moonslav59

It's like a broken record, but none of those 3 GMs had a farm that produced just Houck in 5 years and 3 tight winter budgets in a row like Bloom has had. They all had deadwood and issues to fix, but IMO, not like Bloom.

That is why I do not see us adding a 1Bman, unless casas is traded. I also think Dalbec-Hosmer at 1B by themselves, would not be a top 4-5 high need area, either- maybe #5.

That's pretty good. I've mentioned all of these guys but Jensen, and I'm not against signing him, but I wonder what he'll get. Note: I do think Brantley's profile indicates a platoon role in LF or DH, but I'm not sure he'd like that or knowingly sign with a team looking to platoon him almost exclusively.

He's not bad, but I would not have paid near $7M out of our winter budget on him. I don't see DH/1B as a high enough need area to dedicate around 8% (7/$90) of our winter budget on him.

I do wonder a little why SPs still clings to such a high value for Downs (only dropped from 13th to 24th.) I know there is still hope for him, and his defense is good enough, but I'd have put him below #30. I also think Seabold should be lower than 22nd (dropped from #14,) as he is 26 years old. I guess his .656 OPS Against in 87 IP at AAA kept him afloat. Wilyer Abreu was ranked 26th, when we acquired him and Bello, Wink and Wong all graduated since the trade, so his drop to #29 is actually like a 6 slot drop. RHern staying at #28 is sort of like a drop, too. Ward slid slightly from #20 to #23, but all the others from 21-30 rose up in the rankings: NR> 21 Coffey +39 or more NR> 30 Brannon +30 or more 52> 26 Drohan +26 35> 25 German +10 37> 27 Kelly +10 Players not listed in the 21-30 rankings who were there before the re-sort are: 22 Kavadas 25 Rodriguez-Cruz I'm assuming they take Wong and Ward's slots in the top 20, as they should.

As much of a gamble it is to count on Casas (Dalbec/Hosmer) at 1B and Dalbec/Hosmer/Refsnyder/Arroyo at DH (maybe EValdez, later), I think SS and RF are much higher need areas, and I'm not sure we'll have enough money to upgrade every weaker area. I also see catcher as a higher need than DH/1B.

Not that this is a reason not to sign him, but the Astros almost traded for him to be Maldonado's back-up. He'd certainly be our FT catcher over McGuire, but it makes me wonder about his defense and staff-handling skills.

$11.5 x 4 for Montero is one I'd have done. I would not have given Carlos Santana $6.725M or more for 1 year. I'd prefer an extra RP'er or an even an upgrade at catcher to trying to upgrade DH and 1B depth.

Only if the plan was to trade Casas, and even then, I'm not sure Abreu would be the guy I look at first.

Actually, hell no! Also, hell no on trading for Murphy.

Is there any FA that has signed, so far, anyone wishes we had signed at the same or more money?

Well, I do think he counts as a "gem in the rough" type addition. If Andriese was the reason he became so good, then that signing was worth it, too.

Agreed. If he knew he was going to let Boget and Nate go, he should have traded them, preferably before this last deadline. (We'd also have reset the tax.) If one or both comeback, the point is moot.

Agreed, and Bloom could have shifted more of the spending to the pen, but again, what is the expectation for FAs signed at $1-$5 to $7M? I think Strahm did well. I have hopes for Kelly, but yes, he has stuck our in the pen, and maybe just got lucky in 2021 with okay to decent pen production.

Whitlock, Schreiber Refsnyder, Strahm, Renfroe, Arroyo, Kelly, McGuire... I'm not sure $7M counts as "the rough" for Wacha or the 2021 Kike or $5M for Hill, but they did okay. But yes, he largely failed. What is the expectation, though, on $1-7M signings? Strangely, Bloom has done better on waivers, minor league FAs and Rule 5.

I'm not sure we'll have enough resources to upgrade the catching position by as much as we might want/need to do. I do think it looks like a weak area with faint hopes of mediocrity, but IMO, we have 5-7 other slots that are in higher need of upgrading. (I'm not sure Bloom agrees.)

With the budget he was handed, getting competitive had to include finding lower paid players who got the job done. He did find some, but mostly he swung and missed.

Part of the remaining competitive part of his priority list had to include finding low to moderately paid FAs that would do better than expected, but yes, rebuilding the farm was likely his #1 priority. As far as the "fruitless" statement goes, we have to start somewhere, and having a farm that looks to be adding multiple and meaningful players every year, starting with Bello & casas late 2022 and going forward improves our long term outlook- maybe not by enough, but it's a start. Bloom has to hit big on his additions, this year plus a rebound by Story. He may not need every addition to strike gold, especially if Sale, Paxton, Bello, Casas or some others step it up, but this is his flashpoint winter, IMO.

He rises by attrition, and not by producing well.

Yes, I listed all contracts at $3M or more, so Whitlocks should have been included at $4.7 x 4. Yes, the clear failures were not big money losses, and it shows the budget limits Bloom was under that forced these types of signings. Once search and find, in hindsight, pitchers that did better for $3M, $4M, $5M, $6M and $10M tha n the ones Bloom signed, but those types of signings are almost always shots in the dark. To be fair, that's kind of what Bloom was hired to do: find gems in the rough. He has found a few, but should we have expected more?

True on Wink & Crawford. We can't give them too long a leash, either, but with Mata, Walter, Murphy and maybe much more productive IP from Kelly and German we can take up some of the slack- no way can we take it all up. Our best case scenario, which is highly unlikely: Sale (2 GS) & Paxton replace Wacha (23 GS), Nate (20 GS) and Wink (14 GS). Whitlock (9 GS) takes on Crawford's 12 GS and Seabold's 5 GS. That leaves Bello (11 GS) to take up the slack: Houck 4 & Davis 3 plus a minor injury or two. I don't see this as anything close to what we plan to happen. We need, at least one solid and dependable SP'er, hopefully a #1 or #2 type. This would hopefully allow Houck to stay in the pen, all year. Something good from Crawford, Wink, mata, Walter, Murphy or Seabold can help fill in the gaps, but if we have to go through 3-4 of these guys to find the one that works, it might be too much to overcome.

Yes, the potential is there, but unfortunately in both directions. I'm on the optimistic side, but I have a lot of trepidation. Bloom's record on FA signings has not been great. The excuse of the tight budget only goes so far in mitigating some of the blame, but he has to do better. The Story signing is hard to judge, but it has to start working, and soon! Blooms biggest FA signings, to date: $140M/6 Story $10M/1 Richards $10M/1 Kike II $14M/2 Kike I $7M/1 Wacha $6M/1 Perez I $6M/1 Paxton $5M/1 Hill $5M/1 Perez II $8M/2 Diekman (traded) $3M/1 Marwin & Moreland (Barnes extension at about $9M x 2)

I don't disagree, but we also lost some deadwood and Price's contract, so on paper, we should be able to improve. Lost (could re-sign some): Rank in PAs or IP 2. Bogey 131 OPS+ 4. JD M 117 8. Vaz 109 (great fo a catcher) 10. JBJ 60 11. Cordero 92 12. Pham 86 15. Plawecki 61 20. Sanchez -6 22. Almonte 92 Likely Reduced Time: 7. Dalbec 80 13. Duran 78 21. Downs 17 If you combine the players in RED plus Shaw and Arauz, it's 1,380 PAs. Bogey, JD and Vaz equal 1545 PAs. Pitching (ERA+) 2. Wacha 127 3. Hill 98 4. Nate 109 12. Davis 77 13. Sawamura 113 14. Strahm 110 15. Danish 82 17. Diekman 100 19. Robles 73 21. Bazardo 156 22. Valdez 97 24. Familia 71 Reduction in IP? 9. Brasier 73 20. Seabold 38 Pitching looks much scarier than hitting. We lose more plus pitchers than minus, in terms of IP, than the hitting differential. We should see more IP from: 5. Whitlock 122 6. Crawford 77 7. Wink 72 8. Schreiber 190 (10. Houck??? 134) 11. Bello 90 23. Kelly 109 26. Sale 141 27. German 25 N/A. Paxton N/A Mata, Walter, Murphy and maybe Politi, Wallace or Ward

So far, I'm kinda happy he hasn't bid more for anyone who has signed, already. Even if we needed a 1Bman, the money Abreu got seems way too high.

I'm still sticking to the belief that most, well actually all but the Story addition, were influenced by the necessity to stick to a tight budget while trying to fill more holes than the budget allowed. With virtually no farm infusions, except Houck, in 5 years, I fully understand why we ended up with guys named Marwin, Andriese, Robles and Diekman. I expected that to change radically, this season, but unless we make a couple two or three for one trades, I'm not sure how some of these recent additions can fit into the 26 or 40 man roster I hoped for. It looks like Brasier will not be DFA'd, and while starting Crawford, Wink, Kelly, German and others in AAA can make room for 2 solid RP'er acquisitions, it would cause 40 man roster issues. Maybe Blooms plan is to not add 5-6 players, like I thought, but to spend large on just 3-4- hopefully SS, RF, SP & maybe Closer. I guess it wouldn't be the end of the world, if he ends up trading or DFA'ing 1 or 2 of the guys he just added, but that would not help his image very much. More and more, I'm thinking a big prospect trade will happen, this winter- one where we free up 2 or maybe even 3 slots on the 40, but there are not many teams looking to add 3 to their 40, unless they are damn well worth it- all 3 of them.