Nick

For me Bloom needs to continue to churn out young pitchers. This is what he promised. Doing it right means once the train has left the station, another run of young pitchers should be arriving to backfill the ones that left. Bello, Whitlock, Houck, Crawford........who is next? No more of 8-10 year gap in developing quality starters.

I guess we should thank JD for taking out Aaron Judge.....

Age 24 2008 Lester 16-6 33 (GS) 3.21 (ERA) 210 IP, this was Lester's 3rd major league season 2023 Bello 5-4 12 (GS) 3.27 (ERA) 66 IP, this is Bello's second major league season. Obviously Bello will not match Lester's IP total but he has been pretty good 2017 E Rod 6-7 24 (GS) 4.19 (ERA) 126 IP, this was E Rod's 3rd major league season Recent comparisons......

They did for first couple months.

MassLive quickly covered Kopech, Moncada and Beni. Extending Sale is completely different than trading for Chris. DD made the right call. He chose Devers over Moncada. Sox paid astronomical fee to aqcuire Moncada. He came up and played 3B because we thought we had Pedey for bit longer. Kopech was the wild card in the trade. I make that trade every day of the week. Beni signed the biggest FA contract in White Sox history I believe. His 1 HR and .695 OPS stands out to me. Put it this way, had we passed on Yoshida to get Beni, I would be pissed at Bloom by now. Move on....nothing to see here.

Actually I believe there's more to it than just what you said. I read he worked really hard last winter. He's NOT the same pitcher only because he's in the bullpen. He's NOT the same pitcher because he is a different pitcher. I'm half kidding about making him a start......but to push the envelope, would you pitch your best middle reliever as an OPENER? Anyone, anyone? Any pitching coaches with real live experience?

Loss in 10 innings with Ort pitching hurt. Yesterday we go shutout so no complaints from me. We limited the usage of bullpen. But I do hope we have a better opener starter next time.

Maybe its time to stretch out Winck.

I sure wished we had Schreiber back. I'll blame the offense of 50% of the loss. It's tough to shut down that freebie at 2B. Of course we got shut down. Brasier, Brasier, Brasier, Ort, Ort, Ort.... I don't think the pitcher gets charged for the runner on second, right? Also does the pitch count include pitch clock violations?

Maybe it's already been posted. I see that Chang is now on 60-day IL. Looks like Kike at short. We make a statement. It takes two days to break it. Ugh.

Maybe it's time Dalbec try pitching.

Outfield additions of Yoshida and Duvall along with better play from Verdugo and Duran has really overcome the anticipated reduction at short and second. Catching has been a surprise also. Casas seems to be hitting stride also. (1B-Another dismal output last year, position wise.) Also having Turner as a DH has been a plus with his club house leadership along with his ability to play both 3B and 1B. As you've said often, JD signing was great for the Sox but his time had come to leave. You can't just be a DH anymore. It helps to spill other position players from time to time. Yoshida has benefitted from DH'ing.

Moon, numbers IMPROVED when Kluber (5/21) and Pivetta (5/16) got domoted to the pen. But you know that. We really needed a shower after each one of their starts. I've been defending Bloom but this is on Bloom also. We'll still face ups and downs but now there's some pathway for some of our youngsters to become regular starters. As often said by the Sox management, improvements will not be linear. It will be a zig zag, but always trending upward.

He is definitely developing a core group. Look at the age of this group.

He is 100% responsible from the time he was hired. He is in charge of all player development. I didn't see Bello on the major league roster when he was hired. This is his team. Including stupid acqusition such as Kluber. Other than Devers who was an established major leaguer? And who extened Devers?

If I'm Bloom's agent, this is what I would say to John Henry. You told me to build a sustainable playoff team on an annual basis. That's exactly what I'm doing. As I told you it will require patience. He was hired on 10/23/2019, after a very disappointing season. Season following perhaps the best Red Sox team of 2018 when they were the World Champs. Unfortunately for Bloom, he did not draft the players in 2019 and because of COVID, the 2020 draft was only five rounds. To complicate matters, no minor league games were played in 2020, pushing back if you will Bloom's project of rebuilding the farm a year. Obviously every other team faced the same fate. We can all disagree, but 2020 was just full of s***, and not only from baseball perspective. I've already told you how I feel about that championship the Dodgers won. You can't convince me otherwise. Then the first, real full season for Bloom yielded 92-70 record, good for 2nd place finish. We were up 2-1 vs the Astros facing them at home for the 4th game. Bloom owns the 78-84 record he was responsible for in 2022, good enough for last place. There was no excuse especially for straddling the fence at the trade deadline. It's in or it's out. To go over the luxury limit by few dollars was the ultimate sin in my books. Here's his resume. Sustainable playoff contending team. 24 Bello, team control through 2028 27 Whitlock, 2028 27 Houck, 2027 27 Kutter, 2028 25 Winckowski, 2028 23 Casas, 2028 27 Duran, 2028 27 Devers, 2033 27 Wong, 2028 Throw in Valdez (25), Abreau (24) Hamilton (26), Matta (24), Rafaela (23), Murphy (25), Walter (27). Maybe they've already moved from Dalbec. I see extension coming for Verdugo who is only 27 (Yeah, I've said that it would be Rays way to move him and get couple of more prospects). We lose Paxton and Duvall basically. Yoshida and Story are both under team control for few years. Basically we have every position covered with exception of either short or second and a DH spot, assuming Verdugo is extended. There are low paid controlled players for most part. Leaving chunk of money on the table for free agent signing (s). I think we're closer than many of you think. PS. sometimes I say outrageous things to get the conversation going. But I'm not drunk, not high. This would be my defense of Bloom.

Crawford with five shutout innings. He only threw 76 pitches so they are obviously stretching him out.

Ort for one

I am assuming you are talking about Hamilton. Its a great news. I want to see them all. This is the year to do it.

I think he can be a 35 HR 100 RBI guy for us. They all have different mission on the team. I want him to hit more HR. That's just me.

My point being he is showing what he is capable of doing versus what he's been doing most of this season. Sure I will give you that timing stinks. I try to watch every game and this has been a frustration for me.

Yes he has done better. Last night he showed the type of hitter he can become. I just want him to be more aggressive. His secondary goal appears to be showing up the ump on missed calls. I want my 6-5 guy to drive in runs.

Can someone on Sox staff tell Casas to quit trying to be a 6-5 singles hitter? His approach is similar to that of Reyes. So what if he strikes out little more? Someone please remind him he's 6-5.

Not much talk here about Duran and what he did last night. Some posters mocked me about 'high ceiling' players. Well Duran is such a player. No hit ball got past an outfielder. Yet he managed to reach 2nd base each time (3 total). He has stuff that can't be taught. He looks pretty amazing to me. One thing I've enjoyed about this year is getting to see new, young faces.

Obviously we want Turner back. On this Sox team with with several lefties its a big plus to have a right handed bat that can play 3B and 1B. It actually works out perfectly. 2025 will feature Yoshida as DH.