Hitch

You can still do that and not burn a year of control.

Depends how they view the season. If they're booting, it wouldn't make sense to burn one of his years.

Gabrielle Starr @gfstarr1 · 40m Sam Kennedy told us that Dustin Pedroia FaceTimed him, Alex Cora, several of the assistant GMs at dinner last night to point out the remaining free agents on the market and make his feelings known about what the Red Sox should do… The video - Would be weird for Kennedy to put this info out there if they didn't have something cooking...

Preach.

It would have been well worth it if Bloom traded the guy!

Funny you should say this as I'm constantly amazed how quickly sports fans will throw their morals out the window if it means their team has a better chance of success.

Yeah I was the same, I was hoping we'd go in sell mode from early on. That was an opportunity missed. Them's the breaks.

That's fair. He was trying that, which made his moves at the deadlines all the more baffling as he had the chance to accelerate it. Possibly, greatly. But he either couldn't talk himself into a position on which road to take, or he was worried about the reaction if he took the 'sell' one.

Yup. Which just further adds to the idea there was zero strategy behind anything we've done these past few years. I hope that's changing with Bres and Epstein back now.

I was definitely on the sale side of things. We should have turned JD, Bogey, Paxton and the others (such as Sale if to be believed) into some very decent pieces in our organisation which we'd be utilising right now. I do think Bloom got a good amount of things right, but we had the chance to cash in twice on a team that was going nowhere. And that's without the f*** up of leaving us slightly over on the luxury tax, moving our compensatory pick back. So frustrating.

There was a lot of problems above Bloom, no doubt, but he f***ed up two consecutive trade deadlines, and f***ed them up badly. He deserved to be sacked for that alone, but add in that it was reported often that he was very indecisive and questioned his own decisions over and over (the two deadlines would back that up), and it was right to move on from him, whether the issues get cleared up above him or not.

He drafted relatively well. And still deserved to be fired.

Because he f***ed up two trade deadlines in a row. Henry still wants to win. Just cheaper.

I would have been more than fine with the package - but not going more then 6/7 years on an extension.

And they'd like to make a big statement of intention. It's unlikely but definitely wouldn't be shocking.

Was it Fred that was the crazy bastard (and got banned?) He had a little cabal of posters that seemed inspired by him to act as big as *******s as possible around 2016 on. Christ the forum was a tough read back then. I took several years off and when I popped back in he was gone.

This is an excellent move. The team may not have gotten much better but the organisational hirings this off season have been very impressive. That Theo and Bres have history is also very encouraging.

Yeah, it's definitely his fault the market isn't moving.

Ownership is about to get another headache. Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool manager) has just announced he's stepping down at the end of the year. There is a not an insignificant group of fans that want Henry and the crew out of Liverpool, too. Although in this case, Liverpool spend what they bring in, so they're mostly idiots. But the pre-mentioned purchases of clubs by oil rich gulf states means Liverpool cannot compete financially with these teams. That is, without Klopp. With him they have been punching massively above their weight and competing for the biggest titles in world football year after year. A large group of fans believe we should be matching their spending even though we simply do no bring in the same money. Liverpool have had incredibly good management from Klopp and his assistants up to the governors at board level. Unless they absolutely nail the replacement structure (and Liverpool has been built around the character and personality of Klopp), the fans will turn on the ownership ever more when the good times start to dissipate.

Using Real Madrid (and Jesus Christ - Barcelona!) as an argument for fan run clubs is so f***ing lazy it beggars belief. This guy hasn't done even the most basic amount of research you'd expect a journalist to attempt. Let me preface by saying - fan ownership in part would be great. Bu you would want the German model at the absolute least, because most fans are emotional idiots without a care in the world outside of their team winning. And they need grown ups to tell them to shut the f*** up some times. Case in point - Real and Barca are ridiculously run clubs. The Spanish government was found in 2016 to be illegally funding both clubs. Why? Because of the politics of having constant elections to see who runs two of the most powerful organisations in world football. Football in Europe isn't like the collection of MLB/NFL/NHL/NBA in the US. Football is everything. It's the only sport that matters. It dwarfs everything else. Madrid and Barca are seen as the glamour clubs. Every player dreams of getting to play for one of these clubs. And everyone wants to be in control of these clubs because it is to be in control of European football (well it used to be - more on that in a bit) Each and every new President up for election at these two clubs promises the same things - the best players in the world no matter the price. And they get voted in by the fans every time. Nobody is voting for stability. And then each and every President wants to hold on to their power. Real Madrid has spent themselves into so much debt, they were forced to sell their training ground to the Spanish authorities (for a huge mark up of course), which afterwards, the Spanish government just handed back to them, for free. Yeah, that actually happened. And this brand spanking £1billion stadium that this wonderful club of fans was able to build? Have a guess where the money come from? Barcelona, were as recently as just a year or so ago, unable to register players to play in their league as they had overspent by such a gigantic margin that unofficially, they were in danger of going under. But of course, the Spanish government can't allow this to happen and so things were massaged and pressure put on the Spanish league to help them through this crisis. La Liga (the Spanish League) has been battling its two most successful teams for years. Just trying to get them to operate in the boundaries of their own huge financial reach. They fail over and over. La Liga is currently losing out on over £3billion of investment because Barca and Madrid won't sign off a TV deal (yes these two alone can stop the entire Spanish league system from doing anything), because they don't think they're getting enough money from it. By the way 50% of the revenue in Spanish football? It has to go to Real Madrid and Barcelona. By law. (It used to be 90%!) That's like the Dodgers and Yankees getting 50% of MLB revenues, and still spending themselves into such a lather the government has to step in to save them. Repeatedly. And this journalist is excitedly pointing out that the two most financially doped football clubs in the history of European football have won the most? What an achievement. And to top this all off - they recently tried to destroy the fabric of European football by convincing the top 20 teams in Europe to leave their domestic competitions (and hundreds of years of tradition) and compete in a new and ringfenced super league where they'd get EVEN MORE money. When the fans of the clubs in England selected to join found out about this, they rioted. Literally. Manchester United fans broke into their own stadium and started tearing it apart. All the fans of all the clubs were sickened by the greed. Apart from Real and Barca's fans - who's Presidents, are still to this day, demanding UEFA (European football authority) is overthrown and a new super league is formed. They are absolutely TERRIBLE examples of fan led clubs. They are despised by everyone (including their own league), corrupt beyond belief and a cancer on European football. It's astonishing these were the examples he decided to use in this article. Fan-led clubs can be a good thing. And as I say the German model (that he gave one sentence to in that article), is a much better option. Because you need business and/or economic people making the major economic decisions so that clubs don't destroy themselves in the act of trying to satisfy they're unsatisfiable fans. But why kid yourself into thinking it will ever happen in the US? They needed the government to bring in all encompassing legislation in Germany. Every special interest lobby is trying their damned hardest to stop the same thing happening in England right now. The US government is never doing that and even if they did - which fans are ponying up the billions needed to buy the club back from the owners? In closing, I'll say what I said the other day - often it's better the devil you know. English (and large swathes of European) football has sold its soul. We now have situations where countries and oil states own their most precious clubs. Saudi Arabia, Russia (through Abramovic until recently), Qatar, Abu Dhabi and others have bought countless teams and are slowly destroying the landscape of European football. And worse of all, they're just using these cherished institutions as sport washing devices. And then there's the venture capitals that buy the clubs by loading them with debt they've financed against their assets and leeching off them until they're destroyed. Clubs over a 100 years old have disappeared because of this. A club that your great great grandfather watched, gone, because someone came in and loaded a once thriving club with debt which it succumbs to. All so the investors can stirp it of millions for personal gain first. I don't know what the answer is - there's no perfect situation. No perfect solution. I know there'll be people who will just ignore all this and call Henry the Devil. You've not even come close to knowing the Devil, and I hope for Boston's sake, you never get to. There's only so many groups that can afford to buy these clubs now. And trust me on this, none are perfect.

Exactly how I feel.

There's more rumblings around Framber Valdez today. If he's available we really should be in on him with them looking for a left handed batter with speed. Not to mention if our big 3 work out Marcelo Mayer Roman Anthony Kyle Teel Along with our fringe players Wilyer Abreu Emmanuel Valdez Added to our every day players Jaren Duran Triston Casas Masataka Yoshida Rafael Devers We will have 9 left handed hitters in the team at the end of this year. We really could do with a trade or two to balance that out.

@JonHeyman on the Red Sox (via @BRWalkoff stream): “I think the Red Sox still have a big move in them … I do think the Red Sox will do something.” .@JonHeyman called the Red Sox a “good possibility” for Jordan Montgomery if things don’t work out in Texas. “I hear that the Red Sox certainly do like Montgomery very much.”

That's assuming that he'd be happy with that of course. I imagine most pitchers who have a good track record want that long contract to lock in their reward, rather than hoping they hold up to get two smaller contacts. If we could get him and extend for 3 years I'd be all for it.

30 years old at the moment. 32 at free agency. Can't see them even entertaining an extension. The mere suggestion has likely caused a bowel movement in Henry.