mvp 78

@MaureenaMullen DD on when he made the decision: not a snap decision, not because we lost in ALDS

http://www.espn.com/blog/boston/red-sox/post/_/id/53669/red-sox-leadership-problems-go-far-beyond-john-farrell BOSTON -- Shut down Twitter. Silence the sports-talk airwaves. John Farrell is gone. That's right, New England. The Boston Red Sox finally heard you. It took longer than you would have liked, but owner John Henry, chairman Tom Werner, president/CEO Sam Kennedy and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski came around. They axed Farrell on Wednesday morning, two days after he managed the Sox to a second consecutive first-round playoff knockout. Drink a toast, all you champions of the #FireFarrell movement. Surely this is cause for rejoicing. It also doesn't solve anything. This isn't to say Farrell was unjustly fired. When a team with a payroll nearing $200 million wins 93 games and a division title in back-to-back years only to upchuck on itself in the postseason, change often comes. The manager is the easiest fall guy. It's an occupational hazard. The Red Sox also endured more drama this season than an episode of "This Is Us." From Dustin Pedroia throwing teammates under the bus in a beanball war with the Baltimore Orioles, to David Price humiliating broadcaster Dennis Eckersley on the team plane, to the trainer who used a smart watch to relay stolen signs to players, it all happened on Farrell's watch. But pinning it all on Farrell and pretending things will be different with another manager is as short-sighted as it is foolish. The problem runs much deeper than that. It goes to a clubhouse run by two defiant veterans, the inability of a bunch of young players to mature into team leaders and the overall makeup of a team that often seemed to be joylessly slogging back to the top of the American League East. It was assumed Pedroia would take the torch from retired David Ortiz and lead the Red Sox into the post-Papi era. But the veteran second baseman has never been comfortable in that role. This season, he proved he's ill-suited for it, too. In April, Orioles star Manny Machado slid hard into Pedroia, causing him to reinjure his surgically repaired knee. During the next few days, Red Sox pitchers failed in multiple attempts at retaliation. When reliever Matt Barnes threw behind Machado's head, Pedroia yelled out to Machado, "It's not me, it's them." With that, the self-proclaimed “Laser Show” morphed into Fredo Corleone, effectively taking sides against the family. Pedroia ended a postgame interview in May by saying, "Can I go home now?" He didn't do anything to deter Price from ambushing Eckersley in June. And it was only after details of that ugly incident became public that Pedroia stood at his locker and said, "People say from the outside we don't have a leader. I'm standing right here." Dustin Pedroia was the obvious candidate to take over David Ortiz's leadership role in Boston's clubhouse, but it didn't work out that way this season. Actually, it was Price who stepped into the leadership void. But the $217 million lefty's idea of unifying the team was to attack the media. Price became the Red Sox's resident ombudsman, taking exception to even the most innocuous criticism. He made a scene by shouting at a reporter after a June game in New York and blasted Eckersley for merely pointing out that lefty Eduardo Rodriguez struggled in a minor-league rehab start. In both instances, Price was unapologetic for behavior that could best be labeled unprofessional. His teammates lapped it up, though. And while Price might have succeeding in bringing players together in an us-against-the-world sort of way, a culture of unnecessary negativity seemed to emanate from the clubhouse. Meanwhile, neither Mookie Betts nor Xander Bogaerts -- the Red Sox's brightest young stars and possible future franchise cornerstones -- developed into leaders. Maybe it was because both had less successful seasons than in 2016. Maybe it's merely too soon to expect a couple of 25-year-olds to be a team's emotional compass. Or maybe it's just not in their DNA. The New York Yankees and Houston Astros reached the postseason because of a similar nucleus of young players. But both teams also prioritized bringing in high-character, veteran position players to act as steady hands during losing streaks, police the clubhouse whenever necessary and help their manager maintain a pulse of the team. Matt Holliday and Todd Frazier were added to a Yankees roster that included Chase Headley and Brett Gardner. They serve as good examples for Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Greg Bird and the rest of the Baby Bombers. Last winter, the Astros signed free agents Carlos Beltran and Josh Reddick and traded for Brian McCann, each of whom has positively influenced young stars Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman and George Springer and make life infinitely easier for manager A.J. Hinch. "A guy like Beltran, being the 40-something that is he in the clubhouse, will keep things very even-keeled, will keep things in perspective," Hinch said. "Beltran is very key because of his presence and because of the influence he has on our players. The attention to detail, the room-temperature gauge is very important in the clubhouse." The Red Sox lack that dynamic. First baseman Mitch Moreland and reserve outfielder Chris Young tried to play that role to varying degrees, but considering how impressionable the Red Sox's core remains, there wasn't nearly enough of a positive veteran presence. Farrell bears some blame for not being able to bring out that quality in enough players. But he also didn't put the roster together. That was on Dombrowski, and it will be Dombrowski's job to provide the next manager – Jason Varitek? Alex Cora? Brad Ausmus? – with a better clubhouse mix. Meanwhile, live it up, Farrell haters. Your favorite pinata has been knocked down. Now, maybe the Red Sox can address their real problems. While there are a couple of good points, there is a lot of interesting circle the wagons stuff here. It's clear that Farrell was well like by the media. I've heard more complaints from the media about people wanting Farrell fired than actual fan complaints about wanting Farrell gone. The "well they didn't have the right veterans" stuff is kind of amusing to me. (If they had Frazier instead of Devers, the Sox may have not even made the playoffs.) The managers should always be in charge of the clubhouse. If your players are not acting the way you want them to, tell them to act differently. If Farrell cared about the Price or Pedey situations, he would have spoken to them and they would have change their tune. To me, it seems like he didn't care about that stuff for better or worse. This article is basically "the manager doesn't really matter, but he was my buddy so now I'm sad."

From Scott Lauber: Astros bench coach Alex Cora will be mentioned as a Red Sox managerial candidate. Houston skipper A.J. Hinch has praised Cora for his "ability to connect with players." More from Hinch: "He's very sharp, sees the game in an extraordinarily deep way, has really connected well with players in our clubhouse and spent a lot of time developing relationships and being the bench coach liaison to the clubhouse that I asked him to be."

I hope they say nothing. Those Globe articles were petty as f***. The way they treated Tito was despicable. The only person on here who liked that was Jacko because he was able to have a buddy stalk Tito to get pictures of him drinking.

Welcome to the resistance.

Cost savings by not doing what moon proposed for 2B which looks like a huge payroll suck to me.

And I don't.

True enough.

Was Chris Sale the only (or main) reason they failed in September? I don't believe so. I think hitting preparation and approach is an issue for this team. Many smart posters have been saying it all along. I think new coaching could change that. The Stros went from striking out all day long to becoming the stingiest. A lot of it has to do with coaching.

@craigcalcaterra It's been like an hour and no one from the Sox front office has leaked bad info about Farrell. It truly is a new era in Boston.

Just read through old TS posts about Tito being fired. Not too many people were jumping with joy here. Most said that it had to be done because of the clubhouse drama, but that they were very sad to see him go. Maybe it was different if you were wherever SBF and Pumpsie were posting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNX_wGyKhmM

I think smart fans (like myself) realized that whoever came after the greatest Sox manager of all time would definitely be a downgrade.

1. People claim baseball is random 2. People claim that the batting order doesn't matter that much 3. People say that the managers matter very little I know the gag is that if you don't like an argument, just claim it's a strawman. I get it.

At what point do managers get any blame then? There were two consecutive September swoons where they played terribly and then were trounced in the playoffs. How does he not get any blame for that? If he gets no blame for that, he can't get any credit for 2013.

That is NOT a straw man argument. If baseball is random, batting order results don't really matter and the manager matter the least of all, then it doesn't matter who is on the team or coaching it. Otherwise, it's not really "random" and the manager is important.

@iamjoonlee A LOT of the players also love Chili Davis. Already has a strong rapport with young stars on the team. Would suspect he gets a long look.

@iamjoonlee When a player’s manager loses the clubhouse, he’s lost his biggest asset. That’s what happened. Red Sox needed to move on.

https://twitter.com/YoureRightMike/status/918110192906199040 This week was starting out pretty terribly, but one little thing can always improve your outlook.

The Sox are in good shape. I think they just need to get one big bat (JD) and figure out how to manage SP innings next year.

This move will tell me a lot about how DD sees this team.

Probably not. Definitely projectile vomiting if he shows up to ST.

If it won't happen, why bring it up?

If they fired Farrell and had DiSarcina manage for September, they couldn't have done any worse. Waited too long!