moonslav59

It's not an opinion to say Bloom has only made one major signing, and even Story's deal is significantly less than Price's, and after figuring inflation, maybe even less than JD's deal. (I don't count the Bogey deal as large and long, because of the opt out, and it being "only" $20M per.) The Story deal is 2-3 months old. Sure, have an opinion on Bloom's ability to do well or poorly on big deals, but no matter what opinion anyone takes, it's premature.

You can choose to think Bloom could have spent way more but chose not to, just like I choose to believe he had a restricted spending limit pre 2020 and 2021. I think the purse strings were loosened for 2022, but even then, he had limits. Yes, "who knows," but I think it's pretty obvious, he had pretty strict spending guideline that were much lower than DD had. Choosing not to trade much of the farm away is probably his choice, but I think that was what Henry wanted, when he hired him. Besides, it's not worth trading big chunks of the farm away, unless the time is right. Apparently, some seem to think the time is always "right" and "now!"

Correct me, if I'm wrong, but looking at cots and the DD years, it looks like he was given budget room to make these signings/additions: 2016 $30M x 7 Price $20.6M x 4 Porcello (extended) $16M Ortiz (re-signed) $13M x 2 Kimbrel (via trade) $6.5M x 2 Chris Young 2017 Pretty much just carried over 2016 spending with no major salary additions. 2018 $22M x 5 JD (Continued paying of added/kept players like Pom $8.5M, Moreland $6.5M, Nunez $4M and others) In season additions of Eovaldi and Pearce 2019 Eovaldi extension at $17M x 4 and Pearce $6.25M x 1 (He extended Sale to begin in 2020) I count 4-5 major large and long contracts DD was allowed to make. Did I miss anything?

What big moves? Story is the only one, yet you have already determined Bloom is "in over his head." Look at the 2020 roster- top to bottom. Yes, it had Betts, Bogey, Devers, Beni and JBJ, along with Nate, Sale and Price. Look at the roster, now, including the bottom of the 40 man roster and the improved farm quality and quantity. Bloom has not been even close to perfect on his moderate to major moves, but what GM is? He was handed a 40 man roster with 15-20 holes in it, and a farm with very little recognizable high value players in it. He was given about $40M to spend before 2021, and the team did very well, considering the budget and starting point. He was given more to spend, this winter, but only 1 FA contract has ever been signed for more than 2 years. You think that's 100% Bloom's choice? You think he chose to not go over the tax line? On the Betts trade, how many teams were willing to trade value for a guy making $28M for 1 year of team control? Just the money alone knocked 20+ teams out of even bothering to make a phone call. I'd love to know what other offers were discussed, let alone actually made. My guess is less than 5. Verdugo looked like a nice get. Of course, equal value for one year of Betts is not going to be someone like Betts with 4-5 years of team control. The idea is that you get something good, and you use the money saved to try and gain equal value, piecemeal. $30M a year for 10 years is a lot of FA value to count on the net ledger. Maybe Verdugo continues to suck, the rest of his time, here. Maybe Downs and Wong give us nothing. The fact is, we lost 1 year of Betts, during a year where he would not have come close to helping us even make the playoffs. Just what value was his 2020 season to us? I was very upset we lost Betts. Hell, I think I suggested offering more than anyone else, but it looks like he was never going to stay here. I know you've suggested trading these guys earlier to get more return, but then you also seem to get upset when we don't keep them. It's hard to know what you think could have been done in a better way? Bloom could not have traded him "earlier," and unless we know what other offers were out there, just saying "we should have gotten more," or "we should have gotten pitching" is kind of hard to agree with, since it's near total speculation. Bloom was handed a totally different set of cards to deal with, and a highly restricted budget. It's not his Tampa learnings that has kept him from spending large and long. Before the 2021 season, he still had 7-10 significant holes to fill, that he didn't get filled with an even more restrictive 2020 season budget. He had $40M to spend on all those holes, and because he didn't sign anyone to $25M, some think he's not capable of doing it, or doing it well. Had he spent $30M of the $40M he had on 1 guy, we'd have had the 2020 roster all over again, but with one more good player. He did what he had to do. He started by building up roster depth to increase the chances a few more players prove they can stick around beyond 2020 and 2021, or be replaced. He basically signed placeholders to carry us to the next winter, in hopes we'd start seeing some help from the farm, and eventually an expanded spending budget, as some deadwood came off the books. This winter, we will lose some deadwood, but we will also be losing some top talent that will be hard to replace. For some of the guys, re-signing them will not actually give us the same expected results and production we have now. Then, at what cost? To me, this coming winter is when we will see the real Bloom. We'll all find out, if he's pretty good, just okay or something like "in over his head." This will be the first time he'll have the kind of power and room to wiggle, since becoming the GM. Yes, DD was handed some deadwood, too, but he was given a farm with many prospects other teams coveted, dearly. He was given a spending budget unprecedented in Sox GM history that spanned for about 3 years. When the cut off his spending, we saw 2019. I'm hopeful Bloom responds to the challenge and window of opportunity. He'll have some difficult and likely unpopular choices to make. It will be almost impossible to keep every fan happy, and if he does, we'll likely be $50M over the tax line, next year. Could or should he trade away 75% of our top prospects like DD did, and try and build a juggernaut 3 year window? Some here, seem to think that's the best plan, and count on henry to just spend his way through the aftermath. Not me. I like the path Henry and Bloom have chosen. It remains to be seen, if they can pull it off. Henry gave up on a similar strategy under Ben. Will he again? This winter will tell a big story.

Schreiber off waivers.

It's not $240M

It was a joke.

The Betts extension/signing is a totally different issue. You, yourself, was not for paying Betts what he wanted, so how can you now count his post-signing value and contract as something in the plus column? Something we lost? The fact is, we lost a season of Betts, which turned out to be a 60 game season, and we got 5 years of Verdugo plus a couple not-so-promising-anymore prospects. Grading the trade is difficult, because the results are not in for our return. The results are in on the Betts side of the ledger, though. Speculating on what else we might have gotten for Betts is fine, but I've heard nothing about other "what ifs."

Not really. You have to subtract about $16M for Player Benefits and the $16M for Price.

What is equal value? Is 5 years of Verdugo not equal to 60 games of Betts?

The proof is what they spent. Do people really think Bloom was given a big spending budget and chose not to do so? Where is your evidence on that?

Well, he was handed a winter spending budget very unlike DD's for his first 2 winters.

Big 4th quarter for the Celts. Big win! As much as I dislike the Celtics, I dislike Golden State more.

So, he needs to "command" his fastball up to 96?

Filling just 3 slots pretty much guarantees mediocrity.

It's hard to know what else we could have gotten for Betts, and it's a lot easier to criticize what we did get. I think the idea is to get the best we can for players we know we will not re-sign or extend, and then use the money saved to make up the difference. Supplement that with some farm help, and the plan is probably the best we can hope for, if signing large and long deals is off the table.

They act like Bloom was given DD's winter spending budgets b ut chooses to spend like he's the Ray's GM. This makes him "in over his head." How quickly 2019 is wiped clean.

Open Slots 2023: C1 _______ C2 _______ (Wong/RHern?) 1B _______ (Casas/DalbecCordero?) 2B _______ (Arroyo/Downs/Fitzy/Arauz?) 3B Devers SS Story LF Verdugo CF ______ (JBJ? option) RF ______ (Cordero?) DH ______ (Dalbec/Cordero?) SP1 _______ SP2 Sale - maybe SP3 Paxton - maybe SP4 Whitlock SP5 Pivetta SP6 Bello/Seabold/Winckowski/Murphy/Groome/Mata Closer ______ RP2 ______ (German?) RP3 Houck RP4 ______ RP5 Schreiber RP6 Taylor RP7 Diekman RP8 Barnes Danish/Davis/Valdez/Sawamura/Brasier/Feltman (SP converted) Maybe 9-11 open slots?

Treading water while the lifeboats row off, half full.

That might be the worst ranking of anyone. I'm thinking we might be #11-14.

I see 7, not counting 3-4 in the pen and 1-2 on the bench. C 1B 2B OF OF DH SP

Not anymore.

Mayer 1-2 w a 2B and BB (2 rbi) in a shortened game. Paulino 2-3 and Kavadas 1-2. Gonzalez went the full 5 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 4 K Portland lost 8-7 after allowing 4 runs in the bottom of the 9th and 3 in the bottom of the 10th! Wilson & Hamilton with 2 hits. The team walked 8 times! Murphy went 6 strong innings: 1 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K. Woo lost 8-4. Stewart with a 2B and 3 rbi. Duran 2-4 w just 1 K. .

From what I hear, he's got tremendous control but little command.

Mirror.