moonslav59

I think it was all playing the media. From the time we signed Story, I felt Bogey was as good as gone. I know Story looks to remain at 2B, but paying Story $140M/6 put the budget squeeze on other positions, IMO, and I don't think they value SS who are not known for defense like many fans do.

I'm already resigned to the idea of going with Dalbec-Hosmer & Co at DH in 2023. I was never sold on Duran as a FT OF'er, but had he proved he could be, yes, we'd have enough to upgrade DH or Catcher, this winter. The reoccuring Sale dilema is getting old, fast. Not being able to count on him has hurt, and we haven't seemed to have had enough resources or the will to part with them to find our next ace. In our past ring seasons, we had acquired a second ace a year r two before winning: Schilling add to pedro in 2004. Beckett added to Schilling in 2007. Lackey added to Lester in 2013. Sale added to price in 2018. We can't even say we have one, now.

...and him allowing the team to move too far away from a sustainable farm system that provides low cost and positive production on a steady basis. A few swings and misses on bigger contracts hurt, too. I guess that could be blamed on JH, but for various reasons, the Price contract hurt on the second half (as somewhat expected), the JD contract was a good one, but tailed off near the middle and end, the Sale extension bit us in the ass, and the Boget extension added one year, but the opt out left us hanging. (Before that, the Castillo, Pablito and HRam signings were not good, and the Castillo gamble failed. I'm not sure how much input JH had one those major signings, but he probably had to give approval. Overall, I find it hard to be too critical of JH. I'm too damn thankful for the 4 rings, to get all worked up enough to criticize.

It's a winning philosophy- one I have believed in since the VTek-Posada years.

I'm not surprised. We have some serious replacing to do, this winter- not to mention improving other slots.

He must not be, if he was going to back up Maldonado in Houston. My main question is about how he handles a staff.

Don't forget Guy Manella and the Sports Babe- just don't call them "the media.".

My main issue is the lack of context used and oversimplification of the situation Bloom was handed. No doubt, he has made mistakes, but many GMs make mistakes when signing multiple $15-30M players. Most GMs have multiple and meaningful graduating prospects just about every year. Many winning GMs were not asked to cut their budget and trade their best player, year one. To me, doing pretty well in 1 of the 3 seasons, here is about what should have been expected. I can see how some disagree, but it seems their criticism is usually not tempered with and talk of the difficult circumstances he walked into.

I'd be okay with $20M x 1, but 3 years at his age, I'm glad we passed. Even one year, for a position not in our top 5-6 priority list seems excessive.

My problem with signing Contreras is that I think we need 3-4 solid pitching additions. I don't expect it to happen, even without a costly catcher addition, but that's my opinion. SS SP RP RF RP P C and DH are close to the same at our 7th priority (6th tops). As of now, I think McGuire/Wong at catcher is about the same as Dalbec/Hosmer/Arroyo/Refsnyder at DH.

The talk down here in Houston is 99% positive on the signing. They speak of the team philosophy of moving away from swing and miss batters and improving OBP. They also are talking about bringing Gurriel back and using Abreu at DH maybe the same as at 1B (Gurriel on a platoon.)

Yes, if you go cheap at SS and or RF, so we can upgrade at catcher. We probably can't sign Contreras, a top 4 SS, a decent RF'er and at least 2 solid pitchers and have enough to extend Devers. I can see us going for a "bridge" SS (to Mayer), so adding someone like Contreras could be doable, but I'd rather not lose ground at SS from 2022 to 2023. The drop off will not be made up for by changing from Vaz/McGuire to Contreras/McGuire, IMO.

I've always believed a great defensive catcher, who handles the staff very well, along with a superb defensive SS greatly improves a team's chance of winning. You can win without one or maybe both, but it's very hard.

The "bashing" is 24/7, too. We understand your position. Disagree does not mean not understanding. That works both ways. When there are parts we don't understand, we ask for clarification and at times get stone-walled or accused of overanalyzing for trying to dive deeper into the debate.

Maybe, he things right and wrong is decided by majority. I also think he is overestimating the amount of Bloom supporters, here, and to what extent they "support" him. When a poster says something like, "He's done nothing to help the team," and someone responds, "What about Whitlock, Schreiber, Renfroe, Refsnyder, Wacha...," I don't see that as meaning the responder loves Bloom or even thinks he's made more good moves than bad. He's just pointing out something he disagrees with on that post. I know I am lumped in with the "Bloom supporters" or "apologists," but I have been sharply critical of many of the moves Bloom has made. I think his grade is largely a incomplete. I think one major priority he was given was to build up the farm and 40 man roster foundation before the next step is made. On those two front, we can't really grade out the farm, yet, but on paper, it looks much better, in part because some of DD's prospects have risen father and faster than expected. On the 40 man roster foundation, he ha swung and missed a lot on minor and moderate additions. It's been a revolving door with the bottom 10-15 slots on the 40, since day one. I, for one, expected him to do better on the minor moves, although I realize it's hard for any GM to have more hits than misses on waiver wire additions, Rule 5 selections and free agent signings at $7M or under. His $10M signings: Richards for 1 year and Paxton for 2 did not work out. The Story signing is suspect, at this point. I know I am not thrilled with what Bloom has done, but I feel optimistic about the direction of the roster and team, and think this winter should be the breakout moment of his tenure, here.

Agreed. I was just pointing out we have gone out of our way to not DFA for so long, I'll believe it when I see it. I don't want to DFA Taylor, if he's healthy. He'd take Brasier's slot at #11, if we moved Brasier. I still want 4 pitchers, and I do think we can trade some others, DFA 1 or 2, and keep others in AAA, until we IL someone, but I'm just pointing out the need to do so, if we do add 3-4 arms.

Because 1B/DH is about 6th or 7th on our high need area and spending almost $20M out of maybe $90 on your 6th priority is not that great an idea. Plus, they guy is 36.

I won't disagree, but I think we can get him to sign for $275/10 or maybe $300/11 or 12.

Again, not me. My point is someone has to go to do it. That's all I'm saying, and Paxton seems like one I might want near the top of the list. We won't trade or DFA Joely. Brasier seems like he's a permanent fixture. You can't put someone on the 60 day until the season starts. A 15 day IL doesn't open up a slot on the 40. It's not like I'm saying we already have 10 good pitchers for a 13 man rotation and can't add 4, but look at my list 1 through 11. I had Brasier 12th. We'd have to trade someone. All 11 are out of options, except Bello, Whitlock, Houck and Schreiber, who might be close to the best 4 we have. My only point is someone will have to go, if we add 4. Maybe Houck or Bello are part of a trade to get an ace. As much as I want to see Kelly, German and Crawford get another shot, and Mata, Walter and maybe someone else get a look at some point, I'm fine with starting them all in AAA, until the inevitable injury or two or three happen, but who goes?

Hardly anyone gets what their first number put out is.

I want 2 SP'ers and 2 RP'ers but will settle on 3 good ones. My point is, if we do that someone like Paxton will have to go, and that includes dumping Brasier, which for some reason, never seems to happen. Again, I am not arguing against the need to 2 SP'ers.

ML contract at a base of $1.5M. Bloom sitting on his hands, AGAIN! LOL.

There may be a greater risk of injury or shortcomings, but it's 2-3 years not 5-8.

My wish list is about 10 slots long. I'd love to have a plus hitting catcher that pulls his weight on defense. (I don't know much about Contreras' D, and I'm not sure dWAR encompasses all I value in what a catcher does behind the plate, but if the Sox think he's a plus on D, that would increase my willingness to agree on trying to sign him. I look at the Astros wanting him as a back-up for a .590 hitting catcher as a warning sign.) Unless we make some 2 or 3 for 1 deals, I don't see us adding 10 players, unless we subtract 3-4 along the way (trade or DFA.) To be honest, I'm growing tired of dividing each winter spending budget into 8-12 allotments. I pretty sure we have more money to spend, so we should still be able to get better quality, even if we add 10 players, but I'm ready for some top quality players. The Sale, Bogey and Nate extensions doesn't feel like additions, because they weren't. After the Price mega signing, we added only JD before the Story signing. Both were not over $24M/yr. I'm not saying we have to spend $28M on 3 guys, but I'm dying to see us add a real stud- FA or by trade. I don't see Contreras fitting that bill, and signing him might prevent us from getting a better player. Now, if we can trade for an ace, who makes arb money, maybe we can spread the rest of the money out and add one more slot like catcher to the upgrade list.

Truth is not proved by majority.