I want to send out kudos to SBN's own Jim McLennan from AZ SnakePit who interviewed former assistant general manager of the Boston Red Sox, Josh Byrnes, recently.
Byrnes spoke briefly about his time with Boston:
AZ SnakePit: How much adaptation did you have to do on coming out here from Boston - which obviously is a historic franchise, a rich franchise, with a fanatical fanbase as well? Was there much 'culture shock' involved?
Josh Byrnes: I think every market is different, every franchise is different, every set of challenges is different. In Boston, probably more than any other place, you're constantly focussed on the Yankees. Though I imagine that's changed to some degree, since another team from the AL East made it to the World Series. It's different here: I think the challenge was change was coming; the franchise needed to re-invent itself to some degree. We had a good young talent base that was ready to mature, and all the issues related to it, getting our payroll in order and making decisions to put the right young players in positions where they could complete their development at the major-league level.
Part two of Jim's interview will be up at AZ SnakePit in the near future.