oldtimer

Get someone with genuine credentials for building a farm, running a team and making hard decisions. Big Papi is not that guy although he is through and through a baseball man and a Sox legend.

DD should be remembered for both the good he achieved and for the terrible state he has left the team in. Lets learn from it. Money needs to be spent wisely and moves which decimate the farm will have repurcussions in following years. This game needs it stars and it also needs to have a constant flow of players coming from the farm or through low cost acquisitions. That balance is not easy to attain, but is easy to screw up. So instaed of blaming DD we should learn from it and proceed in a positive manner. We can remain somewhatt competitive while rebuilding to a team which competes at the highest level. Thats a positive view and can be accompliished. Those who stand in the way should be gone. Lead, follow but don't get in the way.

Oakland has spent less money that we have in underperforming contracts, yet they are going to the playoffs and wee aren't. Spending big is only one of the criteria, the other is spending wisely.

This is plain silly. The Sox need to develop a mission statement if they don't already have one. I would think it involves resetting the salary structure to below the 1st tier of the competitive balance tax while keeping most or all of their young core players and trying to remain as competitive as possible. This while starting the process of rebuilding a farm system which emphasizes player development and pitching development in particular. Achieving that will require letting underperforming contracts play out if they can't be traded away at a reasonable cost (probably can't) and making hardheaded decisions about every facet of the team. Coaches, Managers, players evaluated on performance. No room for sentimentality here. Clearly it will require fillling some of the field and pitching positions from the minor leagues or with low cost acquisitions. Maybe a couple of diamonds in the rough with come out of that. I hope so as young players can bring some fire that seems to be lacking. Managerial and player leadership is required. Lets see someone who bangs his bat on the dugout or shows some signs of refusing to lose. We have some very good players now so lets mold them and add to them over time. Last night for instance we had a good starting pitching performance but couldn't put together a single run, despite 3 hits from JBJ and 2 by Vaz. Sad showing again.

Yet the team can and does get shutout with the bats going cold. Right now there is a period where we need some fire but the fire has gone out in our bats. Statistics don't tell the story.

These are facts, yet you also chose to annotate with judgments about non tenders, etc. In that case, JBJ is probably a trade or non-tender and Marco is a possible trade or non-tender. Clearly if we non-tender Leon and Centeno, we will have to find a backup catcher, the same with JBJ if we go that route we will have to add a CF.

We aren't privy to the day to day interworkings of the Red Sox and Peter Gammons is much closer than any of us but still probably didn't get a first hand understanding of the issues. I assume that some of the moves that DD made and was further recommending were not supported by many of the insiders in the organization. When those moves, like the Sale and Eovaldi extensions and perhaps the signings of Moreland and Pearce didn't work out, DD was in line to take all of the blame. If his recommendations seemed like he was going in the wrong direction to JH, a change had to be made. After a couple of years of spending up to or over the second tier of the competitive balance tax, it certainly looks like the Sox are headed in the wrong direction. DD apparently confronted ownership and wanted to know if he was going to be extended. Can't blame him for that based on the many rumors floating around. When the told him that he wouldn't be, it was all over and DD vacated his post. In truth, it probably is best that DD is gone early, since the team is out of it this year and needs to start the talent search for the future. There are key decisions to be made. To reset or not to reset. To resign Mookie or not. Ditto with JBJ and maybe JDM. They need to formulate a business plan going forward and have a mission statement. i didn't see DD as the guy to make the difficult changes to draw down below $208 Mil, start to rebuild the farm while retaining our young core and remaining at least somewhat competitive.

I have been expecting this for some time, although I thought they might wait for the season to end. Dombrowski spend the money and traded away the farm in order to make us competitive and give us a chance to win the WS. With the team resources depleted, he didn't look like the guy to rebuild and reset. They can look for the right guy. I suggested a name earlier but I'm sure there are other stroong possibilities. If you look at Dave's recent moves, he extended Sale and Eovaldi, put Moreland and Pearce in place again and extended Bogie. Some were good moves but most were moves that will weigh the Sox down for years to come. I don't think this parting ways with Dombrowski will impact the decision on Mookie but I do think it means reset, rebuilding of the farm system and an approach that I have advocated. Keep the young player core together while replacing guys who don't fit long term. Bring in some young low cost players and see if any can make the grade. It may mean hard headed changes as well. Coaches or players who don't make the grade are gone.

Vaz doesn't play every day, Travis is a marginal hitter, JBJ is streaky, going from awful to decent. Right now he is back to bad. When those guys are in the game we sacrafice 3 abs an inning. I'm for improving while cutting payroll everywhere possible. Our top 7 are as good as anyone's but they shouldn't have to carry all the load. We heard the same kind of arguments for the past few years. JBJ hasn't improved but his salary expectations have crept up. I agree that the starting pitching is a key going forward and the BP could use a closer and maybe a couple of good arms. Hard to do that if we wind up offering JBJ a 3 year $21 mil contract, don't you think? I know you didn't suggest that but another did and it sounds like going in the wrong direction.

I would love to see the team head in the direction of a good hitter at every position. Hard to do, but other teams have accomplished it. JBJ will never be a good hitter, steaky at best. Leon is the same and our second and first base positions have been weak due to injuries and to lack of talent. At least try to retain our good guys and improve where we are weak. Get rid of guys who won't help us in 2021 and 2022. Of course starting pitching is our weakest position, followed by our pen. We have significant limitations with all the money tied up in Price, Sale, Eovaldi and Pedroia. Those 4 alone are paid more than the total budget of Oakland. We also have one of the, if not the weakest farm systems. Reset this year, bring in some low cost minor league types who may be better than ones we have and try to avoid making the same contract mistakes of the past. Draft better and develop what we have. That probably means say bye bye to DD.

I expect the guys competing for 1st, 2nd and utility will be Chavis, Travis, MHern, Lin, Holt, Dalbec and Chatham. Maybe I don't appreciate Ockimey but I don't see him. Of those Marco, Lin and Holt are left handed and are flexible for utility. Holt is the most proven ML but is a FA. Chavis will likely be given the shot first based on his power and likely improvement at the plate. We know Travis as a 1st and outfield possibility and an okay hitter. Dalbec can play 1st or 3rd and has power but has to prove he belongs, while Chatham is very flexible at 3rd, SS, 1st and possibly outfield. He is a line drive hitter who might gain power if he adds 15 pounds of muscle. My oppinion is we try to keep Holt, Chavis and either Dalbec or Chatham. Centeno is probably more of Leon. Maybe we can find a younger backup defensive catcher who can at least hit his weight.

I know your a die hard fan and that is commendable. I am sure there are reasons for playing some of our guys like Moreland and Travis, but I take the other view that we are already prepping for 2020. Getting 20 games of experience in the bigs might help a few kids. I am thinking of Dalbec here and if we brought up potential starters now they would only get into a few games. Chathaqm interests me as he has a real chance of supplanting others at 2nd or as a key utility guy. Duran may just be too raw for the bigs and another few months of minor league play may help him more than getting into MLB games now.

I agree totally with that. Cora tried to get cute and put us behind the eightball. I don't think we would have won regardless, but I didn't like the move.

We had to win today to keep the hopes of the most optimistic fans alive. Cora's approach was and had to be using an opener and using the BP heavily. It can work in the post season, but there is a danger that one of the relievers won't have good stuff. Unfortunately, Cora sometimes gets cute and decided to put JDM in RF to allow for another hitter in Travis. This backfired as Martinez isn't a good defender and was fooled by a liner and then didn't call Holt off and make the catch he should have gotten to. It cost us runs and our offense just didn't show up against Happ. It looked like we weren't going to win the game, even if we had avoided defensive errors. Time to give our possible minor leaguers more playing time, but it doesn't look like Cora will do that.

One more nail currently being pounded into the coffin that is the 2019 season. Our defense, as lined up by Cora, let us down and our hitting looked absolutely baffled out there. Standing pat is not the best approach. I'll be interested to see what moves the Sox make. The best teams in the American league have dangerous hitters 1-9 in the lineup and decent reserves to call upon. The Astros have great starting pitching while the Yankees aren't quite as good there, but have a very strong BP. Our plan going forward, has to address how we get there and a reasonable time frame in which to bring it off.

meh

It started with Bogie not having the range to get to leMahieu's drive. Then JDM is not a confident outfielder and the sun got to him. It might have been a problem for anyone. The second ball, JDM could have gotten to but slowed down due to bad communication with Holt. I think you can attribute all of the runs to weaker defense than we could have put out there. Sad, because we are on the road to another loss where we are kind of giving it away.

I had said that I don't think JDM will opt out but you also have to have a fall back plan if he does. With the potential $34 mil off the payroll (JDM & JBJ) we could recontruct the outfield with Castellnos and get a cheaper left handed bat for a short contract for DH unless we felt one of our youngsters could fill that void. JDM is a valuable player but the ball is still in his court. I think Castellanos currently gets $9 mil a year so your projection of approx $16 mil may be high.

If JDM opts out, and I don't think he will, we will have his $23.75 MIl plus JBJ's. $8 to 10 Mil to work with. Resign Mookie, Go after Nick Castellanos to refill the outfield. Castellanos is young and good and no more money than Bradley. Find a Left hand hitting DH and fill 1st, 2nd with low cost farm players. Replace Leon with another backup prospect and work hard to get our young starters ready for MLB.

I appreciate what Moreland has done for the club. Certainly he has been a solid pro for us. He is now 34 and has what appear to be chronic medical issues which would limit him going forward. i expect he won't be resigned and the more than $6 mil will be better applied elsewhere. We have, Travis, Chavis and Dalbec as potential lower cost players to fill the void. The only problem I can see is the loss of both Moreland and Bradley will take two left handed bats out of the lineup. Do we keep Holt and or MHern to make up for that? The question still remains about what JDM will do. If he does, there might be another lower cost left handed FA who would fit and be signed for a couple of years at a lower cost and who also might be able to shore up the outfield part time. I can think of at least one who could do that job.

The Yanks put up their #2 starter against a late season pickup of a pitcher released by the Brewers. Cora made it a BP game. The Yanks had 3 hits while the Sox seemed to on enough to make it look like we were the far better team. Hope it can be done again tomorrow afternoon.

Come on

When our die hard fans are finally satisfied that the team is out of the playoffs (I have been there for a while now), we ought to bring in some rookies and see how they fare in ML competition. In particular, why not start DHern and possibly Houck and Mata? I also would like to see Dalbec, Chatham and Duran. I understand Chavis has had a setback so may be out for additional time. Dalbec can play 1st or 3rd and is a power bat at a position we will need to backfill next year, Chatham is a good fielder with soft hands and a terrific arm who can play 2nd, short or 3rd. His utility makes he a good possibility and if he added 15 pounds he may show reasonable power. Duran is somewhat raw but is our 4th listed player on our prospect lst and is very fast and is more of a linedrive hitter. All have one thing in common, low cost. We would have to be incredibly lucky to have a high % of these young players make the team, but what have we got to lose by playing them. Is there an impact to our comppetitive baance tax for this year if we bring them up?

To reset or not to reset, that is the question. Make that decision facing the contracts of Sale, Price and Eovaldi along with Pedroia and we probably have a baseline of $86mil in underperforming contracts. against $208 Mil to spend. We also have Bogie and JDM at close to $44 Mil. With $130 mil already tied up and benefits accounting for $15 Mil we are left with $63 Mil for the rest of the club and probably some of that should be left for mid season moves. I think Moon has estimated that Betts will cost $28 Mil for the final Arb year. I want to keep Betts and try to be somewhat competitive in 2020, yet reset so we have more flexibility for 2021. With the other arb raises for keeper players it appears that something has to give if we follow the reset approach. One way is going for low cost players from the minors for starting pitching, 1st base, 2nd base and center field. Clearly there is also a need to reconstruct part of the BP. As much as I would like to think we could trade one of our potentially underperforming pitchers (in addition to Porcello), it is not likely to happen. That leaves the question of what to do with Bradley and Betts front and center. DD's approach got us the WS but has left us in this situation and it doesn't appear the be solvable. Do we keep throwing big money at it year after year and penalize our draft while only getting to quasi competitive or do we reset? Again, that is the question.

Afraid so.