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I hope he’s seen enough. At this point, move Duran to LF and try Franchy in CF. While he certainly could be worse, it’s actually looking unlikely…

Watching Duran in CF should actually justify the JBJ trade that much more and make me question the DFA. While Bradley’s offense was non-existent, preventing a routine sac fly from becoming an inside-the-park grand slam certainly has some value…

If Vazquez found out during the press conference, that’s on him. MLBTR was running the story 2 hours earlier. And it is true players check out that site. They’ve run stories about players who didn’t know they’d been traded until they saw it on MLBTR. So even if Vaz never checked the site out, I find it hard to believe that he didn’t have at least one teammate who did…

Okaaaaay. I asked several questions and this answers none of them, but I’ll bite. So are you saying the quarter billion dollar payrolls in 2018 and 2019 had nothing to do with that? Also the Sox reportedly offered $30mill per for 10 years. They were in the ballpark..

I'll keep it simple. I cited cash from Dombrowski contracts on this years team. This isn’t redraft fantasy where “Price was traded” and that ends it. You like closers and note Kenley Jansen was available when Atlanta signed him. Hey, one year $16mill. Why did Boston pass? Well, for one thing they’re paying $15mill for Price to not pitch for another team. That contract helped in 2018, but it didn’t end there. But if the Sox weren’t paying Price, do you or don’t you think they’d at least have the cash on the budget for someone like Jansen? Or because it’s been three years, that gets ignored? THat's a big issue. The Sox have about half their payroll tied up in players whose production simply isn't commensurate with their salary, and all of them came on Dobrowski deals. (A point can be made about Story, a deal I was also never wild about. But it's also not been a full year yet.) And THAT is why DD still has an impact. Those big long term deals always see the production drop, but not the money involved and that prevents and limits the team. And it doesn't matter that "it's been three years" if the deals go on for five. That’s why I hate any FA contract longer than 4-5 years. Unfortunately they are a necessity sometimes, and are hopefully limited to younger pre-FA players like Devers. Not to 30-somethings looking to be compensated for what they did in their 20s, like Price. And then look at the farm Bloom inherited. So far he’s managed to promote 4 players to the majors - Houck, Crawford, Duran and Dalbec. Sure, they’re all MLB talent, but not like he inherited pre-arb versions of Betts, Bogaerts, Benintendi and Bradley. Of those 4 Bloom inherited (5 if you want to count Bello), how many will still be in MLB in 4 years? Sure, I expect and hope all of them, but it's not likely. I don’t see them as walking into equal situations. Dombrowski became GM at the Perfect Storm time to be a Sox GM. A ton of young pre-arb talent, a farm with a slew of MLB readies, and a nearly unlimited budget. The incredible draft class of 2011 was throwing MLB player after MLB player into his lap. And it still took him 3 years to win a title. Did Bloom walk into the same situation? And 3 years later, is everything Dombrowski did gone and wiped clean?

Duran is definitely tradable. He makes minimum wage and for some teams, that supersedes baseball ability…

That’s conjecture. Might be right. But I’d doubt it myself. I think the offer was genuine but Mookie’s counter, which was over $400mill, was prohibitive…

Yeah. Until it’s official…

Non-tender candidate…

Well, the Sox did offer Bets $300mill, so we do know he was willing to go that far. But Betts was dealt as the only option as an attempt to reset the limit, which they were over due to all those Dombrowski contracts. As for Devers, I’m hoping the proliferation of these $250mill plus contracts changes Henry’s mind. Three years ago, it was just Trout…

Now granted, those are the most difficult ones. But at some point he needs to figure something out…

Hosey was short-lived but bad enough to make one flee the country. I spent a Duquette season or two that way myself…

No one blames Dombrowski for a s***** bullpen, but the contracts he signed players to were a factor in not keeping Betts. That should be obvious…

You must clearly have forgotten about Dwayne Hosey. I don’t blame you if you did. But I do put Duran in his company, and that’s not good company to be in…

Can’t handle it? Does it violate the Dombrowski Appreciation Society to acknowledge it? Some of us (ok probably just me) started talking about this type of thing on the heels of the Kimbrel trade and Price signing. You can’t launch the payroll into the stratosphere while emptying the farm. Of course all you got out of it was that Logan Allen didn’t pan out. If Dombrowski had nothing to do with this team, explain why soortrac has the payroll at $207mill with $103 coming from 5 contracts written Dombrowski that have produced 6.1 fWAR. A number that looks worse when you realize 4.2 fWAR come from one player…

Duran is awful in CF, but he wasn’t a 2b in the minors. On draft day in 2018, he was announced as an outfielder. Outside of 20 games in low A ball Lowell, he’s been an outfielder. He’s had 5 seasons to become a good outfielder and apparently shown very little progress. But his being in CF started long before Bloom was hired…

Which one of them got super duper rich dumping millions on top of millions to clean up the messes created the previous years?

And then 3 or 4 good years followed by exactly where we are now.

So? Fans pay for everything in Hollywood, too. But I bet they won’t let you direct a movie…

Yeah but you can’t expect and don’t want a GM who acts like an average fan. And certainly ownership doesn’t want one…

Cordero has been DFAd before…

#5 is my favorite, too. But the only part I’m confident in is a DFA for Cordero, and even then only because it’s been done before. As for #2, well, the notion of trying to predict the unpredictable is oxymoronic. But there is some surprise every year, with Benintendi and then Bradley. Houck could easily be back next year, but simply by virtue f being a closer, he’s probably overvalued. And once you take him out of that role, he’s a mediocre pitcher with questionable control and command who gets by on one devastating pitch…

I’m sure that’s part of it, but the problem has been all the other money. The Sox have added free agents, made trades, and even extended one young star (Whitlock). Hopefully they can extend Devers, something made easier by having Hosmer on board (which seems weird to type to me). But some discretion on the extension of young stars, because lots of players drop off significantly after age 32 or so. Do the Sox feel Bogaerts will? I can’t say, but it certainly is possible. And it might be correct, too…

No one likes any team plan that’s anything but “we’re trying to win it all.” But the whole idea of cleaning out the massive detrimental contracts and building up the farm to supply minimum wage players is essential if you want to compete every year. Teams like the Dodgers and Padres have been spending on star after star because their farm can help them support it. Boston’s simply could not…