It News: So who goes: Bobby Valentine, or Red Sox players?

August 15, 2012

So who goes: Bobby Valentine, or Red Sox players?

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So who goes: Bobby Valentine, or Red Sox players?

Aug 15, 2012
By Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY

Two seasons stick out on Bobby Valentine's managing resume.

His only two postseason appearances came in 1999 and 2000 with the Mets. He's managed three major league franchises and only with the Mets does he have a winning record. Valentine has more winning seasons than not, but never has won a division title.
Right now, making the playoffs is a more difficult challenge than getting over .500 for the Red Sox, but the degree of difficulty for both increased with Tuesday's reports that some players told ownership they couldn't play for him.

MORE: Players vs. Valentine

Valentine simply pointed out that everyone is still there, though evidence continues to mount that the current Red Sox recipe isn't working.

Past performance indicates the Red Sox have enough talent on the roster to win. Current performance shows otherwise.

Are they below .500 because too many players have fallen short of expectations? Or because Valentine has further roiled a clubhouse still smarting from last season's September collapse and the subsequent accusations of internal dysfunction that contributed to Terry Francona's firing?

Valentine has been outspoken before. He's had bigger-than-life-personalities before. So, why did it work best for him in New York?

You can dissect rosters and assess player performances, but don't overlook clubhouse geography. Nowhere Valentine has worked was the manager's office farther from the players' lockers than in Shea Stadium.

Enter the clubhouse and turn left into the manager's office, turn right and down a corridor to get to the players' lockers. Mike Piazza joked more than once that the layout aided the manager-players relationship, especially when Valentine was as his acerbic best. But Piazza also consistently would laud Valentine as a particularly astute Xs and Os manager.

Every move Valentine makes on the field is carefully calculated, maybe not so much when he speaks. Even he has admitted his emotional nature contributes mightily to his outspokenness.

The Red Sox had to know what they were getting -- Valentine can be Ozzie Guillen at half the speed and without the profanity. If not, call them remarkably naïve.

Then again, maybe at least some of this is what they wanted.

That's the piece of the puzzle we'll probably never know. Valentine was perfect if ownership believes a flawed clubhouse culture was critical in last season's collapse.

Maybe Valentine could sweet-talk or steamroll the necessary change… uh, apparently not.

That leaves the only backup plan – remove the problem.

Who goes – manager or particular players – remains in question, but this season indicates the current group can't continue to co-exist and win.

If some players really said they couldn't keep playing for the guy, they might have been right.

Has ownership and/or Valentine identified players they'd like to purge? Whether or not they have, that's a possibility you can be certain the players have considered. That's more look-over-your-shoulder tension than any trade deadline creates.

Dustin Pedroia, who was particularly close to Francona, perhaps has more reason than anyone else in the Red Sox clubhouse to resent Valentine, much like the kid who gets a new step-parent. But Pedroia, for whom everything in life is fast-twitch, said Tuesday that he and Valentine have had their big-boy confrontational moments yet the second baseman says no way should the manager be fired.

Pedroia seems to get it. Working with Valentine is like dealing with umpires. Go nose-to-nose today, show up tomorrow and say, "Hey, how's the family?"

But this might not be a good day to ask about his professional family.