BOSTON—So far, but yet so
close. Four and a half games out of first, but yet the Red Sox sit in last
place if the AL East with a 22-29 record.
These are the woes of Red
Sox Nation. It has led to the firing of pitching coach Juan Nieves and now the
nation seems to want manager John Farrell’s head as well.
Sitting last in the AL
East with a real possibility of a third losing season in four years, fans have
every right to ask for a firing. No acquisition of an “ace” can save this
season, only something as drastic as a firing can.
However, Farrell is not
the guy. The problem lies in general manager Ben Cherington.
Although Farrell’s
decisions can impact a game, they do not decide a game. The team does not win
or lose games solely on the decisions Farrell makes. The players lose the game,
and guess who hires the players. Cherington.
Cherington has given
Farrell a faulty roster. He signed a shortstop in Hanley Ramirez and told
Farrell to stick him in left field, a position he has never played in his life.
Ramirez does not have the work ethic to learn a whole new position up to par
and Farrell certainly is not the guy that would make him.
A quote stuck out to me
in last Sunday’s The Boston Globe’s
sports section, which described that the reason Ramirez has problems in left
field stem from not getting enough balls hit to him in spring training, thus he
had not had enough experience to play defensively on balls in play in left
field.
This is unacceptable. If
Ramirez needed more experience in left field playing balls, then as the
manager, Farrell should have taken him out every day and hit balls off of the
wall and made him play it correctly. He did not, even though Ramirez probably
has some of the blame most likely not wanting to go out there and practice, and
now the team suffers from his -0.3 WAR statistic, even with his MVP caliber
bat.
Cherington refused to
sign Jon Lester because of his age, but then gave pitcher Rick Porcello $82.5
million before even pitching for the team. Porcello owns a 4-4 record and a
5.37 ERA. The team tried brain washing their fans by saying the team has five
aces, only to distract the fans from the worst statistical starting pitching in
the entire league.
He has reconstructed the
roster three times by trading away Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett and Carl
Crawford and then signing players such as Mike Napoli, Ryan Dempster and Shane
Victorino, only to blow it up again the next year by trading away four out of
the team’s five starting pitchers.
Cherington has used up
all of his excuses and options. He deserves no more chances. The team sits at
seven games below .500. The team is built on a flawed system and Farrell has
gotten all of the blame. Not fully excused, but Farrell did not do this to the
team, Cherington did.
If someone gets fired,
the Red Sox need to consider Cherington before Farrell. Cherington has gotten
every chance in the world to turn the organization around and has failed at
every step along the way. The 2013 World Series seems more of a fluke with
every passing game and something needs to happen.
Fire the general manager,
not the manager. Get rid of the virus, not the wound.
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