cp176

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.

Over the course of the winter discussions we had it driven in to us that players performing at this level are the best the world has to offer. I believe that as well. We also heard from some that they don't choke nor do they perform in "clutch" situations any differently than they would under normal circumstances. I don't believe that one. I believe that coaches still can make a difference but to blame this debacle on the backs of this coaching staff I'm not buying. I'm not a big Farrell guy - don't get me wrong - but I don't think that Francona was any better. The people responsible for assembling this team as a whole are the ones who should be sharing the pain with the players here I think. I'm reasonably sure that Farrell would have at least had some involvement when determining who stayed and who went. Players at this level can still be helped by good coaching for sure but no way am I blaming a coach for someone getting picked off base in an important situation or for some moron forgetting how many goddam outs there are in an inning. I think that a coach has a right to expect some degree of intelligence from his athletes. This group is a product of questionable signings without a major consideration for the type of player (as in character) that was being brought in. In 2013, I always wondered about the talent level but I never questioned the mental toughness of the group that was assembled. You always learn more about a person when they are losing as opposed to when they are winning. We are going to learn a lot about this group over the next few weeks. When dealing with rich, spoiled, over rated athletes, I'm not sure that anybody will do a better job than Farrell. This isn't all about baseball issues. Character and mental makeup do in fact count. We have been down this path before with this franchise.

So - ZIPS and Steamer projected that the rotation would be as good as last year. What were the projections for how they would do in the field? I only ask because I am questioning all projections made by any of us using whatever we use to measure them by. Personally I think that a lot more attention should have been paid to the character quality of the acquisitions that we made this year.

I think that most of us were hoping that he had matured since the early days. He is who has always been. That was one of the risks you hope was considered when he was signed.

If the Reds cannot afford to keep Cuerto, it makes sense to deal. With respect to the rest of our young prospects, you might be right - they may be good someday. Maybe not. Any team dealing would have to consider the risk involved. I have gotten to excited about our current group of prospects. I think that most teams would demand much more than the Red Sox would be willing to give up to get anyone of significance.