Mike's Red Sox Spring Training Thoughts

Spring training is now fully underway down in Fort Meyers as the Red Sox prepare for the upcoming season. The Captain wrote about how much he feels that this upcoming season mirrors the catastrophe that was the 2012 Boston Red Sox. He makes some valid points. Some players seem to be exhibiting attitude problems before the season has even begun. There's a new manager in charge who is supposedly going to whip these guys into shape. There are some likable new arrivals who aren't especially talented players. That said, I feel like there have been enough changes to the script that I don't think the 2013 Boston Red Sox are doomed.

I'm not sold on John Farrell. Farrell had two years in Toronto. He inherited a team with 85 wins in the 2010 season under Cito Gaston. Under Farrell they finished with 81 wins in 2011 and 73 wins in 2012. It's impossible to say how much emphasis you can place on the manager of a baseball team when a season goes badly, he's not like Bill Belichick where he has a huge amount of control over the personnel and the schemes on the field, but Farrell certainly didn't wow anybody with his work in Toronto. We didn't make such an effort to bring Farrell in because he did such a bang up job in Toronto, he's here because he's worked in Boston before. He's got a rapport with the front office and with some of the pitching staff that has been retained since he was the pitching coach here. Presumably, he saw how Terry Francona ran the team relatively successfully for years and will act in a similar fashion. I think the Red Sox wanted Terry Francona back, but couldn't actually get Terry back because of all the history, baggage and burnt bridges and Farrell was as close as they were going to get.

I think the on-field product has changed dramatically from last season. They unloaded a ton of high price tag talent to the Dodgers and I think the team will be very different as a result. I think the Red Sox front office was in denial that the team had a problem going into last season. After all, they barely missed the postseason after one of the worst months of baseball a team has ever played. Outside of that they had been one of the best teams in baseball. I think they felt September 2011 was just an aberration and with the new playoff system they should make the playoffs without a problem. Clearly they were wrong and there were some serious issues with this team. They unloaded three huge contracts and seem to have taken a more conservative approach this offseason to fill those gaps. I think this season everybody has a much lower, realistic expectation for this team and committed to a slower rebuilding process. Indications are that the ownership is ready to let the sellout streak they had propped up last season die and have said they would like to be more transparent with their dealings.


“It’s a marketing slogan but I think this one has the added virtue of being true and transparent. We know last year, and the final month of the preceding year, were the beginning of a very downward trend for this franchise, a historic collapse, a disastrous 2012. It was no secret things needed to be repaired, reset, rebuilt, reloaded, whatever ‘R’ word you want to use. Acknowledging it was probably an honest way to approach the season.”
- Red Sox president Larry Lucchino

I really doubt that this team is a championship contender, the pieces necessary to get the Red Sox to that level just were not available, but I do think a playoff birth is an achievable, realistic goal for this team.