Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
October 27, 2003
Red Sox News Conference

It's going on right now. You can hear it at MLB.com. They have officially released Grady Little.

Update: The Red Sox are saying that Grady wanted a long term contract with full support of management. The Red Sox were unwillingly to go long term with Grady, so they didn't renew.

Update: Unfortunately, I can't hear the questions, so I can't tell if the Red Sox upper management is answering the questions straight or spinning.

Update: Adrian Wojnarowski thinks the Red Sox are making a big mistake.


Yes, Little let his stars run the Sox too often, all the way to the end. Pedro wanted to stay in Game 7, so Pedro stayed in Game 7. The manager needed to make a decision with his eyes, not his heart. Had Dave Wallace been the Sox's pitching coach for a longer period of time this summer, perhaps the interim aide might have felt more comfortable pushing Little to make the move on his ace. These are still areas in which a manager can grow on the job.

Yet, Grady's touch in the clubhouse, his ability to get the most of the Sox's over-achieving personalities, isn't so easily available and identifiable on the managerial market. The bottom line: The Sox are taking a far greater risk firing Little, than they ever could've by keeping him.

There was something right about the chemistry of these Red Sox, something someone else will have an impossible time duplicating. Ownership could've worked to re-program Little's late-game decision-making process, stocked his bench with stronger coaching presences and counted upon the fact that one more year of living and learning on the job would've made him a better bench manager.


It was interesting that in the new conference Theo Epstein noted that the new manager would have a lot of Grady Little in him, especially in the way he ran the club house. I guess the Red Sox think that quality is easy to find.


Posted by David Pinto at 03:03 PM | Management | TrackBack (0)