR quote" Devers receives a $20MM signing bonus, followed by his established $17.5MM salary in 2023. He receives salaries of $27.5MM annually from 2024-26, $31MM per year from 2027-30 and $29MM salaries between 2031-33.

The plan seems to be not to trade any meaningful prospects- no matter what the needs are on the team. This idea actually started whole DD was in power, and may have been one source of the friction that grew between him and top brass. In the summer of 2018, we traded Beeks for Nate and Espinal for Pearce- not really earth shattering prospects, at the time. Since then, our highest prospect tarded was Aldo Ramirez for Schwarber. We are going on over 5 years with no major prospect traded away. This has been a big shift from the earlier DD years. With the apparent mandate to reset the tax, this year, we are limited in spending choices and actual available free agents, at this point in the winter. It seems like paying Andrus makes a lot of sense, or maybe a trade for MRojas and/or Wendle from the Marlins. There are a few other SSs on the trade block that should not be too costly, but our middle IF has taken about as big a hit as ever.

It would be interesting, if he was the only one who "knew."

Have we ever had a medical staff anyone thought was even just okay?