moonslav59

I still like my bubble wrap idea. I meant it as a joke, earlier, but now... We shrink wrap our pontoon boat for the winter. I'm just sayin'... It looks brand new in the spring.

I'm thinking he takes a QO. If the plan is to reset for 2024, it would fit the Sox needs. If they plan on re-setting in 2023- not so much.

Couldn't you say the same about the GM? It's the players not the GM, right?. IMO, especially after free agency, the GM has a major hand in what players are on the field, and the owner has a major hand on who the GM(s) will be.

JH and Co, hired Theo and not Richard O'Connell, Haywood Sullivan and Lou Gorman. (Duquette did help set up Theo nicely.) I won't speak of Ed Collins, Joe Cronin or those from the early 60's, and maybe they were better than their results showed. I do find it a bit puzzling that some seem to bash Bloom for having no rings yet, yet seem to think the owners who hired these "other" GMs had nothing or just a minor role in the results of those teams. If it's only about W's and L's and rings, they were all failures, buy their own criteria.

Pivetta is an arb player. He's back, Wacha needs to be given a QO and accept it or be re-signed. Unless he's asking for the world, I'd try real hard to bring Wacha back.

Maybe we are overly optimistic about our team's future, but I think there is a solid foundation of young players and vets returning. Many are just role players, for now, or have yet to prove they can be significant pluses going forward. Some may not shine by 2023, but many seem on track to shining very soon. When you look who has come up to the team since Devers & Beni, it's quite shocking to see than guys like Houck, Dalbec and Duran are some of the most notable. Whitlock could be counted as a prospect making good, but he was not from our system and never pitched in our minor league system. We still have Devers, Story, Dugo, Kike, Arroyo and now McGuire, Casas, Refsnyder, Wong and Hosmer. True, some are questionable as being pluses in 2023, but many look better than what we had this year or even in 2021. The staff still has a solid 4/5 starter in Pivetta and hopes for Sale and/or Paxton in 2023. Whitlock and Houck maybe comeback strong. Taylor, too. Schreiber has shown a lot of promise- Crawford to a lesser extent. Barnes has pitcher very well since mid August, and Bello looks more and more like he can be a big plus in 2023. Most of all, the young players and near ML ready prospects offer a lot of hope. Some may take until 2024 or beyond to shine, but several look ready for 2023 beyond just Bello, Casas, Wong, German, Crawford and Kelly. We have Mata, E Valdez, Walter, Murphy, Wink, Seabold, Bazardo, Ort, RHern, Duran, Downs and maybe later in 2023, Rafaela, Abreu or Hamilton. I know many of these names have seen their stock fall, but we don't need even 1/3 of the second list to contribute in some small way in 2023- just maybe 1 to 3 of the 11 listed. It's not a stretch to think that might happen. We have some big shoes to fill, but we have a big winter spending budget, too. I'm choosing optimism, and I don't think it is an unrealistic choice.

Enmauel Valdez is heating up for the Woo Sox. He had a great start to the year in the Houston system. 3 for 5, tonight. The season is almost over in AAA.

He sure looks good. I think Mata might challenge him, soon.

Teams were able to spend big to get young talent. Some "unsignable" draftees often fell to later picks and then signed with bigger spending teams like the Yanks (and even the Sox later in the century.) Many called the Royals the Yankee farm team, because the often traded higher priced players to the Yanks. Ownership hires the GMs and that decides who plays on the team, even before free agency. I will say my point was more about the 70's and beyond, and some of my points, like the need for a second ace, did not really apply pre-free agency. Point well taken.

Once again, I never said you or an yone else called JH a bad or even mediocre owner. I won't speak to the pre-70's Sox, but to me, we never won a ring until we had two aces and a solid team behind them. It took an owner who had the foresight and financial will to make it happen. In now way, am I slighting the great players the Sox had before Henry, or discounting some of the freaky circumstances that prevented rings between 1918 and 2004, including the 1975 injury to Rice, the Buckner game, and so many other near misses not related to the any lack of skills by Sox teams past. That management team of the 70's knew talent but botched so many aspects, such as not sending Fisk his contract offer in time, that ownership has to share in a large share of the blame for never winning that decade. We also stuck with a racist owner for longer than most cities. I understand your position and others and totally respect it.

It took an owner willing to pay a steep price for a second ace (Schilling, then Beckett, then Lackey, then Price) plus paying top dollar for guys like Manny, Damon and JD (some, like AGon and Crawford did not work out as well) to get over the hump. I'm not slighting the greatness of Williams, Yaz and others, but ownership and management held those teams back just enough to prevent rings.

I'm not trying to hedge my bets, here, and I have no idea if Bloom will "get the job done," this winter, but he really needs to hit on about 75-85% of all his key additions to make the 2023 team into a winner. I'm optimistic, but I realize he has not been at the 75-85% success rate, so far. While I do think he has shown a net plus in signings and non-trade additions, considering the budget he's had, he needs to do even better. I'm thinking he might hit 50-75%, and the odds on large and long contracts has been worse than that in MLB, but I would not bet on better than 67%.

He was way too young, back then. Certainly ownership and management were often blamed for not going the extra mile to add 1 or 2 more key pieces, especially that "second ace."

I agree, they won't count on German and many other prospects to be significant pluses in 2023, but I do think he has an inside track to making the opening day 26 man roster, as do Casas, Bello, Wong and Crawford. I think Enmanuel Valdez, Kelly and maybe one from Wink, Seabold and Ort may win the 8th RP'er slot. Compare that to the 3-5 year total of contributing prospects prior to 2023: Dalbec, Houck, Duran and I guess we can count Whitlock from the Yankee system.

No doubt, that is a fair criticism, although budget restraints were part of the equation. Yes, Bloom chose to add Paxton, JBJ and Diekman's money to the pool, but the additions of Wacha, Strahm, Schreiber, Refsnyder and to some extent Hill, more or less evened that out, IMO, if not ended up a net plaus, if you add McGuire, Pham and others to the balance sheet - not to mention further farm additions via trades.

He should have a big enough budget to go beyond anything he's ever had before, although he does have to replace Bogey, JD, Nate, Vaz and newcomers Wacha, Strahm and Hill. He will no longer have Pedey or Price's deadwood as a hindurence. I've said a few times, 2023 will be Bloom's "flashpoint."

If we are only looking at glimpses of skills shown in 2022, then I'd add Kelly (1.03 WHIP)to the list. Bazardo's sample is too small (10 IP w 1.000 WHIP), but you already made a determination on German after just 1 IP.

Okay, but you went out of your way to point out Casas and Bello were unimpressive, so it sounded like you were just listing all prospects who had an opportunity, this year, not those who still are only promising to you. I'd add Crawford to the list of Casas, Bello and Wong, and I still have hopes for German & Kelly. I have not given up on Wink, Seabold, Duran and Downs, but certainly I feel worse about them, after this year than I did in March. Earlier, you asked about who might help in 2023, and I think Mata has a good chance at adding to the 26 roster in 2023. Murphy, RHern, EValdez and possibly Rafaela, TWard, Abreu or Lugo may help later in 2023. There is some reason for optimism before 2024 comes around.

You did not say New players. Pivetta did prove he was not a fluke and should be a decent 4/5 going forward. Story improved 2B, immensely. He is not the reason Bogey might go. He will not be moved to SS in 2023. He was an addition to 2B. We aren't talking about possi ble losses. We were talking about what looks promising from 2022's team, concerning their 2023 outloook. Story: plus Schreiber: plus Refsnyder: plus Whitlock, Houck and Pivetta proved 2022 was not a fluke. Their futures, this March were largely unknown. Bello is ML ready. He just needs an adjustment period, and hopefully, some of that took place in this lost season- making 2023 look more promising than before. Crawford looks more promising now, than in March. Many do not, but you asked about who was promising or more promising.

What player has played a major part in us winning 4 rings, since 1918? I never said I enjoy following, watching or rooting for Henry over many of the great players the Sox have had since I have followed them in the early 70's of from 1918 to the 70's. I said Henry was the most important. It's not the same thing.

Not Schreiber, Refsnyder, McGuire, Wong, Story vs what we had at 2B for 2020-2021? Plus, Whitlock, Houck and Pivetta showed that 2021 was not a fluke. While Crawford, Casas and Bello's numbers do not look great, right now, all look pretty promising for 2023 and beyond, to some of us.

And now, we are spoiled. Do you disagree that society is moving more to or away from instant gratification for 45 years ago. It may have started gaining steam in the 60's and 70's, but it has clearly taken hold, these days.

Not for the instant gratification population, which abounds here and in Red Sox Nation.

Move the goalposts, again. You named Casas and Bello and not Wong or German, Wink, Seabold, Ort, Downs (the only one you mentioned) and Kelly. The 22 Red Sox are playing out the string in last place. I keep reading that Bloom has built up our farm, but down the stretch the only prospects getting any experience are Cassas (hitting .150) and Bello without impressive results. Where is the future. Duran only loses value as he plays more at the MLB level. Downs is a complete bust, so they don’t dare expose him any more. Who from the farm is ready to step up next season and contribute?[/i When you say "the only..." and don't mention 5-6 players, I think saying "ignored" is an accurate point. I also responded with a list of prospects beyond those called up this year that are expected to be promoted to the bigs in 2023: EValdez Mata Murphy (TWard, WAbreu and Rafaela may surprise in '23, too.)

I will add that we should have done better in 2022. It was a failure. Injuries and clubhouse discontent, perhaps attributed in part to uncertain contract issues were some reasons for the failure, but not all. Bloom and Cora share some of the blame. Not a single poster denies this. Many posters deny the contextual aspects of the tasks Bloom was handed after 2019. They also deny that the 2019 was not team that looked promising, going forward, especially the financial aspect of the contracts handed to Bloom. Not only was Bloom forced to trade the franchise player Betts and limit the return by including Price, he had to cut the budget even further than that in 2020. Add to that no Sale or ERod for all of 2020 makes for a untenable situation for any GM. Bloom wasn't even allowed to replace Betts & prices contract costs, in full, let alone not adding the savings of losing other contracts like Porcello, pearce and Holt. We cut about $80M from 2019: $27M Betts $21M Porcello $16M of Price $6M Pearce $5M Nunez $4M Holt Bloom was given $40M before the 2020 season and about $40M prior to 2021. (This doesn't even touch on the cost of Pedey, Sale, Nate, ERod (missing 2020) and JD, plus the continuing Price payments)