Some links for Friday night, since we all need something to do now that the Yankees and Tigers have been rained out…
- Mike Salk of 710 ESPN Seattle hears that Don Wakamatsu's name "has been floated" in Boston as a potential replacement for the departed Terry Francona (Twitter link).
- Meanwhile, Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino told WEEI.com's Alex Speier that they have not yet started the process of finding a new manager. GM Theo Epstein says they will prioritize thoroughness rather than a speedy resolution.
- Baseball America's Ben Badler looked at how much production each of the eight playoff teams have gotten from homegrown players this season. Unsurprisingly, the Rays top the list.
- Within his end of season awards column, SI.com's Jon Heyman says that Dave Dombrowski of the Tigers and Kevin Towers of the Diamondbacks are the GMs of the Year for the AL and NL, respectively.
Wakamatsu…. that’s….interesting….?
“has been floated” is the most transparent “i made this up” phrasing i’ve seen in a week. he doesn’t even pretend to have a source, let alone a source that would know anything about anything
Maybe they floated the name out there like a turd floats in the toilet before you flush it down.
Isn’t Wakamatsu basically the same type of manager as Francona? He’d be a new voice but he’d be saying the same thing.
I think almost everyone in Blue Jays nation would be happy to see DW find a new home.
Really? What’s he done? I’m not asking to be snarky—I haven’t heard much about him, complaints or otherwise, since he signed on.
It pretty much just boils down to some creative useage of the bullpen when he’s calling the shots. And, there is also a lot of inventive PH/PR decisions that come on his watch. Not to mention, there are at least 3 or 4 legitimate home-grown successors waiting in the wings in the minor league system. I’m not saying that there’s a huge amount of uncontrolled animosity amongst the fans, but that he probably wouldn’t be hugely missed and that some fresh blood from a winning culture into a fresh, young team would be very welcome.
What control does he have over who is coming up to the big league?
I mean “fresh blood” to refer to replacing him as bench coach with one of the coaches/managers from the minor league system, not to refer to any of the players. Since, yeah, obviously that is the GM’s job. But, there are some exciting people doing great things in AA and AAA in the Jays’ organization.
Lol you’re a joke.
Why? I can’t see him having any type of impact on the games whatsoever.
What does a bench coach even do anyway? Is he just the backup manager for when the real guy gets tossed?
Reading that post made my head explode.. I just don’t see how any one could feel so strongly about a bench coach… What next blame the bullpen woes on pat hentgen???
Blue Jays Nation? Sell out a home series before spouting this nonsense. Who rules there, the Maple Leafs? Brian Burke is lol.
Schizophrenia much?
Blue Jays Nation? Blue Jays county, maybe. Blue Jays cul-de-sac, maybe. Sell out a home series then spout this nonsense. And who would rule ‘blue jays nation’, the Maple Leafs? Brian Burke?
Schizophrenia much?
Too funny. Blue Jays Nation? More like Blue Jays cul-de-sac. And who would rule there, Brian Burke? LOL, Blue Jays Nation, lmfao!!!
Schizophrenia much?
“Baseball America’s Ben Badler looked at how much production each of the eight playoff teams have gotten from homegrown players this season.Unsurprisingly, the Rays top the list.”
yes, but important piece from the baseball america article for the epstein haters:
If the Red Sox had won two more regular season games, they would be the
most homegrown team in the playoffs, with a total of 30.6 WAR, almost
all of which has come through the draft.
they didn’t win those games, so the rays (and yanks) get and deserve the last laugh. but since not a single one of you predicted lackey and crawford to be as bad as they were, and since even moderately below-average years for them (instead of the obscenely bad crap they got) would have meant the playoffs…pipe down and be grateful. plenty of mistakes were made, but you are still fortunate enough to have a front office most franchises would kill for
another way to look at it: without the big free
agents they signed, (~$65M worth between lackey, crawford, drew, cameron, jenks), they were still able to field a team
that, while playing in the AL East, was the best in baseball for months
and, if not for an improbable turn of events in september, would have made a run in the
playoffs
that’s a ~$95M payroll. not peanuts, but it’s rangers & tigers territory – less than the cards, phils, and yanks. not much more than the brewers. the rays and dbacks are the only ones fielding playoff teams with much less
again, there’s no way around the fact that all of those free agents were signed and did contribute practically nothing in 2011. a couple of those contracts are really bad. those are failures and epstein has had big ticket failures before. that matters and you have to hold it against him
but all of you are already doing that constantly, and you’re doing it without appreciating the foundation built beneath all of it that actually did all of the heavy lifting this year. it’s drafted talent, much of which is signed to great extensions. and much of the rest of it was traded for using drafted talent
long story short: want epstein & co. out of your organization? then you’re dumb
Great post.. I agree.
But to play devils advocate a bit.. Despite the great draft history, do you not think he should be held accountable for his fa signings, and not finding the necessary final pieces to add to a championship core??
no doubt. the defense of those signings is “we can afford to f up” as opposed to “we didn’t f up”. i suspect he/they would be the first to acknowledge that those are failures
but like i said, that’s all everyone’s already talking about. he deserves that criticism, but when you’re questioning the guy’s overall value, you have to snap out of your butthurt september blues and account for everything great he/they have built in boston
The reality is that in some twisted fate, the rays not being able to afford fa’s has benefited them..
But you’re right in being amazed at the fact that the sox get zip out of youk, crawford, buchholz, dice k and lackey and don’t finish fourth.
to paraphrase anthopolous, the rays do everything better than anybody else in sports
but to recap: zip out of crawford ($20M) lackey ($15M) daisuke ($10M) drew ($14M) jenks ($6M) cameron ($7.5M)
$70M for ~squat and an epic september collapse? huge fail. that’s what everyone’s focused on
but still reigning for 4 months despite all of that and barely missing the playoffs while competing in the AL East? on the strength of your player development/trades alone? huge win
that’s all i’m sayin. they were a single win away from the playoffs. get even one win out of that pile of free agent fail and nobody is crying. suck it up boston
Sheesh, its ridiculous when you add up all the figures..
Do you think that teams will start avoiding FAs? So many of them having worked out lately.. and its not like yes okay, we had to give player x an extra year and 2 million extra per to get him, he’s not totally worth it but we needed him..
its been we had to give player x and extra year and 2 million extra per and holy crap he’s been a complete bust.
They could still draft better in some ways. One could say 2010 was a good draft, but maybe because it was a wek one talent wise and they made big hits near the top and took guys other teams would not touch due to both injury and signability. 2006-9 overall was not quite as good and IMO 2011 was not as good as it really maybe could have been when they chose yet another catcher as high as they did, another Jr. college pitcher that high with a #1 and the fact that without going and looking… This team has not taken a HS starter with a #1 or supplemental since Bowden way back in 2005 am thinking?? Unless consider Bard a SP from 2006 draft, who as recall mostly started at NC.
They took Owens in the 1s as a starter out of high school this year, Kelly was a SP who they took with the first overall pick in ’08, and they took Caleb Clay out of HS as a SP in the 1s in ’06.
The fact of the matter is that they don’t have a lot of pitching depth in the minors right now, and while part of it is that they could do better with drafting/developing pitching, it’s not as much about that as people are making it out to be. They have drafted high upside pitching early (and late) in their drafts, and haven’t had a lot of luck with it; maybe they need to try more “sure thing” guys, who knows? But they have also drafted some guys who who did end up being good but were traded, and they have drafted some other guys who ended up being elite relievers, so it isn’t like they don’t have any success with pitching, it’s just been dry the last couple year. Whether that’s because they have been drafting the wrong kinds of guys or because they have been taking risks with huge potential upside and just haven’t been hitting on any of them is up for debate.
Thanks for the names on draft picks forgot about and now that think of it.. Richardson may also have been a#1? Just don’t feel like going to look atm.
The drafting by the team problems with SP seems to have been hit by a rash of TJ surgeries also very hard the last couple of years. Tazawa (IF) Britton, Hagedone, Price and there are at least a couple more there that am forgetting over the last couple years.
Have myself always been as excited as many other Sox fans on draft day and many times happy when they draft/sign players from the middle rounds that were high ceiling types, then there are many times they seem to take so called “safe” picks in high, 2-5 rounds, even supplemental who just look like mediocre talent and those are rounds where a large market team with huge resources should do ‘damage”, rather than with Hazelbaker, Dent and Huntzinger types.
Rant over there and “Sure thing” as you wrote is maybe the way. When a Bell is still available at pick #20 as Boston had? A team with this kind of money needs to go that way, rather than adhere to some imaginary budget just to make it look good to the league office.
Wow, from Francona to Don Wakamatsu, my how the mighty have fallen…
Adrian Gonzalez has already said he won’t OPS more than .800 next year because of the change
Wakamatsu for Pedroia straight up. .
Don’t make me go on a killing spree.
Not even funny
Bring in Torre. How awesome would that be?
That Ben Badler article has to be the dumbest story yet. This is why WAR is the most overrated BS ever conceived. He doesn’t count Rollins, Utley and Madson as home grown. Why because they contributed? Give me a break. Also Jeter and Mariano?
His defintion of homegrown is what makes WAR the most overrated BS? OK
And honestly, his definition makes sense. Once a player hits free agency, doesn’t matter if he home grown or not
Makes no sense. Rollins, Utley and Madson were extended before they hit free agency. I understand what the Rays do but they turn over players for extra draft picks or finish last. Moving minor leaguers for Halladay, Pence and Lee is also pretty smart.
It’s stupid. That’s what it is.
Enough of this RedSox Francona stuff. Is this Red Sox Nation?
Towers just did what the GIants GM did and it suceeded again.
I don’t have a problem with Wakamatsu, but I’d rather see Luis Rivera as bench coach. He’s earned it.