Papi on Bobby V

Yet another reason why I like the big guy: he's just got a way with words.

To recap, in his first interview after being fired by the Sox, Bobby V. threw Ortiz under the bus by claiming that Papi gave up on the team after hurting his Achilles tendon. It's an absurd claim, given that Achilles injuries take forever to heal and the Sox didn't even want him playing at that point in the season (when the playoffs were a distant dream) just in case he hurt himself more seriously. Regardless, Ortiz spoke out about it recently:

“… after he went on national TV to say what he said, he sent me a text message trying to tell me that it was the media trying to change things. I did not respond to the message and I said to myself, this guy must have some mental issues or needs medicine or something? I said, I am dealing with someone crazy and I am not going to drive myself crazy, so it is better if I leave it alone.”

As the folks at hardballtalk point out, its hard to claim that what you said wasn't represented correctly when you said those words directly on camera! But then again, nobody ever accused Valentine of being a paragon of consistency.

Remind Me...

... why Bobby Valentine is considered a tactical genius again? Because he sounded intelligent on Baseball Tonight?

Last night, fresh off a three-game suspension that was ostensibly about giving the closer role to Bailey, Bobby V brought in Aceves to make a two-inning save. As is his style, Aceves was able to get out of the 8th with no problem but surrendered two runs and the lead in the 9th.All this even knowing that, according to Over the Monster,

Amongst relievers with 10 or more innings pitched for the Boston Red Sox this year, Alfredo Aceves ranks 10th of 11 in ERA, 9th of 11 in FIP and xFIP. He is not simply an ineffective closer indicative of a weak bullpen, one who would ideally be shifted to lower-leverage innings in a stronger unit. Alfredo Aceves has been a bad relief pitcher in an overall strong unit.

There's a reason that basically nobody in the league uses closers to get two inning saves! In fact, the only reason I can think of for this move is that, in true Bobby V fashion, he was passive aggressively trying to teach Aceves a lesson - that he shouldn't be the closer. But I sure hope that childish reason wasn't the case...

I really, really hope that Valentine is gone at the end of the year. I see no reason for keeping him.

One last time... Yooooook!

Wanted to take a moment to say goodbye to Kevin Youkilis, who was traded away yesterday to the White Sox for two players I had never heard of (25-year-old RHP Zach Stewart and 28-year-old utility man Brent Lillibridge, more details on them here) to make room for the en fuego Will Middlebrooks, who has a .960 OPS, nine homers and 33 RBI in his his first 40 games.

While for that reason and getting Gonzo out of the outfield, I know he needed to go, I'll miss having Youkilis on the team. It wasn't too long ago that he was perhaps the toughest out in baseball, even if he did look really, really strange up at the plate doing it.

I should mention that it did appear like both Youkilis and the team were ready to move on from each other. On his best days, Yook didn't have a sunny disposition, and as the team tries to recover from last season and rebuild itself around Bobby Valentine he did not seem to be fitting in. Combine that with his poor performance this year and the writing's been on the wall for some time. Still, Yook is only 33 and may still have some good years left in him, and it makes me sad to see another mainstay from the Sox' championship days send packing. I'm also not sure how to explain to my 5 year old that we won't be chanting "Yooooook!" during Sox games any more.

Farewell #20! We'll see you again on July 16th.

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

Second Impressions of Bobby Valentine

Being co-author of a Red Sox blog has been challenging for me. As someone that really only paid attention to the Sox and not the rest of the league, it’s difficult for me to speak knowledgeably about some of the moves the Sox make just because I don’t have context for them. Take Bobby Valentine, for example. Was signing him as the Sox manager a good move? Bad move? A time-will-tell move?

I will say that I had my doubts only because I hated what I saw of him on ESPN – namely, an over tanned, overconfident blowhard (they’re ALL blowhards on those ESPN shows), and the thought of dealing with that rather than the humble, soft-spoken Tito rubs me the wrong way. And then I read Alex Speer’s article on WEEI.com.

It’s a long, well researched article that dives into every aspect of the Bobby V. signing. And it’s filled with enough revelations about the man that I’ll now give him the benefit of the doubt. He obviously knows his baseball shit, and the fact that some of our coddled players didn’t want to play for him makes me wonder if this type of personality is just what this team needs. Regardless, the signing is only for two years, so if it doesn’t work out, we’ll be able to cut ties with him relatively painlessly.

No, now that enough time has passed, I find myself obsessing over how the deal went down, not the deal itself. My original impression was that the Front Office (read: Luccino) forced this signing upon Charrington after sabotaging the Sveum deal. Reading Speer’s article does put some of these fears to rest. I can see why some people feel that it’s an FO apploigia fueled by their relentless spinning of the truth (like most of the reporting at the Globe), but the very detailed timeline that Speer presents make me think that Cherington may not have been overruled after all. Speer spells out the reasons why Sveum wasn't hired, most of which don't involve the FO. Do some of these sound like excuses and rewriting history? Hell yes!  But it’s possible that things transpired just the way that they are depicted here. The reality is that the truth is probably somewhere in between, as acknowledged by Speer when he writes that "There may have been some truth to the portrayal of the idea that the team’s owners were the ones driving the Bobby V. bandwagon."

In short,  the article remains the best thing I’ve read about the Bobby V. signing. And while parts of it do read like a PR release concerned with spinning a tale of a well-oiled hiring process, most of it feels honest to me. Part of that might be the excellent writing in the article. Part of it might be my ignorance about how managers are typically hired. But I'm more willing to give  Bobby V. a shot than I did a month ago - after all, he's certainly saying all of the right things. But i'm still going to remain vigilant about falling for FO spin.

Now that things have settled down, what do you think of the Bobby Valentine signing? 

Related Posts:

First Impressions of Bobby Valentine

Bobby Valentine in Japan
Daisuke Matsuzaka and Bobby Valentine

Daisuke Matsuzaka and Bobby Valentine

When Bobby Valentine was hired as the Red Sox skipper, a lot of folks speculated that he just might be able to rehabilitate Daisuke Matsuzaka.  Apparently, the logic is that because Valentine spent time in Japan, he understands the "Japanese mindset" and can thus fix a Japanese player.

Which strikes me as a little bit racist.  When Venezuelan players struggle, noone suggests that they all think alike so they just need to spend some time with Ozzie Guillen.  Nor did Lackey and his American mindset benefit from Francona's best efforts.

Ultimately, if Matsuzaka is going to make a comeback, it is on his shoulders.  And according to the Boston Herald, he sure is trying:

Matsuzaka has been throwing three times a week in Boston, and according to a source, is in excellent shape.  He looks like someone "on a mission" to re-prove himself after losing most of 2011 to injury.

Well, he sure doesn't look like the old Matsuzaka, that's for sure.  Check out the new look Matsuzaka in the below video, courtesy of NESN.  I'd say he's lost some weight, but maybe I'm just distracted by his hair.

If your time is short, skip ahead to about 4:30 in the video, when he is asked what he thinks about Bobby Valentine as a manager.  After his screwing up his face into a number of oddball expressions, the nicest thing he can come up with about his new manager is that he is, "really interesting to watch."

Related posts: What Can You Buy for $103 million?

Bobby Valentine in Japan

Given all the, um, success that the Red Sox have had with their Japanese players, it's a smidgen interesting that the owners (sorry, I mean Cherington) picked a manager who is most notable for the success he had in Japan.

Let's review. 

Valentine was hired by the Chiba Lotte Marines in 1995 as the first American-born manager of a Japanese baseball team.  He quickly started doing things his own way -- under Valentine, practice sessions lasted only three hours, rather than nine hours as was typical.  In the process, he turned around what had been a pretty woeful team.  In 1995, they finished 69-58, compared to 55-77 the year before.   But, Valentine didn't get along with the GM or the other coaches.  Especially the coaches -- at one point, he wrote a letter to the owners suggesting that they be replaced.  In Japan, it's never a good move to go behind the GM's back,  and so bam!  Just one year into his two-year contract, the Marines fired him.

The GM had won that battle, but not for long.  In the coming years, the GM was fired as well, and the team quickly dropped back into the cellar.  So, in 2004, the Marines decided to do the only thing they could think of to dig their way out -- try again with Valentine.  As luck would have it, Valentine had recently been fired by the Mets, and was available to sign on with his old club.  And he missed them.  As he told GQ in 2004: "I kind of like that I can tell a guy to hit ten straight balls into right field in batting practice, and if he doesn't, he comes over to me afterward and apologizes ... I like that."

Back in Japan, in the second year of his second stint with the Marines, Valentine took them all the way:  in 2005, they won the Japan Series (the Japanese championship).  After winning, he challenged the 2005 World Series winners, the Chicago White Sox, to a "Real World Series," claiming his team could go toe-to-toe with any team on the globe. 

The White Sox didn't bite, but the fans loved it.  Suddenly, it was impossible to get a ticket to the stadium that had once never been more than half full.  Valentine suggested major improvements: luxury boxes, deluxe suites, and an HD screen.  Other changes came as well, such as 3-meter high Bobby murals on the walls of the stadium, and concession  stands selling Bobby lunch boxes and Bobby bubble gum.  Nearby, a street was named after him. 

The improvements that Valentine had suggested to the stadium were popular with the fans, but they didn't lead to the increased revenue that he had promised the team.  When management began cutting bonuses to players, Valentine responded by paying them out of his own pocket. 

The Marines came within a game of returning to the Japan Series in 2007.  However, 2008 didn't go so well, and in December 2008, the team announced that they wouldn't be renewing his contract in 2010.  Valentine suggested he would be willing to revise the cost of his contract downward, but management didn't budge.  It was clear to all that it wasn't about the money -- ownership was dissatisfied with his power, his influence, and his way of doing things.

The decision to now renew Valentine's contract didn't just leave him as a lame duck -- it also made his very, very enthusiastic fans quite unhappy with management.  How enthusiastic were they?  Here is a YouTube video of a crowd at a Japanese baseball game, singing a fight song about how much they love Bobby Valentine.  As much as Sox nation loved Francona, it's hard to imagine them singing a similar love song to Tito at Fenway.

But perhaps the ultimate tribute to Valentine's popularity in Japan is that Sapporo beer issued a limited special edition "Bobeer" with his face on the front of the can. 

Here's hoping that Sam Adams will have cause to do the same!

Related posts:
First Impressions on the Bobby Valentine Hiring

First Impressions on the Bobby Valentine Hiring

Here's what I don't get about Bobby Valentine. The CW is that he's this great baseball mind, but as Joel pointed out, he was given a lot of talent and didn't do a whole lot with it. To wit: the 1992 Texas Rangers. They had Nolan Ryan and Kevin Brown pitching, and with a lineup including Ivan Rodriguez, Rafael Palmero, Ruben Sierra, and Juan Gonzalez, they only finished fourth in their division.Fourth! (Thanks Joel for pointing that out.)

I also am concerned about what this move says about the front office/GM relationship. From all I read, Cherington wanted to go with Sveum as the manager, but was overruled by the FO in favor of the more "accomplished" BV. (read: he's managed before, and talks a pretty game on ESPN.) The search ever since Sveum went to the Cubs has felt like a kabuki theater to make it appear like Charrington was doing his due diligence  Nothing like cutting your new GM off at the knees for his first major decision! (And what does it say that the old Sox GM ended up with Sveum in Chicago?)

I'm willing to give BV the benefit of the doubt - after all, what had Francona accomplished as a manager before coming to Boston? - but the whole situation doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence. I don't like how smooth he seems, and even knowing that he took the Mets to the world series one year, I just don't feel that he's got what it takes to manage our group of entitled superstars.

Update: After I typed this up, Chad Finn typed up his reactions for the Globe. His thoughts are always worth checking out.

Related Posts:
Bobby Valentine to Manage Red Sox
Next Up: Bobby Valentine?