I'm not in the "Fire Valentine!" camp, but I'm not in the "Give Valentine the whole year before you judge him!" camp either. He's had poor games. He's had (to my eye) a slow hook along the same lines we've railed on about with Tito for years around here, and I confess a slow hook is the last thing I thought I'd see with Valentine.

But, hey, the bullpen is a mixed bag, and I'm willing to grant him some leeway for not having figured out who can/cannot be trusted after only 29 games. And his hand's been forced by Melacon's general suckiness and Bailey's injury. In a sense, everyone in the pen is pitching 2 spots up in importance from where we (or they) thought they'd be when ST started. That's an issue, and it's not an issue that's resolved quickly. (And yes, yes, I know the bullpen ERA has been much better over the past 30+ innings, but I'd just argue that when you're asking Matt Albers to get important outs in your bullpen in the 8th inning, your bullpen has some fundamental issues.)

The bullpen's issues affect the starters because my sense is that one reason for BV's slow hook has been he wants to squeeze as many outs out of the starters as possible, because he doesn't want to expose the bullpen over and over again. Hence, you don't see Buchholz go 5 IP/80-85 pitches of solid (non exceptional) work... you see him go out there for the 6th... and then he gets knocked around, loses confidence, etc. The same thing could be said for Bard/Dubront--these are guys you should be overjoyed to get 5-6 IP/3 runs out of; pressing them to go deeper (at least at this point) is--to me--a mistake, but it's a mistake I think is happening because the bullpen isn't entirely trusted by BV.

I mean, let's be honest: if in mid-July of last year you had been given the current Red Sox bullpen and told you'd have to go the rest of the year with these arms, you'd have thought it was a cruel joke.

I'm not ready to trade Youk and play Middlebrooks at 3B full-time... But when I say what excites me this year is seeing how Bard/Dubront do and seeing how the kids (Middlebrooks, Iglesias, Lavarnway) play, it's just because--at the moment--nothing really excites me about the rest of the team. I hope Buchholz figures things out, as does Lester. But something's gone horribly wrong with the starting pitching the last 50-60 games and at some point it stops being a "run of bad luck" and becomes "the new normal."

I agree it's basically impossible to win with the current starters pitching as they do now, unless you construct a mythical 1200-run offense. So all you can do is hope the starters stop sucking. It's just deflating to realize you've had this same basic hope since last September, and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight.

If the output of the players improves, but the management of that improved output is messed up via repeated managing errors, I think it's perfectly fine to fire Valentine--I don't care whether or not it's before the end of the year. I'd agree it's too early to do it now, but it's certainly not too early to say at the same time that--while he's been dealt a bad hand with injuries/ineffectiveness--BV has not had, tactically, the best of years as a manager.

This team is 2-15 in games where they score less than 6 runs. Of course tonight was really more on Byrd and Ross in the outfield than on the pitching or offense, but when you have the tying run on third base with 1 out in the 9th you'd like to think you can at least tie up the game.

Bobby's bullpen strategy seems to be: give different guys at least 2 if not 3 innings of work on a given day. Apart from "justifying" a 13-man staff, this seems like a lousy idea. Aren't you supposed to protect relievers by not giving them a 2nd time through the lineup?

I have no issue with sticking with a guy if he "has it" that day.

Yeah, I think sticking with relievers is actually a feature rather than a bug of the Bobby V experience. Two innings is rarely more than once through a lineup. He does seem to stick with starters a little too long, though. He often seems a batter or two late to me.

There's a lot to say here. But for the moment I just want to tell Jose that I really respect him for his measured response in [99].

Thanks P-Aviles.

I'll add my voice to those in favor of the long relief appearances. I think there have been a few games where it proved positive; Easter Sunday, the first win in Toronto are two that come to mind right away. I can't think of a game where he stuck too long with a reliever.


In fact I think Bobby deserves a fair amount of credit for his handling o the bullpen. Given the weak options be has the pen has become a strong suit so far. They have pitched exceptionally well since the Yankee game.

Good points, all, especially that most of the time a long relief appearance doesn't bring the lineup up a second time. This is what happens when I post ####-faced. Still, I don't like having a three-man bench.

He often seems a batter or two late to me.

You don't know if your gun still has bullets unless you keep shooting. But if you shoot an empty gun, you die.

Early in the season I can see merit in learning how many bullets are in the gun, and I suppose it's good to have a manager who isn't simply pushing whatever buttons are most likely to follow conventional wisdom and keep him from getting fired. The key for me is that I don't yet know if that's what he is doing. Is he trying stuff out, learning about his players? Has he lost a step? Is he putting too much faith in his coaches, or his players? We're still a long way away from knowing that. If he's learning we should see some improvement soon. If he isn't we won't.

You don't know if your gun still has bullets unless you keep shooting. But if you shoot an empty gun, you die.

I can't say I love this analogy, but I agree with your larger point. Time will tell if he's learning about players and his patterns change, or if that's just the way he likes to do things. He seems to let starters go a little longer than normal in April. We'll see if that's how he does it in August.