The Red Sox now have a 69-86 record, which means they’re at risk of losing 90 games for the first time in 46 years. The last time they reached the 90-loss threshold, back in 1966, Ben Cherington hadn’t been born, Bobby Valentine was in high school, and Carl Yastrzemski and Tony Conigliaro roamed the Fenway Park outfield. Here’s the latest from Boston…
- The roles that the Red Sox envision for Jason Varitek and Pedro Martinez “will not be ceremonial,” Peter Gammons of MLB Network reports (on Twitter). Gammons cites Padres executives Trevor Hoffman and Brad Ausmus as possible parallels for the Red Sox.
- Varitek is "close" to returning to the Red Sox organization. He will likely return as a special assistant to Cherington, Gordon Edes reported yesterday. The switch-hitting 40-year-old retired this spring.
- Jon Lester discussed the team's "nightmare" year with Rob Bradford of WEEI.com, saying he's looking forward to forgetting about baseball for a while once the season ends. "The offseason for a lot of people hopefully is going to do good," Lester said.
Varitek has always seemed like someone who would make an awesome manager some day.
Agreed. His ability to control the flow of the game for his pitcher has been consistently great. I think the culture needs a rewind, back to the far-more-likable culture in 2003-2004, before he presence as manager would be effective.
Lets not forget that Varitek was also the “team captain” for the chicken and beer saga.
That was over-hyped BS. Who cares? They drank Jack Daniels in 2004 and won it all!
You missed the point…. It doesnt matter what they have to drink or when the drink/drank it. The issue in Boston has been LEADERSHIP.
The issue has been losing.
Why is a very capable and talented team losing??? The root cause is leadership (and some could argue health).
Health is certainly a large part of it. How could you know that the root cause is leadership? Seems like its just a nice narrative for writers to use to try and explain what is happening.
Bobby V is not currently rumored to get fired because of the teams health issues…. He is fixing to get fired because the clubhouse is a wreck. The clubhouse is a wreck due to lack of leadership. He was hired to straighten things out, but by all accounts he has only stirred the pot and made things even worse.
when they had the chicken and beer they were at least in contention in september, so i’m not so sure going back to that would be a huge step in the wrong direction, leadership wise…..
He’s fixing to get fired because he is very very bad at being a manager. Also bad at being an analyst, as an aside. He’s kind of just bad at baseball. Like… overall.
Funny – 10 months ago every (nearly all) Boston fan was saying what a great manager he was…. If you will remove your team bais blinders long enough you will find that it is not BV’s on the feild tactics that have caused a stir. It is how he has treatted his players (some more than other) that has caused the rift in the clubhouse. Which all leads to his style of leadership.
That guy didnt win as many games as he did with TEX, NYM, and in Japan because he is bad at baseball. His leadership skills simply did not mesh with the players on the BOS roster.
Who are these formerly-pro-Valentine Red Sox fans (“nearly all” in your statistically-puzzling appraisal) that everyone always seems to bring up? Living in Boston, I know a fairly large number of Red Sox fans, NONE of whom expressed anything but negativity about his hiring from the get go. So… I’m not sure where this notion that we all suddenly turned on Bobby V when things got bad came from, because most of us were already here.
And yeah, the reason I said he’s bad at being a manager is because he’s bad at being a leader. I’ve also just never had faith in his ability to be a good playmaker (something that is very hard to really judge as outsiders) because I’ve heard him on ESPN, which was frightening enough.
And not for nothing, but with all those wins you cited with TEX and NYM (by the way, 581-605 career with Texas), Bobby V has never won a division title.
As I have been saying this entire thread – The Boston clubhouse lacks leadership. And you just agreed with your “And yeah, the reason I said he’s bad at being a manager is because he’s bad at being a leader” comment. Thank you.
Point being all along, BV is not rumored to be fired because of the teams health issues, his in game decisions, or his overall record this year. He is rumored to be fired because he has been a horrible fit (leader) in Boston.
By the way – talent on those TEX teams were pretty poor (excluding Nolan Ryan). Not sure anyone can blame him for the organizational failures at that time. But his results did improve with teams (NYM & Japan) with more/better talent (WS appearance in 2000 with the Mets and two playoff births in two years with Chiba – winning one Japan Title..
Yes, but that day is a few years down the road. In light of the fact he is not opting for a minor league manager’s job….one has to wonder if he really has an interest in becoming a field boss at this point in time.
Interesting about Pedro.
Pedro must need a job, stateside, to come and go through customs without hassle.
Not really. Did you see him back in April at the Fenway 100th anniversary? He was dancing and waving and acting like an 8-year old at Chuck E. Cheese. He loves the Boston area and the fans. This could be really good.
I’m not saying he doesn’t love Boston. I’m saying its interesting. I never thought he would come back into an assistance role of some sort with them. He didn’t seem like he was interested in coming back to the game once his pitching days were over.
Doesn’t Pedro look like he is gaining weight wow Varitek still looks great make Tek the manager Wake pitching coach lol have Millar as bench coach he will keep a good atmosphere and make Nomar hitting coach .
Nah Pedro as pitching coach. Wake can be on the staff too, though.
Tutor, yes…pitching coach, no…. Frankie Morales could benefit from having Pedro around,
It was sarcasm. I really couldn’t picture all them as coaches.
Farrell may be the guy for the Sox if they didn’t have to make it in the form of a trade to get him. I would like to see a new face like the Paw Sox manager that knows practically every guy on the team. Tek or Brian Butterfield from the Jay’s, Tony Pena, Martinez from the Ray’s. A new young face with new ideas and enthusiasm.
More importantly, bring in a pitching coach who can coach pitchers…. suggestion, Rich Sauvier @ Pawtucket…
Considering they brought Sauvier up from Pawtucket for a few weeks, his reputation there, the recent revolving door of pitching coaches, and the fact that Sauvier’s already worked with several pitchers on the staff, I’d be willing to bet he’s one of the top names on the list of potential pitching coaches for the Sox next year.
My concern is making the same mistake made with BV–picking the coaches for the new manager, I think Sauvier would be a fine choice but to name him then the new manager would be a problem.
I hope you are right…his choice makes a lot of sense. Plus, he wouldn’t be coming in with a reputation to own up to. Low profile, does his job, goes home…in the mold of a real grinder… I like that.
Think Farrell would swallow his pride and become the pitching coach again for Boston? Maybe he could do something with Bard.
Bobby will be fired 4 or 5 days after season mercifully ends.
I’ll take the under on 4.
Wrong….. Bobby will stay.
Boston turned it around so fast after ’66 because they had a solid core of young guys in Yaz, Tony C, Reggie Smith, Jim Lonborg, Joe Foy and Mike Andrews and of all those? Only Yaz and Tony C had been at the MLB level more than 2 seasons, the nucleus was very young.
The current Sox are not like that at all. Sure they have plenty at AA and below, but only Middlebrooks, Iglesias and Lavarnway as genuine MLB caliber players and iglesias can’t hold a candle to any of those I named of that core 66 team that turned around the ’67 team.
The current Sox team really needs to stand pat for a year, wait for prospects to develop, make a couple small moves (Ross/ortiz) and forget all the noise coming from the mass media in NE that will go hysterical, just like always thinking a quick fix is possible.
Forget the sellout streak and forget about the band wagon fans who jumped on board after ’04 and ’07, just concentrate on rebuilding the correct way and not the NE media way.
I’d like to see them add a decent pitcher but other than that, yeah I’d rather they not try to restock by using the farm or making several major FA signings. We have a couple of interesting names in Portland who could be contributors in 2014, so shoot for then to get back on top.
A lower cost FA for a SP could possibly see. I don’t really see them as competing next year and they have a couple decent #2’s already with Lester and Bucholz, then Lackey, Doubrant and really should stretch out Morales for that last spot is my opinion, rather than sign someone whom I even like in Anabel Sanchez. He just isn’t going to help enough to make the cost worth it before they are really competitive again (couple more years, 2015 my guess) and should, if anything maybe look at 1b and OF if they are going to waste FA money.
You left out Boomer Scott and Petrocelli as well. Obviously it was a different era, but there still was a lot of young (though inconsistent) talent coming up.
Yeah. Have named all the kids from mid 60’s off before here to give the current fans an idea of the differences in the teams of ’66 and 2012. THAT team was young and Boston had just completed promoting a young core and the current team has hardly begun promoting the people they have at AA and below. The differences are vast.
Red Sox need to identify two power bats that can also hit for average, a top end starter, and an 8th inning set up guy, (and back up closer) by the end of spring training 2013. I like the notion of bringing Kendrys Morales in from the Angels, to play 1st base and giving recently obtained Jerry Sands a thorough vetting in LF.
I also like the idea of Josh Johnson coming in, if the Marlins are looking to downsize payroll. He is injury prone, according to what I read, but in the past, the Marlins have been good trading partners with the Red Sox. Lastly, I like the notions of a straight swap with Cleveland….Alfredo Aceves, for Chris Perez. Both players want out of their current situations. Otherwise, I agree with John Silver’s remarks that the Sox should lower expectations and let their farm teams ripen in-house talent for call up in 2014.
Acquiring JJ and Morales is going to take prospects and really.. I watch most of the Marlins games along with Boston (2 fav teams) and JJ isn’t the JJ of old. He might get close to 200IP this year, but he hasn’t been the man throwing upper 90’s late and has had many bad games, today he didn’t look his best vs Atlanta as an example.
JJ is “working” 92-93 now, rather than 96-98mph as he was just before his last injury. He rarely hits 95 even and his cutter isn’t all that great either. His FB was what he always worked off of. Sound like someone Boston just shipped off to LA?
JJ is only signed thru next year at 13m. Marlins are not going to give him away either and i can’t see Boston giving up a front line player (it would take either of Barnes or Bogaerts + +) for someone they couldn’t control for a few seasons, or was at the top of their game and the team would feel fairly safe in giving an extension to.
I would rather see the Sox sign Sanchez to, say a 4/56m deal than give up what is required for JJ and then have to anquish over what happens next off season with the SP he now is. The times of him throwing 97-99 in the 7th inning are history.