oldtimer

I for one hope that you stick with it as I often find your input thought provoking. Same with dgalehouse. It has been a tough season for the club and obviously fairly major changes are needed and are coming. I am guilty of looking at the club as if I am in a managerial position and slant my posts in that direction. I have been a fan since the 1940's and really have hopes that the organization can find the right management and approach to return them to competitiveness. Much of what gets posted of late is speculation about where things will go. When we are told what will happen it will get more interesting again. Hope springs eternal.

You are more willing to trade away the farm than DD. Glad you're not the new GM.

I like this guys background and accomplishments. He would be a viable choice for GM although there no doubt are others with very good backgrounds. Matthew Arnold Senior Vice President and Assistant General Manager Matt Arnold, 40, begins his fourth season with the Brewers after being named vice president and assistant general manager on October 14, 2015. Arnold assists President of Baseball Operations and General Manager David Stearns with day-to-day baseball processes and provides functional oversight of all departments within baseball operations. His areas of focus include Major League operations, roster construction, financial planning, staffing and personnel development, contract negotiations and player personnel decisions. Arnold also provides supervision within player development, medical operations, integrative sports performance, scouting and analytics. Prior to joining the Brewers, Arnold served as director of player personnel with the Tampa Bay Rays. During his time with the Rays (2007-15), Arnold assisted Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman and President of Baseball Operations Matt Silverman with player acquisitions, contract negotiations and player evaluations at all levels. His responsibilities also included strategic planning, foreign and domestic special assignments, and coordinating advance scouting for the postseason. Additionally, he worked to develop the process of integrating science, biomechanics and human movement analysis within all levels of baseball operations. Arnold joined the Rays following the 2006 season as a professional scout and was promoted to director of professional scouting in November 2009. In that role, he supervised the team's Major League and pro scouting departments. He was promoted to his most recent position with the Rays in June 2015. During his tenure in Tampa Bay, the Rays won over 90 games in five out of six seasons between 2008 and 2013, and qualified for the postseason four times (2008, 2010, 2011 and 2013), including the franchise's first World Series appearance in 2008. Arnold, who has 18 seasons of professional baseball experience, also worked in the baseball operations departments of the Los Angeles Dodgers (2000), Texas Rangers (2002) and Cincinnati Reds (2003-06). While with the Reds, Arnold served as assistant director of professional scouting with his duties including player analysis, financial planning and arbitration, as well as involvement in advance, amateur and professional scouting. Originally from California, Arnold attended the University of California-Santa Barbara, where he earned a degree in economics and merited academic honors, including Sport Management Student of the Year. While there, he met his wife, Jodi. The couple has a daughter, Julianne, and a son, Tyler.

Maybe we should go slow on wishing for him to return. We need someone with better judgment than to take Kimbrel on for big bucks.

I have read that the White Sox may well have an interest in JDM for their DH. He would improve that position for them and help bring the young hitters along, plus they have the cash. JDM does sound disgruntled with MLB and the FA process, not the Red Sox. I had thought no one would step up, but after reading the article, it sounds possible. The Red Sox have put a lot of effort into bringing Dalbecs hitting along and it looks like that effort was aimed at him joining the team at 1st in 2020. It makes some sense, particularly if they keep a left handed bat to platoon with him. Holt and even Moreland might be in play should JDM leave. I believe Chavis will be the most likely choice at 2nd next season. The Sox hitting coaches are working on his ability to hit the high FB. An upturn by him would solve our 2nd base issue. Chatham is an intriguing possibilty as a utility infielder with possibilities even to role play in the outfield. He is a line drive hitter who could add some muscle and become a solid backup. All three of Dalbec, Chavis and Chatham are low cost players and we do need some of those. Our outfield is still a question. Beni appears to remain as a primary in 2020 and the hope is we find a way to retain Betts. The big question is Bradley. He has been a very good CF defensively but has enough years as a very streaky hitter to exxpect more of the same. At his likely FA cost, I think we will cut him loose and try to back fill him from the FA market or with Duran, who may be a year away from real consideration. It is clear that the Sox are trying to bring Duran along quickly so it wouldn't surprise me to see him getting a look during spring training. No sure thing that either MHernandez or Travis will be around next season. We will need to make a decision about the backup catcher. It is probably time to move on from Leon but I don't see anyone in the organization ready to take over. Would we go to the FA market to find another satisfactory talent of just stick with a .189 hitter?

Moon, maybe you could but I find that idea a little nutty. He shelled out for the highest payroll in the ML and you would argue that he is greedy? Doesn't stand up to scrutiny. What I think he wants is a competitive team and his hirelings have let him down although he provided them with a generous payroll to spread around. I hope he gets a GM who has the sense to rebuild this team by resetting this year and moving ahead for 2021. I would think keeping Mookie is a priority, but paying beyond his real worth is foolish and would only lead to more problems down the road. If Mookie would go anywhere to get paid and some owner has very deep pockets, I don't see that we should outbid them. Maybe establishing worth is measured in how many backsides that will put into seats or the like. Whatever the approach, they need to decide and set limits.

I was assuming several of the star players would hang in there for 10 years. Guys like Bogie, Devers, Betts and E-Rod are likely to last well more than 5 years so the real number needed would be about 5 or 6 FA's on the 26 man, and some of those fill-in players on 1 to 2 year contracts. No doubt the roster needs to be brought into conformance with some sort of ideal as the way intelligent posters have talked here, we could lose 20 of the 40 man roster players. Hard to replace that many, even from a top farm system.

DHern looks like a possible BP closer but needs to get consistent command. Dalbec is a possible 1st baseman, who has to cut down on the strikeouts. Chavis has some promise but also has to cut down on strikeouts. Chatham is a potential utility players (any infield position and possibly outfield) who is a linedrive contact hitter and may have some power but has to gain muscle. Duran is raw and is moving through the system quickly. He has excellent speed and could be another any position outfielder. Can he hit ML pitching? TBD. Then there are Houck and Mata as potential starters. That to me represents the low cost guys who have a shot at making the team next year. With the number of guys likely off the payroll and with our huge payroll commitment to iffy players, they may represent the best hope.

Thanks

Anyone understand what the limitations are relative to talking to GM candidates during the regular season or during the PO's? Clearly, the sooner we get our new man in place the better for the organization and for getting the moves started. I would think that for clubs out of the PO's, the end of the regular season would be allowed, but I don't know that.

You beat me to the punch. Consistent team competitiveness does require a contribution from the farm on a regular basis. Spending to keep players who distinguish themselves and effective trades and FA pickups are also important. The way baseball is currently arranged, balance is required. The Yankees are spending $233 million this year, so they are spending and they also were smarter with their farm. I am optimistic that the Sox can get their act together and reverse their current trend during the next couple of years. The first thing to do was to recognize that there was a problem. That was brought home in spades as we are out of the POs with 9 games to play.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Red Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi left Friday’s game against the Rays due to a left thumb contusion, the team announced. He’s considered day-to-day. Benintendi got jammed on a pitch during his second-inning at-bat and was replaced in the field by Gorkys Hernandez in the bottom of the inning. Benintendi popped out to third in his only plate appearance of the night.

Because DD almost bankrupted our farm system of major talent, we will need a few years to return it to a more ideal producer of ML talent. For the time being, we will need extraordinary development and oddles of luck to get an average of three ML entry players out of the people we currently have in the system. We won't know unless we try these young men out under fire. Something I wished to do in September, but the FO and management wasn't thinking that way. Now, we need to hire good people in the front office and directors of player development and then have the patience to let them develop the farm. DD was not going to lead that effort and it was a reasonable move to say goodbye to DD and some of his cronys. The hard part will be finding and signing quality replacements.

But they have a superior stock of backup players.

Does anyone know why? It doesn't matter but is he hurt?

Maybe he was JH's advisor. His advice, fire DD!

The Sox are playing with many of their higher paid stars injured. Hard to compete when we have severe problems in those areas.

My feeling exactly. I presume a model for an ideal team would see around 3 good minor leaguers promoted every year to stay under the competitive balance tax first and/or second tier limits. Feeding the club in that way would keep a reasonable percentage of players in the prearb or low arb categories, leaving salary room for some higher paid star quality players, both home grown and also from the FA market. DD's approach did win a title but also placed us far from a perceived ideal model. It will take a disciplined and thoughtful front office to develop a plan for returning the team to full competitiveness. Getting the right GM is the first step of that process. Demanding accountability from the manager, coaches and players is the second step.

I think fans in all organizations recognize the need for refreshing the team roster each year with several low cost players moving up based upon merit. In the Sox case, we had traded away many our our best prospects while drafting low in the pecking order. Our minor leagues are rated 30th now because of those two thrusts. As fans, we still can hope that a few of our young players will develop beyond the general baseball projections for them and become viable major leaguers. Other options include trading and being smarter at it than those we deal with (pretty hard to find success there) or go into the FA market where we have exhausted our budget. I see the minors as our main hope for the next year or two.

It got E-Rod a win and he really deserved it.

At least Beni finally got a hit.

A rich 80 year old golfer goes to the 19th hole with his buddies after finishing a round A stunning young blond comes up to him and he gives her a hug and his car keys After she leave, the buddies ask if that was his daughter No he says, that was my wife The buddies can't believe it and ask how she consented to marry him Easy, he said, I told her I was 95 "like Mal"

True. We use a 12 inch ball. Women may use an 11 inch ball. An 80 something woman living close to us was married to a big name in Chicago softball and they used the larger ball. Our fences tend to run 300 feet and few guys in the 75 and over age bracket can hit it over those fences. I play 2 or 3 times a week and play year round but in different locations.

The arc has to be over 6 feet but less than 12. Because we play two games, sometimes we adopt the starting count of 1 and 1 since a lot of guys take the first pitch anyway. I played fast pitch when I was 20 and didn't pick up slow pitch until I was 69. I like an active sport better than golf.

I don't know whose fault it is but the team with the highest payroll in the majors is now without a major portion of that lineup. Think who are not able to play. Panda and Pedroia to start. Pearce and Nunez pay still on the roll. Then Sale, Price, Betts, JDM. There are others like Chavis and Hembree who haven't been with the team. Easy to see $140 mil not available and then others who are in deep slumps. Is cora responsible? He is manager, so he has to accept part of the blame but is it fair for him to shoulder it all?