moonslav59

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.

I agree. While I do think DH could use an upgrade, and 1B is still not a sure bet, we have other much more pressing needs. If we do seek a DH upgrade, it won't be anywhere near $19.5M x 3.

Here is an interesting question about the soon to be top 30 release. They say Wong is now graduated, so who will take his place in the top 30? Will it be someone who wasn't even ranked to start the season or one of these guys who are no longer in the new 31-60 range: R Hern (previously 31) Eduard Bazardo (previously 36) Devlin Granberg (56) Max Ferguson (59) I could see RHern going from 31 to 30. Max Ferguson stole a mess of bases and was in the top 8 in BBs, but what did he do in the second half to jump from 59 to top 30? Eduard Bazardo? I know it's not Granberg. Here is my updated top 30 with Wong removed: 1. Mayer 2. Casas 3. Bleis 4. Rafaela 5. Romero 6. Mata 7. Yorke 8. Paulino 9. Walter 10. Perales 11. Anthony 12. Wikelman 13. Valdez 14. Jordan 15. Lugo 16. Murphy 17. Bonaci 18. Hickey 19. Kavadas 20. T Ward 21. Abreu 22. Rodriguez-Cruz 23. Kelly 24. German 25. Coffey 26. Brannon 27. Drohan 28. Downs 29. Seabold 30. R Hern

It's weird that SP's had Wink graduate in Sept and Bello in October and promptly removed them from their ranking list, but just stated that Wong graduated. Like when? In November? He's still on their top 30 list at #11, but maybe they just decided to wait for the EOY update to remove him.

I said I expect him to be a "core player" at that money- not a role player, but I could have worded it better. I meant to make the a point to 5G, saying if he's not core, that's a lot to pay a role player.

Sox prospects came out with their 31-60 rankings. http://news.soxprospects.com/2022/11/soxprospectscom-end-of-season-rankings.html No Downs, so he must have stayed in the top 30. Wong Graduated. Tyler McDonough fell from 17 to 35 Gilberto Jimenez fell from 18 to 44. Alex Binelas from 21 to 38. Christian Koss from 22 to 36. Juan Chacon from 41 to 54. Jacob Wallace fell from 36 to 47. David Hamilton from 26 to 33. Stephen Scott rose from 55 to 45. 60> 31 Jedixson Paez 51> 32 Tyler Uberstine 48> 37 Freili Encarnacion Risers: Unranked to... 34 Luis Guerrero 41 Johnfrank Salazar 42 AJ Politi 43 Chase Meidroth 46 Taylor Broadway 48 Angel Bastardo 49 Juan Encarnacion 50 Noah Dean 51 Allan Castro 57 D McElveny

Probably, so. So, if we go out and get someone who makes McGuire our next Plawecki and Leon, that moves Wong back to AAA and probably means RHern is DFA'd.

At that money and for 3 years, I'd expect him to be a "core guy-" maybe not to "build around" due to his age, bt that's a lot of money and years for a role player. He may also be taking some of Brantley's place in the line-up (not just Gurriel's) as Alvarez plays more LF than DH, next year. Talk is, the Astros still want Gurriel back, but in a part time role at 1B and DH. They may "rest" Abreu at DH, some games, and maybe in years 2 and 3, more so.

I'm not sure what happened in 2022. His offense went over a cliff, too. I'm not saying he's an upgrade, but Bloom did want him, last winter, so I threw that name out there.

Our 1B was awful, last year. Much worse than Chavis. The deal is barely worth talking about, but I think we'd have been very slightly better with Chavis over Davis.

For what it's worth... Story's Away OPS+ since 2019 105 ('19) 119 (short 2020 season) 100 ('21) 86 ('22)

At that money, and how it would affect who else we can sign for 3 years, Bobby D-Hosmer & Co. (Refsnyder, Arroyo and maybe later, EValdez)

He is supposed to be the defensive whiz behind the plate.

Chavis did okay, but yes, it's not like anything "bad" was all that meaningful, except that we really did need a 1Bman and 2Bman, when Story & Arroyo were bth out. I'd rather have kept him, so I called the trade bad. Not an earthshakingly bad trade.

It wasn't so clear to me, you meant only trades. I view the addition of Whitlock as closer to a trade than a amateur draft or IFA signing. The kid was ML ready the day we selected him, but I'm fine talking only trades. I agree, so far, we have seen very little production from who we got in players for prospect trades. I'm not saying Bloom did a good job on those trades, as a whole. I will point out that the Betts & Price trade looked forced, and from what we know about other offers, I'm not sure how you feel he could have or should have done better. The Beni trade is over on one half. Beni's team control ended. I still have some hopes for Wink, but if you want to call that trade "bad," okay. It very well could be. (Don't forget de la Rosa, though.) I've already said I hated the Renfroe trade from day one and dozens of times in between. No argument there. All the other trades were not stars traded away, and we have Pivetta, Wallace, German and Seabold remaining as hopefuls. All I said was I expect 1-2 to end up being meaningful. That was not meant as praise.

Fair enough, although ERod, JBJ and maybe soon to be JD, X & Nate left via free agency. Moreland was not someone you'd expect a great haul from, but Potts and Rosario are gone or not promising, at all. The Chavis trade looks bad, too. The Betts and Price deal has been discussed, enough. Personally, I don't think any better offers were out there, and if there were, they were not better by much. The Beni trade has not looked great, but it's not like beni it the world on fire, either, and his team control is now expired. Wink & de la Rosa's have not. The Workman-Hembree trade has worked out pretty well. Pivetta has done better than both combined, and Seabold still offers some faint promise. The 2 months of Vaz traded away for E Valdez and Abreu is way too soon to "expect more" from. The Pillar for Wallace trade may end up being one of Bloom's best. The trade of basically nothing for German should not be discounted either. Again, nobody is saying his trades for prospects have been great or even good. So far, it looks like they have just provided organization depth for the minor league teams only, except for Wink, Seabold and briefly Wong, Downs and German. Are you saying he should have only traded for ML ready players, or did you expect Luis de la Rosa, Hamilton, Binelas, Ferguson, Rosier and others to be in the bigs by now?