That Did Not Take Long ( Sorry Bobby)

Early in the year we heard that the Bobby Valentine story would have a really good ending or it would be an epic disaster. Now that we know the answer to that question it was good to see that the Red Sox made a quick decision today. That said anyone that thinks that the Red Sox will be better right away with a new manager is sadly mistaken. This is a team that over the course of three years has changed their franchise in every way, making mistake after mistake. It will not be fixed right away. Case in point. In Texas right now the Rangers have a third baseman named Adrian Beltre who for the last two years has been one of the best players in baseball. When he was with the Red Sox he did nothing less than that and yet when he became a free agent the Red Sox made no real effort to sign him. Instead the Sox traded two high prospects including the now budding superstar Anthony Rizzo for Adrian Gonzales and paid him at least twice what they would have had to pay Beltre. Would not Youkilis and Beltre have performed at the same rate as Gonzales and Youkilis did. Certainly Will Middlebrooks was a glimmer in the Red Sox eye at the time. This was simply a decision that the Red Sox forced upon themselves. They became so infatuated with the idea of a player that they simply made a bad decision. What makes this doubly frustrating for Red Sox fans is this is the team who made a practice of doing just the opposite. No matter how much the Sox fanbase loved and respected players like Johnny Damon and Pedro Martinez, for example, the Sox drew a line in the sand that they would not cross. The Sox cannot play nickel and dime baseball, the fanbase will not stand for it, but nor can they behave like a drunk at last call and scoop up the best " available" player instead of being patient for the right player. Sox brass needs to come clean and admit this might take more than one winter to correct. One gesture could be to lower ticket prices across the board for a season, to thank the fans for their patience. As the Sox look for a manager lets hope they make a good choice here as well. This love affair from a distance for John Farrell feels uncomfortably like their pursuit of Adrian Gonzales and could suffer the same fate. I believe they need to bring in new blood but someone low key that the players will respect. John Farrell has not performed miracles in Toronto and their is no reason to believe he would in Boston. It should be an interesting winter.