sk7326

Some good chatter on the moves in Boston http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=13467549 Cherington's ouster is still a stunner. 17 years and whatnot. He will find work without much difficulty if he wants to. That said, very smart to get Dombrowski in right now - and use the month to evaluate. The front office has a lot of talent (talent which spawned shops in Chicago and LA) - the turnover will be interesting.

A lot of the success was driven by geographic luck as much as anything, although 2012-2014 were very good teams. I think it could go well, but the rumored GM choice is quite bad.

I would have been fine with him staying. But if they wanted to bring in somebody else from a similar ilk (I cited Jason McLeod often as an example) I would not have objected. I did not hate the offseason plan, although the Sandoval signing was unnecessary. (I saw the upside in the signing, but for me Ramirez as a 3B solution was sufficient)

Cherington was a key part of the organization responsible for the best decade in this team's modern history. That method did not get passe. But I think after 2011 the front office basically ran from it in reaction to the collapse. There has been a lot of mixed messages since. The most coherent offseason they had, they won the title.

Also did not value the draft - at least in Detroit. I am willing to give him a chance. But this smelled of a deeply reactionary move without a ton of baseball thought.

Of course they do - from the eyeballs on NESN to the calls to various chat shows. PR is a business reason btw.

Ben was the simplest scapegoat ... I did not say he did not make mistakes. I am saying that ushering him out is the easiest way for them to publicly address the season.

The problem that has been addressed is that Ben lost the confidence of the Nation and thus management axed him to alleviate that. That much is known. Now how much of that reflects internal concerns is a different matter. I am not doubting it probably had something to do with it. But Ben was the simplest scapegoat - regardless of the merits - and so the axe fell. Dombrowski at first blush smells a lot like the sort of "win the news cycle" signing that the Sandoval-Ramirez tag team was. After all, Cherington DID bring in DiPoto to do some self scouting and whatnot. And then he got axed a week later by the sexiest executive name out there. This does not have the aura of a decision made entirely on baseball merits. I am not one to say that Cherington deserved to stay - although I think the answers are a lot more complex. He was one of the key front office pieces during the seminal decade of modern Red Sox history, and given the status of the Cubs rebuild - the Red Sox Way as it were did not suddenly get passe overnight. What is true is since 2011 the ownership/management has very much dithered in a very reactionary way to fan opinion on this stuff, instead of trusting what Lucchino, Epstein and the baseball ops had built. So what we're left with is a front office overhaul, but a very haphazard one - enough that I can't say thank god ... because this could end up quite bad.

(he was a manager at Dombrowski's stops in Miami and Detroit)

It is always a question with prospects, isn't it? But, I've always leaned on the adage that was true since high school. The future studs aren't guys who dominate JV, but the freshman who can play starting minutes (even as a role player) with the varsity. Moncada, Guerra are young for a full season league, Devers is younger than that. That they have had success in a full season league is very encouraging. Remember, the three guys at Greenville are all nearly 2 years younger than Benintendi ... and already have a season or two of pro experience beyond. You draft a college guy you hope to start him higher on the ladder in order to make up for that gap. Think of it another way. Sam Travis was a college 1B in a not-particularly good league (Big Ten) and started his first full season of pro ball at Salem and is now in Portland. You draft college guys for the high floor. The hope is there is less hand holding early on.

The fear will be exhuming Jim Leyland's corpse. I also disagree that a lot of questions have been answered. A guy got hired. Who has say, what the front office will be like - all of that is very much open.

Moving Boston to the AL Central of the mid-2000s?

He was - the question in Boston was could he handle the workload ... and as it turned out, largely he could. His career of arm trouble was the risk. Allowed Cherington to get him for a song.

GM choice will be key. The initial whispers of Frank Wren are profoundly troubling. Now what Dombrowski did in Detroit and Miami are indicative that he can do it both ways. He stripped the Tiggers farm dry because the Little Caesar's guy told him to. The results were solid, but we see that they are behind the rebuild 8-ball. The NY times piece on it was funny talking about how Dombrowski might shift things to a scouting driven approach instead of an analytics one. Since the Red Sox farm talent has been a non-issue, one would say that scouting has been quite good. But Dombrowski is old, and so the GM choice is the more important one. If it's somebody promising, like a Jason McLeod or somebody from the Cardinals shop, that is one thing. If it is a warmed over mystery meat like Wren, that is another entirely.

Perhaps - although I suspect the injury might have miraculously healed if the standings were different.

If he could just produce league average OBP, he'd be an above average starting CF. I don't expect the guy we're seeing now to last - but he has the tools and approach to at least be acceptable given the D.

Oh I wouldn't worry about it - the guys who are down there have not played tough competition beyond high school (or the equivalent). Big time college baseball is a step up from big time high school baseball - that does not seem controversial. It's fine for guys out of high school for sure ... but the SEC is the best baseball league in the country. You hope the player of the year from that conference (especially a bat) is at a higher starting point. Orienting him at Greenville is fine of course.

Shaw has had a nice couple of weeks. Not sure he is a 1B solution, but he could be part of one.

If defending him publicly for the rest of this season is the best move for the team clubhousewise, then I do get it. We know that John Valentin was deemed the everyday shortstop right until he wasn't. If pulling Ramirez from LF hurts the manager's credibility with the guys for instance, then it makes sense not to. That's all. We know that position switches, as silly as they are, can sometimes require international diplomacy and whatnot. I am not going to necessarily fault however it gets handled. There is plenty of time to make the decision. Longer term I am pretty sure Bradley is going to play CF for somebody next season. There is still far more evidence he cannot hit big league pitching than otherwise, but obviously the past week and change has been encouraging. We've noted before, if Bradley can be a .310 OBP with that glove, that is a quality starter.

I don't disagree - and if there is a good college arm, I'd suspect they'd be game too. Until recently, the draft positions have not been that favorable to find that sort of arm talent (it tends to go pretty quickly) ... I don't know enough about the 2016 crop right now. Clearly the 2015 crop was weak, considering how many college bats (usually your least sexy of the cohorts) went early.

Indeed - but then so are arms drafted into the system (prep arms at least).

If he's putting up a .322 wOBA he is causing tremendous damage at either position. As far as playing 1B now - you can argue it either way. There is plenty of time for a position change, and if a guy is not comfortable taking the test cold, it is hard to blame him. That said, keeping him in LF is a good argument for rotating Betts between CF and RF based on when Bradley plays, to maximize the amount of help Ramirez can get. We know the Red Sox in days of yore shaded Damon or Crisp or Ellsbury and whomever towards Manny to help babysit him. So something like that is doable. Trick is the bat still has to play, and that is particularly concerning.

As well as he should ... SEC player of the year faced better competition in college than he saw at Lowell (and to a great extent will see at Greenville) ....

Right - and, fyi xFIP makes a leap about homerun luck which may or may not be true ... I tend to agree with Fangraphs that xFIP while useful might be a bridge too far right now.

Like this one ... http://soxprospects.com/players/espinoza-anderson.htm