The Merciful End of the Bobby V Era

by | Oct 5, 2012 | Bobby Valentine, Boston Red Sox

'Bobby Valentine' photo (c) 2012, Keith Allison - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/Well, Red Sox Nation.  We can all finally breathe a sigh of relief.   Our years of suffering under the Bobby Valentine regime is finally over.

Wait, I’m sorry what was that?  We weren’t suffering under Bobby V’s tyranny for years?  Really?  How long has it been?  No way.  307 days?  That’s absolutely impossible.  Why does it feel like it’s been so long?  Ah, yes.  That’s right.  2012 is a leap year.  That extra day really made it feel like his tenure dragged out forever…

So here we are–again.  It’s October 4th, and we’re in the same position we were in last October.  No, maybe it’s not under identical circumstances, but both clubs failed spectacularly with disturbing second half tailspins.  And yes, both collapses resulted in the firing of the club’s manager.  Last year, it was our long-time, fearless leader, Terry Francona–the man who led us to two championships.  This year, it was the fiery, controversial, Bobby Valentine–the man who will be known as “the guy who drove Youk out of town and led the Red Sox to their worst record since before the Impossible Dream season.”  Whether that’s fair or not, this is how Bobby V will be viewed.

Whether you like Valentine or not, one thing you can always credit him for is being own man.  He always said what was on his mind.  You always got something quotable, and you never had to guess the meaning of his words.  More importantly, he didn’t care what you thought about what he said.  He was a “take it or leave it” kind of guy, which was both respectable and his fatal flaw.

Outside of his quotability, he was hailed as being a master tactician.  While he had his moments of glory, those successes were mired in a quagmire of questionable decisions.  Let’s take a look at the worst moments:

  • He publicly called out both Kevin Youkilis and his coaching staff on the radio.
  • He directed questionable player-specific jokes in the dugout after a miscue.  See Will Middlebrooks.
  • With a 2-2 count on the light hitting Jose Iglesias, he called for Daniel Nava to pinch hit.
  • He frequently left his starting pitchers far too long, and made questionable bullpen choices.  See every starting pitcher in April and early May.
  • He admitted to filling the lineup card incorrectly due to getting faulty information about the opposing pitcher’s handedness.
  • He batted Mike Aviles leadoff in 36 games, despite posting a .286 OBP in that role.
  • One time, he placed Scott Podsednik in the number three hole to start a game, despite a career .379 SLG.

I could go on.  I could talk about his inability to contain Alfredo Aceves‘s temper…or his inability to keep player issues in house…or his inability to communicate with the players and coaching staff…or really, any countless number of issues.  Interestingly enough, the man who was supposed to restore order and put an end to clubhouse drama, ended up being one of the season’s biggest providers of said drama.

By this point, you’re probably thinking that I’m placing all of the blame on Bobby V for this year’s putrid 69-93 season.  I’m certainly not.  He had plenty of obstacles to face.  For starters, he wasn’t given the option of choosing his own coaching staff.  Since he was hired so late in the game, he was forced to take on the staff Red Sox management had hired ahead of him.  In some cases, this included a few Francona loyalists.  This could not have been easy for Bobby V to work with a staff with whom he had no prior relationship.  Certainly, the level of comfort between the two sides was lacking.  Did Valentine help himself by failing to communicate?  Absolutely not.  Did his staff make the appropriate attempt to bridge that gap? Doubtful, as well.

Secondly, he faced an uphill battle with the players.  Despite the team souring on Francona during the 2011 season, there isn’t any indication the players wanted him fired.  Furthermore, had they wanted him fired, it’s doubtful they wanted the player-friendly manager replaced with an egocentric authoritarian.  (And I mean that in the nicest way possible.)  Part of Valentine’s problem is that he’d recently been an outspoken analyst with ESPN on Baseball Tonight and Sunday Night Baseball.  In consistent with the Bobby V we saw all season, he freely criticized (frequently, constructively) players throughout the majors–and most importantly on the Red Sox.  Clearly, this rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.  He only made matters worse for himself when he publicly claimed that Youkilis wasn’t showing the same level of effort or desire as he’d seen in seasons past.  This set the tone for the relationship between the players and their manager.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, Bobby V had to deal with a plethora of injuries.  All told, players spent a combined 1485 days on the disabled list.  For those of you math majors out there, that’s roughly like taking eight members of your starting nine and putting them on the DL for the entire season.  Yeah, that’s pretty rough.  Some of the biggest losses were:

That’s ton of time spent on the disabled list by a number of quality players.  It’d be tough for anyone to win missing that many vital resources.  Once you factor in that he played the final 40 or so games with a roster that was significantly weakened by the huge trade with the Dodgers, it only  made things even more impossible for Bobby V to be successful in Boston.

Valentine made a ton of mistakes during his brief, tumultuous tenure in Boston, both on and off the field.  In hindsight, this was a match made in hell, and both parties should have known better than to break bread together considering the circumstances.  Still, it happened.  A lot of the issues were outside of his control.  He can’t force players to be healthy and playing at optimal levels.  Even the Joe Maddon’s and Tony LaRussa’s of the world couldn’t make this roster a 95-win ball club.

Still, his inability to work with the coaching staff and the players, combined with his problems with diarrhea of the mouth were ultimately his primary undoing.  He set an awful tone from the start, and was never able to recover.  To that, I say good riddance to you, Bobby V.  You came with great intentions, but you leave with nothing but disappointment.  I wish you much luck in your future as an analyst with ESPN or MLB Network because the 2012 disaster will likely keep you from ever getting another managerial job again.