Analyitics

Monday, April 2, 2012

Curt Schilling: Are you a Red Sox fan?

we all love curt schilling for everything he's done for the red sox.  as a baseball player, i have the utmost respect for him.  as a commentator on the red sox, he has had some very insightful and opinionated things to say over the years as well.  we've all heard the story of curt ripping bobby valentine, saying:
"when you talk to these guys -- and I'm still talking to some of these guys -- I don't think this is going well. And I think it's going bad quicker than I expected it to"
i'm not a big fan of schilling coming out with this.  sure, he was close with francona and i can empathize with any frustration he may have about how that situation was dealt with.  but a pitch hasn't even been thrown in the regular season and he's already seeing things go south?  

what i think i like most about this situation is that the almost completely silent Josh Beckett* appears to the be one standing up to schillings remarks:
"I haven't seen him around," Beckett continued. "I'd think if someone knew that much they'd probably be a little closer to it. Game's a lot easier from over there [as a media person], I think. As far as him speaking about how things are being run, I haven't seen him around here to where he would know that much."
granted, he's stopped short of defending bobby valentine, or disputing schilling's claims...  but i've never seen beckett painted as the "team player" and i like that he voiced a response.

i think we can agree that no matter what you think of bobby v, he is here for the year (at least) and, like him or not, he is running the show.  we love the red sox and we cannot change this, so how about we accept what it is and get back to supporting the team (at least until we've posted something in the W-L column to base our commentary on)?

*btw, hope reports of Beckett being injured don't prevent him from making his first start

3 comments:

  1. I don't think that Schilling was ever that great of a natural athlete. Nor has he ever struck me as being innately brilliant. But what made him a winner is that he worked harder, and studied the game more, than any other pitcher.

    As such, I give his opinion a lot more credence than I would give to, say, Pedro mouthing off.

    But there is one thing that Schilling overlooked, and that Saltalamacchia got spot on:

    ""Is he different than Tito (Francona)? Yeah. He's not Tito. I thought Tito was awesome -- more of a quiet approach -- but I think Bobby has done a great job of keeping the guys loose, keeping the heat off us and kind of putting it on himself."

    The players have had to deal with remarkably little shit this pre-season. Nobody is bagging on Crawford, or worrying about Youkilis, or questioning Gonzo's contract. Because everytime the press needs a story, Bobby happily puts it on his own shoulders. And that's huge.

    I don't think Bobby needs Beckett to defend him (though its nice to see Beckett doing so.) As far as I can tell, Bobby's happy to be taking the heat while the team gets ready to go out and win.

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  2. I'm a big Yankee fan from Montana...Plan on attending games in May...9,10,11...Just check some good tickets . If Boston Red Sox will win the 8th World Series title, then there will be a parade at World Series Way in Boston in this route.

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