moonslav59

This is one reason why offering one's plan when criticizing would be the fair thing to do. It's easy to go back in hindsight, and say he could have done this or that, but what did you really want back then? I'll be honest, I wanted Baez, McHugh and Suzuki and I think a SP'er (via trade?) I wasn't alone on Suzuki. Others wanted Rodon, Gausman, Correa, Semien or Freeman to take up most of the winter spending budget. Many would have been better than Story, for sure, but I'm not really sure the checkbook was open when they signed.

Fair point on Bogey, and I did not intend to sound "anti-Bogey." I want him back, but I do think his cost will prohibit us from improving at all the areas we need to, this winter. I chose OPS as my comp stat, because our offense has been so bad. Yes, Bogey's D has lifted his WAR above last year, and that has had real value, but BA? Really? That is reaching. His rbi total is woefully lower, due in part to less homers, but also with too many of those BA hits coming when men are not in scoring position, especially with 2 outs or when it counted most: .317 BA .306 RISP .173 RISP, 2 outs .299 Late & Close .284 High Leverage Overall, I'd say he declined on offense but was a net plus overall- same with Devers.

But, Mayer has nothing or very little to do with that choice. You move Bogey to another position (3B, if Devers is gone) or trade Bogey, Story or Mayer, if a logjam ever occurs.

I saw an opening day game there a long time ago, and kinda liked the place. I'm not saying any park is worse, but I enjoyed the game, until the "closer by committee" pen blew the game in the 9th.

Add Paxton and I hope Wacha on a QO.

I know prospects aren't worth much, until they produce at the big league level or are traded for someone who does, but can we revisit one aspect of the deadline trades by Bloom? The Vaz and Diekman trades. Diekman ($4M x 2) for McGuire ($766K + 3 arbs) McGuire .816 in 62 PAs Diekman 4.66 ERA in 9.2 IP/ 2.07 WHIP Vazquez ($7M w 2 months remaining of team control) for Enmanuel Valdez & Wilyer Abreu Vazquez .653 in 52 PAs w HOU Minors: EValdez: .304 28 104 (AA/AAA) .389 OBP/ .579 SLG/ .968 OPS (60BB/107K in 437 ABs) He has 54 HRs over the last 2 seasons (802 ABs) WAbreu: .246 17 67 (AA) .395 OBP/ .433 SLG/ .828 OPS (102 BB/142 K in 423 ABs) The results of the trades are not over, yet, but when you combine these two trades, we gained 3 years of team control at the catcher position, while saving money. The production on O will likely drop over time, but who knows how well Vaz will do going forward and at what cost? Dumping Diekman's contract was a great part of the deal and when you com bine what we owed Vaz and Diekman over the final 2 months plus Diekman's $4M, next year, that may pay for McGuire's 3 arb years. Then, we have some hopes for Valdez and Abreu. The Hosmer and Pham deals will take more time to evaluate, but neither looks bad, off the bat.

The Sox farm continues winning. 2-1, today with a rainout. (16-3 last 5 days) Woo won 5-2. Mata looked OK by the numbers: 6.0 IP, 4H, 2ER, 3BB, 5K German with his 7th save (0H, 0BB, 0K) EValdez (Vaz trade) got 3 of the team's 5 hits and 4 RBI. He had a 2B and HR. Almonte walked 3 times and was 1-1 w 3 runs scored. POR won 5-0 Rafaela 2-4 (HR, 2B) WAbreu 1-3 w 2 BBs (102 on the season) Koss 1-3 (HR, HBP) SAL lost 9-6 Romero 2-4 w 2B and 3 rbi Paulino 1-4 w 2B and BB Anthony 1-4

There is zero dilemma. If and when Mayer is ready to play SS, they guy there can be moves to 2B, 3B or traded.

Wrong, again. The GREEN means sarcasm.

Here who TOR and BAL have to play: BAL 10 TOR 7 BOS 3 @ NYY 4 HOU 3 DET 2 @ WSH TOR 10 BAL 9 TBR 3 BOS 3 NYY 3 @ TEX 2 @ PHI I'm not saying we have a chance, but think about this: if TOR & BAL go 5-5 vs each other and we win those 10 days, we gain 5 on each. Then, we beat them head-to head. Easy, right?

What temper? (BTW, another example of passive aggressive BS on the "partner" thing, while feigning innocence. You don't fool anyone.)

One game under .500. Keep this streak going! What are our chances, if we win 6 more in a row (3 @ TBR and 3@BAL?) Here's the remaining schedule: 3 @ TBR 3 @ BAL day off 2 v NYY day off 3 v KCR day off 2 @ CIN 4 @ NYY 4 v BAL 3 @ TOR 3 v TBR RED= 16 games vs teams we need to pass

Ok, got it. I misread your post. My guess is we may have less than a 1% chance at the top pick and maybe 1-2% at a top 6.

Montas just might redeem himself, after all. Judge got half the Yankees 6 hits and hit his 53rd! Geesh! Man, the Yankee O sucks.

I think he was just hoping you were true to your word about getting "out of here."

Thanks. So, we'd really have to tank to get to 6th worst. We are 12 games ahead of KC.

And, it's not always as easy as it seems to think or say, "Hey, the offer the A's accepted was pretty low. We could have beaten that by offering so and so." Maybe- maybe not. Maybe Bloom did miss a good opportunity. Maybe they wanted Rafaela or Bello and others. I'm also not convinced Bloom had the Story money to spend, until JH heard the rumblings of Sox Nation and suddenly said, "Okay, you can spend $140M/6." Maybe, and this is pure conjecture, Bloom might have made other moves had he known he could go over the tax line in December. (Maybe he overbids for Suzuki and/or Baez...UGH!!!)

You're like Eck vs Youk.

How low do you have to be to have a chance at the first pick- lotto style?

I guess he wouldn't trade Casas straight up for Alcantara. Just the thought of trading Casas is crazy.

I doubt we leave every eak slot to the kids, but I agree the OF is the major need (with an ace). The rest might be one year deals to bridge to the kids.

If anything, it might be a 1 year signing. Maybe someone who can play RF/DH would be a better fit. Mancini can play 1B/RF/DH. He's a great clubhouse guy, too, but he won't go for 1 year. I don't think a big expenditure should got for a 1B/DH type with Kavadas, Valdez, Casas and others in the system.

Did he have an endless b udget to sign all those players posters pined for? Yes, in hindsight, we should have signed Martin Perez not Rich Hill, and I remember many wanting Perez back. LOL

So, on balance, were the Bloom additions a net plus or minus: + Wacha Schreiber Refsnyder Strahm McGuire Pham ??? Story Hill Hosmer Paxton Prospects: EValdez, WAbreu, MFerguson, ABinelas, DHamilton, C Rosier - Renfroe>JBJ Diekman (turned into McGuire) It seems to me, Blooms biggest mistake was not knowing which vets were going to decline and trading them just before their declines- fan faves or not, and most of the ones who declined the most were carry-over vets, while most of Blooms additions did pretty well. To the Bloom dislikers: is this true or not?

Of course, Bloom could have had the foresight to trade away every player that was about to decline from 2021 to 2022, but let's break down how many and by how much the players declined- Bloom players vs inherited players: Inherited: +.100 Vaz (traded) +.070 Duran (to .648) -.001 Devers -.017 Bogarts -.023 Arroyo -.097 JD M -.148 Dalbec -.171 Plawecki '21 Renfroe vs '22 JBJ -.238 Bloom's Additions (Carry-overs) +.217 Cordero -.046 Verdugo -.146 Kike -.643 Arauz -.843 Shaw Bloom's Additions (New to 2022) .879 Refsnyder .816 McGuire .782 Ja. Davis .768 Pham .732 Story .611 Hosmer Lost to Free Agency or cut: .957 Schwarber .915 Iggy .597 Santana .567 Marwin ,549 Chavis (traded)