moonslav59

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.

Nice to see you supporting all or players, No throwing anyone specific under the bus. Thank you for your optimism.

Well said. BTW, I do not think Bloom is averse to trading away prospects, even top ones, when the moment is right. The biggest Bloom bashers seem to be the ones that wanted us to go all in at the deadline, despite complaining about what a crappy team Bloom built. This was not the year or the deadline to go all in or even moderately "in."

We had some pretty amazing defensive CF'er and RF'er in those days.

We've gone over this enough. Wasn't moving him from RF to LF moving him around, too?

Thank God. Imagine Swi as our GM!

Agreed.

Bogaerts was extended, but the damn opt out got in the way. You are right. Pedey was the "last one," and maybe his example has scared the top brass.

I don't disagree, but I do think we might have to let one or two positions "slide,: if we are to significantly upgrade some positions or just stay even at SS. I do think catcher is a bigger need than 1B, but I'm assuming Casas will come through. Having Hosmer tilts the balance towards needing a catcher more. Which position of need do you see as being the highest to lowest priority for fixing (winter additions?) Here's mine (top listed first): 1. 2B/SS (whichever Story does not play): Arroyo & Valdez (Downs/Yorke/Lugo) 2. CF: Duran, J Davis (Rafaela) 3. Catcher: McGuire, Wong, RHern (Cottam) 4. SP 1/2: Sale/Paxton 5. RF: Dugo, Refsnyder (Abreu) 6. 1B/DH: Casas, Hosmer, Dalbec (Kavadas) 7. Pen (beyond Houck & Whitlock): Schreiber, Brasier, Taylor, Davis, Barnes, Sawamura, German, Danish (Ort/Feltman) 8. SP 5/6: (Whitlock?) Winckowski, Crawford, Bello, Mata, Seabold (Walter/Murphy) (One could make 9 slots with DH being #9 (Hosmer/Dalbec/Cordero/Granberg/Kavadas) How do you guys rank our 2023 need areas? Which do you think we fill from within, without any additions or minor ones?

It seems to me, and I could be wrong, again, that the biggest Bloom bashers are the ones who were cliff deniers, and maybe they are just pissed that 2021 made them feel they were right about there never having to be a cliff. Now, they are just frustrated and bitter. Just a theory.

I'm talking about when they played Arroyo in RF, instead of JBJ or Verdugo. Why not Dugo in RF and Arroyo in LF. Only those games.

. True, but maybe we can pass the O's. Ben had 3 last place finishes. I hope Bloom doesn't match that. I don't think he will. I'd like to add that I feel Ben was handed a better team, a better spending budget and a better farm than Bloom. Last place is last place. There is no sugar-coating it, but 2020 was one major cluster, that in my opinion, cannot be blamed even 33% on Bloom, let alone more than 50% (if blame is your thing.)

Verdugo had played RF, and in Fenway, before. Arroyo had not. Put the weaker defender in Fenway's LF. It's not rocket science. It's b een Red Sox strategy for over a century.

Or, some similar data/metric, perhaps of their own.

Or, he could be a 2B option, next year and beyond, as Story moves to SS. Or, he just becomes a utility/DH type player. Or, he never makes a dent in the bigs. The more choices you have, the better odds one or more come through. I would like to start seeing more quality over quantity, but the quantity method has merit, too, especially when you started out with a bottom 5 farm.

That's how I see it. We may squeak into the playoffs, and that would be awesome, but this team is not going to win a ring. I'd be thrilled to be proven wrong, but I'm much more optimistic about 2023 and beyond. To each, his own.

I don't know what you are talking about. I don't hold Vaz in disdain. I offer criticism of one aspect of his game, and you act like I'm saying he sucks, with this "yet another shot" crap. It's always been about just one thing with Vaz- not several different ones. If someone says Vaz sucked, I'd defend him and have, by pointing out his good aspects, namely offense for a catcher, blocking the plate and other areas. I don't take Bloom criticism personally, and I have criticized him, myself, many times. You seem to take issue with one criticism of Vaz. Maybe saying you are "thin-skinned" is going overboard, but you never fail to jump on that point being made and blow it into some some sort of vendetta against Vaz. I have 3 people on ignore- two are trolls, after going years without ever doing it. I disagree with a lot of posters, often, including you, but you are not unreasonable and don't make it personal and are respectful. I've never considered putting you on ignore, although I'm pretty sure, you could care less. I'm hopeful about McGuire, Pham, Hosmer and the prospects. I have no disdain for Vaz. I did for Diekman and Robles (this year.)

Kinda what I was thinking.

Eventually, some players doing well in the minors actually do well in the bigs. I'm not sure why some seem to be against adding good prospects. While increasing potential value might amount to nothing, isn't that the way farms are supposed to be improved? Is there some other way to do it I'm not aware of? Sure, talk the talk of developing pitchers in better ways, identify draftees in better ways, and other areas, and all we can hope for is that we are trying to and actually improving in those areas, but adding promising prospects should be viewed as a good thing. BTW, we've had some recent successes with pitching prospects: Houck, Whitlock, Wickowski, Crawford and some flashes of promise from Bello.

lmao!

Arroyo has done pretty damn well, when he's healthy. There was no way he was going to play 2B, 3B or SS, unless there was an injury, so I can't blame Cora for trying him in the OF. The best spot would have been LF, but we already had too many LF'ers on the team. Again, I go back to Dugo. Why not play Dugo in RF and Arroyo in LF? Now that JBJ is gone, suddenly Dugo can play RF. I'm still puzzled.