2024-2025 Front Office, Staff, and Coaching Changes

I think at this point they're evaluating players by having a robot go frame by frame over video and filling in metrics about mechanical efficiency and torque or whatever. The in person scouts are reduced to gathering gossip about which players are a trainwreck off the field, who is playing through a sore shoulder etc.

A biomechanics arms race.

Boo-yeah he is.

Don't forget who's got the prettiest/ugliest girlfriend...

Pete Fatse has to have dirt on the organization, there’s no way

Not sure there is anything new here as far as terminations but its a good overview.....

bleacherreport.com/articles/10138834-mlb-rumors-red-sox-fire-6-coaches-after-missing-mlb-playoffs-for-3rd-straight-season

I mean they fired Luis Ortiz, so they’re shaking something up there. Story/Casas were injured most of the season, so outside of Duran/Wong who significantly outperformed? Abreu/Hamilton had some solid streaks, but I wouldn’t say they significantly outperformed. 

Then there’s the fact that the whole team forgot how to make contact with pitches in the zone over the last 6 weeks…

That’s fair Hamilton really improved, but I don’t really think Abreu got better this year (K rate up slightly, BB rate down, but could have been physical), same goes with Valdez. Maybe part of the perception is what we don’t see in who Ortiz worked with and who Fatse worked with. 

I really hope I’m wrong, but the only sustainable breakout seems to be Duran. If the Gonzalez, Refsnyder, Hamilton, Wong produce at 2024 levels that would be awesome, but the last two months of 2024 doesn’t help us believe in our hitting approach 

O'Neill was previously injured.  Romy was previously injured.  This was widely reported. 

That said, I think Fatse has made a stronger case for himself this year: Abreu and Hamilton seemed to get though their growing pains moderately well.  Duran is just a physical beast who benefitted from revamping his running style, fielding coaching, and sinking himself into the game.  

OTOH, Yoshida was inconsistent (yes, there was also injury there.)  Rafaela failed miserably.  And of all the bit players only Smith approached adequacy.  Pablo Reyes cratered, as did Dalbec and Valdez and Cooper.  It seemed they couldn't bring in anyone who was remotely competent or had a plan at the plate.  Raffy fell apart at the end and someone must have been telling Cora he would do just fine at the plate when he was actually a black hole for a month.  (Not that ultimately playing Raffy is on Fatse, but still, it's not a glowing endorsement of the orgs ability to vet player performance/injury impacts.)  Meanwhile behind the dish, Wong faded badly in the second half, McGuire struggled, and Jansen underachived.  Grissom was entirely lost early-on, but I'm willing to chalk that up to injury.

Also, the Sox had an offensive resurgence when they decided to have one-on-one meetings with the hitters.  (Which just sounds nuts to me - that they weren't doing that already.)

So there's a lot of indicators pointing this way and that.  Ultimately, I'm more agnostic on Fatse than I was going into the year, but the constant trying to barrel the ball no matter what became tired.  Sure, they scored runs in bunches, but there was no coordination at times to the offense.  The whole was less than the sum of its parts. 

I do think there's something to this last point. I just don't know how anyone can be so confident Fatse is the guy who's responsible. They did fire the "mental skills coach"; maybe he's the one to blame. (By the way, that's not former first round draft pick Rey Fuentes, is it?)

A fish rots from the head down, and Fatse is perhaps only a shoulder in this scenario?

More seriously, I think the main argument for firing Fatse at this point is just to shake things up.  Going into this season I thought he was a clear detriment as players seldom if ever took a step forward under the hitting coach mix on the Sox.  Now, with some younger players making progress, things are a bit more clouded. 

What I do not (and probably never will) understand is the Sox's fandom's fickleness toward players and owners contrasted with what at times seems an absurd loyalty to middle-management.  Some people would sooner trade Rafaela than say, "Maybe we should bring in someone to better actualize him, to break his habits, to unlock his potential."  And that's after watching what Bailey over Bush meant to the pitching staff.