What do you think of John Farrell going back to Boston, RickJay? Will the Blue Jays demand a top prospect? Other than bringing Tito Francona back (which will never happen), Farrell is probably the best fit for the Sox.
Farrell is at the top of the list only because the Sox brass knows him, not because he has the record to support being the top choice. The Jays’ season was pretty much the same as the Red Sox’. Hell, even looking just at pitchers, Farrell’s specialty, Ricky Romero had pretty much the same season as Daniel Bard and for pretty much the same reason. So what does Farrell bring to the bottom line?
ElvisL1ves pretty much hits the nail on the head. I find the Sox’s obsession with Farrell inexplicable.
I don’t think there’s anything WRONG with John Farrell exactly, but I see no evidence he’s anything better than what you could get by just picking the most qualified bench coach or AAA manager. Yes, the Jays had an awful year with injuries and nobody could possibly have won 90 games, but players who stay healthy don’t seem to be any more or less likely to improve under him. Sure, Eddie Encarnacion was great; almost everyone else regressed. Farrell doesn’t do anything overtly stupid, but at the same time he is stubbornly resistant to change things that are going horribly awry; he was still running dead men walking like Kelly Johnson out there as the season wore on, he never did do anything to address the team’s amazing baserunning idiocy, etc. etc. (I honestly have never seen a major league team so consistently run the bases that badly.) And, again, Elvis points out that Farrell’s alleged ability to manage pitchers doesn’t seem to have taken in Toronto; his pitchers demonstrate no unusual propensity for improvement.
He seems like a nice guy but you can find 25 nice guys tomorrow who’ll do just as good a job. Why they want to give the Blue Jays actual assets to get Farrell I don’t know, but if the Jays can leverage this into something valuable they’d be crazy not to.
Here is the one and only reason I think Farrell is the top choice: the players know and like him. Let the veteran players get their guy. If they tank again, its completely on them. They’ve proven they won’t play for a manager they don’t like, so before completely finishing off the roster blow-up, might as well throw them a bone.
Nah–veteran Sox are mostly on the Dodgers now. They’ll tank for Farrell and whine, “B-b-b-b-but they traded away our team!”
The blowup is mostly complete already. The remaining veterans who matter on the team are Pedroia, Ortiz, Lester, and Buchholz, and they were all with Bobby after a rough start. The talented children are mostly gone, and we don’t know if Ellsbury and Lackey are necessarily in that category anymore or not.
The 2013 Sox are going to be mainly the guys we saw in September, but hopefully with a functional coaching staff. There’s no more help coming from the minors unless Bradley and Bogaerts keep shining at AAA. Assuming they don’t trade Ells for pitching over the winter, since his value is down right now, they’ll need new guys at:
Rotation: At least 1 solid starter, maybe 2. They only have 2 right now. No telling what Lackey will be, or if Doubront will continue to improve.
Bullpen: Closer, maybe. Bailey is still an unknown, and Bard is ruined. Setup actually looks OK.
1B Loney has never been more than what he is and probably never will. Carlos Pena can be had cheap, but he’s been very good in the past and can be again. Mike Napoli or even Kevin Youkilis would be upgrades.
SS: Not sold on Jose Iglesias. He looks like just another good-field, no-hit guy you can do without. Aviles is still a better contributor until Bogaerts is ready. I’d include Iglesias in a trade for a starter.
RF (assuming Ross re-signs and moves to LF): Who the hell knows if Kalish can be a top regular. I’d bet against it, with his injury history. Go get a bat.
Elsewhere:
C: Lavarnway is the real thing, and had a much better ERA than Salty. Maybe get a better backup for him.
3B: Middlebrooks is the guy now, no question.
2B: Pedey is the heart of the team both physically and mentally.
DH: Ortiz on a make-good deal, one+one maybe. His Achilles is taking a long time to heal, and he’s getting on a bit. Having a guy take a roster spot who can’t play the field regularly is a real restriction - if Papi’s done, rotate guys through the spot.
Francona was let go because he was a players’ manager and the Red Sox brass felt the team needed someone who would take charge; you’re proposing that now they might as well hire a players’ manager because they can’t even tell if they sucked this year because of the players or the manager and they should write off 2013 just to find out if the players or the manager are to blame. If this is their reasoning, the team is completely fucked. And lucky for them I don’t think that’s their reasoning. Valentine was a bad fit, but the bigger problems were injuries and the roster and they’re addressing those. Whether they hire a disciplinarian or not, as long as the new manager has the support of the team executives and maybe gets to hire his own coaching staff so this ridiculous infighting doesn’t happen, things should be better even if the team is now in rebuilding mode.
I’ve (Sox fan) been saying for several years that the Sox needed their farmhands to step up if they were to avoid this scenario, because there are only so many free agents and veterans available via a trade to go around (and there you are buying into a market which is certain to decline). The sad truth is that the only homegrown player to have come up since Ellsbury who did anything was Bard. I also suggested that they go into full rebuilding mode after last season (and even before last season)-but when I said that on Sox forums I inevitably got shot down. Instead they pulled the trigger on the Gonzo trade, signed Crawford, and traded a promising young RF for a closer, who got injured.
Well, the only young home-built guys who contributed anything of note this year were Middlebrooks (who got injured and missed most of the 2nd half, and whose 13-70 BB-K ratio doesn’t exactly inspire long-term confidence), Doubront (ditto), and midseason callup Tazawa in the bullpen. Meanwhile Reddick and Rizzo had solid seasons-for their new clubs. Not saying that those last two would have been saviors, but instead that by postponing the inevitable for 2 seasons that’s two seasons (plus next year) where the primes of their remaining good players (Pedroia most notably) have been wasted.
I am glad that they were able to dump those huge contracts, but they shouldn’t have been offered in the first place (tho I defended the Beckett one at the time). Now I will play the waiting game and see if the same thing happens to the Yankees (average age: 33 for position players, 31 for pitchers). Sooner or later that chamber is going to go BOOM instead of <click>.
Francona was let go because het let things spin out of his control. You can be a player friendly manager and still enforce some rules.
I propose they should hire a manager they know because even with chickengate, the Sox were at least a hair away from the playoffs. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind if they begged Francona to come back, but I know it won’t happen.
They might be fucked anyway if it’s between giving in to the players or completely rebuilding. They still have the talent to win a championship, so a rebuild is not entirely necessary yet.
Then why would John Farrell, who everyone agrees has been nothing spectacular in Toronto, be their #1 target? I think Farrell is the kind of guy, like Francona, who will not take a mediocre team to greatness. But with a talented, veteran team, he can manage egos and keep players happy enough so that they can realize their potential. The fact that the players know and like him makes him the next best thing to bringing Francona back.
None of the other names out there that the Sox are supposedly interested in (Dave Martinez, Sandy Alomar*, Mike Maddux) has head coaching experience, so it seems like they’re not after another disciplinarian.
*Ok, Alomar has, what, 2 games experience?
Eh, maybe. The Red Sox did win 90 games in 2011. It’s hard to believe that the issue of things “getting out of control” somehow magically happened only in a four-week period, or that Francona, who I assume is not stupid, would’t have accounted for that going into 2012.
The fact that the team slandered him while getting rid of him suggests it was more “blame someone” than it was a calculated decision.
From what we’re hearing, and ElvisL1ves is giving us a Beantown perspective, the team’s leadership above the manager’s office refuses to back up the manager. Therefore, no manager will be successful. I would absolutely agree that the manager must take marching orders from the GM, but he can’t be undercut; no organization can possibly function that way, come on.
Batty… you ain’t kiddin!
I’m a life long Texas Rangers fan, and I’ve hated his ass since he was the manager of the Rangers. I just don’t get how this guy continues to get jobs in MLB? Must be his relation to Tommy Lasorda.