5GoldGlovesOF,75

Bring him back. Song and Wong, and pass the bong.

Singing to the satire. I'm a Red Sox fan, circa 2023. To me, an innings eater is a starter who can go more than one inning -- or, holy crap, two! An addition to the rotation that could replace our cast of openers... and go three? He'd be the Roy Halladay of the Bloom Era.

You forgot the ex-players. Can the reason they want deadline additions possibly be because of their own experiences in MLB clubhouses?

If Nomar was still around, he could tell you the difference between a grinder and a hero. But his back-up Lou Merloni would then extoll the virtues of a sub.

They've never been in the postseason every year. Their best run was '98-09, when they made it eight times, including five trips to the ALCS. That had to be a great time to be a young fan in Red Sox Nation... Boston only made the playoffs once when I was growing up. But my expectations were conflated by two things: the Red Sox were always good, and always trading for or signing top talent to try to make them great. The Sox were over .500 every season in the 1970s and averaged 90 wins. Back then only division winners played in October... usually New York (cha-ching) or Baltimore (moo/snort/baaa).

Now you tell me! After all these years of us complaining about last place, and posting on threads like Fire Bloom! We need to start a new thread: DFA BOH

It certainly looks that way, but unless anyone here has had a personal talk with Henry, we don't know for sure what he's insisting, since he's become the Howard Hughes of MLB owners. As for DD, it's a good thing he was allowed to invest in the Red Sox. Where would Bloom's '23 underdogs be without DD's core of Bello, Duran and Casas (team-high WAR on the mound, AL doubles machine/pizza box thief, and July MLB OPS leader)...

Ah, go eat dinner at a steakhouse. Remember, though, it doesn't really matter how the steak tastes, as long as you know their beef cattle come from a top-rated ranch and are fed only the best alfalfa-grass hay mix.

I wanted nothing to do with Scherzer or Verlander last winter, not even at half of what the Mets paid. They're always just a creak or tweak away from Sale/Paxton/Whitlock sick bay. But for the other innings eaters -- Lynn, Lorenzen, Montgomery, Flaherty, even Civale -- Chaim could've parted with some of his surplus prospect capital if he really wanted to. I'm not in the clubhouse, but when all beat writers, TV reporters and ex-MLB players-turned-announcers talk about the positive vibe and vote of confidence players feel at the deadline when their boss brings in reinforcements, they can't all be wrong.

Thanks for the correction. There must be plenty of other GMs -- or whatever title teams give their guy in charge -- that are hired to run big league organizations, whose main task is not building the MLB club, but instead rebuilding the farm.

Chaim Bloom is the CBO of the Boston Red Sox. His title is not farm director. Bloom's main task is the big league team, the one fans follow in Boston, and on TV, and on radio. Red Sox August records the past two decades, beginning in '03: 15-14 21-7 18-9 9-21 16-13 18-9 16-12 15-13 17-12 9-20 16-12 12-16 15-12 17-13 18-9 18-9 14-13 Bloom Era 9-18 12-16 12-16 1-0 Boston had winning records in 14 of 17 Augusts before Bloom. Red highlights World Champions, usually after adding positive reinforcements (except '07; Gagne). At least two of the bad years were after sell-offs ('12,'14). Maybe Bloom's record will change this month, if everything breaks just right.

Jansen and Devers both told reporters in the past month that the team needed to add pitchers. The big league team...

Patience on this board? How about for the rest of the Red Sox fans all over the multi-verse? And that especially includes those that pay cable bills for NESN or MLB streaming or have to take out second-mortgages to treat their families to a game at Fenway. How do you think Alex Cora and coaches feel today that their boss refused to give them even one more pitcher -- either a starter or a decent reliever to help with their bi-weekly bullpen games? How do you think the Red Sox players busting their butts to forge the best record in the majors the past month feel knowing the front office doesn't believe in them?

This is quick and painless. Your quote just brought back flashbacks of bad trips through the past four free agent winters...

It's not a dumb post, because this forum isn't a place to disparage others just because you disagree with opinions or how they're presented. What's dumb is that I'll probably watch MLB channel the last hour of the deadline (not the zombie NESN show) -- like I've done every year of the Bloom Era -- wishing and hoping the Red Sox make moves to get better players who will actually improve this season.... or better yet, next year, or the awesome one after that. Counting on all the injured players returning in this new month -- and playing at past peaks -- is about as safe a bet as going into the season with the roster Bloom built and saying, "If everything breaks our way..."

Prepare to be whelmed!

Just in: "Per MLB Network insider Jon Paul Morosi, the Orioles, Reds, Dodgers, Astros, Giants, D-backs, Marlins, Phillies and Braves are in the market for starting pitching." Per talksox: behind the open-air market, the Red Sox are scouring an alley for openers.

Spoilers (read the ending): he'll come out of his shell just in time to sneak past the hare party at the finish line.

Thanks for the guidance. For a second there I must've taken myself too seriously on an anonymous forum where faceless posters known only by aliases gather to offer opinions, predictions, and experiences following a group of adults who play games for millions of dollars.

I once had a friend who worked for a garage door franchise. When times got tough, they sent him to their various outlets to tell all the colleagues he had built working relationships with that they were now fired. It really stressed him out, being the bringer of bad news. When he finished going to all the places, they fired him.

Bloom could care less if any player is pissed about who the Red Sox trade away or trade for. That's Cora's job to deal with.

Bloom certainly discussed it with fans at Winter Weekend, when he said "you know what's coming" from the farm, so that Raffy was worth making "that bet" (paying) to soon be surrounded with talent. Chaim didn't specify what talent he was talking about, so who knows -- the Sox may soon bring up some good painters, yodelers or coders. This just in from JP Morosi: "Sources say buyers include LAD, BAL, HOU, SFG, TBR, ARI, CIN, MIA, PHI, ATL." Does that mean the others are sellers? So far?

While a GM/CBO is judged by most for his big league clubs, I do like the development of Bloom's farm system -- which includes a lot more than just picking the best player available off a list of player rankings at the amateur draft. I also once had high hopes for Lars Anderson, Brady Anderson, and a guy from Connecticut, before he was traded for Larry Anderson...

A bit harsh, but the two guys you mention play -- or were supposed to play -- two of the most important positions on the diamond: starting pitcher and shortstop. Bloom deserves the ire of fans and media because he has built extremely flawed big league rosters that have, for the most part, failed miserably in the standings. He has spent plenty of money on busts, and hasn't spent enough to secure some of his "priorities" -- which is what he called Bogaerts. No, the Sox shouldn't have paid X what he got from SD, and yes, we all agree Boston -- where Bogie wanted to spend the rest of his career -- could've signed him for a fraction of that a year or two ago when Bloom chose instead to ink a strikeout king with a bad throwing arm. And I could care less what Bogaerts' WAR is this year, because anything is better than what we got instead from Story, who hasn't even got out of boot camp yet. Bloom assembled the worst pitching staff in Red Sox history in '20, refused to pay for better relievers at the deadline in '21 (like Houston did, which was the true difference in going to the World Series), CBOed another cellar dweller last year, and is now in charge of a bad defensive club that starts openers every other day. Sure he finally addressed the back-end of the bullpen -- hey, he did his job! -- but come on, Jansen also has five losses (one less than the staff leaders).

If only we had some decent shortstop prospects in the farm system, athletic enough to move to other positions.