Ben Cherington and Larry Lucchino have both recently gone on local Boston radio station WEEI and given their thoughts to the fans about the current state of the organization.
The only problem is that they seem to have a somewhat different view of where the team stands right now.
Cherington has told Red Sox nation that he expects the team to have a “large” payroll earlier this month, something that I discussed here.
Lucchino addresses the chance that the Sox get involved with Josh Hamilton or Zack Greinke during this interview with WEEI and makes it sound like the Sox would be very reluctant to sign a free agent player to a huge contract after getting out from underneath Carl Crawford’s contract.
In this Q&A with readers on Boston.com website, Lucchino seems to shy away from the free-agent spending and be far more focused on the kids coming through the system.
It would serve Boston very well at this point if Cherington becomes the face of the Red Sox management dealing with the media or the Sox risk perception that Lucchino is still the de facto general manager and the one calling the shots.
Maybe it is something minor, but when asked about the payroll budget for 2013 Cherington says that it is “difficult to predict” while Lucchino makes a point to say this about having a set payroll for 2013 “Yes we do, but it’s not for public dissemination.” during the same Boston.com Q&A session.
Doesn’t make it sound like both guys are on the same page.
Larry needs to let Ben do his job and see what he can do. The president of the Red Sox shouldn’t be the most visible member of organization.
It’s just really rather unnecessary.
Even if the Sox have no desire to sign Hamilton or Greinke, it doesn’t hurt to be involved with the players and drive up the price for a competitor.
Even if the Sox have no desire to trade for a big contract, it makes no sense to let everyone else in baseball in on the secret.
The Sox appear to be blaming the free agent players for being too expensive instead of looking in the mirror at themselves. Nobody forced the Sox to sign Gonzalez, Crawford, Lackey or Beckett.
Maybe they should question the baseball ops department as to why they have done such a poor job evaluating major league talent recently.
Maybe they should ask how they won just 69 games last season with a payroll that opened the season north of $170 million.
I don’t want to hear about injuries. The Yankees, Giants, Rangers, Tigers, Orioles, Cardinals and A’s all managed to overcome injuries and still make the playoffs. The Sox didn’t have a good enough team.
A good card player never shows their hand unless they have to, even when they fold.
It something the Sox could stand to learn from.
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