moonslav59

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.

It looked that way for Brasier, too, until last night.

The drop off from 2018 to 2019 was .097 in winning %, and the team was forced to cut over $40M in salary. The 2020 season reflected that along with Sale and ERod missing the entire season. blaming Bloom for 2020 is laughable. Blaming him for the .076 decline in winning % from 2021 to 2022 is fair, but then what about crediting him for the 2021 near miracle? Also, the decline from 2020, the worst point in recent Sox history, to 2021 is less than from 2018 to 2019. (.054 drop compared to .097) The farm is undeniably much better. The budget looks much better, in terms of dead money and added dead money from the DD era to now. That's not excusing 2022. We suck, and Bloom is partially responsible- even a big part.

No one is holding him blameless. The Renfroe trade sucked. BTW, he is the one who signed Renfroe and created the 2021 roster with a tight budget. Was that "inept," too? Are GMs only rated by current standings? We are better now than after 2019. Thinking otherwise is inept thinking. The team is better. The farm is better. The amount of deadwood is better. The budget is better suited for improving. The record sucks. There is no denying it. Some of Blooms moves sucked. Some seemed okay, but they ended up sucking. Too many key players got hurt. Just about all returning vets declined- many by a lot, and many were not Bloom acquired players. That's not excuses. We sucked, Period. But, facts are facts.

I'm still optimistic about him being a big help in the next 2-3 years. I hope that's not perceived as being a blind Bloom apologist. His defense is superb. Maybe he just needed an adjustment period to the AL, but the guy has skills. K's don't ever bother me, if the players gets on base or helps in other ways.

Wacha is making a strong case for a QO.