Hugh2

Snell has the stats that pitchers age well in, when they at least. He's got a big strong durable body. I'd take him over Nola.

Isn't that everything in baseball? Any guy you sign can fall off a cliff, any guy you trade for can fall off a cliff or get injured, any guy you draft can bust. This is why you need a robust scouting department, a strong apparatus that you can trust, so you have more Eovaldis' and less Klubers.

Milwaukee has the 20th ranked farm system to some in baseball and the Sox a top 5. They may just be very happy to get some prospects from a loaded Boston system to replenish their system.

Because teams never go out and win world series when paying top notch starting pitchers into their 30's? I think we have more of a chance of being Houston than we do Atlanta, maybe even LA for that matter.

To some extent, the pitching has to get better with better defense. Suppose there's more room for growth than most when you have the worst defense.

correlation without causation.

I remember justifying the trade at the time. It was my believe they wanted JBJ as a 4th outfielder to improve the defense and they would go out and get a starting right fielder. Bloom did not, the team suffered for it.

Ok, but they sold their starting catcher and didn’t add pitching, which they needed. They “hugged the line” If they weren’t going to get under why not buy? They could have picked up a rental without mortgaging the farm. I ultimately think his small deadline balls is what did him in. This years deadline was the nail. If I could be a fly on the wall I’m Henry’s life I’d be willing to bet this August 1st was when the wheels really started spinning in his head about letting Bloom go sooner than later. Probably took them a month to prep the spin machine

You never know how someone will turn out, but having more of those increases your chances. It's like having a loto ticket that has a 1/25 chance of hitting. Having 40 of those instead of 10 makes it likely you're going to be better. And those guys don't have to be Betts or Bogaerts, they just have to be good enough so you can go out and build a team around them. You need a strong 26-man, thats why 2018 won. Was having Betts and Bogaerts that year better than having Ohtani and Trout? Having a strong farm increases the odds that you can have that complete 26-man team, because you need to be strong up and down. Sometimes a prospect fails expectations but still becomes good man on the back end of your roster, there's value in that when other guys like Bello and Casas pan out. For example, maybe Mayer falls short of expectations and is more of a utility type but Roman Anthony becomes a perennial MVP candidate. We just don't know. But having a strong farm system is like trying to predict the weather. YOu don't know what it will do in a week from now, but if it's the summer or winter you can pretty accurately predict if it will be hot or cold!!!!!

Which is why I've been a long disbeliever of them way before this year's rankings. Law, for the first time I can ever remember for a Sox pick, does seem to have the hots for Teel.

A.) People were overpaying at last years deadline, and if the team was a team over the luxury tax then they probably don't care about eating the money as much. A team such as LA, weren't they the ones in on him? Also, if they're selling JD, they sell Nate too and you definitely get under.

Those are the reports that are out there.

By the time Anthony may need to be extended 7 years will have passed. The luxury tax limit will be higher than 240 million by then and even if you paid two starting pitchers next year that plus Devers isn't 1/3 of that.

See my point above, you can't definitively say that.

There were reportedly legit offers out there for JD. It's not just about the tax. You didn't get those prospects you would have for JD. Who knows what that could have meant? Traded as part of a package for an ACE? or perhaps become valuable members of a Sox team. Staying about the tax line gave you two extra 4th round picks, instead of 2 extra 2nd round picks. That million-dollar in extra bonus money could have been the difference between drafting a Roman Anthony instead of a Chase Meridoth. Also, if they reset last year conceivably they may (or may not) have spent more this year. If they reset and were willing to go over maybe they spend the few extra million and Get Zach Efflin, or keep Eovaldi, or spend big on an outfielder. The last statement we just don't know but the first two are absolute real certainties.

I don't disagree with this point either, still his "hug the deadline" straddle approach is a symptom of his indecisiveness. Grow some balls and make a decision, life is about risk.

That would be more realistic. But don’t destroy my dream!

Bloom was hired to build “sustainable success” that didn’t mean to not spend and build the farm. He cut payroll, and added payroll that itself may look like dead weight (although Story has a chance to redeem himself). Bloom made good trades, it was just never enough. Even his worse trade wouldn’t have looked as bad if he went out and got a right fielder for 2022, which is what we all thought he would do but he didn’t. That’s the thing, it’s the moves he did not make that hurt the big league club. He was constantly getting outbid because he was unwilling to go a single penny above his evaluation and that left holes on the team, and when they should of been sellers at the deadline he sat pat because he didn’t get the sweet deal he wanted. JDM/Nate should have been traded at last years deadline. Not only would they have a stronger farm, but they would have had a better draft in 2023. They should have traded Turner/Paxton at this years deadline. Yes he built up the farm, but the farm could have been even stronger. The farm could have been so strong he would have had the capital to trade for a legit starting pitcher and deplete our farm to as strong as it is right now. Bloom did some great things at spending money outside of payroll, expanding the scouting department and adding personnel, and that may have a long term positive effects on this team. I thank him for that, I’ve been calling for that for years and did not realize to what extent they had pumped resources into that field. I won’t kick Bloom on the way out, and I find some of the stories coming out now distasteful and blatant smear coming from the FO in an attempt to exonerate themselves from the last 4 years. The Chris Sale story, putting Betts on him. It stinks, it stinks of ********. I grew up on farm folks….I know the smell of ********. But it’s blatantly obvious Bloom didn’t have the nerve to go big. Here’s to hoping Henry is ready to open up that wallet and build a big league club

Go big or go home. Give me Blake Snell and Yama. Save Mayer and Anthony for the 2025 World Series team

I’ve ALWAYS placed greater weight on Baseball America and fangraphs than pipeline and law. For the Sox system I place more trust in Soxprospects. Still worse case scenario, the Sox system jumped ahead of half the league.

It’s, but it’s just another prime example of why average isn’t everything, especially in a small sample size. Anthony hit .228 in Salem, Salem is a known pitchers ballpark, big time, as is the Carolina league at whole. But the batter ball data showed he was hitting the ball so he got promoted and actually started getting better results against better pitching. Fun fact, at the same age, Rafael Devers only hit 11 home runs in Salem in a full season and he has plus plus raw power. People just don’t hit home runs there. Same thing happened this year with Duran. He was hitting .195 down in Portland but the batted ball data looked good. Sox promoted him despite and the rest is history…..or at least his 2023 campaign. Recent reports are saying Romans defense looks good as well, and if his defensive tools take a tip upward and this is confirmed industry wide he could become a top 10 prospect consensus wide. He might even challenge Mayer for #1 in the Sox system.

The fact that the prospects DD gave away didn’t pan out also means that that high bust rate meant Sox were heading for tough times regardless. It’s not just who you have in your systems and trade away. It’s who you don’t get in. You’re picking lower in the draft and losing draft picks when you’re operating above the luxury tax line and signing high value free agents. Living in that world we never would have a Roman Anthony in our system. For example

I think it wouldn’t be fair to use that sample size. They don’t all bust like that. There are actual stats and measures to these things. We can write a whole book on it. Higher ranked prospects bust, but on average produce much higher wars correlated with their ranking. A top 100 guy is more likely to be a MLB player, top 50 even more so, top 25…so on and so forth. Just because it’s an imperfect science doesn’t mean it’s a complete crapshoot and there’s no meaning between #30 and #1. Those rankings are pretty good and a lot goes into them. At least over at BA and others.

Ba and frangraphs at top 5. No one likes having a top ranked farm for the sake of it. You like it because it means future stars. More of a chance you have the next Devers, Betts, Bogaerts in there. Casas and Bello looking strong. No add to that and get a few free agents and we are back in the game

I think a lot of people got fixated on his organizational philosophy and what he wanted to build. I agreed with it and still do, but it was blatantly obvious he failed to have the execution at the big league level to put together a strong ball club. With me it’s not what Bloom did, it’s what he didn’t do. I suppose that’s semantics