moonslav59

Indeed. I'm not blaming Story for getting hurt or Bloom for not foreseeing the injury. The jury is still out on Story, and I do think Bloom made a credible effort to add some serious RH'd offense to the roster by signing Story.

I don't think Henry and Bloom's plan involved winning a ring in 2022, so it's hard to assign a grade based on that. I agree on the long term outlook looking much better than it did after 2019 and 2020, and a bit better after 2021. This winter will be Bloom's flashpoint moment and will largely set his legacy in stone.

I'd say B on effort- D- on results for 2022 only.

Perhaps, but we have a lot of other players, I feel are more likely nontender/DFA or trade candidates. A lot depends on how many Rule 5 guys we add to the 40 and how many roster additions we make over the winter, but here is my list: Sanchez Ja. Davis Barnes Familia Brasier Cordero (can play OF, so maybe not) Wong or RHern (assuming we add a starting catcher) Downs Dalbec When you consider we are losing 8 roster slots to free agency and have options on Pham & Sawamura, one has to think several of these players on this list will be back on the 40, hopefully not the 26, next season.

I like your thought process, here. I don't disagree on any of this, but want to add... 1) I don't playing Story at SS, until Mayer is ready is a bad idea. (We might see Valdez at 2B/DH in 2023 and then DH only once Mayer joins the team.) 2) I'd love to see a Nimmo addition. I'm okay with Verdugo in RF, but have vociferously questioned Sox management's views on him in RF. 3) With a gaping hole at SS/2B, maybe Valdez gets a shot at 2B, despite his reported less than average defense, there. 4) Singing to the choir. 5) I've been saying for a while, Casas might be traded- not because I don't like him, but because you have to give top value to get top value, and as bad as 1B has looked for us, recently, I don't think Hosmer/Dalbec (Kavadas/Valdez?) is one of our highest need areas. If we can package Casas for a top pitcher, catcher, 2B/SS or CF'er, I'm interested. Finding a 1Bman, if Hosmer & Co. fail in 2023 is easier than adding an ace or top 2B, C or CF'er mid season.

Since Bobby Dee has options, and has very little trade value, I think he'll remain on the 40, but maybe not the 26. As bad as the Dalbec 2022 season has been, and it's hard to imagine he can get any worse, he is currently sitting at a .340 OBP and .759 OPS vs LHPs and a projected 32 HRs over 650 PAs, which is the short side of a platoon. He has a career .860 OPS vs lefties with an astounding 650 PA line of 38 HRs and 116 RBI (even a .330 OBP!) I don't think we throw in the towel, just yet, on Dalbec, but DH and ack-up 3B/1B seem like his best spot on the 26.

Call me a nit-picker, but you did say "no REAL effort." Story was a real effort that failed in 2022, but it was a real effort. BTW, had he not gotten hurt, he might have ended up with more RBIs than Schwarber and Renfroe, while playing GG defense. It was an effort.

Despite all the RBIs and stellar 2B D, the Story signing and injury did not help the 2022 team. The head-scratching Renfroe for JBJ and prospects was a total 2022 disaster. The Diekman signing was, too, but getting McGuire for him might end up helping going forward. The Barnes extension still hits the budget and the pen depth issue hard. The Wacha, Hill and Strahm additions range from okay to being overall plusses, despite times on the IL. The Schreiber and Refsnyder afterthoughts turned out to be Bloom's best moves on the 2022 roster. The Paxton signing might have been viewed as a hint that 2023 and beyond were a higher priority from day one, but he was also expected to help by now. No doubt, Bloom bears the responsibility for those choices. We can claim restricted budget all we want, but this past winter he had enough to make a much better impact on 2022 and beyond, but his moves, in an overall sense, failed. Luckily, most were just 1 year deals, and I guess you get what you pay for on one year deals- namely crapshoots. It started out looking like Bloom was a genius on Wacha and Strahm, but their injuries stopped any hopes that Bloom's winter deals would end up being okay or on the plus side. It's easy to just stop right here, and place full blame on Bloom. We can ignore than many of the plus players on the 2022 team were acquired by Bloom, some in stunning fashion, like Whitlock and Pivetta, and maybe the overall scoreboard of blame looks a little better than some seem to be making it out as, but ultimately, this team failed to reach almost everyone's expectations. Maybe the 2021 team's success falsely raised our expectations and their over-performance actually makes Bloom, now, look worse, but that's not really part of the bottom line. We suck, this year. There is no sugar-coating that fact. Injuries- yes. Lack of focus- yes. Bumbling- yes. Tons of excuses- yes. Trying to assign blame is a big part of our society and culture. I try hard to avoid it, but it's something hard to accomplish. Ultimately, the blame starts at the top: Henry, top brass and Bloom- include Cora, too, if you must. Mistakes and misjudgements have been plentiful, but ultimately, the success of the team falls on the players, the team leaders, the coaches and the manager, and the staggering amount of returning players decline from 2021 to 2022, even among players in prime or pre-prime years has to be included in the overall assessment of this team's demise. We saw Vaz up about 100 points in OPs, and Devers up about 40 or 50. Other than Cordero, who played a minor role on the offense plan, nobody else improved. We saw... Dalbec and Kike down about 150 points or more (Kike missing most of the season) JD and Dugo down about 70 points Bogey about 40 Arroyo down a little, but Plawecki down about 250 points The pitching side was even worse. Houck was about the same, but all others declines- some very sharply. I find it hard to blame Bloom and Cora for all their declines, but apparently, he should have foreseen it and traded them all away or fired Cora to replace him with someone who would have inspired them to improve not decline. (sarcasm alert) As well as Whitlock did, he still did not match last year's brilliant rookie year. In no way should he be faulted for his 2022 season. Others, yes. ERA- declines: 33>130 Brasier 43>74 Whitlock 67>80 Sawamura 70>78 Sale 74>529 DHern 75> n/a Taylor 79>143 Robles 83>102 Nate 84>165 Barnes 100> 111 Pivetta 107>115 A Davis I seriously doubt any GM or manager could overcome this near complete implosion by returning vets. Blame the GM for not predicting this and doing something about it. Blame the manager for not improving focus and morale and making better choices when trying to choose the lesser of 10 evils. Blame the owner for being stingy. But, if blame is what we are doing, here, lets not forget the near complete implosion by returning vets. I count 3-4, who pulled their weight. The other 15-20 significant returning vets ranged from slight declines to s***ing the bed. The blame should go from top to bottom with very few exceptions.

Schwarber and Renfroe had shown to be streaky hitters, too. The Story addition was a legitimate attempt to replace one of the departing big bats. Just because he was also Bogey insurance, does not mean he doesn't count.

Kinda like Dugo's trend.

Adding Story was "no real effort" to replace at least one of the two big bats we lost? And, by the way, both Renfroe and Schwarber were Bloom additions, in the first place.

I think he still wishes we'd gone all in by trading prospects that have done nothing for the big team. Wash, rinse, repeat.

...and all for what? The fans they tried to keep happy enough to keep watching the team are irate and bitching up a storm. We played it halfway back before the 2013 ring,and it worked, but we traded away basically our whole vaunted rotation. I'm not sure we get the same results from this halfway stance. We got a couple nice prospects for Vaz. I have to think we could have gotten something valuable for Nate, JD and to a lesser extent Wacha, Hill, Strahm and maybe Kike. Had we pitched in some or most of the money- even better returns. Plus, we could have gotten under the tax line, so we'd be starting fresh with a year one tax for 2023.... not year 2 rates or a reset priority.

Losing cred.

What about Whitlock, German and Seabold?

But he just hit a tater, yesterday! I think we add a catcher, this winter, so having 4 is too much. Cottam is a borderline keeper on Rule 5, this winter. Tough call. Maybe we just go with the 3 we have, take the hit on offense, hopefully make gains on D and spend our resources upgrading other high need areas.

soxprospects has Wilyer Abreu as being Rule 5 eligible, this winter, but the do not have Enmanuel Valdez listed as eligible on any of their next 5 year lists. Anyone know, when he is eligible? He looks like a sure protectee, if it's this winter. (Not sure Abreu is.) I'm really liking the talent that is likely to be added to our 40 man roster, this winter. We may have someone taken from us, if we fail to protect some of our borderline Rule 5 protectees. Wilyer Abreu Dan Altavilla Angel Bastardo Adenys Bautista Brock Bell Royman Blanco Brainer Bonaci Zach Bryant Cameron Cannon Triston Casas Brendan Cellucci Felix Cepeda Kole Cottam Wil Dalton Joe Davis Osvaldo De La Rosa Luis De La Rosa Tyler Dearden Nick Decker Jonathan Diaz Alex Erro Tyler Esplin Albert Feliz Durbin Feltman Ryan Fernandez Ryan Fitzgerald Feleipe Franks Grant Gambrell Frank German Rio Gomez Wikelman Gonzalez Bryan Gonzalez Devlin Granberg Jaxx Groshans David Hamilton Gabriel Jackson Axel James Gilberto Jimenez Christian Koss Austin Lambright Dominic LoBrutto Eduardo Lopez Bryan Lucas Naysbel Marcano Elih Marrero Chris Murphy Brendan Nail Nick Northcut Andres Ortuno Yusniel Padron-Artiles Eddinson Paulino Aaron Perry AJ Politi Ceddanne Rafaela Jose Ramirez Oscar Rangel Tyreque Reed Carlos Reyes Jorge Rodriguez Giancarlos Santana Victor Santos Stephen Scott Cody Scroggins Chase Shugart Nick Sogard Noah Song Dylan Spacke Miguel Suero Luis Talavera Jake Thompson Freddy Valdez Michael Valera Eduardo Vaughan Jacob Wallace Brandon Walter Thaddeus Ward Alex Zapete Ryan Zeferjahn ??? Enmanuel Valdez???

Valdez with 2 hits (one a 2B) and a BB, today. Could he be our next 2Bman or DH?

Kinda hard for a team to get on track when just about every player is having a worse season than last year. Improved OPS: .890>.941 Devers .659>.759 Vaz (traded) .497> .660 Cordero Declining OPS: .867>.789 JD .863>.826 Bogey .792>.649 Dalbec .786>.613 Kike .777>.709 Dugo .769>.746 Arroyo .737>.480 Plawecki How about the pitching? (ERA-) Improved: 78>77 Houck Declining: 33>130 Brasier 43>74 Whitlock 67>80 Sawamura 70>78 Sale 74>529 DHern 75> n/a Taylor 79>143 Robles 83>102 Nate 84>165 Barnes 100> 111 Pivetta 107>115 A Davis It's hard to have hope these trends will turn on a dime, and most of these guys will return to 2021 form. It's not just that almost everyone declined, but look by how much many declined by. Now, look at dropped/added players: 2021: .957 Schwarber .915 Iggy .816 Renfroe .643 Arauz .597 Santana .567 Marwin .548 Chavis 2022: .967 McGuire .885 Refsnyder ,784 Pham .713 Story .687 Hosmer .578 JBJ Pitching: 2021 82 Rios 93 Ottavino 105 ERod 108 Richards 133 Andriese 145 Brice 335 Peacock 386 Weber 795 Brewer 2022 43 Scheiber 66 Wacha 88 Strahm 104 Diekman 105 Crawford 115 Winckowski 116 Hill

Nothing seems to be going right for our team. One step up and two steps back.

Bout time. I had high hopes for him going into this season.

I guess if enough fans felt like we threw in the towel, they’d stop watching and going to games. I’m not sure if Kike had any trade value, but maybe Wacha, Hill and Strahm did.

Top Farm OPS (over 300 ABs) 1.088 Kavadas 1.017 E Valdez (HOU & BOS) .917 Rafaela .842 W Abreu (HOU & BOS) .821 Jordan .792 Granberg .789 Lugo .782 Bonaci .770 Paulini & Koss 200-299 ABs .892 Sikes .874 Casas .862 Mayer .795 Joe Davis .790 Sanchez Best OPS Against (47+ IP) With some IP above Salem .561 Bello .562 Seabold .582 Joey Stock .585 Walter .599 Mata .610 Murphy .635 Keller .658 Uberstine Notables: .484 Ward in 26.2 IP .499 German in 38.2 IP in relief .522 Luis de la Rosa (FCL & Salem) .668 Gonzalez

I got a gut feeling again. Arroyo homers and the Sox win.

Agreed, I still have scabs from head-scratching at the time of the JBJ trade, and the financial aspects of the trade are still ongoing, despite no tax line hit next year. $8M is $8M, and I believe that is more than any lux tax this team has ever paid in a single year. The 1B plan back-fired but was totally an acceptable pre-season plan. The RH'd bat was supposed to be settled with the Story signing. The OF plan back-fired when Kike went down, and replacing him was prolonged when he kept having set-back after set-backs. The Wacha, Hill and Strahm signings seemed to be fine, until all got hurt. The Sale and Paxton injuries were know, but neither brought us late season help we had hoped for,. I think the relative success of the fly-by-night pen of 2021 gave Bloom a false sense of security, there. He also swung and missed wildly on Diekman, although that was just $4M x 2. Maybe he hoped Whitlock and Houck could be kept in the pen more than they did, and our pen has looked much better, since they both joined it, but more pitching depth was something Bloom failed at. Maybe he hoped Crawford, Wink, Seabold or Bello could be ready, in time of need, but it seemed they really put off calling some of these kids up for longer than maybe they should have been. (Crawford and Seabold did not do well, when first called up, so maybe that was part of their resistance to call up Wink or give Crawford another look.) All-in-all, Bloom chose to spend some of the precious dollars he had on JBJ, Story and Diekman. (The Barnes extension and Paxton signings, also hurt 2023's bottom line budget.) I still have hope the Story signing will work out, despite scratching my head at the time he was signed, as well. I'm hopeful Bloom will spend his projected $90M plus, this winter, wisely, but I can't blame people for having serious doubts about his higher ticket moves. I called this winter Bloom's "flash point," and I still think it will be. I'm optimistic, knowing he will likely swing and miss on some moves, but I don't think he has to go 6 for 6, or even 5 for 7 in major moves for us to be better than 2021's team.