The managerial futures of two men crystallized here Friday.
John Farrell should manage the Boston Red Sox in 2013, and Omar Vizquel is not ready to manage in the major leagues — yet.
Farrell and Vizquel were the principals in the internal tumult that turned public this week, revealing just how far the Toronto Blue Jays are from winning the American League East.
Vizquel, days away from his retirement as a player, made pointed comments to the Toronto Sun, saying in Friday’s editions that “a lot of mistakes were let go” by the coaching staff this season.
Vizquel suggested that the team’s youth and inexperience compelled Farrell and his coaches to take a hands-off approach to discipline. “It needs to be talked about,” Vizquel told the Sun. “It shouldn’t just be let go and say, ‘Ah, we have another day.’ You have to get on it. You have to say, ‘I didn’t like that play,’ and let’s try and do something different.”
So here was Vizquel — 45 years old, on record as saying he wants to manage as early as 2013 — offering a damning critique of the man who has kept him in the major leagues all year despite his .548 OPS.
Was this a brazen attempt at politicking for Farrell’s job near the end of a disappointing season? I would hope not, but the timing did not reflect favorably on Vizquel. In fact, Vizquel said during a Friday news conference that he’s already thinking about team issues from a managerial standpoint.
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1. Bhaakon Posted: September 29, 2012 at 08:10 PM (#4249037)This doesn't seem a wise move on Vizquel's part. Man's been playing for a long time, sometimes on crappy teams, and days away from retirement he just can't hold it in anymore? It does kinda look like he's angling for the job but this is not the right way to go about it.
That sounds like plenty enough of a damning critique to me.
"Why the hell did this idiot keep me in the majors all year? I suck!"
It's not like this is anything new. He wrote an autobiography way the heck back in 2002.
...but inexplicably beloved in Cleveland...
ditto in San Francisco ...
Vizquel may not be a deserving Hall of Famer, but this is ridiculous. Did you watch the man play in his prime? Inexplicable? Really?
Unfortunately, I spent my Cleveland years in my mother's second-cousin's basement...
Regardless of how many of Omar's games I may or may not have watched, the collective weeping and gnashing of teeth, rending of garments, and tearing of hair in Cleveland when the soon-to-be-38-year-old Vizquel was granted his free agency was inexplicable (to me), yes... you'd've thought that someone had shot Francis of Assisi or something.
He does have a nice enough smile, I suppose.
It rubs the lotion on its skin ...
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