moonslav59

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.

We'd have needed Scherzer, Rizzo and Kimbrel to still be in first place. That would have taken a near total wipre out of our top prospects.

Marwin's deal still hurt us at the deadline, if you believe money was the main issue we did not make trades. At the time we signed Richards, the other main option near that price was Kluber, and many ehre wished we'd have gotten him instead. The Ottavino deal has worked for us.

That's fine. I happen to think Ottavino has been worth it, and Richards is starting to earn back some of his negative value. Marwin was a waste.

"Cost" can mean the other GMs wanted better prospects than what Bloom was willing to part with- not just "financial cost." Even if it was just money, it's still not Bloom's fault, the budget line was drawn. Sure, you can blame him for wasting money on a few players, butall in all, I think at the trade deadline time, most were more or less happy with the team he had built on a limited budget and with very little farm input..

Hindsight does not mean he "underestimated" anything. Do guys on the IL get a new injury more than often non IL guy?

Is Merloni some kind of expert?

At the start of the year, many posters were happy with Verdugo in CF. Some, like me, thought we'd see Renfroe/Cordero in LF, Kike in CF and Verdugo in RF. I totally misjudged Renfroe's RF abilities.

Nobody said or assumed a "seamless" transition to 1B by Schwarber. I think they expected he could play there 10-15 days after the trade- well or not. I mean, why start caring about 1B D, now?. The groin injury may have ended up preventing any chance at 1B, at least for 17-25 days. It didn't work out. That doesn't mean Bloom knew he'd never play 1B.

It doesn't seem like Kimmi. Has her account been hacked? I do think several players talk about being comfortable in certain slots, but often the numbers betray their preferences. I think there is some slight validity to the concept, but not nearly enough to change a line-up over, unless the choice was exactly 50-50 and one guy flourishes in that slot.

Had he not pulled his groin, he may have played 1B more. (Badly or okay)

LD% in August 27% JD 25% Vaz & Kike 23% Bobby Dee & Devers 22% Bogey & Dugo 19% Duran & Plawecki 17% Renfroe 13% Schwarber

Was there no amount of games behind we'd have had to be back to be sellers?

I agree on Plawecki. This whole, he's been hot for 2 weeks crap is just that: crap. On Duran: until Arroyo returns, I agree. Kike at 2B, Duran in CF makes the most sense. If Schwarber can't play 1B or can't play it much, then the dynamic changes. Schwaber plays the shorter corner OF and Verdufo or Renfroe plays CF. An argument could be made to platoon Verdugo, but I don't think Cora likes that idea.

Maybe it wasn't "poor management" at all. I'm curious what all these people thought we should have given up for enough players to have made this team into a ring winner. To get Scherzer or some other big name player, we'd have had to sacrifice a big chunk of the farm? Not doing that was "GOOD" management, not poor. To get another moderate or minor piece to play 1B or bolster the pen might or might not have been enough to make a difference, but again, at what cost? Do any of us know what GMs asked from us for Berrios, Rizzo or Kimbrel or some other player that could be viewed as a major difference maker? In hindsight, it appears we may have need way more than even the complainers thought we needed to be highly competitive. The fact is, we looked pretty good right before the deadline and had several players about to return from the IL. We acquired Schwarber to help our offense and maybe fix the 1B issue. It's hard for Bloom to foresee a subsequent groin pull that delayed his return and stunted his ability to learn 1B quickly or even play there, at all. I guess that all his fault. I, for one, am very happy he did not equal or top the returns I saw teams give for marginal and good talent. It does look like I'm in the minority, but I'm with Bloom and Cora on this one. This was not "the time" to go big and going half way equates to the worst of both worlds. Next year, we spend big and set ourselves up for a deadline where maybe we are just one or two pieces away from being a top contender. That may be the better time to trade some future pieces for the here and now. Many fans and commentators only care about winning now. Their jobs don't depend on winning next year and beyond. Bloom's does.

We could go .500 over our next 10 games and gain 2-3 games on the A's.

Poor A's. They've lost 4 straight and 5 of 6. Their next 10 games are: 1 @ CWS 3 v SFG 2 v SEA day off 4 v NYY

But we did something. We were buyers.

That's exactly how I remembered it, and the players actually sided with Manny, after the media initially questioned Manny's actions.

I have single-handedly proven mojo is no repeatable.

I thought that was about Youk throwing an overboard tantrum after a K.

Juju is not a repeatable skill, nor is mojo.

Hit the ball real hard for 3 outs, last night. That's more than most others can say.