We will be much happier a year from now, as long as we aren't expecting another WS ring in Boston. The team will not finish in the basement, and there will be some serious bright spots throughout the roster. There are going to be one or two big signings this offseason, and I expect one serious trade sometime during the year...not necessarily a buy.

I expect Bloom to follow a similar path to Friedman in LA in his early tenure. In his second offseason, he went out and signed Maeda and Kazmir. Other than that, it was mostly fringe moves that worked out with solid role players. I think Bloom will do much of the same thing. He will probably sign two pitchers, one of which could be a "splash". I think the biggest names he would sign might actually be in the pen, and there should be two of them at the least.

At the end of the season, I think we'll see solid all around production, and people will be very happy with the LF platoon of Benintendi and Renfroe. Sale and ERod will both return, and one of them will pitch to his career norms...the other will struggle. There will be good contributions from Houck and Pivetta, and one of them will prove to be a top three candidate moving forward, while the other will be a back end of the rotation type. Dalbec will continue to mash and strikeout, but he'll do well with his OBP. Devers will have his share of errors in the field, prompting the calls to move him to DH, though a Martinez resurgence will make that a tough sell until the deadline when he is moved for prospects, leading to fans calling for Bloom's head. Barnes will do very well, as he won't be the closer after a couple of signings, but Hernandez is going to be the one to have a breakout season in the Pen. One of the top all around players on the team will be Verdugo, quelling some of the Betts trade heartache.

The team is going to be good, if not great, everywhere, and will be in playoff contention until the end of the season. It's going to be a quality year, pointing the team in the right direction, and giving us all hope.