I appreciate the objective analysis of what Bloom has done, it's fair and I largely agree with your points. And I was hopeful that Bloom would embrace the Dodgers/Friedman model over the pure TB experience, but 2+ years in it seems like we're more TB and less LA; in the early years Friedman and the Dodgers ownership weren't afraid to deploy their most valuable asset - money - in service of building and sustaining a championship-level team.
This is partly a criticism on ownership as well, but it seems the approach at Fenway is to aim for the intersection of wins and the best return on investment/value, rather than just The Most Wins.
This approach takes away one of the biggest advantages the Red Sox have, the financial resources to sign players (and star players), and absorb a bad contract on occasion in service of a Championship-caliber team each year. Dombrowski and Cherrington represent the far ends of the spectrum, respectively, and I fear Bloom and this current philosophy from ownership fall closer to the Cherrington end, rather than somewhere in the middle, like the Dodgers, Yankees, and Padres do. All three teams have substantial payrolls and investments in top-end talent, while also having at least one prospect in the top 50.
Perhaps Bloom and ownership are waiting for JD, Eovaldi, etc. to come off the books after this season before spending again, which to an extent is understandable, but there is little excuse for the Red Sox to ever be in last place. And if the team being in last place is because of injuries or player under-performance, it's a reflection of a flawed roster that had little-to-no margin for error. Franchy, Dalbec, JBJ, and Duran should not be on the Red Sox roster, let alone everyday "contributors," these are below replacement level players.
All of this is to say I think Bloom can be successful here, and hope that he is, but it's becoming increasingly hard to like this team, the organizational leadership, and the direction it's heading this year.
You're spot on that the Red Sox should never be in last place. I'm a season ticket holder, paying the most expensive tickets in baseball, and take offense to the product they've put out recently.
Those early Dodgers years, 2013-15, is the ideal version of how the '21-'22 Sox should've played out. It kinda worked in '21. This year has been a disaster. I'd have to conduct a deeper analysis to see how accurate my comp is of those early LA years. Maybe they had more talent at the time than I'm remembering.
Anyways, I agree that the spending has been an issue so far. The total spending has been on the accumulation of Kiké/Diekman/Hill/Wacha/Richards/M. Perez types over more meaningful stars. And I think Bloom just hasn't hit on enough of those types.
Will he spend eventually? I have to assume yes. And that's where the next 6 months come into play. What does he do with the trade deadline, Bogaerts, and Devers? Who else does he bring in? The fans are short on patience. Ownership has been short on patience in the past (see Cherington firing) but my hunch is that they're going to give Bloom a tad longer than the fans will.
Again, the next 6 months are everything. Let's see where we're at one year from today!
I appreciate the objective analysis of what Bloom has done, it's fair and I largely agree with your points. And I was hopeful that Bloom would embrace the Dodgers/Friedman model over the pure TB experience, but 2+ years in it seems like we're more TB and less LA; in the early years Friedman and the Dodgers ownership weren't afraid to deploy their most valuable asset - money - in service of building and sustaining a championship-level team.
This is partly a criticism on ownership as well, but it seems the approach at Fenway is to aim for the intersection of wins and the best return on investment/value, rather than just The Most Wins.
This approach takes away one of the biggest advantages the Red Sox have, the financial resources to sign players (and star players), and absorb a bad contract on occasion in service of a Championship-caliber team each year. Dombrowski and Cherrington represent the far ends of the spectrum, respectively, and I fear Bloom and this current philosophy from ownership fall closer to the Cherrington end, rather than somewhere in the middle, like the Dodgers, Yankees, and Padres do. All three teams have substantial payrolls and investments in top-end talent, while also having at least one prospect in the top 50.
Perhaps Bloom and ownership are waiting for JD, Eovaldi, etc. to come off the books after this season before spending again, which to an extent is understandable, but there is little excuse for the Red Sox to ever be in last place. And if the team being in last place is because of injuries or player under-performance, it's a reflection of a flawed roster that had little-to-no margin for error. Franchy, Dalbec, JBJ, and Duran should not be on the Red Sox roster, let alone everyday "contributors," these are below replacement level players.
All of this is to say I think Bloom can be successful here, and hope that he is, but it's becoming increasingly hard to like this team, the organizational leadership, and the direction it's heading this year.
Appreciate the comment, jbona3!
You're spot on that the Red Sox should never be in last place. I'm a season ticket holder, paying the most expensive tickets in baseball, and take offense to the product they've put out recently.
Those early Dodgers years, 2013-15, is the ideal version of how the '21-'22 Sox should've played out. It kinda worked in '21. This year has been a disaster. I'd have to conduct a deeper analysis to see how accurate my comp is of those early LA years. Maybe they had more talent at the time than I'm remembering.
Anyways, I agree that the spending has been an issue so far. The total spending has been on the accumulation of Kiké/Diekman/Hill/Wacha/Richards/M. Perez types over more meaningful stars. And I think Bloom just hasn't hit on enough of those types.
Will he spend eventually? I have to assume yes. And that's where the next 6 months come into play. What does he do with the trade deadline, Bogaerts, and Devers? Who else does he bring in? The fans are short on patience. Ownership has been short on patience in the past (see Cherington firing) but my hunch is that they're going to give Bloom a tad longer than the fans will.
Again, the next 6 months are everything. Let's see where we're at one year from today!