Loria totally deserves his ranking as the #1 turkey.

FTFA:

3. DAN O’DOWD ... O’Dowd’s ill-conceived idea to go to a four-man rotation with 75-pitch limits did little to improve his pitchers’ performances at Coors Field — and when he installed his assistant, Bill Geivett, with an office in the clubhouse to monitor everything, that was enough for manager Jim Tracy to quit and walk away from $1.4 million.

And:

6. RICKY ROMERO ... From June 27 to Sept. 24, Romero went 0-13 with a 7.42 ERA which, according to the Elias Sports Bureau is the second-worst 15-start streak in baseball history, behind the 0-14 by the Seattle Mariners’ Mike Parrott in 1980.

but so far he has shown himself to be a player you’re never going win with.

I love it when sportswriters hang young players with such labels.

Mike Parrott was the Mariners' opening-day starter in 1980. He got the win on opening day, and ended the season with 16 starts and a record of 1-16.

I don't know, I think it's quite impressive that Pena was able to play in 87 games while the Rays went 41-44.

Carlos started the season strong. In his first 28 games he started all of them and hit .398/.460 in 123 PA. The Rays went 19-9 in those 28 games. The next 80 games (which brings us to August 7th) saw him start 75 games and hit poorly. The Rays went 37-43 in those games. Add the two together and the Rays went 56-52 up to that point. Who else was out there that the Rays could have gotten to play first base this year that could have given the Rays a better record through 108 games?

Who else was out there that the Rays could have gotten to play first base this year that could have given the Rays a better record through 108 games?

Perusing b-ref in an attempt to see what the answer to this question might be I came across the disaster that was the Philadelphia Phillies 1B position. How certain was the timetable for the return of Howard and Utley? The first three months of the season saw a lot more Ty Wigginton, Laynce Nix, Freddy Galvis, John Mayberry, Pete Orr, Mike Fontenot (!), Hector Luna (!!), and someone named Michael Martinez than I would think any sane Phillies fan would have liked.

I suppose that's the problem with the "established star coming back in July" scenario. It's hard to get anyone who's any good to come in for a 3-month job. But surely you can find at least one guy to fill one of those two positions who isn't guaranteed to suck. I imagine Philadelphia's brief flirtation with a run at the playoffs at the end of the season may have looked differently had they had someone in there. (Or not, as Carlos Pena's example argues).

#7, Utley's woes didn't surface until Spring Training. Howard was figured on returning anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 way point. Thome, Wigginton, John Maybeberry and Nix were to help at 1B/LF until Howard came back. Why Amaro thought Wiggy had anything left in the tank was a major surprise. Thome couldn't last more than a game at a time in the field.

Someone named Michael Martinez is the most egregious 2 year waste of a roster space I have ever seen. He was a 28 yo Rule 5 draftee from Washington in 2011. He's versatile, in that he doesn't know how to play many positions. He is speedy but can't steal bases. He looked OK at 3B and has enough arm for 7 positions. But he simply cannot hit. He can't hit enough for a AAA utility player. He got 100s of PAs in the two years.

Loria totally deserves his ranking as the #1 turkey.

True, but in any other year someone from the Red Sox would have won. Not sure TFA is being fair in choosing Henry over Valentine:

4. JOHN HENRY
Although there are many worthy candidates, someone has to take the blame for the fall of the Red Sox and it might as well be the owner, who sat back and, if nothing else, enabled all his minions to turn this once-proud organization into the laughingstock of baseball. It began with the Red Sox hierarchy undercutting rookie GM Ben Cherington by naming Bobby Valentine as manager when he wanted Sveum. Then, Henry & Co. proceeded to undercut Valentine by entertaining a players-only meeting to air their gripes about the manager. Of course, the final undoing for Valentine was when Henry approved the $261 million salary-dump trade of Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Josh Beckett to the Dodgers in August. Indeed, while John Henry has been spending most of his time abroad with his Liverpool soccer team, his Red Sox have deteriorated into a last-place team with a dried-up farm system.

i am glad he called out the umpiring even though he focused on just welke

True, but in any other year someone from the Red Sox would have won.

Probably, but what Loria did was a once-in-a-generation atrocity. This year is his.