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He was a pro scout in 2005, which is what you defined it as. He then spent 7 seasons as an advanced scout, which meant scouting other major league teams for weaknesses...

Yeah that's largely Dombrowski's attitude, too. And it contributed to him getting fired at least twice...

Why? He has 8 years as a scout under his belt already...

Maybe around all of MLB you get that many...

This is also the first year the Sox didn't finish first or fifth since 2011. And despite that the Sox used those years to build their farm with players like Benintendi, Kopech, and Moncada, all that happens instead is debating about the job Cherington did and not how it benefited the club today. Sox fans are all about today. Not tomorrow. Many want to wait until tomorrow to fix it...

You and every scout whoever saw him pitch...

The Rays track record does include finishing 3rd, 4th, or 5th five times in the 5 seasons prior to this year, and never finishing closer than 13 games of first place. It's easy to call them the model to imitate when they are winning. But they have a lot of periods when they are losing that Sox fans could not handle. Heck, we have one 3rd place finish and people want to blow the whole thing up and rebuild...

He was an absolute monster than first year, especially in the post-season. And hey, we traded him for the immortal Josh Rutledge...

... which is not longer than 3 years...

And Logan Allen helped the Sox get Kimbrel. The fact is, the Sox were not bad at drafting pitching talent. They were just bad at keeping it...

Red Sox fans, too...

Depends. What if she brought the new guy home to bring in a paycheck and help raise the kids, and the old husbands job was sex and controlling the quantity of beer in the fridge...

It is possible, but I also think Lucchino gets blamed for a lot of stuff he is not so responsible for. He is jut such an easy scapegoat...

And given that many other teams have already fired manager and the Angels seem prepared to make an offer to Joe Maddon, the Sox probably would have axed Cora already and started the process before all the candidates get other jobs...

I suspect he wanted to limit BC to the GM role the same way Mike Hazen was entrusted to it....

At the beginning of his regime, he limited them to 3 years. But yeah he lost his way after a while and started giving out those deals. The Sandoval one always irked me the most, since he was clearly in decline...

No real surprises. Elktonnick called it...

Dombrowski replaced Lucchino, not Cherington. He just assumed Cherington's role after BC quit. Now how much influence and responsibility he would have entrusted to Cherington is unknown.

The Sale trade was an excellent move. But the Sale extension, maybe not. And to give it after Sale had missed almost all of the last half of the prior season with an injury does lead to a few questions. Price was an elite pitcher. But a 7 year deal? He was already 31 at the time. Does anyone think he would be the same pitcher at age 38? At some point in that deal, the chances of decline - and very likely steep decline - were extremely probable. Deals like that are made for teams who want to "win now and lose later." Which is great when it is still now, but later will eventually get here...

Do we know he wants to be a GM again? He's currently a VP of Baseball Operations, basically the Tony LaRussa of the Blue Jays. And I think given the steady stream of topflight prospects they have right now, they are probably quite happy with him in that role...

To be fair, Cherington was hamstrung at the beginning of his tenure to the point where had had to trade Marco Scutaro just to afford Cody Ross. Dombrowski started out with no such restrictions. And right now, we don't know if Sale and Price are going to lead the staff or be two rotation fillers costing the team $57mill in AAV annually for the next 3 seasons. These were exactly the type of contracts Cherington was looking to avoid, which is why he didn't sign any free agents to deals longer than 3 years...

Maybe this isn't selling high on Devers? Maybe he continues to get better? Would you trade Devers to Atlanta for OF Drew Waters, RHSP Ian Anderson, and 3B Austin Riley. All 3 are Top 100 prospects on every list...

I'm not wild about Chjavis, but if he can handle 2B, all the better. The problem with Ockimey in a platoon is he is the LHH, aka the strong side of the platoon. If you have a question mark in a platoon, better off having it be the RHH, who plays less often and is easier to find a replacement for. If the Sox do go dirt cheap with a platoon at 1b, I could see bringing in half human/half mountain Matt Adams (career .816 OPS vs RHP) and then platooning him with Sam Travisty. If Travis doesn't work out, there are fallback options like Dalbec, who, if he isn't traded, can stay on the farm for a bit. I don't think he even has to be added to the 40-man roster this year, does he? They also have Tommy Joseph as a RHH 1B in Pawtucket who might be brought back, who has MLB experience, although also has a strong propensity for getting concussed. Or maybe just a Adams/Chavis platoon if they think Chavis simply is not an everyday player. The Sox have a few internal options for 2b, including Marco Hernandez, Tzu-Wei Lin, Chad De La Guerra (a very quiet .901 OPS in Pawtucket this past year in 253 PA), and CJ Chatham. Or they could try a one year pillow contract to a vet trying to re-establish some value, a phrase this year that obviously refers to Scooter Gennett. (Can they still use the player option to lower the AAV?) Adams does have a $4mill mututal option with Washington, so he might not be as available as i thought, but he is hardly imporssible to trade for or find an equivalent MLB player... Outfield is the bigger concern. I think they are not so likely to have Bradley and it sounds like they are planning to move Betts. That leaves two gaping holes. And JD Martinez ha convinced a few people he is moving on as well, although sometimes these writers look a little too deep into every comment to stimulate some interest in their readers / followers. And nothing stimulates interest like potential bad news. If the Sox have $56mill to spend and don't bring back Betts, the remaining arbitration players will probably cost about $20mill total, leaving plenty of cash to sign a couple role players like Adams and Gennett and a bullpen arm or two....

I was certain Dalbec would be traded when Dombrowski was GM. Now I’m not so sure. But I don’t think he will be part of a 1b platoon with Travis or Chavis, especially since all of them bat right- handed. Now would the Sox try the defensively talented Dalbec at 2b this year?

Why not? Judge might be big, but he is made of glass...