GreenSox

What we may be on the cusp of is having a playoff team for the next 5+ years. Don't mess that up by going "all in" especially for career years, convincing oneself that slightly above average players are somehow elite, etc.

Probably not. But has he ever been able to make moves without approval? I'm more worried about Hahn forced to make moves on the orders of LaRussa.

Trying to win and not overpay. Heck Kopech was the #2 for Sale; Kopech plus "good pieces" would approximate 75% of Sale's value (considering it was Sale, Kopech and not much else). Marquez isn't in Sale's area code.

Just wonderful.

You give Kopech and the like for a TOR pitcher, not Marquez.

In a front office; and after a couple of years, he may get another shot at GM. Just too many glitches in his resume, if you look under the covers. But, we'll see. If someone wants him as GM, I think he'll be gone.

They neutered him in the manager search, so I guess they demoted him de facto. I doubt any team would hire Hahn as their top guy: 1 organization experience, lackluster drafting and way too many unforced errors of the years.

If the Sox feel that way, then JR and Williams should fire him and bring in someone they trust.

I'm concerned about the goofy crap that this FO will do to fit the LaRussa 2 year window.

Stroman would probably be a capable rotation-filler. But we should also get that with another year of maturity from Cease and Dunning (although Stroman would be less risk). Nothing wrong with starting pitching depth- they'll probably wish/be glad they had it at some point in 2021.

Yes, that they only played the Centrals (which, despite 7 playoff teams won a total of 2 playoff games) plus the Sox' poor record against those 7 playoff teams, leaves the true quality of this team an open question. On the Larussa matter, it's hard to reconcile front-office dissatisfaction with Renteria and Cooper not following analytics with looking at LaRussa for manager.

The last few were fine; certainly better than the first few where he was absolutely incompetent.

If you're firing Renteria over the bullpen management, Cooper needed to go too.

No they should not bring back Guillen.

I would put Cooper on the list ahead of Rickey, too.

They should fire themselves before they should fire Rickey.

9th.

At least it didn't create long-term liabilities, and at least they didn't trade anyone of value for those players. And they could play McCann and Engel (who really had a good season) instead of Encarnacion and Mazara, although they choose not to most nights (and it would really require having Collins up to take over Catcher if something happened).

1. Astros; 2. Oakland; 3. Yankees. I'm cool with Oakland.

Andrew Miller had 4 great years; Edwin Diaz had one (the Mets overpaid). Staying power is another issue. They can always put him back in the pen if it doesn't work out. Yea, closers are expensive; but not nearly as expensive as starters.

He was clear on a stopgap, and I asked him for his ideas, POST stopgap. Yes, it was obviously an offensive question and, yes if someone doesn't adopt the CW and groupthink, they don't follow baseball. So cute; so clever.

Who is the RF post stopgap? And the 2nd hitter is DH. But even with 2, really no bench-bat.

Springer is the FA prize. Then I look at Dunning, Cease, and Lopez...perhaps trade 1 for a similarly situated young OF. I'd be leery of trading pitching, but maybe?

They need 2 hitters, one of whom needs to play RF. That's obvious. I'd bring back Colome - he's just a really good closer. You don't need your best reliever as closer, and he isn't the Sox best reliever. He handles the 1 clean inning very well. If they don't re-sign him, they are going to have to find a closer somewhere (and at the risk of the daggers, putting Crochet there is a waste). They have a lot of young ML ready pitching. If they are going to use some in trade, and I would hope they don't, it's got to be for a young hitter...not a veteran.

I didn't say fire Menechino - I said fire sacred cows if you are going to fire Renteria. (I know, it was a complex sentence). My statement was accurate: poor hitting has put pressure on bullpen decisions. **Edit - the other thing is that 3 participants in the pen have barely pitched all season, putting further pressure on the decisions. Across the season, both the pitching and hitting have been fine. Yes, I know, yall are right - high draft picks are best used to find the next Alexei and relief pitchers. Yall got me.