Maxbialystock

The WAR and other stats have made it clear JBJ is vastly better than Ellsbury even before a salary comparison. That said, Ellsbury, while underperforming, is still somewhat useful to the Yankees and probably better than Carl Crawford was playing for the Sox.

All good comments on Dombrowski. I was simply pointing to the fact that last year the Tigers were losers and this year they are vying for a playoff spot. My standard for good executive management would have to be the Cardinals who seem to be competitive every year while also getting a WS (or at least to the WS) every now and then. They also don't spend a king's ransom on players. ST Louis is a city like Detroit that is losing population steadily, but they love their Cardinals and go to the games in large part because of the Cardinals ability to stay competitive. I think the Sox in the John Henry era overall have done pretty well. Granted, they spend a lot on players, but they are also in the same division with the Yankees, who not only spend more on players, but are more than happy to take Sox players away with higher offers. Epstein and Cherington and the guy before Epstein brought 3 WS to Boston after the 86 year drought. Epstein might end a longer drought with the Cubs.

I looked at the Sox active roster which right now lists four outfielders--Betts, JBJ, Benintendi, and Holt. Total salary for all four is a tad over $2M--by far the most cost effective MLB outfield on a single team in a long time. Dombrowski gets credit for bringing Benintendi up, but I am less sure that he is the ace GM some say he is. The Tigers fired him and are better since he left. He didn't need to do much to fix the lineup which already was going to be very good. The best improvements were moving HanRam to 1B, which was inevitable before Dombrowski got here, and the injury to Sandoval. Sandy Leon is a nice surprise at C, but the Sox got him last March, before Dombrowski. The Sox have the best overall lineup in MLB and very little credit goes to Dombrowski. His report card should be based on fixing the pitching, and so far that is a mixed bag. Price right now is paid the 3d or 4th highest salary in the history of MLB and he sure ain't living up to it. Pomeranz just might work out, but at the cost of a highly regarded minor leaguer (I personally thought the deal made sense, which suggests it probably did not). Our two best starters are Wright and Porcello, for which Dombrowski gets no credit. ERod, estabished here before Dombrowski arrived, is finally looking like last year and could become our 3d best starter ahead of Price. Dombrowski made the decision to keep Buchholz at $12M/year, and that has not paid off. Kimbrel, despite some issues, is a plus. Abad is a firm minus. Ziegler is a mixed bag. Feel free to disagree.

Seriously? I checked. It's true. But Bundy could be tougher than Tillman.

Agree. But he did not keep the better team from winning even though his calls favored the Orioles.

Just a helluva game. Kimbrel threw strikes! Ross got his man. Great plays by Bogaerts to start the double play and by Holt to end the game. Betts needs to start wearing a cape. Huge win.

This is one lousy bullpen. Ziegler gets the GIDP, then hits a guy. Plus he didn't help in the 7th.

No credit for Betts on that one. It was Farrell's lineup. Not.

No credit for Betts on that one. It was Farrell's lineup. Not.

Too true.

Huge home run by Betts. Huge. If the Sox win this game, the biggest so far this season. Good thing Mookie doesn't read my comments. Barnes so far has been just perfect.

Nice try. It was putting that lefty in there to break up three straight righties that allowed even the possibility of some offense. All Betts needed was a little single to bring home two--Pedroia and Bogaerts--and Ortiz was the one who gave him the opportunity by getting walked.

Gallardo is pitching well, keeping his pitches down and mixing them up. But the Sox are also missing opportunities. Betts especially. It is borderline criminal how the lineup is so far wasting a great start by ERod.

Orioles have twice walked Ortiz to get to Betts and it worked both times. Betts has left 4 men on. This is all Farrell's fault of course. He is supposed to put players in position to excel.

Betts blew it, pure and simple. That first pitch was so fat, but he let it go by. Gallardo clearly had his number, but he also made some good pitches.

Actually, you speak up during or after almost every game because you believe that managers in general but especially Farrell do not meet your standard of logic. The upside of your approach is that it almost invariably leads to a discussion or argument, which is good for a discussion board. If everyone agreed with me, this would be a pretty dull blog site. Contrary is good.

Actually, I would expect Leon to be kept in a game when Kimbrel was closing if only because he would not be "cold." Plus he has the good bat in case Kimbrel gets hit and the Sox need to come back. Plus there is additional risk anytime you sub for your catcher.

I like the use of the word "right" because it underscores where we disagree. To me almost all managerial decisions are "right" because they have logic, experience, stats, and timely advice behind them regardless of the outcome.

My goodness. Looks like Leon has issues catching Kimbrel, and we can be sure Holiday has not because he did a great job catching him in the 9th. For all we know Leon would have had another PB or maybe failed to get someone stealing 3B. Leon would appear to be the wrong guy to insert into a close game in which the Sox have a narrow lead and need to preserve it. Let's not forget that Leon was also not warmed up, which made him even more likely to make a costly mistake. He also would have been "cold" pinch-hitting. Meanwhile, the sagacious Farrell knew that, even if Holiday K'd, he still had too good shots at at driving guys home with Benintendi and Pedroia coming to bat. Were I Farrell's lawyer, I think I would move to have the case thrown out for lack of evidence. Keeping Holiday in was the only sensible move.

Orioles have been tough, but are only 6-4 so far this year. They have a losing record on the road, which means they are especially tough at Camden Yards. But I like our chances and see these two games as a great opportunity. I think the Orioles starter is a righty, so I see this lineup (which I like a lot): Pedroia, Bogaerts, Betts, Ortiz, Ramirez, JBJ, Leon, Shaw, Benintendi. ERod on the mound. a700hitter and I don't agree on much, but we do agree on Showalter. As stated in the OP, a Dbag.

It was definitely painful, but I watched almost all of it.

I personally don't care and think it's borderline silly to argue whether Benintendi was/is ready to play LF or CF. He is here to hit, and we know he has outfield skills and only lacks Fenway experience. I didn't think he was ready to hit MLB pitching and was clearly wrong. His fielding should not be an issue.

You sure don't need mvp78 to defend you. Those two paragraphs are the clearest possible explanation of where you are coming from and why we disagree. You say you have a low opinion of managers, but in fact you expect managers to make just the right move--unfettered by statistics or advice from the bench coach--to overcome any and all shortcomings by the players. And I think most managers make reasonable decisions in almost every circumstance and that it is up to the players to make things happen. I think you are also on record as saying that umpires are too imperfect to be allowed to call balls and strikes. My belief is that they are good enough and that they rarely prevent good teams from winning and bad teams from losing. On another thread I wrote that, while managers and umpires are necessary, they are only the framework for a game that is all about the players. For example, I would not have brought in Abad yesterday, so there I agree with you. But, unlike you, I love the fact that he came through and maybe even turned a corner. To me Abad's success is something to celebrate but to you it's just another chance to excoriate the manager. It is clear you would have been even happier if he gave up a hit or even a dinger. About Holiday. You argue strenuously that there was no downside to pinch-hitting for him but ignore the glaring fact, not surmise, that the downside was that we could have lost the game which in fact was won with Holiday staying in. Here again I celebrate the fact that a newbie, a catcher, contributed to an important win even though he couldn't hit spit.

This all makes a lot of sense to me, especially the behind the scenes stuff which I am usually and blissfully unaware of. I think your rating of Farrell is right on target and could not agree more that he in fact out-managed two good managers in the 2013 ALCS and WS in large part because he had a really good bullpen and some guy named Big Papi. You could also be right about Francona even though, when he was here, there were lots of guys on websites calling him Francoma. Where I disagree with almost everyone is in my preference that managers should not be the keys to winning and losing, the players should. I am fine with the notion that good managers today are good mostly because of the behind the scenes stuff. I am also fine with discussions about in-game managerial decisions as long as they are tempered by the realization that managers have vastly more experience, data, and real-time expert advice than any of us.