moonslav59

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.)

1. I don't think Bauer, Springer or Realmuto were the type to go large and long on, but it wasn't so much about who as when. 2. We had a very limited budget, this winter- more than last winter, but still no where near some of the winter spending budgets we've seen in the last couple decades. It's not about a specific player or two. It's about how many holes do you need to fill and how much total spending money you have. This winter, we had about 10 holes to fill, plus the bottom 10 of our 40 man roster was about as bad as it has been in 2 decades. How do you fill all those whole, while trying to improve the farm, at the same time on what? $20-30M? Next year, we lose Pedey's contract and will likely go over the tax limit- maybe by $15-19M. We should have less holes to fill, since we have a few 2 year or option players, and some farm help that should come up during this year or by next spring. We'll know more about Dalbec & Chavis, Duran & Downs, Mata & Seabold, plus guys like Cordero, Pivetta, DHern and Arroyo/Munoz. Less holes to fill + more money to spend allows for more meaningful additions to the roster next winter.

Plenty available by trade.