What do companies do when something starts to go badly? They downsize. They bring in new talent. They refresh the pool of available resources. They decide to go in a new direction. Whatever you call it, people lose their jobs. The Red Sox, of course, can’t downsize, unless they had a fire sale, but they can start firing people – and they did yesterday, giving hitting coach Ron Jackson and pitching coach Dave Wallace their walking papers. Check the Globe article I just linked to for details, but it sounds like Tito was behind releasing Papa Jack – fundamental disagreements over player development over the past few years, coupled with the lower offensive output this season – and Epstein the motivation for releasing Wallace, possibly for concerns about the slow development of the younger pitchers.I don’t have any issues with the hiring and firing of managers – both guys were popular, but I’m sure the motivations for releasing them made sense for the organization. What does worry me is that the Sox are once again entering the off-season without vital pieces to team management. Not as vital the GM, obviously, but who’s going to spend the off-season beating Wily Mo over the head until he realizes he doesn’t have to swing at every bad pitch? Who’s going to smack Josh Beckett until he gets it in his head to start pitching with his head every game instead of every third game? We’ve got five or six months until Spring Training and the 2007 Reincarnation; I just hope the Sox find coaches in time to make a difference to key to players this winter.
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