Originally Posted by
moonslav59
This team has been bad- no doubt, at least when compared to top teams like the AL East is stacked with plus Houston.
I guess I don't see what any tiny bit of optimism needs to be squashed, immediately and thoroughly.
Did anyone really expect the farm system to be fully re-stocked in a year?
Worse, does anyone think a re built farm should start infusing players onto the b ig club year one?
We are now seeing the results of the farm built 3-6 years ago. Houck, Dalbec, Crawford, and recently Bello. Whitlock, Wink and recently German are the first Bloom "prospects" to come into the bigs, and they had to be acquired by trade or Rule 5 to get here so quickly.
Years of low draft picks, penalties due to cheating and trading away a large chunk of the farm has come full circle. Expecting miracles is not realistic.
Some seem to think the solution is to repeat the cycle, again. Trade promising prospects to get back to the glory days of 2026-2018. Some think JH has to just change his formula, which has brought us more rings than any point in Sox history over the last 100 years. All he has to do is spend more- maybe way more.
Some think some sort of combination is needed, or that Bloom has to hit on 80-90% of his expenditures and additions, something I'm thinking no GM has ever done.
This team is bad. There is no sugar coating that. I've watched the Astros more, this year, than ever before. It's easy to see we are far from their level. That being said, I don't think we are quite as bad as many feel we are or as our record indicates. We play the toughest schedule in MLB and are 18th in W-L%. We are a half game behind MN for 17th and 1.5 behind SFG for 16th. We are 3.5 games behind being in the top half of the league (CWS.) That's really not horrific, but it's scary when you figure we are on the cusp of losing some key players from those glory years: Bogey, Nate, JD and possibly Devers, the following season.
I'm frustrated, too. I'm disappointed, too. I had much higher hopes for this team than they showed us. The massive injuries in key areas, like pitching, CF and 2B, seemingly all at once, taxed a system not yet deep enough to handle that strain. I still expected better, and I was probably unrealistic, too. Many of us were fooled by 2021's promise. We took that team and added Wacha, Schreiber, Refsnyder, Strahm and Hill, but somehow got worse.
The JBJ trade hurt like hell, and to some, outweighed the gains by Wacha and the others I just listed. I hated the deal from the first second it was done. Many did. More mistakes were made than just that one, and Bloom and Cora deserve to be called out on each and every one. There is a lengthy list of grievances that are worthy of criticism- some more so than others, but in my opinion the main priority Bloom and Cora were given- was to rebuild the system- bottom up, while trying to maintain the perception and reality of being a somewhat competitive team. They failed in 2020, which was certainly understandable, given the budget JH laid on Bloom and Sale & ERod missing the whole season. They failed in 2022, when most of us have been expecting steady improvement from year-to year.
Should we have? I think the vast majority of Sox fans, think yes, especially when the budget has been increasing since 2020's low point. I don't disagree, but I also see context is needed. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, here are just some of the significant contexts involved:
1. Aging stars in decline, but hard to trade or be given lesser roles.
2. A limited budget weighed down by pre-Bloom heft contracts giving back litte to no returns.
3. A homegrown farm that has given us just Houck, Dalbec and Crawford, since DD departed. A farm that, other than (big) maybe Bello, Mata and German, may not give us much in 2024, either.
4. A spate of injuries that defied anyone's worst expectations, and seemingly, all at once.
5. The rise of divisional foes that outpaced and rise we might have shown, had we been in another division. The O's have proven the are for real. The Jays did not reach expectations, but they have built up, mostly by costly additions, but certainly a lot of home grown talent, that were acquired through the drafts and IFA 3-6 years ago, I might add. They Rays remain the Rays, and the Yanks became a juggernaut for much of the season.
6. Expected continuation or improvements from pre-prime and prime players failed to materialize. Bogey, Devers and Vaz improved or stayed about the same as 2023, but nearly everyone else declined- some by a ton, an d not just because of missed time due to injuries- many sucked when healthy, too.
Plawecki was never great on offense, but he dropped over 150 points in OPS *0 from career).
Dalbec dropped over 150 points from 2021 and his career mark before '22.
JD dropped 100 points from '21 and 150 from his previous 4 yrs w BOS.
Dugo dropped 40 points from 2021 and 60 from his previous career mark.
The RBI drops by Bogey and JD, when we really needed more, hurt, too.
While Cordero & Arroyo may have done better off the bench than before, it wasn't enough.
Nate dropped off.
Barnes dropped off.
Whitlock and Houck did fine, but injuries and other factors negated any gains.
Sawamura, Davis and Robles declined so much, they are no longer here.
Sale was Sale, again.
It was a major confluence of bad luck and bad play that seemed to feed off each other, giving us one of the worst seasons, based on prior expectations since 2019- maybe even more than 2019.
I'm not happy at all with the 2022 Sox, but I do think there is reason to be optimistic going forward. The farm looks stronger- much stronger. The 40 man roster is much deeper than 2020 and even 2021. Yes, we lose some key players, but we also lose Price's money and should be able to improve on JD's 2022 numbers with his $22M. It won't be easy to replace the pre-2022 Nate, but $17M should be able to more than replace the 2022 Nate.
Replacing Wacha, Bogey and even Hill and Strahm at their contractual levels will be harder and the key to our hopes in 2024. Bringing Bogey back just keeps us even, and maybe for a just a couple more years, before he may start declining. Brining Wacha back will cost way more and may not get us the same 2022 results.
It's not going to be an easy off season for Bloom & Co, but he should have a budget nearly double anyone he has had to date (counting the Kike extension.)
I'm cautiously optimistic we will reach glory again. Hopefully in 2023 but more likely afterwards.