moonslav59

And, it's not always as easy as it seems to think or say, "Hey, the offer the A's accepted was pretty low. We could have beaten that by offering so and so." Maybe- maybe not. Maybe Bloom did miss a good opportunity. Maybe they wanted Rafaela or Bello and others. I'm also not convinced Bloom had the Story money to spend, until JH heard the rumblings of Sox Nation and suddenly said, "Okay, you can spend $140M/6." Maybe, and this is pure conjecture, Bloom might have made other moves had he known he could go over the tax line in December. (Maybe he overbids for Suzuki and/or Baez...UGH!!!)

You're like Eck vs Youk.

How low do you have to be to have a chance at the first pick- lotto style?

I guess he wouldn't trade Casas straight up for Alcantara. Just the thought of trading Casas is crazy.

I doubt we leave every eak slot to the kids, but I agree the OF is the major need (with an ace). The rest might be one year deals to bridge to the kids.

If anything, it might be a 1 year signing. Maybe someone who can play RF/DH would be a better fit. Mancini can play 1B/RF/DH. He's a great clubhouse guy, too, but he won't go for 1 year. I don't think a big expenditure should got for a 1B/DH type with Kavadas, Valdez, Casas and others in the system.

Did he have an endless b udget to sign all those players posters pined for? Yes, in hindsight, we should have signed Martin Perez not Rich Hill, and I remember many wanting Perez back. LOL

So, on balance, were the Bloom additions a net plus or minus: + Wacha Schreiber Refsnyder Strahm McGuire Pham ??? Story Hill Hosmer Paxton Prospects: EValdez, WAbreu, MFerguson, ABinelas, DHamilton, C Rosier - Renfroe>JBJ Diekman (turned into McGuire) It seems to me, Blooms biggest mistake was not knowing which vets were going to decline and trading them just before their declines- fan faves or not, and most of the ones who declined the most were carry-over vets, while most of Blooms additions did pretty well. To the Bloom dislikers: is this true or not?

Of course, Bloom could have had the foresight to trade away every player that was about to decline from 2021 to 2022, but let's break down how many and by how much the players declined- Bloom players vs inherited players: Inherited: +.100 Vaz (traded) +.070 Duran (to .648) -.001 Devers -.017 Bogarts -.023 Arroyo -.097 JD M -.148 Dalbec -.171 Plawecki '21 Renfroe vs '22 JBJ -.238 Bloom's Additions (Carry-overs) +.217 Cordero -.046 Verdugo -.146 Kike -.643 Arauz -.843 Shaw Bloom's Additions (New to 2022) .879 Refsnyder .816 McGuire .782 Ja. Davis .768 Pham .732 Story .611 Hosmer Lost to Free Agency or cut: .957 Schwarber .915 Iggy .597 Santana .567 Marwin ,549 Chavis (traded)

So, signing Wacha at an unbelievable $7M is "little?" Getting Schreiber and Refsnyder for nothing was just "a little?" Strahm, Pham, McGuire were just "a little? The guys Bloom added were about the only ones who did well. Guys like Bogey, Devers and Houck did fine, but they all declined or got hurt. Every other returning vet inherited by Bloom declined, except Vaz. Do you really think the JBJ trade outweighed Wacha, Schreiber, Refsnyder, McQuire, Strahm, Hill, Pham and his carryovers like Whitlock, Dugo and Wong.

You need to start bashing Sox players, more often. You single-handedly turned Pivetta's career around. Maybe you just did the same for Winkman. Who starts next? Better start bashing him, ASAP!

You hide yours well.

I seriously doubt we trade Casas, either. My point was that even if we trade him, our 1B situation is better than CF, SP, RP, RF and 2B/SS. Now, back to trading Casas, I'm not for handing him away for nothing. Thinking of trading someone does not equate to "giving up on him" or "undervaluing him." That's just a bias some poster seems to have while feigning objectivity. IMO, we will likely not have a big enough budget to sign 8 more than capable FAs (CF, SP1 or 3, Closer, RF, 2B or SS, Set Up, SP 4 or 5 and RP or C), so we will have to trade a prospect or two to fill at least one slot. To get quality, you have to trade quality. We are not getting Lopez for Dalbec, Downs and Duran. And this loops back to my first point: what position is currently best suited to go with what we have, now? One can argue Arroyo at 2B, despite his injury history. One could argue RF with Refsnyder or Dugo (with Duran in LF) or One could argue 1B with Hosmer, Arroyo, Dalbec/Cordero in AAA (assuming we fill 2B, CF and RF.) It's not a crazy concept to look at the big picture and at least consider all the options.

Your objectivity is astounding.

He wasn't with the Sox in 2017, maybe you meant 2014-2016. He was still "very good" in 2014, 2015 and 2016. That's 4 years in a row. 2014-2016 152 IP 2.73 ERA 0.930 WHIP is among the best of that period 11.3 K/9 1.7 BB/9 6.8 K/9 is outstanding

It's not a fluke, either. He had a .349 OBP on the farm, this year. I think he had 8 HRs in his last 16 games at AAA before the call-up. I hope he's a keeper.

I don't either, even if we trade Casas!

While the Irish have much higher academic criteria that prohibits them from getting many blue chip freshman, they do have the ultimate recruiting tool at their disposal: every game is on national TV. Nobody else can say that. Yes, we should be getting better QBs. Agreed, but maybe I'm biased. (LOL)

But, somehow, Bloom was supposed to not only build up the farm like a few years after 2011, but be getting results from that farm, RIGHT NOW! We are seeing the results of the 2016-2019 farm, now.

Part of me wonders if this is a major reason for so much anger directed at Bloom. It's a way of deflecting from the reality some denied years ago. Now, they claim objectivity and not being biased in their opinions. LOL.

Yes, My bad... Pluses and minuses: Negative: JBJ trade Paxton (more of a signing for 2023>, but bad for 2022) Diekman signing (turned into a plus by dumping his contract and acquiring McGuire for multiple years) Vaz (but adding prospects and Mcguire negates the loss) OK: Hill ??? Story Hosmer (free) Prospects Added via trades since the end of 2021: EValdez, WAbreu, MFerguson, ABinelas, DHamilton, C Rosier Good: Strahm Pham Great: Wacha Schreiber Refsnyder McGuire (doing better than Vaz, so far)

So do I. I'm thinking your bias is making you subjective, not me, but I guess it's a;; about perspective. (I have been highly critical of Bloom on a few things.)

He said, "We have Hosmer... but..."

If they think McGuire is like Stallings, I'm fine with McGuire/Wong, next year with RHern and Cottam (Hickey) in the pipeline.

Kavadas and Binelas are already at POR, but they likely will start there, next year. I agree on Rafaela and Koss at AAA, but soxprospects had Rafaela starting in AA. I think all 5 end up in AAA, and one may see big league action, if needed. We are starting to look solid at all farm levels, now. A lot of the Ben and DD prospects are graduating soon or have already been called up. I'm not sure how many will end up being significant contributors, but Casas is in the spotlight, now. Ben & DD Guys (Houck, Dalbec, Crawford- graduated) Casas Bello 2024? Rafaela Mata TWard Walter Paulino Murphy Lugo Bonaci Wikelman