5GoldGlovesOF,75

I never thought this team had good enough pitching or defense to contend, but since Cora kept them close to the wild card this summer, it was worth a couple of mid-range prospects to make their best effort to join the crapshoot. I'd be in on those deals for pitchers, except any that required dealing Rafaela -- who the Flops better hang onto as a priority if they ever want to improve their crap D. I also would've traded for Montgomery and Stratton. And here's why: I have no idea how much one or two arms would improve their stretch run. But sometimes -- as has been well documented by players, ex-players in the media, and reporters -- just the gesture of a front office making a decent addition at the deadline gives a team the psychological boost, and vote of confidence, it needs to go for it... ... as opposed to what we've seen from the Red Sox players every single August of the Bloom Era -- including this one, so far.

Nearly every poster on this forum -- not to mention Red Sox players themselves -- acknowledged the need for pitching help at the deadline: starters, back-end relievers -- hey, even a better freaking bulk guy would have been better than what Boston trotted out there this weekend. To get a decent pitcher at the deadline (and I'm not including Verlander or Scherzer), the price was often a club's prospects in the #10-20 range. The Red Sox' farm system, recently ranked as high as #5 by some experts, has a surplus of middle infielders -- 13 of their top 28 by my count. I don't know if any of the Sox prospects were that attractive -- maybe they're vastly overrated by their own organization -- but don't pretend you weren't disappointed that Bloom couldn't even at least acquire a relief pitcher better than Llovera or Joe Jacques. And if it's true that nobody wanted any Sox prospects except our top 5, then that's just another indictment of Bloom the rebuilder...

How many hundreds of pages more before we can finally close this damn thread. What comes first, the end of Fire Bloom or the start of Sell, John Henry!? "Oh, but he's the greatest owner in the history of my lifetime..." (like, has any poster ever not had a relationship that was once great, maybe even for years, that ended on bad terms)

I just... can't... part... with... any of my two dozen 5'10, 165 lb middle infield prospects!

We need to finish bottom 6 to get into the lottery for #1. It will take a complete collapse, but the front office has done its best to initiate that. We can do it, just have to try harder not to try harder...

R & D (recruits and draftees)

For those enraged or depressed, Sam K is here to address all concerns: 1. The Dead (and buried) Line: we didn't trade any expiring contracts and will lose all those players when we refuse to extend them, but don't worry -- Chaim will just sign another bunch of band-aids on one-year deals next winter! 2. Pitching and Moaning: the front orifice acknowledges the right to bare arms, so we're rolling up our sleeves preparing to dip into the next market. Chaim has his entire brothel of analysts already scouring the dregs of orthopedics for waiver wire and DFA candidates. Our openers are not the problem; we need better bulk guys, and are prepared to make mid-level offers to the best available middle-inning relievers (suitable for matching by their favorite big league cities). 3. Last place: is actually First Place if you get the #1 Overall Pick in next summer's Amateur Draft. We welcome all Red Sox fans to watch us down the stretch for another fight with our arch-rivals, the Yankees, for top consolation prize. After all, for a mid-market team that can't spend its way to contention, when it comes to building through the draft to compete, what's worse than finishing fifth? The answer is obvious -- fourth! The answer my friends is blowing in the wins. Tanks for the memories... 4. Venmo: to better accommodate our loyal fans, we've set up a new pay portal for instant account drainage re. tix, parking and concessions: @sucker...

There's no way the Red Sox win this one, ever. Even if -- baseball gods forbid -- Mookie suffers a career-ending injury today, he's a Hall of Famer, based on JAWS and WAR compared to all-time RFers (and not Harold Baines). You can add up all the guys Bloom got back in the trade, and everyone else he spent the savings on, and it still comes down to this -- Hall of Famer in his prime lost: ONE. Hall of Famers brought back in exchange: ZERO

When they lost Betts, I guaranteed they'd eventually blow Mookie money on a much lesser player. But after all, Betts is already 14th all-time on bb-ref JAWS rankings for rightfielders. He has a 56.4 rating... the career average of 28 Hall of Fame RFers is 56.7. Mookie is 30 years old.

Am I stupid if I keep paying stupid money to watch these clever comedians?

Could it be we also acquire stupid coaches? What's that say about those who do the acquiring? And while we're at it, why has there been a team policy for decades to accumulate pitchers who absolutely negatively cannot throw accurately to any base except sometimes home base?

... and lately to play first, after they pinch hit Refsynder for Casas

Ultimately? How about the dumbass baserunner celebrating with his hands up in the air and loping around third? Managers just aren't allowed to bolt out of the dugout and tackle their own guys or push them back to second base to tag up. Now, it is worth debating how much a coaching staff is culpable when baserunning gaffes repeatedly haunt a ballclub -- a lax culture? inattention to detail? too many Red Bulls? too many gummies? is it Bloom's fault for not vetting IQs? So do we bring back an egotist who contrives discipline like Bobby Valentine and have Pedroia tell him, "That's not the way we do things around here"?

bb-ref '23 splits for three of the relievers the Red Sox have used in the first two Toronto showdowns: BA w RISP -- Jacques .458, Bleier .429, Llovera .231 BA in High Leverage -- Llovera .750, Bleier .458, Jacques .125 BA on Ground Balls -- Jacques .333, Llovera .273, Bleier .259 BA on Fly Balls -- Llovera .571, Jacques .417, Bleier .304 In contrast, Chris Martin: BA w RISP .152, High Lev .224, Ground Balls .154, Fly Balls .191 Only fans don't always get what they pay for...

Or was today a blown save because they didn't bring him in

Null plays all over the infield, but has never been healthy enough to be regular. Void is more versatile, and can also play outfield... but not good enough to stick in the Show. By the end of the month there's also a chance they could add Nada and Zilch, once they pass through waivers.

I have actually praised the Jays GM as the anti-Bloom the past four years for constantly adding quality big league pitching. Signing Ryu, trading for Ray and Berrios, signing Gausman, Kikuchi, and Bassitt -- among others -- were all good additions to a legitimate starting rotation. The Red Sox interns on the board will be quick to point out that Toronto hasn't won a playoff game with all those arms, and that is correct. I don't know why it hasn't worked out for the Jays, and I could care less (because I always root against Vlad and Monah). But no one can bash the efforts of a front office that continually upgrades a pitching staff with good MLB pitchers.

We all appreciate Jansen, even when he said the bullpen needed help at the deadline. And Cora deserves a raise the way he's kept this club over .500 with the pitching staff he's been supplied with. But there's no denying the reasons that in the first showdown with the team the Sox are chasing for the wild card, the first pitcher they had to bring in during a two-run game was Llovera. Even you have posted for years that -- as a fan -- you wished and expected the CBO of the Red Sox to add more quality pitching. Be honest, were you happy and confident when Llovera took the mound in the 6th? Did you even feel a sense of irony when Toronto brought in Hicks vs. the Sox?

Speed of lightning, roar of thunder Signing one-year pitching blunders Underdog, underdog, underdog!

Which team looks like it's trying to make the playoffs this year -- the one that just traded for an MLB closer and shortstop (to replace their injured regular), or the one that traded for a DFAed reliever and an infielder from the minors?

Was one name accidentally omitted from relievers... In the biggest series of the summer so far -- vs. the closest team we have a chance of catching for the wild card -- the Jays and Sox turned to recent bullpen acquisitions in the opener. Toronto trusted new closer Jordan Hicks and his 105-mph fastball. Boston brought in Mauricio Llovera... When Bloom labels his own team as underdogs, what does that say about the architect of those dogs?

Cora can keep owning the putrid baserunning mistakes, and say it's his responsibility in postgame interviews. But eventually there has to come a time when a guy who constantly runs into outs is run out of town. Cora isn't running.

It's only music. Only juke box music.

Oh yeah, Urias got me now You got me so I can't sleep at night Urias got me, Urias got me, Urias got me

Nope. I was obsessed with trading him as one of the Sox' surplus middle infielders while he had a top-10-15 ranking... Now that he's plummeted out of their prospects top 20, that opportunity is gone -- like an overrated 5'10, 165 middle infielder with a .240 batting average in high A. Bloom replanted the farm, propagated cuttings, germinated flats in hoophouses. But if he doesn't start harvesting soon, no one's going to want overgrown and unruly vegetation, and they'll be no more room in rows for new seeds.