Red Sox call advisor Bill James’s comments about MLB players ‘inappropriate’ and ‘absurd’

Red Sox advisor Bill James leaving the MBTA's Boylston Street station in downtown Boston in 2011.The Red Sox are denouncing the recent comments made by senior advisor Bill James, calling the pioneering baseball statistician’s tweets downplaying the importance of MLB players “inappropriate” and “absurd.”

James was widely criticized by the baseball community after arguing with fellow sportswriters Wednesday on Twitter that MLB players are replaceable and no more integral to the game than “beer vendors” and other people working in the professional baseball industry. The influential writer, who led the mainstreaming of advanced analytics and was hired by the Red Sox as an advisor in 2003, argued…