Elktonnick

Yea that's why he is in the HOF BTW the only other member of that team in the HOF is Yaz.

Williams did that in spades with the 67 Red Sox. Cora inherited a solid ballclub. Williams inherited a team with a history of over a dozen years of mediocrity.

He transformed the Red Sox from a horrid second division ball club to eventually build the foundation for what the team is today. 67 marks the turning point in Red Sox fortunes. Dick Williams eventually went to HOF.

I respect your point of view but Cora is a one year wonder until he can repeat and unless he can repeat he can not hold a candle to either Williams, Cronin or Francona as to managerial ability. To even jokingly compare Jimmy Williams to Dick Williams is silly.

Jimmy Williams can not compare with Dick Williams managerial accomplishments. For you youngsters who weren't around in 1967, this is from an article written by Eric Aron for the Society for Baseball Research (SABR) Dick Williams was regarded as one of baseball’s premier managers and turnaround artists. He was only the second skipper to win pennants for three different teams — Boston, Oakland, and San Diego.1 As a rookie manager in 1967, Williams led the Red Sox from ninth place the year before to the World Series. Both personally and tactically, he took a no-nonsense, aggressive approach, which electrified several teams that he managed. His A’s won back-to-back World Series, and he pushed the Padres to their first-ever postseason. As a manager Williams compiled a record of 1,571 wins and 1,451 losses in 21 seasons, 20th on the career victory list as of 2014. Williams also enjoyed a fine playing career. As a versatile utilityman, he played with five teams in 13 seasons. After an appearance in the 1953 World Series with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Williams had three separate stints with the Baltimore Orioles, playing for manager and key mentor Paul Richards. Williams was voted into the Hall of Fame in 2008.

Not even close. Cora had a terrific abundance of talent which neither Dick Williams the best post WW2 manager , Joe Cronin and Terry Francona did not have. Cora may end up to be a one year wonder just like John Farrell.

Better isn't exactly the word I would use. Cora wasted spring training so the starters finally caught up to where they should have been if Cora had a normal Spring Training. IMO the percentages are finally catching up to Cora who isn't as good a manager as he thinks himself to be.

The Tigers, White Sox, and Os aren't exactly world beaters.

Watching JBJ bat is painful. He is repeating all his bad habits from previous slumps. His swing has become way too long again. He seems to be trying to pull everything down the right field line. Regardless his catch last night was one for the ages and saved the ballgame and the Red Sox and Cora from an embarrassing series loss to the hapless Orioles. Quite frankly there is a lot more wrong in Boston than JBJ's slump although his slump is just one more symptom of the bigger issues. For whatever reason there can be no longer any denial that there is something amiss in that clubhouse. I suspect it begins with Cora and his mismanagement of this team beginning in Spring Training.

Being young means you recover quicker. Pitching injuries come mainly from improper mechanics. Four months rest doesn't cure improper mechanics. Warren Spahn was throwing complete games in his forties

I was at Spring Training, my fifth in a row. The starters worked much less this year than any of the previous four. The idea that working until November meant that they needed more than three months rest before starting normal baseball activities is nonsense. These are young men. Virtually every non NESN analyst said much the same as did Eckersley, the Os analysts and now even Jerry Remy. I posted on another forum after leaving Florida that their starters weren't ready and they were headed for an unsuccessful West Coast start which they had. Anyone who watched this team closely could see that the starters were between two to three weeks behind where they needed to be at the start of the season. The starters being unprepared caused Cora to overwork the bullpen in the early games which will have a lasting effect some of which we are seeing now. In my view Cora spring training regime was ill conceived combined with the obvious fact that DD failed to provide the club with a solid left hander in the bull pen are two of the primary reasons for the current state of affairs. This idea of over resting ballplayers has become an insidious self fulfilling prophecy which results in many athletes being unprepared and without the stamina to go the long haul. Managing at any level and in any industry is all about balancing workloads. At this point of the season Cora has done about a poor a job of that as he did an excellent job of it last year. The starters should be up to speed by now. I just hope the team hasn't dug too big a hole for itself by Cora's spring training blunder. In any case DD still needs a quality left hander in the pen

I happen to agree with you. Although I think it is fair to say that most relievers are a highly unpredictable lot. Many seem go from good to bad back to good again. Joe Kelly is a fine example. Most fans moaned when Kelly would come in the second half of the season only to find his stride during the playoffs. Quite frankly who knows which Joe Kelly will show up this spring. That being said given the Sox position vis a vis the luxury tax I think DD is being very prudent not the spend big to fill the few holes he has in the pen.

Re Tickets, This will be our fifth consecutive spring training. Based on our experience over the past five years, if you don't have tickets now, you will have to go into the secondary market i.e. Ace Ticket or Stub Hub. There is always a remote possibility that you can pickup tickets the day of a game if some one has cancelled out but that is a long shot. Frankly one of the best kept secrets is going to a Sox ST game when they are on the "road". This year we will be in FT Myers for two weeks and have tickets for three games two of which are not at Jet Blue park. Check out the Twins and Rays for ST tickets since their parks are close. The Twins are also in FT Myers and the Rays in Port Charlotte about 75 minutes from Jet Blue. The O's are in Sarasota. Good luck. But beware after winning the World Series getting Sox ST tickets can be a bigger challenge than you may think As for other spots in the FT Myers area Matlacha, Florida is one of our favorites. Once there pick a restaurant. They all have their charms. We prefer Matlacha to some of the other spots like Sanibel Island and Ft Myers Beach because of the traffic although Sanibel Islands is beautiful and certainly worth a visit. Our favorite restaurant is Pinchers. There are about a half dozen in the Ft Myers area all on the water, great local seafood.

Fortuna Eruditis Favet. The Red Sox were the better prepared of any team they faced

Regardless of the interleague record, the Dodgers were horrid and weren't as good as any of the AL playoff teams, Yankees, Guardians, and the Astros. The Dodger front office's silly approach to the lineup hamstrung their on the field Roberts. Lets face it, if it weren't for a bad throw by Kinsler, the Dodgers probably would have not won a single ball game. To me one of the interesting side notes of this series is that Manny Machado's antics and idiotic remarks about his lack of hustle hopefully diminished the demand for his services in the upcoming free agent market. His selfish boorish behavior certainly is in sharp contrast to the unselfish team behavior of the Red Sox. I am sure there still will be plenty of teams willing to pay him. Caveat Emptor

It is his mechanics. During one national telecast Jim Kaat criticized Pomerantz repeatedly because he wasn't or couldn't push off the rubber properly.

I have been wondering the same thing. Quite frankly Nunez has played about the worst defensive 2nd base I've seen in years.

The coaches and Bradley all know what his problems are. The problem is in the execution. " During the swing, the back elbow should come close to the rib cage and the barrel of the bat should stay above the hands. With a high back elbow, the elbow has to travel a much greater distance and at a much faster rate of speed. When this happens, the barrel of the bat will drop below the hands, the front elbow will rise, and you will have a long swing. If this goes on for very long, you have created a habit - a very bad habit." When Bradley is going bad it is clearly noticeable that JBJ's elbow was well away from his rib cage. The last week or so he began to steadily correct this. It happened when he hit an inside pitch about five games ago. More recently one notices his elbow closer to his body.

I beg to differ. He has shortened his swing recently. It is quite noticeable. As Jerry Remy often says "He kept his hands inside the baseball"

I appreciate your excellent analysis of JBJ's swing. I also notice that when he is going bad his swing gets very long. When he shortens the swing he gets quieter and makes better contact. In any case, I think DFAing Ramirez should quiet the trade Bradley talk. With HR on the rooster there was always the issue of trading Moreland's defense for Bradley's. Now that Ramirez is gone that should no longer be an issue.

That is certainly the way I see it also. For some reason, Martinez has convinced himself that he either deserves or is entitled to a longer term contract than the current market justifies. Most of the analysts commenting on MLB radio, television and elsewhere have all thought that today's GMs have concluded based on all the data that long term deals for ball players who will be 35 or older in the later years of their contracts are not cost effective and simply not worth the risk. Given Martinez's history, one can see why a red sox GM would come to a similar conclusion.

Any contract a business can not afford is absurd. Stanton's contract would have been absurd for most franchises. Even the New York Yankees may well come to rue the day they agreed to pick it up.

Yes I agree that's an excellent point. I however was referring to the economic penalties that the marketplaces places on a franchise. The Marlins are in case in point. The prior ownership spent foolishly on some bloated long term contracts and was forced to sell the team. The new ownership's only viable option to ensure economic survival was forced to hold a virtual fire sale. I may be being overly dramatic in my language but I think one can see my point.

All of these aspects reinforce one another as well as the fact that there is more money in the game than ever before. The cost of making an error in real dollars has gone up hence the trend to base more decisions on quantifiable data points.

Huh! Both the change in the way the game is being played i.e more emphasis on relief pitching along with a more aggressive approach toward hitting are interconnected as is the projection of future value. To say one is changing more rapidly than the other is a distinction without a difference since there is a direct correlation between the two coincident to the arrival of the new breed of younger more data driven baseball executives.