Boston Red Sox: Curt Schilling's Comments on Bobby Valentine Are Off-Base

Yesterday on WEEI-FM, former Red Sox ace and current ESPN analyst Curt Schilling joined the Mutt and Merloni Show and shared his thoughts on Bobby Valentine and the clubhouse feel.

According to Schilling and his unnamed sources, "It's going bad" so far.

In fact, this is his full comment:

"I like Bobby. I like him a lot," said Schilling, who worked with Valentine at ESPN. "I thought that the manager that managed the Mets that I was not a big fan of was now going to be a different manager, and I don't think there's anything different at all. And I don't think that that is going to be conducive to doing well here.

"There's a lot of things I think that are happening not just from his perspective, but when you talk to these guys—and I'm still talking to some of these guys—I don't think this is going well. And I think it's going bad quicker than I expected it to."

There are few things in this statement that spark my interest.  First, of course, you have to examine the mouthpiece for these "guys" that Schilling refers to.

Curt Schilling is/was/will always be a Terry Francona guy.  He's never been shy about his belief that Francona was the greatest manager of all time.

That in and of itself muddies the water of his opinion.

Furthermore, who are the guys that Schilling still talks to?  They have to be veterans if he's friendly enough to talk to them on the phone.

Jose Iglesias isn't exactly dialing up big Curt for crossword puzzle answers.

Those that remain would be from a select crop of players that were on the team when Schililng was still kicking around the Boston bench: Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis and, to some degree, Clay Buchholz.

What names stand out to YOU on that list?

For me, the answer is obvious: Josh Beckett and Jon Lester.

Why are things going badly? Perhaps because these two players are not happy with the way Bobby Valentine has no issue ruffling their feathers.

Should Sox fans take what Schilling has to say with anything more than a grain of salt? Absolutely not. At the very least, Schilling's take on Bobby V as being "bad" should be read as a "thank God" to Red Sox fans.

This team obviously lacked discipline, no offense to Francona.

Valentine is the type of manager to snap things back to order.  He is in town on a two-year deal. Realistically, that is probably all he'll be here for.  In that time though, he will get this team back to basics, as we've seen already.

Is that really such a bad thing?