Since the day the Red Sox made the terrible decision to hire Bobby Valentine as their manager last winter, one of the favorite pastimes in New England has been predicting how long he’d remain employed in Boston. It looks like he’ll ride out this miserable season, no matter how bad it gets, but can we all agree that even the Red Sox aren’t dumb enough to bring him back in 2013?
Therefore, it’s time to start blindly speculating over who should be the next manager. Here are three ideas: one former player, one former coach and one rival coach. Above all, let’s not pretend that being a baseball manager is all that difficult. If you need further proof, check out Robin Ventura who has the White Sox in first place in the AL Central despite the fact that he never managed before this year, at any level.
1. John Farrell: Current Blue Jays manager
He’s gotten his feet wet in Toronto and he’s a smart guy so he must realize by now that it’s basically a no-win situation with that team in the AL East. He was the pitching coach in Boston from 2006-10 so he has a history with many of the players, coaches and front office. That might be precisely why he wouldn’t want to return, who knows?
2. Gabe Kapler: Unemployed baseball player
The former Red Sox outfielder and fitness fanatic managed the Greenville Drive (their high Single-A team) in 2007 so he has some experience. More importantly, he’s young (so he’d have plenty of energy) and he’s very intelligent which doesn’t seem to be a requirement in this profession (see: Charlie Manuel). If all else fails, wouldn’t it be fun to see him beat up Josh Beckett and John Lackey?
3. Jim Hickey: Tampa Bay pitching coach
Tampa Bay has been a contender the last four years mostly because of their outstanding pitching. Much of this has to do with their high end (top draft picks) talent but Hickey must be doing something right to mold all those spare parts in the bullpen into dependable arms (Kyle Farnsworth, Joaquin Benoit, Fernando Rodney). He’s been the pitching coach for almost six years with the Rays and he’s only 50, isn’t it time to move up?
Rare explosion
The Red Sox (57-59) had a rare offensive outburst Sunday in Cleveland as they throttled the Indians (53-62), 14-1.
Boston had a 6-1 lead heading into the fifth but didn’t let up as it scored eight runs in one frame.
Doubles by Jacoby Ellsbury, Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez provided the brunt of the damage.
Jon Lester finally got some run support as he pitched six innings and allowed just three hits and one earned run. He also struck out 12.
The Red Sox are still 5.5 games out in the wild card standings.
