Farrell's Official!
Well, after just 16 days, it's official. Former Sox pitching coach John Farrell is the new Sox manager. The deal, which included compensation from the Sox to Toronto in the form of last year's shortstop, Aviles, is for a three year deal, with an option year for the 2016 season. In contrast to Bobby Vee, who never should have been hired by the Hose, Farrell is very familiar with all parts of the Sox organization, as well as most of the players, both in Boston and at the higher minor league levels. He is already close to the Sox GM, Cherrington, as well. Does this automatically mean the Sox will return to collecting post-season hardware? Nothing is automatic in the AL East, but one thing is certain. With Farrell at the helm, the team as a whole will perform much better and they'll be in the race all the way through the season. The post-season is not out of the question, although much will depend on who fills the lineup and how well the Sox fill out their deficiencies at the player level from last year.
John, welcome back and the best of luck!

Vee's GONE!
Well, the Sox didn't waste much time. News just flashed over the web--Valentine's been fired. It's only about five months too late.The first right move by the Sox in the off-season (should have been the post-season, but with the year the Hose had, off is the only thing they qualified for after the 162 games were done). No comments yet on who the successor might be, but the betting here is John Farrel, the Hose former pitching coach, who was excellent here and has good relationships with most of the veteran members of the team. If not him, I'd love to see Terry back, but realistically, that's so slim as to be non-existent. He's rumored to be going to Cleveland.

Mercifully Over!
well, the season ended like bookends. Lose at the start--lose at the end. In between, we've unfortunately seen the worst Sox baseball in over forty--that's NOT a typo--years! The last time the Sox lost this many games in a season was 1965--two years before the legendary 'Impossible Dream' pennant winning season. It was a combination of many things--the largest number of DL injuries in MLB history in the last 25 years; poor starting pitching, underperformance in other areas, and finally the glue that binds this unfortunate mess together--VEE. The injuries you can't help. The pitching you can trade or free agent toward improvement. But the manager....From the start, he got off on the wrong foot with his criticism of Youk. Maybe, as the season ultimately showed, Youk is on the downslope of his career, but a manager shouldn't take his beef to the media before the season's even really underway. As The Dustman observed at the time, "That's not the way we do things around here."  Then, we had the giveaway of the game in early season to the Stripes--after leading at one time nine zip! And so it continued from one game to the next, from one month to the next, to the merciful end of the season. Today we see that Vee apparently, so it's being reported on the web (and perhaps in a number of other locations), couldn't get along with his coaches.
There will always be next year, hopefully under someone else--John Farrell comes to mind. The team really isn't a last place team. Are they legitimate contenders, particularly now that in addition to Mr. Hankie's Yankees and the Rays, there are the reborn O's? Time will tell. But they have a good nucleus: Pedroia, Papi, Jake, Ciriaco, Ross, Podsednik and Salty (even with his sub-.230 BA--he does throw out a good number of base stealers and has good power). But, the guys in the front office--Cherrington and his new assistant, none other than Tek [WELCOME BACK, TEK~!]--have got to start by deciding they no longer want to have this Valentine. See you all in February. For now, I'm rooting for the 'other' Boston team--the Braves (check your history books!