Hugh2

Agreed, I think he's a good one too. Wish we could clone 10 more of him.

Today I'm starting to see the forest for the trees, I find some of these reports troublesome and I'm certain there are elements of truth to all of them. But it just reaks of BS and Smear and Spin from the Sox front office.

I don't believe those reports for one second, that's the first thing he did and Henry let him live here for another 4 whole freaking years. If that is true, then it's on Henry that he kept him on for 4 years after trading Betts. Everything coming out now has to be taken with a massive grain of salt. There's no way Betts got traded without Henry's approval, he also may have been traded because Henry wouldn't allow the money it would have taken to resign Betts. There's no way Betts can not be on Henry.

People under estimate how desperate teams get. Pitchers losing a year and coming from TJ is so common nowadays that we have to look at it minus the lens of our own biases. It's perfectly believable a team could have thought they were buying low and could get a highly talented guy like Chris Sale for next to nothing.

So, I suppose O'Hallaran really is moving to another position. Not GM, not CBO then.

That's fair, but if he does Blooms bidding and then gets thrown under the bus and the organization loses a highly talented guy I'm going to be pissed. At a certain point there's value in continuity, and having a mass exodus of talent can have long-term implications.

Started listening to this podcast. Great analysis of Bloom, future and past and the front office. http://news.soxprospects.com/2023/09/podcast-ep-294-chaim-bloom-fired.html

I almost don't want it to be Eddie Romero, because I like Eddie Romero and if he becomes the new CBO/GM it might be a death sentence to his tenure here in Boston at some point. If they think a guy like Eddie is ready, they better be ready to commit to him long-term.

I'm not sure who all the good ones and bad ones are. But I'm fairly certain Eddie Romero is a guy who should stick around. He's had his hands involved in pretty much every IFA superstar that has made his way to Boston in the past couple decades.

I missed some of the interview, did they seriously try to blame Bloom for trading Betts?

There's no new regime. Same team, same front office. With or without Bloom. All the people around Bloom are still there, all the people he answered too and who answered to him are still there.

They're certainly doing their best. Their best effort to finish last.

Like all things, time will judge all. I would be concerned with his offensive decline this year, but he could bounce back next year and be fine. I always like Xander, I hope nothing but the best for him.

The timing is obviously questionable. If this was true it would have came out when it happened. Unless it's true and was just leaked. So maybe it's not true, maybe it's but the lesson in that last sentence is THIS WAS OBVIOUSLY LEAKED. True or false the spin machine is in full effect in Boston.

Blooms record while here. Two last-place finishes. an ALCS Birth that almost led to a WS. A stronger farm. Lost franchise cornerstone players. Overall winning record: 268-262 That probably surprises people. But more is expected in Boston, and that is fair.

I think even Blooms biggest haters would say it sounds fishy that all this negative stuff about Bloom comes out right now, only right now, all of it!!! a waterfall of negative stories right as he's fired. Smells like a smear campaign, I'm sure some of it even if just a little is true, but he was still their boy and they stuck with him for 4 years. Problems with this group may have run a lot deeper than just Bloom so, I think it's fair to not let John Henry off the hook. I'm taking back my praise from yesterday. John Henry and ownership can get credit when they turn this team around. This is a results-oriented business.

Good points. To be fair it doesn’t look like anyone else can win a championship with the Rays or A’s as well. Some GMs are better fits for different organizations. While Theo had his blunders, all GMs do, he still built winners in two different towns and that’s fairly impressive. But he wasn’t afraid to go out and make the moves which is what you need to do in a big market. When you do that you fail sometimes. Bloom is a small market guy. I think he’d be a perfect fit for the Angels. They need a few years to rebuild their farm. Imagine being the Angels? It would be like us…..except our farm system would be one of the worse instead of one of the best. Not a tough pill to swallow if the big league club is winning. But the Angels suck now and are losing Ohtani.

That may come to an end if no one wants to work for him. As far as I’m concerned John Henry is on the clock now. You would think that if all things were equal a candidate would LOVE to come to Boston to fill the position. - An owner who consistently allows his GM to be a top 5-7 spender in baseball. - Young core starting to develop. - a top farm system. - luxury tax just reset, primed to spend. Whoever comes here will be walking into a good situation. However, not as good as Dave Dombroski did. The core he inherited was a little further along in its development. The future team you can imagine here is mixed between breaking into the bigs and not quite there yet. Bello/Casas/Wong/Duran/Devers/Mayer/Teel/ Rafaela/Anthony/Wilkeman. Since there’s bust risk in some of those guys there’s obviously more risk there, but if given several years a potential GM/CBO/DBO/(whatever Henry wants to call it this time) should be excited. I praised Henry yesterday. Despite being a semi Bloom apologists I viewed the move as a needed change of direction for the organization. But what if it’s not??? What if Henry is the same guy, and wants someone to come in and replace Bloom and keep doing what Bloom was doing? Inching his way forward, build up the farm and hoarding prospects while never going big on a major FA acquisition or trade? Waiting for the day they have enough young superstars on their team to be the Braves. And firing Bloom was just his scapegoat to appease fans for the last 4 years? And the next guy is just a Bloom replicate who continues Henry’s vision? I don’t believe this, but I’m not 100% confident it’s not the case either. Who replaces Bloom, and how they operate this offseason will answer those questions for us.

If you believe Duval can give you a healthy year and at least 2 WAR that’s not the worse plan, but I still don’t feel east trading away OF depth at all right now. Not on this team.

I will say when the bickering gets to be too much in here, I go over and spend more time on the Soxprospects forum. They have more threads to keep topics specific and actually moderate them and keep threads on topic. If you want to blame anything around here blame the lack of moderation not Moon or anyone else. If endless banter is what has driven people away there’s PLENTY of blame pie to go around. And I share that burden as well

I wouldn’t hate a Ref/Abreu platoon if Dugo is traded, but I wouldn’t be trading outfielders right now.

L-R Duran LF Rafaela CF Dugo RF And retaining Duval is a really nice outfield. Throw Yoshid on DH (at least 50% of the time) and add some pitching (high end) and your team is a LOT better next year.

To me, getting rid of Verdugo is just bonkers. I get the “we’ll just get something for him instead of nothing” You’re not getting nothing. You’re getting draft pick compensation PLUS one whole year of Verdugo. And that is a lot more valuable than Ref/Abreu in RF. Running two rookies out there and a young Duran who may or may not turn into a Pumpkin is a massive risk. That outfield could really suck. Both offensively and defensively. Verdugo isn’t the sexiest player, but he’s a f***ton better than anything in the free agent market next year. Aside from maybe Cody Bellinger, who set to benefit vastly from an empty FA class on the position side.

You have to take these stories with a huge grain of salt, the vultures tend to come out when men are at their lowest. I’m often reminded of the scene in the movie Wall Street when Bud Fox is being taken away after being arrested and his boss says “I always knew there was something bad about him” after earlier in the movie saying the exact opposite. I do have to say, if half these reports about GMs refusing to deal with Bloom are true and him not being respected then I’m pissed he wasn’t fired sooner. I also feel less good about Henry too. Whether or not Bloom was the problem Henry has something to prove.

Technically Bloom has a winning record here. Although, a few games above .500 in a few years doesn’t make you above average. Ten games in the other direction and they’d be losers. This makes them average. With an above average payroll that feels like below average results. We expect more than average in Boston, we expect exceptionalism here in championship town. Let’s see what comes next. Hopefully someone with some balls.