cp176

I posed this question earlier in the spring. E-Rod - Barnes - Owens - Wright - Johnson- I would prefer watching this group suffer through their growing pains together as opposed to what we are sending to the mound these days.

I actually believe this now more than ever. It has nothing to do with someone's personal character being good or bad but does have something to do with leading and helping younger players develop. I don't think that Sandoval or Ramirez are offering one iota of leadership to the group. I would have more fun watching this team play with young players who work hard day in and day out. Guys who have not signed the fat contracts so far. Pedroia is a gutsy gritty do it the right way leader. Ortiz is fine when things are going well not so much when they aren't and they are not. Once some of the deadwood is gone, this younger core will be ready to go. I can't wait for that time to come.

Congratulations! Twice for me. How about those speeches. Hope your son-in-law is the kind that my 2 are.

100%!!! I might even say add Bucholtz as possible trade bait with either Chubs or Hanley. His trade potential could not be higher. Not sure that I would do that but it is possible.

Wait wait wait - Was that Renfield? I remember this. The Count and his little sidekick. All good stuff boys. Got my attention.

I agree with you about how newsworthy something like this is. But it is about as important as a lot of things we get shoved down our throats by the news media. He is a fool - he got benched - it's over. he is a rich fool sadly.

Agree once again - If it were possible, I would like to see all of these projected f***ing all-stars shipped as far away as possible. they really did bring in a bunch of crap. I would much prefer to see the kids play and play hard.

got to give him credit. Hope things turn around for his sake.

Personally - just me - I have 0 interest in arguing with you. I am guilty of over estimating the abilities of our players as they have currently performed. Other than a slightly enlarged strike zone' I have nothing to say about Napoli. Ortiz is aging. Betts is young. Did anyone really think that Ramirez would be as bad as he is in the field. I really did not know what to expect from this pitching staff. The notion that they might be middle of the pack made me feel good. They may still dig their way out of the basement but I am sure that Farrell is man enough to take the blame for what has happened. I don't think his players want to see that happen though.

I'm not going to say that I think that John Farrell is one of baseball's top guys by any means. What I will say is that he gets it. He knows that if the team's fate doesn't improve, he is likely gone. I don't know a lot about many things but I do know something about coaching in general. I like how he handles his players. When Miley threw his fit, Farrell did not stand for it. He followed him down the runway and dealt with it. We are privy to very little that happens between him and his players. They seem to be supportive of him and that works for me. Napoli has been miserable - no one could ever have predicted how bad ramirez was going to be in left field - Castillo ( who knew anything about him)all I heard was great praise for the potential of a 28 year old rookie -catching is what it is - Betts has some growing pains but he is coming - Ortiz looks like he is starting the old engine - Everybody knew about the pitching staff. I see no way that this team improves itself by tossing a manager who the players seem to like and want to play for under the bus. Now if you blame him for the players that were brought in then you have a point. If you blame him for this team's poor play you are off track. It is the easy thing to do - fire the manager - everybody does it right. I have seen plenty of coaches that I have not liked and he is not one of them.

Masterson had another good one. There will be a decision soon with respect to him I think.

18 hits is a good day. Great day for Holt.

I agree with you and I don't think that we are big time Farrell supporters either. No individual is going step into this mess and change things over night. Pressing the panic button and firing the coach in this situation might cause more harm than good. He ain't making the plays out there for them.

I exagerated a bit here to make a point. I think that any coach or manager can make a difference. I think that at this level it probably is more about managing personalities as opposed to actually teaching the game. It would be nice to think that Farrell's players have already been taught the things that we sometimes don't see them do. I can't really speak for Farrell's individual work effort - I can for Butterfield's. I would be surprised if anybody outworks him. Coaches like him do not work for fools. I'm not going to judge him because I am not at his practices. that is where you learn whether a coach is any good or not. He is humble - he takes responsibility- he is not afraid to own it. Would a change help - maybe . Is he the primary problem? Of course not. We are not talking about Bobby Valentine here.

Morgan Magic was special. Didn't last forever but it was fun to see.

true

This I agree with. It is the no ******** theory. I'm also not sold on Castillo.

Actually I should have said I agree with that.

I'm not disagreeing with that. I just don't think that firing him is any kind of quick fix.

I agree - He just might be too valuable to lock up in one position. On this team, he definitely should be playing somewhere everyday.

These are the types of changes that it is going to take. It probably won't happen because somebody would have to admit that a whole lot of things just didn't work out. Some would call them mistakes I guess. The easy path as we have seen before is to fire the coach. If they don't start winning, it will be interesting to see if the real issues get addressed.

I like this. I did see a kid playing third in Portland who I liked. Maybe Cechinni(sp) gets a shot.

oh boy - What do you think Farrell should do? Obviously you think that he should quit. We know that is not happening. What should he do? You think that he should bench Ramirez and Sandoval maybe? Move some more kids up from Pawtucket or wherever our great future players are? I think that he is up against a roster that is fairly well set. No amount of motivational speech is going to work with overpaid professional athletes. What do you think he should do? He is the boss so he represents part of the problem. That is the way it works but anybody who thinks that he is the primary problem is wrong. With the right players a manaquin seated in the right position could win.

I truly wish that it was primarily Farrell's doing. With the right roster, I trained monkey could get the job done.

I think that Pedroia offers leadership as well as Ortiz and probably Napoli. Not so much bad character as players with no leadership skills. I knew that I would get pounded for this one but you have to understand I am one of the old guys who still believe that RBI production is an important stat.