Holding onto Greatness: The Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox, for years now, have been one of the better teams in Major League Baseball. However, after coming up short in the playoffs, against the Cinderella dreaming Rays, Boston ownership looked towards taking the team in a new direction. Hence, award winning and praised General Manager Theo Epstein was fired just days before the 2009 season was set to begin in a surprise move. Epstein's replacement?

Epstein's replacement is none other than Joshua Twitchell, a wide-eyed thirty-three year old Providence born native. "I dream of taking this club [Boston] to the top and beyond. But first, I want to do something Epstein couldn't do -- create a contender year in and year out. I don't want my team winning a World Series one year, and then breaking down the next because of positional needs or the like. I want a well-stocked organization with tons of depth and prospects with seasoned veterans leading the way in core spots." Twitchell told the press when he was first introduced. "If I have my way, players like Wakefield, Varitek, and many others who have devoted most of their careers to Boston will retire here. And after that, I'll look to replacing them, but as of today, any player who wishes to actively and openly be a leader in the clubhouse, is safe from being traded."

The new General Manager did not hint about any possible deals he would like to make, nor did he say if he wanted to seek after any of the available top-flight free agents, like Ben Sheets. The Red Sox, under Epstein, had a habit for rehabilitating injured players. This year the Red Sox will try and nurse future hall-of-famer John Smoltz's arm back to 100%.

Injury Frequency: High
Player Fatigue: Average
Scouting: Off
Feeders: None
Ratings: 1-100 Scale
Overall Values: 20-80 Scale

AI Frequency: Low
Difficulty: Hard
Favors: Prospects (Slightly)

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Also, the new General Manager cited "difficulties" with Red Sox management and freed up the following positions on the Major League Club:

Manager
Bench Coach
Hitting Coach
Team Trainer

There has been no official comment from the Red Sox camp as far as who will be taking over as the manager of the Red Sox, but several sources have named Gabriel Vina as a possible front-runner. If Vina signs on, Roman Moreno will be the most obvious choice to become the new Bench Coach, and Ralph Bridgers as the Hitting Coach, and finally, Kevin Lambert has been named as a possible trainer replacement.