Hugh2

Absolutely!!!! I just wish every Sox fan could enjoy such competency and not continue to sulk in their failed opinions.

Not sure how I feel about Robles long-term, relief pitchers can be so volatile, especially middle guys. But he's been a great addition this season.

True, makes more sense against a lefty-heavy lineup, maybe force a team to either face a tough LOOGY, or take out a LH bat early in the game. Still, strategy involved but definitely less of a defined role.

Robles was great out of the bullpen down the stretch, I'd even put Austin Davis in there. Ignore the overall stat line, he was acquired to get lefties out and that's exactly what he did, he got lefties out. Wasn't his fault Cora left him in against righties and he got lit up.

Absolutely, excellent point.

Anthony Davis did his job in Boston, and Robles was good down the stretch. Iglesias was a great post-deadline pick-up that filled an obvious depth need and Schwarber was the best offensive pick up for 1/3 of the price as Rizzo and Cruz. Haters be damned.

FTR - I do not believe and I do not want my comments to get twisted to mean that I think NFL players are more likely to commit crimes. I just don't believe they're any less likely.

That's a far stretch from what I'm saying. I was very specific to say "dudes" and not NFL players to exemplify that there's a difference between being a convict and committing a crime and getting away with it. Do peopl actually think that there is 100% zero difference in the odds of going to jail for your crimes if you're a poor man vs. a millionaire who is well connected and can hire a lawyer?

Spare me the snide comment like I'm a flat earther, birds aren't real, anti-vaxxer. What I'm claiming isn't unreasonable and generally out in the open. Is it a conspiracy theory that the NFL hide its knowledge of Ray Rice beating women unconscious? There is literally Chris Carter on VIDEO telling people they need a "fall guy" to take the blame for actions they take. A 12 YEAR VETERAN of the NFL coaching up young players on staying out of trouble not by being role models but by taking manuevers to AVOID consequences. s*** like this happens all the time and it's systematic. I played sports in college, I've literally had coaches get me out of trouble and get me out of an arrest, you don't think this happens at the PRO level??? You don't think people with money who are connected and can hire good lawyers are less likely to face legal consequences? whether they're an athlete or not. Don't mock me like that's on par with some cookoo who thinks crab people murdered JFK. Want to have a conversation that's fine but get out of here with the weak A** bravado and make actual arguments.

Now might be a good time to look up what the latest rumors is instead of going off of what I read a few months ago, however.

Well, I think after the lower less penalizing threshold there would still be higher and harsher thresholds. I'm not going to pretend to know what is better for who, I just know the players union hates it.

It's been speculated that a lower tax line would come with fewer penalties and different thresholds. Supposedly the players union HATES this ideal, so theres a decent chance it doesn't make it in it.

Do you think this is a function of NFL players being model citizens? or do you think it might have something to do with the fact that they have money, and people with even more money than them who are billionaires have a vested interest in them staying out of trouble? Remember Chris Carters "you need a fall guy" comment? Arrest rate doesn't mean someone hasn't committed a crime. Dudes, murder, rape, steal, and assault people all the time and never go to jail for it.

The cliff talk was always about striking a balance. The “cliff” was never a guaranteed destination rather a possibility. There’s no argument here, the debate is over. This season is a perfect example. Bloom didn’t mortgage the future and struck a balance. No cliff looking, only the apex, and we’re still competing for a WS this year. It must really hurt, the butt hurt must hurt so much to be so wrong, with a hyperextended, pullled brain by doing mega mental gymnastics. Good organizations, make calculated, strategic, long term moves most of the time. They don’t salivate at every big name and throw blank checks at them to appease the fans, because the real appeasement comes from WINS. Plenty of that going around now. Winning!!

The only thing that matters is what he’s done down the stretch and into the playoffs. I could care less how much he stinks at other times completely irrelevant. Blooms job was to find help this year, and he did, much cheaper than his opposition who he beat. This alone, should end the argument. Full stop.

This, 100x over. No doubt his stock has taken a hit but most people saying that it has probably over estimate how much it has gone down. His stock has probably only fallen a little for the reason you outlined. Extreme example, but if the Sox promoted Nick Yorke to Boston and he hit .100 this year does that mean he’s a prospect with no future or that he was rushed? Downs should have started the year in AA and the Sox left him to sink all year in AAA. Not his fault. Professional teams, with professional talent evaluators know this and look beyond box scores.

You’re forgetting the most important part of the argument here. The whole “cliff” argument was about what could be vs. what will be. Roster building is cyclical, and if done with the future in mind can be done in such a way that your down seasons do not have to be as bad. That’s is precisely what Bloom did by building organizational depth over the past few years. You can be in a “bridge” moment and still competitive. That ideal that the Sox weren’t horrible last year and the year could just be thrown away is ridiculous, but the moves made then and now have created the team we have today. We could have traded away from our minor league depth, and gone over the cap the past couple years to be more competitive, but we did not…..and we are still competitive. The Bloom haters are going crazy and digging for whatever argument they can make.

I don’t care what a guy has done in his career I care what he’s going to do down the stretch. Isn’t that what this all about? Wasn’t that the battle cry back in July? Screw the farm, screw the money, screw the future, we want to WIN now. So a GM makes a calculated move to buy low ok a guy with a shaky career who he identifies as someone who will be better down the stretch and the move 100% pays off and we’re still complaining? We didn’t make the moves the Bluejays made but here we are in the playoffs and they’re sitting on the couch. We didn’t make the moves the Yankees made, but here we are still in after being THE TEAM that knocked them out of it. We didn’t make the move TB did, but here we are 1 game away from reaching the ALCS and up on them. When are people going to stop their crying and just admit they were wrong like real men. It’s ok. This is a safe place.

Right! So Bloom did nothing. Nothing except get a guy for peanuts who performed but it’s still a s*** move because people have feelings and get nervous. Lol you can’t make this s*** up.

So, A guy existed younger than him? So what? Does that make him old for the level?

Dude goes 15 straight appearances without a run down the stretch and into the playoffs and he stinks. Lol, some people just want the Sox to suck so they can be right. Pathetic

Some of the best results for the lowest price, imagine how these Sox would look if the armchair GMs ran this team? Or the real G.M.s acting in their image? Man, we’d have a whole team of 38 year olds and a payroll of 300 million, no farm, and we’d be watching golf right now. ……and they’d be complaining about the GM still. 😂😂😂😂😂😂 They’re really the reason I come back and read the comments.

Judging by the looks on their faces and the interviews from the FO after the draft, they were ecstatic to get Mayer. They were in on Leiter because they thought he was more likely to be there. They looked giddy in the war room when Leiter went 2nd. Because at that moment they knew Mayer would fall to them because Detroit had a deal with Jobe. They knew one of Mayer/Leiter would fall to them after Davis went 1, and they looked in celebration mode early. I think if they had the choice, they’d take Mayer over Leiter.

Ok that’s an exaggeration.

Using ERA alone for a single A pitcher who wasn’t even old enough to drink a beer is about as an absurd an argument I’ve heard on here.