Official Boston Red Sox Thread - 2023

[HCCForever]

Ownership gets most of the blame. But Bloom was horrible. He just never got Boston.

I agree that Bloom is the fall guy. I am quite sure that he followed the direction of the ownership in most cases. At least their farm system is improved according to what I read and the luxury tax was reset.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Ownership gets most of the blame. But Bloom was horrible. He just never got Boston.

I agree that Bloom is the fall guy. I am quite sure that he followed the direction of the ownership in most cases. At least their farm system is improved according to what I read and the luxury tax was reset.

I'd suggest Boston never got Bloom. But yes, the owners caused it. He built a really strong group of prospects and the Sox will soon be very good. But too many fans get caught up in big names. Orioles are terrific and nobody knows any of their players. Ownership simply isn't honest with the fans about the strategy. Bogaerts should have been traded for pitching.

Time to find somebody else, but please not the Dombrowski type that spends recklessly and burns the whole farm system. The goal is to a playoff team year after year.

 

[Waquoit]

I'd suggest Boston never got Bloom. But yes, the owners caused it. He built a really strong group of prospects and the Sox will soon be very good. ...

Time to find somebody else, but please not the Dombrowski type that spends recklessly and burns the whole farm system. The goal is to a playoff team year after year.

My brother tells me that only 2 Bloom draft picks are in AAA. And neither of those two are in their top prospects. He was an incredible failure.

And if only the Sox could find another Dombrowski? How many of the prospects he traded ended up any good? Whaddya want picks or pennants?

 

[The Viking]

In baseball it takes awhile for prospects to move up the ranks.
Boston’s AA team is absolutely loaded with Bloom picks - a lot of whom will be up in Boston by 2025.
Bloom did a great job making them a top 5 farm system and outside of Devers they have no long term deals on the books so they have great payroll flexibility unlike when he arrived.
On the flip side it’s leaked out in the last 24 hours that he was always slow on pulling the trigger on deals including not trading sale last year because he didn’t like the prospect package even though the other team would have taken his ENTIRE salary.
So in closing he’s great at building the farm and building in a lot of analytics stuff n the org but at the big league level his inability to pull the trigger in trades was what did him in.

 

[HuskyHawk]

In baseball it takes awhile for prospects to move up the ranks.
Boston’s AA team is absolutely loaded with Bloom picks - a lot of whom will be up in Boston by 2025.
Bloom did a great job making them a top 5 farm system and outside of Devers they have no long term deals on the books so they have great payroll flexibility unlike when he arrived.
On the flip side it’s leaked out in the last 24 hours that he was always slow on pulling the trigger on deals including not trading sale last year because he didn’t like the prospect package even though the other team would have taken his ENTIRE salary.
So in closing he’s great at building the farm and building in a lot of analytics stuff n the org but at the big league level his inability to pull the trigger in trades was what did him in.

This makes sense. I like the way he built the farm system. But roster construction? Turning the dozen future MLB middle infielders we have into other players? He's not been good at that. People complain about the wrong things. If he could have dumped Sale, he needed to do that ASAP. Signing Hernandez made little sense to me. Story was a grasp to get a big name at the one position we didn't need.

The team is in really good shape for next year and beyond. Somebody is going to have to move some pieces around to get a more complementary roster.

 

[HCCForever]

This makes sense. I like the way he built the farm system. But roster construction? Turning the dozen future MLB middle infielders we have into other players? He's not been good at that. People complain about the wrong things. If he could have dumped Sale, he needed to do that ASAP. Signing Hernandez made little sense to me. Story was a grasp to get a big name at the one position we didn't need.

The team is in really good shape for next year and beyond. Somebody is going to have to move some pieces around to get a more complementary roster.

The team may be in good shape for positional players. But where is the starting pitching?

 

[HuskyHawk]

The team may be in good shape for positional players. But where is the starting pitching?

It's what they need to trade some of that minor league depth for. Not Mayer, but they have more middle infielders than can ever play for them.

 

[The Viking]

I’ve been saying this for awhile but I think all along under the Bloom regime THIS was going to be the off-season where they finally spend on a big FA or two. And yes I’ve always thought they were a silent under the radar team for Ohtani- as long as Ohtani is willing to come East.
Or if they want to spend a ton on pitching they can outspend anyone on the Japanese pitching stud who is about to come to the US.
I see the Yankees are heavy on him as are others but no team has the history of spending AND payroll flexibility over the next 5 years that we do. Especially with the young kids who have already showed up in the past 12 months and the ones incoming in the next 1-2 years.
Lots of low salary potential coupled with spending big on the right players.
The irony that everything bloom worked on to get to the spending part of the plan is finally here and he’s not around to do it.
But perhaps that’s for the best as he has shown to be too indecisive when it comes to major league decisions.
A GM who is a combo of Dombrowski and Bloom would be the perfect hire right now.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I’ve been saying this for awhile but I think all along under the Bloom regime THIS was going to be the off-season where they finally spend on a big FA or two. And yes I’ve always thought they were a silent under the radar team for Ohtani- as long as Ohtani is willing to come East.
Or if they want to spend a ton on pitching they can outspend anyone on the Japanese pitching stud who is about to come to the US.
I see the Yankees are heavy on him as are others but no team has the history of spending AND payroll flexibility over the next 5 years that we do. Especially with the young kids who have already showed up in the past 12 months and the ones incoming in the next 1-2 years.
Lots of low salary potential coupled with spending big on the right players.
The irony that everything bloom worked on to get to the spending part of the plan is finally here and he’s not around to do it.
But perhaps that’s for the best as he has shown to be too indecisive when it comes to major league decisions.
A GM who is a combo of Dombrowski and Bloom would be the perfect hire right now.

I expect them to bid high on the pitcher from Japan. But the Yanks may be desperate.

A smart GM would invest in scouts in Japan and try to identify these players earlier and get them cheaper. It’s long been a benefit to big money teams that they have way more scouting staff in the Caribbean and Central America.

They really are close and the kids that came up did they job.

 

[Waquoit]

They really are close and the kids that came up did they job.

Close to what? The playoffs? This roster is bereft of major league talent and there is no pitching in the minors. It's years from contending. Four years of shedding talent without replacing it will do that.

 

[Waquoit]

"According to well-sourced, hard-working baseball scribes, Mike Hazen and Amiel Sawdaye (Diamondbacks), Brandon Gomes (Dodgers), Sam Fuld (Phillies), Derek Falvey (Twins), Michael Hill (Marlins), Jon Daniels (Rays, Rangers), Raquel Ferreira (Red Sox), and James Click (Blue Jays, Astros) are among those not interested in becoming the next head of baseball operations for the Boston Red Sox." says Dan Shaughnessey.

The Sox need to can Sam Kennedy. He's as bad as Bloom.

 

[HuskyHawk]

"According to well-sourced, hard-working baseball scribes, Mike Hazen and Amiel Sawdaye (Diamondbacks), Brandon Gomes (Dodgers), Sam Fuld (Phillies), Derek Falvey (Twins), Michael Hill (Marlins), Jon Daniels (Rays, Rangers), Raquel Ferreira (Red Sox), and James Click (Blue Jays, Astros) are among those not interested in becoming the next head of baseball operations for the Boston Red Sox." says Dan Shaughnessey.

The Sox need to can Sam Kennedy. He's as bad as Bloom.

Worse. Bloom was probably quite capable minus the meddling from the losers he worked for. Nobody wants this job beacaue they know it’s rigged to fail, plus they are stuck with Cora.

 

[Waquoit]

Worse. Bloom was probably quite capable minus the meddling from the losers he worked for. Nobody wants this job beacaue they know it’s rigged to fail, plus they are stuck with Cora.

Both things can be true.

 

[mauconnfan]

Worse. Bloom was probably quite capable minus the meddling from the losers he worked for. Nobody wants this job beacaue they know it’s rigged to fail, plus they are stuck with Cora.

I thought you guys seriously loved Cora. Is that not true anymore?

 

[HuskyHawk]

I thought you guys seriously loved Cora. Is that not true anymore?

I think he’s lost the team. Nobody likes his pitching decisions. The farm system is somewhat loaded, it’s a top 5 budget team and nobody wants the job?

 

[The Viking]

I like Breslow as an option and it sounds like his name is picking up some steam.
Maybe do Breslow as President of Baseball Ops and Romero as GM or vice versa?

 

[Husky25]

I thought you guys seriously loved Cora. Is that not true anymore?

You guys seriously loved Cashman. Things change.

 

[HCCForever]

Watching the Phillies last night reminded me of the angst and drama that Kimbrel generated during the 2018 season for the Sox. Good LCS games the last couple of nights.

 

[mauconnfan]

You guys seriously loved Cashman. Things change.

Nope never loved Cashman. He inherited great teams but never made great trades, moves as often as he should have. Certainly not for over a decade now.

I kinda thought Cora was a good solid coach but a bit overrated. I mean his trophies come with asterisks.

 

[hoopsfan22]

Red Sox stopped caring about baseball years ago. It's just another play thing for a rich guy like John Henry at this point and he's bored of this toy and has many others to play with.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I like Breslow as an option and it sounds like his name is picking up some steam.
Maybe do Breslow as President of Baseball Ops and Romero as GM or vice versa?

I think both Breslow and Romero are good baseball minds. We could really use Breslow’s input on pitching development. Some combination would be good.

 

[Waquoit]

I thought you guys seriously loved Cora. Is that not true anymore?

I'm still a Cora guy. He's the main reason the Sox won games this year. The team didn't quit until the GM basically quit at the trade deadline. I'm not sure I like a manager with input into the GM decision, though.

 

[Huskygamble19]

congrats you got yourself Breslow. Now see if cora knows anything about fundamental baseball. Just a random thought.

 

[HuskyHawk]

So many fans whining about the moves so far. It's like none of them pay attention to the roster and farm system. We have way too many LH hitting OF. So Verdugo for pitching makes sense. We may see Duran moved as well. Expect Abreu to make the opening day roster and probably start in RF. Great arm for Fenway RF, big bat (I watched him hit 3 HR for Worcester in a game before his call up). Rafaella is very fast and good defender who can play CF. RH bat. Both guys are on the 40 man already. If Yorke can come up at 2B mid-season, they only need one position player. Ideally Yoshida would move to Dan Hurley, and they could get a RH hitting LF with power. But there's nobody on the FA market like that, so maybe via trade. The kids will need to play.

Pitching is another story. The offseason has to be all about pitching. There's nobody in the minors that looks like a starter this coming season. SoxProspects.com

 

[The Viking]

Yeah I love Soto but he doesn’t fit a need at the moment like pitching does _ especially if he is a one year player. He’s gonna hit 40-50 homers this year and Boras is gonna start off by asking for Ohtani money for him in the offseason.
I like the pitching slant that Breslow and Bailey are going to bring to the organization and you can see it already with the 4 pitchers they just picked up in the last week - not to mention they are going to go hard on pitching
Come draft time whereas Bloom was terrified of drafting pitchers. One way or another we will be landing two starters this offseason, one by free agency and one by trading from the good pool of young position players we have in the system.

 

[Spaceman213J]

I would like to see them Maldonado, even if it is a 2 year deal at his age. He could mentor Teel in training camp and then when he does make the jump to the majors.
I hope they hold onto Duran. The guy hit well at every level, but then it looked like he was just trying to make contact instead of driving the ball. Last year, it looked like his swing was back. He can win games with his legs.
Pitching is the priority. I don't know if they a big splash this offseason though. I could see them going after Jordan Montgomery and hope a guy like Corbin Burnes is available next year.
I wouldn't mine seeing them make a splash and get Yamamota, but you have the 2 New York teams and Dodgers so the price is likely to be insane for him.
Also, key for their long term health is Miguel Bleiss to come back, stay healthy and continue his progression. Sounds like everyone who sees him believes he'll be a star in a few years.

 

[Waquoit]

On the MBB board, I'm on record as hating "DOOMED". But that's the only way to describe the Sox today. They fired the worst GM ever and replaced him with somebody worse. It's mind-boggling.

 

[HuskyHawk]

On the MBB board, I'm on record as hating "DOOMED". But that's the only way to describe the Sox today. They fired the worst GM ever and replaced him with somebody worse. It's mind-boggling.

Maybe it’s not the GM but the people they work for.

 

[HooperScooper]

Good deal. As long as they spend money on a front line pitcher. If they're just cutting payroll I will be beyond pissed.

 

[HCCForever]

At least Sale is going to the NL. He hasn't done much in a few years with all of his injuries. Hopefully, this works out for Boston and they acquire pitching.