2023 Red Sox Season Thread

[byennie]

Is it as simple as the owners spread themselves too thin financially? Why has this change in strategy happened? They went from a top 5 spender to a middle of the road team.

I would get it if they went full tilt at building a farm system, but they didn't. Marcelo Mayer was supposed to be the guy and he's hitting .189 in Portland. Rafaela, Nick Yorke, and Blaze Jordan are interesting, but no sure things. I think Bello is the only young pitcher I like on the squad.

Are the Red Sox resting on their laurels? Neither the big show nor the farm system seem to be flourishing or developing.

I have to disagree about the farm system. If the major league roster wasn't so disappointing, it would be looked at as a huge success.

Duran, Casas and Bello all emerged this year as everyday players. Wong is starter quality as well. That's 4 young starters that just graduated.

Then you have Mayer (top-10 prospect in all of baseball who had two bad months nursing a bad shoulder, he has less than 200 games above high school level and already at AA). Rafaela (looks like an everyday player with his defense), Teel (batting .357 at AA in his first pro season), Anthony (reached AA at age 19), Yorke (#8 prospect at 2B). Throw in Bleis as a high upside guy who got hurt.

That's wayyyyy more minor league talent than Boston has had in a long time, with 4 recent grads contributing heavily. Duran, Casas and Bello are already better than most top-50 prospects in the minors will become.

The problem is that the major league roster is a total embarrassment. The amount of money we've blown on Sale-Kluber-Jansen-Martin-Story ($70M/year) is hard to recover from. So you've spent $70M for basically replacement level play. Then you've got $35M/year for Yoshida and Devers, two guys with OPS in the .800s and poor defenders.

I cringe to imagine what our record would be if Casas, Duran, Wong and Bello didn't break out this year, or Devers/Turner/Yoshida weren't healthy.

[Vermont Green]

Yes, the season has basically taken a dive in the last few weeks.  They made something of a run a few weeks back, got close to 10 games over 0.500, but then the reality of their embarrassingly poor starting pitching set in.  It really isn't complicated what the problem is.  The line up is fine, they are scoring runs generally.  I guess the defense and sometimes base running has not been great, but that is not the problem.  And sometimes the bullpen looks really thin but that is due mostly being overworked due to poor starting pitching.

Going into the season, you looked at (or at least I looked at) Pivetta, Kluber, Sale, and Paxton and you realize that it is not a good rotation but maybe it could be OK.  Yes there were young pitchers like Bello and Whitlock and Houck that you hoped would fill in but you need your core veteran rotation to do something.  Of those 4 veterans, we got about a half season of decent pitching from Paxton and that was about it.  Frankly it is surprising that the Sox aren't worse.

I agree that the farm system is doing fine, there are decent prospects coming up, but not enough to fix this pitching staff.  They are going to have to go sign some FAs if they want to be better next season, probably over pay.  They don't necessarily need to sign the absolute best, most expensive pitchers, but they are going to have to pay for some solid, reliable starting pitching.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Yes, the season has basically taken a dive in the last few weeks.  They made something of a run a few weeks back, got close to 10 games over 0.500, but then the reality of their embarrassingly poor starting pitching set in.  It really isn't complicated what the problem is.  The line up is fine, they are scoring runs generally.  I guess the defense and sometimes base running has not been great, but that is not the problem.  And sometimes the bullpen looks really thin but that is due mostly being overworked due to poor starting pitching.

Going into the season, you looked at (or at least I looked at) Pivetta, Kluber, Sale, and Paxton and you realize that it is not a good rotation but maybe it could be OK.  Yes there were young pitchers like Bello and Whitlock and Houck that you hoped would fill in but you need your core veteran rotation to do something.  Of those 4 veterans, we got about a half season of decent pitching from Paxton and that was about it.  Frankly it is surprising that the Sox aren't worse.

I agree that the farm system is doing fine, there are decent prospects coming up, but not enough to fix this pitching staff.  They are going to have to go sign some FAs if they want to be better next season, probably over pay.  They don't necessarily need to sign the absolute best, most expensive pitchers, but they are going to have to pay for some solid, reliable starting pitching.

The defense is actually quite bad—tied for the Major League lead in errors. But I agree with you that pitching is the most dire need. As you said, the Sox got about half of a good season from Paxton over the two years of his deal. Sale, Whitlock, and Houck have not been the "internal reinforcements" that Bloom hoped for, and of course Sale has been injured a TON in recent seasons. Pivetta is very inconsistent. Bello is the only guy who looks like he could be a rotation staple in the coming years.

[kraidstar]

Yes, the season has basically taken a dive in the last few weeks.  They made something of a run a few weeks back, got close to 10 games over 0.500, but then the reality of their embarrassingly poor starting pitching set in.  It really isn't complicated what the problem is.  The line up is fine, they are scoring runs generally.  I guess the defense and sometimes base running has not been great, but that is not the problem.  And sometimes the bullpen looks really thin but that is due mostly being overworked due to poor starting pitching.

Going into the season, you looked at (or at least I looked at) Pivetta, Kluber, Sale, and Paxton and you realize that it is not a good rotation but maybe it could be OK.  Yes there were young pitchers like Bello and Whitlock and Houck that you hoped would fill in but you need your core veteran rotation to do something.  Of those 4 veterans, we got about a half season of decent pitching from Paxton and that was about it.  Frankly it is surprising that the Sox aren't worse.

I agree that the farm system is doing fine, there are decent prospects coming up, but not enough to fix this pitching staff.  They are going to have to go sign some FAs if they want to be better next season, probably over pay.  They don't necessarily need to sign the absolute best, most expensive pitchers, but they are going to have to pay for some solid, reliable starting pitching.

Only 4 of our top 20 prospects are pitchers. If we're going to contend any time soon we'll need to sign/trade for some elite guys.

[Donoghus]

Wow.

Jen McCaffrey
@jcmccaffrey
·
1m
Red Sox have announced they’ve fired Chaim Bloom

[Roy H.]

Wow.

Jen McCaffrey
@jcmccaffrey
·
1m
Red Sox have announced they’ve fired Chaim Bloom

There's got to be a scapegoat.  I haven't been all that impressed by Bloom, but I assume it wasn't his decision for one of the richest teams in baseball (ranked 3rd in valuation, 3rd in operating income) to have the 13th highest payroll.  The Yankees are outspending us by $90 million; the Mets by $140 million.

[Redz]

Wow.

Jen McCaffrey
@jcmccaffrey
·
1m
Red Sox have announced they’ve fired Chaim Bloom

There's got to be a scapegoat.  I haven't been all that impressed by Bloom, but I assume it wasn't his decision for one of the richest teams in baseball (ranked 3rd in valuation, 3rd in operating income) to have the 13th highest payroll.  The Yankees are outspending us by $90 million; the Mets by $140 million.

Bye Bye Bloomy

[Donoghus]

Can we get rid of John Henry next?

[SparzWizard]

Wow.

Jen McCaffrey
@jcmccaffrey
·
1m
Red Sox have announced they’ve fired Chaim Bloom

Isn't that good news? Made one of the worst trades/transaction in sending out Mookie Betts, and just wasn't stellar in operations overall.

[Roy H.]

Can we get rid of John Henry next?

Only if he brings Werner with him.

[Donoghus]

Can we get rid of John Henry next?

Only if he brings Werner with him.

It's funny.  Those guys should be revered.  They broke the curse and have won 4 world championships in 20 years. 

Yet, their dealings with players, smear campaigns, inferiority complex over the Patriots,  and using the Globe as a PR machine have turned off nearly every Sox fan.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Bloom certainly made some bad decisions, and I'm glad the team is moving on from him, but I also think he was operating according to John Henry's orders. So it seems that maybe Henry finally heard the fans on this and decided to change tack, using Bloom as the (somewhat-deserving) scapegoat.

[Neurotic Guy]

I'm not a baseball fan, but it's hard to escape Red Sox talk if you listen to or watch any local sports talk.  So, I guess I'm surprised that Bloom is gone so quickly.  Seemed he came hear with a lot of hope for building over time and wasn't given the time he probably thought he'd get.  I understand the impatience, but didn't he have a plan that wasn't to come to fruition until next year or the year after?  If I got that right, how do you commit to long-term planning and then dump a guy when he tries to implement a long-term plan?

[BitterJim]

How many GMs (or Presidents of baseball operations, whatever) have the Red Sox been through in the past couple of decades? Ownership should be embarrassed when you compare it to the Celtics, Patriots, and (I think) Bruins?

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

I'm not a baseball fan, but it's hard to escape Red Sox talk if you listen to or watch any local sports talk.  So, I guess I'm surprised that Bloom is gone so quickly.  Seemed he came hear with a lot of hope for building over time and wasn't given the time he probably thought he'd get.  I understand the impatience, but didn't he have a plan that wasn't to come to fruition until next year or the year after?  If I got that right, how do you commit to long-term planning and then dump a guy when he tries to implement a long-term plan?

I don't know the answer, but based on what I've heard and observed while pretty closely following the team, it seems that ownership may have finally heard enough complaining from the fans, so even though Bloom was pretty much acting according to ownership's wishes, they decided to change course and use Bloom as the (somewhat-justified) scapegoat. Kind of a face-saving move—"Look! We care about winning!"—but I think most fans are aware that Bloom's methods, and the very fact that he was even brought to Boston, were because ownership wanted to take a more spendthrift approach.

IMO, the only big spending they did in the last few years (Story and Devers) were sort of desperation moves—signing Story made it look like they were "actively trying to improve" the team (more like an attempt to quiet the fans); and if, after trading Betts and letting Bogaerts go, they had failed to extend Devers, there might've been a full mutiny by Red Sox nation. There's nothing wrong with building the farm system and doing some things to nurture sustainable long-term success, but mostly the Sox were just being cheapskates in recent years, doing a lot of scrap-heap buying and patchwork moves (the majority of which didn't work out).