moonslav59

You also still don't get the fact that I loved DD and was 100% behind his plan. I still have zero issues with what he did and didn't do. I just don't stick my head in the sand about the consequences of building that fantastic window.

Laugh away. Funny how you roasted me when I listed Bloom's biggest mistakes and did not mention no Bogey extension, yet you do worse with DD and spin it all away into blather.

... and these revisionist posters call us spin masters!

Not by any means a mess? While it may not be DD's fault many of the stars declined or got hurt, some saw the Sale in jury as a given. 5 years with the fram giving just Houck cannot be viewed as a "mess?" Being handed a budget and being told to slash $60M is not a "mess?" Maybe we have different ideas on what the word "mess" means, but not by "any means?" That's laughable.

No mention of not extending Betts, when he had the better opportunity. No mention of giving Bogey an opt out, instead of just paying him more, when the opportunity was greatest. No mention of creating the budget JH felt went too far and needed slashing. No mention of the 5 year farm drought you hate me repeating. Besides all this, DD did what needed to be done to win the division 3 years ina row and the great 2018 ring season. It was all worth it, to me, but why pretend the rest did not happen?

Pretending the budget did not matter says it all about you and Dale, but remember, you brought it up, not me.

No. I actually pointed out not looking at the cost. Man, you really cannot understand simple English.

I must be imagining the budget was cut by $60M. I made it all up for spin. Got me.

And not signing Betts was Bloom's fault? Talk about corkscrewing to the earth's core. The hole you guys have dug is immense.

Thank you for bring up the list with equal mehs to busts than stars, and not even thinking about their cost. And, you keep acting like keeping Betts was more Bloom's fault than DD's. Talk about spin.

Not that this has anything to do with how well the Sox do this year, but answer these questions, if you wish... Who does better in 2023? McGuire or Vaz? Wong or Plawecki? 2023 Devers or 2022 Devers? 2023 Dugo or 2022 Dugo? 2023 Kike or 2022 Kike? 2023 Kike or 2021 Kike? Yoshida or Bogey? Turner or JD? Duvall or Renfroe? (Just threw that one in there.) Kluber or Nate? Whitlock as a SP or the 2022 Wacha? Bello as a SP or the 2022 Hill? 2023 Schreiber or 2022 Schreiber? Martin or the 2022 Schreiber? Jansen or the 2022 Houck? J Rodriguez or Strahm? Sale or the 2019 Sale (147 IP 4.40 ERA)?

So, we keep Beni and not sign Renfroe. Do we keep JBJ after 2020, because he was one of our core players and was coming off a decent season? Should we have kept Kimbrell, Kelly before 2019? How about ERod? Porcello? How would you cut $60M from the 2019 budget and still keep all our favorite players? I wish we could have, too. I just don't blame Bloom for the mandates.

soxprospects.com... er signing a minor-league deal with the Red Sox two weeks ago, infielder Edwin Diaz has been added to Puerto Rico's roster for the upcoming Caribbean Series in Venezuela. The right-handed hitting 27-year-old was named LBPRC MVP after batting .229/375/.418 with eight homers and 29 RBI over 48 games (192 plate appearances) for the Criollos de Caguas this winter.

Keep calling facts "spin." Narrow-mindedness seems to be your strength. Go with it.

Sox sign Jake Faria to a minor league deal.

Maybe if you word it like this, you two can agree: DD emptied the farm of suspects.

Again, what should be expected when you have $20M to spend year 1 with 15 slots to fill, $20M to spend year 2 with 12 slots to fill and $40M to spend year 3 with 9 slots to fill? It's not like he was signing guys for $217M/7 or $110M/5.

Bloom may very well end up with no rings and a poor legacy. There is a decent chance that happens. He's really done nothing that noticeable. Those of us accused of being Bloom spinners are far from Bloom lovers. The guy was handed a near impossible situation and had a good 2021 season while apparently building up the farm. His legacy is yet to be determined. I think of him like I did Ben. While most of his seasons, here were failures, he left a solid foundation for DD to work with. That is a part of a GM's legacy the Bloom bashers and DD lovers enjoy spinning and corkscrewing deep into the earth's crust.

His own words mean nothing, later. Like when he said I mentioned you in a post, and when I confronted him, he first denied it, then said I overanalyze. Over analyze means you find a lie.

One could realistically even call Houck a "suspect."

But, you gave kudos to DD for not trading away suspects Casas, Bello and Rafaela, but refuse to give kudos to Bloom for Mayer, Romero, Bleis and Yorke, until they produce.

No, it doesn't change how we grade those moves, but it did and still does affect the W-L success of any team. You also have to look at what budget he was given to spend. He was forced to trade Betts and Price, while losing Porcello and then Sale and ERod missed the whole 2020 season. He had $20M to spend on 10-15 gaping holes on the roster. Seriously, what did you expect his signings to do? No doubt, Perez, Peraza, Marwin, Richards and others sucked, but you often get what you pay for, and Bloom was not given enough to get real talent, until the Story signing. Later, the Paxton and Diekman signings sucked. The JBJ trade was as horrific as it can get. I'm in total agreement that many of his signings and moved have sucked, but many were never expected to be great given what was spent. There are also enough good signings, many at bargain prices that did well or okay. Are they enough to offset the bad one? We obviously disagree, b ut I find it hard to look at the winter budgets he was given and to come to the conclusion he totally botched them all. Kike 4.4 fWAR Renfroe 2.0 Wacha 1.5 (3.3 bWAR) Hill 1.8 Strahm 0.3 Refsnyder 1.3 (4 mos) Schreiber 1.8 (5 mos) 2.7 bWAR Arroyo 1.1 Perez 1.1 Richards 1.0 The Whitlock steal: 3.0 fWAR Some players from trades: 5.1 Verdugo 3.9 Pivetta 1.3 McGuire (2 months) 1.2 Schwarber (2 months) 0.8 Iggy (2 mos.) 0.6 Ottavino 0.3 Strahm 0.3 Wong (2 mos.) I see enough good to offset the bad, and when I look at the context of the money he had to spend and the obvious mandate to build the farm not trade it away, I see a decent overall grade. Not great. Not horrible. Not bad. I'd say, given the circumstances, his MLB moves is about a B- to C+ or C grade. His farm building appears to be a B or B+, but it's all speculation.

Many criticized the Kimbrell trade for giving up a player too much, but also because he was making FA-type money. (That changed shortly after the trade, as closers saw a huge spike in FA salary.) Sale, Pom-pom and others were not paid highly, but they did add to the growing budget and then the Sale extension turned into a budget killer. The Price signing remains the largest Sox FA signing, by far. The JD signing was the 5th highest Sox FA signing in history. The Lux Tax budget went from $178M in 2013 $186M in '14 $199M in '15 then DD... $204M in '16 $192M in '17 $239M in '18 $244M in '19 After 2015, contracts lost (addition by subtraction): $16M Napoli $13M Vic $9.5M Masterson $4.8M A Craig $2M Breslow No doubt, DD did a masterful job at building a 3 year window (shoulda been 4+) by trading over-rated prospects, keeping Devers and adding promising prospects like Houck, Mata, Casas and Rafaela. I have zero issues with what he did. That being said, I also expected a price to be paid for what he ended up doing. The farm went 5 years without much help, at all. The budget got bloated, and players started aging and getting hurt. He seemed to extend the wrong stars. He was likely not aware that JH would suddenly put the brakes on spending, so I don't really blame him for the overspending. I don't blame JH for his choices, either. He's the a big reason we have 4 rings. The fact is, any GM handed the 2019 Red Sox and farm, given a mandate to slash $60M and add just $20M back the following season would be placed in a very tough situation. To me, our posters' views on Bloom are based on what expectations they had after 2019. Many, simply looked at the still pretty high overall budget, and the names of stars remaining from the 2018 team and expected competitive teams right out of the gate, despite a $60M budget cut and next to no farm help. I happen to think their expectations were too high and for some, way too high, but there certainly is some merit to their points. We did still have a high budget and several stars on the roster. I'm not sure what any GM magician could have done with that $60M cut, and maybe in hindsight, one could construct an alternative pathway- maybe trading Sale & Price, if even possible, and hand-picking FAs that over performed in 2020 and 2021, but there is no reason to think DD would have been that magician, in fact, his M.O. works against that notion. He has never been known at excelling in that situation.

Indeed, but that 5 year stretch should be called something, and for posters who love to assign blame for every tiny thing a GM does. What would you call that long stretch? Who is to blame for it? How much effect did that have on the roster from 2019-2022?

"Empty" is too strong a word, I agree, and it wasn't just DD's fault about the 5 year stretch between Devers in 2017 and Casas in 2022, but what word do you think fits the state of the farm from 2017 until DD left?