Texsox

It is wildly pessimistic. Still we lost our best player and the core we count on are on the downside age wise of their careers or sustained potentially career limiting injuries. We didn't address key problem areas like RF and C. Plenty of reasons to be neutral or slightly pessimistic.

Yep. And 87 might be optimistic. They are a couple injuries from a 79 win team.

The norm is to keep playing. Hell, when Tatum paralyzed Stingley, nearly killing him, they finished the pre season game.

I'm surprised the AED took that long to get there. High school sports have them on every sideline. I would think the NFL would have multiple units around. Those devices are really extraordinary in allowing someone with no training to follow a few simple directions and have them working.

There is a chance he was playing hurt for a lot of last season. I agree he shouldn't be in the outfield, but they needed him there and so he went. I'm not certain we should be holding that against him. Even after the disaster of last season he's got a career WAR of 1.9. He's the grinder on the team. No surprises, shows up everyday ready to play, gives 100%. Sure, there isn't anyone on the roster I wouldn't like see upgraded. But with much bigger holes to fill, I'm fine with him as the INF sub.

With the regulars at 2nd, 3rd, and SS planning on playing 140 to 150 that has him at 60 or so. Toss in a couple injuries and 80 is reasonable. It's also a lot less than the past couple seasons.

The potential of a new calendar. The road goes on forever and the party never ends . . .

So about the time of free agency and players free to go to any team. Some folks predicted fans would lose interest when players jumped from team to team all the time. And then there are the complaints that golf and baseball are too slow and take too long to finish. Perhaps that is folks lying, but football and basketball are faster pace and shorter broadcasts.

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.