Personally don't follow baseball but seems like Red Sox's situation is similar to ours?
Dated 2 Jun 2015
[article=http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/red_sox_mlb/clubhouse_insider/2015/06/john_henry_backs_john_farrell_and_ben_cherington]Despite the Red Sox’ 22-29 start to a season in which they have a record payroll around $200 million, the team’s principal owner John Henry said Tuesday the jobs of manager John Farrell and general manager Ben Cherington are not in jeopardy.
“Not John’s, not Ben’s, hopefully not mine,” Henry said, speaking to a large chunk of the Boston media contingent in the back of the Fenway Park press box.
Henry was particularly supportive of Farrell while he took questions for almost 20 minutes, stressing several times that the team’s failures so far this season were “not the manager’s fault" and fell more on the players. Farrell was signed to an extension this offseason that guarantees him through 2017 with an option for 2018.
“John has provided the kind of leadership that we need through a really tough period,” Henry said. “I just don’t think you can blame the manager for this. I watch these games. They’ve been painful games to watch. To me, it's not the manager's fault the way that we've been playing. I just don’t see that.”
While Henry was also supportive of Cherington, who signed a contract extension last season (the terms have not been made public), the owner was honest in his assessment of Cherington’s decision-making last offseason and said, "At this point, you can question that, and you should, we should question that.”
But Henry wouldn’t let Cherington shoulder the blame, frequently noting that Cherington’s decisions were made with the support of ownership and that it was the entire front office that needs to accept responsibility.
“The general manager is going to be the general manager of this club for a very long time,” Henry said. “I have nothing but respect for him and the job that he does. I think we've been on the same wavelength, so you have to blame ownership as much as you can blame the general manager.
“We have a certain philosophy. We've talked a lot about adjusting that philosophy. I'm not sure it's just the players that need to make adjustments. In fact, I'm sure about that. There are adjustments we need to make as an organization. Ben will make those adjustments, and he'll lead that process. I think he and his people are the right people to do that.”
On the field, the Red Sox have failed offensively, the one area they were expected to dominate in. They rank 24th in the majors with 3.8 runs per game this season, despite spending $183 million this offseason to add Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval last November.
Henry said he feels good about the Ramirez signing, even though the left fielder’s defense has been so poor he’s statistically been below replacement level with a minus-0.5 WAR, according to fangraphs.com.
While the starting rotation ranks last in the majors with a 5.05 ERA, Clay Buchholz and Eduardo Rodriguez give the Sox some hope of turning things around. Rick Porcello hasn’t been his best this season, but the team is 6-4 with him on the mound. It’s possible adding Brian Johnson from Triple-A Pawtucket or trading to add another starter sometime this summer would give the Red Sox a strong starting five.
But Henry indicated no changes were coming to the pitching side and the Sox were happy with the staff they put together in the offseason.
“I felt good at the time,” Henry said. “We all felt good in the organization about what we accomplished in a short period of time. I feel pretty good where we are right now with the pitching. I feel good about it. But I understand there’s hardly anyone in New England that feels good about it. From the inside looking out I feel probably better than our fans do. No doubt about it.”
Overall, Henry said he felt good about the composition of the roster and didn’t foresee any changes, despite the team’s poor performance.
“They have been anything but [good], there's no doubt about it,” Henry said. “But when you look at the track records of these people, including the young guys who have hit at every level, you have to feel good about this team. But I can understand why there's dismay at this point over the offensive production. It hasn't been what it should be, across the board."[/article]