Red Sox Report: Is All Well Up At Fenway?
Monday, April 16, 2012
The Tampa Bay Rays avoided a 4-game sweep in Boston Monday by beating the Red Sox 1-0 on Patriots’ Day.
The only run of the game came on a bases loaded walk of Evan Longoria by Daniel Bard in the 7th. Tampa’s James Shields (2-0) went 8 1/3 innings and picked up the win for the Rays.
But what happened on the field wasn’t the big story Monday. Instead it was what happened off the field between manager Bobby Valentine and third baseman Kevin Youkilis.
Valentine had to apologize to Youkilis after he made comments to WHDH-TV on Sunday questioning both his physical and emotional commitment.
"I don't know if he accepted my apology. It was sincere," Valentine said. "The last thing in the world I would want him to think is that this was anything but an answer to a question that seemed like the question was jabbing at him. I was just trying to smooth it over. I guess I didn't."
Valentine claims that his comments to WHDH were misinterpreted and that he was referring to Youkilis’ swing. "I think the question was 'It's not Youk-like the way he's playing, " he said. "I think that was the question I answered. I should have answered that his swing is not where he wants it to be, his swing is frustrating, it affects the emotion."
"I don't know what the reason is because I haven't been here long enough. I don't know why the swing is not where it wants to be and he's not banging as many helmets. I thought it was rather innocuous," Valentine continued. "Matter of fact, seemed like they were trying to bang him and I started it by saying how good his at-bats were that day, his two walks. I should have been more specific, physical is about your swing, emotional is about not being happy when he doesn't hit a ball off the wall."
Youkilis said that he learned of Valentine’s criticism of him from his agent and he was both surprised and confused by the criticism.
His teammate Dustin Pedroia rushed to his defense saying, "I really don't know what Bobby is trying to do. That's not the way we go about our stuff around here. He'll figure that out. The whole team is behind Youk. We have each other's backs here."
General Manager Ben Cherrington also addressed the issue saying, "I think Bobby wishes he had expressed the sentiment to Kevin first and I would agree with him. That's normally the policy. I think you have to take these things case by case. I don't think there is a blanket policy on whether a manager should ever criticize a player publicly. I think every situation is different. There are times that can be a great thing to do. I don't think you should say it never should happen or always happen. In this particular case, I don't think that's what he was trying to do. I don't think his intent was to criticize Kevin. That's the way it came across in print."
Ironically, Youkilis was not in the starting line-up Monday but not because of the apparent rift between him and Valentine. Instead, it was his sore groin which apparently kept him on the sideline in favor of Nick Punto.
While most fans who root for the team would agree that many of today’s athletes are overpaid, spoiled and in need of a reality check, it still does not excuse what Valentine said publicly about his third baseman.
No matter what the sport, a manager or head coach must learn what buttons to push with certain players to get the most out of them and the entire team. Anything short of that could be disastrous for a skipper, particularly if the players don’t feel like the manager has their back.
It will be interesting to see if Valentine is more cautious about what he says to the media from this point forward or if it will continue to be a matter of “Bobby being Bobby.”
One thing’s for sure, it shouldn’t be a boring summer in Kenmore Square this year.
NOTES:
-Daniel Bard had an up and down day on the mound Monday. He went 6 2/3 innings allowing just 4 hits and 1 run while striking out 7. That bad news is that he walked 7 batters including Longoria in the 7th to force home the game’s only run. Still, not a bad performance for someone trying to make the transition from the bullpen to the starting rotation.
-The Red Sox managed to pick up just 4 hits against the Rays Monday, 2 of which were by Cody Ross. Dustin Pedroia and Adrian Gonzalez had the other hits for Boston.
-The red-hot David Ortiz cooled off a bit Monday going 0 for 3 with a walk on Monday. Big Papi is still hitting .410 on the season.
-Good news on the Jacoby Ellsbury front. The Red Sox believe that surgery will not be necessary for their center fielder who is suffering from a dislocated right shoulder. The consensus is that Ellsbury will miss about 8 weeks of action. He is having the results of his MRI looked at in Los Angeles by Dr. Lewis Yocum.
-The Red Sox will open up a 2-game series at Fenway tomorrow night against the Texas Rangers. Jon Lester faces Colby Lewis in the opener on Tuesday.
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