moonslav59

I think the plan was to have Schwarber play 1B vs most RHPs starting around August 7th to 10th. The groin injury set that timetable back and may prevent him from playing 1B for a long while, if ever. Plus, if Dalbec hits well enough, that may play into it. I don't think they said to themselves, "We are balancing the now with the future and will just leave 1B as it is and roll the dice- hoping Dalbec rebounds and the future is the top priority. I really think they feel they addressed the 1B issue by trading for Schwarber. People can call that a mistake, but it wasn't neglect of the issue.

There was a lot of talk we bid against ourselves when we signed him to his last deal. He and his agent may think he's worth more than any GM thinks, but I doubt he tops Nelson Cruz's deal. $57M/4 (2015-2018) $26M/2 (2019-2020) $13M/1 (2021) He may think he will, and he's younger than Cruz was for most of these deals, but his numbers are pretty similar, and he's basically a DH-only player.

Did you forget momentum runs two ways? The season has many ups and downs, but you think with 30% of the season to go everyone is now locked into their current trend. Just weeks ago you said your team sucked. They may again over the next 6 weeks. Or not.

Me, too but I think less than 50-50.

Spell check made for a good one,

I don’t read it that way. It’s not like he admitted they should have made another trade or two- just that they have to take ownership for the results. I’m not sure they’d have done anything different in hindsight except then they’d have known Schwarber was not going to be playing 1B as soon as they expected.

Timely hitting. Maybe just one big comeback win can set us back in track.

It’s going to be easy, maybe in a year or two, when some our best prospects are showing to be duds, for someone to say, “We should have traded ________ for Rizzo and Kimberly and gone for the 2021 ring.

Another bad day for the Sox chances. NYY, OAK and TBR all won and gained a half game on us. It’s nearing severe crunch time. We need to grow a new pair.

How can you be so certain Bloom made mistakes, when none of us know what GMs asked for? Look, I’m not saying I’m happy the way things turned out, and it seems like decent 1Bmen are a dime a dozen, but I think Bloom really thought Schwarber could play 1B vs RHPs. The unforeseen groin injury put an end to that idea, and there is no longer waiver deals allowed. I can see thinking that was a “mistake,” but I don’t think hoping a bat like Schwarber’s could outweigh the slight drop off our 1B defense would suffer over Dalbec’s less than even average defense, is worthy of continued Bloom-bashing and insisting it was a clear mistake. Because Lou Merloni and most fans and media agree, it has to be true. Sure, I look back and wish he’d have added a 1Bman, too, but only because the groin injury set back the original plans, IMO. It’s okay to believe it was a mistake not knowing he’d pull a groin, but many teams have suffered from an injury. We all knew this team was skating on thin ice and had some pretty good luck avoiding major injuries all year, but I for one, think Bloom did very well by not giving more than the Yankees gave for Rizzo and what other teams gave up for players that would have made a serious difference. Without knowing the names of the players we’d have had to give up, we’ll never be able to judge the nondeals. Maybe Brian and others can later take some responsibility for the ring we win in 2022 or 2023.

I was never in that crowd. I actually think we may extend or rework his deal. We may even extend him and re-sign Schwarber, too.

Dalbec might have been thrilled to hear we traded Casas, his possible replacement in a year or two, for a pitcher.

It’s about blame for Merloni and a bunch of fans and media.

There was a time, not that long ago, where the Sox were a cutting edge team trying to acquire players that got on base and drove up opposing starter’s pitch counts. Now, we seem to be the opposite of those teams.

It just means they couldn’t care a rats ass about the future.

I’d love to hear that we extend Schwarber, but JD is not opting out. Also, as of now, Arroyo>>>> Duran

Blame seems to be a big American virtue or something. I can see blaming Henry, but I never will. 4 rings makes him a God in my book.

So, maybe this... Eastern Atlantic BOS NYY NYM PHI BAL WSH ATL MIA Eastern Central TOR PIT DET CLE CIN CWS CHC Western Central MIN MIL STL KCR TEX HOU COL AZ Western Pacific SEA OAK SFG SAC (from TBR) LAD LAA SDP

As far as I can figure, we'll be about $35-40M below the tax line after arbs and the player benefits are paid. If we are allowed to go over line one but not line two, we can add $19M to that total- assuming there is a tax line and it's near $210M. That's about $55M to $60M total! That's astounding! We might just need 4-5 slots filled: SP 1 or 2 (replace ERod) (Houck, Whitlock & Seabold may replace Richards/Perez) Closer (replace Ottavino and move Barnes to set up) 1B (Dalbec to bench or AAA) Utility IF'er (Kike to CF FT- Arroyo at 2B FT) Pitching depth With $60M, we could spend $25M on a SP'er, $13M on a closer, $10M on a 1Bman, $7M on a pitcher and $5M on a utility player better than Marwin was. Sale __FA__ Eovaldi Pivetta Whitlock/Houck/Seabold __FA__ Barnes Houck/Seabold __FA__ Taylor DHern Sawamura Brasier/Valdez/Seabold/Rios/Davis Vaz Plawecki __FA__ Dalbec Arroyo __FA__ Devers Bogey Verduo Kike Duran Renfroe JD

Looks like we all have come to an agreement! (Lol)

It's really unfair to just say, Bloom should have gotten Rizzo and _____ (Kimbrel? Berrios?) without knowing specifically what they would have taken. Sure, if they took Marwin & Santana for Rizzo, of course- roast away, but that's impossible. I doubt they'd have even taken Winckowski and Bonaci, which I'm not sure I'd have wanted us to give, although I doubt I'd have raised a stink over it. Under the radar guys like Schoop and Cron were not dealt, apparently because they will be offered QO deals, which kind of surprises me. I wanna hear names before I start throwing around blame.

Do you know what they wanted for Rizzo and a solid RP'er? I'd like to know, before I judge Bloom too harshly. I also think they expected Schwarber to be ready to play (and play 1B vs RHPs) in 5-10 days, but the groin injury set that back.

If Bloom is not allowed to go over, he should still have some more significant moves that this year. No Pedey. No Beni share. Replacing most of the free agents looks like addition by subtraction before you even sign anyone. Only ERod looks tough to replace, but it's not like replacing the 2021 ERod will cost $30M a year. The tax budget is a bit more complicated than just thinking we lose these salaries, so we can sign an equal amount, but if we go over the line, we should have nearly double the money to spend as last winter. We lose 13.8M Pedey 10.0M Richards (option) 8.9M Ottavino 8.3M ERod 6.0M Perez 3.0 Marwin 2.8M Beni + Andriese, Santana, Robles & Shaw

Their pitching was awful. We used like 30 pitchers for 60 games. The names of half of 'em sucked. Did you expect us to be good this year once you found out about the budget demands? Yes, Boom could have done better with his signings and trades, but on paper, we should not have been very good, this year. I'm fine with people thinking, "hey, we're in first place now and may not be nexxt year or in 2023, either, so let's forget the budget plan and longer term goals and go for it now, or at least make a better effort than we ended up making." I for one, think Bloom did make an effort, but teams wanted too much or we didn't even have the right pieces for some of the better, available players. I think Bloom thought we could still compete with returning players and Schwarber being ready by August 5th to 10th. It's not like that idea was totally idiotic. I still think we make the playoffs. I still think 2022 and or 2023 are the years we see some serious acquisitions. I'm hopeful he does better than Richards, Perez and Marwin. I liked the Kike & Renfroe deals. Ottavino looks close to a push, now. Whitlock was a steal. Last year's Pivetta and Arroyo pick-ups were grand larceny. Plawecki was a good role piece. Cordero, Andriese, Santana and others look like total duds, but Cordero will get another look at some point, IMO.

I don't think anyone expected a 1 year turn-around to be a contender. We were god awful, last year, and it takes time to build up a strong and deep roster. I think there was at least a 2 year plan before the spending would kick in. Bloom worked on deepening the 40 man roster, this year, signing short term deals to allow some young kids a chance to win some slots, but getting off to a great start kinda upset the plans and created fan expectations for the deadline that just was too farm removed for the longer term plan to bring to fruition.