Nick

The mission is clear. Sign 2 quality pitchers better than Bello. What is so hard about that? WE ARE BIG MARKET TEAM. Many posters here I haven't seen in awhile. Maybe we should have reminded John Henry and not blame all on Bloom.

* Bloom was ripped for not re-signing Xander Bogaerts last winter and there were times, especially before the 2022 season, that the sides likely could have come to terms on a reasonable deal. But I’d bet the decision to let Bogaerts walk will ultimately be one of Bloom’s best calls during his tenure. Bogaerts was the consummate professional and did just about everything right in a Red Sox uniform, both on and off the field. But the numbers this year (.764 OPS) and his imminent move off shortstop tell a major part of the story. ESPN’s Jeff Passan noted on a radio appearance Thursday that many teams in baseball view Bogaerts’ 11-year-, $280 million deal with the Padres as underwater already. I’ll do one better: within minutes of news of Bogaerts’ agreement going public, a Red Sox-connected person texted that it was “the worst contract in baseball.” Kudos to Bloom for not letting emotion take over on tha tone. A poster on this board is always defending Xander. Pointing out his fWar or some number. The bottom line is .764 OPS on a 11 year, $280M deal is not good in my book. I don't care what positives anyone points out. Bad contract. Only 10 years to go.

Well Bloom has repeatedly said that Sox did not have a team around Betts when he was traded. Our pitching staff on paper was very good heading into 2019 season. The the bottom fell out. Not sure I would blame that season on Bloom. It takes two to tangle and my perception will ALWAYS be that Betts wanted a new partner. He got a good one, I might add.

Baseball America ranked Boston’s minor league system No. 30 (dead last) in 2019, before Bloom was hired. BA ranked the Red Sox No. 5 in its 2023 midseason organizational rankings and wrote, “The Red Sox are stocked with up-the-middle talent, as all of their top 10 positional prospects play in the middle infield, center field or catcher. This current cache of prospect depth is likely Chaim Bloom’s greatest achievement during his time in Boston.Twenty-one of the prospects on Baseball America’s Red Sox Top 30 list are players Bloom either drafted, signed or acquired via trade. The other nine are holdovers from Dave Dombrowski’s tenure. Bloom’s prospects: Marcelo Mayer (1), Roman Anthony (2), Miguel Bleis (3), Kyle Teel (4), Nick Yorke (5), Shane Drohan (9), Nathan Hickey (10), Yoeilin Cespedes (12), Nazzan Zanetello (13), Chase Meidroth (14), Blaze Jordan (15), Enmanuel Valdez (17), Antonio Anderson (18), Mikey Romero (19), David Hamilton (22), Johanfran Garcia (23), Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz (24), Brooks Brannon (25), Wilyer Abreu (26), Yordanny Monegro (29), Hunter Dobbins (30). Dombrowski’s prospects: Ceddanne Rafaela (6), Luis Perales (7), Wikelman Gonzalez (8), Brainer Bonaci (11), Eddinson Paulino (16), Brandon Walter (20), Chris Murphy (21), Allan Castro (27), Angel Bastardo (28). I really did think he'd get one more year......

I am more interested in bundling $5-$10M contracts and signing a higher level free agents. Sure there are some risks. I think one thing Bloom has done is take care of team controlled position players. New GM obviously has to address our starting pitching.

Sept. 11: LHP Chris Sale pushed back a couple of days After Sale's latest sluggish outing since coming off the injured list, the Red Sox have decided to give him two extra days of rest. Rather than pitching on Thursday against the Yankees, Sale is slated to start in Toronto on Saturday. In six starts since his return to action on Aug. 11, Sale is 1-2 with a 5.53 ERA. He has pitched five innings in only two of those outings, and hasn't gone deeper than that. "Rest, that would be good for him," Red Sox manager Alex Cora said when asked about the motivation to push Sale back. "Just to work on a few things during the week and then be ready for Saturday." I am officially giving up on Sale. Horrible extension. We sure do waste money.

Only thing I would give edge to Yoshida is the fact he did play outfield. But, his defense was a suspect or adequate at best.

https://www.mlb.com/news/red-sox-end-orioles-win-streak-at-7-games Boston's young core shows out in win vs. powerful O's Little blurb on Bello, Casas and Rafaela. A five hit game by Abreu was impressive the day before.

Yep, shrewd 'move' by the Sox. "Sure you can opt out". "By the way, we're giving you the option year, so no, you can't leave."

Yes. I'd like for Sox to do what the Rangers did. 2 big signings couple of years ago followed by another spending binge. Nothing is 100% but signing 2 healthy arms is a must this winter. And I am not talking about $10M arms.

For all you beancounters, we only have 4 players under contract for 2025 season. They are Devers, Story, Yoshida and Whitlock totaling $75M. We will have few none arbitration players still meaning tons of money to spend. I would expect couple of expensive signings this winter but the real spending splurge may come year from now.

Add in couple of bats similar to Duvall and Turner each year, our offense is set for few years. Which means we can focus on ......

Trevor has club option attached for fifth year that I listed. 2028.

Sox definitely has Teel on a fast track as he is already in AA after getting drafted this summer. A left handed hitting athletc catcher, he will be good compliment to Wong. I think we see him in Fenway sometime in 2025. Roman Anthony is on a similar fast track. Already in AA at 19.

Positional core group. CC Wong 5 1B Casas 5 2B 3B Devers 10 SS Story 5 DH Yoshida 4 LF Duran 5 CF Rafaela 6 RF Abreu 6 That's $76M for 9 spots. Relatively cheap. Go buy starting pitching..

Thus proving that most of us fans are bit delusional thinking we have realistic chance at trade deadline. It's better % to trade anything of value...Paxton comes to mind. I do think there's compensation attached to Paxton.

Is there much difference between Casas of 2022 and Abreu of 2023 in Seprember? I would love to have Abreu in our core young group. What more can he do in AAA. We already know he can hit.

Bello a success. Whitlock Houck Kutter Winckowski Walter Murphy It's very obvious how difficult it is for Sox to develop starting pitchers. Only Bello is a lock. Others seem destined for bullpen no matter how much I want them to be starters. Then you add injuries. Sale Paxton Eovaldi (had we signed him). It looks me we need to sign 3 starting pitchers at $25M apiece and hope two out of three works out. Does MLB need to expand rosters? Allow 15 pitchers on the staff? Or at the very least allow AAA to Majors and back transaction easier process and less punitive?

Not really directed at you. I am just tired of rehashing both Betts and Xander departures. I just want to focus on 2024.

Give me a break with this constant Monday am quarterbacking. I seem to recall 90% of this board thinking Xander was subpar defensive shortstop Moon himself often said just to sign a defensive shortstop and move Xander to another position. Of course he will say he never said it. Make up yor f***ing minds. Betts is gone. Xander is gone. Xander got exactly what he wanted. He took the $$$$ and ran. Quit living in a dream land. There is no such thing as hometown discount. What I want Bloom to do this winter in to spend real money to sign real starters. Not guys coming off injury. Paxton experiment has run its course. He is broken down. Quit wasting $10M on utility player such as Kike. We have several young talent on the cheap on our roster. It's time to spend $25M on 3 starting pitchers. We at leat have a good defensive shortstop. Yep I think Bloom overpaid but it's a done deal. 2024 should be Sale's last year. His money will come off in 2025. Essentially we'll have one year overlap with 3 new, well paid starters. Make a trade if we must. I am not sure if that is doable without opening up a hole in our current lineup. Stay focused. 3 solid starters will give us chance to make the playoffs. We actually lose close to $50M between Sale, Jansen and Martin after 2024.KMaybe Houck Whitlock Kutter can man the 7-9 innings. Bloim has done a good job having young core position players in place. We have 3 big contracts in Devers Yoshida and Story. Others come cheap. We can spend the money elsewhere. The biggest mistake we made in 2023 was thinking Kluber was a serviceable starter and Kike can be a shortstop.

Would everyone here be bitching about Nathan Eovaldi being hurt after starting 19 games of at least 5 innings pitched? Kluber goes 2-6 while Nathan was 9-3 before the 9/5 fiasco.

Just think having Vaz and his 3 year deal. We dodged a bullet. Or having a 5 year $75M deal for Beni. Hopefully we don't bring back Kike under any circumstances. 9 more years of Xander? No thanks.

Now there’s a 21-year-old right-handed prospect in Portland who has been up to 99 mph with his four-seamer and considers his changeup (with fade) his best secondary pitch. Do the Red Sox have another Bello-like talent in Wikelman Gonzalez? Gonzalez dominated again Saturday, not allowing a hit until the sixth inning in Portland’s 5-1 win over Somerset. He fired 6 shutout innings to improve to 3-1 with a 2.45 ERA and 1.04 WHIP in eight starts with the Sea Dogs since being promoted from High-A Greenville on Aug. 8. Opponents are batting just .147 against him and he’s averaging 11.6 strikeouts per nine innings (Bello averaged 12.0 strikeouts per nine innings with Portland). The Red Sox undoubtedly will select Gonzalez to their 40-man roster this November to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft. Next February will be his first big league spring training camp. Help is on the way.....

3. Ceddanne Rafaela’s defense Manager Alex Cora has mentioned the potential of the 22-year-old receiving some reps at second base. Rafaela already has Gold Glove potential in center field. Looks to me like Bloom is looking to improve internally at 2B. Crowded outfield maybe?

2. Wilyer Abreu’s plate discipline Wilyer Abreu has a chase percentage of just 8.5% in the first 113 pitches he has seen. On average, major leaguers have a 28.4% chase rate this year. Abreu’s chase rate is bound to rise as his sample size grows. But it certainly is a glimpse of his plate discipline. He had an impressive 16.3% walk percentage for Triple-A Worcester this season after walking in 19.7% of his plate appearances last year. He was one of only five minor leaguers in all of affiliated ball in 2022 to finish with 100 or more walks when he walked 114 times. Abreu is unofficially auditioning for a spot on the 2024 team. You can't ignore this guy.