Jon Heyman,
Sports Illustrated:
While Francona was terrific for seven years with his laissez-faire, players-manager style, word around the team is that he wasn't proactive enough this year. ...
The reality, according to that Red Sox player, is that Francona had withdrawn from the team and often inexplicably kept to his office this season. ... Francona maintained his rapport with [Dustin Pedroia] while withdrawing from most others. ...
Followers of the team say that there was a cliquish element at play, with starting pitchers Josh Beckett, Jon Lester and the dour, demonstrative John Lackey ("they need to trade him," one competing executive said) forming a scowling triumvirate that sometimes seemed to include respected veteran leader Jason Varitek but few others. ...
[A]t the final confab [Francona] was told that to even consider bringing him back he would need to "set higher standards" and "reinvent himself."
Francona could sense that he was almost assuredly about to be let go ... In other words, he quit before he was about to be canned. ...
Confidants suggest that revered GM Theo Epstein, who is believed to maintain the support of Henry and chairman Tom Werner, has a couple surprise managerial candidates in mind [without major-league managing experience]. ...
Tampa Bay's startling success -- making the playoffs three of the past four years -- is said to have enraged Henry, a "nutty professor" type said to have a nasty streak.
Jackie MacMullan (ESPNBoston)
wrote this five days ago:
[Kevin Youkilis] continued, as recently as two months ago, to publicly question Ellsbury's decision to retreat to Arizona last summer for treatment for broken ribs. Kevin Youkilis has always been a hot button. On occasion, his intensity and his honesty were his biggest assets, but not this season. The injured Youkilis showed up every day the way he wanted Ellsbury to, but he turned so sour and cynical that his carping and insistence on inserting himself into other people's affairs turned him into a detriment.
Youkilis responds (lengthy quotes on various subjects, read the whole thing;
emphasis is mine):
I've always respected [her, but] she comes around three times a year, so she really doesn't know what's going on in that clubhouse ... [S]he came to me because she was writing a story on Jacoby. ... I have no issue with Jacoby. When this game was over and I went up to him, I said I just want to tell you that that was one of the most remarkable seasons I've ever seen ...
My philosophy is this ... when you're hurt, you either go to Fort Myers or you go with the team ... it's opinion and it's not that big of a deal ... God, this is a never-ending story. ...
[MacMullan] said I was a detriment because I was meddling in people's affairs. ... I'm going to set this straight, something was happening because one of her colleagues keeps on writing stories that are inaccurate about players. ...
I hope all the players that want to say what they want to say about this year, say, "Put my name on it." Don't be a coward, don't be a guy that's going to be the source said. [I]f people are going to talk to reporters, be a man, put your name on it. ...
[Is there a beer-filled cooler in the Red Sox locker room?] I don't know if I'm allowed to say if there is or there isn't.
If you are into "friend-of-a-friend"-type rumours: one, two, three.
ReplyDeleteIn early August of this year, Yook said he was in no hurry to leave Boston, but wouldn't mind playing in Cincinnati:
ReplyDelete"I don't know what their plans are past [2013], but I actually think it would be cool, if I don't play here, that there's going to be another guy to enjoy the opportunities that I had. I've been thinking about that a lot. Probably for the first time in my life I haven't worried about if I had to go to another team and it doesn't bother me. ... I don't think guys should be bitter that somebody is going to take their job. It's a cool thing and somebody should get the experience of playing here and having fans cheer for them and enjoy it. I've had that luxury and I've had that for a long time. ... If I were to go anywhere, I would want to go to Cincinnati and play in front of my parents at home."
It's only a matter of time before somebody strays into Tito's Marine son being over in a foreign war.
ReplyDeleteIt has been mentioned at SoSH, as another thing on his mind. I think it's been about a year. (I avoid all political talk over there, so I am not sure...)
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the Heyman piece yesterday (from a link on SoSH) my first thought was, this is damage control by ownership. I'm sure they would rather have fans visualizing a disconnected Francona, "inexplicably" locked in his office, than of a bunch of overpaid, underachieving players, complaining about the bus schedule, boozing it up in the clubhouse, and blowing off their boss even while the playoffs slipped through their fingers.
ReplyDeleteMy second thought was, what does all this clubhouse stuff really have to do with the disaster in September? It still seems that is explained best by pitching issues - injuries, insufficient depth, and general suckage. Francona might have some marginal responsibility for the latter, but not a lot. The biggest single problem is Lackey; and that's on Lackey himself and Theo - not Francona.
Which is why I get more and more aggravated about Tito's departure. If this is what ownership thinks is the best first move in preparing the team for 2012 - ditching a great manager, complicating the current situation - the need to refurbish the pitching staff, and the rumors about Theo maybe leaving, with a manager search on top of the rest - it's hard to get my hopes up about next year.
I'd have been happier if the first thing that happened at the end of the season was they DFA'd Lackey and ate the rest of his contract.
If Henry (and Werner and LL) had determined (that 3-0 vote) that Tito's options were not going tobe picked up, then I'm not sure what could have been done. It does sound like Theo tried to make a case for Francona at some point - also telling Tito to take a week or two and see if he could "change" his style for 2012 -- but Tito did not want to do that.
ReplyDeleteSomewhere in Bill James's book on managers, he mentions that after 3 years or so, things tend to sour re: players/front office/mgr and it is time for a change. In that respect, we got a great deal with Tito.
Also, I have been seeing comments that if the Sox had gone 10-17 or whatever in September and maybe got on a roll in the playoffs, that none of this would have happened. I disagree. I think it was coming no matter what.
Rays lose 4-3!
ReplyDeleteRangers move on to the ALCS!
Thumbs up to Tom DePlonty.
ReplyDeleteGonna be starting a Last NYY Game of the Season thread over on the boards for tonight...
ReplyDeleteRe: Yook - ha! Good luck playing in Cinci - what are you gonna do, play 120 games at 3B and OPS ~800? 1B is taken (Votto) and there ain't no DH for ya! Seems like the only logical position for Yook to play (and still be a respectable hitter) going forward if he continues to be this fragile.
Hindsight with the injuries to Yook the last couple of seasons and the ineffective hitting from catcher, possibility of Ortiz not coming back makes the non-attempts at V Martinez and Beltre that much more disappointing. Especially considering that Lackey is likely part of the reason they didn't want to spend on V-Mart/Beltre.
Again hindsight - although I disliked the Lackey signing at the time - I would have much rather seen the Red Sox pick up a cheap pitcher for 1-2 years and try to develop some prospects, and sign V-Mart and Beltre to few year deals. Of course, then you run into the whole, we wouldn't have got Gonzo because Yook would be at first and Ortiz would DH. I guess they could have had a 3-player rotation at 1B/DH for 2011 until Ortiz's contract was up, then keep Yook at DH and Beltre/Gonzo at the corners going forward.
Of course, its hindsight and none of it really matters, so the entire above rant was a waste of time.
just saw highlights of Beltre's 3 solo dongs from today! haha! right after i typed all that other shit.
ReplyDelete[Is there a beer-filled cooler in the Red Sox locker room?] I don't know if I'm allowed to say if there is or there isn't.
ReplyDeleteThat statement seems to indicate that there was, but there was more to the September collapse than kicking back some cold ones around game time.
Wasn't Millar and some of the Idiots doing shots of Jack Daniels before some of the latter games in the 2004 ALCS?