I Hate Valentine's Day

Alright, look, I'm sick of this dog and pony show. The dog and pony show that I'm talking about is the charade that Ben Cherington is actually the GM when actually Mr. Burns, I mean Larry Lucchino is clearly the one pulling the strings.

Cherington, decidely started out running the process when he had that list of five people (Sandy Alomar Jr., Dale Sveum, Gene Lamont, Pete Mackanin and Torey Lovullo). He also went as far as to say, "our manager will be one of these five candidates." These choices seem logical for a first time GM. You've got a big name former player (Alomar), 2 guys with some, but limited managerial experience but have ties to Boston (Lamont and Sveum), A long-time bench coach (Mackanin) and then the AAA manager in your farm system (Lovullo). Then a mystery candidate was floated about, Valentine, which clearly was Larry's way of saying I'd rather hire my guy but we'll let you run your search. But here's my question, If Cherington is the one that is actually conducting the managerial search why would he bold-face lie to the media? Answer: He wouldn't Larry Lucchino just overruled Cherington's "authority"

Valentine, by all accounts, was Lucchino's guy from the beginning, and I for one hope this blows up so spectacularly in his face that we're not sure if we're watching a baseball game or some crazy porno.

Cherington (we're going to call him Cherry, mostly because I'm done writing out his entire name) is probably wondering what sort of mess he got himself into here. It's basically Theo 2.0. Theo Epstein left because Larry Lucchino wasn't letting him run the team by himself (as the GM should be doing), so the notion that Bill Walsh spoke to his sub-conscious is a little ridiculous. It's very clear to me that Cherry and Theo are extremely similar, look at the managerial process.

It was clear that Cherry's binky was Dale Sveum, but somewhere during that formal lunch with ownership Sveum pissed in Larry Lucchino's minestrone soup and their relationship couldn't be rekindled. I'm not entirely sure who is the person at fault here. Is it Cherry for being a bad judge of character? Or is it Lucchino for being to picky and dismissive of Ben's selection. I'm bias because I think Lucchino is a snake, but I'll lean on Cherington's side especially when Theo immediately offered Sveum a position as the Cubs manager.

In Major League Baseball, being a manager is 65% managing of egos, 35% baseball strategy. It's going to be tough managing egos when your manager has the biggest ego out of any of the players on the team. Let's look at positives and negatives:

Positives

• He believes in being physically fit. His time in Japan showed him that chicken and beer is probably not the best way to win ballgames.


• He believes in discipline. I am also a believer that players of any sport need structure.


• He is not opposed to sabermetrics and the use of advanced statistics in decision making for his ballclub.

Negatives

• He clearly likes to talk, but when his blabbering throws his players under the bus is alarming to me. You'll remember when Valentine first joined the Mets, Todd Hundley was one of the team's biggest stars. Without knowing the whole situation Bobby Valentine spouted off to the media that he thought Hundley was out boozing at night and needed to get more sleep. Well Mr. Valentine you're right he did need to get more sleep because after games he was driving to see his mother who was battling heart disease, a father with a hip replacement and a pregnant wife. Open Mouth, insert foot, Mr. Valentine.


• To me, he doesn't have the clout that he thinks he has. He has managed 15 seasons in the Majors and only twice has he won 90 games, and he has won one pennant (but lost the World Series 4-1 to the Yankees), while never winning a division title. To those that say, Francona didn't win anything either, Bobby Valentine's Texas Rangers and New York Mets had much better rosters than ANY that Francona had to deal with and Philadelphia.


• His strong personality is his best and worst trait. He has butted heads with management in all of his managing gigs (I'll give him a pass for butting heads in Japan, because they didn't pay him and I'd be pretty miffed as well), which is why I don't see his shelf life being long especially with Joe Maddon being available at the end of 2012 and John Farrell at the end of 2013.

Valentine is hire, and it doesn't look like I can be the voice of reason, because if my name doesn't rhyme with Harry Smoochino than my opinion doesn't matter. Bottom line is that I don't trust him. I want my manager protecting players and keeping things in house, and I don't think Bobby Valentine is capable of taking blame by the media and would rather point fingers. Anyway here is what I would have done and it all starts with the Theo Epstein Compensation, or lack thereof.

The one overwhelmingly positive thing that I will say about the Red Sox during the current ownership's tenure is that they aren't afraid to think big/outside the box. Precisely what they were doing when they tried to pry Farrell away from Toronto. Farrell is the man I would have selected for this job, and stopped at nothing to make it happen.

At first Toronto was going to let him go, and then they (smartly) pulled a 180 and said, we will not allow lateral moves without legitimate compensation. They asked for Clay Buchholz. I would scoff at this too, but then I thought, "Ya know what could help? The Theo compensation."

You could have thrown a few minor leaguers as fillers in the deal (Doubront, Reddick and another pitcher not A+ prospects) because you have the Cubs over a barrell as much as Theo doesn't want to admit it, and demanded Matt Garza.

Then you can propose sending Matt Garza (instead of Buccholz) to the Jays who is battle tested in the AL East, has no-hit stuff, and has been healthier than Clay Buchholz throughout his career. The splits are pretty close

Or maybe you keep Garza and let Buchholz go. "SACRILEGE! HE'S THE BEST PITCHA WE GOT!" *obnoxious Boston-accent* Garza is every bit as good as Buchholz albeit a year older than him, and doesn't have the injury risk that Buchholz has the last 3 years. Garza has always pitched for teams that haven't given him a lot of run support, which speaks to his almost .500 winning percentage but largely better all-around numbers in almost double the amount of appearances. The Red Sox needed quality innings last year and flat out didn't get them. Buchholz has never thrown 180 innings in a year and the starting rotation needs quality length, somethin Buchholz is not a lock for. With Garza you can write it in with Sharpie that he's going to make 33+ starts and throw around 200 innings.

If Farrell was my guy, the guy of the present and the future, a guy that the pitchers respected and feared as much as the staff says he is than I would have made that Priority One and made it happen. So it would have essentially been a three team deal.

Cubs Get: Theo Epstein, Felix Doubront, Reddick and PTBNL

Jays Get: Garza or Buchholz

Red Sox Get: Farrell and Garza or keep Buccholz

If you want something/someone and you have the means to do it, you need to go out and get it done.

Stay Tuned,

Norton