Boston’s Big 3 Scapepgoats -- Trade Smacks of Leadership Lack

Admit it, Red Sox Nation.  The trade of the Boston Big 3 (Gonzalez, Crawford and Beckett) scapegoats made no sense and reveals that the Boston brass don’t know what they’re doing.  We get it—money is no issue for Boston. They didn’t know what they were doing when they signed John Lackey or Crawford, honestly, to ludicrous long deals.  Dice-K makes Harry Houdini seem omnipresent.  They probably miss Adrian Beltre. They may have underestimated what they had in the cupboard when they let Papelbon walk.  But to trade a healthy, albeit underperforming, Adrian Gonzalez, (.301-15-85) who for many years was considered  the Red Sox’s birthright shows a lack of vision and at worst, a misconstrued reality of who the Red Sox are, what division they play in and what their fans will tolerate.

The Red Sox front office seems to think “let the young guys play and grow” approach is going to work in Boston.  Truth is, it is going to get everyone fired.  Fenway isn’t meant for small ball; it’s meant for guys to get on base hit moon shots that are outs everywhere else and pitch just well enough to win 9-6 slugfests with New York and Tampa, to a lesser extent.  But that reality, the reality that served them so well in 2004 and 2007 was ignored or forgotten.  Maybe those histories of those teams were rewritten, misleading the faithful into believing those were “homegrown” squads.  Yeah, right.  The Red Sox are at their best with healthy speed at the top and mashers in the middle; everyone needs to be able to draw a walk and play defense.

Even a more telling failure of leadership is Boston’s devil-may-care approach to crafting a pitching staff to shut down opposing lineups. The 2012 Red Sox suck because they give up the second most runs (625) in the American League (Minnesota is last with a whopping 675, odd considering that it is a pitcher’s park).  They are actually decent in defense (76 errors as of 8/30 – good for middle pack in the AL) but they can’t pitch (4.44 ERA-11^th in the AL) no starters with an ERA under four-and-a-half, and they probably didn’t solve that problem with the acquisition of Rubby De La Rosa (coming off Tommy John) and a prospect that went 6-8 at Double AA (Allen Webster).  In a division where either teams can mash (New York, Toronto) or prevent you from mashing (Tampa, Baltimore) you better be able to do at least one of them. Boston, by pulling out on their all-ins on A-Gon and CC have now hampered their ability to do both.

Why this huge theoretical change? To suit Bobby Valentine?  While he has shown an ability to motivate young squads short-term what the hell has he ever done to justify a complete theoretical organizational change to small ball? Because with James Loney and Jerry Sands that’s exactly what you’re getting.  Bobby has been more effective at alienating players, staff and management quicker than anyone else in recent MLB managerial history.  This guy has been in and out of the MLB passed over for jobs he was probably more qualified for and consequently has managed in Japan, which his no-nonsense, prickly approach may be better suited for.  If the plan is to fire Bobby V all along, then what could A-Gon, CC and Beckett done in five months to piss off management to this extent.  While Crawford is injured and may be handling the injury not as expertly as the fan base may desire, he has never, ever, been considered a slacker or a problem in the clubhouse.  It may piss people off, but shouldn’t be considered injury-prone if Jacoby Ellsbury is still given a pass.  Did CC upset the Fenway faithful with the whole complaining about the cop incident? Is there a feeling that these guys were outsiders, they weren’t real Red Sox? Gimme a break.  Why let Bobby Valentine convince management in this about-face that those guys were the problem when reportedly seventeen players had/have an issue with Mr. Valentine’s (mis)management? Ask Kevin Youkilis about Bobby V. 

Admit it, Red Sox nation.  The trade was a reactionary, cathartic, ham-handed attempt to placate either a prickly, not-really-proven-that-he-can-build-long-term manager or a fan-base that has a sense of misplaced nativism.   The Red Sox, again, work best when they address starting pitching and keep the offense stacked with veterans.  Small ball didn’t work in 2010 and it won’t work in the future.