Boston Red Sox Players Wrong to Blame Bobby Valentine for Disastrous Season

The Boston Red Sox are not accustomed to playing under .500 this late into the season. Everyone has their theory as to what has gone wrong, but if the players really are blaming Bobby Valentine for this mess, they should stop and take a hard look at themselves and what they have done. 

According to a report from Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports, Red Sox players basically went to ownership to throw Valentine under the bus and back it up over him a few times.

The meeting is said to have taken place on July 26, "after first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, texting on behalf of himself and some teammates, aired their dissatisfaction with Valentine for embarrassing starting pitcher Jon Lester by leaving him in to allow 11 runs during a July 22 start."

Passan's report claims that the meeting was "heated," and sources told him "Gonzalez and Dustin Pedroia were among the most vocal in the meeting, in which some players stated flatly they no longer wanted to play for Valentine."

To be fair, not all players feel this way. Passan wrote that "not all of the Red Sox players attended the meeting," so this isn't a universal feeling in the clubhouse with 25 guys lining up to slowly take Valentine down. 

Following Tuesday night's loss, Pedroia was asked about the problems the team has had this season and said that "it's on the players" and that he "doesn't want Bobby fired." (via NESN.com)

The first part, about this season being on the players, is incredibly important and something that seems to have gone unnoticed by Red Sox fans and analysts. 

Regardless of how you feel about Valentine as a manager, the fact that the Red Sox are currently 57-60 has much less to do with him and a lot more to do with the performance of the players on the field, as well as injuries to key contributors. 

Here is a quick look at the list of key players who have spent time on the disabled list at some point in 2012. 

PLAYER, POSITION	INJURY
John Lackey, SP	Elbow
Daisuke Matsuzaka, SP	Back; Neck
David Ortiz, DH	Achilles
Dustin Pedroia, 2B	Thumb
Jacoby Ellsbury, CF	Shoulder
Will Middlebrooks, 3B	Wrist
Kevin Youkilis, 3B*	Back
Andrew Bailey, RP	Thumb
Carl Crawford, LF	Elbow
Clay Buchholz, SP	Esophagitis

*Youkilis was traded to the White Sox on June 25

You could build a really competitive team starting with just those pieces, yet the Red Sox have had to find pieces to plug in to try to get by without those players for long stretches of the season. 

Yes, every team has to deal with injuries, but when almost all of them are to your very best players, it is hard to remain competitive over the course of a 162-game season. 

Add to those injuries the fact that Josh Beckett and Jon Lester have ERAs over 5.00, Mark Melancon was sent down to Triple-A two weeks into the season after imploding and is still trying to get his ERA under 7.00, Daniel Bard was a disaster as a starter and can't find the strike zone in Triple-A, and you have a situation that was bound to combust sooner rather than later. 

If Valentine was the only problem this team had, it would still be really good. The Red Sox's problems are vast and not going away soon. 

When the Red Sox were making the playoffs and competing for World Series titles year after year, they had depth everywhere—both at the big league level and down in the minors. Right now, they don't have anything ready to make an immediate impact on the farm. 

Their best prospects are at the lower levels of the minors, at least a year away from doing anything in the big leagues. 

A lot of their acquisitions—both in free agency and via trade—have not worked out. How much would the Red Sox love to have Josh Reddick back from the A's? Or Jed Lowrie from Houston?

Valentine did not pull the trigger on those deals. General manager Ben Cherington is getting a hall pass because he is in his first year. Valentine has not been given the same courtesy because he had to follow a manager who was so beloved in Boston, both by the fans and players, that it would be impossible to live up to that standard. 

Another part of the problem, I think, that the players have with Valentine is he isn't Terry Francona. What I mean is, their personalities are vastly different from each other. 

Valentine doesn't have a filter when he speaks—he is open and honest, almost to a fault. He is sarcastic and walks with an attitude that can rub people the wrong way. 

Francona was going to protect his players, no matter what. He was going to keep everything in-house, while showing a good sense of humor to make reporters laugh. 

I'm not saying that one style works better than the other. Valentine has not been given a fair chance by the Red Sox players or fans to show what he can do. This season is lost not because of Valentine, but because the players on the field have not lived up to their end of the deal, either because of poor performance or injuries. 

And even saying that, the Red Sox are still 57-60, 6.5 games out of a wild-card spot in the American League. I am not predicting them to make the playoffs, but it's not like they are buried. 

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