jung

Well of course 2021 was another COVID year, I don't remember the Sox losing by so much and so often in the demographic they care about last year. They are losing now in the male end of the demographic in the age cohort they should care about to things like Family Feud, Nickelodeon kids shows, Movies on Fox WITH COMMERCIALS, reruns of Eileen, CNN (maybe that one makes sense).

While COVID might be blamed in part for poor attendance it does not explain the horrific ratings numbers NESN and Red Sox games are putting up. They are getting pulverized outside of the old f***er households like mine and how many of us are asleep in the barc-o-lounger game on in the background.

Eh.....OK.....over my Red Sox cap.

It had improved some but grudgingly and in truth our path to racial equity and justice has been blunted at least temporarily and not just in Boston. Now that said even I think King James of basketball fame and his comments about Boston are just a bit too terse and without the required nuance. So much so that he is IMO wrong, just not by as much as I wish he was wrong. There are still places in Boston where Black Men and even Black Women are terribly unwelcome for no other reason than the color of their skin. I am white myself and embarrassed by it.

Well this is just an off the top of my head response but they would have to give me mid-6 figures at least hard cash no structured payments AND then assign somebody to watch me because I am going to take the money intending to CHEAT!

That is a very good point. However, its not like the Sox went out of their way to make Mookie feel like he should want to stay here. If I were Mookie, I would have been pretty non-plusssed at the JD as Zen Master of hitting ********. That was a straight up effort to push JD for team leadership in the eyes of the fans endeavored by Sox PR and thus THE SOX and it was flat ridiculous. When Ortiz left it should have been Mookie's team.....Period...end of story. So I think that if the Sox offered Mookie what the Dodgers offered him, there is every chance he would not have taken it. But the Sox have nobody to blame but themselves for that even more than what some might view as a generally caustic environment for Black American players here.

Now that one Molina is retired and the other is still in the NL, Maldonado is very likely the best handler of a pitching staff in the AL and maybe all of baseball. Pitching is still a very big deal in Houston which I think sports the best pitching staff in the AL.

lol...only in a Sox forum could this happen. The Yankee forum is probably lucky to have an English Bulldog posting there. Woof......woof

I hate, HATE, H-A-T-E the shift

I can't say I have turned off a Sox game because of the bold faced representatives of the Fenway Group PR department we have in the booth today. But they are all of them rough on the ears. I have watched less Sox baseball this year than in the last ten years but not because of the broadcast crew. Frankly its because the whole enterprise of MLB has gotten too predictable and unsatisfying for me. Never thought they could take it so far that it would happen. But here I am. Thank God the radio crew is still a reliable known baseball broadcast entity. Lord only knows who they will bring in when Joe is gone....probably hunting for the last ringmaster from Ringling Bros. Circus. Not saying I enjoy the radio broadcast more. There is one advantage....I don't have to listen to a game with my eyes clenched for fear of what I am going to see next and I am not likely to throw something at the radio.

Everybody knows DD's approach to Baseball Ops and I am sure JH did as well. The problem for the current Sox administration is that while I did not see much chance of DD's approach coming in conflict with the business side of the House under Sam Kennedy, I think that is a clear possibility now with Bloom. IMO what a Sox team really needs is somebody that knows how to use the money hammer without exercising it with DD's ferocity or even Cerries ferocity for that mater. Its JH's team for now and he can run it like he pleases. However I remain unconvinced that Bloom will end up providing a satisfying result to the fan base.

Attendance is actually more a league wide problem than a Sox specific problem. At these ticket prices MLB has to provide more than "THE NATIONAL PASTIME" and they are not really doing it. The games are still too long. The prices are too high and a cavalcade of pitchers on each roster going a couple innings each is not all that awe inspiring. Plus key elements of the game that true fans of the game enjoy are being short srifted with anybody that can swing a bat being brought up regardless if he can field his position or any position at all. Watching the keystone kops boot balls around might be fine at $10.00 a seat (my first season ticket prices at Fenway were $8.42 per game for seats down the RF line right over the ground crew portal. Those seats are probably $50.00 per game today.

But look what the Dodgers have to compete with out there.

If you look at attendance and TV ratings, they are not sticking around this year and at Sox ticket prices empty seats leave a mark as do dropping ratings. Henry IS getting on in years. Its possible that he is looking for a window to sell out.

Well as long as they realize that they are out of it this year even if they get in it. They will be one of those last two WC teams that never would have even been in before this year.....in other words, post season teams of the barely breathing variety that did nothing significant enough to get them anywhere in the post season on top of everything else. This is not like Atlanta from the four WC team format buying up the world at the trade deadline for their run.

I think you may have hit on it. I am not even convinced that Kennedy and the business side of the house will let Bloom go "full Bloom" (pardon the pun). Nor am I convinced that JH considered that when he brought Bloom in here. There are some overarching MLB issues and then some Sox issues that are a bit worrisome. For MLB, they have a 162 game schedule, by far the most regular season games of any of the four major team sports and yet we now have even more post season teams which dilutes the value of the 162. We now have three WC teams from each league instead of two. In other words if you are breathing, you are in. That is not a great way to sell a 162 game season. As for the Sox themselves their ticket prices make it even more of a challenge for them to make the 162 attractive to fans. To be honest, the only way I can tolerate NESN and its goofy announcers and the usual TV camera angles is because I know what I am not seeing and much like a studious football fan that does not follow the football around like a lemming instead following the line play, I will try to find what I am looking for in a baseball telecast by looking AROUND the screen, at the edges. I already know where the damned ball is going. But I digress. Kennedy IMO will force this to be partially what we have grown to expect from the Sox administration and partially what Bloom does from Baseball Operations and the result will be not enough of either....a middling approach which clearly Bloom never was a part of in Tampa because Tampa is Tampa and Boston is Boston. I don't know what decision JH will make. But there will come a day when Kennedy pitches JH that their attendance sucks....which by Sox standards it does now and that TV ratings are pitiful.....they are now and the team is simply not something Boston fans can empathize with nor finds interesting. Bloom's pitch will be, ya' gotta' let me do my thing.

Thats the guy!!!!!

Agreed....I think you nailed it. Probably should have just given up on him and let him move on as for one thing Swi destroyed his ankle trying to play in the OF.

The Sale extension at the time it was negotiated was IMO one of the top 5 worse FO decisions the Sox made so far in this century assuming they might have been willing to accept the notion of Mookie as team leader. If not then maybe the Sox upper management just did not give a crap. As for Renfro, I never like putting what is essentially a corner OFer in CF. CF is neither RF nor LF. It should be avoided unless you want your CF to look occasionally stupid and take your FO and field management along for the Stupid show. While I am stunned to think how much JBJ actually cost the Red Sox in salary this year, you can still watch him play CF and gain an understanding for what distinguishes CF from either RF or LF. Mookie is a very special talent and Mookie could basically move over to CF without much of an issue primarily because he has so much range as an OF and such a good arm. Benny or Andrew if you will was an excellent LFer for the Red Sox, especially at Fenway was utter crap in CF. Maybe a college CF but that is about where it ended for Benny IMO at least while with the Sox. Story has done well adapting to 2nd base but Story is an outstanding SS. Hard to imagine he would not eventually straighten out his footwork at 2nd well enough to play there. Going from 2nd base to SS is a whole nuther' kettle of fish though. Holt and the kid that played for the Rays for a number of years are the best two baseball Swiss army knives I can think of off the top of my head.

Thanks Bell! But wholly s***....THAT for JBJ???????? Now I am going to be sick.

IMO it is an outgrowth of the "anybody can play anywhere" mentality that rules NERD baseball now and is all the proof anybody needs that the nerds that run these baseball ops departments DON'T WATCH ANY BASEBALL. Then to prove THIER point they will essentially support the notion that a good offense can overcome a deficient defense. Really.....giving away runs and giving away bases DOES NOT PRODUCE WINNING BASEBALL which is why lead off walks are so abhorrent.

Can not tell for certain but I think JBJ ended up on a $9.5M option that he signed with the Brewers. Still an overpay IMO but not the $12m called for in his last contract. Actually JBJ's contract at $12 got stuck in my head and I could not get it out. "Jackie at 12. $42 for 3 is ......$12......everybody makes $12"

You are right....its 14. He could take 14.....he could easily take 14 IMO, unless somebody offers him more. I do think he will be entertaining multiple offers which will likely drive the price over $14 per....just none near $20m per IMO. He is simply too good a player not to end up with multiple offers. Plus he is well mated to today's MLB where the field is littered with players that simply cannot field the baseball....SEE the Royals. A guy with his skill set in the field can make up for a good many screwed up horseshit plays in the field and he is a fairly consistent hitter and a solid clubhouse guy. What Hosmer is as a player is becoming harder and harder to come by......less available while being more attractive at the same time. Somebody could blow out the budget for Hosmer but I REALLY doubt it. Sal Perez makes $20. X makes $20. Hosmer is in his last year making $20 and if he signs his option would be making $13.

Doubt it. Players are looking to max out their final years in baseball and they will play for anybody that offers them a nickel more than anybody else is offering. $42 for 3 is $12 per and that is what JBJ makes......J-B-J

Well its not as likely as I would like it to be but Bloom could make a competitive offer for Hosmer. Its not like Hosmer will be looking at $20m offers. Truth is, $1m becomes a lotta' money to guys like Hosmer late in their career. $500k becomes a lotta' money. If $14 is the best Hosmer is offered, he will play for $14. Somebody will offer him at least $14. I really do think he will be looking at between $15 and $17, most likely $16. Seems like he has been around a long time. But he is only 32 years old.