Bloom's replacement ?

[Sea Dog 23]

The writers have started.  Tyler Maher in Fansided gives his guesses on Bloom's replacement for OPS officer this off-season.  Three choices, Brian Sabean, Alex Cora, or a promotion from the front office.

Sabean currently works in the Yankees’ front office as an executive advisor to Brian Cashman. Prior to joining New York, Sabean served as the Giants’ general manager from 1997-2014, making him the longest-tenured GM in franchise history.

Sabean was highly successful during that time, assembling three World Series winners in 2010, 2012 and 2014. His team also reached the World Series in 2002, making him one of the most successful GMs in baseball history.

This is exactly the type of person who should be running the Red Sox. An experienced winner who has thrived in big markets, not a wet-behind-the-ears kid like Bloom who’d never run a baseball team before Boston hired him.

Sabean’s track record is even more impressive given that his three championship teams were largely devoid of star players. He excelled at building deep, balanced and cohesive teams that played well together and were greater than the sum of their parts. Based on ownership’s recent aversion to signing star players, Sabean sounds like their type of guy.

[MongoLikeSox]

Has there been a "Kiss of Death" endorsement by ownership recently? Now that I ask that, I can't even remember if there was one after last season's Deadline disaster.

Anyhow, replacement candidates are unknown to me. I've got no idea who even wants a job like that, let alone who's qualified. I never heard of Chaim Bloom before he was hired. I wish I never heard of him now.

The big problem is going to be where are we going to find a baseball man in the current landscape of whiz-kid run front offices? The type of guy we need has been scoffed out of the industry. The one who finds that guy is the one who wins the next round of GM wars.

It might have to be an ex-player, which runs the risk of someone green. That's a better risk than some equation, though. Thank goodness someone had the mindset to not go get Segura or Tim Anderson. Maybe we lucked out with Bloom not able to pull a trigger after all? LOL

A part of me is still in total disbelief that it all got this far. Not just the Red Sox, but baseball in general. Some of it's self perpetuating. The shift is "easily beaten", but only if the opposing manager is allowed to try. Then the press trip over each other racing to submit articles on how archaic a good batting average is. 

[longgame]

Anything else on your mind Mongo?   ;D

It really is a mess though, no matter how you slice it.  It seems to me that the mechanics of this business are pretty straightforward.  You lay out a depth chart, note the years that contracts come up or when guys project to move up.  You look at the performance on each position and figure out a plan for that position.  Clearly things don't always work according to plan, but you need a plan and at that level.  Then it's a matter of watching your pipeline.  Can your #2 guy step up when your #1 goes down?  What are you doing when #1's contract comes up - keep him?  Or trade him and gets some value.  What are your needs at that moment?

Bloom seems to kind of flail about stockpiling players, often injured.  That's a good part of a strategy on teh supply side, but not a strategy in and of itself. There just aren't that many moving parts to a baseball team.  Can you imagine this guy trying to run an actual business or a factory?  Hey Chaim, we need a new CFO. "try Joe from the shop floor, he takes classes at the community college and suckered me out of $5 last week".

I saw an article this morning showing the Sox as one of the potential contenders that are slipping away, just ahead of the worst of them, the Mets. 

[MongoLikeSox]

Anything else on your mind Mongo?   ;D

Yes, but this isn't the time nor place for a jillion word rant on the Real Estate front disaster I'm still dealing for 16 months.

It really is a mess though, no matter how you slice it.  It seems to me that the mechanics of this business are pretty straightforward.  You lay out a depth chart, note the years that contracts come up or when guys project to move up.  You look at the performance on each position and figure out a plan for that position.  Clearly things don't always work according to plan, but you need a plan and at that level.  Then it's a matter of watching your pipeline.  Can your #2 guy step up when your #1 goes down?  What are you doing when #1's contract comes up - keep him?  Or trade him and gets some value.  What are your needs at that moment?

Bloom seems to kind of flail about stockpiling players, often injured.  That's a good part of a strategy on teh supply side, but not a strategy in and of itself. There just aren't that many moving parts to a baseball team.  Can you imagine this guy trying to run an actual business or a factory?  Hey Chaim, we need a new CFO. "try Joe from the shop floor, he takes classes at the community college and suckered me out of $5 last week".

I saw an article this morning showing the Sox as one of the potential contenders that are slipping away, just ahead of the worst of them, the Mets.

I can't imagine the "busy work" factor that goes into his normal work week.

Some of Bloom's supporters scoff at the notion that getting a SS instead of planning on Kike at the end of the season would have been meant much of a difference. Sort of illustrates the difference between knowing how important of a position SS is and how a team's defensive struggles can explode form one guy to many guys. It's like a bull pen that has a couple guys struggling to throw strikes turns into a team-side epidemic. Same for a closer. Once a team is having problems closing games out, the pressure increases on those who try their turns at it.

There's a whole lot of baseball that happens because of the actions of baseball players, and those actions can defy and/or define numbers. More goes into it than fixing problems after the happen. Preventing them matters. As you illustrated, it starts with mapping out the team.