moonslav59

Yes, they were so full of energy and optimism going into the deadline. Trading Diekman for McGuire broke their morale backs.

Bloom should have known these guys were about to decline and traded all 3, last winter. The fans would have called him a genius!

But whatever you do, keep yourself from saying Bloom sucks.

That was a tough loss. Can't seem to get those 3 run jacks anymore. Guys come up with men on, and then homer when the bases are empty. Every loss like this is a two game swing in the standing vs the team we are playing. Just flip one game each vs BAL, TOR & TBR and the records would look like: 64-56 TBR 64-56 TOR 63-59 BOS 62-59 BAL I know, big if...

Mr. AAAA!

No, the team leader has a no trade clause!

I've come to call him... Freakin' Chris Sale!

Our next DH?

Big loss for the Jays.

He rolled the dice on the $7M option on Vaz at catcher, after trying to acquire Stalling s from PIT: We won. He rolled the dice with a career OPS .800+ batter (Dalbec), Shaw and our #1 prospect, Casas, at 1B and we lost. He rolled the dice on Story at 2B. We lost for 2022. No dice rolls at CF, LF, SS and 3B with mixed results. He rolled the dice in RF w JBJ, and we lost. He rolled the dice with a guy named Refsnyder at 4th OF, Refsnyder and won. He rolled the dice with Arroyo aay utility IF'er, and due to another injury- mixed results. No dice roll with Eovaldi and Pivetta, but b oth declines. Rolled on Wacha: win. Rolled on Hill: meh at $5M. Rolled the dice on Sale & Paxton: Lost. Rolled the dice on the kids as SP'er depth: mixed results. Rolled on Strahm: win. No roll on Whitlock & Houck: both broke even or declined a bit. Rolled the dice on the pen depth: actually, mixed results, but most likely view it as a loss. Pretty much mixed results. If you compare declines by returning vets vs expected results from additions, I think the returnees (Non dice-rolled) did worse.

As it turns out, defense isn't everything.

Wong and RHern have been basically alternating playing catcher and DH at Woo. Both are around .750-.775. Wong went 1-3 w BB (.777), while RHern went 2-4 w HR (.756.) Almonte walked twice and went 1-2 w a 2b. Casas went 1-4 in today's loss. Keller 6IP 4H 3ER 3BB 2K, German 1 IP 0H oER 0BB 1K. Greenville won 9-4. Ferguson went 2-4 w HR and 3RBI. Jimenez is waking up a bit (2.4.) Sikes walked 3 times, scored twice and got an rbi, all without a hit. Hickey got another walk and a rare K. .

Yes, too soon to give up. Since we play 3 of the teams that are ahead of us, we just need to beat them, or beat the hell out of 2 of them to be firmly in the race. Every game we play against these guys are 2 game swings.

I’m thinking he meant”never” by the end of 2024, unless…

There is plenty of season left, and we play so many games against teams ahead of us, that we hold our own destiny in our hands. I still think this team does not have the make-up or the horses to win it all, but I'd love to be proven wrong about this and my belief that the playoffs are not largely a "crapshoot." Of course, it's always about one game at a time, but looking ahead, after tonight's game with BAL, we see two clusters of 8-9 game stretches with a couple of "easier" series in between follows by the final 14 game stretch all against divisional foes. Here is the rest of the season after the game at BAL, tonight: 3 v TOR 3 v TBR 3 @ MN 4 v TEX 3 @ TBR 3 @ BAL 3 v NYY 2 @ CIN 4 @ NYY 4 v BAL 3 @ TOR 3 v TBR Totals: 9 TBR (6H/3A) 8 BAL (counting tonight) 4H/4A 7 NYY 3H/4A 6 TOR 3H/3A 4 TEX Home 3 @ MN 2 @ Cin

Agreed. Lots of successful business men might be pricks- same as non successful people.

Thanks for this report. It would be great if Valdez can field well at 2B. I do wonder if Wong can be a starter in the bigs- not in 2023, but someday. I've really got my hopes up for 2023, assuming Henry allows Bloom to spend to or over the limit, but part of me worries about their eye being on 2024 and beyond. I know this would piss off a lot of fans, and I would not be happy either, but a few times in recent weeks, I've posted which positions Bloom will most likely leave to "in-system players," and it got me thinking. Is it possible he leaves basically all of them to "the system," and just adds more one year players to get us just the point of watchability and slight 2023 playoff hopes. I want to stress that I am NOT for this idea in any way. I think we can build for 2024 and beyond by starting with some major additions in 2023, who have team control for 3 or more years, however, the fact that we did not get under the tax line at the deadline, means we will be year 2 in taxes in 2023 and the dreaded year 3 in 2024, when many of our top prospects will be entering MLB (Mayer, Rafaela and others) or starting to mature and enter pre-prime years (Casas, Bello, Mata, German and others.) Of course, this talk could easily end, if we re-set in 2023. As I figure, we can spend $80-85M, this winter (more, if we find ways to dump salary,) and that should be enough to build a solid 2023 team without hampering the longer term goals, but by actually adding to the positive ouitlook, assuming the guys we add don't fizzle into deadwood right away. Here is the breakdown, again, of positions in need of upgrading and who might get long looks, if we don't add anyone here: Note the players who may be here in 2024 and consider that we might not want to add a longer term deal in these slots) Not in order of highest need... C: McGuire, Wong, RHern (Cottam/Hickey too far away for '23) 1B: Casas, Hosmer, Dalbec (Kavadas '24? Jordan late '24?) 2B: (Story?) Arroyo, EValdez, Downs, Koss (Rafaela/Yorke '24?) SS: (Story?) Downs, Koss (Lugo '24? & Mayer late '24?) CF: Ja. Davis/Duran (Rafaela '24?) RF: Verdugo/Refsnyder/WAbreu (Jimenez '24) DH: Casas/Hosmer/Dalbec/Cordero/EValdez/Granberg/Northcut (Kavadas '24?) 4/5 SP: Bello, Mata, Crawford, Winckowski, Seabold, Murphy, Walter, Ward, Santos (Drohan, Wikelman & Uberstine late '24?) RP 6/7/8: German (convert SP from above) DHern, Ort, Feltman, Wallace I could see an idea brewing to let us see what some of these kids have, before committing long term to more than 1 or 2 players. I'm hoping we add 4 or more key players that can't be had on 1 year deals.

Just commenting on your wonderings.

...and Margot & Bello Has been a pretty weak farm since 2011, though. 11 years and only Devers, Houk, Dalbec, Crawford, Bello and then Moncada, Kopech, Montas, Margot, Espinal, Beeks, Buttrey and scraps. I suppose that's Bloom's fault, too.

Lugo with back-to-back 2 HR games! Tonight, he went 4 for 5. 2 HRs and a 2B and brought his OPS up to .837. McDonough got over .700 with a 4 for 5 night and the cycle! Jordan, Sikes, Jimenez and Garcia all had 2 hits. Sikes with a BB and a current OPS of .869.

The thing is, I'm not trying to change anyone's opinion, and agreeing to disagree is a good thing, many times. I guess repeating the same point over and over, something almost all of us do, is viewed by some as not agreeing to disagree.

Yes, finally, he is!

Not getting a good feeling about the ending to this game. Get some runs, PLEASE!

One thing I find interesting. Those who blame Bloom for our downfall in 2022 are just "stating facts." It's not viewed as "making excuses." If some state facts like just about every returning vet doing worse from 2021 to 2022, it's viewed as making an excuse to lessen the heat put on Bloom. Bringing up facts like a massive amount of injuries to our most key players is viewed as making excuses. Isn't saying trading Renfroe just an excuse, too? The fact is, almost the entire team did worse than 2021 or expected. Only Devers, Vaz and maybe Houck did the same or better than 2021. Bloom additions Schreiber, Refsnyder, Wacha and to some extent Hill and Strahm did better or about as expected, yet the Renfroe, Deikman and Barnes extension are all some talk about as the reason why, OR EXCUSE!, we suck this year.

...and Schreiber, Refsnyder, Strahm and to some extent Hill, Pham, McGuire (for Diekman) and carry-overs Pivetta, Whitlock and Kike.