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34 Comments
- txcrew, on 10/13/2009, -1/+17The GM should be glad they got to pop the champagne twice in the past decade. That is a whole lot more that can be said about half the baseball teams in Chicago.
- TheJimid, on 10/14/2009, -0/+10The real Bostonian mentality: 4 months til pitchers and catchers report to spring training!!!
- bullnation, on 10/13/2009, -8/+18Maybe they should start juicing again.
- capheine, on 10/13/2009, -0/+9Sox fan here.
Ortiz and Varitek have been through their prime and are officially done. Matsuzaka is feeling like a gigantic bust. It's time to admit those things and move on to something else.
In other news - Youkilis, Drew, Bay and Pedroia are major bright spots in the lineup. Beckett and Lester are very dependable. - Blinker1315, on 10/13/2009, -0/+7The Cubs are in trouble for a few years until the ownership situation is all straightened out, and the new owners get their feet wet. The Pale Hose, however, could have a really good team next year, if Kenny Williams gets rid of the donkeys on the basepaths (Thome's gone, now Konerko), and gets another speedster.
- Blinker1315, on 10/13/2009, -4/+11Sox fan here, who's temporary in the Angels camp (a team I like anyway) to destroy the Yankees. Theo Epstein's an excellent GM, but prone to blunders like any GM. He ought to wrap up signing Jason Bay right away, then work on getting free agent Chone Figgins, and maybe swing a deal with Marlins for Hanley Ramirez, who's unhappy there.
- Wetzilla, on 10/14/2009, -0/+6Matsuzaka played pretty well towards the end of the season when they brought him back. I think he'll do fine next season.
And while I love Tek, he really is past his prime and should probably retire. - xGeneric, on 10/14/2009, -0/+5The title of this article is "Red Sox Seek Answers...". Red Sox. It actually says Red Sox in the title. When someone says "Sox fan here" in the comments of an article about the RED SOX, you can probably assume that they're referring to the... oh, what's that team? Oh yeah! RED SOX. If this was an article about the White Sox, and someone said, "Sox fan here", I'd automatically assume they were talking about the White Sox. It's called understanding context.
But hey, when you're clearly not a fan of a team and are just looking for any reason to complain, then to hell with common sense. - stooge4ever, on 10/14/2009, -0/+4remember when we had hanley ramirez?
good times... - stooge4ever, on 10/14/2009, -0/+4They need him to retire and keep him as a coach. Don't kid yourself. He'd be brilliant as a mentor for Victor Martinez (the main reason they'd keep him anyway). After all, for a while Tek was among the best catchers of our day.
- DickyT83, on 10/14/2009, -0/+4Just get rid of Varitek. The guy batted .210 this season and just killed us down the stretch. He was something like 9 for 130 in throwing runners out. He is just terrible. I'm happy we had him in years past, but he really let us down this year.
- poprocksandsoda, on 10/14/2009, -2/+6The Red Sox had a great run and shouldn't be ashamed to be out in the first round. The Angels had a better team and got timely pitching and hitting.
- Niacin, on 10/14/2009, -0/+3Sox & George Carlin Fan Here:
I'm hoping for an Angels/Dodgers World Series so I can curl up on the couch with a big bowl of popcorn and watch the fiery chaos of the aftermath; that's wayyy more entertaining than watching the Red Sox limp their way to victory! - smacksaw, on 10/14/2009, -0/+3I have mixed feelings on Theo as a GM. I think now you're seeing the limits of what he can do. He comes from pretty good stock - his father, Eddie is very smart. But he has experience. Theo, combined with a lot of money can deliver a winner. But even that only takes you so far. I think he needs to establish himself, and perhaps if he hadn't needed to do it, Daisuke would be happy/gone and Manny would be happy/still there. He wouldn't need to be paying through the nose for Bay if he already had Damon. Youkilis would play every day and have a position that he can stay comfortable in. Ortiz would be gone already.
When you have all of the money and trade bait in the world, to be in this position is...puzzling. But I guess they will ride it out with Theo. Larry Lucchino pretty much blows up a situation with a "you're with me or you're against me" attitude and Theo has been a loyal soldier since his days as a gopher with the Padres and has been rewarded for taking Larry's side (which I would mention was the right one).
The real question you Boston fans need to ask yourself is if you've reached the limit of what Theo can do and if your ownership group has the balls to get rid of him. Even in a similar family which has made quite an impression, the Padres just now fired Kevin Towers, a move that was about 10 years overdue. Do you people want to end up like the Padres, tied to a GM who needs to be gone?
I think this season was unforgivable. And if he doesn't clean up the team, cut some dead weight and get core players signed to long-term deals, he needs to move on. - jrobbi, on 10/14/2009, -4/+6Everyone was juicing, even some players from your favorite team you just don't know it (yet).
- medost, on 10/13/2009, -4/+5congratulation FOR HIS WINNING !!
- Zubeneschemali, on 10/15/2009, -0/+1Stop it - there are Hall of Fame players that never even got to the World Series - Ernie Banks for one and I'm sure others can come up with more.
- dj88masterchief, on 10/14/2009, -0/+1My favorite player is Veritek, feels like he is the last of World Series Team of 2004 and 2007 to leave, so sad to hear that the World Series Red Sox team is gone already
- sparacus, on 10/15/2009, -0/+1its nice to see the red sox fans who used to be the nice, lovable nerdy girl who couldn't quite make it to the championship,
but grew boobs one summer and became a stuck up bitch that everyone hates
sulk in its own misery - FJRRulz, on 10/14/2009, -0/+1Yeah, all of us Sox fans know it's going to be hard to say goodbye to guys like Varitek, Ortiz, and Wakefield, who were all such key parts of those 2 championship teams.
- NeoCortex, on 10/14/2009, -0/+1I want Tek back as a pitching coach. He's probably more important to the quality of pitching than any single pitcher in the lineup.
- macromorgan, on 10/14/2009, -0/+1I'm just disappointed in the Sox/Angels series this year.
I hate both teams, so instead of rooting against the Red Sox or against the Angels I ended up rooting against the structural integrity of the stadium. I came away disappointed. :-( - macromorgan, on 10/14/2009, -0/+1Just call 'em the Boston Pancakes like I do.
- holzp, on 10/14/2009, -0/+1And his double play battery-mate in Portland...Dustin Pedroia, both standing behind John Lester or Jon Paplebon on the mound. Good times indeed!
- DickyT83, on 10/14/2009, -0/+1Oh I agree completely. I love Tek, but he's really diminished skills wise. I've been saying since last year that they need him to retire and have him just be an assistant coach. Chances are they'd want him to coach in the minors first for a while to get his feet wet.
- Tegurit34, on 10/14/2009, -0/+1You're incorrect on several accounts. Theo has built the most well-oiled machine in baseball.
>>I think he needs to establish himself, and perhaps if he hadn't needed to do it, Daisuke would be happy/gone and Manny would be happy/still there
It isn't a GM's job to keep the players happy or shaped up; that's the field manager's job. It's the GM's job to construct a roster, as well as tons of administrative behind-the-scenes work that's below the tip of the iceberg. Besides, who says happy players equal productive players?
>>He wouldn't need to be paying through the nose for Bay if he already had Damon.
He's not paying through the nose for Bay and doesn't need to. He didn't need to pay through the nose for Damon either. JD Drew has put up production meeting his pay, while Damon is overpaid. A major reason the Red Sox do so well is that they avoid dead weight on the books.
>>Youkilis would play every day and have a position that he can stay comfortable in. Ortiz would be gone already.
While most people saw Ortiz's decline coming, nobody expected it to fall off the proverbial cliff like it did this year. What's more, you have to look at the likes of Gary Sheffield, Carlos Delgado, Jason Giambi, and Scot Speizio. I'll point you to an article* and copy some quips from it:
*http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/lets-stop ...
"There may be a point at which a major league player just loses enough of his ability to stop being productive, but we suck at figuring out when that point is... We haven’t figured out what numbers show that a player is truly washed up. We haven’t figured out what it looks like when that happens. We haven’t figured out how to combine scouting and statistical analysis to give us a warning before a player heads off the cliff. All we’ve figured out is how to guess wrong a lot."
>>Larry Lucchino pretty much blows up a situation with a "you're with me or you're against me" attitude and Theo has been a loyal soldier since his days as a gopher with the Padres and has been rewarded for taking Larry's side (which I would mention was the right one).
This is absolutely false. There was a time when Lucchino and Epstein were at each other's throats for months at a time. Remember when Epstein stepped down in the fall of 2005? Lucchino is the one who stressed him out so much that he couldn't take it anymore, according to the book "Feeding the Monster." Theo only came back later that offseason when he and Lucchino ironed things out and had an understanding of respecting each other's space.
>>The real question you Boston fans need to ask yourself is if you've reached the limit of what Theo can do and if your ownership group has the balls to get rid of him.
And replace him with who? There are 29 other clubs in baseball who would jump at the opportunity to have Theo run their team. He's not perfect and he's not Branch Rickey, but he's in the upper echelon of front office executives today.
>>Even in a similar family which has made quite an impression, the Padres just now fired Kevin Towers, a move that was about 10 years overdue.
Towers is a good GM. Padres ownership sucked since the beginning of his tenure and managed to get worse over the last 2 years because of the Moore's divorce.
"I think this season was unforgivable. And if he doesn't clean up the team, cut some dead weight and get core players signed to long-term deals, he needs to move on."
He does get core players signed long term. Lester, Youkilis and Pedroia are on extremely team-friendly deals for years. As for dead weight? Ortiz is coming off the books next season and isn't making enough to even put a dent into the team's annual ~$150mm payroll. Besides, most years that Ortiz was in Boston he provided significantly more value than he was paid, and even if he doesn't perform next year, the deal as a whole will be pretty much a wash. - oseary, on 10/14/2009, -0/+0With Matsuzaka, who else thinks he doesn't give two-s**ts about his conditioning?
- macromorgan, on 10/14/2009, -1/+1Tek needs to come back next year. It's fun to watch every baserunner that tries to steal succeed.
- macromorgan, on 10/14/2009, -2/+1You shouldn't have to say goodbye. It's fun watching the PED Sox players past their prime lose.
- macromorgan, on 10/14/2009, -2/+1Poor PED Sox. Can't win the big one anymore without steriods.
- throwdini, on 10/14/2009, -4/+2Fair enough. But go on any general sports site and you will see the same sin committed, even if the article does not specifically mention the Red Sox. I spent four years of undergrad in cambridge, it used to be a good fan base. Now it's just a bunch of people in denial over the fact that they are the Yankees Jr.
- RagingReid, on 10/14/2009, -6/+4On the field, they missed Manny.
- throwdini, on 10/14/2009, -8/+3There is more than one team in baseball with the word "Sox" in it, so when you say you are a "Sox fan" on a national forum, you are unwittingly demonstrating why the Yankees and Red Sox are two of the most hated fan bases/teams in baseball. Everyting is so team-centric with those two fan bases. There is more to baseball than those two big budget teams spending money like crazy.
- wildsheep, on 10/13/2009, -21/+5Sux need more white players, just like old times....
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