moonslav59

I'm certainly not thinking he will close for us in 2023, and he should not be planned to be so, but I think he can be a good set-up man. Unless he pitches his way out of that role, it is his, at this point in time.

Okay! Great! I wasn't busting your balls, but I have asked for names over 10 times. Yes, I now see he was traded on June 27th. I don't know how good the return value was, of if Bloom could or would have tried to top the players given by SEA (Fleming and Mills- both show no good numbers to date.) This trade was still 5 weeks after Casas got hurt, but thanks for suggesting a specific offer.

I call vague suggestions non constructive. maybe "phantom" was too harsh. Sorry. I also said it is just my opinion.

It's the GM job to "worry about the future," and I'm sure every GM worries about it more than I do. Yes, teams often "suffer" because the future is chosen over the present. It's the nature of a GM's job. I'm not saying Bloom had no choices of getting a capable 1Bman at a reasonable cost, but I never heard a peep about any rumrs of 1Bmen available, and to my knowledge, none were traded between May 20th and the end of July. If you know of any, now would be a good time to name names. I'm not saying Bloom is blameless on this issue. Ultimately, he was wrong to trust Dalbec & Casas, despite my opinion that every GM would have too. He trusted Cordero could improve at 1B D. He was woefully wrong. He is partially to blame, for sure, but I thought it was the players who win or lose games. Bloom bet and lost. We all lost.

I think Casas was widely viewed as being ML ready by June 2022. He would likely have been called up by early June, had he not gotten hurt. I remember many posters bitching about using Schwarber at 1B in 2021. While his D was a negative, nobody was complaining afterwards. I don't think it was a farce to at last try Cordero, then Arroyo t 1B, before looking elsewhere, either. By May 30th, Cordero's OPS was up to .793. His D sucked, but the hope was he'd improve- like Schwarbs did. He DID NOT. I think he even got worse as time went by. Did they go too long? In hindsight, yes. Should they have tried Arroyo at 1B, sooner? Maybe.

No, I never said that. I said why not suggest an actual offer than makes sense to both teams. That's constructive. Saying fire Bloom for not making a trade for a phantom is not constructive, IMO. I'm fine with that being your position. I just have an issue with you calling that constructive. Teams rarely make trades in May and June. It is very rare, and usually it is for a back-up who may have had as much promise as Dalbec/Cordero/Arroyo, but likely would have done better, granted. You can't do any worse than what we got from May 20th to the Hosmer trade.

Then Casas got hurt May 20th- about the time he might have been called up. I'm not sure they knew he'd miss that much time. They also thought maybe Cordero or Arroyo could fill in, until Casas returned or Dalbec turned things around. It didn't work. I realize many, including Red, thought it was not going to work, and they ended up being right. Hurray for them- bad for the Sox. It may certainly be possible, a 1Bman was available for a price Bloom thought was too high, and he can be blamed for that, but before I call him out on that, I'd like to know what was demanded. I am pretty sure, trading away a key prospect for a rental 1Bman was not something Bloom or the longer term plan would be in favor of. Plus, I doubt even getting Josh Bell that early would have been nearly enough to keep us competitive. If it did, it might have created a situation where we would hav ebeen buyers at the deadline- screwing over our future, even more than we did, anyway by not at least trading JD and Nate and re-setting the tax.

No, you are not being asked to be the GM, but just saying get a 1Bman without specifics is not constructive, IMO.

IMO, you don't go all in, until the organizational depth is established and enough role players are in place- mostly at low cost. Bloom has been working on doing just that, while trying to field a somewhat competitive team along the way. IMO, he's done a fine job on rebuilding the depth and farm with mixed results on the "along the way" competitive aspect of the plan. He also has sacrificed some of the here and now by trading for many prospects- some bound to fail, but some likely to help. he got Whitlock, Schreiber, Refsnyder, Arroyo, Kelly and others off the scrap heap or Rule 5. He traded for... German (w Ottavino) for nothing Wong & Downs (w Dugo) for Betts Seabold (w Pivetta) for Workman & Hembree JWallace for Pillar Potts for Moreland CKoss for Aybar de la Rosa, FValdez, GGambrell (w Cordero) for Beni Binelas & Hamilton (w JBJ) for Renfroe EValdez & WAbreu for Vaz MFerguson & Rosier (w Hosmer & cash) for Groome This has some deals that look bad or really bad, right now, but the fact is, the plan was to build the farm, and some of these guys will likely contribute- some sooner than others.

No, simple does not mean true, but it's true to me. I use the word bash because it is unceasing, relentless and for some nearly 100% negative- maybe with a few tid bits of praise sprinkled in. The list of Bloom's bad moves, non moves and bad choices is long, and those who defend Bloom, a lot, often mention that, but his list of good moves, choices and no moves is very long, too, and we barely hear of any of them from a few posters. (You do mention many of the good moves more than most of the other Bloom "constructive critics." By the way, constructive criticism usually involves giving real suggestions of other options or suggested alternative choices and not just things like, "trade for a 1Bman i n May," when none were traded of known to be available. We often ask for specific names or ideas from you and are often left hanging.)

Not yet.

Since August 11th: 16.1 IP 15 H 3 ER 4 BB 18Ks 1.65 ERA 2.02 FIP .558 OPS Against This sample size is getting closer to the 30 IP bad stretch he had. 2017-2020 3.83 ERA 3.30 FIP 1.29 WHIP 13.2 K/9 2.9 K/BB First 46 games 2021 45 IP 25 H 12 ER 11 BB 69K 2.40 ERA 2.35 FIP .497 OPS Against 13.8 K/9 6.3 K/BB Last 14 games of 2021 9.2 IP 16 H 11 ER 9 BB 15 K 10.24 ERA 7.20 FIP 1.095 OPS Against First 23 games of 2022 19.1 IP 18 H 16 ER 14 BB 14 K 7.45 ERA 5.34 FIP .759 OPS A Total end of '21 + '22 29 IP 41 H 27 ER 23 BB 29 K 8.38 ERA Should Barnes really be judged so harshly over less than 30 IP of horrific pitching?

We don't need as much as you think. We will be close to the other teams in the AL east with a few moves like this: Trade for Lopez (Rafaela, Yorke and Wikelman?) Sign Nimmo QO Wacha Sign Bogey or Swanson Sign two from Fulmer, Rogers, Montero, Jansen, Kimbrel or some other solid set-up guy. This is a much better team than 2022: SP: Lopez, Wacha, Pivetta, Bello, Sale/Paxton RP: Whitlock, Houck, Rogers, Fulmer, Schreiber, Barnes, Crawford & one from German, Kelly, Taylor, Danish, Winckowski, bazardo, Ort, or a converted SP'er 1. Kike CF 2. Story 2B 3. Bogey SS 4. Devers 3B 5. Nimmo RF 6. Dugo LF 7. Casas 1B (Hosmer/Dalbec) 8. Arroyo/Dalbec/Hosmer/Pham/EValdez DH 9. McGuire/Wong C Totally realistic.

lmao!

I liked the extension, a lot, and not just based on his first half of 2021. The guy was solid for 3-5 years before 2021. He had a 30 IP rough patch- last 10 in 2021 and first 20 in '22. Almost every RP'er has had rough 30 IP stretches. He's done very well in his last 17 IP, but I'm not totally sold he's turned it around for good. He may still earn that contract total, when all is said and done.

We were also on the hook for $4M on Diekman in 2024. McGuire won't make that much! We saved money! We got our starting catcher and made money on the deal. It's a double win. (Wong also looks like a solid back-up.)

I'm talking best prospect that hs shown something in the bigs, so far. I do think Mayer has a good chance at being the best since Devers. I also like Bello, Mata and Casas with rafaela not far behind. Bleis has a lot of upside, too. This farm has a lot to be optimistic about. (It's deeper than jacko wants to admit, too.)

Zero in the Grand Canyon.

I think he was demoted to A-.

Berrios, LOL! ERA+ 155 Wacha 101 Nate 96 Bello 93 Pivetta 87 Hill 77 Crawford 74 Berrios 73 Winckowski No matter how many times you tell the clown, he sticks to his insane mantra.

Enjoy your brief moment of glory.

Agreed, but until we start adding RP'ers, I give him the inside edge on winning an opening day slot in the pen. We are losing Strahm and may cut Brasier loose. Here is what we have, on paper, for 2023: May end up starting: Houck Whitlock Crawford Winckowski/Seabold Certainly in Pen: Schreiber Barnes Taylor, if healthy Likely: Kelly German Maybe: Danish Brasier Bazardo Ort Not likely: DHern Politi Converted SP'ers? Mata Walter TWard Murphy Santos Drohan

The unrealistic expectations a bound around here. The amazing thing is, that despite only rebuilding the farm for 3 years, we've seen more Bloom prospects than DD/Ben prospects, this year- thanks to trades many poo-poo'd. The Whitlock steal still looks like the best prospect the Sox have had since Devers. Yet, they persist.

BTW, you never answered my question, and who hired Larry?

Yes, I break it down differently than you and others. To me, we still have zero rings without Henry. It's that simple, to me. We might still have one ring without Papi, 4 without Yaz and Williams, and so on... Of course, it's the players that win the games, but the owners and management team make it happen. If not, why do many posters keep bashing JH's stinginess and Bloom & Cora more than the players?