moonslav59

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?

Yes, that's why one reason I said "may add" help. The other is that even if they are called up, they may not produce in 2023.

Yes, I know, but he was a Bloom pick-up that has already produced. Your post mostly mentioned prospects he brought in and you just touched on trades. Whitlock was already someone else's prospect before we got him. I think he fits your points made. On the trades, most were not trades of great players for a prospect or two or three. Even the Betts trade included a ML player. The Workman/Hembree trade gave us Pivetta (and Seabold). Should we have expected great things from Seabold? Beni brought us Cordero and 4 prospects, including Wink, who still may give us something good. The other 3 look sketchy, right now, but de la Rosa shows promise. The Renfroe trade brought us JBJ and Binelas and Hamilton. Hamilton was just added to the 40, so were were we supposed to see ML results from that trade, already? Ottavino and German. The only straight up ML'er for only a prospect were never really good players traded: Moreland for Rosario and Potts looks like a total miss. Pillar for Wallace could still be a very good trade for us. Springs and Mazza for RHern looks like a total flopper. I'm not hearing anyone saying Bloom's trades for prospects have been great, but his overall prospect additions have already shown better results than the 5 years from Devers to Bello/Casas, and it's been just 3 years. When you also add the fact that Bloom has drafted many HS players, what should the expectations have been? My answer? What we've seen minus Whitlock, so I'd say, we've already seen more than I expected and the near and far future looks much brighter and than I thought it could be after just 3years. The farm is deeper, stronger and set up for help this next year and everyone afterwards (in theory.) Nobody was saying that 2 years ago, 3 years ago, 4 years ago or 5 years ago. Did you really expect great things from Bloom's farm, already?

The vast majority we don't know how good they are or will be. We do know Whitlock is good. When you figure it takes 3-7 years to start seeing results, seeing Whitlock already looks pretty good to me. Looking at Kelly, German and Wink, with very little ML experience already, I'm thinking 1 or 2 should be good. Those yet to show anything cannot be judged, but on paper, it looks pretty good, and many of his trades added depth that should lead to at least 1 or 2 meaningful players, at some point: (I'm not sure how much better we could have expected.) Bloom's guys only (some not so good, so far, agreed) 2023 (and before): Whitlock, Wink, Seabold, Kelly, German, Wong, Downs, EVladez, 2024: Mayer, Wallace, Abreu, Hamilton, RHern, Binelas, Koss 2025: Hickey, Kavadas, Jordan, Drohan, Ferguson, Rosier 2006> Bleis, Romero, Anthony, Coffey, Rodriguez-Cruz, Brannon Lots of names- a few should do well, and that should beat the last 5 year record of: Houck Dalbec Duran

While true, he did acquire Whitlock, and guys like Kelly, German, Wink, E Valdez, Abreu and Hamilton may add some nice ML roster production in 2023. Bleis (IFA) may be joining the top 100 list by mid season 2023 and may be our best prospect, right now.

Dodgers meeting with Verlander. It appears their big spending will continue.

If we make the deal I'm hoping we do with the Marlins for a good SP'er, I wonder if we try to get Jacob Stallings included, the guy we tried to trade for before 2022.

Agreed, and his season was enhanced by timely hitting and more RBIs than his numbers indicated he should have had. Yes, he had many in an eight day stretch, but even if you take those away he was among the leaders on the team in RBIs/PA, and nobody is taking away other player's best 8 days.

Hard to know.

Rusney cost a fortune, too. We've done okay with IFA's, but not like the 4 year period of Bogey, Iggy, Montas, Margot and Devers.

Maybe it happened more by chance than by what actually happened in the meetings. Maybe teams want to do their due diligence more, now.