Poor Management by the Red Sox

[Lord Snow]

It is extremely fair to say that the Boston Red Sox have been poorly managed since around the start of the 2010-2011 off-season.

 

They've just made numerous half-baked moves. They sold the farm to acquire Adrian Gonzalez. They shifted an aging Youkilis to 3rd base. Then they traded Youk. Then they traded away Adrian Gonzalez, leaving a hole which could have been filled by Youk at first base. But ultimately leaving the Red Sox in worse shape than they had been in before the initial trade for Gonzalez.

 

They signed Carl Crawford to a ridiculous contract that is sure to go down as one of worst in the history of baseball.

 

They let Jonathan Papelbon walk over what turned out to be a reasonable contract for a guy who is on a Hall of Fame track.

 

After going .299/.358 (good numbers for a SS) they traded Marco Scutaro away for a bag of balls in a apparent salary dump?

 

They traded Jed Lowrie for Mark Melancon who was presumably to be the team's closer. But, they did that before exploring all of their options and later traded Josh Reddick for Andrew Bailey and created two holes in the line-up in doing so. Injury-prone Bailey spends the majority of the year on the DL, returns an ineffective pitcher. Reddick goes on to win a gold glove and hit 31 home runs for Oakland, god knows the kind of impact he would have had if he played half his games at Fenway rather than Oakland.

 

Now this off-season they're prepared to leave Josh Hamilton & Nick Swisher on the table in favor of Jonny Gomes & Shane Victorino, when most of us know the there is slim to no chance those two guys end up being considered "good signings" a year from now, much less three years from now.

 

What I can't quite figure out is if I know a move doesn't make much sense for a team, if most of the fans know that too, and if the radio talk show hosts and journalists know it too then why the hell doesn't the front office know it?! Isn't that what they are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, per year to know?

[Emmz]

I think it's extremely fair to say Lord Snow is a dbag.

[Palodios]

Lord Snow, I would highly recommend you stop making threads like this.

[MANNYHOF24]

Lord Snow for prez

[User Name]

Lord Snow, go home, you are drunk.

[mvp 78]

A new thread for everything...

[jung]

I respect your opinion LS but I would also suggest that you might want to think a little about whether a new thread is justified to make a comment. Not holding myself up as an example but I think I am up around 7,500 posts or something like that and I think I might have started a game thread cause nobody had started one and we were already into the 3rd inning. I'm not even sure about that but if I did it is the only thread I have ever started here.

 

Nobody really beats us up about about straying off topic as long as it is not a total thread jack. There is almost always someplace to put something. Believe me the diligent observers here will find your posts and your comments.

[Lucienbel]

To stay on the topic of starting a new thread, I feel like everyone here has a pretty good idea of your opinions on this topic too....so it'd be better to carry it on into a conversation that's already happened.

[onlybereaved]

Lordsnow is Alfredo Aceves IRL.

 

Just cause.

[SoxSport]

The subject is worthy of its own thread. The Red Sox management has gone sour. That was clear with all the dysfunction last year which filtered down to the players. The next step was the LA selloff. Call it a bail-out. Now followed by a very conservative approach to replenishing the team--no long term contracts, mediocre players with some flaw or another. Temporary spending. A prelude to selling the team? Very possibly.

 

What Henry seems to be buying is short term competitiveness and fiscal soundness--a .500 team. In two years, he will be down to a guaranteed payroll of about $40 million. In a great position to sell.

 

But what about the prospects? Aren't they just buying time for the prospects? The answer is some of those prospects will be ready long before 3 years. And what then? Instead of filling their holes with prospects now and allowing them to grow on the job, they have bought a bunch of mediocrities with untradeable salaries who will be blocking same prospects in a year or so.

 

But the prospects aren't ready right now. Says who? And which ones? We've been hearing that BS line for years.

 

The fact is this team has sucked since Manny Ramirez left. Manny was the guy that lineup turned on.They haven't been the same since. They just missed an opportunity to bring Manny back--with Hamilton. And they didn't even realize it. No clue.

[mvp 78]

Josh Hamilton is no Manny Ramirez. Manny was one of those once in a generation stars. Hamilton is a great player, but he's not Manny at his prime.

[jacksonianmarch]

Josh Hamilton is no Manny Ramirez. Manny was one of those once in a generation stars. Hamilton is a great player, but he's not Manny at his prime.

 

Manny had a 30.9WAR through 7 seasons. That averages to 4.4 per season. Hamilton had a WAR of 20.8 in 5 seasons with the Rangers, which averages to 4.2 per season. Hamilton's numbers arent as gaudy aside from his insane 2010, but he is playing in a different time where pitchers once again rule the game and the hitters arent as dominant. Hell, Manny has a .900OPS season with a .380OBP and his WAR for the yr was 0.8 since everyone at his position was just mashing

[SoxSport]

Manny had a 30.9WAR through 7 seasons. That averages to 4.4 per season. Hamilton had a WAR of 20.8 in 5 seasons with the Rangers, which averages to 4.2 per season. Hamilton's numbers arent as gaudy aside from his insane 2010, but he is playing in a different time where pitchers once again rule the game and the hitters arent as dominant. Hell, Manny has a .900OPS season with a .380OBP and his WAR for the yr was 0.8 since everyone at his position was just mashing

 

Hamilton is a much better all-around player than Manny was. Or Ted Williams, for that matter. He's a 5 tool player. He has the same impact bat as Manny did in the lineup--a bat which affects how other players are pitched, as well.

 

A lot of the posters I've seen have focussed more on his personal problems than his abilities.

Manny had his personal problems, too. But Hamilton never missed a game with the Rangers due to his addiction problems. The Angels clearly viewed them as a non-factor.

[User Name]

Manny had a 30.9WAR through 7 seasons. That averages to 4.4 per season. Hamilton had a WAR of 20.8 in 5 seasons with the Rangers, which averages to 4.2 per season. Hamilton's numbers arent as gaudy aside from his insane 2010, but he is playing in a different time where pitchers once again rule the game and the hitters arent as dominant. Hell, Manny has a .900OPS season with a .380OBP and his WAR for the yr was 0.8 since everyone at his position was just mashing

 

You'd have to compare on a year-to-year basis, and you'd have to remove defense from the equation since it heavily weighs WAR in Hamilton's favor.

 

In his ages 26-31 seasons, Manny put up a 32.3 oWar number in comparison to Hamilton's 23.7. Using this criteria (which is the one that should be used) Manny also has Hamilton significantly beat in WAR.

 

Some of Manny's advantage because of the era is negated by the fact that Hamilton plays in the Texas bandbox.

 

Manny's OPS+ for his career, the period you suggested and the period i suggested is not lower than 150 in any instance, while Hamilton's career OPS+ is 135.

 

Hamilton is not in the same universe offensively as Manny, and making the comparison seems ludicrous to me.

[User Name]

Hamilton is a much better all-around player than Manny was. Or Ted Williams, for that matter. He's a 5 tool player. He has the same impact bat as Manny did in the lineup--a bat which affects how other players are pitched, as well.

 

A lot of the posters I've seen have focussed more on his personal problems than his abilities.

Manny had his personal problems, too. But Hamilton never missed a game with the Rangers due to his addiction problems. The Angels clearly viewed them as a non-factor.

 

No he doesn't. He's not nearly as consistent, he has a lot of physical issues (Only twice has he had 600 + PA's or 140 games played in a season) and all of the addiction s***. Don't skim over the facts just because you like the player.