moonslav59

You know my position. I'm looking forward to saying, "I told you so," again.

I'm hoping Tapia means we trade Duran. I'd trade him for Mateo or even Mondesi.

It might matter how well Yoshida, Jansen, Martin, Turner and Duvall are doing.

Probably less than $7M. No Andrus. Maybe Iggy and or Harrison.

The final tax budget numbers for 2022 are in. The Sox went over by $1.2M, which caused our comp picks for losing Bogey and Nate to fall a couple rounds. Thanks, Bloom!

+3 DRS in CF -4.4 UZR/150 He bats left-handed, but his splits are not as extreme as Duran and Verdugo. vs RHP .812 Verdugo .717 Tapia .669 Duran .634 Refsnyder (RHB) .792 in 2022 in 104 PAs vs LHP .728 Refsnyder (RHB) 1.005 in 2022 in 73 PAs .684 Tapia .680 Verdugo .445 Duran

MLBTR said the number was $17M. cots has $23M. Spotrac has $22M.

The original George Scott trade to MIL is the reason I am a Sox fan, today, and that was a bad trade, too. George Scott was traded by the Boston Red Sox with Ken Brett, Billy Conigliaro, Joe Lahoud, Jim Lonborg and Don Pavletich to the Milwaukee Brewers for Pat Skrable (minors), Tommy Harper, Lew Krausse and Marty Pattin. I used to live in Milwaukee and still am a Bucks and Packers fan. My favorite player on the Brewers was Tommy Harper. Shortly after we moved from Milwaukee to Portland, Maine, this trade was made, and I switched to being a Sox fan. Sidenote: We did get Bernie Carbo with Scott in that Cooper trade. Carbo is a two time trade acquisition by the Sox. We traded Reggie Smith and ken Tatum for Carbo & Rick Wise in Oct '73. We traded Carbo to MIL for Bobby darwin & Tom Murphy in June '76. That December, we traded Cooper to MIL for Carbo & Scott.

I'm not complaining about his D, but we look to have stepped down on D at every OF slot from 2022. LF: Dugo/Pham> Yoshida CF: Kike> Duvall RF: JBJ> Dugo We should be better at... 1B: Dalbec/Cordero/Hosmer> Casas/Turner C: Vaz/Plawecki> McGuire/Wong

Fixed that for you.

Each of those names seem to have a story attached, and most did not work out all that well on their return. Trading Cecil Cooper for Scott has to be one of the worst deals in Red Sox history.

Yes, I know, but he's 34, now. Like I said, he should be okay. He was 0 DRS in 2022 in CF with a -1.4 UZR/150. He's better than anyone else on CF D on the team not named Kike. I'm more worried about LF, RF, OF depth and 2B.

It does seem to be a rarity, especially with the Sox. Some players we let go or traded away once and brought back one time at a later time are: George Scott Mike Stanley Masterson HRam JBJ T Shaw Iggy Workman

Looks like we have about $17M to spend and still stay below the tax line, counting the Duvall signing. With so many contracts having incentives, we may need to keep a buffer. My guess is, we will also keep some room for deadline deals, if needed. That might leave room for 1-2 minor to moderate additions to the roster. I'd say our highest need area is SS, but it looks like they've penciled Kike into that slot, so 2B should be the number 1 priority, right now. I'd also like to see us get a real RF'er, but I doubt that happens. Adding someone like Fulmer would be nice, of course.

I don't think Yoshida fits that profile. I'm not sure Duvall in CF does, either, but he should be okay on D, there. Moving Dugo to RF due to the acquisition of Yoshida does not help our DRS in RF.

That's a good thing.

MLBTR reports many teams are interested in Tanner Houck. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/01/red-sox-trade-rumors-tanner-houck.html

We had 18 roster spots in need of major improvement and were handed a massive budget cut. Tell me how you'd have handled that. I'll wait. Want more specifics? We lost Betts, Price, Porcello, Pearce, Nunez and then watched ERod miss the 2020 season and Sale basically miss the last 3 years. That's over $60M in budget cuts and the new GM was handed $20M to spend. Call it "spending for players down the roster," if you wish, but how do you sign studs with just $20M and 18 slots to fill? Counting the Ottavino salary in 2021, Bloom was given about $40M to spend, which barely brought us to within $25M of the 2019 budget. He had about 12 slots to fill on that roster. That's less than $4M per player. Tell me how you'd spend the money? I'll wait. Now, did Bloom sign only good players? Hell NO! But, unlike you, I ask what should I have expected at $3.8M per player?

I'm not so sure why you and Red are so fixated with brown noses. Nobody is defending horrific spending and bad signings and trades. Pointing out the situation whoever the next GM was going to be is not sucking up to anyone. I'd have pointed out the same difficulties had DD stayed and been handed the same demands and budgets. It really has nothing to do with Bloom. I have nothing invested in Bloom. Many saw the writing on the wall before 2018. I'm happy as hell with everything we did that led to those glorious 3 seasons from 2016-2018, but that doesn't mean I have to bury my head in the sand about the consequences of what we did to get there. No GM in the history of MLB could have turned the 2019 team, with the budget and farm they were handed into a winner in 2020. One could easily argue the 2021 team was nothing short of miraculous and the 2022 team a let down, but we've only now reached the point, budgetwise, where we were in 2019, and we are now staring at a reset. Add to this, the state of farm infusions after Devers, and to me, it's a bit off the wall to have the expectations some here had and still have. Fine: look only at the budget inside a bubble and ask no questions, except, "Why aren't we winning?" Not me.

We also stopped adding big FAs before 2019 and made no prospects for star trades after the 2018 deadline. We extended Sale, Nate and Bogey (with an opt out.) That was all we did until the Story signing. From devers in the summer of '17 to Bello & Casas in the summer of '22, we added just Houck from the farm. That's 5 years of no Betts, Bogeys or even Beni and JBJs. Basically, nothing. People keep thinking Bloom was handed the 2018 team. Even DD was not happy with the change of philosophy during the 2019 season.

Ask yourself how much Bloom had to spend and what team and farm he was handed. Does that question matter? The 2019 was already showing signs of serious decline, and that was after subtracting just Kimbrel and Kelly from 2018. We had no farm input, since Devers in 2017. Then, Bloom was forced to cut so much salary he ended up losing Betts, Price and Porcello along with minor key pieces to the 2018 team like Pearce, Nunez and others. The budget cuts were massive. The Sale and Nate extensions had not even started, yet, but they counted on the budget you are holding against Bloom. Ask yourself why that's Bloom's fault that $60M was cut and a winning team was supposed to be created with $20M to spend on a team already on the downswing. Is that some whacky question to ask yourself? Then, in 2021, he's given $40M, which does not even bring him to the 2019 level. Still, no farm help, unless you count Houck. ASsk yourself why you expected a winning team, not why a miracle didn't happen. Oh wait, a miracle almost did happen. Finally, in 2022 (March to be exact), the pursestrings are barely opened up for the Story signing. Still, only Houck has shown any plus from the farm in 5 years running. Ask yourself, why we should have won in 2022. Our biggest contract was on the IL, all year. We were still paying for half Price. Nate was not the Nate of 2018 or 2021, and was still on DD's payroll. Maybe the right questions need to be asked.

You said that over a thousand times... (I thought that automatically makes it true.)

I'm kinda glad Cora and Bloom, perched above the mighty confines, did not give up on Dalbec in 2021, after an equally long sucky stretch as Duran had, if not longer. I remember people bitching about keeping Kike at leadoff. I know it couldn't possibly have been you, but Kike went on to have a .372 OBP over the last 80 games of 2021 and then had a non-heroic playoffs to boot. Sometimes you hit- sometimes you miss. I'm pretty sure most GMs would not totally give up on Duran after 2022, let alone after just 112 PAs in 2021. Again, I've never been high on Duran, like many here were, but he hit well in AAA- average, OBP and power. He had speed. His D was always the biggest concern, and they gave him 2 chances. My guess is, if he hits well in 2023, he'll get an other chance on some team.

Not at all. I expected him to get a shot, and before Refsnyder, for sure. I'm a bit shocked he ended up 4th in OF innings because of how badly as he played on D and O. Cordero was actually flirting with .700 somewhat late in the year, but he was needed at 1B for a while. Refsnyder should have played more as the season progressed, and that's not a hindsight position, either. By the time JBJ was gone and Pham was in the mix, it didn't matter, anyway. Once we were out of it, I'd actually have preferred we play Duran over players we knew were not part of our longer term plans. Find out, once and for all, or at least as much as possible, if he has any redeeming qualities.

Shocking to me is how he ended up 4th in OF innings, last year and with 50% more innings than Refsnyder, who hit .881.