State of the Nation

The Red Sox are getting clobbered in the local media for their 4-8 record to start the season. Sports radio personalities are calling for Bobby Valentine to resign and rumors are spreading that there is a possibility that he gets replaced mid-season. Boston Globe writers are saying that the Manager is not working well with his players and that the players should be held accountable for the .333 winning percentage through 7 percent of the season. As a result, people are going nuclear and nobody seems to have a rational perspective. Here is a rational perspective on the State of the Nation(I liked it better when we were called Red Sox FANS).

The Red Sox have played the Detroit Tigers in Detroit, the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto, the Tampa Bay Devils Rays, and the Texas Rangers(The Yankees start a series in Fenway tomorrow). These teams have a 31-16 record so far this season and not one of the teams has a losing record. After the Yankees series the Red Sox play 22 games against Minnesota, Oakland, Baltimore, Kansas City, and Chicago - South Side. The Red Sox should be at or above a .500 record after this string of games. If not Jason Varitek may be the manager.

The franchise has a missing Owner, a team President that is working without a contract, a new General Manager, and a new team Manager. Real quick. The Owner, John Henry, is in Liverpool England galavanting around as the new owner of the Liverpool F.C. Reds English Premier League Soccer team. The team President, Larry Lucchino does not have a contract for next season and has been out selling the 100 Year Anniversary game tomorrow. The General Manager Ben Cherrington, who sounds exactly like Theo Epstein, is working with a small budget this year and a manager that was thrust upon him(vey UNLIKE Epstein). The new Manager Bobby Valentine, did not go the Terry Franchona school of Public Relations. He probably did not realize that the Boston media could be as rabble-rouserish as it has been. He managed in NYC and Japan previously and the Boston media is the one poised to take him down.

Now we get to the team. The tight budget THIS YEAR has left the team with an average short stop and a weak bullpen. Marco Scutaro was making $7 million dollars a year and doing a good job with the Red Sox. He was replaced by Mike Avillas who is making $1 million. Avillas is comparable in talent. I think the team could have kept both player and used one a trade bait. The relief pitcher Mark Melancon has a 49.50 era and was demoted to AAA Pawtucket today. The new closer Andrew Bailey got hurt and will be out for months after thumb surgery. If we had Scutaro now we could trade him for a relief pitcher(or an outfielder the team is now missing Ellsbury and Carl Crawford).

The manager is being skewered for leaving his pitchers in the game to long. Daniel Bard,in his most recent start, is the focal point of the under-current. Bard asked to stay in the game aginst TB. There have a couple similar situations with other pitchers. My thoughts, Bobby is giving the pitchers leeway early in the season to see if they can fight their way out of trouble. Whether the outcome is postive and the pitcher gets out of trouble or the outcome is negative and the pitcher gets shelled, Bobby wins. Here is why: 1)the positive outcome shows that Bobby has good judgement and that the pitcher has fortitude and 2) the negative outcome ingratiates Bobby with the pitching staff since he kept them in(which he needs after the Beckett, Lackey, Lester, Bucholz fried chicken beer problems)and it gives Bobby leverage in relation to the pitchers who now have to respect him when he asks them to come out of the game. It basically puts all the pressure and onus on the pitcher.

There is alot going on with the Red Sox beyond the X's and O's of baseball.

Rationally speaking, the State of the Nation is disarray.