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At the time Iglesias was dealt, the two of the top 3 active career leaders in UZR/150 for shortstops were Adam Everett and Nick Punto, both of whom had been dealt by the Red Sox in previous deals. No one cried nearly as much when those two excellent defenders were traded away. Punto was reaching the end of his career, so he wasn't the player he was in Minnesota. But Everett went on to have a great career as a defensive infielder, and was dealt for Human Volcano Carl Everett (no relation) in a move that some have said was to undermine Sox manager Jimy Williams, who envisioned a future Sox infield with Everett and David Eckstein up the middle. (Eckstein was DFA'd and released to accommodate the worthless Ed Sprague.)

I was as down on Miuddlebrooks a any Sox fan, even when he was still a minor leaguer. I wanted Middlebrooks to be dealt there (which would have made sense because the White Sox had never replaced Joe Crede at 3b and could have just kept Detroit out of that deal altogether.) But Iglesias did have issues. He reportedly had a mild tantrum upon a demotion to Pawtucket once, which Castiglione discussed on the radio as a Cuban thing as Cubans viewed demotions as statements they were not good enough (his words, not mine). And Iglesias also started a dugout fight with Detroit catcher James McCann during a game against the Red Sox. He certainly wasn't perfect. I never cared, since I never planned on hanging out with him anyway...

The 1995 Seattle Mainers are another good example. They were 12.5 games out on August 20th and still won the AL West....

Or the 2002 Oakland A's. Or the Sox need to bring in Joe Morgan and relive 1988's Morgan Magic! Is Morgan still alive?

1988 Morgan Magic!! The Sox were basically a .500 team under John McNamara, but he was replaced mid-season by Joe morgan and the Sox promptly won 19 of Morgan's first 20 games. And everything Morgan did worked perfectly. Very early in that streak, he removed Mike Greenwell, who was the MVP runner-up that year, and replaced him with pinch runner Kevin Romine. Romine would up batting in the 9th inning of a tie game and lead off the inning with a walk off home run, his only home run of the season. That team was amazing with their ability to just win and get key hits from everybody. It was one of the most fun regular season stretches in recent Sox history...

Drew did excellent glove work in that series. I agree on that. But have you ever seen a shortstop show the range Iglesias displayed on that opposite field blooper by Ortiz?

No problem with JDM. But maybe some question why he makes so much more than Ortiz did...

By the end of the offseason, pitchers like Nick Vincent, Francisco Liriano, Tommy Milone, Alex Wilson, Josh Tomlin and numerous others were waiting out opportunities for minor league deals. While not all of them have been successful in MLB this year, some actually have. But Dombrowski tried to sign 0 of them....

This year, it has been a real problem. I don't mind not taking evasive action when none is needed. But I expect an attempt when it is...

Bunting was not taken away due to some sort method of rule enforcement. It's just some have realized the strategic disadvantage. Now if some new study ever comes out to counter that claim, bunting will return...

And that's part of the problem that does fall on Dombrowski. Porcello is clearly having a horrible season, effort notwithstanding. But he is still out there starting games. Eovaldi is having a horrible season due to injury. He has had his role bounced around, but he is now back in the rotation. DD did got out and get Cashner, who was actually a smart pickup despite his failures at the time. But with all the struggles and injuries in this rotation, why so little effort to improve? Why did DD do nothing else? I get his trade assets were limited, for which he is culpable, but understandably so. But nothing else? Other teams in the playoff race have been at least trying. AS I pointed out on another thread, the Yankees have a killer bullpen, but they keep adding to it. Meanwhile Dombrowski looks at the Sox pitching and says "do better! That's it." It's not his fault Sale and Porcello and Cashner and Eovaldi have struggled. But it is his fault for having no one else to pick up the slack...

But there is some fault in theGM just sitting back and watching it happen. The 2014 team had a fire sale and still only regressed about the same as the 2019 team. The only difference remaining will be that the 2014 team finished in fifth place. The 2019 team will probably finish 3rd place despite the relatively equal regression...

Very true, although if having someone like Martinez at DH alloows the #9 hitter to be some Nick Ahmed type at SS with less risk offensively, that counters the defense issue...

I would point out having a good dedicated DH can help defensively, as it allows for a good glove/no hit player at a key defensive position without really killing the team offensively. Obviously a 1 or 2 SP typically costs more than a DH, but I think I'd be more apt to give the long term mega deal to a DH because those pitcher contracts can be very risky for injuries...

I'm just wondering why people undervalue DH. If the guy can hit, pay him. A lot of the best hitters in the league are awful fielders but make money, and that's actually a worse case scenario, beucae they can give a lot of runs back...

Your optimism is both grounded and astounding at the same time. Well done. While I find it difficult to share, I do like reading it out here...

The "superficial" comment was not specific to Eovaldi. More about how Dombrowski settled on his starting 5 and then just flat out quit. I heard Epstein on the radio here in Chicago talking about building the Cubs rotation, and he said something to the effect of "we know who the top 5 are, but we still need to settle on starters 6 though 9." We didn't see that this year from DD...

He's a logical candidate. It's really tough to guess what external folks will be available and interested. And while Shaughnessy has a reputation as a big time cynic, he's still a more perceptive sportswriter than any of the whiners that used to pollute the Herald sports pages in the 1990's and early 2000's. I would read 1,000 Shaughnessy articles before even reading the opening sentence on anything written by Gerry Callahan...

Keep Fighting the God Fight...

The Kimmi Fan Club? Lead by Slasher?

While true, it as never an either/or situation. I would not have minded both. But I keep expecting Ottavino and his control issues to implode...

Given your track record with short term predictions, are you really going to stick your neck out on a long term one? A farm system can be turned around very quickly. Epstein did it brilliantly in 2005 and again in 2011. We just need a GM who not only knows how to draft, but also knows enough not to ignore the international markets. Not to mention, the Sox are a large market team that is clearly willing to spend. They don't have to depend on their farm system to the same extent Tampa does...

He improved the pitching rotation superficially. But there was and still is nothing below the top 5 starters. While you can argue the injuries to Sale, Eovaldi and Price were unlucky, they were hardly surprising. Sale ended 2018 with some concerns. Price has had his issues since coming to Boston. And Eovaldi is a frequent visitor the the DL/IL. The bullpen has actually been a pleasant surprise in some ways. I keep expecting Marcus Walden to fall apart, but the man is a Phoenix, repeatedly rising from the ashes of his own poor performances. Workman is having a career year. And Barnes, while up and down, was probably relied on too heavily by Cora early on. And now Josh Taylor looks like he might be carving out his own little niche for 2020. Still, the overall plan to grab a backup 1B in stead of another arm to give more depth in case anything went wrong strikes me as a very poor decision, especially since (unlike me) Dombrowski was aware of the Sox' financial situation. But really the bottom line is this team has struggled since March, and while getting Cashner was a nice idea, we really have not seen anything else from Dombrowski. Rome was burning, and there was Dombrowski, fiddling away with Chris Owings and Joey Curletta. Meanwhile, the Yankees have the best record in the AL, and Cashman still isn't sitting still. Sure, it's extremely unlikely David Hernandez, Tyler Lyons and Trevor Rosenthal contribute in any meaningful way this year, but they are joining his ever-growing fleet of lifeboats. Meanwhile, the Sox have decided to sink or swim with whoever was on board in March and cling to the mantra "they need to play better." And that tactic is simply not working...

Now that i look at this statement again, that is a massive oversimplification. The 2014 team came in last place. The team might have been "incomplete", whatever that means, but you can't go from first with the same team without a massive change in the player's performance. The Sox only lost two players, and while Ellsbury was still good, he wasn't so good that subtracting him changed the team by 25 wins. And the other player lost was Ryan Dempster, the fifth starter...

While people like to re-write the history, Dombrowski did want to keep Cherington on as his GM. But Dombrowski also wanted to expand his own role to handle the MLB roster, which apparently did not sit well with Cherington. That Dombrowski promoted Mike Hazen to replace Cherington, and Hazen was largely limited to minor league development, just shows the role Dombrowski wanted Cherington to fill within the organization...