Bobby V Running Thread

http://bit.ly/IZ8hKa

 

Caused? There's not a player in the Red Sox clubhouse who believes "clubhouse chemistry" was even remotely responsible for their collapse at the end. Fried chicken! Beer! While the game was going on! My God!

 

Mike Scioscia .548

 

Bobby Cox .556

 

Eric Estrada .357

 

John .316

 

Oh look, cranberry is leaping to the defense of players. This is the most surprising thing to ever happen at SportsJournalists.com.

I'm not saying clubhouse chemistry ruined the 2011 Sox. But SOMETHING was amiss from within. Something was toxic. Maybe it was as simple as some guys getting old at the same time (Youkilis/Beckett) and some guys ill-suited for Boston (Crawford/Lackey). Maybe it was Adrian Gonzalez' bad shoulder. Maybe it was just poor conditioning that turned the Sox into turds after Labor Day.

But it wasn't Terry Francona. It was the players purchased by Lord Theo Epstein--who, of course, beat it the hell out of there. If the Red Sox suck this year, it's going to largely be the fault of the players who contributed to the giant collapse last season.

 

Terry Francona .529

 

BYH - management fucked the team last year. They went into the season without giving Francona an extensions so he basically was a lame duck and the players knew it - which is one reason they felt comfortable with fried chicken and beer. The "leaders" on the team were also without contracts - Ortiz, Wakefield and Varitek were all on the last year of their deal. They easily could have given all three players extensions and still come out ahead of what they ended up having to pay Ortiz through arbitration. This has John Henry's and Lucchino's fingerprints all over it.

Which is the main reason why Theo fled the town for greener pastures.

 

OK, I can agree with most of that, anyway. It definitely wasn't on Tito.

But if the Red Sox don't win this year the blame will be shared by a front office that failed to sufficiently upgrade, injuries to key people like Ellsbury and Bailey, and Bobby Valentine for losing the clubhouse.

 

I wouldn't have left him in that long, especially when he's throwing seven straight balls to end his afternoon. But maybe Bobby thought, at 0-0, it was Bard's game to win or lose and that being given that opportunity was important in his development. Perhaps Bard will end up hurt and this will be proven to have been a bad decision on Bobby's part. It is worth pointing out Joba Chamberlain didn't exceed 100 pitches until his fifth big league start and look where it got him.

As for newly converted relievers throwing in excess of 100 pitches: Neftali Feliz threw 108 pitches in his first start this season.

 

Shall we get Rob Dibble's viewpoint?