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Would any of those moves have helped Papelbon close the door when it mattered? If he had done it twice the team would be in. It really was that simple. No extra moves necessary. Shut the Orioles down twice and the team is in, the Rays aren't, and they are in the second season of baseball. Much less complicated than making the perfect move. Furthermore, I wouldn't advocate trading a player like Kalish for a guy like Fister anyway. It's an unnecessary overpay. No GM would expect this team to play below .333 for the last month. I don't care who it is. Friedman, Daniels, etc., all would have held their cards and not planned for the worst collapse in sports history. You play probabilities and sometimes they will bite you in the ass.

Adding to my point: I get the sense that you are much more concerned with the appearance of order than with addressing the actual locus of the problem. The removal of a GM for the performance of his players in a multiple-week period is all for show. There may be questions about his acquisitions on the FA market (I dont hear people criticizing his trades for V-Mart or Bay or of Nomar to bring in O-Cab), but those FA acquisitions were all under the direct approval and collaboration of the ownership group. Crawford, Dice-K, Lackey, all had to be approved of by ownership and Lucchino. They are just as accountable. So again, the issue becomes one of removing someone much more for show than for real impact. The same reasoning, computer program and personalities will go into decisions moving forward. That's what makes me think this is much mroe about Theo getting his in a more prominant position and getting out of the shadow of Lucchino than it is about the Sox "having to do something" because he had "lost his edge". But that's just me.. as Jayhawk Bill used to say, YMMV.

If the team was one mid-rotation starter from a sure ALCS victory then they don't even need a new GM, unless the reasoning is simply that someone has to take a fall whenever the ultimate objective isn't accomplished, which isn't good team management its just ruthless head-chopping. That's not reasonable. It's impulsive, indescriminate, and arbitrary.

Really? Now your 20/20 hindsight is saying Fister would have put us in the ALCS? That's absurd man, c'mon. If that's the case then this team doesn't need to be blown up.. they need a mid-rotation starter. Big difference

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty confident that a job like GM of a team is not something you want for someone who is disgruntled and no longer interested in having. I know that my current employer really likes having me around. However, if I were offered a better job at a competetor and they denied my opportunity there, I would be pissed off and they would expect my performance to get worse. If my job was to create the culture and tenor of the office itself, it would be in my employers best interest to let me go. It really isn't that complicated. Theo isn't a player under contract, he's a leader of the organization and if he doesn't want to be there any more his role is too important to just let him stew about it.

http://twitter.com/#!/TBrownYahoo/status/123916902232899586 "Hearing Red Sox owners are making play to keep Theo in town, but won't ask him to continue in job he doesn't want."

I think sometimes people make too much of payroll. To some degree (not entirely) it can be a curse. Remember when the Sox were only spending 120m and the same people who are cheering at Theo's departure were screaming about the Sox just saving their money, hoarding it, and demanded that they spend it on someone? Theo was at his best dealing prospects for established stars, letting those stars go, and using the draft picks. Few GMs can say they are great at getting high-priced FAs... almost by definition. FAs tend to demand the very peak of their potential value; very few live up to that. Any GM who comes in with a plan to build their team with the same strategy as the D-Rays or Royals will run into exactly what Theo ran into: "What!?!? You're going to build with homegrown guys?!?! They haven't proven anything!?!! How dare you? You charge the most money in baseball for seats and you go with an unproven 2B as a starter?!? Alfonso Soriano was available!" That won't change. That's why Boston is a pressure cooker. Only Boston and NY and, maybe, PHI have that type of environment.

Bummer... Thanks for Dave Roberts Thanks for Ellsbury and Pedroia and a number of other really, really successful choices he made during his tenure. Others will undoubtedly be happy to see him go, I think he will be hard to replace and will end up in Cooperstown. We will see.

I guess I meant same population base. Certainly the fans have changed over time.

Again.. the bad old days. Same city, same ball park, same fans... they even had NESN, right? Different owners. Different front office. Different results.

155. I racked my brain about a few of them, and ultimately forgot recent guys like Matsuzaka, Moss, Gonzalez, Payton and Kapler. Hillenbrand would have given me more. BTW, who the hell is Chris Stynes? That was pretty fun. Glad I remembered guys like Scott Cooper, Tony Pena, Troy OLeary, and Jack Clark. For those of you too young to remember, Jack Clark had one of the most powerful swings in the history of the game. He just rarely connected. I remember those pathetic seasons of Sox baseball... makes me not freak out about the deficiencies of the 2011 club so much.

Just out of curiosity, what data are you using to say that he made an adjustment to take lefties the other way? I completely believe you (it's the only way it could work) but I looked for spray chart data or LF/CF/RF splits and couldn't find anything. I would love to see what you're referring to. I assume it would help inform my opinion.

So you would sign him to a 3 year deal at 12m per year? Would you want them to overpay for him if he required 3 years, or is there a price you would be comfortable with them staying at?

You're such a dick.

Okay, so you can suspect Ellsbury of using PEDs to assess whether the Sox want to resign him moving forward. That's fine with me. It's not what we're talking about though. Am I not allowed to be suspicious of Ortiz's return to dominance after 3 sub-par seasons, in a contract season, at the age of 35? Is that not allowed here? He's acknowledged that he used in the past. That makes me immediately suspicious of anyone.

Herald: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/baseball/red_sox/view/2011_1007papi_tekin_question_sox_face_decisions_on_dh_c/srvc=sports&position=also I have no clue where the report/speculation comes from but it is typical of the way contract negotiations have tended to go, so it doesn't seem unreasonable. Ortiz for 3 years? No thanks. He had a 1.10 GB/FB this year, after previous seasons of .85, .64, .81, .83, .78, .68, .75, .87, .73. He always hit more FB but this year put the ball on the ground more. He had a 4 season low in infield fly balls, and a 6 season high in line-drive percentage. His K rate was the lowest of his career. Honestly, I don't trust any of it. How can a team that has so many bad contracts offer a 3 year deal to a guy who just had a huge contract year (4.2 WAR) after a few mediocre seasons (4.8 WAR total over previous 3 seasons--2.6, 0.3, 1.9). I really think they would be okay finding someone else if Ortiz doesn't accept one year with an option.

I think it is a bit of an overstatement to say they can't win with Lackey pitching every 5th day. They had a great record despite hid ineptitude for 3/4 of the season this year. I think he is due to rebound... Maybe the way a freshly cooked, golden brown thanksgiving turkey rebounds after it hits the kitchen floor an hour before dinner, perhaps only a few inches, but it does bounce. I'm torn on CJ Wilson. The rangers will have a very strong interest And incentive to retain him, which means the Sox will undoubtedly have to overpay in money or years or both. If the Rangers aren't willing to pony up the money it takes to get him, I hope the sox will think twice because an overpay is an overpay no matter how good the player is. The rangers may be smart enough to not hamstring themselves... The Sox should take note. What incentive aside from money would anpitcher like him have to pick the Sox over a team like Texas? If it is money then why should the sox pay it? Doesn't seem wise to me. Admittedly, I would haven passed on Cliff Lee a few years ago when be was leaving Cleveland so my soft-tossing-lefty-radar may be broken. I defer to the expertise of others there.

It wasn't a mistake to go into that room. It was a really stupid act by someone who couldn't wait 5 minutes to bitch about an RBI in an appropriate setting. I have read conflicting reports about whether Tito was just fine with that RBI debacle. My beef with Ortiz is less about the RBI and more about how many years and what salary he wants next year. If he can keep hitting like he has been then fine, but I'm skeptical. Also, someone needs to remind him to not get thrown out so much on the bases!