moonslav59

It's not easy to get team to trade in May, but it can be done, if desperate enough. Bloom did let it go too long, but I will say that Dalbec had a .595 OPS on June 8th of 2021, and was still at .648 on August 5th. Bloom/Cora were praised for sticking with him. as Dalbec was essential to our offense after August 5th. That was about 100 games into the season, too. I'm not trying to paint this season's 1B as some sort of success story: clearly it was not. I'm just saying the winter/spring plan was sound. We had a career .813 1Bman returning and a seemingly decent back-up in Shaw, as well as out top prospect, who was ML ready of very near so waiting in the wings. Dalbec and Shaw sucked, and Casas got hurt in the end of May. Waiting 100 games did not work, this year, like it did last year, and our 1B play was a big reason we were on the outside looking in at the deadline. That being said, I don't fault Bloom for the initial plan for 1B. I don't fault him and Cora for giving Dalbec and Shaw a look-see. When Casas got hurt, one can make a good argument a trade should have been made, at that time. It's hard to expect a GM to get a deal done in one day, so let's say June 1st. That was game 51. I'm fine with saying Bloom dropped the ball from game 51 to 105 (deadline). Personally, I thought sticking with Dalbec, after seeing what he did in 2021 made some sense, beyong June 1st, but there is a lot of merit to say no to that idea. Trying Cordero was a disaster, but was trying Schwarber the disaster many predicted, last season? This doesn't absolve Bloom/Cora. I'm not trying to argue the moves were justified or successful, but I do think some context is needed to judge the severity of the choices that were made. Hindsight is always 20-20, and who is to say, had we made a trade June 1st, maybe the guy we got would have sucked and we happen to have benched Dalbec right before he was going to get red hot- like last August and September? Of course, we know now, he did not, but at the time, no GM could know the future. It was a mistake, in hindsight. At the times of the choices, one can argue most made sense or some sense.

Beyond drafting, minor league FA additions and IFA signings, Bloom had traded for the following prospects. While the list seems more quantity vs quality orientated, I do feel like we have some promising prospects and some long shots with various degrees of upside potential. soxprospects ranking 9 Winckowski (w Cordero & others for Beni) 11 Seabold (w Pivetta for Workman & Hembree) 17 Binelas (w JBJ for Renfroe) 18 Wong (w Verdugo & Downs for Betts and Price) 21 Downs (w Verdugo & Wong for Betts and Price) 27 German (w Ottavino as salary dump trade by Yanks) 30 Koss (Y Aybar) 36 R Hernandez (Mazza & Springs) 48 Hamilton (w JBJ & Binelas for Renfroe) NR Luis de la Rosa (w Wink, Cordero & others for Beni) Freddy Valdez (w Wink, Cordero & others for Beni) Grant Gambrell (w Wink, Cordero & others for Beni) H Potts (w JRosario for Moreland)

Bloom said the deal came together quickly after that, as the Red Sox found a match for a position they’ve long needed an improvement at. https://www.sentinelsource.com/sports/national/red-sox-trade-for-padres-first-baseman-eric-hosmer-in-only-deal-on-deadline-day/article_803c4c88-e115-537c-a229-73372c1af303.html

To not have played Dugo in RF for even just an inning in 2022, until JBJ's DFA, makes me think they wanted to avoid playing him there at all costs. When they called up Duran, the played Duran in CF rather than Dugo, which further strengtherned my view that they felt Dugo was an only LF OF'er. Of course, it's just my opinion, and he's playing RF, now, so clearly they think it's okay. It just seemed all so sudden, to me. We were dying for a CF/RF'er, when Kike went down. If Dugo was okay in RF, why not go with ... vs RHP LF Duran CF JBJ RF Dugo vs LHP LF Dugo CF JBJ (or Duran) RF Refsnyder How many times were we thinking about trying something different but having no in-system choices. Well, we had one.

Mayb e we DFA Plawecki and call up Wong or RHern.

Casas can field a position and probably very well. If you meant, right now, maybe not just yet, but he's close to being fully re-habbed. Duran & Refsnyder are already filling FT roles. Well, Ref is on the IL, but when he comes back, we could have 3, if we want to call Casas up. I agree that Downs, Davis, Sanchez and Almonte aren't capable of filling any role FT, but maybe Wong or RHern can fill the back-up catcher rule before the year is over (DFA Plawecki?)

I caught a lot of flack for scratching my head, at the time of the trade. I'm hopeful Binelas and or Hamilton will help soften the blow this trade made on the 2022 team, but at least it's not a long lasting hit. One side of the Beni trade ends when this season is over. We know what Beni did for KC and will have done with the Yanks to finish out the season. The other half of the trade is far from complete, yet many label it as a clear blunder. First of all, I doubt Beni would hjave helped enough to get us any farther than we did since his departure. Secondly, the money saved on tphe trade allowed Bloom to sign his OF replacement- Renfroe (as Dugo was moved to LF.) Once can argue, this alone, balanced the trade. What Wink, Cordero and the other 3 prospects give us is still pending. The Betts/Price trade was a salary dump and forced on Bloom. Judging him or blaming him for trading Betts, without adding Price to the equation and the context of Bloom needing to cut salary is missing the full picture of the situation. There is plenty of other things to bash Bloom for, but IMO, not the Beni & Betts trades, yet.

Had we been 2-3 games up in the WC, maybe we'd have traded for Mancini & Lopez.

The whole "100 games" is hype. Were they supposed to replace Bobby Dee after 1 game? (Now, it's 99.) Shaw deserved at least a short look, too. Casas was supposed to be ML ready in April or May. To bash Bloom for not having the foresight to add a 4th ML quality 1Bman to the roster, when your winter spending budget was restricted is not something I can ever agree with. Waiting 40 or 45 games might be an arguable point, but even up until then, Casas was still healthy. To me, the earliest day Bloom could have/should have looked outside the organization was the day we knew Casas would be out for a while (May 25th?), and for all we know, maybe he did hit the phones, but nobody was selling. If my math is right, we went 60 games from the Casas injury to the Hosmer deal. We dumped Shaw, early. We gave Dalbec as long a look as he got, last year, when he started doing okay in early June, then exploded in early August. The Cordero at 1B experiment was a disaster, but many expected the Schwarber experiment at 1B to be one, too. I don't give Bloom a complete pass on 1B, but I don't view it as a major blunder, despite the results. He had bigger needs than 1B, last winter and into May.

True, but had they not traded Renfroe for JBJ, they could have traded him for a min salary or prospects, but they'd then need to fill the slot JBJ filled, and at the time, Refsnyder was not considered a viable option, even as a platoon option. The weird thing is, we could have started the year with Duran in LF, Kike in CF and Dugo in RF, but in April, Dugo was not good enough to play RF. Suddenly, it's okay.

That was the leading cause of my itchy scalp at trade time. I get wanting to improve RF defense in Fenway. I get hoping JBJ's offense maybe bouncing back. (It has over his whole career.) I get thinking the two prospects could even out any disparity between Renfroe and JBJ. But, the money disparity, on a restricted winter budget, made no sense. I know the $8M buyout for 2023 does not count on the tax line, but it's still $8M of Henry's money!

We have a lot of deadwood coming off the books, too. We don't have to fill every slot by free agency, but there are enough equal or better FAs out there to fill the slots we need filled. We can trade for a high salary, which would lessen the return needed for the upgrade. I think we fill 1B w Hosmer (free), Casas and Dalbec. We may not add a catcher and just go with McGuire and Wong/RHern as the back up. I'd be fine with this, if we can fill these next slots with equal or better talent than 2022: (not in order of high to loe priority) 2B/SS (wherever Story is not playing) CF RF DH (can be RF/DH or 1B/DH) SP (1/2 type) SP (3/4 type) RP (Maybe get a catcher, utility IF/OF, SP depth and pen depth) $90M+ for 6 slots should be fine. We can get better. Replace or re-sign Bogey JBJ Refsnyder JD Wacha Hill Diekman

This year reminds me of 2019. It looked good on paper in the prior winter, and then things headed south. Snakebite losses, and then morale was not there to overcome the obstacles. Blame the GM. Blame the manager. Blame the "team leaders." Blame, if you must. Bad seasons happen. Some expected- some not. I'm more optimistic about the future than I was after 2019. I'm clinging to that to help me get through the pain of '22.

Well, many of the Woo players are on the Sox, now. (Duran, Refsnyder, Wink, Crawford, Bello) It does seem like our best prospects are the far away ones, but Mata and Ward are looking promising with their returns from the IL. Casas still has some hope. I see less at Salem and Portland than Woo and GRE. Wong and RHern might yield a solid back-up catcher or more.

The no trade clause apparently gave him the courage to talk. I don't think it helped his chances at getting a higher bid from the team he supposedly wants to keep playing for. I'm going to say it again, I'm not seeing any positive influences, this year, from team "leaders" and vets like JD, Bogey, Nate and others. I'm not saying they haven't tried, but I'm not getting why they keep getting praised by some. It seems like those who blame Cora for being in last place are not only failing to blame the "team leaders," they seem to want to continue praising them.

The guy has one of MLB's best K/9 rates ever, after a small sample size start to his career, but what good is it? MLB History (80+ IP career) K/9 15.4 Josh Hader 14.8 Edwin Diaz 14.8 A Chapman 14.7 Devin Williams 14.6 C Kimbrel 14.5 D Betances 14.4 Karinchak 14.2 DHern

Good question. I hope we are, but who keeps track. The TB model has been brought to LA, HOU and BOS. HOU has not kept several stars, yet they remain on or near the top. Maybe, someday...

He had a 101 OPS+ over 6 seasons (2015-2020). That's more than half his career. Thats average hitting with stellar D. .247 BA .331 OBP .769 OPS Decent base-runner, too. They obviously were fooled by his short season success in 2020.

I really like Rafaela and some others like Kavadas may surprise. It does not look like we have any likely #1's or #2's in our current system, but we do have a lot of pitchers to hope 1 can rise to that level. Wink (.562 OPS Against in minors), Crawford & Seabold (.538) and others may have #3 or #4 as their ceiling, but I have hopes that one of the following guys can improve to a good possibility of becoming a #2: Bello (118 K-34 BB in 88 IP/ .561 OPS Against) Mata (47K-21 BB in 36 IP/ .589) Walter (75 K-7 BB in 58 IP/ .585) Murphy (110 K- 45 BB in 104 IP/.595) Gonzalez (89 K- 46 BB in 70 IP/ .677) Ward (25K- 5BB in 18 IP/ .470) Drohan (123 K-37 BB in 96 IP/ .711)

DHern just isn't getting any better. How much longer do we give this guy?

The team ended up with a no-hitter! 4.2 Wacha (1BB/8K) 2.1 Politi (3BB/2K) 2.0 Shugart (1BB/0K) Cordero went 3-5, solidifying his AAAA designation. Almonte went 4-5 w 2 HRs Castellanos raised his OPS zto .824 going 3-5 w an HR. Casas, RHern and Downs all had 1 hit and 1 BB Ward went 3.2 for POR and allowed just 1 H and 0 ERs. He did walk 5 and only K'd 2, so I'm not sure this is a good sign, but he's been out a while. Angel Bastardo went 5 IP for SAL, allowing 4 Hits and 0 ER (2BB/5K). The team walked 12 times in the 6-0 win. Twice the hits! Nothing all that exciting happened for GRE, exc ept the BB to Kavadas. (LOL)

2018-2021 Top TOR pitchers by IP ERA with catchers: Jansen, McGuire, Maile, Martin, Kirk, Adams Ryu 1.52 Martin (131) 3.62 Jansen (186 IP) 4.90 McGuire (61) Stroman 2.89 Jansen (118) 3.84 Maile (87) 4.03 Martin (393) n/a McGuire Gaviglio 3.45 Martin (44) 4.41 Jansen (74) 6.12 Maile (78) 7.27 McGuire (26) A Sanchez 3.30 Martin (341) 5.24 Jansen (79) 5.59 McGuire (10) 6.45 Maile (84) It appears McGuire was not all that good to start his career in the CERA area.

Here is a look at CWS pitchers' numbers with McGuire vs other CWS catchers: OPS Against Kopech .627 McGuire (342 PAs) .759 Zavala (27) .741 Grandal (23) Cease .517 Zavala (164) .524 McGuire (144) .739 Grandal (175) Lynn .718 McGuire (142) .870 Zavala (92) n/a Grandal (0) Cueto .670 Grandal (153) .710 Zavala (180) Giolito 1.070 McGuire (114) .779 Grandal (181) .709 Zavala (146) Lopez .515 McGuire (71) .784 Grandal (62) .530 Zavala (36) Hendricks .444 McGuire (66) .851 Grandal (56) .721 Zavala (28) Banks .455 McGuire (66) .796 Grandal (67) .610 Zavala (35) Ruiz .725 McGuire (65) 1.012 Grandal (57) .540 Zavala (56) Lambert .597 McGuire (63) .587 Zavala (31) .598 Grandal (16) Graveman .736 Zavala (65) .596 McGuire (62) .749 Grandal (72) Unbalanced: Velazquez .814 McGuire (160) .569 Grandal (26) .778 Zavala (18) Keuchel .971 Grandal n/a McGuire & Zavala

That's the whole point. Bloom is not choosing to go stingy. Henry is, and before you wish he'd be replaced, think again.

Who is running the Astros?