moonslav59

Nice post, as always. It is possible for a deal to make sense, then flop.

I’m glad I did not have to use the line… Wink man, Wink man Charade you are…

Nice win! Maybe Winkman can be just the guy we need to pick up the slack. I still think we need to trade for a solid SPer, but I’m not sure we do that.

Truth hurts, sometimes, and we all know Hugh was telling it straight.

I’m assuming you mean no shot at a ring and not the playoffs. BTW, we did pay the Dodgers several million dollars for several years as part of the mega trade.

Post of the week.

I agree 100%. Nobody wants or enjoys us being sellers, especially multiple years in a row. I will add that not being sellers, some years, might add to the chances of having another failing season the next year or more. It sucks even having to entertain the idea of needing to sell to get better next year.

Who would have guessed, as we near July, that three of the 6 playoff teams would be from the AL Central? CLE MIN KCR are 1.5 up on BOS. The Astros are firmly in the race at 41-41.

Maybe this will end up being a series where we were out scored by 15+ runs but still get a win.

Some Yankee fans insisted their farm was better than ours!

This is not the first, second or third time JH has significantly cut the budget over the last 20+ years. On the flip side, he has also significantly raised the budget, several times? Will he again? If yes, when?

What a difference two really bad games makes.

Yes. We have not even traded a4-20 prospect since Aldo Ramirez for Schwarber.

There is still plenty of time for us to move into the sellers group.

At least he names the posters.

Wait until you see how little some teams give up for significant players at the deadline. We can get real talent without trading a top 8-10 prospect, not just top 3.

RIP Orlando Cepeda. He was the first Sox DH. Damn good hitter who had some rough patches in life.

I remember those days, too. Although the data was a week old, it was still worth it. The Sporting News was another biggie.

You mention WAR a lot, for someone who doesn’t care. In short, IP is a big factor in the total value of a pitcher or pen, as it should have value.

We sure have run into a buzz saw. Gotta stop the bleeding!

DD almost traded Betts, so there is some evidence he was doing what JH wanted, probably not liking it. He did not replace K and K, which is more evidence he might have been willing to stick around through the massive cuts, but I don’t think he liked it, at all. To me, that was a source of friction. DD was not “about to break the bank,” because JH writes the checks. IMO, DD would not have liked being the GM in 2020, and JH did not view DD as the type of GM with an expertise of building winners with cheap budgets and no serious farm infusions for a 5 year period. That’s when JH decided to go for a GM that was thought to be good at building winners on low budgets. I’m not sure what you mean by “finally” seeing it your way. This has been my opinion for over5 years and seems to differ a bit from yours. I do not think DD would have spent more than bloom did, because JH would never have let him. JH actually started restricting spending shortly after the Sale and Bogey extensions and Nate re-up deal.

They should be plenty cautious. I can’t help but feel Deja vu, here. It seems every summer we look to players returning from the IL to bring a needed boost or spark to the season. It never seems to work out that way. At least it’s not SPers we are waiting on. Casas and Hendriks may yet give us a boost, but who knows?

Hope you bring some good luck, Max!

I’m not so sure DD is fully to blame for not replacing Kimbrel and Kelly. I think the tightening on new spending began before DD left. Hell, DD almost traded Betts at the 2019 deadline. Does anyone think he wanted to do that any more or less than Bloom did? That 2019 team still looked good on paper, but some extensions were about to kick in, arb raises accumulating and a farm that gave DD just Devers in 2017 and nothing on the horizon to temper the high-priced players need to fill out the 26 and 40 man roster in coming years. Not signing any RPers for 2019 was a clear sign of major changes coming. IMO, JH looked at the state of the farm, the cost it would take to keep everybody or replace in kind via FAs was just going to get way too costly. I think that was the crux of the spat between JH and DD, along with some personal style issues. The writing was on the wall, all along. The only realistic way we could have kept competing was to keep spending more and more, and I’m not just talking Betts. We lost more after K & K. Although Porcello had declined after his Cy Young, we lost him and others. Although not known at the time, we were to see major injuries to Sale, Price, ERod and lesser injuries to Nate and others. Plus, Pedey was still on the books.

Does anyone disagree with this?