I'm not saying Bloom made the right call.I actually came out and said, until we know what was asked in return, how can we blame him (or praise him implied)?
Why don't you come out and say what specifically Bloom should have done, and name names. Go ahead and even use hindsight to selectively choose the players who have done well after the trade.
Even then, you can't know if it would have made a significant difference.
Then, is making the WC game vs losing in the next round significant and worth giving some of the future away?
Honestly, I don't know.
Yes, I defend Bloom more than I criticize him. I like his overall philosophy and the direction the team is going. Does that outweigh a few mistakes here and there? Hell, yes, IMO!
It seems to me, the it's the Bloom bashers who can't have a reasonable conversation. If we can't agree with you on winning now is always the most important thing, we're not being "reasonable."
Sure, I'll agree it's Bloom's fault were not as good as we could have been this year, but I also believe we have been better than we were expected to be and have clearly improved our future outlook, and to me that matters more. I'm not sure why that position is unreasonable.
Look, I made a list of all the mistakes Bloom has made. I'm one of his biggest defenders, and I don't see anyone saying he does no wrong.
I know you have praised Bloom for many many things and like his overall approach (I think, right?)
In all honesty, I do think Bloom could have and should have made a slightly bigger play at the deadline for pitching. One that would not have hurt any more than losing Aldo Ramirez did to help an offense that was not our major need area. I get that. Maybe I should have said it just like that a few times. However, I don't know what pitchers teams were offering and what they wanted, and then there is the crapshoot aspect of trading for RP'ers (like Gage or Kimbrel). Sometimes getting some RP'erslike Robles and Davis actually works out. I trusted Bloom knew how to spot gems in the rough. I still think he's pretty good at it, but he missed on these two- and missed badly.
Not to lessen what Bloom did wrong, but even getting 2 RP'ers that went on to do great might not have made much of a difference. That's not sugar coating what has happened to this team. This sucks. Even the people who though Bloom failed miserably at the deadline never foresaw this. Hell, we're still in the lead for the WC slot with an easy ending to our schedule. This COVID s*** has now turned those hopes into rolling the dice.
I don't mean to get testy with you, MVP. I respect the hell out of you as a poster, and you know a lot more than I do about a lot of things with this team and baseball, in general. I do see very reasonable conversations, except on game threads.