Tag: red sox

These still do not make me feel better.

> This season has not been one of Beantown’s finest, and if this list went five teams deeper, 2012 would likely be on it. But even when the team stinks, it has managed to do enough things well on the field to avoid being truly deplorable. This season has been no different, and while doom and gloom sells newspapers in New England by the truckload, things can be — and have — been worse

I cannot say that makes me feel *better* about this year’s Red Sox team.

*Fangraphs* on Pedro Ciriaco:

> What this turned into was a post critical of a versatile Red Sox infielder, and there probably aren’t too many people who thought Ciriaco would keep hitting anyway. But we’ve also managed to identify the hitter who’s had perhaps the very worst approach in the entire league. You might hate your favorite team’s hacker, but he’s had a better approach this year than Pedro Ciriaco has. Ciriaco, to date, has been one of the Red Sox’s few positives. Consider that and you see how badly things have gone wrong.

Ouch. That hurts.

Of course, it came in Pawtucket.

Quoting Red Sox Owner John Henry’s [Boston Herald interview](http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/baseball/red_sox/view.bg?articleid=1061157658&srvc=rss):

> “One of (the) biggest issues we’ve had is that Bill James was a great resource for us but fell out of favor over the last few years for reasons I really don’t understand. We’ve gotten him more involved recently in the central process and that will help greatly.”

> “He’s the father, so to speak, of baseball analysis and a brilliant iconoclast who looks at things differently from everyone else. But Ben is the right person to make the final decisions for the club.”

I approve of getting Mr. James back involved in the decision making. Those Red Sox teams from the early Theo Epstein years, when Bill James was thought to have his most influence, were some of my favorite teams to watch.

I still cannot believe this trade got made. [Over the Monster](http://www.overthemonster.com/2012/8/29/3275699/the-incredible-improbability-of-the-red-sox-mega-deal) has the complete list of every thing that needed to happen for the trade to get done.

One option people have been mentioning is trading Daniel Bard to the Blue Jays for him. [Over the Monster](http://www.overthemonster.com/2012/8/28/3274436/john-farrell-and-the-insanity-of-player-manager-trades) explains why that is ridiculous:

> The idea of trading a player who has been very good in the past and could well be very good again in the near future when all the team needs to do is find someone competent seems like an overreaction. You will find few scenarios where trading a player for a manager is worthwhile, and none of them involving a player who has the ability to be as good as Daniel Bard.

Agreed. Instead, the Red Sox should just fire Bobby Valentine and promote Tim Bogar for next year. If that doesn’t work, John Farrell’s contract with the Blue Jays is up next year anyway.

Always fun to wake up to another blown save.

> If there’s any positive to this, it’s that the Bobby Valentine coffin which seemed to be pried open a few inches by the blockbuster trade and the Aceves suspension has hopefully been nailed back down. But that seemed shut for good a week ago, so who can even say?

I could not have been more wrong with my pre-season thoughts on how Bobby Valentine would do in Boston. He has been a disaster,

I like this plan. Bring back Big Papi and Cody Ross to provide some veteran leadership and overall stability to a very young team.

> So we’re talking about a player with exceptional speed, who is capable of hitting for power, as well as for average, and, although lacking a powerful arm, is an outstanding outfielder.

Pretty good argument. Of course, with Scott Boras as his agent, he will probably try to cash in on a mega-deal somewhere.

*Fangraphs* gives an early preview:

> Now, the question is, is the above a good team or a bad team? I would submit that it’s actually a pretty good team. Even during the worst offensive season of his career, Pedroia is still a top-10 second baseman, and both Aviles and Middlebrooks rank in the upper half of the league at their position this season. Ellsbury has shown that he can be a top-10 player in baseball, let alone a top-10 center fielder. When healthy, Ortiz has shown no signs of slowing down, and despite the best (or is it worst?) efforts of Melancon and Matt Albers this season, the Red Sox bullpen still sports an 88 FIP-, good for eighth-best in baseball entering Sunday. Catcher remains a concern, as does the starting rotation, but the structure of a good team still remains.

I will be fine going into next year with Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz, Jacoby Ellsbury and a bunch of young, unproven guys who play hard and always hustle[^stuff]. I would prefer watching that kind of team fight for a wild card spot over watching a team like the Sox had this year just collapse while they collect paychecks.

[^stuff]: I think I can consider Will Middlebrooks as “unproven” because his sample size is so small. Also, I think I would prefer to see the Red Sox give the starting shortstop position to Pedro Ciriaco instead of Aviles.