oldtimer

My father was a newspaper man in Boston many years ago and early on )late 20's and early 30's did court reporting. One of his stories was of a prominent banker by the name of Jacob Lipschitz who grew tired of his name and went to court to have it officially changed. When he came from the court, the reporters asked him what he had chosen as his altered name. He said it was Solomon Lipschitz.

Clearly the slate of candidates was much reduced as a result of the many turn downs experienced. So Craig may turn out fine, let's hope so.

No way to rank the front office and coaches. Cora will stay although we will have some new coaches. I expect that Bloom leaving will be a positive, although that remains to be seen.

Funny how much hate gets expressed against Henry. Personally, I'm glad to see Bloom go. On the other hand, I'm not optimistic the next person will be a world beater.

I'm glad Kimbrall is in the Red Sox past. He seems to struggle when he closes games. Tonight was another example.

One omission we heard about is the failure trade Sale when we are told a team was lined up to accept his full contract. That would have freed up $27 mil or enough to sign a durable ace. Bloom supposedly held out for more and instead got zero. Sale did pitch better toward the end of the year but not in comparison to his contract and now he is likely to remain with the club in 2024. Nothing against Sale, but his durability remains in question. To me, this situation just added to his display of indecisiveness. Taken together, his approach was not adding competitiveness to the club and he was let go.

On the other hand, Nate performed far better than Kluber, so at least we would have done better.

Don't know where to put this but as the blather during the Rangers v Orioles game the pundits were discussing with the current technology, the coaches can identify release point spin rate and velocity of all the pitches that the opponent staff will throw at them during the game.. Furthermore, the pitching machines are so good now that they can exactly duplicate those so the hitters can practice against that pitching even at the park. That seems to be an advantage to the team who has a coaching staff energetic enough to provide that facility. I don't know if those points are true, but at times it looks like the Rangers hitters were was as a group, better able to handle at bats

The majority of our team by position, including the starting pitching rated below average last season. It's difficult to see how they could be expected to make the playoffs with below average performances. I agree with those who feel we need to make major upgrades, particularly with some of our field positions and the starting pitching. MLBB is a very competitive business, so I don't expect the new GM, along with the front office to make a major jump in one year, but would like to see progress toward that end in 2024. I don't believe that our front office under Bloom was making significant progress and as a result he was rightly let go.

He is getting $18 mil so not quite worth his contract value, if you take their word as accurate, which I don't think you do.

I was watching the Rangers vs Orioles game today. In general, they both play good defense although not perfect. I was surprised at the Orioles pitchers, most of whom were so reluctant to throw strikes they kept getting into deep trouble. I also noticed some of their young hitters were swinging for the fences, even when they had a base runner in scoring position and were in a full count situations. Looks to me like they are not being coached to win in the playoffs. Maybe it can be chocked up to youth and nervousness, but their best hitter was a young rookie batting ninth in the order, so it is not totally inexperience that is causing the Orioles problems.

It's not just spending more money, although the Sox certainly should spend at least to the limit if they want to be competitive. It's also about spending money wisely and that means avoiding wasting as much as we have in the past. Spending money wisely requires having a solid front office and it is why we need to get a GM who can and will upgrade the Sox roster in a disciplined manner. We we at or below average in most field and pitching positions this year and we need to be at or above average in most or all field and pitching positions to guarantee competitiveness. I tend to agree with you that Duran should remain on the roster. If I was to get rid of a left handed outfielder, it would be Yoshida first. While he can hit, he is slow and a far below average defensive outfielder. Just getting out from under his contract would give us resources to find another preferably right handed hitting and solid defensive outfielder. We shall see what our front office brain trust will do.

Both the Rays and Jays are out. The ALE is not looking like a powerhouse, yet we were last in that division

Kennedy saying the Sox will undertake an exhaustive interview process as the selection of the new GM goes forward sounds good from the standpoint of getting the best candidate, but it does also seem worrisome because we will need our GM active very soon as there are many decisions to be made if this team is to improve going forward. 1. Who to trade and who are untouchables. 2. Who to trade for and what FA's to go after. 3. Decisions on the coaching staff 4. Decisions on which players to draft. 5. What activities to expect from existing (young) players to facilitate development. Too much delay will put our new GM at a disadvantage and that Boston doesn't need.

What if Devers turned out to be even worse defensively than Casas, who is likely to improve with experience?

Does anyone have an inkling about whether MLBB will allow the Sox to hire and announce the hiring of a GM prior to the end of the WS?

Yoshida just doesn't fill a need on the team. He is slow, a below average fielder and is possibly a decent hitter, but left handed and with average power or less. It looks like we have a lot of good outfield candidate and would like to have a right handed power hitter take most of the PT at DH. To me if we can avoid paying the majority of his remaining contract it would amount to addition by subtraction. He still might have value to another team as a DH and part time utility outfielder, just not the Sox in future.

The next GM may not ne a guy.

The sooner we get a GM signed, the sooner we can start to make the much needed moves to structure the 2024 team. Let's hope we get someone up to the task this time.

as We need starting pitching beyond Bello and Crawford. We have Sale although expected him to shine for a year might be too optimistic. To spend in the FA arena for pitching is risky and costly. To have the money available we would have to rely on playing some of our rookie players. Casas, Rafaela and Abreu come to mind. We have some highly paid players in Devers, Story and Yoshida. so it's important to balance them with lower cost players. Clearly, we should keep Devers as a core player. Story is a dependable defensive shortstop and he has a right handed bat if he can get back to hitting. Mayer may not be ready as yet and Rafaela may be better in the outfield. Personally, I think Yoshida can hit but his other skills may not be ML caliber. We have other outfield options and we really need right handed bats. I would be for trading him if someone will take his contract and instead keep Duran. I'm not against keeping Verdugo, but it might require a multi-year deal and we have Anthony in the wings as a potential star. Yorke may well also be a second baseman of the future and he has a good right handed bat. Turner is an old pro and clubhouse presence who we should take a risk on as a DH and occasional utility infielder (ist, 3rd). Losing the Kluber, Paxton, Mondesi and Duvall contract costs could set up a lot of FA money. Desperate times require desperate measures. Bloom was unwilling or unable to take those measures and soon we will find if our new GM will be active and wise.

Duran is younger, faster, less expensive and a better fielder than Yoshida. If we are doing comparisons, perhaps we should trade Yoshida and keep Duran. They both have 4 years of control. We wolld clear more money for pitching if Yoshida's contract would be eaten by another team.

I am wondering if Teel will make the squad instead of McGuire for the start of the season. Let him play winter ball to gain experience. Both Teel and McGuire bat from the left side.

Turner has been a very effective player for Boston in 2023 and the experienced player and right hand bat we will need in 2024. I hope the Sox extend him, he's earned it.

The Sox are headed for their 3rd last place finish in the ALE in a row. Bloom's moves and in some case lack of them contributed to this, although a case can be made that DD left us in dire straights. I don't see that we had a plan for resolving the pitching issues in 2024 so moving on from Bloom made sense to me. A question remains in my mind about Cora. He managed the team during the last 3 year period. Did the Sox perform as well as we might have under his tenure? If the answer to that is no, Then maybe a complete shift of leadership is in order. If the new GM wants to make that call, perhaps he should be allowed to.

Sign Turner for 2024.