"That's a shame."

- The AL East

"His dismal is not much of a surprise"

Does anyone at the Globe do any proof reading. Should read dismissal not dismal !!

Freudian slip.

Very appropriate one, however. His (being) dismal didn't come as much of a surprise to me!

I think they got it exactly right.

This is MLBTR, not the Boston Globe?

party at Dave Magadan's !!

It's gonna be funny when the Red Sox are still terrible next year and the fans realize that it wasn't 110% Bobby's fault.

They aren't too terrible....

It definitely was not 110% his fault, but he still deserves plenty of the blame for both his on-field management (outside of his bullpen management, overall) and off-field media/personnel issues.

Hmm.. I dunno. He was right about Bard having no business in the rotation. He was right about Middlebrooks being a better option than Youkilis. He wasn't the one who traded Josh Reddick for Andrew Bailey. He wasn't the one who traded away Scutaro and Lowrie.

He can't get in the box and hit more homers for Adrian Gonzalez. It wasn't his fault Clay Bucholz was absolutely horrific to start the year.

I guess you can blame him for Dustin Pedroia getting butt hurt, but I don't take Pedey too seriously at all after the stunts he pulled this season.

He didnt earn the respect of the players he's supposed to be managing and made a bad situation worse by not being able to keep his mouth shut. (Calling out Youkilis, "Nice Inning Kid," etc).

For the Red Sox to improve, Bobby Valentine can't be at the helm.

Wait, now managers aren't allow to call out underachieving players? When did this become a thing?

I didn't say they can't call them out I said keep it behind closed doors. Attacking your players in the media is the easiest way to lose the respect of your clubhouse.

Exactly. You have a problem with your players, you go up to them like a man and tell them how you feel and keep it behind closed doors. By airing out your dirty laundry in the public, regardless of whether it's warranted or not, you're going to lose the respect of your clubhouse.

Middlebrooks will sure look good when his horrid K/BB rate and .335 BABIP catches up to him.

If you pick and choose your stats you can make Barry Bonds in his 40's look league average... but looking at the entire picture i think it is safe to say that:
He was not 100% ready for the big leagues (maybe 75 to 85% ready) but was forced into action as the team was in the thick of things at the time and helped keep the team "in the race" while he was there... He was hurt by a hit by pitch and at that time played approx 45% of a full MLB season.
So lets play a little game of cat and mouse and say that he was on pace (based on a full season) to:
-hit more than 30 HR
-have more than 120RBI
-4.5 WAR
-.835 ops
-the kid slugged .510 as a rookie (yes mike trout was better, but mike trout is probably the best rookie in baseball history) but that's 30 points or so better than bryce harper and 60 points higher than jason heywards rookie season and a touch higher than Buster Posey's rookie year.
-had many clutch hits.
take the pitch that broke his wrist out of the eqaution, (and Mel Ott, errr Mike Trout) and he's the rookie of the year in the AL and probably a top 10 mvp candidate.

That's a lot of 'Ifs'. Seeing as we'll never know what a whole rookie season of a healthy Middlebrooks would be, IF Mike Trout is out of the picture, you'll probably be looking into the Oakland A's for the ROY. Cespedes and Parker both turned in very very good rookie years, with much less protection around them.

I'm willing to be wrong, but we'll see who's right. I see Kevin Kouzmanoff 2.0.

Well, let's say you're right. Let's say he's Kevin Kouzmanoff 2.0.

Kouzmanoff's 4 years as an every day player netted him a line of .259/.303/.426/.728 with a OPS+ of 98 and an average of 19 HR while being an exceptional defensive 3B.

In 2012 Youkilis put up a .235/.336/.409/.745, 19 HR and an OPS+ of 99 while being a not particularly good defensive 3B.

Never said that Youkilis was better, but that Middlebrooks is probably not the future superstar 3B that Red Sox fans (and the media) think he is.

Exactly where in the media has middlebrooks been labeled as a future "superstar"? Not familiar with any media that has labeled him as such, even the biased NE Media.

As for Youk being mentioned in another above post?? Youk NEVER was more than an average 1b, even in his 20's and at the age of **33** with various injuries, he certainly isn't.. He IS still a GG caliber 1b and even held the MLB all time record for consecutive games without an error record for awhile.

they should not have expected off the field media and odd things when they hired bobby v ? why the hell would they think anything different would happen

I don't even know where to begin with this. o_o

IK. I really don't think it deserves a writeup.

I'm pretty sure it was a joke post. I think/hope.

1. Stand Up
2. Turn Off Computer
3. Turn on TV
4. Turn on Xbox
5. Go back to playing MLB 2k12

There is no way, and I mean no way, the Red Sox have the players it would take to get David Wright, Justin Upton and Elvis Andrus. You might as well have posted a scenario where I end up married to Angelina Jolie--that's how far-fetched this is.

How on earth does Brad Pitt show up so much in the comments section of this website

She's my woman.

lol I love crack head schemes.

I hesitate to call your post sheer genius, only because you overlooked one little detail... Ozzie Guillen for Red Sox manager.

WOW - Are you sure you are not a actual GM?

haha "they will get every good player available", I would have sworn that this was a phillies post

Lackey LoL

LOL in what universe do you live in? Because in this one there is NO WAY the Red Sox have the resources to acquire all the talent you mentioned. NO WAY!

LOL, are you sure you are not a closet Red Sox fan?

Like the thought just not possible. To many moving parts and thats just a start.

" I think that they could trade John Lackey and Jarrod Saltalamacchia to the Mets for Jason Bay and Johan Santana."

Then you are the only person on the planet who thinks anything of the sort...

Did you just say that Jon Rauch pitched well when he was with the Blue Jays?

thankyou

I've been waiting for this story for over 10 months.

Terrible fit from the start, but not 100% his fault. It was best for both sides.

Now, for God sake's let Ben pick the coach... Go away Mr. Lucchino

As a Yankee fan, I missed the rivalry over the last 2 years. Going to
Fenway twice a year to catch a 3 game series just didn't hold the same
level of competitiveness and excitement it once did over the last 10-12
years. Even we miss Tito...a class act who was always humble in winning
and losing. I still think the beer & chicken thing was blown out of
proportion and then to make the claims of Tito being addicted to
something was a low brow move...whether true or not, he deserved way
better on his way out the door. The guy did deliver 2 WS Championships
for God's sake! It's almost like a bad Karma thing for management & the press dissing him.

Bobby
V is not a very likable guy...and its not that he's an AH, he's just
got this way about him that makes him appear condescending. He didn't
make it this far in his career being a total jerk without any baseball
knowledge...the guy truly is a student of the game. When he criticized
Youk, he was just trying to light a fire under him to jump start the
team and the clubhouse and press crucified him for it and it was a slow
spiral down from there.

I hope you guys get the magic back soon
so we can pick up where we left off 2 years ago with this rivalry! There
were some bad apples in that clubhouse...I hope they eradicate them and
get back to baseball.

As a Yankees fan myself. You embarrass me.

Your close minded comment embarrasses all of us Yankee fans in that it shows you're obviously you're not a fan of the game. The Yankees are at their best when they have a mirror image club to measure up to. The Red Sox were replaced by the Orioles this year.

Stop hating and start paying attention Chiico!

you look good in red tho chico..so look at the upside..