moonslav59

lmao!

I was responding to another poster. I think it's fair to say that when a pitcher gets a batter to swing at a ball outside the strike zone, it was a good pitch.

Did you see the pitch? There is a reason Urshela points to the sky after getting that key hit... MLB Gameday: Red Sox 2, Twins 4 Final Score (08/29/2022) | MLB.com WWW.MLB.COM Follow MLB results with FREE box scores, pitch-by-pitch strikezone info, and Statcast data for Red Sox vs. Twins at Target Field

It's good to hear from such an unbiased commentator as Eck. (I love the guy, but of course he's going to view the pen as being very important, and of course, it is.)

Fair enough. I hate higher prices, too, and when I look at concert ticket prices, I'm astounded. To me, personally, I can't de-couple the actual winter spending budget, the amount of new farm infusion each year and the production of inherited players when judging any GM. Of course, the biggest judgment comes from grading the actual moves they make, but to me, it's should have context attached. When I hear, "The Rays and A's don't have any rings," I think, "sure that's true, but they run a good system to be able to but together competitive teams more times than not on a shoestring budget and without getting top draft picks, year-after-year like Pittsburgh & Baltimore." It's all relative, to me, but I know full well, those concerns don't reach most fans. They want a winning tea, right now. Nothing wrong with that. And, when they see the Sox budget being higher than almost any other teams, anything said is just excuse-making. I get that. The point has merit. We should be winning more than we are, this year. No doubt. The next logical step is to say, "The buck stops at the top," and that makes sense, too. Those who try to add context to what Bloom has faced aren't oblivious to the fact that we are in last place while spending more than 25 teams, but we don't view it as excuse-making to point out facts that were beyond Bloom's control being maybe too much to overcome the good he has brought to the system, as a whole. While the W-L record may show we are no better off than 2020, I think we are. The 40 man roster is deeper and stronger, even if too much is just mediocre. The past 40 man roster was at or worse than replacement level from #30 to #40. The long term dead money is almost gone, and sale's money is not Bloom's doing. (Story's is.) The long term budget looks brighter. The farm, on paper, looks much better, and that's all you can really as of a GM, until the players start making it to the bigs- 2-6 years from now. (We can see how little the farm has contributed after 2018: Houck, Dalbec, Duran...) The 2021 results were better than expected. The 2022 results were not. In a rebuild, that's not uncommon. When you look at Bloom's major moves, one-by-one, you will see a lot of "failures," but many are player signed to $2-5M, and those are the types of contracts where gambles are taken and losses are very common. Now, the moves like Richards and Story were not minor, but the fact that only 2 have been made at $10M or more says alot about the need to temper expectations. The midlevel signings have been more successful: Kike, Wacha, Hill and it looks like he missed on Perez by a year. He was supposed to be great at finding gems in the rough at less than $3M, and guys like Andriese & Marwin were big failures, but he also signed Renroe for $3.1M, stole Whitlock, Arroyo, Schreiber and Refsnyder off Rule 5 and waivers. Strahm was a decent signing. His trades have been the most hotly debated and for good reason. The JBJ trade jumpsout and seemingly overshadows all others, and the fact that prospects were attached to nearly every trade made, makes it hard to definitively judge them prematurely. The Pivetta deal got us a solid 4/5 starter for nothing. The Ottavino trade, which cost us nothing, also brought us German. The Beni trade looks bad, but the $3M saved did allow us to sign an OF'er in his place (Renfroe or you could say Marwin.) The deadline deals look like pluses, overall- both for now and going forward. How many GMs can say that? I know I ran on and on, here, and much of this has been said before. I know I'm not changing anyone's mind and saying I'm just hoping some understand our viewpoint better sounds condescending, but I honestly don't mean it that way.

Well, 5GG did post "the rest of us could care less if Chaim Bloom is "allowed" to spend $40 million or $400 million.." which isn't the same as saying there is no difference, but the point was made about it not mattering. There were also some posters who thought Bloom chose to cut the budget and trade Betts, and that it was not forced on him. One even argued Price was not a salary dump. On the flip side, nobody is arguing that Bloom spent every dollar wisely. I'm not even sure he spent half the money allotted wisely. My point was that when you have $40M to spend on 10 slots, expecting greatness fro $4M players is having unreasonable expectations. Couple that with the fact that the players Bloom inherited all declined, except devers, Vaz and Houck, and some by massive amounts, I don't view that as excuse-making but ather adding context to a difficult situation for any GM to create a successful team, unless sacrificing the farm was part of the plan given to the GM. Not "caring" is the right of any fan to do, and I don't blame any fan for not caring about budget facts, but that doesn't mean it's not important when judging the success of a GM.

That does make sense, since it's not the Sox that are forced to pay a minimum of $10M (6+4). cots used to be the rock.

It's ridiculous to think having a $40M winter spending budget is no different from $60 or $90M, not to mention year 1, when Bloom was forced to cut tens of millions of dollars- leading to the Betts/Price trade. It's true, Henry can spend $400M, if he wants, but that doesn't mean he allows Bloom to spend at will. It's plain and clear there have been budget restrictions given to our GMs over the years. Pretending that's not true does not make it so. It's always about how the money is spent, but certainly how much there is to spend each winter matters greatly, too. The fact that the majority of fans don't think or worry about it, doesn't mean it is not a significant factor in what we get for a roster to watch and cheer for or boo.

True. Sadly, when one goes- the other will follow.

Wink being a coin toss might be generous, but he might end up being a decent multi-inning RP'er, someday.

I don't remember people saying Renfroe would not earn his arb check, but some did say thing like "selling high" on him. I'm still scratching my head on that trade, and the prospect end of the deal is still unknown, but we ended up adding money and getting worse on the big club. The topic has been beaten to death, so I'll leave it at that.

Great analysis. The "eye test" shows the kid can pitch. He just needs to make some adjustments and learn a few things. He may learn quickly, or it may take time, but I'm thinking he becomes a real good starter, at some point. Mata might end up doing the same. I think Crawford, Wink, Seabold, Murphy and German all have a good chance to help the pen, next year. (OK, maybe not Seabold.)

Fine with flipping Belis and Rafaela. On Yorke, it's not so much about dropping him as the rise of the guys below him. I could see him being 7th on their list.

I've said all along, keeping Cashman is one of the best things to ever happen to the Sox. (Boone, too.)

I always thought being somewhat optimistic was part of being a good fan. I also don't think the pre-2022 optimsm was unwarranted. It took a hell of a lot of things turning sour, apart from the Bloom blunders, to add up to this mess. Sale injury Eovaldi decline & injury Wacha injury Hill injury Whitlock injury Houck injury & vax status Schreiber injury Taylor injury Strahm injury Barnes injury Story injury JD & Bogey power & RBI declines Kike injury Devers injury Arroyo's injury Refsnyder injury Dalbec's epic decline Verdugo decline (coming back up, too late) Plawecki's 200 point OPS decline (Almost every returning vet, except Devers, Vaz and Houck declined from '21) Of course, injuries and declines have to be expected but not on this scale. The need to throw blame at the manager and GM through all these misfortunes seems misguided, to me. I realize it's hard to have a positive attitude watching these games, and it does suck, badly, but there is no reason to think these misfortunes will continue, next year. There is plenty to be optimistic about going forward. The farm is much improved, and some players are now ML ready. We lose a lot of dead money off the budget, this year, and while some key players need to be extended or replaced in kind, the amount of budget space seems like enough to improve on this team, this winter.

It looked like a very nice pitch.

I'm fine with... 1. Mayer 2. Casas 3. Bello. 4. Mata 5. Rafaela 6. Bleis That might be soxprospects.com's most likely top 6. I also don't think they'll jump Kavadas and Hickey as high as I have them. I do think, like mine, they will not have Downs in the top 30.

Yes. I've never been high on Duran, mostly because of his defense and shifting offensive approach, but I'm surprised how many seem to have totally given up on him. That being said, I'm not pencilling him into any FT role on the 2023 team, but he might make enough adjustments to at least become a platoon LF'er, someday.

I guess player options count, too. cots has him at $10M for '22 on the lux tax line. They don't count the $4M twice.

Nothing to learn. He's forgotten more than all of us know combined.

Hardly.

I'm wondering if this might be the year ending Sox prospect rankings: 1. Mayer 2. Casas 3. Bleis 4. Bello 5. Rafaela 6. Mata 7. Walter 8. Romero 9. Yorke 10. Anthony 11. Wong 12. Lugo 13. Ward 14. Perales 15. Kavadas 16. Hickey 17. E Valdez 18. Jordan 19. Paulino 20. German 21. Winckowski 22. Murphy 23. Seabold 24. Gonzalez 25. Coffey 26. Drohan 27. W Abreu 28. Bonaci 29. Binelas 30. R Hernandez

Better get used to him.

It's about the farm and a bunch of dead money coming off the books. “Next year will be the 22nd season of the John Henry-Tom Werner-Mike Gordon Fenway Sports Group stewardship of this franchise,” Kennedy told Rosenthal of the ownership group. “Since we’ve been here, each and every year we have a goal of playing baseball in October. I do not see that changing. I see us continuing to invest across the entire organization, at the major-league level, throughout our baseball operations. This group is hungry for another World Series championship. … I know we’re in a tough spot right now. But we have a lot of flexibility going into this offseason. I’m really excited to see what we’re going to do with that flexibility and the resources we have.“

Yes. His choices at... 1B: Dalbec, Cordero, Arroyo CF/RF: JBJ or Duran/Ja Davis 2B (When Story & Arroyo were both hurt): Downs, Sanchez, Dalbec SP (When 4 starters were out hurt): Crawford, Winckowski, Seabold, Bello, Davis (See any winning choices, here?)