Earlier today, the Red Sox (re-)introduced John Farrell to the Boston media, two days after sending Mike Aviles north of the border to free him from the manager from his contract with the Blue Jays. Here's more on the Red Sox..
- In an interview with NBC's Bob Costas, former Red Sox skipper Bobby Valentine opined that David Ortiz quit on the team after their blockbuster deal with the Dodgers, writes Matthew Pouliot of HardballTalk. "He realized that this trade meant that we’re not going to run this race and we’re not even going to finish the race properly and he decided not to play anymore. I think at that time it was all downhill from there," said Valentine. The slugger is currently working to iron out a new deal with Boston.
- Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe (via Twitter) found it interesting that Farrell mentioned Cody Ross right away when asked about players that he has reached out to. Ross is set to hit the open market after turning in a strong campaign on a one-year, $3MM deal.
- There has been talk that the Blue Jays are upset with the Red Sox over what they perceive as tampering in the courtship of John Farrell, but GM Ben Cherington says that nothing of the sort took place, writes Alex Speier of WEEI.com. "I can say definitively that wherever that speculation was coming from, it wasn't coming from me. The only conversations I had about the situation were directly to [CEO] Paul [Beeston] and [GM] Alex [Anthopoulos]'s until Saturday, when I got a chance to talk to John," said Cherington.
- The solid relationship and familiarity between Cherington and Farrell will be key to the club's success going forward, writes Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald.
Stay classy Bobby!
Sounds like the BoSox players got just what they deserved in Bobby V.
As much as I would’ve loved to hear Francona say something like that about Manny in 2006, saying it about David Ortiz this season is just classless. This is why no one wanted you here, Bobby.
Of course he shouldn’t have said it, but what the difference between Manny and Ortiz?
There is no way that any explanation I could give you would be in line with the MLBTR commenting policy 🙁
That’s my point. More likely than not it will have something to do with manny leaving Boston and Ortiz stayed. Or how he was a bad teammate. Ortiz has done the same stuff Manny did, won the Sox the same titles. But I promise that if you take a pole, Ortiz is rated much higher among fans than Manny. It’s unfortunate, even when I have no interest in the Sox, because Manny arguably did more for that organization than Papi
Not even close…Ramirez dogged it by never speaking to the media whenever he felt like being his normal arse self, disappeared into the LF wall at Fenway between innings. Made BJ Upton.. Half hearted attempts at balls hit near him on a regular basis… Give Ramirez credit for being there and hitting more in the PO and a “would have been” HOF had he not been a 2x juicer, but to say ortiz and Ramirez are the same is like comparing Jeter and Rodriquez.
I think Valentine figures none of the players wanted him there from the start and did their best to undermine him from the outset. he was just returning the favor a bit and it’s not like it will hurt him.. No chance he gets another management position after the record Boston turned in last year.
I figure Shoppach and Beckett come next on his hit list.. he is just spreading the wealth around.
He started off on the wrong foot right away with the Aviles incident in Spring training.
Think he was trying to come in and stop some of the Francona buddy, buddy style clubhouse and favoritism that had prevailed. That IMO led some to the collapse last year, along with constant sticking with his favorites when others may have been better options, like playing veterans at all costs that Francona would generally do.
Valentine put a stop to beer in the clubhouse almost immediately and tightened other rules when he 1st arrived and some of the players (veterans) did not care for that style who were close to Francona.. Pedroia and Varitek.. Then of course later on when Valentine was not backed up by the FO, it went down further. I blame the FO as much as anyone for the entire situation.
Aviles isn’t exactly one of the better clubhouse characters anyway.. nor is he one of the better team players. He knew full well why Iglesias was getting most of the playing time last September, yet kept on complaining. Just a hair above Aceves in the griper book IMO.
He was trying to change the clubhouse style but he completely failed in the way he went about it. It was already a though situation because the players knew the front office would bring someone in who would try to change the clubhouse from a laid back to a more strict environment. So their mindsets were most likely already a bit hostile towards Bobby. He made it worse when he called out Youkilis. Then the front office trading Youk basically stated that the front office is behind Bobby. I feel like that was a mistake by them that in the end may have caused players to feel like it was them against Bobby and the front office. That is not a great place to be for any team.
I like the hire of Farrell but if they wanted to shift away from the Terry Francona style clubhouse why hire someone who was the pitching coach under Francona? Obviously Farrell may run the clubhouse differently but I would think his way would be closer to Francona’s way than Bobbys’.
It’s like they went with tough guy approach, to someone who is kind of in the middle. I do think that Farrell isn’t going to let them slack off like Francona did. he really should have been fired after 2010 if Farrell had let it known he was about to walk.. It was more than apparent Francona was a lost cause by then and didn’t care what went on as long as his buddy system was in place.
I feel for Cleveland. They are a team in perpetual rebuild, yet have a manager who sticks with veterans. it’s going to be tough for them to get rookies more than a month tops of a chance to play before he yanks them and sticks in some AAAA retread.. I forsee doom there.
Francona was a class act. Even after he got fired he took full responsibility for the collapse. Even though it obviously wasnt all his fault, he took the burden off the players. Bobby is the polar opposite.
Ok Valentine that was unnecessary…
I have no idea how Bobby thinks. Hes just solidifying the fact that no team will ever hire him again. He got fired, time to get over it and stop playing the blame game.
And of all the players to choose from he picks on David Ortiz… a guy who has been in the good graces of the fans and everyone else of late. I’m not sure what he thinks he is going to accomplish.
I 100% agree BUT there’s some truth to what Valentine is saying. He’s just missing the part that it wasn’t the part about not finishing the race strong after the trade that was the problem it was the fact that he alienated everyone before the trade so that after the trade took place, no one wanted to play for him anymore.
Nice, Cherington. Well, I didn’t do anything, as if no one else in the organization would be capable of doing something. It’s pretty much an admission of guilt that he knows someone else in the org did it, though in politalk.
Bobby V says the darndest things.
Am I missing something on Cody Ross? Yes, he was one of 2012’s best bargains, but the way BOS approaches him only makes me think they’re wearing beer goggles.
Hey guys remember when I said Ortiz was just pretending to be injured because he is too much of a prima donna to play for a losing team? And everybody down voted my post? Told you so!
Not sure if serious?
Bobby V must be a fan of The Jersey Shore. At this point, he knows the only way he’ll be relevant in baseball again is to say something inflammatory and controversial. So he pulls a Snooki and draws attention to himself. He slags the Sox’s heart and soul, which is low, even for him. Funny how he’s blamed everyone for the team’s poor performance except himself. Note to Bobby: shut the **** up and slink away.
Um..he has accepted plenty of the blame. In the Costas interview he said ““I think it was all my fault because I got paid for that not to happen
and it happened,” he said. “So I’ll take the full blame or credit.”
The thing is, as much as I think his remarks about Ortiz in the same interview were way off-the-mark..I actually think Bobby V has actually gotten too much of the blame for this season. No manager could have done any better with as many injuries as the team had and I actually side with him regarding many of the “incidents” between him and Youk, Aviles, Middlebrooks, etc. The fact of the matter is that Bobby V shoots his mouth off on a regular basis and really just doesn’t put a whole lot of thought in to a lot of the things he says – that’s what got him in trouble more than anything. And he probably wasn’t the right guy for the job in the first place. But I think most knowledgable Red Sox fans really don’t blame him for how the season turned out, and they shouldn’t.
And why not? The stuff he has said the past year was ridiculous and frankly I wouldnt be surprised if players didnt play hard because of him. One of the things a coach is supposed to do is motivate and he failed in that department. Him saying that any player gave up is (in my mind) him saying that he wasnt able to motivate them anymore.