Tick Tock Goes the Deadline Clock…
As a life-long Red Sox fan, there are 4 points during the year that I really look forward to: The Playoffs (when we’re fortunate enough to make it), the Winter Meetings, Opening Day, and the Trading Deadline.
With the Trading Deadline just hours away, I find myself constantly hitting refresh on mlb.com to find out of there are any new rumors or trades. I also find myself listening to other people’s conversations in the office, just to see if I can pick up any hot gossip. Based on the emails I’ve recieved over the past couple of weeks, and the comments you all have posted here on the blog, it looks like you’re aching for some relief pitching help, and some more offensive production.
Has our last few games changed your mind at all? What do you think we should do? Try to make a trade? Get some help from our minor league prospects? And I won’t even ask, but I’m sure you all have some thoughts on you-know-who being you-know who…
Anyhow, aside from the deadline, here’s what’s putting dents in the Monster this week…
A big “welcome back” to the 12 Massachusetts teens and Red Sox staffers who spent the last two weeks building a baseball field for a Dominican orphanage as part of the Lindos Suenos program! For two weeks, these 12 kids along with 12 Dominican teens, and Sox staffers spent each morning creating this field from scratch, so that the children growing up in this orphanage would have a baseball field to call their own. My fellow Sox staffers told me that the teens all took great pride in creating the field because they hoped it w
ould help teach the children of the orphanage the life lessons that the game has taught them over the years: responsibility, teamwork, and the value of hard work.
For your benefit, I asked one of the staffers down there to get an aerial shot of the completed field. While, a helicopter apparently was too difficult to find, he did manage to get on top of the team bus and take the shot.
The staffers and kids also came back raving about how great Jesus (Jay) Alou was. For those of you who don’t know, Jay is our Director of the Dominican Academy. In addtion to being in the game of baseball for over 50 years, Jay has 5 World Series rings to his name, and currently helps develop our young Dominican talent. While the kids were down there for the Lindos Suenos program, Jay generously gave his time teaching the teens about the game of baseball and even took time to instruct them on a one-on-one level. Here’s a neat little Jay Alou tidbit for you. Jay and his brothers Matty and Felipe once all played in the outfield for the Giants at the same time!
Oh, and how could I forget…the winner of the “First Annual Lindos Suenos Mustache Competition?” Well, he won’t let me divulge his name, but I can tell you that he “handily” beat the competition with his Sal Fasano’esque handlebar mustache. Well done.
On another note, my email inbox has been flooded with great pictures from all over the country and the world, and I love it! You have all been to some pretty amazing places with your sox hats and t-shirts. This week’s photo is of Mike and his son Connor from Illinois. As you can see, they’re doing their part to spread the Red Sox Nation love! Great photo, guys!
Lastly I know I mentioned this in the newsletter, but seriously, if you can make it to Futures at Fenway next weekend, you definitely should! It’s the best
kept secret in Boston, but you can get tickets for as little as $5 (can you say “family friendly!!”). Or, on the flip side, have you ever wanted to see what everybody’s raving about when it comes to the exclusive EMC Club? Those tickets are just $30!! And no, I didn’t accidentally leave off an extra zero on either of those prices. I would definitely recommend that you get them sooner rather than later, because right now this little secret is between us, but the tickets might go quickly once other people find out.
And I’ll leave you with one of the best pictures I’ve ever seen of Fenway Park. This one was taken by Megan LaBella of our photography department. When I asked her if she photoshopped it to get that ridiculous sky, she simply replied, “no, it’s real, and it’s spectacular.” Indeed.
Tick Tock, Tick Tock, Tick Tock…
All the best from inside the Front Office!
“The Voice”
Red Sox Insider Blog 
John Henry, You need to not trade Manny and sit him on the bench for the rest of the year. It is time for the tail to stop wagging the dog. It is necessary in order to save the future of MLB. There isn’t an employee anywhere in the world that’s worth 20 million dollars a year. My feeling is
if you miss the playoffs it would be worth it in order to put a stop to the players owning the teams. In the private sector Manny would have been immediately fired, and rightly so. Please, please, please, please, please save the game and put this wining baby in his place.
Jim Harrington
This girl’s personal opinion?
I’m hoping that all this drama around Manny is really just posturing for the offseason -and is taking the attention away from trade talks are (hopefully) really focusing on pitching. If you dont’ have middle relief and possibly another starter — AND lose a big bat on top of it all — call it a season.
Baseball is cyclical, and teams struggle at different points throughout the season; I dont’ know that I really feel that the struggle at this juncture is a direct result of the Manny situation. I dont think the players get that involved with each other’s drama, outside of the incessant media spotlight that surrounds it at times. THAT I think irritates the players. I just don’t subscribe to the “addition by subtraction” spin.
Manny will unfortunately be gone at the end of the season regardless. So this girl says keep him around for the rest of the season and see what happens. Strengthen the bullpen, and then focus on other improvements and strategies on the offseason.
I could be wrong though – and Manny could be “Manny being Manny as a Marlin” later this afternoon. And I for one, would be a very sad girl.
4pm can’t come quickly enough so that everyone can move on.
https://supergoddessgirl.blogspot.com
This girl’s personal opinion?
I’m hoping that all this drama around Manny is really just posturing for the offseason -and is taking the attention away from trade talks are (hopefully) really focusing on pitching. If you dont’ have middle relief and possibly another starter — AND lose a big bat on top of it all — call it a season.
Baseball is cyclical, and teams struggle at different points throughout the season; I dont’ know that I really feel that the struggle at this juncture is a direct result of the Manny situation. I dont think the players get that involved with each other’s drama, outside of the incessant media spotlight that surrounds it at times. THAT I think irritates the players. I just don’t subscribe to the “addition by subtraction” spin.
Manny will unfortunately be gone at the end of the season regardless. So this girl says keep him around for the rest of the season and see what happens. Strengthen the bullpen, and then focus on other improvements and strategies on the offseason.
I could be wrong though – and Manny could be “Manny being Manny as a Marlin” later this afternoon. And I for one, would be a very sad girl.
4pm can’t come quickly enough so that everyone can move on.
https://supergoddessgirl.blogspot.com
This girl’s personal opinion?
I’m hoping that all this drama around Manny is really just posturing for the offseason -and is taking the attention away from trade talks are (hopefully) really focusing on pitching. If you dont’ have middle relief and possibly another starter — AND lose a big bat on top of it all — call it a season.
Baseball is cyclical, and teams struggle at different points throughout the season; I dont’ know that I really feel that the struggle at this juncture is a direct result of the Manny situation. I dont think the players get that involved with each other’s drama, outside of the incessant media spotlight that surrounds it at times. THAT I think irritates the players. I just don’t subscribe to the “addition by subtraction” spin.
Manny will unfortunately be gone at the end of the season regardless. So this girl says keep him around for the rest of the season and see what happens. Strengthen the bullpen, and then focus on other improvements and strategies on the offseason.
I could be wrong though – and Manny could be “Manny being Manny as a Marlin” later this afternoon. And I for one, would be a very sad girl.
4pm can’t come quickly enough so that everyone can move on.
https://supergoddessgirl.blogspot.com
To the Mr. or Ms. “mystery” “insider”–
Allow me to be the first to congratulate you (and the rest of the baseball operations team) on a fantastic trade deadline.
Now get some sleep–I’m sure you all need it–we have a pennant to win…and a bright talent to help us get there.
Kudos!
William Simmonds
ps…if you need any help in the next few years, I’ll be happy to assist in any way that i can. Seriously!
I for one am not happy that Manny has been traded. Manny is Manny & despite what anybody hasta say, he’s been an asset to the Red Sox. Down thru recent years I have looked forward to the one-two punch of Manny Ramirez & David Ortiz. Here we just get Big Papi off he disabled list & the Red Sox management send Manny off to LA!!! All I can say is “Dumb duh duh duh dumb” (to the tune of Dragnet–I hope I’m remembering right).
Congratulations Theo, John Henry and the rest of the Red Sox office staff. Manny is now a memory and the distraction is gone. The fans and his team mates deserve better. Lets get back to work!
Sorry for the multiple postings yesterday — the server kept returning an error and I didn’t realize the post had gone through. Didnt’ mean to “spam” the site. 🙂
Anyhow… now that the dust has settled and the smoke is clearing – I have very definite thoughts on this trade. This is the quick and dirty version. You can find the full version on my blog.
I see both sides of it. Truly, I do.
But that doesn’t mean that I have to be happy about it.
Honestly, I was a little choked up when at 4:02 the airwaves were abuzz with the sketchy details. And then I was really irritated when I heard the details of it all unfold.
I wouldn’t have made this trade. And I think
that we can “call it a season” unless something dramatically improves with the pitching staff. We let three people go to gain one. And what we really needed was a strong middle reliever and possibly another dark horse starter?
But I didn’t have to work with the guy – so easy for me to say, right?
Listen, I’m not throwing in the towel by any stretch. It just doesn’t look promising at the moment. And I’m just not convinced that this was the trade to have been made for this year.
I still love Manny. I loved every minute of “Manny being Manny” as a spectator. Sure it got ugly towards the end, and that’s unfortunate. But I will absolutely unequivocably miss him in the lineup tonight and every night thereafter. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
http://supergoddessgirl.blogspot.com
Manny was part of the team. Manny and Ortiz were a duo. I am very upset that he was traded no matter what he had done. You could have at least waited until the end of the season. What were you thinking? He helped to win 2 World Series Titles or have you forgotten. I became and stayed a sox fan because of Manny. Also if you are going to trade for someone how about a pitcher that we obviously need right now.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for doing something that has needed to be done for quite some time. Yes, Manny is a good player- when he feels like it. But we sure haven’t seen much of that this year, especially since he hit his 500th homerun. One person does NOT make a team. It takes everyone on the team to make it to the playoffs and the World Series and to WIN. But one player can sure spoil the attitude and production of a whole team and we can see the results of Manny’s negativity in the past few games the Sox have played. I think without his negative influence in the clubhouse we will all see a huge difference in how our beloved team plays. I am looking forward to seeing how Jason Bay fits in with the rest of the team. And I’m looking forward to an exciting August, September, and October. Thanks again Theo and John Henry. Keep up the good work! Go Red Sox!!! Mary Tanner, #1 Fan in Maine