The Official Thread of The Boston Red Sox - 2022

[mauconnfan]

Getting through the dredges of August sports. Watched last night.


Bottom of 7th. First and third with two outs. Cordero strikes out swinging.
Bottom of the 8th. Leadoff triple on a gift misplay by the RF. Couldn't get him home. Not even close either. 3 straight outs.
Bottom of the 9th, still tied. Bases loaded, no outs. Couldn't get one in to win the game.
Franchy Cordero was in the mix of things in the 7th and the 9th and both times struck out swinging and I think he had three swings and misses each at bat. Might have had a foul ball or a called strike in there but I know at least four swing and misses in those two at bats. He's not good.
Devers, Boegarts, Martinez are all so slow.

And Boston's relievers have are completely anemic to throwing strikes.

Toronto is 13-3 against the Sox this year.

He's striking out 37% of the time, lots of bad ABs. They must see something in the kid I guess but he does K often, Gallo like player for now. Those 1st and 3rd and bases loaded no outs situations without getting a run in are dreadful. Yanks have had too many since the all star break as well, killers!

 

[Waquoit]

That's who the Sox got for Benentendi. Bloom's evaluation skills have been questionable from the beginning.

 

[HuskyHawk]

The Red Sox fanbase

 

[HuskyHawk]

Well the year sucked. And the off-season didn’t look good. But today brings reason for hope. Signing Jansen and then Yoshida is huge! Desperately needed an OF that’s on on base machine to hit lead off. Bullpen was awful and now has a stud closer and Rodriguez as a left arm in the pen. Might allow them to move Houck to the rotation or he could become a closer like set up man.

Next up, I think they will bring back Xander.

 

[The Viking]

Or they could use Houck as a trade piece. Bloom keeps talking about making a trade, I’m wondering if he would use Houck and or Verdugo and prospects if they have their eye on someone

 

[navery12]

 

[mauconnfan]

Well the year sucked. And the off-season didn’t look good. But today brings reason for hope. Signing Jansen and then Yoshida is huge! Desperately needed an OF that’s on on base machine to hit lead off. Bullpen was awful and now has a stud closer and Rodriguez as a left arm in the pen. Might allow them to move Houck to the rotation or he could become a closer like set up man.

Next up, I think they will bring back Xander.

Yikes Xander was 2nd choice of the Padres but still big cash. Turner got more from the Phillies but I think the Padres got the better SS. Big loss, who’s next at short?

 

[HuskyHawk]

Yikes Xander was 2nd choice of the Padres but still big cash. Turner got more from the Phillies but I think the Padres got the better SS. Big loss, who’s next at short?

I wouldn't have wanted them to give him that deal. As a far, I care less about winning a WS than I do about making the playoffs year after year. San Diego has never won a WS, so I get it. The pushed all the chips in. In five years they will suck, and that deal will be a boat anchor.

The Sox signed the best FA SS last year. So I think Story can play SS. Their best minor leaguer is a SS. Might be ready by 2024. I'd rather put the money into resigning Devers. If not Xander I wouldn't go for any of the big names.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I wouldn't have wanted them to give him that deal. As a far, I care less about winning a WS than I do about making the playoffs year after year. San Diego has never won a WS, so I get it. The pushed all the chips in. In five years they will suck, and that deal will be a boat anchor.

The Sox signed the best FA SS last year. So I think Story can play SS. Their best minor leaguer is a SS. Might be ready by 2024. I'd rather put the money into resigning Devers. If not Xander I wouldn't go for any of the big names.

My God the typos. I need a longer edit term.

 

[Dove]

Yikes Xander was 2nd choice of the Padres but still big cash. Turner got more from the Phillies but I think the Padres got the better SS. Big loss, who’s next at short?

The Padres bogarted the Red Sox?

 

[Dove]

My God the typos. I need a longer edit term.

Or drink less Heady Toppers while on the Yard.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Or drink less Heady Toppers while on the Yard.

Haven’t had a Heady Topper in about 4-5 years. That was at 10:24 AM, I was on a call at work.

 

[Waquoit]

Well the year sucked. And the off-season didn’t look good. But today brings reason for hope. Signing Jansen and then Yoshida is huge!

This is sarcasm, I assume?

 

[HuskyHawk]

This is sarcasm, I assume?

Nope. A legit closer, two other bullpen arms and an on base machine OF. Not saying they are WS contenders, but those were all needs.

 

[Waquoit]

The Sox just DFA'd Jeter Downs. It's a sad, sad, situation. And it's getting more and more absurd.

 

[The Viking]

Keep in mind tbe trade was verdugo, downs, and wong for Betts and the Dodgers taking 45 million of prices deal off our hands.

I’m assuming we put the money saved on Betts and Price (about 40-45 mil a year over a 3 year span) on guys such as Kike and other FAs while getting under the penalty threshold.

I still think Betts wanted to move on and when you have only one year left on a deal it’s hard to get the prospect capital you want. Especially when you staple a 45 million bill to Betts before sending him west.

 

[HuskyHawk]

The Sox just DFA'd Jeter Downs. It's a sad, sad, situation. And it's getting more and more absurd.

As Lou Merloni pointed out, the worst part was doing this now. They could have done this sooner and protected one of the guys lost in the Ruse 5 draft. There are several middle infielders better than Downs in the minors.

 

[Waquoit]

Keep in mind tbe trade was verdugo, downs, and wong for Betts and the Dodgers taking 45 million of prices deal off our hands.

I’m assuming we put the money saved on Betts and Price (about 40-45 mil a year over a 3 year span) on guys such as Kike and other FAs while getting under the penalty threshold.

I still think Betts wanted to move on and when you have only one year left on a deal it’s hard to get the prospect capital you want. Especially when you staple a 45 million bill to Betts before sending him west.

The bottom line is the bottom line. His moves created a last place team. He gets rid of talent and brings in stiffs. The Dodgers offered better "prospect capital", Bloom wanted Downs. I know you don't want to believe this but your hero is a total fraud. A hack.

 

[The Viking]

Well I wouldn’t call him my hero yet. I just try to look at the big picture here. He did put together a team that was two games from the World Series. Considering he’s been in tear down and build up mode since he got here that’s not bad.

Are you saying you wanted graterol instead of Downs and Wong? I could see that. Graterol had a nice bounce back year last year after a blah 2021. I’d still like to see Wong on the team next year as a backup to get a larger sample size before we throw him out the door.

Getting Verdugo in the deal looked really good during 2020 but he’s taken a step back the last two years. If he had just had a slight uptick the last two years I don’t think people could complain much about the trade.

Actually let me take that back there will always be people who rip the Red Sox for trading him despite the fact they offered him a boatload to stay. Like I said they were in a tough spot with only a year left, you’re not gonna get a great haul.

 

[Waquoit]

Well I wouldn’t call him my hero yet. I just try to look at the big picture here. He did put together a team that was two games from the World Series. Considering he’s been in tear down and build up mode since he got here that’s not bad.

You mean that "magical year" that was sandwiched between two years in the cellar? I'm sorry but 4 rings in 18 years has redefined magical for me. Two games from the WS is another way of saying getting clobbered in the ALCS. And they only made it that far because they got to play the Yankees. It holds a much weight as Diaco making a bowl game.

But if you are truly looking at the big picture you would be sick to your stomach. Bloom gets rid of stars and doesn't even get replacement-level talent in return. Three out of the Top 11 players picked up in the Rule 5 Draft were from Boston. Why is a lousy team getting poached, are the other three teams wrong? And speaking of wrong, Wong is only still with the Sox for face saving reasons.

Worst of all, he is putting all his chips on his "evaluations" which comically (tragically) have a "different modality" than others according to Scott Boras. That's why Boras took his first offer for Masataka (pretty much double the CW) and stopped taking his calls for Bogie. It's why he spent $140M for free agent bust Trevor Story. Bloom had him evaluated at $200M. It's been years of this, it's not going to change. Maybe the worst thing is the way he treated Bogie was crap, players with options don't want to deal with that. Even Story had buyers remorse. But isn't ironic that the one thing that could help save his bacon this year is if Chris Sale comes back strong. A big money signing made by the guy he shades whenever he can.

Rooting for the Sox is just like rooting for UConn FB under HCRE 2.0. You know they're led by a hack and one is filled with mixed emotions.

 

[nomar]

I don't really understand what's going on here. What's the plan?

I like the Yoshida signing but otherwise it looks like Bloom DGAF about winning games. He knows he's not in Tampa, right?

 

[nomar]

Well I wouldn’t call him my hero yet. I just try to look at the big picture here. He did put together a team that was two games from the World Series. Considering he’s been in tear down and build up mode since he got here that’s not bad.

Are you saying you wanted graterol instead of Downs and Wong? I could see that. Graterol had a nice bounce back year last year after a blah 2021. I’d still like to see Wong on the team next year as a backup to get a larger sample size before we throw him out the door.

Getting Verdugo in the deal looked really good during 2020 but he’s taken a step back the last two years. If he had just had a slight uptick the last two years I don’t think people could complain much about the trade.

Actually let me take that back there will always be people who rip the Red Sox for trading him despite the fact they offered him a boatload to stay. Like I said they were in a tough spot with only a year left, you’re not gonna get a great haul.

Everything a big-market team like the Sox does in terms of drafting, player development, etc. is all done with the primary purpose of being able to throw everything at a smaller market team to acquire someone like Mookie Betts. I know all the tax reasons why they believed they needed to move him but they should have never been in the situation where they couldn't re-sign one of the most talented players to ever wear the uniform. Whether they could have gotten more is all 20/20 hindsight criticism from arm chair GMs and to me besides the point. Letting a generational player get away from a team that has always opened the vault to sign free agents is just mindboggling. And now that we avoided the penalty, where the hell are we? Why are we getting outbid on everyone decent? Bizarre.

(For the records, the Padres overpaid for Bogaerts. These long term deals to 30-year-olds are stupid.)

 

[The Viking]

I mean the Sox did offer him 300 mil I thought and he said no because he was hellbent on free agency.
He only signed the extension with the Dodgers when Covid thru the entire finances of MLB into a tailspin and his agent may have told him to take the money now while you can with all the uncertainty going on

 

[The Viking]

Dombrowski tried several times to sign him and then pivoted to giving extensions to Bogaerts and Sale after being rebuffed several times.
That’s why I can’t take any notion seriously that Sox ownership didnt try to keep Mookie here.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Dombrowski tried several times to sign him and then pivoted to giving extensions to Bogaerts and Sale after being rebuffed several times.
That’s why I can’t take any notion seriously that Sox ownership didnt try to keep Mookie here.

They tried with Mookie. With Bogaerts they simply lowballed him and didn’t judge the market. Not one of the big name SS signed this off-season is really great in all phases, yet they got huge paydays. Bogaerts was probably best all around.

Evidently they are far apart with Devers. To @Nomar’s point, this isn’t Tampa. But I don’t mind trading guys like Tampa did, if you turn them into stud prospects who pan out. That’s the Tampa model. Honestly, if Devers won’t sign, trade him. Should have traded Bogaerts.