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Is Chaim Bloom good at his job?
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Post by manfred on Jul 30, 2022 19:28:37 GMT -5
I think it is fair to say he has done either a subpar job or to say it is too early. His moves at the major league level have not been especially good. It is hard to see an area he has improved in his time here. His beat moves were Whitlock, who is great…. but is part of what is overall a pretty bad bullpen; and Pivetta, who was great for the cost but has been very much a back end starter.
Now, clearly the case is that he has accepted these moves (Mookie, Benny, taking on Ottavino, JBJ etc) to get stuff for later. In that case, we have to wait, I guess. But at most generous, I think he gets 2 more years. At that point that huge list of acquisitions will be up, close, or gone, and we’ll know. If these years have seen this kind of inattention to the big league roster AND we have detritus in the minors, it is a colossal failure. If there is a new round of home grown talent (that *he* brought on… no real points if it is Casas with Kutter Crawford, Bello, and Mata as their rotation anchors!) , then he’ll be a success.
It is hard to say he’s done a good job given the state of the team these years. Injuries have sucked (though he has gotten a bunch of guys with bad injury histories, so…), but until the prospects develop there is not much current good to point to.
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Post by Guidas on Jul 30, 2022 19:35:50 GMT -5
We’ll see next year when The PlanTM goes into effect.
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Post by incandenza on Jul 30, 2022 19:53:01 GMT -5
We’ll see next year when The PlanTM goes into effect. This, but unironically.
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Post by rizdog on Jul 30, 2022 20:13:04 GMT -5
I don't understand some of the criticisms. It's impossible to judge anything from the 2020 season, between covid and the injuries especially witb two of their top 3 starting pitchers missing the season. 2021 was an incredible season, beating the Yankees and Rays in the playoffs and having the lead in the ALCS against a very good Astros team. This year has been a disappointment, and they were still in the thick of the playoff race at the AS Break. No one wants to hear excuses in professional sports,but even the biggest Chaim detractors would have to admit it has been a crazy string of injuries. Overall, I'll sign up for getting to the ALCS once every 3 years and take my chances from there. On top of that, he's built up a top 10 farm system with excellent over all depth that appears to be on the rise with several potential impact players, plus depth pieces who could serve as up and down AAAA players. I'm as disappointed as anyone with the last month, but overall I think Chaim has the organization clearly moving in the right direction......but check back with me if he doesn't sign Rafffy😏
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Post by briam on Jul 30, 2022 20:26:49 GMT -5
I don’t subscribe to the “it’s the injuries” reason for the poor 2022 season. This team was horrible to start the season and it was largely due to bullpen melts and anemic offensive production (largely from Bloom acquisitions.) this season was basically 3 acts, a horrible start, a great rebound; and then another horrible slide. I think it’s disingenuous to just assume the team was more like their June performance than their April/May.
Overall Bloom has added to the depth of the farm, but has done so to the detriment of the major league club (Betts trade that was out of his control, Benintendi, Renfroe). If this helps reset the organization’s resources and leads to a sustained winner then obviously the plan was a success, but at this point I don’t really see that path in the immediate future. Bloom was handed an excellent core to build around but the future looks uncertain without them locked up. This team without Xander and Devers is quite terrifying. You can say those players’ contracts are more ownership decisions than Bloom’s but it’ll still fall under his watch.
My main gripe, and one I have a difficult time hearing an argument against, is his bullpen construction. His unwillingness to add meaningful pieces to the bullpen last year ran Ottavino and Barnes into the ground. It’s the only reason the team was playing for their postseason life on the last day as opposed to cruising into the playoffs IMO. This season has just been brutal. This stretch of injuries doesn’t tank the season if they have 5-7 more wins in the bank due to a competent high leverage bullpen earlier in the season.
All in all he has his pros and cons like any baseball decision maker, but I’m pretty unceartain on how good (or bad) of a job he’s really done to date.
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Post by crossedsabres8 on Jul 30, 2022 20:36:29 GMT -5
I don’t subscribe to the “it’s the injuries” reason for the poor 2022 season. This team was horrible to start the season and it was largely due to bullpen melts and anemic offensive production (largely from Bloom acquisitions.) this season was basically 3 acts, a horrible start, a great rebound; and then another horrible slide. I think it’s disingenuous to just assume the team was more like their June performance than their April/May. I just can't let this go. It seems disingenuous to say that they were only good in June. They started playing well on May 10th. For most of May and June they were very good, which included beating some good teams. A majority of the games they played in that stretch were against teams that are now over .500. That resulted in, despite their 10-19 start, being in the first wild card spot and 10 games over .500. Sure, the team was flawed from the start. I don't think anyone is saying otherwise. But for a majority of the season, when healthy, they played very well.
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Post by manfred on Jul 30, 2022 20:46:42 GMT -5
I don’t subscribe to the “it’s the injuries” reason for the poor 2022 season. This team was horrible to start the season and it was largely due to bullpen melts and anemic offensive production (largely from Bloom acquisitions.) this season was basically 3 acts, a horrible start, a great rebound; and then another horrible slide. I think it’s disingenuous to just assume the team was more like their June performance than their April/May. I just can't let this go. It seems disingenuous to say that they were only good in June. They started playing well on May 10th. For most of May and June they were very good, which included beating some good teams. A majority of the games they played in that stretch were against teams that are now over .500. That resulted in, despite their 10-19 start, being in the first wild card spot and 10 games over .500. Sure, the team was flawed from the start. I don't think anyone is saying otherwise. But for a majority of the season, when healthy, they played very well. But WHO was good? And who was bad? At least with the lineup it breaks down almost exactly along inherited/new lines. And from day one, the weakness have been obvious and self-inflicted (effectively trading down from Benny to Renfroe and Cordero to JBJ and Cordero, for example).
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Post by jerrygarciaparra on Jul 30, 2022 20:58:45 GMT -5
2 points
1). maybe the question should be is he as good as the other teams GM's and will that be a problem
2). Can anyone name 1 move he has made in 2.5 years that has been unequivocally good ? And please don't mention the Pivetta trade, which is marginally good at best.
He is a patient guy, so as a fan, i have to get used to that approach and see if it will be successful
However, I will say it for the last time, he has had 2.5 years to construct the team he wanted, the DD payroll hamstrung argument is farcical and disingenuous. He could have tore it down on day 1.
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Post by soxfansince67 on Jul 30, 2022 21:00:13 GMT -5
Way too soon - he gets an incomplete with me.
Only one thing to add - this is Boston, not Tampa. There are a lot of implications in that - the type of market, and type of pressure.
And - comparing the players added in Tampa and expecting the same type of results in Boston is comparing apples and oranges - different coaches, different minor league system, and - yes - different market, different pressures.
I will reserve any further comment until we see how this all plays out for a few years.
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Post by FenwayFanatic on Jul 30, 2022 21:05:47 GMT -5
This question seems to be eating up every thread on the board, so I thought I'd post this as a flypaper kind of thing for people to get it out of their systems.
Now then: here is the definitive rundown of everything Bloom has done well and poorly.
The Betts Trade It's unfortunate that Betts didn't want to take a hometown discount to stay in Boston, though he's certainly not to blame for that. And it's unfortunate that Dombrowski consumed all of the team's financial flexibility in his deals for Price, Sale, Eovaldi, and others. The combination of these two facts made this trade inevitable. As for the return in the trade, Verdugo has been a cheap and league-average complementary piece. I had hopes he'd level up to about a 4 WAR player but he seems to be settling in at more like 2 WAR. Downs was regarded at the time as a surefire future starter at 2B, but questions have emerged about his bat. He's still young and this piecce of the deal is still TBD, but if the bat does come around, with his speed and defense he could be another really nice addition to the team. I still think it was the right move to take him over Graaterol.
The Benintendi Trade Benintendi was eminently expendable. Indeed, he was immediately replaced by a comparable and cheaper talent in Renfroe. Unfortunately, Franchy detracts value from the deal since he's been worth -0.8 fWAR since coming here. Winckowski looks like the real source of value from this, and just having him as pitching depth makes this trade a win. Luis de la Rosa or even Gambrell may yet come through, as a bonus.
The Renfroe Trade The idea here was sound; the follow-through was lacking. Renfroe, like Benintendi before him, was very expendable. An absolute steal at $3 million in 2021, he's merely a decent bargain at $7.5 million in 2022. Taking on JBJ's bigger salary in order to buy prospects is creative and consistent with Bloom's philosophy, and just the sort of thing that a smart and rich organization does. Furthermore, I think there are reasons to think the organization's evaluation of JBJ and Renfroe's respective value is closer than, e.g., public WAR numbers might suggest (Red Sox value defense a lot in RF; Renfroe stinks in the clutch). But if you're going to use that money to buy prospects you also need to address the gaping offensive hole in the outfield that JBJ represents. I actually think this could have worked out okay as a JBJ/Refsnyder platoon if Kiké had been healthy, but as things turned out there just wasn't enough outfield depth to make it work (you can never count on everyone being healthy). Using Arroyo in RF was, frankly, idiotic.
Maxing Out Value from the Lost Covid Season It's frankly just dumb to blame Bloom for the team's 2020 performance, for reasons that don't need to be re-litigated. But he did a phenomenal job of turning those lemons into lemonade. First, they got Mayer. People say he "fell into their lap," which has some truth to it, but still, he managed to get past three other teams. At the very least they managed not to screw this up, and there's something to be said for that. (How would we all feel as Tigers fans, watching our team pass on Mayer to select a high school pitcher?) More substantially, the Pivetta/Seabold acquisition has already proven to be a huge win. And the biggest win of all has been getting Whitlock in the Rule 5 draft.
How about 2021? Despite being a team in transition and still stuck with an inflexible payroll and a lot of dead money (Pedroia, Price, Sale) they made it all the way to the ALCS, knocking out the Yankees and Rays in the process. It's about as successful as a non-championship season can be. Several savvy acquisitions contributed to their run, including Kiké and Renfroe, and getting Schwarber in what was the biggest steal of the trade deadline.
And the 2022 Debacle? It's the injuries. Almost no team can survive lose 4/5ths of their starting rotation, including their ace who is out for essentially the entire season. Now the position players have joined them as well - Kiké, Arroyo, Devers, Story. It's just the sort of thing that happens once a decade or so.
But of course that doesn't mean everything Bloom did hass been perfect. By far the biggest failure was the outfield construction. I talked about that above.
What about 1B, you say? Well, if we start from the premise that they weren't going to spend any more than they did, it was an absolute no-brainer to go with Dalbec as the primary first baseman considering a) his second half last season, b) the cost of any potential replacement that would have projected to be better than him, a group that included precisely two guys, Freeman and Rizzo, and c) the reasonable likelihood that Casas would be ready by mid-season or so. The bigger failure was Shaw, but again, it's not like there was a huge pile of cheap above-average backup first basemen out there (but kudos to you if you were talking about how they needed to sign Dan Vogelbach before the season started).
And the bullpen? It's been mostly fine. People lose their minds if a team loses a game in the 9th inning (as opposed to the 5th or 6th inning) which leads to a masssively overinflated valuation of closers, and that in turn makes people think they ought to spend like $15 million on a Proven Closer like Kimbrel (4.37 ERA) or Jansen (3.52 ERA) or Haderr (4.24 ERA) or whoever else it is that puts up amazing numbers over like 100 IP. I am against this line of thinking. In fact Bloom's biggest mistake so far has been giving big money to Barnes. You should really just almost never do that. The next great reliever is as likely as not to be a guy like Schreiber.
Other additions: Story is the big one, and by far Bloom's biggest free agent signing so far. The defense has been spectacular, the bat not so much, but so far he's on pace to be worth his contract. I'm hopeful that his second year away from Coors will see the offense improve. Wacha has been a nice pickup. Hill has done what he's supposed to. Paxton is TBD.
The Farm System The team has done from a bottom-10 to a top-10 system in just a couple years, and ranks even higher in terms of depth (per fangraphs, they have the third-most ranked prospects in the game). To judge Bloom by his own stated objectives, this is an unadulterated win.
Overall, my conclusion is: Bloom is good at his job. But the judgment is necessarily incomplete. Ways he might still fail include: 1) his big money free agent signings not working out; 2) roster construction proving to be a perennial issue rather than the one-off issue they've had in RF this year; 3) if none of the prospects he's gone out of his way to acquire pan out we might question the evaluation of minor league talent; 4) if both Bogaerts and Devers walk it will be a giant bummer. But these are all hypothetical. I like his philosophical approach to building the organization, I think he's mostly followed through on it well with just a few dubious moves, and I'm looking forward to what he does this offseason when he finally - finally - can take charge of the bulk of this team's payroll.
I don’t agree at all with the Benintendi trade analysis. 1) They sold low on Benintendi when they had no need to. 2) No one they got out of the trade looks like they’ll be very good. 3) The Royals were able to basically rent Benintendi for free. 4) The Renfroe move and keeping Benintendi weren’t mutually exclusive. 5) Verdugo isn’t really that great and it looks like Bloom once again messed up the timing and didn’t wait and then sell high. They should not have been playing the outfield around someone like Verdugo.
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Post by Guidas on Jul 30, 2022 21:10:23 GMT -5
We’ll see next year when The PlanTM goes into effect. This, but unironically. I am serious here. If he succeeds going forward I’ll start to believe. Also, I like saying The Plan TM and wish I could give it an echo sound-effect.
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Post by Guidas on Jul 30, 2022 21:20:48 GMT -5
2 points 1). maybe the question should be is he as good as the other teams GM's and will that be a problem2). Can anyone name 1 move he has made in 2.5 years that has been unequivocally good ? And please don't mention the Pivetta trade, which is marginally good at best. He is a patient guy, so as a fan, i have to get used to that approach and see if it will be successful However, I will say it for the last time, he has had 2.5 years to construct the team he wanted, the DD payroll hamstrung argument is farcical and disingenuous. He could have tore it down on day 1. This is my observation as well. He got a great core, some really bad contracts and certain salary limits imposed by ownership. The question is, has he really done anything so far to demonstrably distinguish himself from any other GM/Baseball Ops Prez who’d be put in the same position? Everything I’ve seen so far tells me no. Some good moves, some bad, but nothing outstanding to separate him from the pack. If he was graded it’d be a C- to C+ depending on perspective. And for a guy brought in to stop up and down seasons, well, it’s been one down, one up and now one trending down again. I give everyone a mulligan for 2020, so let’s see what he does with all that money next year.
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Post by FenwayFanatic on Jul 30, 2022 21:48:57 GMT -5
He also completely blew up the outfield. That to me is probably the most egregious thing he has done. They don’t even really have a farm to draw from there either.
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Post by scottysmalls on Jul 30, 2022 21:59:19 GMT -5
2 points 1). maybe the question should be is he as good as the other teams GM's and will that be a problem 2). Can anyone name 1 move he has made in 2.5 years that has been unequivocally good ? And please don't mention the Pivetta trade, which is marginally good at best. He is a patient guy, so as a fan, i have to get used to that approach and see if it will be successful However, I will say it for the last time, he has had 2.5 years to construct the team he wanted, the DD payroll hamstrung argument is farcical and disingenuous. He could have tore it down on day 1. Why do you get to say donât mention the Pivetta trade? Itâs a slam dunk massive win. Other good moves I would say have been: Kiké, Schwarzenegger, Renfroe (trading for), Whitlock, Schreiber off the top of my head. I agree with your point on the payroll that every year the argument holds less water. However I still think heâs not at the point where you can totally ignore the contracts he was stuck with. Theyâve had very little room to fill out the payroll the way this FO wants.
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Post by prospectlove on Jul 30, 2022 22:14:50 GMT -5
2 points 1). maybe the question should be is he as good as the other teams GM's and will that be a problem 2). Can anyone name 1 move he has made in 2.5 years that has been unequivocally good ? And please don't mention the Pivetta trade, which is marginally good at best. He is a patient guy, so as a fan, i have to get used to that approach and see if it will be successful However, I will say it for the last time, he has had 2.5 years to construct the team he wanted, the DD payroll hamstrung argument is farcical and disingenuous. He could have tore it down on day 1. Why do you get to say donât mention the Pivetta trade? Itâs a slam dunk massive win. Other good moves I would say have been: Kiké, Schwarzenegger, Renfroe (trading for), Whitlock, Schreiber off the top of my head. I agree with your point on the payroll that every year the argument holds less water. However I still think heâs not at the point where you can totally ignore the contracts he was stuck with. Theyâve had very little room to fill out the payroll the way this FO wants. Yet the one major contract he did sign could have been applied to a player who would be performing much better. Suzuki, schwarber, freeman, Correa, etc. a couple of those would have been at less cost and not giving up a minor league player. That’s on him. Ie bad judgement. That’s worrisome regardless of what money he has to spend
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Post by dewey24forever on Jul 30, 2022 22:29:55 GMT -5
Is he good at his job? I would say that it is incomplete. One problem I have is Chaim can do no wrong people. His best trade was getting Pivetta. Betts trade I didn't love but he got something for someone they were not going to pay. Crying about the money spent on front line pitchers comes down to not being able to develop a top of the rotation guy since Lester. As far as the Benny trade that remains to be seen he would have been better for us than what we had last year. It remains to be seen if what KC got back for Benny for a half year rental comes out better than what Boston got. Renfroe trade is a loser so far and I love JBJ's defense since SC. He could have had JBJ by offering a bag of chips and just picking up his salary. Boston could have used Renfroe's bat. Maybe one or both of the guys he got develops and turns it into a winner but from reading the right ups on them at this time it doesn't look like it. 2021 snuck into the play in game on the last day the Kyle pick up at the trade deadline made that possible. 2022 is his team and it is what it is. Outfield has been bad the bullpen has blown a ton of games and injuries have hurt. The minor leagues have more depth. It remains to be seen if that means Major League success for any of them or if Chaim can use them to acquire Major League talent. I would think you would have to give him a couple of more years to see what comes of it. But to me it comes down to wins and losses on the field in the majors not hypothetical wins and losses or who has the best farm system. I have seen to many cannot miss prospects miss.
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Post by dewey24forever on Jul 30, 2022 22:38:39 GMT -5
I think that he has done a good job at rebuilding our farm and quickly. Seems to be a good evaluator of young talent in the draft and trades from other teams. Hate the comparisons to Tampa Bay everytime I see it but I realize it's gonna happen. My major point for signing up and posting my 1st comment was that we traded Renfro at the last minute before the lockout. I think we had other moves in the works and when the lockout was lifted teams had too long to think and go other directions. Maybe I'm being short sided by giving him the benefit of the doubt but he has been a good strategist in his trades so far. We heard rumors of other moves and they never materialized
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Post by scottysmalls on Jul 30, 2022 22:47:17 GMT -5
2 points 1). maybe the question should be is he as good as the other teams GM's and will that be a problem 2). Can anyone name 1 move he has made in 2.5 years that has been unequivocally good ? And please don't mention the Pivetta trade, which is marginally good at best. He is a patient guy, so as a fan, i have to get used to that approach and see if it will be successful However, I will say it for the last time, he has had 2.5 years to construct the team he wanted, the DD payroll hamstrung argument is farcical and disingenuous. He could have tore it down on day 1. Why do you get to say donât mention the Pivetta trade? Itâs a slam dunk massive win. Other good moves I would say have been: Kiké, Schwarzenegger, Renfroe (trading for), Whitlock, Schreiber off the top of my head. I agree with your point on the payroll that every year the argument holds less water. However I still think heâs not at the point where you can totally ignore the contracts he was stuck with. Theyâve had very little room to fill out the payroll the way this FO wants.
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Post by incandenza on Jul 30, 2022 23:02:30 GMT -5
You people keep using that word, "disingenuously." I do not think it means what you think it means.
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Post by incandenza on Jul 30, 2022 23:07:04 GMT -5
Why do you get to say donât mention the Pivetta trade? Itâs a slam dunk massive win. Other good moves I would say have been: Kiké, Schwarzenegger, Renfroe (trading for), Whitlock, Schreiber off the top of my head. I agree with your point on the payroll that every year the argument holds less water. However I still think heâs not at the point where you can totally ignore the contracts he was stuck with. Theyâve had very little room to fill out the payroll the way this FO wants. Yet the one major contract he did sign could have been applied to a player who would be performing much better. Suzuki, schwarber, freeman, Correa, etc. a couple of those would have been at less cost and not giving up a minor league player. That’s on him. Ie bad judgement. That’s worrisome regardless of what money he has to spend Let's check the ol' fWAR and AAV leaderboards!
Freeman: 4.5 ($25 million)
Story: 1.9 ($23 million)
Correa: 1.6 ($35 million) Schwarber: 1.6 ($20 million) Suzuki: 1.0 ($17 million)
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Post by chr31ter on Jul 30, 2022 23:09:48 GMT -5
I think Bloom's plan to deepen the farm system while trying to add payroll flexibility is a good one.
But I have some concerns.
It's great to put a lot of effort into adding young talent to the organization. But if you end up picking the wrong players to bring in, it'll never work. And to this point, I think it's fair to question whether or not Bloom's batting average is high enough.
I'm also worried about the "We'll trade Martinez and Vazquez, but we're not going to trade Bogaerts or Eovaldi" approach to the deadline. You're either on board with building the farm system, or you're not. I can't think of a compelling reason to keep any of the pending free agents at this point. The fact that Bogaerts and Eovaldi seem to be off limits reeks of ownership interference, in my opinion. I'm concerned that FSG doesn't have the patience or the intestinal fortitude to fully commit to "the plan".
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Post by manfred on Jul 30, 2022 23:25:29 GMT -5
I think Bloom's plan to deepen the farm system while trying to add payroll flexibility is a good one. But I have some concerns. It's great to put a lot of effort into adding young talent to the organization. But if you end up picking the wrong players to bring in, it'll never work. And to this point, I think it's fair to question whether or not Bloom's batting average is high enough. I'm also worried about the "We'll trade Martinez and Vazquez, but we're not going to trade Bogaerts or Eovaldi" approach to the deadline. You're either on board with building the farm system, or you're not. I can't think of a compelling reason to keep any of the pending free agents at this point. The fact that Bogaerts and Eovaldi seem to be off limits reeks of ownership interference, in my opinion. I'm concerned that FSG doesn't have the patience or the intestinal fortitude to fully commit to "the plan". My concern is that someone who says we will: 1) add depth to the system 2) maintain payroll flexibility 3) compete every year sounds like a politician who doesn’t want to give you any bad news. If that was a real plan, who wouldn’t be doing it?
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Post by prospectlove on Jul 30, 2022 23:30:13 GMT -5
Yet the one major contract he did sign could have been applied to a player who would be performing much better. Suzuki, schwarber, freeman, Correa, etc. a couple of those would have been at less cost and not giving up a minor league player. That’s on him. Ie bad judgement. That’s worrisome regardless of what money he has to spend Let's check the ol' fWAR and AAV leaderboards!
Freeman: 4.5 ($25 million)
Story: 1.9 ($23 million)
Correa: 1.6 ($35 million) Schwarber: 1.6 ($20 million) Suzuki: 1.0 ($17 million)
So it seems from what your posting that Correa wouldn’t have been better but the other 3 would have been or comparable, for less money and not giving up a prospect ( Suzuki) plus I would argue in a position of greater need ( outfield). But I understand this comes down to a perspective also.
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Post by incandenza on Jul 30, 2022 23:34:25 GMT -5
I think Bloom's plan to deepen the farm system while trying to add payroll flexibility is a good one. But I have some concerns. It's great to put a lot of effort into adding young talent to the organization. But if you end up picking the wrong players to bring in, it'll never work. And to this point, I think it's fair to question whether or not Bloom's batting average is high enough. I'm also worried about the "We'll trade Martinez and Vazquez, but we're not going to trade Bogaerts or Eovaldi" approach to the deadline. You're either on board with building the farm system, or you're not. I can't think of a compelling reason to keep any of the pending free agents at this point. The fact that Bogaerts and Eovaldi seem to be off limits reeks of ownership interference, in my opinion. I'm concerned that FSG doesn't have the patience or the intestinal fortitude to fully commit to "the plan". My concern is that someone who says we will: 1) add depth to the system 2) maintain payroll flexibility 3) compete every year sounds like a politician who doesn’t want to give you any bad news. If that was a real plan, who wouldn’t be doing it? Your favorite Red Sox GM of the past 5 years, for one.
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Post by prospectlove on Jul 30, 2022 23:37:31 GMT -5
I think Bloom's plan to deepen the farm system while trying to add payroll flexibility is a good one. But I have some concerns. It's great to put a lot of effort into adding young talent to the organization. But if you end up picking the wrong players to bring in, it'll never work. And to this point, I think it's fair to question whether or not Bloom's batting average is high enough. I'm also worried about the "We'll trade Martinez and Vazquez, but we're not going to trade Bogaerts or Eovaldi" approach to the deadline. You're either on board with building the farm system, or you're not. I can't think of a compelling reason to keep any of the pending free agents at this point. The fact that Bogaerts and Eovaldi seem to be off limits reeks of ownership interference, in my opinion. I'm concerned that FSG doesn't have the patience or the intestinal fortitude to fully commit to "the plan". And why would ownership react that way? Only reason is they see ratings, corporate interest, and fan interest decreasing and recognize that in a major market you need to keep that going or ultimately the value of your franchise will decrease. This is why I say we can’t play the Tampa bay ray game here. Boston is a different animal and 2 of 3 losing seasons won’t cut it. Ownership will step in and “adjust”. Somehow. This ownership generally have found a scapegoat when things go this south. We are 7-19 in July. The last win by a starter is over a month ago. We could lose our top 3 hitters ( jd, Xander, devers), not to mention our injured center fielder and starting catcher. I can see ownership finding a scapegoat because they have to sell hope somehow.
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