moonslav59

I'm not crying about Betts. I'm optimistic about our future. My point was that we should not blame Bloom for losing Betts and not spending like the Dodgers or the Sox of old. Had we kept Betts and went all austerity like we have, we'd be no better off, now.

The 2021 Pitching Staff I can't help but think we could see a major improvement over 2020 and even 2019, in some cases. Chris Sale: He's the big question mark. Some think it's foolish to think he can ever come close to what he used to be, but he was so great that coming fairly close would be a huge boost, even if for just 2-3 months. Garrett Richards: Another question mark based mostly on health history. The guy can pitch, when healthy, and his upside is so much greater than guys we threw out there last year. Nathan Eovaldi: He stayed pretty healthy in the short 2020 season, and the big if has always been, does he have a full season in him? Eduardo Rodriguez: He was just reaching prime when COVID struck. Now, he's another health questioned starter. Martin Perez and Nick Pivetta: They could both be capable 5th starter types, with Pivetta having some upside to be even better. Both could get 32 starts based on the sketchiness of our top 4 starters. Garrett Whitlock, Bryan Mata, Connor Seabold: If these guys get a lot of starts, we may be doomed for a bad year, but there is also a lot to be excited about, here- maybe not for 2020, but who knows? Adam Ottavino: He has the potential to be a big plus for us. He's a proven RP'er. Matt Barnes: He's got a bad rap for not becoming the closer we needed, but he's still a good set up man. Ryan Brasier: Here's where our pen takes a big step down from most other good teams, but there is hope he can return to 2018 form. Darwinzon Hernandez: He has the most upside potential in our pen. The guy has a near record breaking K/9 rate, but his BB/9 rate has been almost equally amazing in the wrong direction. Maybe, this is the year he reduces his BB rate significantly. Josh Taylor: He showed some pretty good stuff not too long ago. Hirokazu Sawamura: I won't even try to project what he might do, but adding him gives us one more shot at having a meaningful pen arm. Matt Andriese: Who knows? Out of options Austin Brice: No love here. Valdez, Brewer, Bazardo, Weber, Walden, Springs: Not any better than most team's scrubs. Tanner Houck: It's hard not to get optimistic over his 3 starts in 2020, but we really should not expect greatness based on such a tiny sample size. That being said, it's not unlikely he could do very well. A look at the IP and ERAs of last year's SP'ers and you have to sake your head and think, it's almost impossible not to see a vast improvement in this important area, even if guys like Sale & ERod hardly pitch at all. IP and ERA as SP'er ONLY 62 Perez 4.50 48 Eovaldi 3.72 25 Godley 9.49 23 Mazza 5.01 19 Weber 7.11 17 Houck 0.53 14 Brewer 6.91 10 Pivetta 1.80 9.0 Hart 13.00 6.2 Kickham 10.80 4.0 Triggs 2.25 2.2 M Hall 10.13 2.0 Osich 9.00 1.0 Brice, Brasier & Leyer 0.00 Perez, Eovaldi, Houck and Pivetta only pitched 137 out of the 246 IP all of our starters gave us in 2020. That's 55%. Sale, ERod, Richards could eat up a big chunk of those other 45%. If not, I still like more from Houck, Pivetta and anything from Whitlock, Mata and Seabold better than what we saw, last year. The pen should also be better. They gave us more IP than out starters, last year (278 IP). Here were the IP leaders in 2020: 30 Valdez 3.26 24 Weber 2.25 24 Brasier 4.13 23 Barnes 4.30 20 Springs 7.08 19 Brice 6.27 14 Covey 7.07 14 Osich 5.27 13 Stock 4.73 13 Walden 9.45 11 Brewer 3.97 10 Hembree 5.59 8.1 DHern 2.16 7.1 Kickham 4.91 7.1 Taylor 9.82 6.2 Workman 4.05 6.2 Mazza 4.05 6.0 Hall 22.50 20 IP from 8 others (25 ERs) Ottavino should eat up a lot of these scrub's IP. Barnes and DHern should have a higher % of IP. Taylor could help, if he pitches like 2019 not 2020. Brasier could help. Sawamura should not be any worse than most of the departed from this list. Valdez will likely do worse, if he even pitches much.

Seriously? Surely, you jest. Jason Vargas? Even a hindsight move like that would hardly have been a blip on our win total.

Yes, I was the first to "jump ship" in 2019, but I still watched every pitch of every game. I had expected the window of high competitiveness to last beyond 2018, possibly all the way to 2020, or whenever we decided to reset. The total collapse of 2019 was unexpected, and it didn't help matters that most of us thought we'd make the playoffs in February of 2019. (I'm usually one of the last to "give up" on a season.) I'm not going to mention the word used to predict what was coming, and I'm pretty sure nobody expected that day to come so quickly, but I guess what bothers me most is that some are placing most of the blame on Bloom, or at least it sounds that way. Blaming Henry would make more sense, but nobody will ever get me to jump on that warped bandwagon. Henry is the best owner we've ever had. If he chooses to take a step back to regroup, reset and work on building back up to greatness, I'm fine with that. Blaming Dave makes more sense, but as I've said numerous times, I'm fine with what Dave did knowing full well a reset and rebuild would come at some point. We are living the consequences of choices made by Dace and Henry coupled with some unfortunate events, like the Sale injury, COVID & ERod, JD's 2020 slump and more. Could Dave seen it coming and mitigated some of it? Probably. Could Bloom have handled some things differently? Yes. I don't think many of us defending Bloom are part of some love Bloom cult. I, for one, don't really know what he's capable of, yet, because he has not really been give the same opportunities Theo, Ben & Dave got. I've been critical of some of his moves. I thought we could have and should have kept Betts, if it was even possible. I'd have rather spend Ottavino and Marwin's money on Odorizzi, but I know full well he may not deliver what we need. Given the two winter spending budgets Bloom had, it's hard for me to imagine any scenario where he could have built a solid competitive team for 2020 or 2021. I can totally understand not loving Bloom after seeing so little of what he might be able to do, but I'm seeing a lot, what I feel is, misplaced blame. Had Henry decided to spend, spend, spend after 2018 or 2019, and we had this roster to show for it, I'd be on the bash Bloom bandwagon, but the guy was given very little money to spend, and what I believe was a directive to get the budget in good long term shape AND to build the farm back up to the point where we could expect some low cost talent being infused onto the 26 man roster over the next few years. He's done pretty well building up the farm. I thought it would take longer to get to about average. With this draft coming up, and maybe some summer trades, we could see our farm near or in the top 10 again- something we haven't seen since Dave's early days as GM. Bloom has made no long term commitments, so we have no fears of repeating some mistakes our past GMs have made in that area. Someday, he will make a big signing, and that will be the time to know what king of GM he is and will be.

I watch some movies all the way to the end, knowing full well it's not a great movie-let alone worthy of a academy award nomination. I understand the idea that any team spending $200M on players should never finish in last place, but the 2020 team had enough valid reasons (or excuses) for finishing where they did. I don't see 2021 as being anywhere near a repeat of 2020, but apparently some, here, do. We'll see. Well,some of us will. I guess some "Sox fans" have deemed them "unwatchable." I'm watching with optimism.

One could argue Price's money saved was used to sign Richards and trade for Ottavino.

That 2019 September team was the 2020 team, but with no ERod- the guy who led the team to a 5-1 record in his September starts in 2019. No Sale. A slumping JD. A slow out of the gates Devers. A disappearing Beni. No winter spending budget to speak of.

I was on record saying we should pay Mookie, but I seriously doubt Sox management expected fans to "applaud" trading him away. We're in rebuild mode. It is what it is- like it or not- watch them or don't. I'll be watching and cheering. I think there are a lot of interesting aspects to this team, including a deepening of the roster that gives us a few options (or hopes) at our areas of weakness. That includes the liklihood of a few prospects getting a look, this summer (Duran, Mata, Downs, Seabols and others). That includes watching possible to likely rebounds by JD, Devers, Sale, ERod and others. That includes the return of Cora. Maybe watching Dalbec prove 2020 was no fluke. Maybe watching DHern finally master his control. Lots of maybes. Lots of question marks. Lots of health-related concerns but also possibilities of returns to greatness or near greatness. I'm fine with thinking 2020 is and never was going to be a ring year. We're on the up slope, now. Our future is brighter, and we'll have some nice draft pick slots- the best since the 60's. Doom & gloom away, but I'm choosing to think brighter thoughts.

Because nobody pays attention to their ratings,maybe?

The team did nothing between 2018 and 2019 and won 24 less games, but somehow having to cut salary and build the farm between 2019 and 2020, we were supposed to have a higher winning % in 2020. I don't get the logic. Sure, some of Bloom's moves have been head-scratchers, but who else could we have gotten for $3M that would have led us to improve on 2020 than Marwin? Are we really going here?

With a highly restricted budget and a priority placed on rebuilding the farm and not raiding it, how exactly could that have been done?

Well said, but we should have just gotten Maeda & Verdugo. But we'd still have finished way out of the race.

He "wanted to hold the line?" LOL! He should have kept doing what Dave did? Trade away prospects to cling to some unrealistic idea that we could have won in 2020 with just a couple additions? Deve nearly emptied the farm and bloated the budget. There is no rationalizing that away, and deflecting isn't convincing most of us.

You act like he had the resources to go out and get a stud starter- let alone 2.

Fair enough, but it would be nice for the pouters to "realize what led us to this" and stop blaming a hand-tied Bloom. They act like it's been Bloom's idea to cut the budget.

The offer he made Betts wasn't that far from what he got. IMO, this team is far from unwatchable, but tune out, if you wish. It all just seems like sour grapes, to me. You refused to believe a cliff was coming and unavoidable. Pout, if you must.

This may be the single biggest change that affected teams like the Sox, who used to draft some pretty good prospects very late in the draft due to their "signability" issues.

Except when the Yanks made trades with the Royals.

Standing still rarely causes a team to go from 108 wins to 84 wins.

Nice summary, but I wonder how you'd write about all these pitchers, if they were wearing a Sox uniform.

It should be much more fun watching the Sox this year.

Time to trade Vaz,

Yes, had we kept Dave, we'd have won it all in 2020. It would have been worth the price of admission just to watch Dave's face when Henry handed him last winter's spending budget and a mandate not to trade any top prospects. I'm fine with criticism of Bloom and the moves he's made vs other possible moves with the budget he was handed, but let's not kid ourselves. Bloom was not handed the 2018 team. He wasn't even handed the 2019 team. The farm sucked. The budget was a mess, and still is a major issue to hastening the rebuild. I've scratched my head at some of his moves, too, but anybody who thinks we should have a highly competitive team with the spending budget Bloom was given last winter and this winter needs to give some specifics, and I'm not talking major hindsight miracle what ifs.

I never understood the compunction to criticize a GM who was handed a mess and who has had his hands tied. Let's give the guy some time and see what he can do, once he's given a spending budget big enough to fill all the holes he inherited, including the big farm hole.

Why ignore all the signings? It's the budget that has us where we are now. BTW, I'd love to have Margot and Dubon, right now, and the jury is still out on Kopech and a couple others. I'm not pissed at Dave. The 2018 ring and record breaking season was worth all this, but make no mistake about it, we are where we are today because of 2018 and because of Dave (and Henry's decision to re-set and rewind.)