Farrell Fired

It seemed inevitable, with early and one-sided playoff exits over the past two years. For some reason, Shank seems to have a problem with it:

The Red Sox fired manager-under-siege John Farrell Wednesday. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, sitting at a dais without ownership, provided no explanation for the dismissal of the five-year skipper who won a World Series in 2013 and just finished in first place in back-to-back seasons.

And yet, the move will be almost unanimously applauded by Red Sox Nation.

It’s one of those “only in Boston” things.

It seems like Shank has a little problem with the firing, doesn't it? He then proceeds to reel off the reasons it's justified:

While the Sox were winning 93 games each of the last two seasons, fans fumed about Farrell’s strategic moves. The manager sometimes seemed to panic when the situation called for calm. The game often got too fast for him. His communication skills were challenged by some players.

How many times have we seen Shank bitch about Farrell leaving in Chris Sale over the past couple of weeks?

Farrell demonstrated zero leadership when $217 million ace David Price acted out. He claimed to have no knowledge of what was going on when his players were caught in an electronic-device cheating scandal.

Farrell’s daily press conferences were peppered with annoying corporate-speak. Local sports talk shows and social media platforms called for the manager’s head almost daily.

When the big-payroll, top-talent Red Sox flopped badly in the playoffs for the second straight October, there was little question Farrell would be sacrificed by a front office ever-focused on optics and television ratings (down 15 percent this year).

A ticket-price increase has already been announced for next season. The Red Sox needed to do something after getting pantsed by the Houston Astros in a four-game ALDS. So they gave fans a feel-good moment by firing the manager.

This is typical of Shank, attempting to have it both ways - he tweets out about Farrell leaving Sale in, constantly reminds us of the Red Sox lousy playoff record the past two years, and now he can't even state 'yeah, he should be fired'? Come on.