greg775

You said we must "replace the whole makeup of the team." I disagree. Here should be our team next year (I realize we won't pay all these guys, but this SHOULD be our team with a new skipper). Starters: E-Lo, Colon, Garland, Mark B, with our fifth starter some free agent. Setup: Wright and all those guys we traded for this year. Closer: Flash and Marte. This is a good staff. Infield: Crede, Guzman, Robbie and free agent at first (trade Paulie for 3 prospects). Outfield: Lee, Reed/Rowand, Ordonez. Catcher: Olivo. DH: Thomas or let him go and acquire somebody. IF we replace the whole makeup of the team we could be sorry.

As bad as we feel, the Royals should feel just as awful, blowing a 7-game lead at the all-star break. We Sox fans would have been extremely pissed had we done that. The Twins are ending up with a darn good record. I hope they win it all this year and get it out of their system.

Hey Kip, I read it in the Daily Herald. They've learned that KW loves Cito and he might be the man.

Is Cito our next skipper? Anybody have any strong feelings about Cito either way? He seems like he might be OK to me. What ya think??

How could those guys say build a team around Crede? I say pay Maggs superstar money. How the hell can we expect to win anything significant without an ace or two as starters and no stars like Maggs?? If we want to win anything of significance we need some stars.

Kip said: Jerry is a good man but he's definitely not the guy to coach these boneheads. That might be the best post I've ever seen. Succinct, to the point, perfect. Good job, Kip. Well done.

I agree it's sad. He was OK, but couldn't inspire the troops in the KW era. KW is the real flaw in the organization along with Reinsdork. JM must go, but it is sad.

hey elcaballo, i cover kansas basketball and bill self is a great great man. He is one of the nicest coaches alive.

let's keep him.

I would not blow it up for the simple reason a lot of baseball people think we had the talent to win the division if not for JM. I agree we are way too slow. I'd say trade Paulie in the winter. Some team can claim he just had an off year and maybe we can get some prospects. Maybe not. He had such a horrific year. I say we hire a GREAT manager and sign Guzman at ss. Keep Frank. Let Alomar and Everett walk because of money reasons. 2B is a fill in type position. We can find somebody. Keep all our pitchers; Flash our closer. That's all we need to do. A new manager -- if he is a good one, not a Bevington type -- is all we need with a little tinkering. If we blow it up, we could be .400 for 10 or more years. At least now, we have some talent that if formed properly can contend.

I can buy that argument. Thome probably was too expensive. I just wish we could find some real gamers. I was thinking Daubach was the guy back in the winter when we got him. Maybe like the one poster said he didn't have enough at bats to lead.

well i understand all your points, maybe thome wasn't the answer completely. But some of you suggest we need heart. I am saying one player can do a lot in that department. Have we had a stud like that in a while? I thought Thome was that kind of player. Maybe a leader is overrated. I do agree with the great post about Manuel. I sure hope we hire a good replacement. The Royals have proven before hiring Pena that you can make many mistakes hiring managers (Boone, Muser). And we hired Bevington who was the worst manager in Sox history. We could easily hire somebody worse than Manuel if we go cheap.

If we brought back the same team and moved up some of our minor leaguers like Miles and Reed and Borchard and played Rowand, could we win the pennant next year? Would we assume E-Lo, Mark B, Colon and Jon would be a killer foursome? Would these players win next year with a new manager or would we continue to be .500ish or worse? I am just wondering if we'd be better off tinkering than wholesale changing. Remember we are gonna have a new skipper and maybe a better one.

My point exactly Murcie Why can't we beat the Detroits??? No Thomes in the clubhouse.

Good point, Josh, I thought of that after I posted, but I have a sneaky feeling Daubach is through. No more bat and he is slower than Carlton Fisk at age 50.

Is there any way Paulie could return to form next year? He sure did suck. That is for sure. I wouldn't mind shipping him away, but he might be a comeback of year candidate, right? If we could improve our team in some other areas could we keep Paulie? I sure don't want Daubach any more Donkey, with all due respect.

The season ended when we couldn't beat some s*** ass teams like Det. Leaving it up to a 3 game series in the Humpydome was not good.

Everybody has their "I told you so" moment. Last offseason I said we needed Jim Thome. We had to have Jim Thome. He is one of the great guys in baseball, a true winner. We don't get Thome and we again like the one thread said all year had "heartless, passionless, dumbass" Sox. I thought Daubach would bring a presence. He didn't do s***. Frank can't lead, though he had a great year. Maggs is great but no leader. Sandy is too old and punchless with the bat to lead. Paulie had too awful a year to lead. We will never win anything until we luck into a great manager and find some true winners like JIM THOME. Comments?

why wally? he might be a bomb. Tom Kelly maybe? I think Leyland is our guy.

Guzman would be great. He'd be our ss for 10 years

As much as the Sox have disappointed, I don't think I'd boo. It is "just a game" even though tickets are way too expensive and some of the players don't always give great effort. And the fact our owner is kind of cheap and doesn't give us the best chance to win. It's still baseball (see speech in Field of Dreams). That said ... we have sucked and I respect your right to boo.

That's one positive about this season ... at least we didn't have Lofton, Ritchie, Royce and that stiff who started last season in cf. I forget that guy's name. Ramirez maybe?

That did hurt. I didn't know if he was kiddin' however. I tip my cap to Loaiza. He had a helluva season. Hope he rests during the winter and picks up where he left off next April.

No way baby. I think Minnie has a better chance of winning every game out than we do of winning the division. We should start a thread ... do you think we had the team to win the division? I would say, "yes."

Good point, soxfan. My question is: Who can we get to replace him? Is that guy from Japan available and is he any good? Anybody else we can realistically sign as f. agent? Or acquire for Botch via trade? I wouldn't be against replacing Jose, but he has bashed several key homers for our .500-ish team.