Texsox

We need to expand to 32 teams, cut the regular season to 154 games, and make it like the NCAA Match Madness. Every team is in. Four 8 team brackets. Move the finals from site to site like the Super Bowl.

When I was a GM in Chicago I was invited by our corporate office in Milwaukee to a Brewer's game. We leased our company cars from Selig Leasing and we had "Bud's Seats" for the game. I guess the company owner didn't notice the Sox were playing. I showed up in black. I threw the b.s. flag about these being Bud's Seats. We were about five rows behind the Sox dugout. Why would Bud have his seats on the visitor side? Anyway, my favorite Ozzie moment. He's playing then and absolutely crushing the ball . . . always at someone. He finally lines one that looks like extra bases and gets robbed by a diving catchb and has a 0fer day. As he nears the dugout he slams his helmet into the wall and you hear "f*** this mother fucking game." Silence all around me. He's looking right at me as I say "he's English really has improved". He gets a huge smile and waves. I also learned how to play mound ball. Everyone tosses five bucks into the pot and hands it to the guy on the end. If at the half inning when the players throw the ball towards the mound it stays on the dirt you win the pot. If not, you add five and hand it to the person next to you. By the 3rd inning there were five or six separate games going. You'd hear a buildup as the ball might be rolling then come off.

Which he does. Never complains.

Cairo said he wasn't playing because of back soreness. I think of the many things that Tony made worse while here, turning Sox fans against Garcia should be on the list. He's playing at the MLB level because he works hard, stays healthy, and does whatever he's asked without complaining. I'm thinking about a Bulls player Granville Waiters. Fans chanted his name to come in during garbage time and he'd get a standing ovation for scoring. Garcia should never be an everyday player and Tony forcing that on us was a travesty for Leury.

Out of the 100 or so games he played last year how many involved him being in a position like batting 3rd that we both acknowledge was a huge mistake? Or pretty much any outfield position. Basically he's a guy that should be playing about 60 to 75 games at 3rd, SS, or 2nd.

No argument. Tony misplayed him a lot. I believe Tony was in nostalgic land batting him 3rd. Since it helped Fisk break out of a slump he thought it would be magic again. Silly manager. This will be an early indicator of our new manager. I'm hopeful it will get better with Tony gone.

There are stats for that. His career WAR is 2.9 after a disaster year in 2022 (like most of the team) is that any good for a role player?

What I was trying to say is instead of one Garcia you have a outfield sub and a middle infield sub. Should we expect more from a sub who only does one of those roles than a sub who is doing both? He's going to be on the roster so the manager has to work with that fact. I'd like to see his role reduced to just infield or just outfield. Using his "versatility" and ability to stay healthy to load up on DH/1b types hurts this team.

Great example and I think you're following my point. I wonder if Tim be as good at shortstop as he is if he only played the position 15% of the time compared to full time? I think we would see a drop off in his performance. Same guy, same position, but part time and also playing outfield, 2nd, etc on the other days.

Should we expect the same level of performance from a "positional versatility" guy playing center for example than a non versatile position player? I think Garcia is put in a crap position and is doomed to fail. Like Vaughn, I value their willingness to do whatever the team needed them to do. Garcia should be playing once or twice a week at most. Tony kept putting him in positions to fail and anger fans.

Fair enough. Would you agree that having a player playing five or six different positions and all over the batting order is about the most difficult thing for a player to do? I'm not certain Garcia benefited from how he was used. People thought Vaughn was screwed for moving to the OF. It was mentioned that how difficult it is to learn a position and try to hit.

There were obvious flaws in the roster and those flaws were exposed by injuries. But I'm not going to fault any manager for sticking up for his players. I'm certain some fans would love to hear from the manager "we have some really crappy players in this roster, some shouldn't even be playing in the majors, but I'm stuck with them." I think that's a quick way to lose the clubhouse.

Coach A. Seven years MLB playing experience and six years MLB coaching experience didn't earn a position. Coach B. Zero years MLB playing experience, high school coaching experience, one year of MLB level coaching experience, he earned his position working directly with players.

Pele was amazing.

Which injured player would analytics show should have been playing?

That would be a great idea since he's the only one in the organization that thinks it's important. They didn't have the position before he was hired and they eliminated it after he left.

Failed and fired? Not officially fired and he added a division title while here. It's not like we collect those regularly. Players seemed to like playing for him. Fans were the most upset and that's great for the franchise. He took all the blame and deflected it from the players. JR knows as long as fans like the players the franchise will be fine. Kind of like Ozzie hanging around after quitting the team and getting fired from his next job? Most teams have exes dropping by spring training. It's part of the atmosphere.

Actually 29 other teams didn't hire him. Let's look over the list of managers KCR didn't hire the past few years. Terry Francona, Dusty Baker, Alex Cora, Kevin Cash, A J. Hinch, or Joe Madden. So I'm guessing they aren't the benchmark of great managerial decisions.

Really, injecting sanity into the conversation?!

Sitting down with Tony to understand why some things happened the way they did is a valuable use of time. But that doesn't have to happen during spring training.

For me I want to return to enjoying baseball at all levels. Being a kid again and all of the sights and sounds of a game. Win or lose I just remember really loving baseball. I still mostly* enjoy watching my high school team play. We have a decent stadium to watch MiLB games. I may even pony up the bucks for MLB again but without the expectation of watching the Sox win a division. I'll just look for fun matchups. *Because it reminds me my golf team's season is over short of state if I have time.

As is well documented in several threads. This is a crap franchise. Has been forever. The losers in the 2005 WS went on to build a dynasty (with and without cheating) while the winners went on to be losers. NYY keeps rolling. If anyone here tries to be optimistic they are quickly and easily shot down with the facts. We can't draft. We can't trade. We can't develop players. We can't condition them to stay healthy through a season. We can't hire front office. We have the worst ownership group in sports. One good thing is we currently have a crappy division but as we most recently proved just being in the playoffs doesn't mean we're contenders. There is no championship window. All there is is playing for the 8th place trophy or pretending to "blow it up and start over" . . . and over, and over again. This next season will be another lesson in futility. So what makes it enjoyable for you? What are you looking forward to? ?

Damn good post @Jack Parkman

I'll have some of that Christmas cheer you're drinking. On the surface I agree with you. But deep down we both know that isn't true. So I checked the definition of contender. You are exactly right. According to the denotation of contender then yes, the Sox are contenders. But so too are literally every team in baseball. The connotation of the word contender removes the weak contenders and the highly unlikely contenders, leaving the strong contenders. Currently that just isn't this team. But there are still a few months until opening day.