moonslav59

It's absurd to think Bloom never tried to get more than he did. He traded 1 year of Betts, that turned out to be a 60 game season, plus $16M x 3, that turned to 2 years, of Prices contract for Verdugo, who already has a higher WAR than that one year of Betts and 2 prospects. I had hoped he'd get more, too, but the reported SDP deal looked no better, and the fact is, dumping Price was a major aspect of that trade.

I never said that.

Is it better to just stick your head in the sand and pretend Henry's wallet is always open?

Some are even claiming Bogey is playing hurt, but it's not an excuse.

Yes, we are living with it. We still make the car payments and have less to spend on food and luxuries.

You really don't get the point being made? It's the $16M on a restricted budget that makes a difference, in theory anyway.

Then, they don't admit they hate of have any disdain, despite a continued pattern of bashing on virtually every front. When they mention bad trades, they never even offer a balancing comment that some trades have worked well, and others are still not complete enough to judge, finally. They minimize the Whitlock addition as "luck." They hardly mention the Schreiber, refsnyder and Arroyo pick-ups that were pretty much for free. They bash the renfroe trade without mentioning that Bloom got him for a steal of $3.1M the prior winter. They mention the Beni trade, which one side of the trade ends in less than 2 months, and the other looks much more promising than before. They never mention us getting German for Ottavino's salary dump, or they say, "He hasn't pitched in the majors, yet. Well, neither has the cash we gave up for him.) The Wacha signing looks very good. The Strahm one did, until he got hurt. Maybe the Hill signing will end up a plus. The Story signing isn't even 1/6th done, and it's already a bust, seemingly by some. Yes, the JBJ traded sucked. I agreed from day one, but even that trade brought us prospects that may balance or nearly balance it, later. It's about context and the total picture, but some can't seem to see the forest through the trees. Yes, we are at .500 with a $225M player budget. Once can oversimplify, or one can be a simpleton- sometimes both.

soxprospects projects these roster for next season's minor league levels: https://www.soxprospects.com/2023.htm They have Casas, Winckowski, Crawford, Seabold on the big club. AAA Bello, Mata, Walter, Murphy & Santos (pretty impressive) Maybe Ward at some point. German as the closer w DHern, Ort, Feltman Thompson and Politi among pen arms C Wong/RHern 1B _____ (maybe Kavadas by year's end?) 2B E Valdez? (Hamilton) 3B: Koss SS: Downs LF: Granberg CF: Ja. Davis RF: W Abreu DH: Fitzy (Maybe Northcut or Kavadas by year's end) AA Ward, Drohan, Liu, Van Belle and Padron-Artiles (maybe Gonzo or Uberstine, later) C Cottam 1B Kavadas 2B Yorke 3B Binelas SS Lugo LF McDonough/Rosier CF Rafaela RF Jimenez DH Northcut (Interesting line-up)

Just share the love, Larry. That's all I'm askin'!

Maybe 2019?

If you take away player benefits and Price's contract, that $100M is close to half of our player salary budget, and most were all out at the same time. Virtually no significant trades are ever done in May, and very few are done in June. It's easy to just say, Bloom should have traded for a 1Bman after Casas got hurt and once we realized Kike had his first setback, but doing it is another story. This reminds me of posters saying, "We should have gotten more for Betts." It's a point that makes sense, in theory, but the reality is, what was offered. The other reported offer was no better. The whole Price part of the deal is pushed off to the side, like it didn't matter in the trade return or the resulting budget and make up of the roster had he not been included. Often, it seems, context is not a consideration. .

Being a Red Sox fan from the early 70's to 2003, I did not take any comfort from knowing we had won back in 1918. For all I cared, I was a fan of a baseball team that never wins rings. 2004 changed that, and I'm eternally grateful to Henry and his team of baseball people that made it all happen. The next 3 rings were gravy and have made me greedy, but I am fully capable and accepting of the fact that some sacrifices need to be made to reach the promise land. I'm fine with the two steps up- one step back philosophy. This one step back has lasted longer than I hoped, but back in the winter of 2019-2020, I expected a rather prolonged down period, as I felt it might take 4-5 years to build the farm back up to top 5 or 10 levels. The 2021 season might have given me false hopes, but it might also have been a real sign of great progress that just had a big hic-up along the way due to various factors, including the 3 you pointed out in your 1/3 faults post.

It's just not what GMs are looking to do in May and June. Even those way out of it.

This is what I have been saying. Some of the posters who seem to have had the worst outlook on the 2022 team, most from day one, were also the ones thinking we were just a couple significant moves away from contending had we made some bold deadline trades. Conversely, some of the posters who had the most optimistic outlooks about this year's roster were the ones thinking a sell-off of one year controll players was a viable idea.

The other thing is, we did have Refsnyder in the system that worked out as a capable RH'd OF bat, but then JBJ s*** the bed. We had Casas as our top ML ready prospect ready to fill in for Dalbec and then he got hurt in late May, so the timetable for Bloom to have acquired capable back-ups was not from opening day to the deadline. At worst it was from the end of may to August 2nd, and who knows what GM were looking to trade, then?

lmao

Not only was Bloom supposed to predict the future and sign or trade for better players on the tight budget handed, him, he was supposed to magically produce a bench capable of handling a ton of injuries, because injuries are just an excuse.

I almost always do. many times my favorite teams have been underdogs, too.

True, but most of our injuries happened after the 20th game of the season.

I think for fans, yes, the true goal is to watch your team win it all. The secondary goal is to be competitive as much as possible, and when not, at least be a bit entertaining. To owners and some GMs, who know their first priority is owner profits not winning, the number one goal is probably to make money. The second goal might be to win rings, compete a lot or to give your customer (the fan) the perception that you are good enough to compete.

What's interesting to me, is that we are now 49-40 since the first 19 games of the season, despite all the injuries and 2 significant declines from Bogey and JD.

True enough! I'd rather be a Rays fan than half the teams in MLB that spend way more than them.

Yup, and Henry might have known when he hired Bloom, he would make a change once the farm was built back up. (Maybe not. Maybe, he wants to build a sustainable farm system and not hire a plunderer.)

If our big 3 hitters ever wake up from their funk, the supporting cast has been giving it their all: 14 day OPS 1.250 Dugo .957 Arroyo .833 Dalbec .786 Pham .784 McGuire These guys, not so much... .586 Duran .584 Hosmer .577 JD (.670 last 7 days) .564 Devers (.661 last 7 days) .523 Bogey (.554 last 7 days .375 Plawecki .236 Kike Our pitching staff has a .496 OPS Against in the last 7 days! May the DFA Brasier posters be aware: Last 9 PAs Opps are 0-9 with no BBs Whitlock 0-9 with 1 BB in 10 PAs. Sawamura 1-10 no BBs Pivetta 1-22 w 3 BBs Wacha 2-23 1 BB Barnes 2-11 0 BB (Nothing more than singles for all the above hits allowed.) Hill 3-18 0BB (1 HR) Crawford 2-19 4 BB (1 HR)

Gotta keep the peddle to the metal.