This is already the 2nd time he has admitted to a mistake. The other time hoping Thomas got an out. After last year, every game counts. He can't keep making mistakes and apologizing for it, before we know it, his mistakes could cost the team the playoffs.

agree.. But it was kind of a joke lester :)

I can't can't stomach Belichick. He was shown to be a cheater. But I love his Coaching, and perfectly happy to watch the Pats win all these playoff games and Super Bowls. But Belichick is one pain in the behind... but few care, ( including me ) as he wins.

I do not know why he had Albers warming up but Valentine could not bring in Albers to face Longoria. Bard had pitched well enough that he had earned the right to try to get out of that jam. Facing Pena? Thats a tough call. That's where a lefty specialist will be very helpful and the Sox have a very good one rehabbing right now. Also, its too bad they couldn't have run up Shields pitch count faster. That Tampa pen is very shakey.

More than anything players... hitters, batters... want some consistency on how the ump calls balls and strikes. Each ump has their style of game they call. Some umps give pitchers some lattitude, while some have a rather " small strike zone " for the game they are working. Hitters over the course of the game begin to adjust as to the strike zone tendencies of te partucular ump working the game that day, or they know the tendencies of the umps strike zone by reputation.

I'm not blaming the home plate ump for this loss, but he was very inconsistent all day, imo. With both teams. He definately had a wider strike zone in the later innings than eartlier in the game , imo. Maybe the heat temps were getting to him, and we wanted to get the game over quickly, who knows... but he squeezed some hitters in this one, especially Ross in his last at bat... with a more than liberal strike zone, and much more liberal strike zone than the ump had in earlier innings, imo.

Just change your sign-on here to Dr. Dr. TrueValentine, PhD and get it over with.

I don't always start threads, but when I do, I prefer to make classics.

I'm the most interesting thread starter in the world.

I would have had Melancon warming up, who since his two terrible games to start the season has been used for one mop-up inning over the past week. If he's already relegated to Bobby V's doghouse and isn't going to enter a game with less than a 10-run advantage then I'd kinda like Jed Lowrie back.

But I digress...why couldn't he bring in Albers to face Longoria?

Classic number 2 this week. The "Randy's dream come true" one was pretty epic as well.

Keep it on coming, it's making this place a little more interesting.

Move over fromcal.

Because Bard had given up no runs in 6 2/3 innings. If Bard gets pulled in that situation the manager is showing him absolutly no faith. The decision had to be made ealier. BTW Leyland got into the same dilema last week against Tampa in the 9th when Verlander ended up giving up 4 and losing (4-2) and then again tonight when Verlander threw 131 pitches and struck out the last batter with the bases loaded (after giving up a run). I did not like losing and did not like seeing scrubs warming in a 0-0 game but I am not sure I see a lot of choice. That was Bard's game to win or lose and he needed to step up. Walking the last two batters on 8 pitches just does not cut it.

You're comparing Bard to a guy that averaged 115.9 pitcher per start last year, and 113.5 pitches per start the year before. Daniel Bard had not been up over 100 pitches in a game since 2007. If you're going to bring up the fact that he hadn't allowed a run yet in the game I'm going to just assume you weren't actually watching that 7th inning, because Bard was clearly gassed, as you'd expect from a guy who hadn't thrown that many pitches in five years, and what he had done up to that point is pretty irrelevant.

My proclivity for the classics goes back many a year....

http://forums.prospero.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=ml-redsox&msg=235991.1

That one was much more fun before Randy and Gazoo got banned.

Thats Old School Baseball. back int he day, everyone used to do that.

LOL.

is Valentine a little MLB rusty?

But you don't have any ins inside twitter connections....

Nonsense. He was gassed. It was obvious to EVERYONE. He was taken out at least 2 batters too late.

Well considering Youk is all of 4-39 against Shields in his career I can't really blame the lack of offense yesterday on his being out of the lineup. After looking at those numbers I fully understand why Valentine put Punto in at 3B instead of Youk. I don't know why Punto was batting as high in the lineup as he was though. That you'd have to ask Bobby about, although I doubt he'd have a good answer for that.

Its irrelevent if your sole focus is on winning that game. However, if you want to develop Bard into a pitcher that can get a critical out in the seventh then you had better push him to do so. The great thing about baseball is that no strategy works 100% of the time or even 50% of the time. We now know leaving Bard in failed. My guess is that bringing in either of the pitchers that were warming would have failed at an equal percentage as leaving Bard in. In that case at least Bard got some valuable experience. I can completly see, on the other hand, your strategy as being sound. My point is the Sox were in a difficult position and were faced with no great strategies. My biggest issue with your post is that you pretend the move was an obvious mistake because there was some fullproof plan otherwise.

Actually, the strategies I liked least was sending Ross in the seventh and Pedroia in the 9th. My feeling was that the Sox needed to get Shields pitch count higher so they could take a shot at that pen in the 8th. In the 9th they needed to force Tampa to pitch to Ortiz because he has been their best hitter. But again I will never know if my strategy would have been better only its fun to speculate.

Ted, it's not as though Bard hasn't been in tight situations before or is in need of getting himself out of jams. He's done both before for the Sox, but just not as a starter.

While I agree there is an element of risk in any move a manager makes, this one was patently obvious to make and that included Valentine admitting it later on.

There are two key elements in yesterday's game that should be considered.

First is that Bard is developing as a starter. That is, his innings, if following some plan to have him around toward season's end, has to have some limits. And innings should always be dependent upon the total number of pitches thrown.

Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, the overall object is to win games. Valentine took a gamble that calls into question both points.