moonslav59

I think he still wishes we'd gone all in by trading prospects that have done nothing for the big team. Wash, rinse, repeat.

...and all for what? The fans they tried to keep happy enough to keep watching the team are irate and bitching up a storm. We played it halfway back before the 2013 ring,and it worked, but we traded away basically our whole vaunted rotation. I'm not sure we get the same results from this halfway stance. We got a couple nice prospects for Vaz. I have to think we could have gotten something valuable for Nate, JD and to a lesser extent Wacha, Hill, Strahm and maybe Kike. Had we pitched in some or most of the money- even better returns. Plus, we could have gotten under the tax line, so we'd be starting fresh with a year one tax for 2023.... not year 2 rates or a reset priority.

Losing cred.

What about Whitlock, German and Seabold?

But he just hit a tater, yesterday! I think we add a catcher, this winter, so having 4 is too much. Cottam is a borderline keeper on Rule 5, this winter. Tough call. Maybe we just go with the 3 we have, take the hit on offense, hopefully make gains on D and spend our resources upgrading other high need areas.

soxprospects has Wilyer Abreu as being Rule 5 eligible, this winter, but the do not have Enmanuel Valdez listed as eligible on any of their next 5 year lists. Anyone know, when he is eligible? He looks like a sure protectee, if it's this winter. (Not sure Abreu is.) I'm really liking the talent that is likely to be added to our 40 man roster, this winter. We may have someone taken from us, if we fail to protect some of our borderline Rule 5 protectees. Wilyer Abreu Dan Altavilla Angel Bastardo Adenys Bautista Brock Bell Royman Blanco Brainer Bonaci Zach Bryant Cameron Cannon Triston Casas Brendan Cellucci Felix Cepeda Kole Cottam Wil Dalton Joe Davis Osvaldo De La Rosa Luis De La Rosa Tyler Dearden Nick Decker Jonathan Diaz Alex Erro Tyler Esplin Albert Feliz Durbin Feltman Ryan Fernandez Ryan Fitzgerald Feleipe Franks Grant Gambrell Frank German Rio Gomez Wikelman Gonzalez Bryan Gonzalez Devlin Granberg Jaxx Groshans David Hamilton Gabriel Jackson Axel James Gilberto Jimenez Christian Koss Austin Lambright Dominic LoBrutto Eduardo Lopez Bryan Lucas Naysbel Marcano Elih Marrero Chris Murphy Brendan Nail Nick Northcut Andres Ortuno Yusniel Padron-Artiles Eddinson Paulino Aaron Perry AJ Politi Ceddanne Rafaela Jose Ramirez Oscar Rangel Tyreque Reed Carlos Reyes Jorge Rodriguez Giancarlos Santana Victor Santos Stephen Scott Cody Scroggins Chase Shugart Nick Sogard Noah Song Dylan Spacke Miguel Suero Luis Talavera Jake Thompson Freddy Valdez Michael Valera Eduardo Vaughan Jacob Wallace Brandon Walter Thaddeus Ward Alex Zapete Ryan Zeferjahn ??? Enmanuel Valdez???

Valdez with 2 hits (one a 2B) and a BB, today. Could he be our next 2Bman or DH?

Kinda hard for a team to get on track when just about every player is having a worse season than last year. Improved OPS: .890>.941 Devers .659>.759 Vaz (traded) .497> .660 Cordero Declining OPS: .867>.789 JD .863>.826 Bogey .792>.649 Dalbec .786>.613 Kike .777>.709 Dugo .769>.746 Arroyo .737>.480 Plawecki How about the pitching? (ERA-) Improved: 78>77 Houck Declining: 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 It's hard to have hope these trends will turn on a dime, and most of these guys will return to 2021 form. It's not just that almost everyone declined, but look by how much many declined by. Now, look at dropped/added players: 2021: .957 Schwarber .915 Iggy .816 Renfroe .643 Arauz .597 Santana .567 Marwin .548 Chavis 2022: .967 McGuire .885 Refsnyder ,784 Pham .713 Story .687 Hosmer .578 JBJ Pitching: 2021 82 Rios 93 Ottavino 105 ERod 108 Richards 133 Andriese 145 Brice 335 Peacock 386 Weber 795 Brewer 2022 43 Scheiber 66 Wacha 88 Strahm 104 Diekman 105 Crawford 115 Winckowski 116 Hill

Nothing seems to be going right for our team. One step up and two steps back.

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.)