jung

Its on the rare occasions when we have a well pitched ballgame that the Manfred Missile really torques me off. Here Erod is pitching a terrific game. two seam has been outstanding and Romine doinks one into the RF grandstands that probably should have barely made the warning track.

Sigh.....thats great news....NOT

JD has been suffering from a bit of slow bat disease lately.

Come on bats. Show us something early

Somebody should catch the 9/9 game thread as we lost on 9/8. So I am out.

DD asking Henry to make clear to him his standing and his position in the organization did not require summary dismissal in the way DD was summarily dismissed. Henry could have brought him in, told him he was gone though I am a bit surprised he did not already know that. Henry could have told him he would be let go at the end of this season, not extended and not kept on as a lame duck. The end. There would have been some sense to DD accepting those terms to protect his reputation given that Henry would not have allowed DD to make a single move for the period till end of year without gaining Henry's personal approval. This summary dismissal was designed to indicate Henry is more than just a little disappointed in DD's performance post 2018. I can't be convinced Henry was disappointed through 2018 because DD did exactly what DD always does to win it all now and Henry knew DD would handle his 2018 responsibilities just as he did. I think Henry expected a different level of engagement, work effort and results post 2018 and is much disappointed in what he saw out of DD in that regard. In some ways DD moved Henry's finger off the button and sprung the trap door he was standing on himself. DD is an old dog. Expecting him to learn new tricks is a bit unrealistic. DD didn't and Henry was not going to spend more time determining if DD could figure it out.

Correct...he was not going to get contract extension. That at the end of the day was the actual story and most of us already more than suspected that. That Henry was not willing to carry DD till the end of the year was the other part of the story. Henry kicked his ass out the door. If we think DD was summarily dismissed in the way that he was summarily dismissed because he "could not get along" we are dreaming. To the extent that "could not get along" means making decisions in a vacuum, that is believable. But making decisions in a vacuum is a huge business no-no on its own merits having nothing to do with social skills or interpersonal relationships. "Not getting along" smacks of poor water cooler decorum. Sorry, not buying it. We needed a different guy and it does not matter if that different guy kicks his dog or not.

Unspecified rumors that some people did not like the just deposed boss. Wow........breaking news. Give me a break. So a guy that brings Henry a WS is fired because some employees don't like his management style. When Russo returns from La La Land, let me know. IMO, Henry's dissatisfaction with DD starts AFTER the WS win with the three deals done at the start of this season regardless of their impact on the actual season itself. It went farther downhill when DD did not replace Kimbrel or Kelly which suggests DD is oblivious as ever when it comes to pens, oh by the way the one component of a MLB team that has gone through a massive change in approach. It went further downhill at the trade deadline and the resultant impact on the team which rightly or wrongly swooned. I should also point out that its not Kennedy that would have been petitioning for public statements from exec management about the team having the talent without addition to make a run. Its not Kennedy that would have petitioned for those public statements and its not Henry either. Neither one would have been petitioning for them. DD would have been petitioning for them. That certainly worked out well. Finally there is the certain knowledge that no matter what was going on with the big club, this organization needed to rebuild its farm. DD is simply not the right guy for that job.

At least as I would perceive it organizationally a GM functioning under a President of Baseball Ops would function for the world of professional players (trade candidates) as the Director of Player Personnel would act for the organization's minor league players and the pool of amateur and international players. The GM would also be responsible for rolling all of that data up into an organized portfolio of potential call ups, draft and trade candidates for the Pres of Baseball Ops. GM probably handles the administration paperwork of trades and contracts as well. Remember, while we tend to think of the Pres of Baseball Ops as totally about players, there is the rest of the front office for the President of Baseball Ops to handle, the analytics dept, all of the coaches, major league and minor league, it all falls into his lap. Now that Kennedy is the CEO of the Red Sox, DD and any other Pres of Baseball Ops would report through Kennedy with Kennedy now having all the business end responsibilities just as he had as President of the Team now including acting as the reporting channel for the President of Baseball Ops up to ownership. I don't have a Sox org chart but having been an exec in a business, looking at the position titles and general responsibilities that is how I would suggest they are organized with the GM functioning in the role I suggest.

No press conference today from Sox Exec Management which will leave Cora and the players answering questions. I will say it again....John Henry is not just a bit miffed or a little disappointed. It appears he is really torqued off.

There is the one guy Henry wants....Henry knows who that is. We don't know who that is. In all likelihood Henry still has a list of guys in case he can't get his top choice. Henry already had that happen to him once. Henry knew he was going to let DD go. Even DD knew he was gone. Henry knew how and when he was going to do it. So its unreasonable to think Henry does not have a clear idea of where he wants to go next.

I suspect LaVanchie will be allowed to work till the end of the season. I don't think Henry is interested in making the kind of statement with LaVanchie he just made with the DD dispatch. I do expect he is going, but not before the end of the season.

Nope...calculated for effect. Henry right angles right into the next days heavily laden local Pats news with his own bombshell.

The fact that Pearce did not lose us this year would not change the owner's perception of the common sense of the Pres of Baseball Ops signing his two WS binkies, one which was signed for too much and one that should not have been signed at all who then showed up the very description of fat, dumb and happy. But while I don't blame the 3 signings entirely for DD's ouster, they are part of it surely. Again, he was ousted...tossed out on his rear. Whether we like it or not Henry was not happy and it takes something extra special for Henry to make such a public statement about his displeasure.

It will be interesting to see the projected list of candidates for the job and the ultimate choice. We could find out a good deal about Henry's thinking from who he picks for the job. Given the way DD was dispatched, I would be surprised if the winning ticket was punched from within the current Sox operation.

The only reason it took till mid-Sept is because it helped John Henry maintain the fantasy that we still had a shot at making the WC. I would suggest that John is not happy as he has literally bounced DD out on his ass. So what lies at the heart of that: - can't be winning it all in 2018. that would be absurd - probably isn't using the farm so extensively to win it in 2018 as that is DD's MO - so I would surmise that John is torqued off about the Sale extension and the Nate and Pearce signings - quite possibly torqued off about being drawn into the trade deadline public fiasco which may well have been a DD creation - quite possibly since DD was Pres of Baseball Ops. not a GM, Henry was nonplused about the general direction of the entire baseball op as opposed to the business operation. I don't blame him. He has a right to be torqued off. Beyond the 2018 WS win, I am not particularly pleased with where they have gone since DD has been at the helm either. DD's approach has been somewhat confused. He is not even keeping one foot in a traditional baseball ops management perspective and the other foot in a more "contemporary" approach. He has been dancing back and forth between one and the other. I would not be at all surprised if Henry finds that entirely unsatisfactory. But to not realize that the way DD was dispatched with is a clear indication of Henry's displeasure would be sticking our heads in the sand.

Too late....DD has been moved

Ever notice that it takes Brasier about four relief stints over two weeks to start to look like a tired starter in the 6th inning? Suddenly everything goes to hell like he has been out there for 80 pitches.

Abrams tank came out onto the field and squished him like a bug. Seriously it's hard to tell. Came up lame without appearing to turn anything. Might have caught his knee wrong and twisted it because it sure did not look like an ankle or achilles or anything like that. He wasn't doing anything. Was just in a trot.

Tanakasan deeply shamed. Sandy 2 for 2 and almost hits one out. Might be cause for ritual suicide.

The one thing I can say for Pro Tennis and even competitive college tennis is that the wear on the body is phenomenal and that game is almost impossible to play with injury. Your game just goes to hell....Yet they get injured a good deal and their injuries are more like baseball injuries than anything else.....knees, ankles, elbows, wrists, shoulders all from repetitive overuse.

How many Porcellos is Cora going to allow tonight?

They f***ed up NFL long ago and they have done nothing but f*** it up worse since then: - too many rules now - wayyyyyy too many judgement calls - not enough practice in pads - too much effort to tame what is by its very nature a violent game - have made a total mess out of kick returns or even the chance of seeing a kick return - it took them all of one week to make a farce out of their new replay regimen...."must be an obvious need to overturn" The replays are taking forever and the explanations from the officials are so obtuse that there is no way they are adhering to some "must be obvious to overturn" standard. And then there is the utter farce of Jay-Z and his new deal with NFL. Its just more than I can take honestly.

Oh goodie....now we switch to ESPN from ESPN2. Even this indignity is indicative of how far MLB has fallen.

I watched a little of Jets/Bills today for comic relief. It was hysterical....futility to the third power. They could not even kick the thing...let alone throw it or catch it...either team. Then if you really want a shock you should check out the vacant seating at NASCAR races. They are not going to expire in a few years. There are expiring before our very eyes.