(Not) Happy Valentine's Day

Let me begin by emphasizing that I hate the Boston Red Sox. As a native New Yorker and of course, a New York Yankee fan, there's nothing that gets my blood boiling more than the Boston Red Sox and anything associated with the terrible city of Boston. That being said, there's one man from that vomit-inducing team that I feel I must defend. A man who is wrongly being placed with the blame for perhaps the most volatile and ineffective season of the Red Sox long history in Major League Baseball. That man is Bobby Valentine.
Valentine was hired as skipper for the Bo Sox after a mess of a season last year when the Red Sox collapsed under the direction of then manager Terry Francona who ironically is now able to criticize Valentine and the Red Sox as an analyst on Baseball Tonight and a commentator for ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball. Everyone is aware of the epic collapse the Red Sox suffered last season, ending the season 7-20 and being eliminated from playoff contention on the last day of the regular season by the Tampa Bay Rays. So what does John Henry, billionaire owner of the Red Sox franchise decide to do? Clean house. Completely. Francona is fired, Theo Epstein, then GM of the Red Sox, is "traded" to the Chicago Cubs. All the personnel that helped lead the Red Sox to their first World Series since 1918, effectively gone. Deciding to move in a new direction, Henry hires Ben Cherington, the man in waiting for the GM position to lead the team. The Sox makes a minimal amount of moves during the off season, their biggest being the acquisition of Andrew Bailey to replace Jonathan Papelbon who bolted to the Phillies to serve as their new closer. Aside from those major moves, the Sox did little to help their already tenuous pitching staff and did even less to fix their bullpen issues from last year.
Well that all came to a head for Bobby Valentine this weekend during the 100th birthday celebration of Fenway Park. What was supposed to be a joyous and celebratory occasion for the Red Sox and their storied franchise, quickly turned out to be what I would essentially label as an absolute ass-whooping by the New York Yankees. After handily beating the Sox after the big Fenway ceremony on Friday afternoon, the Yankees found themselves down 9-0 going into the 6th inning during Saturday's game. Felix Doubront who had been pitching magnificently for the Sox, is pulled by Valentine after giving up a solo homerun to Mark Teixeira while serving up just 99 pitches. The rest they say is history. While it may have been suspect to pull Doubront after pitching so well up to that point, the rest of the blame for the game cannot be placed on Valentine. Let me introduce a frightening statistic. The Red Sox have given up 85 runs this season. To put that into perspective, the Rangers, going into Sunday, had given up 35 runs on the season. And the Sox have only played 13 games! Let me scare you some more. The Sox bullpen ERA is a staggering 8.44, good for last in the league and more than double the league average of 3.70. Opposing batters are hitting an incredible .335 off of Boston relievers. Basically, the Sox staff just flat out sucks. They have spotty pitchers like Alfredo Aceves who's filling in for Andrew Bailey, likely out for the season with a broken thumb and unreliable options in Vicente Padilla, Franklin Morales and Matt Albers. Essentially, with such a terrible bullpen, Valentine can only expect the worse when he pulls his starting pitchers. And that's exactly what happened on Saturday in what was a comeback of historical proportions.
Down 9 runs to start the 6th, the Yankees pulled within 8 with Teixeira's solo shot. Still a safe lead right? Even Teixeira admitted that he thought the game was over by that point. Little did Mark know that Valentine would make the mistake of turning to the worst bullpen in baseball. And what did the worst bullpen in baseball do? They played like the worst bullpen in baseball. Over the next two innings, the Yankees would pile on 14 more runs, coupled with a Nick Swisher grand slam, another Teixeira homerun that knocked in three more and a bunch more effective hitting from the Yankees. By the end of it, the Red Sox could never recover and would end up losing the game 15-9. To say it was a loss of epic proportions would barely be doing the game justice.
Of course, Valentine took the blame for the loss. Even as he was substituting pitchers during the crazed 7th and 8th innings, fans were already booing him as he made his way back to the dugout. Valentine, the gentleman that he is, could all but tip to his cap to a fan base that is quickly becoming the biggest enemies Bobby V has ever had. Yet, Valentine cannot and should not be liable for the events that occurred on that horrid day in Red Sox history. Valentine did not choose his pitching staff. It was picked for him by Ben Cherington during the offseason. While he may have had some input on who to use for the rotation and such, he was not the one signing the paychecks and deciding who should be on the 25-man roster. Now we all know that Valentine is one hell of a coach. He took a Mets team to a world series and actually brought some life to a team that now finds itself in absolute turmoil. Even though he was run out of town, Valentine is likely one of the best managers the Mets have ever and will ever have. All that being said, you can understand why John Henry went with Valentine during the offseason. He has a certain rapport with players, has an immense baseball knowledge and is a true winner. Yet, 13 games into the season, fans are already calling for him to be booted out of town. First off, he won't be. Second off, firing Valentine accomplishes nothing. Instead, it would send the Red Sox into an even deeper tailspin and effectively end any hope for this season. Throw any manager into that team's situation with a such a terrible bullpen and you'll get the same results. Now obviously fans just want the win and care little for the technical stuff but it needs to be said that while the Red Sox are in absolute shambles right now, the blame cannot be placed on Valentine. Until he is surrounded with better players, the bullpen will continue to falter and the team and Bobby will suffer as a result of it. While I say this with regard for Bobby Valentine and all that he has accomplished in his managerial career, I'm openly joyous that the Red Sox season has reached this point so early in the season. So I say keep Bobby V and let the losing continue. Go Yankees. Buck Foston.