Epstein & Francona Put It On The Players
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein opened up his press conference Thursday by saying, “I don’t think it’s appropriate for excuses. We did this to ourselves. We’re not going to point fingers. We all failed together.”
Epstein went out of his way to say that he accepts the most responsibility as the club’s GM and that “nobody blames what happened in September on Tito. That would be foolish.”
But as Epstein and Terry Francona progressed deeper into their season-ending press conference the message became very clear. This colossal failure by the 2011 Boston Red Sox falls on the shoulders of the players. At least in their minds.
Francona was the first to launch a grenade the players way by telling us of an impromptu meeting he called with the team following a 14-0 win in Toronto on September 6th. Francona said that he called the meeting because he didn’t like what was going on with the team and that there didn’t seem to be the right type of focus or commitment for the things that needed to be done to win ballgames. And this was after a 14-0 win!
“This team became challenging at the end,” Francona said. “I thought we were spending too much energy on things that weren’t helping us put our best foot forward towards winning.” He went on to say, “there were some things that did concern me. Teams normally, as the season progresses, there’s events that make you care about each other and this club didn’t always happen as much as I wanted it to and I was frustrated by that.”
Clearly the implication was that not everyone was taking their job seriously and doing everything that they could to prepare to win on a daily basis. Maybe there is some selfishness in the clubhouse he is referring to. Whatever it is, it is clearly and indictment of the players in that locker room.
Epstein would then fire the next salvo at the players when he talked of the tough times the team experienced late in the season. Epstein was asked if he felt that the players felt a sense of urgency in September as their Wild card lead was dwindling. He responded by saying, “the response to urgency when you handle it well is increased focus, togetherness, intensity, preparation, raising your level of play at the most important time. So you can certainly say that if the urgency was felt, across the board, we didn’t respond to it the right way.”
Epstein also took a shot at John Lackey and Carl Crawford while taking one at himself later in the press conference. “Speaking about things that aren’t exactly the way we want them to be in this organization, our decision making process on expensive free agents, big ticket free agents, has not been satisfactory at all. So that’s another area we have to address.”
Both Epstein and Francona failed to address Francona’s future with the team. The club does have 10 days to pick up an option on Francona’s contract for next season. Francona , for his part, said that it was too early to discuss his future with Boston because, “it’s still pretty raw.” Clearly, Francona feels that there are things within the organization that need to change if he is to return in 2012. Whether that be organizational philosophy, communication between he and Epstein or, more likely, a revamped roster, is anyone’s guess. It’s also worth noting that Francona did not look happy at all to be on the podium next to Epstein. When it was over, he quickly got up and darted past Epstein into the clubhouse. He bumped into him while doing so and didn’t even turn to look at him while he apologized. Interesting.
Epstein did say that a major overhaul of the roster is not necessary because the talent is here but that some changes do need to be made. He also went out of his way to praise Jonathan Papelbon for not just having a solid performance on the mound in 2011, but for his demonstrated leadership which Epstein admitted, “he wasn’t sure that would ever happen.”
With the long offseason ahead, it appears that this team which won 90 games and was just a couple of wins from making it to the playoffs has a lot of things that need to be addressed. It should be an interesting winter.
Follow us on Pinterest Google + Facebook Twitter See It Read It