Joe Kerrigan has been fired by the Red Sox! Guess the new ownership is cleaning house, this on the heels of firing Duquette. Mike Cubbage will take over on an interim basis. Candidates mentioned by ESPN are Grady Little and Ken Mocher (sp?). Never should have gotten rid of Jimy Williams.

Wow, they did it... no big surprise though. Kerrigan had been a very good pitching coach, but the Red Sox fell apart under his watch last season and he could do nothing to stop the tail-spin.

Felipe Alou was at the top of the list to replace Jimy Williams last year, just before Duquette moved Kerrigan up. He's dropped off the radar since he left Montreal last spring, wonder what he's doing now? I think Boston would love the guy, and he would do a good job with the team. For one thing, he's Dominican, like Pedro...

According to Tim Kurkjian on ESPN, Felipe Alou, though desirable, is considered too expensive. I agree that Alou would be a great fit for the Sox.

The "Ken Mocher" mentioned in George's post is Ken Macha, bench coach for the Oakland A's. He's a class act and is clearly manager material. He also developed a close working relationship and friendship with Johnny Damon while Johnny D was here in Oakland. I've always been a fan of Jimmy's but if you have to replace him, Ken would be Oakland's loss and your gain. Good luck and beat the Yanks! The last thing I want is Jason Giambi beating us (Oakland) in October. . .

yeah, you knew this was coming. The players couldn't stand Kerrigan, the way things fell apart last year the fans weren't exactly begging for him to stay, and without Duquette the guy didn't have a leg to stand on. Also, when the new owners were asked about Kerrigan, the silence was deafening.

The latest rumor around the Olde Towne Team is that the YANKEES have contacted Kerrigan about being their pitching coach. Wow, if that turns out to be true, that would be a real ironic twist, huh? I doubt it would happen, though, and if it did, I doubt it would work out. I just don't see the veteran aces of the pinstriped pitching staff putting up with a guy like Kerrigan -- constantly tinkering, meddling, big ego, thinks he knows EVERYthing there is to know about pitching. Then again, all the Sox pitchers who have been quite vocal (at least off the record) about their dislike for Kerrigan might actually see him back as their pitching coach. It's hard to believe, but I hear it's a 50-50 shot that Kerrigan will actually come back as the Sox pitching coach.

As to who ends up in the field manager job, we might have to wait another week or two. I'm still betting on Little.

Felipe Alou, pushing 70, would be one of the 2 or 3 oldest managers in history, and none of the Expos' young hitters learned to take a walk under his tutelage. He's vastly overrated.

Changing managers this late in camp? Seems to seal the Bosox' postseason fate; I can't imagine them beating either Seattle or Oakland for the wild card.

I did read that Buck Showalter was on the list of candidates, which would bode well for the next manager. Both times Buck was fired, the team won the WS the following year!

Better to fire Kerrigan now than a month or two into the season like the Devil Rays did to Larry Rothschild last season.

It seemed pretty certain that the new ownership and management at Fenway were going to clean house. Look for them to unload Pedro, too....just kidding.

Bill, do you really think the managerial change has anything to do with it? If the Sox had Joe Torre signed to a contract back in October, do you still think the Sox would have a chance against Oakland (with their three young aces vs. Boston's motley pitching crew) and Seattle (with their intact team and 116 wins last year)? Hey, I'm a Sox fan, so for me hope springs eternal. But come on.

About Showalter, the local media is portraying him as "Dan Duquette, but in a uniform" because of his micromanaging, control-freak ways. I gotta think that description alone pretty much knocks him out of contention.

[ March 06, 2002: Message edited by: BoSoxRudy ]

There's talk in today's sports section about Little as manager, Alou as bench coach and Kerrigan returning to his role as pitching coach. And no Dan D*ckhead in the front office. Sounds good to me!

Meanwhile, I was glad to see that Martinez opened his spring season yesterday with two innings of perfect pitching against the Braves, followed by repeated comments of "I feel great." May the baseball gods smile upon you, Pedro. I'm also excited to see John Burkett on the squad, loved watching him pitch for the Braves... dude threw a 3.19 ERA last year. I dunno, I guess he pushes my "older guy" button. No accounting for taste, hunh?





Kerrigan, leaving

The glaring omission from that story is what the heck would happen with Mike Stanley if they brought Alou in as bench coach under Little. After the Sox (specifically, Dan D*ckhead Duquette) informed Stanley he was fired by leaving a message on his answering machine, I would hope the new owners would have a little more sense than to do **anything** to diss the well-liked and well-respected new bench coach.

PS: regarding John Burkett, yeah, I totally agree. The guy does it for me too. I kinda winced with the "older guy" reference, though, since I'm a month older than Burkett is.

Geez Louise, I didn't mean older than ME... I've got more than a few years on the guy! I meant older like, you know, over 35

[ March 06, 2002: Message edited by: redsoxbreath ]