Inside the Red Sox meltdown

I think skepticism is warranted. He did, however, in his comments point out that he doesn't think Tito is the best manager in the game. That there are others who handle the clubhouse much better, the line-up better, etc. And he did sort of imply that the manager wasn't blameless in this. But most of his comments were directed at ownership.

 

Some guy named Chris Jones and Jonah Keri had an interesting discussion about all this on a website I've never heard of called Grantland.

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/6378/boston-the-red-sox-and-anonymous-sources

 

Pardon me if I take Curt Schilling a lot more seriously in all this than Peter Gammons.

 

Peter taking the homeboy approach, versus Schilling, who has nothing to lose.

 

John Henry made Schilling at least $60M richer. Schilling is lacking in gratitude as well as common restraint.

 

Never question Massah Henry. He gives us these nice jobs, nice clothes, and doesn't whip us too much.

 

These guys have been going apeshit all day.

http://sonsofsamhorn.net/topic/68628-is-john-lackey-the-most-hated-player-in-red-sox-history/

Like watching an ant farm.

 

I know I'm going to get blasted for bringing my "jetes fanboy" viewpoint into this thread, but...

I keep hearing people say Jeter is overrated as the Yankee captain. Well, would the Yankee Captain ever, in a million years, allow any of what went on in Fenway to happen in the NY clubhouse?

The answer is "NO"

 

Just for the record, the NYT sold its stake in the Red Sox.

 

Separate question: Which division will become the 'elite' division over the next decade?

I don't think it will be the AL East - Boston and Tampa are dying. I'm honestly worried about NY - they have too much money and years tied up in deadweight like ARod and Tex, when they could have gone after younger players like Beltre (last winter) or Fielder this winter.

I think it will be the AL Central:

Detroit - they've made the jump to Big Market team.
Chicago - I think Ventura could be the next Torre (star player turned HOF manager)
Cleveland - They have some talent and can rebuild quickly
Minnesota - bad year, but if they get healthy and Gardenhire pulls the pacifier out of Mauer's mouth...

Kansas City - it can't get any worse?

 

The AL East or the NL East, with an outside chance of the NL West. They have the biggest media markets between them. Your talk of an AL East downslide seems quite premature, since it involves quite a bit of forecasting, which you could do with any division.

At the turn of the 2000s, the AL West was a juggernaut, with all four teams making the playoffs at various points. Now, it has one strong team (Texas), a falling competitor (Angels), and two middling teams (Athletics and Mariners). Fortunes can turn quickly and randomly in baseball, so outside of the simple axiom that bigger markets have a greater chance of success, I don't think you can really forecast teams out more than 1 to 3 years. (Even for all the dirt being heaped on the Red Sox's grave by talk radio people, they're a bounceback season from Carl Crawford or Clay Buchholz or Player X away from making the playoffs.)