notin

His bullpen audition went pretty sour. Somewhere between Robinson Leyer and Dylan Covey...

But that doesn't mean he wanted to do so at the expense of Cherington. In fact, the closest parallel between the two is the remarkably similar approach DD took with the 1997 Marlins and Cherington with the 2013 Red Sox (minus the fire sale). He possibly even assumed that this meant they could work together...

Who was the ace of the World Series champion that season? The Sox tried the "groundball pitcher" approach, with guys like Porcello, Miley, and Masterson all having history if inducing lots of groundballs. And Sandoval actually had a solid history as a defensive 3B, giving them what should have been a good defensive infield. There was a strategy in place here. They even moved their worst defensive infielder to the outfield, possibly hoping the high groundball totals would mask his deficiencies. They were not helped by a lot of people having flat out bad seasons, highlighted by Masterson, who was roughly a 4 fWAR pitcher for the Guardians, but a negative fWAR pitcher upon returning to Boston despite still only being 30 years old. And also by Sandoval and Ramirez, who at times looked like neither had ever played baseball before... And don't forget, the Sox had some sort of moratorium on giving out big contracts to pitchers over 30. That's a deathnail on the free agent market, where the overwhelming bulk of pitchers are at least 30 years old...

It does still whitewash the positives. That would be like summing up Dombrowski's tenure by saying "his team missed the postseason with one of the highest payrolls in MLB history". It is true. Does it tell the whole story?

The chances of all those things working against the Sox are probably not that great, but the chances they all work out are equally unlikely. Out of those 6 possibilities, what if 3 of them become reality?

ERod should be treated like a bonus if he comes back. Of course I would think the Sox have more insight into his condition than Uninformed Fan Notin...

He’s he did. From 1991 until Beinfest...

The Orioles didn’t...

So the Sox might have their 3-4-5 in Eovaldi-Perez-Pivetta. Now they just need to add a 1 and 2. And most of a bullpen..

Not to mention, you pointed out the massive understatement of "3 last place finishes in 4 years." Was 2012 really on Cherington? He took over a team that was coming off a September that had to be among th worst months in franchise history, and with a heavy payroll on a team that had quit on everybody and was probably a dysfunctional mess on multiple levels. Oh, nd he was not allowed to spend to the point where he had to deal Marco Scutaro just to add Cody Ross and his borderline minimum wage salary. This team looked to be heading for a serious abyss, especially given the big money still on the books for Guinness Book Disappointment Carl Crawford and two declining contracts in Josh Beckett and Adrian Gonzalez. What GM was going to salvage that under those conditions? That the team won a World Series the next year was a remarkable job that shouldn't be written off with the tagline "3 last place finishes in 4 years," one that ignores the title even happened at all and solely underscores to low-lights to the point where it attributes one of last place finishes to him that he had absolutely no chance of preventing...

And really, the Sox cannot even think about heading into 2021 and hoping to compete with only Eovaldi returning to the rotation. When you're smallest question mark is still a pretty big question mark, that is a bad thing.

Well, he said he wanted him on board. Not sure what diplomacy buys him. I would think the reason is Cherington, who very likely knew Dombrowski professionally, figured he would be unable to work with him, either because they had drastically different philosphies or he figured DD to be a micromanager, or possibly even because DD was an insufferable human being. But bear in mind, Cherington worked under Lucchino, who carries an (undeserved?) reputation as a micromanager himself, and under Henry, who hamstrung his ability to spend anything his first year as well...

But the point is, DD wanted Cherington to do Cherington things...

Bloom is Chief Baseball Officer Brian O’Halloran is the GM Sam Kennedy is the President and CEO (Dombrowski’s former position)...

Apparently it’s Chief Baseball Officer

Dombrowski reportedly admitted he wasn’t expecting it. And he promoted Hazen to fill the role. It’s entirely possible Cherington quit because he knew his philosophy for running a team was in complete contrast with the Farm Killer. He would hardly be the first person ever to leave a position due to philosophical differences...

Plus Lucchino’s title was President, which was also Dombrowski’s title. Cherington was replaced by Mike Hazen...

I think he does. The Sox have too many holes in the staff to go replacing the guys who aren’t...

I blame Ed Asner and Carrot Top...

Ohhhhh! So you're saying the Sox are tanking so Henry can move the team to Miami?! Even though there's already a team there now?!!? And you're on board with this?!? Well, at least we get Willie Mays Hayes in CF to replace Bradley. Until he has tax problems and has to be replaced by Omar Epps the following season...

Dalbec will hit 2HRs tonight. Book it...

And every time DD signs a major contract, someone excuses it with “Henry signed off on it.” Doesn’t that mean Dombrowski isn’t either? (And given the number of people who credit Sandoval and/or Hanley with Lucchino, was Ben really ever the head decision maker?)

Even if he was being supplanted, that doesn’t mean the Sox were better off with him going. As I said, DD wanted him to stay, presumably to keep the farm strong...

I’m actually surprised the fire breathing velociraptor got in the car...

1) Maybe he didn’t like Dombrowski personally. Reportedly it’s not uncommon. 2) Possible he suspected that, but that doesn’t mean he was correct. 3) Maybe he worked very hard to restore a pretty depleted farm system (while winning a title) that was meant to pipeline players in for years, but knew it would be torn down in front of his eyes when Henry brought in a guy whose very reputation was “Farm Killer”...