Christopher L. Gasper of the Boston Globe reports on disagreements between Bobby Valentine and Ben Cherington over Daniel Bard and Jose Iglesias. Gasper paints this as a rift between the field and front office managers. I wasn’t so sure, until it became clear that Valentine leaked the story:
Word of the differing views about Bard and Iglesias going public is Bobby looking out for Bobby.
Since Valentine was hired despite the desire of Cherington for someone else, Bobby may feel he has more pull with upper management than Ben. We’ll see soon enough if that’s true.
There was always something about Bobby Valentine that I didn’t like, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. He seems knowledgeable, he seems personable, he seems to be a capable manager, but as his name has come up for other manager positions in the recent past there has been a “not only no but hell no” vibe to the response.
Valentine has been with Boston for what, 3-4 months now, and the “Bobby looking out for Bobby” issue has already bubbled up. Yeah, I think that’s what I don’t like.
What could the differing views possibly be? Bard collapsed in Sept and has stunk this spring. Iglesias can’t hit.
Bandit, the front office is hoping/expecting Bard to be a starter.
To say that Iglesias can’t hit is a huge understatement. He had the worst OBP in the International League, ouch. But he’s really fun to watch in the field, and Bobby likes him. Avilas is a much less entertaining player with a much higher WARP, so, yeah, that’s what it’s all about.
Hope all they want – Bard’s velocity is down and that exposes all his off speed stuff. Iglesias is like the second coming of Ray Oyler. If Valentine likes to watch him play it’s less than an hour to Pawtucket.