I have coached a number of sports for over 40 years. I have always felt that I could beat teams with coaches who were afraid of loosing. The coach that made me worry were those big egotistical guys who's teams always seemed to play above their heads.

Case in point, TAMPA BAY! This guy has both, a great record and a giant ego. He has for the past few years out coached Tito game in and game out.

Isn't it funny--if you ask the most knowledgeable baseball experts---they say BV is amoung the elite baseball minds---if you talk to amatures, they don't like him because..........he smiles too much.

I lean toward liking St. V ... but I'll reserve judgment until October. That said, you have to give most of the credit to the guys who have stepped up. Nava was like the 10th option ... nobody gave him a chance out of the gate. Doubront pitched his way into the rotation in Spring training. Podsednik was relegated to AAA in the NL before Bennie picked him up. Ortiz is having a great year ... that was not a sure thing ... especially raking lefties. WMB was slated for a September call up at best. Aceves has done the job in the 9th ... C has been much better than expected ... sooooooooo ... yeah St. V gets some credit, but the most credit goes to these guys who really have carried the team with the All Stars AWOL.

Oh please. You're giving Valentine credit for many things here that simply don't make any sense to give him credit for. Stealing bases? Only one team in the entire league has fewer stolen bases than Boston. Bunting? That's been a mixed bag, working in setting up a run only about 50% of the time they've tried it. Late inning defensive changes? That's only because he's been forced to play Adrian Gonzalez out of position in RF to find a way to get Middlebrooks into some games since Youk has been back. Without that there would be no late inning defensive entries into the games going on.

As for your contention that Francona wouldn't have this team where it is right now with all these injuries, that's pure BS. Look back 2 years at all the injuries they were dealing with in 2010. He had them in a much better position at this point of the year that year than St. Valentine does right now with comparable injuries. So much for that theory.

"Especially Mr. Nice Guy who never made changes, waited for BIG innings and left pitchers in way too long."

....and won 2 world series

Bobby was ripped unmercifully at the beginning of the season; blamed for almost everything that went wrong. If he gets a small amount of credit for things he doesn't deserve it seems you could cut him some slack and let the scales balance out. Actually being over 500 at this point with the teams lineup so unsettled seems a minor miracle.

Going by their runs scored and runs allowed splits the team is actually 3 games worse than what would be expected for them. All 3 teams currently ahead of Boston in the division have winning percentages better than their runs scored/runs allowed splits would predict. If Valentine were simply helping the team win at their expected level right now they'd only be 3 games back of NY and tied with Tampa, not 6 games back.

stat geek

Alright let's try this. Is there anything positive you can say about Bobby.

He looks good in pink?

Well it is Massachusetts.

He seems to be re-learning the manager role as the season has gone on. Early on he seemed more like he was still trying to be a TV analyst at times, and had the luxury of critiquing things after the fact instead of having to plan ahead for what might happen. As the season has progressed he's stopped doing that as much and appears to be thinking ahead a little better. There's still room for improvement in that area, but he is improving.

The total runs scored doesn't mean too much with the RS. What means something is the distribution of the runs scored. For example: the rs have scored more than 10 runs in 10 games and have a record of 9-1. The total runs in these 10 games (115) is about 1/3 of the runs (352) that they have scored. So this leaves 237 runs to be distributed among 58 games as of today or 4.1 runs/ game.

When the rs record was about 30-30, and they scored less than 5 runs per game, their record was 5-25 with a total of about 80 runs in the 30 games (about 2.6 rpg), when they scored more than 5 runs, the record was 25 and 5. I haven't updated numbers for the last 8 games.

So it's either feast ot famine for the RS. If it weren't for the first 14 or so games, the rs would have a decent record.

"If it weren't for the first 14 or so games, the rs would have a decent record."

If only Bobby V had been around for those first 14 games....

I agree 100%. Bobby V. has been a wonderfull breath of fresh air for this team. As for Crawford, I would keep him in Pawtuckett for 20 games at least and let that sample dictate if he plays in Boston this year. His money is spent(wasted). Why lose ballgames on top of it by playing him over Nava. What kind of message will that send to every good prospect we have in the system? Let Youk go NOW!! For nothing if necessary. Trade Jacoby for a starting pitcher. We're going to lose him anyway ater next yr. Put Kalish in center and get a big bopper for right field. Send Gonzo to a swing doctor. That's all.

#1 OBP in AL for hitters with at least 100 PAs .... Daniel Nava ... by 23 points.

First of all, the things I give him credit for, are the small things that have not been done in years. I also liked Tito, but you and I both know that there were numerous times when we had runners on first and second with no outs and hit into double plays. Most times with the bottom of the order. We talked about it here constantly.

As to late inning changes, I don't think you are watching them all. He has rotated that outfield every game to put guys like Nava in left, Pods wherever he could and Sweeney in right. As for AGon, he has done a fair job out there, but lets face it, no one other than Bobby V would have ever put him out there. He has also used his bullpen with in a way to keep all arms ready.

To me it looks like certain players have bought into his act, and others have not. Youk, has played the OF, but wont now. Pitchers, who have adequate rest refuse to move up a day to avoid using a Relief Pitcher, who got to do a great job. Look at the dugout, and see all the players who are on the DL rooting for the team.

Whether you like him or not, he is doing a great job with the guys he has to play. As for Tito, listen to him when he is on TNT. By the end of last year, he was FRIED. He got betrayed by both the owners and the PLAYERS who took advantage of his friendship. Had management not wanted a person like BV, they would not have made such a radical change.

From your posts now, you leave no doubt that you hate the guy, and that's your right as a fan. I don't know him, but coming from Sacramento, I do know Jerry Royster and he says people especially his haters, just don't give him credit for how smart he really is.

Although I have my doubts right now, I just hope when everyone is back that the wins come easily.

OK. Fair point. The blowout wins do skew things in terms of that formula where the Sox are concerned, which pretty much accounts for the entire difference in their actual W/L record and their projected W/L record.

I think you are definitely on the right track. However, I am not sure I would stop there. Prior to this winning streak, I was all for shopping every player on this roster with a multi-year contract, with the exception of Pedi. That's right, those great front line Pitchers, Agon, and the entire disabled list of guys who milk injuries.

Come on now Jacoby, it was a tough injury, but most guys would be back by now. HE IS SOFT! Just like two years ago with the ribs. Heck, I was 65 when I fell and broke and separated 4 ribs. I was back playing golf 5 times a week within a month.

Face it, with the exception of these hungry young guys, we root for a COUNTRY CLUB.

Numerous times guys at the bottom of the order hit into inning killing DPs? No, I don't think so. Looking at the numbers from last year the guys who routinely hit at the bottom of the order didn't have any inordinately high numbers of DPs grounded into. In fact the 2 guys who did have high totals of DPs were Ortiz and Gonzalez, neither of whom the team would ask to bunt runners over to 2B and 3B.

And yes, he's going to shift the OFers to where they play best late but only because he's forced to play them where they don't play best for most of the game to get Gonzalez into the game in RF. Take that away and there's no shifting of the OFers around late in any game, as they would all be playing in their proper positions from the first inning on.

And as for Gonzalez in RF, go back and look at the game logs for games played at NL teams last year, and you'll see that Francona put AG in RF twice in order to get Ortiz into those games. So saying Valentine is the only one who would think to do that is flat out false. It's just that Francona never was forced to do it as often as Valentine has been so far.

Youk was a disaster in the OF when Francona tried putting him there (which also belies the notion that only Valentine would think to try playing a career IFer in the OF) which is why he hasn't been considered an option to play there now. I'm sure if Valentine told him he needed him to play LF he'd go out there and try his best. It's just that Gonzalez is better there than Youk is. And show me where Buchholz refused to be moved up to pitch on Sunday. I never saw anything saying he was ever asked to do so. When Beckett was put on the DL from that moment on Valentine was saying that Morales would take the start.

As for managements decision to go with Valentine, that all had its start early last November when Larry Lucchino and Valentine took part in a baseball discussion in Hartford, CT and Valentine started bending Lucchino's ear about hiring him as the manager. Up until that point Dale Sveum was the lead candidate to get the job. But after that Lucchino took over the search, killed the Sveum suggestion by Cherington, and fast tracked Valentine as the next manager. Ownership went out of their way a month earlier to state that they weren't considering a "Bobby Valentine type manager" when a number of players expressed concerns about hiring someone like that. Then they did a complete 180 on that and hired the ultimate "Bobby Valentine type" manager. And still the team got off to a pisspoor start to the season. So much for ownership having a clue what the team needed.

I have no doubt that Valentine comes across as a very smart baseball man. But being smart and being a good manager of players are 2 different things. A person can have all the intellect in the world, but if they can't communicate it effectively and can't learn how to work with a diverse set of personalities to get their best out of them he won't be a very good manager. Francona knew how to work with players. I'm not sure Valentine does, or ever did.