After the week that was, in which [Bobby Valentine] had to (1) apologize for disparaging Kevin Youkilis, (2) banish one of his GM's prize offseason acquisitions, Mark Melancon, to the minors and (3) proceeded to screw up two games against the Tampa Bay Rays and Texas Rangers by going against the basic tenets of Managing 101, wethinks Bobby V is already wondering what he's gotten himself into by returning to the managerial wars with the Red Sox.Why did none of the Red Sox writers have this story? They seemed to have no clue about the clubhouse issues that plagued the team last year; did they collectively miss the boat on this story, as well? If this incident happened as Madden reports, it certainly gives Curt Schilling's statement of clubhouse rancor against Valentine more credibility.
And this doesn't include the near player revolt he had on his hands the very first week of spring training when, the Daily News has learned, he got all over shortstop Mike Aviles in what sources described as "a very ugly scene" during infield drills. After a group of Red Sox players confronted him with outrage, Valentine had to apologize to Aviles.
Since then, Valentine has outwardly praised Aviles ...
There is fast-growing clubhouse resentment toward Valentine, who's been too much of a culture shock for Red Sox players accustomed to easy-going Terry Francona, and all signs point to a long 100th season at old Fenway. The question is: Will it be a much shorter one for Bobby V?
That group of players had to include some (or most?) of the guys we would think of as the "leaders" on the team. Which means an important segment of the team has been pissed at Valentine since his first days in camp - and everything he has done since then has likely only deepened that dislike and distrust. No wonder Dustin Pedroia uncharacteristically popped off at Valentine's ill-timed and poorly-worded comments about Kevin Youkilis.
The Red Sox will skip Daniel Bard's turn in the rotation (he would have pitched Sunday night). Valentine said Bard could be used out of the bullpen before his next scheduled start on Friday in Chicago. ... This could be the first step in moving Bard back to the bullpen and adding Aaron Cook to the rotation. According to Cook's contract, if he is not on the Red Sox roster by May 1, he can become a free agent.
And Happy 53rd Birthday, Terry Francona!
"And Happy 53rd Birthday, Terry Francona!"
ReplyDeleteWhy can't we get managers like that?
Dear Bill Madden,
ReplyDeleteThe 100th season at Fenway was last year. Also, can you say a manager "screwed up" a game because of a pitching decision in a game where the offense scored 0 runs?
Pete Abe yesterday suggesting Doubront and Bard be moved into the bullpen...
ReplyDeleteLet's see...so he would rather see 6 outs (or so) every day or two from these two pitchers than 5-7 innings each every 5 days...OK.
And who will then be the 4th/5th? Aaron Cook, whoopee - so instead of the Yankees scoring 7 off of sketch bullpen pitchers in the 7th/8th, they'll score 7 in the first 3 innings and Doubront will be used as a blowout long reliever/Bard will be used as a mop.
I suppose when Dice comes back as a starter, Doubront can be his shadow and come in after three innings when Dice's pitch count eclipses 300.
Not to sound like a broken record and repeat shit we all know - good starters are more valuable than bullpen pitchers. Other than a few select elite closers, bullpens are historically wild.
This bullpen could very well be having a very shitty stretch, and they could go the next 10 games without allowing a run. Alls I know is that this pitching coach has his work cut out for him in order for that to happen.
can you say a manager "screwed up" a game because of a pitching decision in a game where the offense scored 0 runs?
ReplyDeleteHe made a clearly bad decision that ended up leading to a loss. He said afterwards that he screwed up, didn't he?
I would normally wonder why we would believe Bill Madden when the Boston writers have been silent about this, but it does explain several things, esp FY's words. And all the Boston writers must have known all kinds of shit that they didn't report last season. All told, I think this story has a lot of credibility.
ReplyDeleteIf the Boston media knew about this incident, why wouldn't they report it? Did they only hear about it and collectively decide to keep it secret? Who told the Daily News?
ReplyDelete"He made a clearly bad decision that ended up leading to a loss. He said afterwards that he screwed up, didn't he?"
ReplyDeleteIf we were winning, then he made a decision that went wrong, and then we lost, you *could* say he "screwed up the game." But if it's tied and then we lose, it's hard to blame the entire loss on him. (On top of the fact that there's no way of ever knowing what would have happened had the opposite decision been made. And the fact that had we been winning before the decision was made, he'd get no credit for having drawn up the lineup card which had given us the lead in the first place.)
Gee, you mean that the newspaper that is in the pocket of the team didn't want a story that the manager that the ownership overruled the GM about had almost lost the team within a week?
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's a real surprise.
Mommy make the bad manager go away......
ReplyDeleteAvile says it never happened.....
ReplyDeleteBV denies it, too.
ReplyDeleteOf course, at this point, I would expect them to do that, so who knows?
But if it's tied and then we lose, it's hard to blame the entire loss on him.
ReplyDeleteNo one is blaming the entire loss on him.
(On top of the fact that there's no way of ever knowing what would have happened had the opposite decision been made.
That is true of every decision made in every game since the beginning of ever.
Aviles: "I don't know where that came from. I don't remember any incident like that. ... There was nothing that comes to mind that would be anything like that other than just normal player/coach interaction."
ReplyDeleteAsked if Valentine did anything to warrant an apology or if Valentine apologize for any kind of incident, Aviles said "No".
I have to believe them offer Maddens "sources".
ReplyDeleteWait, now denials actually mean something? I didn't get that memo.
ReplyDeletePokerwolf has the right idea.
laura k said...
ReplyDeleteWait, now denials actually mean something? I didn't get that memo.
Pokerwolf has the right idea
Wait a minute , we call out the Red Sox negative media bullshit daily , but the New York negative media bullshit has credibility?????
Wait a minute , we call out the Red Sox negative media bullshit daily , but the New York negative media bullshit has credibility?????
ReplyDeleteNot necessarily. But in context of everything else, this seems credible to me. Obviously we don't know for sure, but it seems to fit and explain several things IMO. The denials, IMO, are just SOP.
Madden responds:
ReplyDelete"I think they're all circling the wagons right now. I sure as hell didn't make this up out of whole cloth and neither did my source. It happened. I didn't write this because of any opinion or feelings one way or another toward Bobby. I wrote it to point out the fact that he had problems, or potential, problems with the clubhouse from the very beginning. The players are just now getting used to the culture shock of going from Tito to Bobby."
What could he say?
ReplyDeleteNothing poorly timed or content wise from Pedroia.Valentine is a putz.
ReplyDeleteContrary to usual cliche the s**t of failure rolls uphill. No way the clubhouse could have gone as south as it did last season without front office complicity. Valentine is a vestigial relic of pre-free agency management style. Back to Japan Bobby!
ReplyDelete