moonslav59

So, who would be a trade target that meets that criteria? Big Nate? (LOL)

Story is 3-3 with a dinger in AA. Looks like Bloom added a nice prospect!

Santos is off to an awesome start, tonight with WOO. 5 IP 1 H 1 BB 9 Ks Wong is still on fire: 1-3 with his 11th dinger. (I'll let Larry call it a "tater.") Castellenos has one, too. Casas is currently 2-3

Will Arroyo be the best hitter on the 2023 Sox?

True, but some country folks don't know the difference between allergies and aluminum (face paint) poisoning.

I guess some of us don't see Bloom having much choice in trading Betts, but we don't want to bash Henry for not allowing him to spend, because JH has helped bring us 4 rings. Whether Henry ever spends big again is an unknown, and I guess we're talking about new spending, and not covering the costs of past deals. Some of those big deals come off the books, this winter, so we may know an answer in a few months. I was wondering about big spending happening again or not up until March of 2022, when seemingly out of nowhere, the Story signing occurred. I wonder, if it was a late Henry decision, or Bloom waiting out the market to snatch who he felt was more of a bargain. I am glad he signed Story over Seager or my guy, Baez, but I do wonder about the timing of the checkbook opening. I think the Story signing is a hint Henry will spend big again, but I think he is laying back, until he thinks we have some young and cost controlled players in place, before deciding to pounce on a couple big names. It's just my opinion, but I don't think he views the young core of Sox players like he did the 2015-2017 foundation handed to DD. I could easily be wrong, but I think he chose Bloom to be the guy to rebuild the foundation, over time, by improving the farm and 40 man roster depth to try and reach a point where the foundation is sound enough where it looks like a couple big splurges can make us top contenders. Is that this winter? I was hoping it might be before 2022 began, but now I'm not so sure. I think JH wanted the team to remain competitive during the rebuild, and that actually makes rebuilding harder, as we saw at the deadline, when Bloom chickened out on a hard rebuild. It seemed that Bloom worked wonder in 2022, or we got lucky, but 2022 was either bad luck or simply rotten roster construction with a decent winter spending budget. Personally, I only really disliked 2 moves, and the Diekman signing was just $4M x 2. The JBJ deal looked horrific from day one, to me. Does that equate to "rotten roster construction?" Not to me, but it seems like many don't think Wacha, Hill, Strahm, Schreiber and Refsnyder come close to outweighing the JBJ-Renfroe deal and maybe the residuals from the Beni deal. (I just can't count the Betts loss as being on Bloom, but I can see how many do.) I think we are better than we were in 2020. Our farm looks stronger. Our budget has less dead money. I'm hopeful we are nearing the day when JH opens the wallet wide, again.

Nice try. He was the Scarecrow.

I don't think Bogey gets double what Story got, but I do think signing him was meant to soften the blow of losing Bogey. It might not work with some or many Sox fans, but a lot will depend on how the Sox do going forward, and maybe to a lesser extent how Story does. I don't think we sign Judge, but that would create a buzz that would soften the loss of Devers. (I'd rather we sign Devers than 2 Judges, at the same price.) If we sign Nimmo, Swanson, and a few others that lead us to a ring, I doubt too many people will complain too much about losing Betts, Bogey and Devers, but of course there are always a few who will, no matter what.

Here's a short one: Who is the strawman?

It's funny how calling whiners "whiners", crybabies "crybabies" and those who bash, no stop "bashers" is called whining. Is calling me a "name-caller" name-calling? The doublespeak here is entertaining. Is whining someone who constantly complains about everything, or not? Is being a crybaby, someone who cries about every single breath Bloom takes, or not? Is someone who bashes Bloom 99-100% of the time someone who bashes, or not? Now, the flip side is, these guys pretend there are posters (or one poster who other follow) who support nearly everything Bloom has done. They conflate explaining why he might have done some things or mentioning the possibilities that the prospects included in the deal "might" change the grade of the trade later as thinking we love or fully support the move or choice being discussed. Nobody, here, is even close to being a supporter of Bloom anywhere near the amount of times, some here bash him. It's laughable to think otherwise. They won't name the name, because it will be so easy to find evidence to show anyone they name has been critical of Bloom many times and many more times that some posters here have even come close to praising Bloom, in terms of percentage of posts being supportive or not. This also does not to mention all the neutral posts made by many who support Bloom vs those the bashers make.

Here I was thinking they took pride in bashing Bloom and being called Bloom bashers. My bad.

You won't name names, because his name is "strawman."

IMO, is there are 99-100% Bloom bashers and nobody even over 75-80% (maybe less) in support of all Bloom's moves, yet those who respect the overall job he's done are viewed as extreme. Newsflash: minority is not the same as extreme.

I didn't say better, but if Bloom signs a big one or a couple pretty big ones, it might help soften the blow. I'm all for extending Devers- just like I was for Betts. Devers Forevers will be my motto, until the decision is made.

Is there a Sox election?

He sure is dropping fast over at soxprospects.com, but all prospects can't rise. Some of Bloom's prospects are rising- some are falling. Most of the one's he traded for a while back have not risen all that quickly, if at all. Wink moved up a bit, but his time in the bigs have not helped his outlook. Seabold rose up a bit, and the same thing happened to him. Wong has gone up and down but seems to be making a strong case to make the 26, next season. German has steadily climbed the rankings list. Binelas rose and then fell. Hamilton fell. Koss, Wallace & Potts fell, but I'm not sure any were ever expected to do all that much. The 3 low level prospects from the Beni trade look like a mixed bag. FValdez and Gambrell don't look promising, but there is a chance de la Rosa makes us forget about Beni. Some of the recent pick-ups look promising by their 2022 numbers, but farm numbers are often deceiving. Their current soxprospects rankings: 16. Enmanuel Valdez .958 in AA/AAA (more PA in AAA) 26. Wilyer Abreu .814 in AA 56. Corey Rosier .752 A+ 57. Max Ferguson .718 in A/A+ (more in A) I'm hopeful EValdez can maybe make an impact at DH or 2B, next season. German and Wong might fill key roles. Wink might be a long shot. Some of DD's kids should make an impact, too.

Try to keep up. I said the "few who bash everything." None defend everything he does.

Just for the reason to get under the tax line, it was worth moving JD and Nate for the best we could get. Who cares, if thye return was not as hoped, except the few posters who bash everything done.

What's the estimated time it takes to recover from that? (Or do you every fully recover?)

It might also matter, if we sign a big name "large & long," this winter. That may take some heat off the need to re-sign Devers.

In his defense, he drafted very well for having low picks. While he traded away about 20 prospects, who had at one time or another been a top 20 prospects on soxprospects.com, many of them have fizzled out or show very little promise of amounting to anything very significant. In hindsight, many deals look even better than at the time of the deals, and prospects or young players he added to the system include: Houck, Crawford, Dalbec & Duran, plus prospects... 2. Casas 3. Bello 6. Mata 7. Walter 8. Rafaela 11. Murphy 13. Paulino 15. TWard 19. Wikelman 27. Bonaci 29. Jimenez

I thought he should traded every free agent to be for anything he felt was better than a comp pick. For those without a QO attached, get the best he can. I'd have even explored asking Bogey to waive his no-trade, if he wanted to try for a ring, somewhere else. I think one major reason he did not do that was to keep a large part of the fan base from getting really upset, and perhaps stop watching or buy tickets to games. The result was not getting under the tax line and not making the fans happy, anyway. That being said, I do think losing Vaz, Diekman and Groome and gaining Pham, McGuire and Hosmer was a slight improvement on the 2022 roster- not shown by results. I think the prospects we gained look better than those we gave up, but that is all speculation based on ratings and ranks of prospects.

Call him up after the AAA season is over, and the September MLB rosters can expand.

I don't think any posters are opposed to trading any or even a significant amount of prospects, if the return and timing seems right. I think quite a few posters are opposed to near total emptying of the farm, and no, DD did not totally empty the farm.

Well, you put or keep the right guys in charge, and you get credit. Lord knows, he'd get the blame, if we swung and missed too often.