moonslav59

Ben left a better foundation than anyone else, and Duquette left Theo a very nice foundation. Theo left Ben with enough to cobble together a ring while rebuilding the farm for DD. DD left Bloom with bare cupboards and bloated contracts of aging stars. Yes, Bloom was handed Betts, JD, Bogey, Devers and a couple promising prospects, but that was about it.

Dan Duquette left Theo a good foundation. Theo, not so good, but not really bad, either- certainly better than DD left Bloom. Ben left DD a fantastic base to work with. To me, what DD left Bloom is way worse than any GM has left his replacement since before Duquette.

That's a big "if," and you are also counting 2019 as not being "destroyed." Sure, we had a good team, on paper, and injuries doomed us, but we sucked, and that's on DD a lot more than this year's team should be "on Bloom." I doubt we are a top contender in 2021. If Bloom works some magic, we can be, but it looks, to me, like 3 bad year in a row. (2019-2021). Being the worst or second worst team in MLB is the "cliff"many of us saw coming, and many others denied could or would happen. To me, it is most certainly "on DD." Like I said, I'm not bashing DD for what he did. I was onboard for most of his moves, and he was only making sure we ended up being good enough to win a ring. Kimmie and others think he went overboard, and I don't necessarily disagree, but in baseball, nothing is a sure bet, so overkill wins rings. The price of that "overkill"is being paid for now. I'm okay with that. That 2018 season was very special. What a great team! Yes, it sucks going through a cliff, but to me, it's worth it. I have faith in Bloom to rebuild us, quickly. Maybe he will meet the same fate as Ben and be dumped before his plan is completed, and we'll hire another DD type to get us over the hump, once the farm is strong, again. (I hope not, but rings are rings.)

I said "not likely a top contender." I'm not writing off 2021, but I'm also not going to set my expectations on us being top contenders a year after being one of baseball's worst teams. If Bloom gets $70-90M to spend this winter, and that is not a given, yes, we could be a top 4-8 team, but virtually every signing would have to work, and Sale, ERod and Eovaldi (or at least 2 of them) would have to shine in 2021. I'm thinking 2022 is more realistic and by going for broke in 2021, we may actually do harm to our chances in 2022 and beyond. My plan would be to try really hard to get 2-4 players, this winter, that will carry us from 2022 and beyond. The rest of the money can be spent on 1-2 year deals to fill gaps and make us respectable in 2021. If everything works out, we could compete in 2021, if not, we have fresh spending space after 2021, with the 1 year deals expiring and Pedey & others' deals coming off the books. Trying to load up on 4-8 of the best FAs, this winter, which normally means longer term deals may put our longer term chances at risk, if too many are busts.

I thought the state of this team being more DD's fault than Bloom's needed to be stated. I had my issues with DD, but we won a ring, and I'm glad he was our GM for that reason, despite the fallout. I don't see it as political. I support every Sox GM, until they earn my criticism. Also, being critical does not mean I hate the guy or want him removed. I hated seeing Theo go but it seemed like it just "had to be." I hated seeing Ben go before his "plan" had a chance to come to fruition. I thought DD had to go, due to the situation we were in and the type of GM needed to rebuild. I'm a "Bloom supporter," but really, I don't know much about him, except his rep as GM that can find cheap gems in the rough and build winners with low budgets. He seemed like the type of guy we needed. As for giving him "a pass," I'm not sure that's what many of us have done. We expected a down year, due to where DD left us and the reset priority given to Bloom. I will say, I had hoped we'd have already seen some Bloom "gems" discovered already, and maybe he has found some in Valdez, Munoz & Perez, but the vast majority of his acquisitions have not worked out. Given the budget he had to work with, I'm not ready to pounce all over him for not working a miracle overnight. If that's giving him a pass, I'm guilty as charged. Assuming he's given a higher budget to work with this winter and next year, I expect a vast improvement in 2021. I'm not expecting a top 6 or 8 team, but maybe a top 8-12 and then top 4-8 in 2022. I'll be right there with criticism, if his moves fail, but I just don't see all that much to criticize, this year. He took a few shots in the dark and failed (Peraza, paying JBJ that much, all the pitching moves except Perez...), but expecting miracles with very little spending room is not realistic. I'm glad we got DD. I'm not sure Ben would have gotten us a ring, but I'm also not going to sugar coat what he did to get us that ring. I knew the cliff was coming, and I was okay with it, because of 2018. We are paying the price of 2018, now. I don't blame Bloom for that at all.

I expect us to be over .500 next year, and if things go well with Sale, ERod and Eovaldi we could be in the playoffs. I expect a highly competitive team by 2022. I'd also like to add that the DD supporters were quick to deny the coming of "the cliff." It's here, and it ain't Bloom's fault.

Good but not likely a top contender. That's why every signing beyond one year should be geared towards being highly competitive by 2022 or 2023. A few one year deals may help us be good for 2021, but we should look to make 2-3 key acquisitions geared towards the long term. The fate of ERod, Sale and Eovaldi will be a big factor in 2021.

If we have $70M to spend (keeping us under the limit) or $90M (keeping us under the 2nd tax line), we could spend the money this way: $22-28M SP $12-14M SP $10-12M Closer $6-8M RP'er $6-8M SP $6-8M CF $6-8M 2B $6-8M 1B $6M bench This assuming we don't trade away any salary (like Eovaldi), but there is room to spend and build a good team by 2021.

To me, our top priorities are as such (in order of importance): 1. SP (Solid #1 or 2 type, but we may wait a year on getting an ace) 2. SP (Solid #2 or 3 type- a must if #1 is put off a year) 3. Closer 4. Solid set up RP'er 5. CF (defensive) 6. 2B 7. 1B 8. RP 9. SP depth (#3, if #1 is put off a year) 10. OF depth

I'm not sold on Ockimey, but why not let him play and get a better sense of what he has to offer? I'm not pretending to know more than the Sox brass, and maybe they already know.

I'm always high on D. I think we can improve our CF defense at a low cost. I think Dalbec can be a plus defender at 1B in a short period of time and maybe become better than plus. I like Arauz's defense at 2B and am not sure about Chatham, but moving from SS to 2B could be what is best for him. Chavis has decent defensive numbers at 2B, but the sample size is too small to judge. My guess is he will not be a plus on D. I don't see Vaz and Bogey as being plus. Devers showed signs of becoming plus, but he still has too many lapses on D- mostly throwing. I like Verdugo. Beni is average in LF. If we can sign a great defensive CF for cheap, which means no bat, that would help on run prevention. Arauz and Dalbec on the right side of the IF should be plus, making our total IF about average. Plus OF, Avg IF, Meh catcher. Add some pitching: quality and quantity. If we look like we can compete in 2021, make some deadline trades, but I'm thinking 2022 should be the main focus.

I think I'm alone on thinking it wouldn't hurt to give Ockimey a pretty long look. They guy has killed righties for years. My thinking is that we will likely spend most of our resources on pitching, and it would really help, if we could fill 1B, 2B or both from withing the system. We have the rest of this year and next to let it play out, but we may have to trade 1 or 2 of the candidates before letting the rest fight it out. Maybe nobody steps up, but at least we'll know that at some point in 2021. If just one can prove he belongs and another shows he can be a useful utility player, it could be a huge push. I would not be surprised, however, if Bloom signs some cheap 1B & 2B options to help make us more respectable for 2021, and we'll know less about what we have from the farm that can help or prove they don't belong.

I do think the K:BB ratio is important, but to me, as long as the BB% and OBP is respectable, the K's don't hurt as much. I think player A &B have value enough to stick around: A 240K/120 BB .360 OBP (25+ HRs) B 240K/80 BB .360 OBP (25+ Hrs) -higher BA than A C 240K/80 BB .320 OBP (25+ HRs)

Here's my opinions: While Chavis offers some value as 2B/3B depth, I think we will end up keeping just one. Sure, one could end up at DH once JD is gone, and we could probably find enough ABs for both of them at 1B, 2B, DH and 3B over the next few years, but both bat RH'd. I prefer we keep Dalbec. He has better numbers in the minors and is a much better defender. Chavis has more ML experience, but I'm not sure what we've seen is a plus for him over Dalbec. To me, his ability to play 2B, and the jury is still out on how well, is his only plus. Next, is a point I have brought up a few times before with very little support from other posters. I'd like to give Ockimey a shot at winning a platoon role with whoever we keep from Chavis & Dalbec- assuming we trade the other. Here is alook at their splits: vs RHP/vs LHP (year) Ockimey: .898/.535 (2019) AAA .968/.586 (2018) AA .844/.786 (2017) A+ Dalbec: .794/.904 (2019) AA .868/.701 (2018) AA .970/.881 (2018) A+ Chavis: .540/.700 (2020) MLB (96 PAs total) .774/.742 (2019) MLB .880/.964 (2018) AA (only had 113 career PAs at AAA level) .846/.602 (2017) AA Maybe an Ockimey-Dalbec 1B platoon would work best. Finally, 2B: I don't see Chavis as our long term 2Bman, but if his bat come back and he continues to look decent on defense (too soon to know), maybe he could end up being the best we have, until Downs is ready to challenge. Arauz, Chatham, Lin and Peraza do not excite me at much at all. Arauz-Peraza might be the best we have for 2021. Maybe Downs could jump to the bigs mid-sesason, but we should not count on it. (Pitching remains our major concern area.)

Yes, and unexpected ones sometimes seem nicer.

The future of the Sox by age... (Best bets) 17 Jordan 18 Yorke, Bonaci 19 Lugo 20 Casa, Jimenez, Rosario 21 Mata, Potts, Arauz 22 Downs, Groome 23 Devers, D Hernandez, Ward, Song 24 Verdugo, Chavis, Duran, Houck, Wong, Seabold 25 Beni, Dalbec, Munoz 27 Bogaerts 29 Vazquez 31 Sale

It's fun reading all this. Thanks guys. You are bringing light to an otherwise very dark time in Sox fans' lives.

Agreed. Play Dalbec, Munoz, Arauz & Chavis as much as possible, so we can get a better feel on who they are. A few weeks is not enough to know anything, for sure, but knowing more can't hurt. I'm not sure I need to see more IP from anybody on the staff. I see little hope anyone will do enough to instill much confidence for 2021 and/or beyond.

Winning on Vaz's legs and Munoz's bat is something I'd never have expected.

Dalbec has only 1609 career PAs in the minors. That's like 2.5 full ML seasons. The 480 K's are awful, but with nearly 190 BBs, and an OBP over .360, it might not be as bad as can be imagined. 169 XNHs in 1609 PAs is better than 1 every 10 PAs or 8 ABs. He deserves a long look. We hear comps to Middy as we did with Chavis. Here's a look at the 3 players' minor league totals: PAs Player OBP/SLG and K% 2795 Middy .325/461 and 25.1% 1757 Chavis .325/.471 and 25.6% 1609 Dalbec .362/.505 and 29.8%

It does seem like a very strange thing to do as you are very close to making it on the bog roster. Maybe this will be the first real gem we've been hoping Bloom would find. The kids is off to a fantastic start.

Not that soxprospects,com is the foremost authority of the subject, but they project these prospects to be at these levels, next year: MLB: 1B Dalbec CF Duran IF Chatham UT Munoz AAA C Wong 1B Ockimey 2B Downs SS Arauz 3B de la Guerra LF Puello CF Matheny RF Wilson SP Ward, Mata, Seabold, Hart, Kickham RP Houck, Mazza, Poyner, Bazardo, Stock, Shawaryn, Leyer AA C Pereda/Rei 1B Casas 2B Netzer 3B Potts SS Fitzgerald LF Rusconi CF Rosario RF Espin DH Castellanos SP Politi, Shugart, D Reyes, Raudes, Haworth RP Ayabr, Lau, Crawford, Martinez, Gomez, Schellenger, Browning, Kent

I agree. He was great defensively and had a much better bat than JBJ.

I could be wrong, but I don't think anyone on this list played more games with the Sox than JBJ. Still, pretty impressive.

My top 15: 1. Casas 2. Mata 3. Ward 4. Downs 5. Jimenez 6. Song 7. Dalbec 8. Duran 9. Groome 10. Houck 11. Rosario 12. Potts 13. Seabold 14. Yorke 15. Lugo