Thanks
@JM3, you (and
@chawson, I wasn't trying to dump on anyone) are both certainly people I consider far more mathematically and statistically intelligent than I am, buy multiple degrees.
That is the point I was trying to make on Bloom, I'm really not trying to dump on results. I'm complaining about the process that yielded those results.
Serious question about those IFA expenditures - how big are they relative to what other teams spend. IF that is a ton more money than others spent, I'll shut up. On a very quick look, I found this about just the '21-'22 class (Arias and Vaquero) and see the Pads giving Susana $1.7m and Salazar $500k; the Dodgers giving Morales $1.2m (I think); the Angels giving Encarnacion $500k; the Astros giving Espinosa $480k; the Pirates giving Rosa $700k and Chang $500k; the Dbacks giving Fuerte $450k and the Rockies giving Vargas $500k.
https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-international-prospects-signing-day-2021-22
So in one signing period you had 7 teams give someone more than Bloom gave anyone in 4 years. I understand that different bonus pools apply and the like, but Bloom spend basically nothing (IFA money, draft capital, trade assets, legit FA contracts) to starting pitching, at least not that I can think of.
I get that
@simplicio - I was simply refuting they needed to spend huge FA sums or the only thing they could have possibly done was to sign Kevin Gausman, so I felt it was important to illustrate that not only did the Red Sox not spend big FA money on pitching for 4 years (so if one wants to blame ownership for that, fine) but they also consistently didn't spend high draft picks, large sums of IFA money (listed above), nor trade assets, nor even relative short term mid tier deals to pitching. They at least ostensibly tried last off-season (Eflin and lets say "half credit" for offering Eovaldi, but then not giving him the money when he came back to them they lose half credit, at least in my opinion). I see no way to blame the non FA mega deals on ownership, but someone else might.
When (beyond a short term approach) you don't spend FA dollars, nor IFA dollars, nor draft picks, nor trade assets to be "at the top" in terms of acquiring starting pitching, it shouldn't be a surprise that your pitching stinks and in a game where the defense controls the ball, I find starting pitching a very odd thing to decide that you can cheap out on - at all levels of the organization.
To be clear - I don't think Breslow will do this. I think he was hired NOT to do this. Nothing up to this point of the off-season leads me to think he will do this so I'm really not at all upset that things haven't happened yet. When SPs start coming off the board, we'll see.
But if he does, I'll criticize him for it the way I did Bloom. If he does and he STILL manages to win, I'll also be happy to admit I was wrong. I'm wrong a lot, I have no problem saying it (see Martin, Chris).