moonslav59

...and then his 15th! Lugo has been finally showing some signs of life. Is it too late?

At least we can take some comfort in watching the Yankees go up in flames.

ERA is just some nerd's fabrication, as is BA.

Bello looked good in AAA. 4.1 IP, 4H, 1ER, 2BB and 5K

Of course, some luck is involved. Either way, the farm is often valuable for providing cost-controlled talent to the big clubs with limited budgets while also offering opportunities to use to trade for key veteran pieces, when needed. A healthy balance is the goal, which mean trying not to totally or nearly empty the farm, at any given time, even if it seems like a ring is just a key piece or two away. You strive for quality and quantity to maximize your chances more will rise to the top and b e helpful or alluring enough to trade for major help, when needed.

I hope I'm wrong. Maybe we keep him. I'm not sure I'm sold on him being SS for many more years or his highly-touted leadership skills. My guess is, the power numbers are down due to an unannounced injury.

What about the examples of not trading key farm pieces away? The fact that DD's prospects traded away did not amount to what was perhaps expected does not mean that is the winning formula every time. Should we have traded Betts, Bogey and others when they were just farm pieces? Should we trade away Mayer, casas, Bello, Bleis and others, because they might be the next Moncadas, Guerras and Allens? What if they turn into the next Betts, Bogey and Devers? It's not an easy question to answer, and yes, Bloom was brought in, like Ben, to build the farm, not to trade it away. It's obvious JH is in on that part of the plan. The losing now is up for debate.

God, I miss the days we "forgot" to send Fisk his contract on time.

MSGA! Make the Sox Great Again!

With inflation and a rising tax limit, I think he gets more than the $23.3M x 6 Story got, last season.

...but then again, Bloom came 2 games from making the WS with last year's under the tax line team, so maybe he sees it as being about even, but with the farm still improving. Who knows. There are certainly reasons to fire the whole bunch and start over, but I seriously doubt JH sees it that way. I'd guess he's not even thought of canning Bloom. Just a guess.

As I recall, nobody of note.

I'm not for giving Bogey $27M x 6. I was just saying that's what it likely will take.

1. Pham LF (Phamtastic!) 2. Dugo RF (I didn't know Cora had this type of move in him! LOL!) 3. Bogey SS (Time to start leading the team out of the cellar.) 4. Devers 3B (Can you get me to say, "Devers Forevers," tonight?) 5. Arroyo 2B (Cora going with the recency affect.) 6. Hosmer 1B (Cora going away from the recency affect.) 7. Refsnyder DH (So, they like Dugo's RF D better than Ref's, or are they "resting" Ref?) 8. McGuire C (No one's getting fat, cept Mama Cass.) 9. Kike CF (Let's see if he can re-create some of that late season thunder we saw in '21!)

No doubt, but I doubt that case, which would have merit, would convince JH to make a change to the plan he put in motion, to begin with, namely to cut spending and rebuild the farm.

They watched every player play every game? Nope. They waited for the Sunday paper, looked at the HR and BA leaders and trusted only that. How about before TV? How did that work out? (They once voted a GG to a player who did not even play the position, that year. LOL!)

I'm not convinced we will have to stay under the tax line in 2021, but it will be year 2 taxes, and it would probably then mean we get under for 2024. (All the more reason to have sold off some contracts, this deadline, and be year 1 on taxes, next season, but Bloom had to keep the cry babies happy enough not to revolt, but I digress.)

We can also extend Devers now, or over the winter, and it doesn't kick in until 2024. Or, if we go over in 2023, we could make 2023 be part of the extension, probably lower the AAV, and that would help out going beyond 2023.

I don't think that's how it works. Bloom to JH: "Can you spare a dime?" JH: "Sure kid. Why didn't you ask me earlier?" When you say things like we "needed a 1Bman," I'm assuming you think the GM didn't fulfill the need you saw, and then later implied they knew was there, but did nothing. If I assumed wrongly, I'm sorry. I certainly think mistakes were made, and I also think the budget has been very rigid. It involved massive cutting before 2020, just enough to cover lost contracts and basic needs in 2021, and then finally opened up a bit in March of 2022. I don't think the GM had or has the ability to squeeze more from the owner.

It doesn't have to be an either or choice. One can fully enjoy watching baseball live or on TV and also enjoy exploring data. Really. It's true!

The recognized the need in 2021, before casas was ready. Sure, they knew 1B could be a trouble spot. We all did, but the plan to start with a career .804 1Bman and have your top ML ready prospects as his back-up was not some sort of gross dereliction of duty by Bloom. As it turned out, the plan imploded, as did RF's, CF's and then 2B- not to mention the returning vets letting down the team.

Schwarber? OK, we sign Schwarber and don't sign Wacha, Hill, Strahm and still spend more. Or, we don't sign Story and go with Arroyo and Downs...oh wait... I think expecting to give your top Prospect, Casas, a top 50 MLB prospect a shot before hitting the deadline was a decent plan in March. You keep blaming Bloom for not spending what he wasn't given to spend. It's easy to say we should have done _____, but not realize it would have meant not doing _____.

Even if all 3 sign for $18M each and Bogey gets $27, that's almost the $84M we have to stay under the tax line. No pitching cost added. No depth cost added. Take out Contreras, and it's realistic, IMO. Maybe add Kike instead of Haniger and get Narvaez, instead of Contreras.

You don't get a good closer without hitting the bank hard. The 1B need was not apparent until June.

Again, with a limited spending budget, how can a GM sign the big named players you want, granted Story's signing has not worked well, so far, while also adding solid supporting players at cut-rate prices? I'd say Bloom did a pretty good job adding Schreiber and refsnyder for nothing but min salary costs. He added Wacha, Hill and Strahm as supporting players. Yes, he added Diekman, too, but hye was able to dump him for a decent back-up catcher/support. He later added Hosmer and Pham as support. He started with Arroyo as IF support and Casas as the expected 1B support, if needed. It's actually been the vets that have let this team down, namely Bogey, JD, Dugo, Nate and Barnes. The supporting cast has kept our hopes barely alive. Vets: Only Devers and Vaz improved on O from 2021. Only Houck stayed even from 2021. All other vets declined from last year. If we can strain to name the heroes for 2022, besides Devers, who has struggled in August, they would all be from the supporting cast: Refsnyder Schreiber Arroyo (in just a few games, he's given more than several regulars have all year) Pham McGuire Wacha (in March, many felt he'd be moved to the pen when Sale or Paxton returned) Hill Crawford (has been huge!) Strahm Wink & Danish to a small extent