Husky25
Dink & Dunk beat the Greatest Show on Turf.
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2012
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I don't start many threads, but there didn't appear to be a Red Sox thread for the current season. There is now.
They finished last year at 78-84, despite being 57-51 and only 2.5 games out of the wild card at the trade deadline. To me, the issue with 2023 actually started in 2019, when they went from one extreme in player /development/acquisition (Dave Dombrowski) to the other (Chaim Bloom). At the end of the day, Bloom just couldn't shake his Tampa tendencies and part with prospects for the betterment of the Major League club, and doing comparatively nothing for the 3rd straight season destroyed morale...again. They ended up being the best last place team among the six divisions and Bloom lost his job because of his hesitancy to pull any trigger, let alone THE trigger.
For about 3 years, the organization seemed to want to drum up interest on the field, by doing other stuff off of it. and even after Tom Werner proclaimed they were going "Full throttle," the winter progressed as if they were stuck in 2nd gear.
The lineup actually looks fairly decent. The bulk of the 'Sox' issues will be on the mound. All five projected starters are righties and while Brayan Bello is the Opening Night starter and has shown Top of the Rotation potential, he's not an Ace. Each of the back end starters were once highly thought of farmhands, but none have really pulled it together as rotation pieces (Whitlock is far more effective out of the 'pen). They just don't seem to have a guy who can reset the bullpen on a regular basis. Speaking of which, other than aging Kenley Jensen and Chris Martin, the bullpen is mainly a collection of "Who?'s" to casual outside observers.
All that said, "Hope springs eternal (A phrase that should never be used in reference to the Red Sox)." We shall see what we shall see.
They finished last year at 78-84, despite being 57-51 and only 2.5 games out of the wild card at the trade deadline. To me, the issue with 2023 actually started in 2019, when they went from one extreme in player /development/acquisition (Dave Dombrowski) to the other (Chaim Bloom). At the end of the day, Bloom just couldn't shake his Tampa tendencies and part with prospects for the betterment of the Major League club, and doing comparatively nothing for the 3rd straight season destroyed morale...again. They ended up being the best last place team among the six divisions and Bloom lost his job because of his hesitancy to pull any trigger, let alone THE trigger.
For about 3 years, the organization seemed to want to drum up interest on the field, by doing other stuff off of it. and even after Tom Werner proclaimed they were going "Full throttle," the winter progressed as if they were stuck in 2nd gear.
The lineup actually looks fairly decent. The bulk of the 'Sox' issues will be on the mound. All five projected starters are righties and while Brayan Bello is the Opening Night starter and has shown Top of the Rotation potential, he's not an Ace. Each of the back end starters were once highly thought of farmhands, but none have really pulled it together as rotation pieces (Whitlock is far more effective out of the 'pen). They just don't seem to have a guy who can reset the bullpen on a regular basis. Speaking of which, other than aging Kenley Jensen and Chris Martin, the bullpen is mainly a collection of "Who?'s" to casual outside observers.
All that said, "Hope springs eternal (A phrase that should never be used in reference to the Red Sox)." We shall see what we shall see.
