moonslav59

Yes, when we said it was decimated, it was, but we have gotten a little better. It wasn't easy with all the restrictions on big spending and big winning teams to add great prospects, but our farm improved a bit faster than I had expected. Losing helped some. Re-setting will help further. The Betts and summer traded helped a lot- something some of the cliff naysayers would have never expected happening when they said, "Don't worry. We'll rebuild the farm quickly."

The jury is still out on a few possible "burns," but yes, it looks like no trade was a clear "killer." Even if Moncada and Kopech turn out great, Sale did very well for us. (Note: I don't count the extension as part of the deal.) Yes, bias and optimism play roles, but there seemed to be less optimism on the very highly ranked prospects DD traded than the lesser ranked prospects we have now, maybe even by some of those who were fine with all the trades. I'm sure glad DD chose to hold onto Devers, and I felt that way from the start. Injuries to Espinoza and others have made those deal look better, and flops like Guerra have, too. We certainly could not get the same sorts of returns from our current prospects as we did from the two dozen or so DD traded away, and maybe that plays into the "hold em" mentality that seems to be prevalent, these days. Going by MLB Tradevalues numbers, here is how our prospects are valued: #44 Downs 26.4 (15 prospects have a value 2X or more) #52 Casas 22.2 #66 Dalbec #106 Mata #109 Duran #152 Jimenez (No more in top 200) If one figure we should have 1 in the top 30, 2 in the top 60, 3 in 90 and so on, it appears like we have more than average in the top 60, 90, 120, but less than average in the top 30. (Exactly average in top 150.) Maybe once the PTBNL'ers are known, and maybe guys like Potts or others get more of a chance, these numbers may improve, but when you look at some of these other team's rookies they are calling up, my jaw drops, and I can't help thinking, "Where's our can't miss guy like that?"

I always find it interesting how when we trade away a bunch of highly regarded prospects, we always here some say, "Most of them never work out, anyway," of afterwards we hear, "None have done anything special yet," but when our farm has very few "highly regarded" prospects, we hear a lot of hopeful opinions.

I'm not sure anyone said it was completely "bare," and Bloom has added many pieces with more to come, in the form of PTBNL's for Osich and Pillar. The fact remains, our farm is ranked pretty low, even after getting Downs and Wong from the Dodgers and not drafting 28th. We do have some promising prospects, and I do think we have built our farm up better and faster than I thought we could. The Betts trade helped. These summer deals helped. Not finishing with a great record, last year, helped our draft, too. None of these were known aspects a year ago. BTW, Chavis and DHern are no longer considered prospects, but neither has really shined all that much in the bigs. I still don't see us as having a top 20 farm. I've always liked Dalbec. Most of our other top prospects are too far away to feel to sure about. Guys like Chatham, Wilson and Duran do not excite me all that much, but maybe Potts, Seabold and Wong can rise up and help us, soon.

Compare that to D Hernadez.

Expecting anything from these 4, even in 2021, is asking too much. Our best "hopes" are far away. That might not be a bad thing, if our rebuilding plan is more like a 2-3 year plan than a 1 year plan.

Based on 5 IPfrom Houck and a few weeks of dingers from Dalbec?

Early on, I was hyper critical of his D, but he has shown signs of being a plus defender. He needs to improve his throwing accuracy and consistency. He still needs to work on his footwork. I am no longer advocating a switch to 1B, but it is not yet out of the question. He showed enormous strides on D, last year, but got off to a bad start, this year.

I think penciling Houck in as our #5 SP'er for 2021 is extremely premature. I love that he got off to a nice start, yesterday, but even if he finishes the season well, I would not count on anything from him, except SP'er depth and maybe some pen help. If he gives us more, it's a bonus. I'm not trying to be pessimistic, but we've seen too many false hopes from our pitchers coming up through our system.

Great start to a career! Let's hope this feel good moment continues on and on...

We should have close to $70M to spend and not go over the limit. That's more than almost any other team could spend- assuming we spend it all. I think we spend at least $50M, this winter- some of it on longer terms than 1-2 years.

It's easy to find Pillar type OF'ers. We might even try Chavis or Potts in LF. We need a few guys like Boyd in hopes one or two work out.

I'm not nor ever have been a big Beni fan. I merely pointed out our shortage of OF'ers. I'd trade him for Boyd. It's easier to find an OF replacement than a pitcher with serious upside. (I do think Beni rates to be better than Duran, Wilson and anyone else but Verdugo already on the roster for 2021. (Not saying much.)

My district brags about being the most diverse in the nation, and my school is the most diverse in the district. I think, at last count, we have 41 different languages spoken at my school. (about 1500 students)

Bloom's significant additions, so far: Verdugo Perez Downs Potts Munoz Plawecki C Wong Arroyo Arauz Peraza Pivetta Seabold Grullon Rosario Mazza Godley Hall, Brice, Covey, Stock, Triggs, Leyer, Kickham, Tapia PTBNL (for Pillar) PTBNL (for Osich) Drafted: Yorke, Jordan, Wu-Yelland & Drohan

Jr. (LOL)

I had a... Naylea- pronounced Nigh- lay- ah Ngoc- prounced Nyung (soft on the 'g" ) Nwamordi (pretty much sounds like it's spelled) Phuc -like Fa- oo (like in book) and soft c like a p) see link Xinyu Semere Suheyla Wareesha Chiquinquira Yaphet Moez Tooba (two of them) Bushra Muzzammil Trucvy Walid Romaisa (pronounced Row-May-shah) Nahida Munachi (you should see his last name!) Siti Elif Iqraa Ummehani Muskan Yavuz Divya Webei Shin-Wei Jun-Jie and my fave.... Chukwubuzo

I almost mentioned him, but he hasn't played much. Plus, moving ahead of Chavis, Lin & Chatham is no great feat. Maybe Potts, Pivetta and a PTBNL or two will surprise, next year.

Strange.

He did pick up Perez and Valdez, but I expected better and more. I'm not giving him a full "pass." He was thrust into a tough spot, both in terms of budget restrictions and a roster that included too many on the IL or past prime. Munoz may end up being a gem as a non pitcher, and Plawecki has shined, but I expected more than 3-4 helpful additions, despite the restrictions.

Oh, I know we need starters. I was just responding to the post about the pen being not all that bad. It is bad. I don't see all that many difference maker SP'ers on the market, this year, but that has always been what I consider out very top priority. Even our top2 priorities should be SP'ers. I also never said we have to add RP'ers only through free agency. We could trad Chavis for a RP'er. We could sign Lemieu and trade Downs, or sign an OF'er and trade Duran. I know RP'ers are hit or miss, but if we don't add 5-7 somehow or some way, we will not be competitive, even with 2 successful SP'er additions, IMO.

The best what if was with Ben. Had he went for Scherzer instead of Pablo and HRam... 1. We'd not have signed Price. 2. We'd not have the two flop contracts. 3. We might have won 2 rings with DD or never dumped Ben.

These are the types of deal I expect Bloom to be looking for. I'm thinking it may take more than Beni to get Boyd, and we already have an OF shortage, but I like these ideas.

Yes... 6 years/$120M (2020-25), plus 2026 option signed extension with Boston 4/1/19 20-25:$20M annually. 26:$20M option (guaranteed if Bogaerts has 535 plate appearances in 2025 and is health at end of 2025 season Bogaerts may opt out of contract after 2022 season award bonuses full no-trade protection after 7 years of Major League service (tracking to reach 7 years on 8/2/20)

That's fair, and I actually think Ben was poised to trade prospects for pitching, too. I doubt he'd have gone to the same extreme, and I think the extremities is why DD is mostly criticized, but who is to say we didn't need Sale or Kimbrel to win that ring. We'll never know. Ben made some horrible mistakes. Basically all of his biggest deals were flops: Pablo, HRam & Castillo. DD's best deals were actually his smaller ones, although we remember him as going large. The Pearce, Eovaldi and other similar deals might have had more to do with us winning the actual 2018 ring than Sale & Kimbrel combined. To me, both GMs had major faults while both getting us a ring. Ben's 3 last place finishes countered the much better farm he left DD than DD left Bloom. In some ways, they both balanced each other out but in very different ways.