Firings at Fenway

[Sea Dog 23]

Gone today are Dave Bush (pitching) and Carlos Febles.  One's departure is well deserved.

Announced for Worcester Paul Abbott (pitching) and Mike Montville (batting) are gone.

[elktonnick]

Both coaches deserve being fired.  Fables was responsible for infield defense I understand.

[Sea Dog 23]

They're also replacing the translator for Yoshida, which apparently did not go smoothly in '23.  All these changes are happening without a baseball ops person.  Makes you think they already have one, who remains unannounced to the Boston media.

[elktonnick]

They fire the coaches but not the manager.  Curious when you consider the argument from Cora supporters who defend him clamming that it is on the players who fail to perform.

[SeaBeachFred]

Both coaches deserve being fired.  Fables was responsible for infield defense I understand.

No argument there.  Both those clowns deserve their ticket being punched.  In four years our pitching was in a constant condition of ineffectiveness.  He just did a shitty job, so why sugarcoat it???? As for Feebles, our infield defense speaks for itself.........and, again, while some of you disagree with me, Devers needs to be taken off third base.  He has not improved there at all; and in fact in many ways looks worse than ever..  DH him and perhaps he can become another Ortiz with a few lesser sails.  And wasn't he the third base coach too?  If he was, I never saw such an inept buffoon leading the runner astray, being a day late and a dollar short both holding them up and very rarely correctly sending them anywhere but to harm's way.  Nothing to see here; good riddance to bad rubbish.

[MongoLikeSox]

The release of Abbott should be good. Instant pitching slumps was to promote a pitcher from Portland to AA the past couole of years. I mean some of these guys too massive dumps after promotions. Walter, Drohan, Murphy, Van Belle and Guerro. I don't know how many of the relievers bombed when they got there besides Guerro. The Outlier? Gambrell pitched well in two starts.

The question that's bugged me this year is how can some AA guys with OK numbers do well if called straight up from there. We've had a couple in decades past, but our guys can't go to Worcester without doubling their ERA.

Bush takes the heat for a crappy pitching system. I wonder how much of that crappy system caused Abott's failure? We'll never know.

All's I know is there never appeared to be coaching in place in between innings like when Betts and JBJ came up. These young kids ain't getting it before they get here. Watching where this all lands should be interesting. 

[elktonnick]

Coachin.g?  What coaching?  Sox players since 2019 are the worst prepared that I can recall in my 70 + years of watching baseball.  They are not schooled in fundamentals.  Pitching? It is all about velocity and spin rate.  Cora can not escape blame.  Since winning in 2018 he has coddled his favorites and been unfair to others.  You all may think I am crazy but I believe he has been harsh with Verdugo because he played for team Mexico in the WBC.  Cora has always shown a bias against players with Mexican or Venezuelan ancestry. IMO.  They speak a more grammatically correct Spanish than those from the DR and Puerto Rico.

[SeaBeachFred]

Coachin.g?  What coaching?  Sox players since 2019 are the worst prepared that I can recall in my 70 + years of watching baseball.  They are not schooled in fundamentals.  Pitching? It is all about velocity and spin rate.  Cora can not escape blame.  Since winning in 2018 he has coddled his favorites and been unfair to others.  You all may think I am crazy but I believe he has been harsh with Verdugo because he played for team Mexico in the WBC.  Cora has always shown a bias against players with Mexican or Venezuelan ancestry. IMO.  They speak a more grammatically correct Spanish than those from the DR and Puerto Rico.

Well whoopy freakin do!!!!!!!!  I might have know that I would find someone who agreed with me on Cora's penchant for playing favorites.  You went the farthest is lampooning him for those traits but I am happy to say a  couple of other colleagues of mine seem to be coming around to that personality trait of  the manager.  Now how can a man like that manage a baseball team when he has those pre conceived biases as he did with Arroyo and now with Verdugo.  And your take on his feelings towards players from Mexico and Venezuela made me think that it seems he does have negative feelings towards those from those locales.  We had better hope he gets his shit  together because I'm afraid he is going to be back with us in 2024 no matter how pissed off we are with his less than effective leadership going back to Sprine Training in 2019.

[MongoLikeSox]

Derek Jeter had an interesting comment tonight in between games that further solidifies just how screwed up the game has become. Jeter was talking about Dusty Baker's decision to leave Christain Javier in the 5th inning after walking 3 to start the inning. He said only 2 Managers in league are even allowed to make that decision.

Joe Maddon had similar parting comments after being fired from the Angels.

My point to all of this is that it's more than just a questionable Manager, and it's more than just a deliberate thinker unable to build a roster because he doesn't understand baseball. These is a baseball-wide indifference to the "small" things that made the game go around for so long, and the Red Sox are worst at it than most. Cora filling up dog houses and over-managing the kids that let him get away with it is the least of our problems.

[Sea Dog 23]

As luck would have it, Tim Hyers chose to leave the Sox two years ago to join the Rangers.  If memory serves, we were an eyelash away from the Series that year.  And look at what the Rangers are doing to the Rays and the O's this postseason!  The new  batting coach guy we got is Fatse, and fans have complained that his batters have made a bad habit of taking call 3rd strikes with bats on their shoulders.

From The Athletic, barring other changes or departures, game-planning coordinator Jason Varitek, hitting coach Pete Fatse, assistant hitting coaches Luis Ortiz and Ben Rosenthal, bench coach Ramon Vazquez, first base/outfielders coach Kyle Hudson, field coordinator Andy Fox and bullpen coach Kevin Walker will return.

[longgame]

I’d replace the entire coaching staff but Febles is a good start.  Bush may have been okay if the Sox could find starters that can go more than 4-5 innings 

So many problems to fix.