Dojji

http://eye-on-baseball.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/22297882/32677866 That... will take some getting used to. Honestly I feel it's the wrong move. THe Astros have for decades been one of the stronger National League franchises. It would be like moving, oh, say, the Blue Jays to the National League. Nothing wrong with it in principle, but that's just not what they are. When they moved the Brewers it was a team that hadn't done much in a long time and it was a town that felt itself to be an NL town thanks to the Milwaukee Braves. This is much more out of left field, and done to a much more prestigious team in its old league. I feel on the whole it would be better to add two American League teams.

That's 4/5 of our rotation, and none of them were effective down the stretch. I think we are downplaying that beer and chicken club because it sounds like fun. If they aren't listening to the coaches the team needs to break up that bit of bad chemistry.

Without knowing who the manager is, this is all just speculation of course, but I'm curious where our hearts are at at about this point.

Never seems to work that way in real life though. Give a man more money, you also give him more expectations, and he takes bigger risks to hurry things along. The results can wind up a lot worse than the original.

I don't think you can blame Wakefield on missing the postseason. If nothing else he was in line for some wins at at least 3 different points much earlier on that the bullpen and fielders let him down on. As in, Wake leaves with a lead, and the team finds a way to lose or blow said lead.

If the Braves had gotten good just a few years earlier, I wonder if there might have been silent home movies of an abandoned Fenway in the 50's. goodness knows there were times when the Sox' fortunes were way down.

No that's about right. 2009 was his last average season.

The decline in offense is masking the decline in Wakefield. If you need proof of that, look at his ERA+. He's gone down from exactly average in 2009 to 80 ERA+ (significantly below average) over the last 2 years. When Wake was an average pitcher working really cheap, it was worth running him out there. He provided positive value at a good price. It is not worth running Wakefield out there when he is a below average pitcher over the last 2 years. The quality of his innings have gone down, and so have his innings themselves -- this from a supposedly 'inning burning" pitcher.. It's time to move on.

Mmm. Did a lot of good for the league, but he didn't know how to step aside as his edge faded. In the end I hope the last few years don't mar his legacy the way maybe George Steinbrenner's may have marred his.

That was the kind of game I think of when I say "postseason game."

I wonder what Grady Little's doing these days.

Ultimately it worked in Boston. 2 rings, remember? However, any schtick gets old, and Francona's time had finally come.

Don't understand the level of confusion here. Coco is only going to be a platoon guy under this plan unless he earns more, and he provides a better veteran option to Reddick than most of what you're going to get conventionally. It improves our defense at 2 positions (CF and RF) and injects some speed onto the bench on days Coco doesn't play. The only downside is that it might hurt Ellsbury's trade value, but I honestly doubt it.

I count on nothing from Kalish until he's proven he puts the injuries behind him.

Personally I think a move to bring Covelli back to Boston has a lot to recommend it. He has certain obvious platoon advantages that would help us. He is a great defensive outfielder. And he would probably be able to insert himself into the lineup on at least a platoon basis easily enough. Against LH: LF Crawford, CF Coco, RF Ellsbury Against RH LF Crawford, CF Ellsbury, RF Reddick Unless Coco gets hot with the stick, and then he gets some starts against RHP. With his defense and speed Coco would be a good addition to Boston's outfield, and it would represent a novel solution to the RF controversy to get a great CF and move Ellsbury over. Certainly Ellsbury has the bat to play a corner outfield position. We would still have both Reddick and Kalish to feature as potential platoon outfielders and hide Coco's bat if he needs it as well, and pushing reddick to improve his plate discipline by threatening his playing time strikes me as a good idea anyway.. Most important consideration to me though is Coco's attitude, He was a trooper when he was here, and that doesn't seem to have changed since he left, he was a good team guy in KC and again in Oakland. He was one of the glue guys in the 07 run and I think reintroducing him into the clubhouse would help. And his speed would be a useful asset on the field or off the bench, wherever he winds up playing. In all, there's a lot of points where the signing of Coco Crisp to a 2-3 year deal with no guarantee of a starting position smells like a great idea -- assuming Coco was at all interested in signing that kind of deal.

We could be headed in that direction, if we call up Lavs. Lavs and Salty split catching Lavs and Youk split DH Youk and Lowrie and maybe Aviles split third.

I think it's just the easiest way to not sound like you're gushing about a player. The fact is though that it does wind up true quite a bit (WMB was originally a shortstop, remember) and there's a certain stockiness required for most power hitters that makes playing up the middle unlikely. So it's a mix of things.

http://www.jerseysplant.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/small_image/135x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/M/L/MLB_Boston_Red_Sox_Authentic_David_Ortiz_Road_with_2007_34_Grey_Jersey.jpg Memo to the front office: IT IS TIME TO GET OUR MOJO BACK. Go back to the road reds. They were classic, simple, and elegant. It makes no sense at all that there is so little actual red in the Red Sox road jerseys right now,.

I don't think we'll see a manager who's never managed before come into the pressure cooker of Boston. Just strikes me as an outright terrible idea. Personally I think we'll be looking for a manager who has guided a team to the playoffs in the not too distant past. In all likelihood, Ken Macha has the inside track. He knows the Red Sox org, is personally familiar with the front office types, worked for NESN for awhile, and is a former Pawsox manager. He's someone the ownership group is intrinsically comfortable with and they've made overtures to keep the lines of communication open in the past even while they were still 100% committed to Tito. Also he did pretty good work with the A's including a couple playoff runs they had no right to make (esp in 2006) so he's not a bad results oriented manager, despite the fiasco with the Brewers. He's not a bad option at all.

I come down somewhere between a700 and example. I think the organization has a lot of work to do but think that the roster will look very similar to this year's. A few vets go and replaced by rookies, maybe one impact signing. The work the organizaition has to do is figure out what in their model is broken and how best to reinvent themselves. Theo's a young GM, but he's not immune from becoming a one trick pony. And if the problem is that the model is fine and they aren't following it, they need to figure out what it will take to get back on the right track. Ultimately getting the front office back on the same page will be more significant in the fate of the franchise than who they sign in the short term

I disagree even with that. But effectiveness isn't even the primary consideration. They jerked the kid's delivery around in the first place because they saw problems with it that would lead to increased wear. Put him back in the rotation with those old mechanics (one of the reasons Bard got his mojo back was they let him revert) and he's going to get hurt.