sk7326
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Everything posted by sk7326
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I am old enough to remember him as Michael Jordan's manager at Birmingham.
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A sendoff for someone who might be best manager in the history of TWO franchises. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/38498193/terry-francona-manager-guardians-red-sox-retire
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there were some injuries and the "returning players" still had to ramp up - and in the case of Story were still bad. And also - get serious. Did you ever see a 3 week stretch where this team was truly humming? There were some good 2-week stretches ... but did this team ever really have the chance to boss a 1/3 of the season? The team was betting on a lot of hope, same as 2022 and 2021. 2021 there was more stable talent offensively - but a TON still had to go right on the pitching side (and did!). Ultimately, Bloom and the front office took very short term, speculative decisions with pitching .. sacrificing floor for bargain-shopping ceiling. You rely on rolling the dice, the spaghetti monster can bite you.
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Oh I don't know. I think Cora is very good. But it is possible I am wrong. But it is hard to look at the Red Sox record over his two tenures and feel like they have not largely maximized the roster.
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He is - although a completely different pitcher - valuable in some of the way that Tim Wakefield was in days of yore ... that he is so durable and reliable (even if the end results are meh) makes him valuable over a 162 game marathon. The way I look at it, Crawford, Sale and Bello are clear rotation starters of some kind. They need at least 1-2 more of say Crawford's quality - but who can put >150 IP without much drama. Cora has had to macgyver so much this season with that pitching staff that you just run out of options, particularly when you don't have live arms coming out your ears organizationally.
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Rafaela is above average now, but elite is entirely within his grasp Story is a plus defensive SS, not what he used to be but a plus player Casas should get better at 1B ... he was terrible this year, but the road to "good enough" at 1B is not a long one I think you'd flip flop verdugo and duran in this lineup - go where you need the range. This team might not be the 2015 Royals defensively - but it should be good enough that we don't think about it.
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I think the knockon effects of just a couple of solid #3 starter types would be pretty good - at least to get them in more of a wildcard race than this season.
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I had it as a B- given what ownership asked him to do .. but a lower grade is fine. Of the Sox GMs over this time, he started with the emptiest hand. But there was no excuse for this team not contending the last two seasons (by any definition of contending) and he has to own that, especially with how obvious the remedy was.
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Yes. It is clearly the best ownership in franchise history. It has also not been perfect and done some dubious baseball things the last decade. And despite some dubious process, the team won a couple of titles anyway. All of those things can exist at once.
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Indeed - and then he fired the GM for doing it and started whining about the payroll inside of a season.
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Oh I think the current ownership just needs to act normal. What is interesting about the history of the Sox - and why the "curse" was so seductive as a mentality was that BASICALLY, between 1967 and 2004 - aside from a couple of Butch Hobson seasons, the team was good! And what was painful came down to Game 7s - it was ever thus. I give Henry the benefit of the doubt mostly - but he has been much more unmoored since cutting loose the original flavor management team.
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The spending will help. But on some basic level, he has operated the front office in terms of expectation and turnover the last decade like a less fun George Steinbrenner.
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This has been the best ownership in Red Sox history. But it does seem like the last decade has been more in spite of ownership than because of. There will always be whiners in the fan base - and Championship or Bust is a foolhardy mentality particularly in baseball fandom. But the Red Sox are one of the big kids on the block, and they charge big boy prices to the fans - and fans are totally justified in expecting the franchise to act like one of the big kids.
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I think if you wanted to say that - qualitatively - Dombrowski and Bloom did about the same level (I'd say DD did a better job, but not by much), that'd be fair. They both had mandates which they executed. They both were done dirty somewhat by ownership for the (somewhat) inevitable results of executing the respective mandate. Now I think the consequences of what Dombrowski did were somewhat unavoidable - the farm system was emptied to create a big league wagon ... Bloom probably could have kept the big league club more viable by actually investing in pitching and a little bit of defense.
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Teel has a super high floor. He might be slower to arrive just because of the non-physical stuff catchers have to learn. I think there are 3 clear guys to push chips behind - Anthony, Mayer and Teel ... yes Mayer's numbers at Portland are bad, but he is one of the youngest regulars at the level (Anthony crushing it even younger is a hilariously great sign). Bleis obviously is a lot of dreaming still. Rafaela is a big league SOMETHING. His hit tool will determine whatever that is.
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It is wild that Anthony - who might start next year as the top prospect in all of baseball - has made Mayer ... ALSO one of the youngest regulars in AA, and still very much one of the top dozen prospects in the game ... almost look bad.
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He is 21, but a twitchy athlete and a late to baseball ... he could make some jumps developmentally for sure, though his future might be more in the outfield.
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One player does not a GM's resume make ... but it is fun to note that he got fired just as Roman Anthony might end up starting next year as the top prospect in all of baseball.
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I think ultimately both he and Dombrowski did the jobs ownership asked of them and got fired when things got even minimally difficult PR-wise. This was not as egregious as the Dombrowski firing but fits in the same general vibe.
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I think this is right. As Kiley McDaniel put it on ESPN ... Bloom was given a pretty rough hand and asked to make miracles. He ended up doing a solid but not amazeballs result - and ownership bailed on him. I'd rate Bloom's performance as about a B/B- overall ... it's not inspiring, but there was progress being made. But ownership - as has been its wont throughout their time here - was not going to have his back through a rough PR patch. Now I am not all worked up about Bloom's ouster being a wild injustice or anything, but there is a "the one thing all your failed relationships have in common is you" aspect to how Henry has run things since Theo left.
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The focus on the offseason is clearly starting pitching. Now, we want better pitchers than Nick Pavetta ... but give Pavetta this ... he was always there to take the ball, and that has been an all too rare trait. Aaron Nola is a clear top target - I am not sure how the ceiling is outcomewise, but you are going to get a lot of solid to pretty good innings. Lucas Giolito has been up and down, but some clear upside - though if I were him, I'd take a 1-year to stay in Cleveland's pitching development environment. Hyun Jim Ryu back from TJS Cora has talked about reviewing the throwing program ramping up for the season. I am not sure how much that would have helped the crew he had this season but find the inches where you can. Having an ace would be awesome - but even just raising the floor would do so much help. Like this team is only going to end up with 1 pitcher over 150 IP. You can't win with that.
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Well LF - even with other clubs - has often been seen with 1B as the position to put a big bat if you couldn't DH him. At Fenway it sort of makes sense since there just aren't that many plays to be made in LF. As far as SS goes - it's not like the team hasn't tried, though they have rarely had the classic all defense, no hit variety. Nomar's defense was pretty good until injuries caught up Stephen Drew was a solid SS Marco Scutaro was fine the year they had him Bogaerts grew into it - and the team waited it out because of the bat. But Bogaerts is a good defensive SS now. And as we've seen earlier - the best Red Sox teams were largely solid defensively. And yes - choosing "solid" while focusing on great offense is a sensible way to build a team that plays at Fenway. But whatever the argument - what they schlepped out in 2023 was way below that.
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Right. Like you look at what Tampa did. They play in one of the most pitcher friendly ballparks in the league - so they leaned into it with great defense and it not only helps their great pitching prospects, but allowed guys like James Shields to play up.
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Boston loves its bats. BUT, looking at the 4 WS winners. I'll use Baseball Ref's Zone Fielding Runs and Fangraphs team Def rating 2004: BBref 13th, FG 29th 2007: BBRef 1st, FG 14th 2013: BBRef 8th, FG 18th 2018: BBRef 7th, FG 11th 2023: BBRef 23rd, FG 30th So yeah, you can overcome this level of defensive putridity ... if you have the 2004 Red Sox offense or starting pitching. But the Red Sox for the most part were at least decent at fielding the ball on their good teams.
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I'd argue that with his bad, you could survive ONE minus defender on the infield ... but when you add the league's worst defensive situation at SS pre-Story and there is really nowhere to hide.