Talkin' Baseball wrote: ↑08 Nov 2025 18:30 pm
Carp4Cy wrote: ↑08 Nov 2025 18:22 pm
Talkin' Baseball wrote: ↑08 Nov 2025 18:11 pm
I think it will work. For those who need immediate results this will be a very unpleasant experience. I don't expect every move to work out, but I do think the process will work. There is competence in the building.
Sure something will work sooner or later. The law of large numbers pretty much guarantees that.
I just think if we had both an owner who was willing to spend both smartly and aggressively and a pobo who could invest wisely while also building up the scouting and development system, we might shave years off of that turnaround time and avoid some missed opportunities in the meantime.
I think they will do this. We will end up quibbling about how aggressive is aggressive enough, but I believe it will be much better there is an order of operations at play here, and spending aggressively isn't first on the list.
I seems like we often disagree with our posts about how to approach things, but I respect your point of view. I am honestly interested in your opinion on something here- How long do you think it WILL take, and how long do you think it SHOULD take to get to this turnaround we talk about?
Thanks. Good questions. BTW - I hate this website. Just when I've typed up a thoughtful answer, and submit, I get logged out and lose it. So here goes v2.
How long will it take depends on what Bloom actually does, and on somewhat on luck. Best case - almost any roster can surprise, and if JJW plus others are given the chance and produce, and IF we are on pace to reach the playoffs at the deadline, I hope that Bloom will make some accretive moves and not stubbornly stick to some preset plan and sell off the 1 year contract SPs for prospects at the deadline again to some other "more deserving" team. Be ready to respond to what happens, if prospect succeed, then accelerate the rest of the build. And if prospects and others fail, then be ready to move on to the next thing and learn to evaluate talent faster than 4 years of mostly bad experience like Gorman.
If Bloom surprises some here and takes a middle ground in going after a few proven performers at the MLB level, I think it might not take that long. But if we do nothing but try to develop until the home grown players win on their own, we might flounder until we change strategies...or ownership.
I also feel strongly that retaining Oli and his staff is a liability at the MLB level. He might be OK at best, but we need a top 5 staff at the MLB level in player development, and this isn't it. Bloom has focused entirely on the minors for 2 years, now he needs to ensure we are getting top notch development at BOTH the majors and minors levels.
Meanwhile how long should it take? We've gotten out from under most of the really bad contract and the really old guys - Yadi, even Wainwright, Goldy, Mikolas, Fedde, others are history. And some of that was painful. So I feel like we deserve some kind of reward and reinvestment for that longsuffering to date. Contreras is Not a bad contact. Gray is expensive, but he does win games. Both could be keepers on a team that wants to win. Add in JJW, Maybe Hererra stays healthy and shows up at C, or maybe Crooks takes a step forward or Bernal promotes at some point. Then there's Mcgreevy and Libby. And hopefully the beginning of a bullpen. Maybe even Matthews depending on ST. We need a lot of other moves but some could be lateral. Bottom line - that's something of a core to build around for 2026 with more help on the way from the minors AND its already a drastically reduced commited payroll vs recent years. So if Ownership were willing to restore payroll to 180-200M range, and spent wisely - that would necessarily add a Significant level of additional proven talent, which Bloom could strategically direct to positions of need - more SPs, OF, and so on. All this taken together means we could realistically compete for the playoffs in 2026 with our payroll restored and the right moves made, and it wouldn't need to cost us the best pieces of our future either. Intrigingly, the Donovan for Gore (or someone similar) trade idea seems like one that could catapult our roster forward by 1 or more additional producers - if JJW can replace Donny at 2b and if we can also pickup a natural LF bat from FA or another trade. So we lose Donny, but gain JJW, a SP, and a LF, and commit to an additional mid-level contract. And we would still have more resources to spend before reaching anywhere close to 180M. There is a feasible path and it won't cost us our future. Just costs some smart $.
Now, I don't expect that even the best ideas executed by a genius POBO gets us to the WS in 2026. But IMO, even getting to the playoffs is a good goal. Playing October games gets this roster Valuable playoff experience. And whether we make it to the playoffs in 26 or not until 2030, I don't expect us to have real success in October until we have 1 or more likely several years of actual playoff experience under our belts. (So lets get that clock started). And also not until we upgrade some or all of the coaching/managerial staff.
