moonslav59

Yes, you are right. Bloom was hired to better handle the situation than someone like DD, but I doubt he was hired with the expectation of the team becoming a top contender in 1-2 years- maybe even 3 years. I do agree, he largely missed on just about every "gem in the rough" attempt in 2020. We must have tried 25-30 of these types and just about nobody stuck. That was what he was hired to do, and he largely failed in 2020, but IMO, he failed to make the team a near .500 team not a winner as early as 2020, especially after seeing Sale on the IL, ERod miss the year with Covid, B eni miss 3/4 of the short season and Nate miss 1/4 of his starts. He traded a soon-to-be washed out Workman and Hembree for Pivetta & Seabold, and the following winter he made some lasting additions while improving the farm and lower part of the 40 man roster in a much quicker manner than I ever could have expected. The results are still to be seen. The "great farm" DD inherited was largely a bust, but he used their trade value masterfully. Bloom did not have that luxury. The farm was better than we thought, but there was very little trade value or ML ready prospects ready to step in and produce. To me, that has to be part of the grading rubric. Shouldn't your final grade be based on what could reasonably be expected? I know many disagreed with the strength of the roster after 2019. The "C" word was thrown around and hotly debated. It appears that those who thought the talk of a "C" expected more from Bloom than he has given us. Those who thought the 9-40 slots in the 40 and farm were a mess, post 2019, had lower expectations and a longer timetable to get back to competitiveness.

Hard to know that on the fly. Easy to know in hindsight. Many did not want to see Barnes get a chance to close, last year, but that iney-meany-miney-mo worked for a long time, anyway. Rp'ers are often up and down, and that's why you often see them recycled- hoping you hit them on an upswing, now and then. I agree, some things were given too long- somethings needed to be tried earlier, but I have the benefit of hindsight.

I understand the reasoning, and Cordero does not address the RH'd bat in the OF issue, but Refsnyder does.

I didn't like that call, either, but babying Hill might end up paying off in the long run.

soxprospects calls him a solid defender at SS, so I'm not sure how much better YS is on D.

He has to be viewed as hit or miss, but he's been due for a look-see for a while, now. Seabold & German, too.

I get your point, but who chose to play Arroyo in RF over JBJ v LHPs? Who chose to keep Refsnyder in AAA? (Maybe both Bloom & Cora had a say in that choice.) We are also seeing Cordero in the OF, more often than before- partially because Dalbec is starting to show signs of life in his bat, but still, he was an OF option all along, too. I'm not happy with the OF options Cora was given, either, but I try to view the overall roster and the limited resources Bloom was given to fill several high need areas. I'm not sure how much the either/or choices played a role in some decisions, but I think it wa sand still is a factor that needs to considered. Clearly, in hindsight, the Story and Diekman signings are at question, and the money used on them could have been used to sign a closer like Iglesias, a 2Bman like Iggy and an FT CF/RF'er that is better than the JBJ/Arroyo/Cordero/Refsnyder combo, but the season is till young. Trades can be made. Good signings have been made. Let's see how things play out.

I like Fitzy better. Management might go with Downs above YS and Fitzy. (I know he's in your dog house.)

Beni trade update: Beni: .752 w KCR (.762 since trade) Khalil Lee (to Mets): .400 in just 20 PAs/ .729 in AA '22 & .951 in '21 Cordero: .678 but 18 rbi in 122 PAs(.582 since trade) Winckowski: .562 OPS Against in '22/ 3.38 ERA/ 43K:8 BB in 43 IP F Valdez: 2-5 w FCL G Gambrell: 33 IP w GRE, last year 7.16 ERA/ Has not played in '22 L. de la Rosa: 2 IP w FCL

https://www.soxprospects.com/players/winckowski-josh.htm

Arroyo seems to be a Cora favorite, but I can't see choosing him over Refsnyder, at this moment. The fact that Kike can and has played 2B and SS, makes Arroyo's versatility less needed, once Kike returns. Of course, Refsnyder may just be a flash in the pan, but let the flash play it out a while longer, anyway. No options for Arroyo is the sticking point. Looking to next year, they may think Arroyo might be an option at 2B, if Bogey walks. Personally, I think guys like Arroyo are available on the waiver wire or as cheap FA signings at any time.

I agree on him not passing Yorke, despite his .675 OPS, so far in 2022. I might move Rafaela to 4th or 5th, though. Maybe something like this: 1. Mayer (more out of Casas not really being all that impressive) 2. Casas 3. Yorke 4. Bello 5. Rafaela 6. Bleis 7. Walter 8. Mata 9. Duran 10. Murphy 11. German 12. Gonzalez 13. Winckowski 14. Seabold 15. Binelas 16. Lugo 17. Downs 18. Groome 19. Hickey 20. Kavadas 21. Koss 22. Jordan 23. Fitzy 24. Jimenez 25. Paulino, Crawford, McDonough, Bonaci, Wong

I'm not expert on prospects and certainly not on when prospects are ready to be promoted, but I'm eager to see how well some of our prospects can do at the next level. We've already seen these promotions: WOR>BOS Duran, Refsnyder (not really a prospect), Crawford, JDavis, Wong & Winckowski (Nobody ha stuck, longterm) POR>WOR Bello Walter KHart German Politi Sogard Gillies GRE>POR Rafaela Howlett Espin SAL>GRE Mata (rehab) J Webb DiValerio B Lucas (FCL>GRE) L Guerrero (FCL>SAL I'd like to see... to BOS German Fitzy Maybe Seabold, Bello, Politi, Kelly, Ort, Downs, Wong/RHern to Woo Murphy Groome J Wallace Maybe Rafaela, Koss, TReed, Cottam, Castellanos to POR Mata (rehab- maybe to Woo) Binelas Northcut Lugo Jimenez Drohan McDonough to GRE Mayer Hickey Kavadas W Gonzalez A Bastardo Encarnacion Jordan Sikes Bonaci Paulino to SAL (I have no idea.)

Montas is also an original Sox pitching prospect that turned out very well. We often hear about "nobody since Lester and Buch."

I love reading your posts. Keep 'em coming.

This is clearly a good point, and one I agreed with and used often at the time of the trade, but I really think the move was maybe equally about getting Binelas and Hamilton. There is only so much a GM can do with the draft, IFA and mastering the waiver wire. Right or wrong, Bloom felt one priority was to build up the quantity and quality of prospects in the system. I know the value is highly speculative, but it still has value, A long view is often needed on deals like this. JBJ is going to have to hit even better, of one or both prospects are going to have to produce at the ML level for this trade to be viewed as balanced or a plus. The money aspect has to be considered as well. Had the money been even, we could have afforded a decent RH'd bat in the OF or an upgrade on Diekman in the pen. It's a fair critique. Bloom has missed on several choices, and on others we need to wait it out to know the final grade.

soxprospects.com has this to say about Winckowski: https://www.soxprospects.com/players/winckowski-josh.htm Potential multi-inning bridge relief arm. Ceiling of a back-end starting pitcher. Could be very effective in a bulk role, in which his lack of strikeout potential with his fastball would not be as much of an issue. Slider misses more bats than his changeup at this point, but still does not at a very high level. Margin for error is slim, as he has to rely on commanding his pitches and generating weak contact. To stick as a starter long-term, needs to make strides with his command and improve his slider to the point where it can be counted on as a consistent bat-missing pitch at the major league level. Can effectively tunnel his fastball, sinker, vertical slider and changeup, with all moving in similar ways, but could stand to mix in more of his cutter or a horizontal slider to give hitters a different look. Very competitive. Really thinks about pitching and is always trying to refine his craft.

I'm not sure K's are as a big of an issue as days gone by. Yes, a 55:12 K:BB ratio is not great, but his K rate is below 24%, I believe. That's not good either, but not as horrible as many players, these days. I think he superior defense overshadows the high K:BB ratio, and the kid is hitting .327 with 35 XBHs in 226 ABs.

And, when Suzuki chose another team, Bloom pivoted to Story and obviously felt like that addition would outweigh the unfilling of the RH's OF slot. He erred thinking Arroyo could fill a role some cheap signing could have filled better, but now it looks like he had the right guy all along, but did realize his name was Refsnyder. (Of course, the sample size is was too small to be sure about that point.) I guess we can blame Bloom & Cora for not keeping Refsnyder up the first time.

We need to see Story snap out of this second long funk of the season. I'm glad we are still winning without his offensive help, and his D has been outstanding, recently, but he needs to get back on track. Good to see our starters staying in a prolonged groove, and the pen seems to be avoiding major meltdowns every other day. On e game at a time, guys!

I get that, and agree with it. My argument is about those blaming Bloom for the whole situation. Like he chose to cut the tax budget from $244M to $184M in his first year. I get the argument, and it is a valid one, that no GM should get a free pass with a budget of $184M, but some context is needed, when only $20M of the $184M was Bloom's winter spending budget, and he needed to replace and backfill many slots while cutting payroll. I think the expectations by some posters were a bit unrealistic for 2020. 2021 was a different story. Bloom has the 2020 deadline and following winter to work on filling many of the open or weak slots, but again, some context is needed. He was given just $40M to spend that winter, but the budget only increased by $23M overall. Again, how about a realistic expectation for what any GM could have done by increasing the budget by just $23M after a season where $60M was cut. I get the argument that we were one loss away from missing the playoffs, but we ended up just 2 wins away from going to the big show. If that was falling short of anyone's expectations, I think some justifying needs to be given for having those higher expectations within the context of the budget and lack of immediate ML ready farm infusion available. As it turned out, DD left Bloom with a better farm than many of us believed it was at the time of the regime change, but most were not ML ready or even close to being so. That's not a knock on DD, but it has to be part of the context needed to set realistic expectations for the Sox in 2020 and 2021. The spending Bloom was given, this past winter, was enough to have much higher expectations for 2022 than the previous seasons, and the poor start was fair game, but now tat we've turned things around, I'm finding it hard to understand, not the impatience at the 2022 season, but the level of unhappiness and seemingly pinpoint attention directed only at a few bad moves or non moves by Bloom, last winter. Yes, he talked about getting a RH'd OF'er and didn't, unless we want to count Refsnyder. Yes, he only spent $8M on the pen, not counting the Barnes extension that began, this year, but again, how much did he have to spend, and would anyone want to take back the Wacha or Strahm signing? Certainly the Hill and Story signings are debatable, this early in the season, but looking at the overall grade for last winter's moves, I'd say it's pretty much up in the air, so far, and for those who go just by wins and losses, again, I can't see how he gets a below C grade, even for 2022, let alone 2020 & 2021. I respect differing opinions, but I guess I'd just like to know why some of you had much higher expectations than I did. I have to think that's why you gave him loser grades than I did.

Pivetta is really in a nice groove. I hope he can keep it up. I gotta think Refsnyder has earned a longer look than maybe originally envisioned.

WOR with a 6 hit shutout- no walks and 11 Ks: 5 IP 3H 0 ER 0BB 6 K Seabold 2 IP 1H 0ER 0BB 1 K Bracho 1 IP 2H 0ER 0BB 3K Politi 1 IP 0H 0ER 0BB 1K Kelly JDavis with another good game 3-4, 2HR, 3B Duran 1-3 w HR and BB POR lost 2-0 6 IP 5H 2ER 1BB 3K Murphy GRE lost 10-6 Lugo 2-5, 2 HR Binelas 2-4, 2Bs Northcut 0-2, 2BB SAL won 12-3 Gonzalez 5IP 3H 2ER 3BB 5K Kavadas 3-3, 8th HR, 2B, 2BB Mayer 0-2, 3BB Jordan 3-5, HR Paulino 1-3, HR, 3 Runs, 3BB Bonaci 2-4, BB

There is no way of knowing, what other offers were made, but I'm assuming the choices were what we got or Graterol or Maeda, instead of Downs/Wong I find it really hard to hold the Betts/Price trade against Bloom, and with Price included, I actually view the trade as a net plus, despite hating the idea that Henry forced Betts out.

If we had to take Myers whole contract, I think that negates any chance that deal could fit the budget given Bloom that winter. No Price had to be a given, IMO.