moonslav59

That's all factored in. (Yes, I should have added the words "modern day" or "metrics.")

MLBTR mentions Bloom... As Jones notes, the comments from Mozeliak serve to highlight the club’s recent hiring of former Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom in an advisory role. While the hire was only announced earlier this week, Mozeliak indicated today that Bloom has been advising the several months and that the club’s acquisitions this offseason have been “bounce(d) off” the club’s new hire. Mozeliak went as far as to note that Bloom has factored into discussions with chairman Bill DeWitt III regarding the future of the baseball operations department following Mozeliak’s eventual move away from leading the club, though he went on to note GM Mike Girsch and scouting director Randy Flores as other potential candidates.

A team doing much better than the Dodgers, and who went with a Rays guy for a while is the Astros. 7 straight playoff seasons (8 of 9) 7 straight ALCS appearances (3 wins) 2 WS rings in 7 years They have let the following players go- many via free agency: Correa Springer Verlander Cole Morton Greinke Keuchel Word around here is they may not keep 2 or 3 from Bregman, Tucker and Framber Valdez.

The 3 holes is widely viewed as the 4th, 5th or 6th best slot to put one of your best hitters.

I'm not trying to downplay the lack of young pitchers on the horizon. It sucks. I did not mean to imply you think the farm is not improved. To me, we should be using the improved farm to trade for better SP'ers, until we find a way to improve our homegrown pitching production. It's what we've done since even before Theo (Pedro under Dan D.) DD proved the farm has more value than just providing talent. (Sale, Kimbrell, Pomeranz)

With dollars so precious to JH, signing Soler is a nonstarter, to me. Even if we trade Duran, I'd spend on Clevinger or even Paxton, instead. Yoshida can play some LF, as they rotate out the DH slot, some. Refsnyder can play LF vs LHPs. O'Neill or Abreu can play LF, when the other is in RF.

I think the value of Bleis will increase, this year, so I don't like the idea of trading at lowest stock price value, but I'd probably do it. I think Luzardo is better than Garrett, and BTV agrees, but I like Garrett's 5 years over Luzardo's 3 years. I love to find a way to trade Duran and Yorke (3 teams) for one of these two. I'd add Wikelman or Perales, if needed to get tem to take Yorke over Bleis.

I'm not a big Duran fan. I've suggested dozens of Duran trades on BTV. I've said I think BTV over values him. I still think he's worth more than a pitcher who walks 6 guys every 9 IP. I agree on LF only, and we already have 3-4 guys who look best in LF or DH.

Yes, Mookie not Sale. My bad. My point was the moment of change as right after 2018, not after 2019. The near trade of Mookie in 2019 is evidence the change had already started. It's my opinion that was one of the bones of contention thought to have occurred between DD and the Sox FO. I can only imagine how DD would have acted, had he stayed on for 2020 under the same circumstances forced on Bloom.

DD deserves all the praise he gets. He made a lot of great signings and trades. That 3 year stretch was amazing. He did sacrifice some of the future, but it was worth every bit, and as it turned out, he mainly kept the best prospects and traded the duds.

I'd prefer we let Soler sign elsewhere and trade Mayer and secondaries for Luzardo or Garrett. Give them the SS they need. Roll the dice with Story and Grissom as our MI'ers for the next 4 years and hope the pitcher we get stays healthy and flourishes. (I'm not against trading Duran, but I do see the chance he can become very special.)

Similar to what/who? Duran? I'm not saying ECab won't work out, but why do seem so confident, he will? (Or, are you just so low on Duran?)

DD nearly traded Sale at the 2019 deadline. He was not allowed to bring back Kelly and Kimbrell, unless you think he chose not to. The embarking began before DD's last year, here.

Yes, and I am offering more for Garrett or Luzardo than I would for ECab. I think Duran for ECab is an overpay. If they threw in Berti, I'd still probably say no.

The Marlins churn out SP'ers like nobody else. They traded Pablo Lopez, recently under the same circumstances as now. It has been reported they will listen to offers for Garrett or Luzardo. They await the return of Alcantara, maybe the best of the whole group. If ECab is as good as you seem to think he is, replacing Garrett or Luzardo with him, while adding Duran and Kim to their line-up looks like a decent idea. They also have one of the best young SP'ers in MLB- Eury Perez. BTV AFV (yrs of conrol) 115 E Perez 6 103 Garrett 5 91 Luzardo 3 57 Alcantara 4 39 Cabrera 5 33 T Rogers 3 I doubt any MLB team has 6 MLB pitchers with an AFV of over 33. (LAD come close.) The Sox 90 Bello 5 43 Crawford 5 39 Giolito 2 16 Pivetta 1 14 Walter 6 ATL 266 Strider 6 41 Elder 5 37 Fried 1 37 Sale 2 33 Smith-Shawver 6 12 Morton 1 LAD 526 Ohtani 10 (has DH value included) 159 Glasnow 5 132 B Miller 6 60 K Hurt 6 59 E Sheehan 6 31 G Stone 6 16 Gonsolin 3

Post of the day.

If Bloom's main task was to build for the long term success, and that is what he tried to do, why is he to blame for that? No doubt, the lack of promising pitching prospects is very worthy of criticism and puts a big dent in any grade we give him for farm building, but the fact is, the farm is ranked much higher by every ranking system. Much higher. It could all turn to dust. We get that. The "great" Ben farm, that DD traded much away, turned out to be over hype. That happens, a lot, but more times than not, these rankings do a decent job with projections. I'd rather have the farm now, in one year: Anthony, Mayer, Teel, Bleis, Rafaela, Cespedes & Abreu than... All the top homegrown, starting pitching prospects the Sox system had in the 12 seasons before Bloom took over (2008-2019): Listed by top soxpropsects,com ranking: 1, Casey Kelly, Jay Groome 2. Michael Bowden, Henry Owens, Anthony Ranaudo, DHern 3. Doubront, Anderson Espinoza, Daniel Bard (best as a RP) 5. Houck, Michael Kopech, Brian Johnson Bloom took over a system that produced jack for SP'ers for over a dozen years. It's not something that can be changed, overnight. I understand your focus on the lack of top draft picks and IFA bonuses for SP'ers. It has merit, but the context and full picture shows our farm seems to have improved. Time will tell on the pitching. I think we all hope Brez can turn the pitching aspect around. Ben, DD and Bloom did not.

I could see that. Also, if Story can regain his O, maybe flip him and O'Neill.

I'm curious why you think Cabrera is going to fix the glaring problem he has, when oh so many like him, never did. While I do think BTV over values Duran (34), I do not think he's equal to Cabrera (19.6.) ECab has been in MLB for 3 years. He turns 26 in April. His BB/9 was worse in 2023 (6.0) than his career 5.4 rate. I just can't get excited over that kind of rate, despite the 6.6 H/9 rate. It looks too much like DHern, to me. I'd like to get away from projects, rehab or reclamation pitchers. Finds a third partner who wants Yorke and find a way to trade Yorke, Duran and maybe a third piece to get Garrett (5 yrs) or Luzardo (3 yrs). To BOS: Garrett To MIA: Duran, Kim, Wikelman To SDP: Schreiber & Yorke

Just a tiny difference in spending trends.

It's also estimated that the Sox are worth $4.5B. JH & Co. bought them for $750M just over 20 years ago. Many super rich people are stingy with their money. In some ways, that's how they got so rich.

A lot depends on age progression, which does not always follow the expected curve. Our key returning players, other than Jansen and Martin are almost all in peak prime or approaching it. Grissom, Rafaela and Abreu are too pre-prime and inexperienced at the MLB level to know what to expect. (Also, I Campbell, EValdez, Slaten & Mata) Moving towards peak prime: Bello, Casas, Duran, Crawford, Wink & Wong McGuire In peak prime, now: Devers, Story, Giolito, O'Neill, Yoshida, Houck, Whitlock Pivetta, Schreiber, Reyes, Refsnyder, Bernardino Past Prime: Jansen & Martin

I agree on Grissom at lead off. I put him there on another thread. (Duran could be another option.) 1. R Grissom 2B 2. L Devers 3B 3. R O'Neill RF 4. L Casas 1B 5. R Story SS 6. L Yoshida DH/LF 7. L Duran LF or CF/ L Refsnyder DH/ LF 8. R Rafaela CF/ L Abreu CF 9. L Wong/ R McGuire

I started that post out thinking we'd likely need 29 or 30 out of 32 to go right for us to be a winning team with playoff hopes, but as I started looking at how nearly every player or position had reasonable hopes at improvement, my number started falling. I ended thinking maybe 24 or 25 might be needed, but a lot depends on how far off some positions are from adding value. If we have 23 things go right, but 9 go horribly wrong, we likely will not improve, let alone improve by enough to catch some division foes and pass them. We might be able to pull it off with 16-20 going right, if the other 12-16 don't kill us with super bad play. The 6 areas you listed look legit, but we'll need others to join them or not to regress for anything magical to happen.

I still think they want us to believe Brez can do a much better job than Bloom did. It's not like $200M teams never make the playoffs. I get your point, though. They are trying to walk a thin line. They leaking of the non Sale trade was very strategic, and if all true, it does expose one of Bloom's fatal flaws, but it also looks like a total reflection of what the whole FO has been for 5 years. (Yes, I'm including 2019, when we let Kimbrell & Kelly go.) Brez has seemed more decisive than Bloom, but he seems to be starting out where Bloom did in 2020. He's been given an impossible task. As the years went by, Bloom was given a larger and larger winter spending budget, but in some cases, the amount he was given barely covered what we lost in key players walking away from the Sox. Year one for Bloom was impossible. Forget the Covid part of it: he was forced to trade Betts with half Price and not replace them plus Porcello's money with anyone more highly paid than Martin Perez. Yet, people blamed Bloom, and still do for losing Betts and turning the 2018 team into crap. Now, we see a team that finished in last place 2 years in a row replacing Turner, Duvall, Dugo and Sale with Gio, O'Neill & Grissom. Nothing has changed, except our perception and realization that the sham did not start in the winter of '23-'24. (Not that everyone just realized it, now. Many saw it years ago.)