moonslav59

We are going to spend, and IMO, more than 2020 & 2021 combined.

I listed the 2024 schedule by mistake. Oooops! I see Tennessee State not Tennessee, though... Yes, 2023's is very tough: Navy (In Dublin) Tenn St Cent Mich Ohio St USC (The Irish's 4th home game in a row) Wake Forest (5th) @ Clemson @ Stanford @ Duke @ Louisville @ NC St (5th road game in a row) Pitt (last game is at home)

I get the difference between non tendering a player and DFA'ing him, but if we DFA'd someone like Brasier before offering arb, is there a difference? Speaking of DFA, if we add 4-7 players to the roster via free agency or trades that a re not 2 or 3 for 1's, here is my DFA list (some could be traded for a prospect not needing 40 man status.) 1. Ryan Brasier (projected to make $2.3M through arb) 2. Kaleb Ort (Guys like him are all over the place.) 3. DHern (Has some nasty stuff, but it's been a long wait- too long, for me.) 4. Josh Taylor (only if his health concerns have not improved) Tradable? 5. Ronaldo Hernandez (especially if we add a catcher) Could be traded. 6. Eric Hosmer (His free contract appeals to me- platoon DH?) Tradable? (I'd try to trade at least 1 or 2 from Dalbec, Downs and Duran, despite their low stock numbers, so maybe we don't have to DFA the bottom guys on this list. Trading Chris Murphy might be an idea, too.) My point is, nobody should feel crushed if we DFA or trade any of the guys I listed, but I'm not fully convinced Park and maybe even Joely Rodriguez is better than the last names listed.

I'm always for building the rotation from the top. I think trading a couple of our top 10-12 prospects to get one makes more sense than signing a FA ace. Part of the reason we were where we were from 2019-2022 was the Price signing and in the later years, the Sale extension. I'm fine with signing an ace, as I was with Price and the Sale extension, but it is risky as hell putting such a large percentage of the player budget on 1-2 players.

The team did play better as the season progressed. and many of the best players return, so I'm holding out hope for better results- not great results, though. Starting the season at Texas A & M will not be easy. (I may try and go to that game.) Then NIU, at Purdue and Mia (OH) could leave us at 3-1 going into... Stanford at home @ GA Tech Navy (in NJ) FLA St Virginia ending the season... @USC MIA (FL) I could see 9-2, but 8-3 is more likely. Am I missing a 12th game?

USC with the big win. My projected top teams: 1. Georgia 12-0 2. Michigan 12-0 3. TCU 12-0 4. USC 11-1 (may be #5) 5. Ohio St 11-1 (close call with USC) 6. Alabama 10-2 Next week's games: #1 Georgia v LSU #2 Michigan v Purdue #3 TCU v KA St #4 or #5 USC v Oregon or Wash Ohio St has no games left but may sneak in, if another team loses. If USC loses, they'd be in, for sure.

MLBTR reports... The Red Sox pursued left-hander Brooks Raley in free agency last year, and offered Raley a two-year deal worth roughly $8MM, according to The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier. Raley ended up signing a two-year, $10MM contract with the Rays, and then had a strong season for Boston’s division rival (Raley’s year included a 0.00 ERA over six innings against the Sox). Between missing out on Raley and the general lack of quality in Boston’s 2022 bullpen, Speier writes that the Red Sox “came to regret not pursuing relief help more aggressively,” and opines whether or not the team might put more emphasis on relievers this winter. Chaim Bloom hasn’t spent much on relief pitching in his first three offseasons as the Red Sox chief baseball officer, and thus far this winter, Speier notes that the Sox haven’t yet paid much attention to the relief market, with a larger (and understandable) focus on starting pitching and re-signing Xander Bogaerts

Great to see Michigan throttle Ohio St. I hope that knocks them out of the playoffs. I just don't think TCU is as good as their record shows, but they are in, if they win out. Clemson lost to giant killer South Carolina, so now they, AL and TN all have 2 losses. I heard no 2 loss team has ever made it to the 4 team playoffs. That leaves Ohio St and USC (beating ND at half) with one loss and hoping a top 4 team loses their conference playoff game.

Somehow, Bloom's prospects are already supposed to be proving themselves, while all we've seen from DD's farm is Dalbec, Duran and Houck, and by the way... Houck was drafted in 2018 Dalbec was drafted in 2017 Duran was drafted in 2017 Bellos was signed (IFA) in July 2017 Casas was drafted in 2018 Crawford 2017 It's 3-4 years after those DD additions and it will be 8 years in April, since he became the GM and we've barely seen any results, except Houck. Bloom has been here 3 years, and we are hearing complaints that Mayer is all he's gotten us. Before you go saying I'm all upset, I'm actually laughing my ass off. DD 8 years: Houck, Dalbec, Duran, Crawford and a few very promising prospects just breaking through. Bloom 3 years: Whitlock, Wink, Wong, Seabold, Downs and our #1 (Mayer), #3 Bleis, #5 Yorke, #7 Romero, #10 Anthony and other top 22's Valdez, Jordan, Hickey, Kavadas, Coffey and recent 40 man add-ons Kelly, German, Abreu and Hamilton, too. Let's wait 8 years on Bloom's farm to compare him to DD's farm, right?

What happened to it being all about results? Fact: from the Devers call up (not a DD prospect) to the Bello/Casas call up at the end of 2022, the only significant call-up in 5 years was Houck. Is that what you call winning? Is DD to be "held accountable good or bad," as you called for GMs to be? I suppose you could argue Bloom could have traded away Bello, Casas, Rafaela and Mayer for a win now push, but I don't think upper management would have allowed it, even if he wanted to. Of course, DD would have wanted to, and perhaps that is why they parted ways.

It's all about results, right? If you think Mayer is all Bloom has done to the farm, you've missed quite a bit. The jury is still out on just how good Bloom's farm is and will be. Many of the incoming prospects were there before he got here. Nobody is saying he has built the farm up to greatness. It's all speculative. On paper, it appears he's done what he was asked to do, and quicker, stronger and faster than I thought possible under the tightened rules that penalize winning teams and big spending teams. BTW, other prospects Bloom has added beyond Mayer: Whitlock- quite an omission and not someone every GM would have taken. (BTW, 3 teams passed on Mayer, so your "anyone" terminology if off a bit.) Bleis- may turn out to be the best since Devers or Betts & Bogey. Yorke Romero & Anthony (with Mayer, that's 5 in the top 10 after just 3 seasons) , Wallace Kelly & German Wong E Valdez & Abreu Jordan Hickey Coffey Kavadas Rodrigues-Cruz Ferguson & Rosier D Hamilton, Binelas, Koss & RHern and a few with fading hopes, if any, like Seabold, Downs & Ort. Sure, many of these will not make it, but you seem like you think only Mayer is worth mentioning. Is that any better than the strawman saying Bloom has done a great job building up the pen?

How else was Bloom supposed to fill 12 urgent slots on the 40 and another 4-6 somewhat urgent slots on $40M? Not taking that into account, along with a farm that produce only Houck since mid 2017, while looking at only the W-L records is somehow viewed as being more "objective." I'm laughing- not "hyperventilating" or getting "very upset." The part that gets me the most is when we point out posters missing the full picture, we are branded as Bloom lovers and supportive of everything he has done. How is that worse than calling someone who said he'd never hire Cora as a "hater" or saying he was "against the Bloom hiring from day one," as a basher any worse? I think I'm closer to the truth than Old Red has been, but I expect he and others to take issue with that. Cue: bringing up all the things I got wrong as somehow proving they were right. Okay, notin and a select few others liked or were okay with the JBJ trade, but that doesn't mean they loved, liked or were even okay with every move Bloom made. I got bashed for "scratching my head" over a few moves but am often lumped in with the "Bloom lovers," whoever they are.

You are on one hell of a roll! Making a strong push for Poster of the Year, IMO- a fully objective opinion, I might add! Lol

It’s over the top saying there is a legion of Bloom lovers. Those defending Bloom from the onslaught of uncontextualized bashing is not loving anymore than saying someone who disliked his signing from day one is a hater. We all are somewhat guilty of exaggerating the other sides positions to varying degrees. You say it’s being objective to look at just the results, but that implies those who view the context of dumpster diving and non signings is being subjective or overly defensive of our current GM. Context is objective, too. Some might argue it is being more objective.

I’m really excited about so many ML or near ML ready prospects but also some highly promising prospects not due for 2, 3 or more years from now. We seem to finally be set up for a constant flow of young talent- a far cry from the 5 year window from Devers to Bello/Casas.

Like you know what objective means. Nobody here likes last places finishes or dumpster diving, but the budget forced the diving. That’s as objective as can be.

Great strawman you built here. You are very good at it.

Lmao

Well said. It’s largely about context, but results do carry some weight, even if it comes after the GM leaves.

Swanson might be less, but we may just decide to spend elsewhere and wait for Mayer. Maybe find a 1-2 year bridge SS.

Indeed. I should have mentioned him but was thinking only of ML ready prospects.

He did have similar circumstances in terms of no large and long contracts given, but he was handed a solid 40 man roster and farm. He improved the team in his 2-3 years, there. It's interesting to try and figure out which GM improved their whole team (40 man and farm + budget) by more: Bloom or Click. The starting points were vastly different.

It's really Correa & Taillon plus 2 comp picks vs Bogey & Nate.

Good points, as always.

You keep saying 5 out of 7. For one thing, it's misleading and wrong to cut our 2015-2019, and for another, our outlook to start each year was not "last place" for any of those 5 years, except 2020. Fans had enough to look forward to those other 4 years to have hopes of making the playoffs. Sure, the discouragement of those seasons led to lost future ticket sales and NESN subscriptions, and that is likely why we ended up going over the tax line, this year, but personally, I see a lot to be optimistic about looking at 2023. I'm pumped up to watch Bello, Casas, Kelly and to some extent German, Crawford, Mata, EValdez and maybe Walter, Murphy, Crawford, Wink and our catching tandem of Wong & McGuire. I'm certain some will be disappointing, but I'm excited to see some I know will end up being plusses. I'm also near certain Bloom is going to spend more, this winter than ever before, and likely more than 2020 and 2021 combined. That's reason for excitement and optimism. It seems weird that some who chastised us for being all doom & gloom back in 2019, while b eing all rosy and cheerful about our future are now the ones seemingly all doom and gloomish.