cp176

notin - what you do not know about me is that I am color blind in the truest sense of the word. I do not care what a person's color happens to be. I think it is great if people want to celebrate such things. i believe and always have believed in the sometimes forgotten concept of the best people getting the jobs based on what they are capable of doing.

i really hope that the best and most talented person available gets this job regardless of - gender - sexual preferences - religious beliefs - skin color - cultural background - language spoken - etc. etc.

If you were born when I was born, grew up where I grew up, it would likely have been possible to paint a picture of 90 to 95% of the people living in our area as racist. looking back in history and simply making a statement that anyone was a racist while you look at life through your own window today is a slippery slope as far as i'm concerned.

I am a very progressive person in fact. it just amazes me how certain words today carry with them different meanings than they ever had before!

This is a sensible and imo an accurate post. Times have changed for sure. Tito first of course - Williams second - I think I need to see Cora a little longer before he gets close to the bronze. Last year of course was wonderful and magical but the talent level was just incredible as well. i lived through '67 and no one - repeat no one - believed that the Red Sox could put together a season like they did. you could make a pretty good argument suggesting that last year's Red Sox were stronger than the 67 team in every position on the field other left field and maybe first base. When Cora wins while facing some real adversity, i could easily change my opinion. he loses more points with me because of this year as opposed to the ones he gained last year.

finally thank God! That trade was a very good one. Trades in general are risky but trading an unproven young pitcher who granted showed great potential for a big young left handed ml pitcher with great potential just seems and seemed like a no brainer. if people want to play GM and think that they could have done any of the deals for less than what it cost us, it is tough to argue or even debate with them. I simply say that they really need to get their applications for the job in right away.

There is really no way that anyone should have Alex Cora ahead of Dick Williams on any list. Sounds nice and coincides with some trendy American "progressive" thought today but there is a bottom line here. Cora at some point in time may become very good but what he was a part of pales in comparison to what was done in 1967 Based on the way this team looks this year, i feel confident in saying this. i also think that you probably assumed someone like me might respond. That's good! lol

Did you write this or did i ? lol

You learn a lot more about your team when they go through spells like this than when everything is wonderful. Once again I'm not that guy who is always clamoring for someone to blame and possibly to fire but ultimately the way these guys are playing right now directly relates to what they and their coaches are made of. It isn't easy to be super excited for a game when you know it is over but that is what the good ones do. Most of you know how I feel about Chris Sale. i think having a healthy Chris Sale on the roster is a necessity for this team. he is a tough as they come. I think that it is time for this group to toughen up. Pride is important.

!!!...!!! Just kidding notin...

Honestly notin about the only place here where i think differently is that I cannot imagine remotely JH not having his finger on the money bag pouch. As for the rest, yes I get it. I do have to wonder why though on occasion so many talk so much about how this man has single handedly decimated our farm. I think that he did lighten the load in an attempt to bring in some real quality but if the majority of the guys that were traded represent a farm decimation, I would have to say that there really wasn't a great deal of real quality when Dd came on board. The good ones are playing for us for the most part.

I agree - though I was actually in favor of acquiring Pomranz and Kimbrel . The only hindsight part of this one is that no one really does know how much it would have taken to get either one of them. I would also add that for the best performing free agents that he signed, they were not broken down old guys. There was reason to think that they would be able to perform at a high level for a few years.

lol - you rascally guy

Oh and in addition to this, who is responsible for the lackluster effort and play shown lately by the boys? Alex Cora may some day become the manager that a few people anointed him to be after one year but right now not so much. i like the guy but one of the jobs that falls directly on his shoulders is to continue to insist that these guys play as hard as they can every single day.

in all honesty with respect to the large deals and trades made by DD, I was and still would be on board with most. My only question might possibly be with respect to the number of years given to some. I think that going out and acquiring high end fairly young talent with very good potential is a great idea. It obviously takes something to get something. i think that looking back at the deals made simply based on hindsight is ridiculous. When i hear that constant wail about the way DD depleted our farm, i tend to get perplexed because I can't recall any of the guys traded other then Moncada who really have to date accomplished much in the way of great things. really my only complaint this year was and would continue to be that more effort should have been spent on strenghthening the bullpen. i think that he had too much faith in the guys we had out there. In Dombrowski's case, his firing has allowed his detractors to take some fairly good shots at him. If any of the players he traded should blossom into front line players (Moncada not included), maybe I'll reconsider my opinion. As for now, i'm pretty sure that trading less for a whole lot more is ever a bad idea.

a great post - this is what we see too often in today's world. Notin's opinion is no better nor is it any worse than anyone elses. i don't agree at all with him with respect to the way John Henry does business. Since it is a guess, i'm going with the concept that he is very much in tune with what goes on with respect to any major contract given to any player on any team that he owns.

if you believe everything that you wrote here Slasher, don't you think that there is just a little bit of hindsight gawking required?

Since we really don't know, this is an area where I guess it is ok to speculate. In an interesting way it seems, you might be suggesting that the billionaire principal owner of the Red Sox doesn't seem to be fully up on the status of contracts that he is paying for. Are you just trying to be funny again notin? If you aren't, then i guess our owner just isn't very bright. I'm thinking that he is fully involved in any contract that pays out millions of dollars to any of his employees.

I'm with you here! Too much blathering about DD and not enough aimed at the players and coaches that nearly everyone here felt would repeat. They have played poorly and have shown limited amounts of enthusiasm. The blame falls directly on them.

So let me get this - you are implying that Dombrowski is responsible for a group of highly plaid talented athletes not playing as a team? what role do you think that Cora and his coaching staff plays in all of this?

I understand why people disagree with many of the decisions that DD made. I don't necessarily disagree with many of his decisions at all but i think i get it. he doesn't do things the way some of you want to see them done. I'm much more concerned with the overall performance of the existing team than I am with any of DD's decisions. They have not gotten the job done and on many occasions they have looked disinterested. This has nothing to do with DD. i could live with a .500 team if I felt that they left what they had on the field game in and game out. I don't think that they do. It is on the players and the coaches working with them. At some point in time, you just have to accept that it isn't the ownership nor is it the GM who does the job on the field. if you give the players and coaches a free pass, good for you. i don't. they have screwed up my summer. And oh yes, I would sign Chris Sale over and over again. he was paid far less than he deserved for way to long. You can criticize his performance all you want, at least when he is out there, he owns it and really seems to care.

heading down the wrong path I'm afraid.

...and there you go again. I see what you are doing.

Interesting - not sneaking this one by me.

Agree here - DD is getting punched around pretty well here for sure but John Henry gets no free pass from me. he controls the $. To assume that DD didn't have henry's good blessing with respect to every contract that so many of our resident professionals think were just terrible, is to be absolutely blind. It is absolute ******** to try to paint this GM as some sort of culprit for doing the job that he was hired to do.