moonslav59

Every time a team does poorly, especially if there were high expectations, the blame game goes berserk. Where was the team leadership and manager through all that chickengate mess? Ow was the "mess" just a made up excuse? Did we learn a lesson from all that?

So, wait! Bogey, JD and Vaz are not good clubhouse leaders? I'm confused.

Or, it takes a long time to get there.

Seems to be a consistent trait of every Sox GM since early Theo.

an important distinction lost on several posters.

1/3 is about $8M. cots shows we are $11.8M over, right now, and I assume that counts Vaz's cut.

I read somewhere it was about $7M, and that trading JD alone would get us under. cots shows you are correct, so maybe trading JD, Vaz and Dieman would have gotten us close. Probably would have had to trade Wacha, Kike or Hill, too.

Good one. Vic had a 3 year deal and was eventually traded for fan favorite Josh Rutledge.

He looked scary bad his first call-up, but man-0-man, he's looked very good since then. (May 14>) 3.33 ERA 3.62 FIP .631 OPS Against Since June 19th: 45 IP 3.20 ERA 3.32 FIP .610 OPSA

Not only do we seem to have a void in clubhouse leadership, they aren't leading by example either. What bugs me the most is that people are lauding the leadership skills of Vaz and others and blaming the team malaise on trading Vaz. Where was the team energy and focus before the trade?

The farm was upgraded over 2021. The 40 man roster for 2023 was improved at the deadline (McGuire, Hosmer, Pham added without losing a single player with team control beyond 2022.) Added Prospects: 10. Romero (draft) 14. Anthony (draft) 16 and rising. E Valdez (Vaz trade) 20. Coffey (draft) 26. Abreu (Vaz trade) 28. Binelas (JBJ trade) Plus, many of Bloom's earlier farm additions seem to have made strides. (true, many have not.) This does not address your point. 1. Mayer (draft) 4. Yorke (draft- stock has fallen) 9. Winckowski (Beni trade) 12. Seabold (Workman/Hembree trade w Pivetta) 17. Wong (Betts trade) 18. Jordan (draft) 22. Hickey (draft) Stock rose a ton 25. Kavadas (draft) Stock rose a ton 30. German (Ottavino trade) might be a ket pen piece in 2023

100%. Just trading JD alone puts us under the tax line for 2022. Big mistake.

I'm not "worrying about" Henry. I'm not justifying his going stingy, at times. I'm just facing the reality that it is what it is. He opened the wallet enough, IMO, this winter, to make us more competitive than we ended up being, but I don't think he or Bloom saw this deadline as being the right time to splurge and sacrifice some of the future to go for a ring. I agree with their assessment. You don't, but it is what it is. Henry chose not to spend at the deadline.

Yes, indeed. Baseball is still the best game. It's much more fun watching a winning team, but within the context of the curse being broken, it's not so hurtful watching the Sox lose as it was years ago.

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.