Coming out of the break

[HomeRunBaker]

Sure but Victorino has been a bad acquisition overall, and the Napoli extension appears to have been a mistake. I'm thrilled at the result of 2013 and certainly there is more to being a GM than acquiring players from outside the organization, the Sox are loaded with young talent, and Cherington will likely one day look smart for not giving up that talent to GFIN. Still, I'm salty over letting Lester walk and then giving a contract not far off of Lester's to a guy that's currently one of the worst starters in the league. I don't want Cherington fired, he's good at enough to make him better than a lot of GM's, but Cherington seems to learn slowly that these risk averse moves still carry plenty of risk.

How much of this is Cherington and how much is from above? There are already whispers of our daily lineup being given to Farrell from above and if this is true I'm sure the acquisition process is similar. I doubt Lester was any of Ben's doing.

 

[Snoop Soxy Dogg]

How much of this is Cherington and how much is from above? There are already whispers of our daily lineup being given to Farrell from above and if this is true I'm sure the acquisition process is similar. I doubt Lester was any of Ben's doing.

 
The opacity with which they run this thing is such a cop-out. You never know who's responsible for what, so people are left to speculate. Who's got the power, who's losing it, who messed up the Lester negotiation, etc. Even the "Lucchino-bad, everybody else-good" meme no longer fit quite as nicely. They've made it so you don't really know who is to blame for this - also helped by the fact that if you ask any of them, they say decisions are collegial and all take responsibility. Pretty crafty - but it'd be good to know who's the problem here - other than the major league evaluation (given the results, we know that's Allard Baird, lol).

 

[jk333]

Sure but Victorino has been a bad acquisition overall, and the Napoli extension appears to have been a mistake. I'm thrilled at the result of 2013 and certainly there is more to being a GM than acquiring players from outside the organization, the Sox are loaded with young talent, and Cherington will likely one day look smart for not giving up that talent to GFIN. Still, I'm salty over letting Lester walk and then giving a contract not far off of Lester's to a guy that's currently one of the worst starters in the league. I don't want Cherington fired, he's good at enough to make him better than a lot of GM's, but Cherington seems to learn slowly that these risk averse moves still carry plenty of risk.

Victorino was an average acquisition and possibly even a pretty good one. He amassed 6.5-7.5 WAR over 3 seasons and was paid 39M dollars. That's just under $6M/WAR. In 2014 the median WAR was about 6M per WAR. Victorino's deal is in line with the market. 
 
I agree that Cherrington could have been less risk averse. I think he should be fired. They are middle of the pack in runs scored but their two big contract additions have negative WARs. They've given up the most runs in the AL because every starter is underperforming their FIP. 
 
The final consideration is preparation. It's hard to separate luck from preparation but they appear to be the opposite of 2013. Coming out of the all star break, they've only scored a run per game. They just seem so streaky, from April to May and when the hitting was on, the pitching wasn't. Coming out of the break there was a chance. This past series looks to have ended it.

 

[HomeRunBaker]

 
The opacity with which they run this thing is such a cop-out. You never know who's responsible for what, so people are left to speculate. Who's got the power, who's losing it, who messed up the Lester negotiation, etc. Even the "Lucchino-bad, everybody else-good" meme no longer fit quite as nicely. They've made it so you don't really know who is to blame for this - also helped by the fact that if you ask any of them, they say decisions are collegial and all take responsibility. Pretty crafty - but it'd be good to know who's the problem here - other than the major league evaluation (given the results, we know that's Allard Baird, lol).

Theo needs to collaborate with Michael Lewis on a book. It would be THE biggest and baddest behind the scenes baseball book ever if Theo decided to say "Fuck it, it's on!"

The day-to-day lineup thing first came to my mind when Farrell was discussing a lineup in a morning interview with "I hope he's in the lineup" and the tone with which he made the statement. It sounded weird and then we here more things to confirm this. The Theo being tight lipped about the big signings lead me to believe something like the Porcello extension wasn't Ben but from higher. I'm of the belief that every non in-game decision is being decided from the top and the organization is in fully micromanagement mode with Ben and Farrell simply being puppets for the regime.