Hugh2

Why do you need fans to explain this to you when you can look it up. It would be like asking your uncle to explain vaccines to you instead of your doctor. WAR is a very understandable concept, it’s formulation is no secret and you can easily look it up and understand it yourself. This just screams bating, if you have a problem with WAR, why not specifically state what that problem is and how’s its calculation is flawed

Again, let me reiterate. I never said he accomplished the mission. He’s succeeded at rebuilding the farm. That’s it. Winning is obviously the objective, and I ponder with a rebuilt farm and payroll flexibility for the first time in years what direction the team goes in this offseason.

I was specific to say “to date” and not mission accomplished. Read my last comment above.

I think Bloom is going to surprise everyone with the moves he makes this off-season, for better or worse. He keeps on being labeled as a small market GM managing the Sox like a small market team who will not go out and make the big moves. It seems this opinion is largely shared by those who want Bloom fired and those who are giving him more patience alike. I think, or at least I hypothesize you’re all wrong. Bloom was brought in here to mix small market ideals with a big budget team. To model an organization like LA (maybe not quite as high a payroll but who knows). Let’s look at what LA does, they stay competitive by adding payroll, but they surprisingly always have a strong farm and mix in their talent with young players as well. Despite a lower draft position year after year, they do this by keeping the farm intact and superior scouting. The first thing you have to do to get to this point is rebuild the farm. In 3 years we’ve gone from the worse farm system to a top 10 system in baseball. So this is where we are at, no disagreements here. You can’t argue that Bloom has accomplished the mandate of rebuilding the system. After that a divergence occurs, many fans can’t stomach several seasons in a row of non-competivness (We did almost make it to the World Series last year). Now we find Bloom in a unique situation. People on both sides don’t think he has the balls to make big moves because he’s a small market GM. Well, here’s my argument to the contrary. He WAS a small market GM, he came into Boston and had no payroll flexibility, his job was to shed payroll and build up the farm. Mission accomplished. But now he’s walking into an off-season with 100 million to spend. Premium free agents who play positions we have big holes at, and a year in which a large number of other big market teams are up against the luxury tax and seemingly don’t have the ability to be as active as us. Bloom has never had this opportunity before, and I think it’s unwise to assume he’s going to run the Sox like the TB rays this off-season. I think this off-season is the year they make their moves. If I’m wrong, I’d be perfectly content moving over to the fire Bloom side. But he has a golden opportunity to build a great team this off-season. Let’s see what happens.

My only concern about Kavadas is he doesn’t really have a defensive home, his defense is below average anywhere, reportedly. I have a hard time believing a non obese young man can’t learn to play at least an average 1B or LF but I know very little of such things. If you can hit, you can find your way on an MLB team, so Kavadas might have a fine MLB career in front of him, but not having a defensive home puts a ton of pressure on his bat. He HAS to hit.

Getting substantial help to this team right now would be like throwing all your money in the pot with a s*** hand. There’s a time to sell, and a time to buy, this season was not the time to buy. Regardless of what anyones opinions may be of John Henry and Bloom. They have a plan, they don’t have a plan, their plan is in motion, their plan is s*** etc etc. it is painstakingly clear that wasting assets to improve this team is a waste of assets. Fold, throw your money down when you actually have a chance of winning.

I think Bloom was hired with the mandate to rebuild the organization and then build a winner. I think to date he’s done his job. I would expect, or at least desire John Henry to check in and see if Bloom intends on turning on the heat. I suspect Bloom has at least until the end of 2023.

I’ll go with Ward, I don’t expect to see Kavadas until 2024….but if hits his way up and enough guys get injured you never know.

I think to some extent, there was some luck involved as well. As a general rule of thumb, you don’t trade away a top prospect above AA that plays a position you know will soon be vacant. E.G. Tristan Casas

Me too, the farm system exists to supplement the big league club. That’s why I care about it. A deeper farm gives you more chances for the ext Raffy Devers, more ammunition to trade for a TOTRS, or to make moves at the deadline. You do much less of that with a weak farm. So I care so much about the big league club…I care about the farm

It doesn’t matter what DD did. He emptied the farm to win now, and he did. Mission accomplished, the farm system exists to supplement the big league club and that includes trading away your prospects. FWIW DD traded away the right guys, most of the players he traded away never hit. Regardless, Bloom was brought in to rebuild the farm.

Just laying out the facts. Sox system was widely regarded the worse or among the worse before Bloom took over.

They were almost identical players in terms of value, and Xander is coming off a down year in which not a lot of big market teams are chasing talented short stops. I don’t think inflation will help Xander, maybe maybe he gets 25

I think Bogeys season is going to hurt him a little, but GMs aren’t stupid they know how talented he is. I think he gets around 23-25 per year for 6-8

Oh I stand corrected, Keith Law had the Sox system ranked 24th in 2019 but this was early 2019 before Bloom took over. Not sure of the top of my head who was traded away if feel from grace that year

It was arguably the worse farm in MLB. They were ranked dead last or bottom 5 by every publication.

Kike will likely be much cheaper. I can see Narvaez instead of Contreras, and Kike over Haniger and still resigning Bogey (or Turner) and bringing in Nimmo. Offer QO's to Eovalid/Wacha. If they accept great, that's one year and money coming off we will need for Devers. Of course, if the Sox are going over the tax limit next year they don't have to wait until the next season to resign Devers. That's another great reason to go over the luxury tax this year. Because you can spend a boatload of money to improve this team and punt Devers into next season.........But more of your money is going to players already on this team and not ADDING, if you're going to be over it anyways extend Devers now. I think they're going to make an honest effort to keep both Devers and Bogaerts, but call it 50/50 one of them walks.

Why do we have to stay under the tax line? Sox often go above it. I don't want to be accused of blasphemy but I think it might be time to move on from Kike, he's a career .730 OPS guy, and a year after he plays a record amount he starts breaking down. I guess we can talk about health concern with Haniger too but I just don't Kike is built to be a long term starter. Narvaez?????????? I can get on board with that. I think a McGuire/Narvaez battery could be very good in Boston.

I’d agree that signing all four isn’t very realistic. This more a boys Christmas wish list. But I don’t think those guys break 20 million. I think All 3 of Contreras, Nimmo, Haniger can be had for around 17-18

This is based on last year's average salary per war of 5.9. We were able to sign a player like a Story for several million below that number. Players still want to play here but I figured inflation would cancel that out. Between that and rounding UP I figured that was a fair trade-off. I'm wondering if Wacha has played himself into a QO. it's pretty risky, but he's looking pretty good this year and looked like he didn't skip a beat after his last start. Given the thin market for starting pitching it's entirely plausible to offer both him and Nate a QO. If they accept great, if they decline it makes signing two free agents with a loss of a draft pick attached that much easier. I don't think the rotation can count on Paxton, but I was so interested to see what he could do. If the elbow is fine I think they might consider picking up that option...but maybe not depending on what else they need and if they need that money elsewhere.

I don't want longer years either. Even if you get a little bit more payroll flexibility do you really want to be paying a guy 14 years from now? Betts could fall off a cliff in 2-3 years for all we know, even if he still has a really good career he could slow down in 6 and you'd still have to live with millions every year for more than half a decade. If I'm giving a guy 12 years he better be in his mid 20's.

There's really not much of a market for starting pitching unless you want to make a run at DeGrome or Verlander. As good as a season as Verlander is having I wouldn't touch his 40 year old arm. Unfortunately you have to live with Sale, and hope he's healthy. This is why I want to explore the trade market and get a young cost controlled pitcher. The rest absolutely fits in with the budget. Bogaerts/Nimmo/Haniger/Contreras probably costs you about $75-$80 which means you could do all that and have a guy accept a QO before going over the luxury tax. That might be cutting it close, but odds are the Sox plan on going over and have 20 million more afterward until the next threshold. This seems like the best offseason to go big. When is the next time you're going to have $100 million to spend, good free agents at your exact holes, and most of the big market teams seemingly looking to have a quiet offseason? If you don't go big now, then there really isn't ever a time to do so. I like winning.

The only way you can win without one is if you have that level of talent under team control. You're never going to have that unless you spend time building up your farm system. Two conflicting concepts for many posters in here.

Well if you offer Eovaldi a QO you already have 4 starters on your roster before you factor in Bello/Houk/Crawford/Seabold. And, I did say I'd like to see a trade for a pitcher. There's plenty of money in the budget. They likely have somewhere around 95-100 million to spend this offseason. And most of their main competition has nowhere near that much money.

True, I would give Nathan a QO, and I'd be happy if he took it and if he doesn't. I don't want to touch the bullpen, what I mean by that is, I'm not ready to give suggestions. I hate investing money in the pen, it seems more than any other function in baseball money spent on the bullpen is often wasted. These guys are so volatile from year to year. I'd have faith in Schreiber next year and I'm hoping Barnes can make a comeback. I think the Sox have talent percolating up to the top that can really help out in the pen. Braisers velo seems to be back up, and I really like Houck/Bello in there as well. But the Sox might want to keep Bello as a starter. If Barnes can even get back to 75% of the guy he was I like Schreiber/Houck/Barnes/Braiser there......but I think you still need to add one more piece to really solidify that pen.