That's what I'm hoping anyhow. This season turned from farce to tragedy yesterday with the loss of a beloved player in Wakefield. What a downer to the end of a downer of a season. I can't take away too many positives although the emergence of Duran and Casas are highlights. Bello has promise. Abreu and Rafaela have some great raw talent. That's about it.
Where do they go? Who makes decisions now until they have a President of Baseball Ops? How much of a housecleaning can we expect? They should be making a list today of the players they want to get and who they want to move. They have Devers and Yoshida locked in and both are defensive liabilities. Will they prioritize defense in terms of talent and coaching?
So many gaps, including in leadership, and the clock is running.
Yeah, it was a horrible way to bring on the last day of another bad season. RIP
sigh
A press conference today with Cora and Kennedy. Blah, Blah, Blah, as you would expect.
Cora: Yeah, we need pitching, but we also need defense.
Kennedy: (on the CBO president) we have no qualifications for the person we are looking for. (Huh, I can imagine that the wheels are turning) iono
I heard today something along the lines of we don't know what the role is and we may hire multiple people. Maybe they'll have VP for every position or something. All I know is there were too many cooks, they reshuffled some of them and want to add more to the mix. What a mess. They need a baseball guy running the show. Period. Not more "ops" guys all weighing in on analytics. Team management by committee is a recipe for disaster.
Henry is disinterested in the Red Sox. He is only interested in expanding his FSG Empire. He has left day to day operations in the hands of a collective. This collective despised Dave Dombrowski and they got rid of him. It has been down hill since.
Does anyone really expect these guys to change?
I read the last couple of posts and that song from a Neil Young song came to mind again. "Thinking about what a friend had said, I was hoping it was a lie."
From MLB.com Red Sox page. Kennedy -
Quote
“I want to make sure everyone understands that this is going to be a much different process than the last time we had a change of leadership. And what I mean by that is we plan to take our time, plan to be very deliberate. We're going to have internal candidates. We're going to have external candidates. We're going to have a consistent, robust process that hopefully leads us to the right person or people.â€
Deliberate and robust in one blurb notwithstanding, the whole "person or people" bit was too scary a thought. That's when it hit me. Kennedy thought he was about to be a partner to Dombrowski for that stretch, but was told just before going to the airport to pick DD up that it was going to be DD's show. I suspect Kennedy might have been dreaming of what a co-OPS position would have been like.
Then also to hit me was Bloom's Deliberate nature. Just how much of that trait was already, and remains, in place right now? Chilling to even think about.
Quote from: longgame on October 03, 2023, 08:27:06 AM
I heard today something along the lines of we don't know what the role is and we may hire multiple people. Maybe they'll have VP for every position or something. All I know is there were too many cooks, they reshuffled some of them and want to add more to the mix. What a mess. They need a baseball guy running the show. Period. Not more "ops" guys all weighing in on analytics. Team management by committee is a recipe for disaster.
That was the recipe this year and already it appears that the powers-that-be in the Red Sox organization hasn't learned a damn thing from the disaster they wrought.
The strong AL East! All the time I thought the Sox played big time competition. Tampa folded in their game against Rangers. 4-1. And the Rays resembled the Sox on defense with four errors, and looked awful in front one of the fewest fans turnout in playoff history. The Jays also succumbed to Twins 3-1. Surely the O's will have more clout than those clowns.
Quote from: Sea Dog 23 on October 04, 2023, 06:36:50 AM
The strong AL East! All the time I thought the Sox played big time competition. Tampa folded in their game against Rangers. 4-1. And the Rays resembled the Sox on defense with four errors, and looked awful in front one of the fewest fans turnout in playoff history. The Jays also succumbed to Twins 3-1. Surely the O's will have more clout than those clowns.
I saw a few innings of the Twins game and the entire Phillies game. I missed the Rays game. I just now looked at the numbers. 19,704 for a playoff game is not just a joke, but a sign. That sign is do not Invest in the St Petersburg area. To the Rays' owners, do not spend $700M on a
30,000 seat stadium. County and City each will pony up $300M, but the land is to be leased by the county to the city and sublet to the Rays. Oh, and the Rays are responsible for construction over-runs. It's a cornerstone piece in the $6B renovation of the bad side of town called the Historic Gas Light District.
Tampa voted it down. No idea who else voted it down. Why they latch on to some of these low support towns ins beyond me. I know the big picture means no moving makes the other low-$$ towns look stable, but this is absurd.
On the opposite side of the world, the Twins had a huge and LOUD crowd. Almost seemed surreal to hear that place rock each time the Twins did something good.
Happy to see the Twins finally win a playoff game. I wouldn’t mind at all to see the Jays and Rays be gone today.
Mongo, one of the Canes owners wants to bring MLB to NC. I still think a team here would struggle on those hot summer nights playing a bad team.
Quote from: longgame on October 04, 2023, 07:35:27 AM
Happy to see the Twins finally win a playoff game. I wouldn’t mind at all to see the Jays and Rays be gone today.
Mongo, one of the Canes owners wants to bring MLB to NC. I still think a team here would struggle on those hot summer nights playing a bad team.
I agree. I don't think Atlanta would want a team here as it's part of their territory. That aside, we've done well with the Hurricanes drawing 18k per night, albeit during a good stretch of seasons. 41 home games.
Hot nights, yes, but it's doable. Atlanta pulls it off in outdoor stadiums at temps on par with ours. Going to Bulls and Mud Cats games was never an issue from a fan's perspective. Playing in this weather isn't so horrible. It would have been for us out of shape Sr Leaguers if it was every day for the entire Summer. We even played Sr ball throughout the Summer, though the July and August games were reduced to maybe half of what we played in April, May and June. That was only 22-24 games per year(IIRC) games per year, though. Gatorade and a week of day jobs gave me plenty of time to recoup. Oh to be 40 again. (sigh)
The Rays are done, from appearances. Eflin and his $13 mil couldn't withstand the Rangers big bats. Rays were sloppy, Margot's misplay in center, RF seemed out of position on a single, Mead at 2B with a muff, and their catcher again can't handle the ball. And for a club that started 13-0, I think they lost their last seven. Meanwhile old friend Nathan is pitching his best game since a return from injury.
The fat lady hasn't sung, but these guys look headed to Baltimore.
Eovaldi shut down the Rays. Wish we had pitchers like him, oh!!!!!
Twins up 2-0 in the 7th too. Happy to see the Rays go. Don’t care so much for Toronto.
Twins shut out the Jays. I didn't hear the reasoning why they pulled Berrios so early. He did give up a run, but the guy was bringing it, and getting K's. Duran was throwing up a 101+ heater in the 9th. Did the Jays score at all in this series?
Looking at the Phils - Marlins series from last night, as it relates to Boston's search for an OPS person. There are two names that keep coming up, Fuld of Phila. and Ng of Miami. Would Sox entertain Fuld? He is now a disciple of Dombrowski. That group has put together a really good collection of pitching and clutch hitters - at a price.
OTOH Kim Ng of Miami has had a couple years to put together some good pitching with enough depth that they were able to do some trading at the deadline (Lozario) But the hitting has been a slow project. I think they scored one run in this series.
The old school baseball people would go for Fuld, former player, although he is steeped in analytics. But I think Ng could have the inside track because Boston might be looking for an experiment type Ops person. With all the talking heads in the crowded room, she could get everyone's attention coming from a different point of view. Also recently with the MF Yankees, which should cause some bile.
Quote from: Sea Dog 23 on October 04, 2023, 06:37:01 PM
Twins shut out the Jays. I didn't hear the reasoning why they pulled Berrios so early. He did give up a run, but the guy was bringing it, and getting K's. Duran was throwing up a 101+ heater in the 9th. Did the Jays score at all in this series?
Game planning based on analytics of course. They thought they’d be better bringing in fresh arms rather than wait until Berrios wore down. Really dumb. They got out managed by themselves.
The D-Backs closed out Brewers in Milwaukee. During the week Arizona said they would not allow Hazen to speak with Boston and extended his contract. To add to that protection, Hazen's assistant general manager Amiel Sawdaye, who followed him from Boston to Arizona, also received an extension to remain with the Diamondbacks.
I believe Hazen said he had no interest in the Red Sox job in any case. Why would he? I think he is dealing with a more practical ownership there then he would in Boston.
Quote from: longgame on October 05, 2023, 07:40:50 AM
Quote from: Sea Dog 23 on October 04, 2023, 06:37:01 PM
Twins shut out the Jays. I didn't hear the reasoning why they pulled Berrios so early. He did give up a run, but the guy was bringing it, and getting K's. Duran was throwing up a 101+ heater in the 9th. Did the Jays score at all in this series?
Game planning based on analytics of course. They thought they’d be better bringing in fresh arms rather than wait until Berrios wore down. Really dumb. They got out managed by themselves.
According to a article I read, it was a pure analytics thing. Pre-determined by the Jay's front office and Manager. They were going after the Rangers' platoon heavy hitting. It didn't work. it's a different reasoning than with Cash yanking Snell against the Dodgers in 2020, but it still fits the analytics blowing it big time mold. It will be talked about.
So, too, will the Jays offensive strategy. That's something they will have to figure out.
Good pitching wins.
Do the first 4 series are over. 8 games played, only one game had both starters not clear the 5th. 6 of the other 7 games were won by starters who had pitched well and did so at least into the 6th inning. 5 Quality Starts. Teams went 5-0. Gray went 5 for a win and was probably ready to come out. Lopez, also for the twins was the other good start who did not complete 6, but did go 5.2 IP and won.