Sox Manager Musings Edition

This Blog has been busy busy busy doing the SAHD thing, and won't have much in the next several days, but will be back to regular postings by the middle of next week.  Thanks as always to the readers, you rule!

From Tim Kurkjian and ESPN to Nick Cafardo  and The Boston Globe praise upon praise is being heaped upon Bobby Valentine for the way he's running Spring Training.  Heck, even this Blog wanted to give three cheers to Bobby for attention to detail when he saw Mike Aviles properly back up a shot down the left field line that bounced back past the left fielder and throw out a runner trying to make it to 2B in the first NESN televised game.   This showed the benefit of having the new Jet Blue Park contain the same field dimensions as Fenway, and Bobby V's knowledge is reportedly being passed along with gusto in spurts as he roves from station to station.  But the fact remains, he's had one good run in all his MLB managing stops.  Francona made the playoffs over and over, and brought home the most historic win in Sox history.  Two World Series Titles in 8 years for our team has to go in the pantheon of incredible sports achievements in all Boston sports history.

But the time for Francona to go had come, the abruptness of his downfall was almost as astonishing as his incredible rise, and his weakness continues to show in his new ESPN gig.  The back and forth with Bobby V, where Francona said announcing no beer in the clubhouse was PR, Bobby said Francona gets paid to say things I get paid to do things, and Francona backing off his comments, is typical Francona mushy backbone behavior.  Francona's success was letting the boys play.  This carefree attitude was personified by Manny Ramirez, and required utmost professionalism from the vast majority of the clubhouse.  Sure the 2004 team was a bunch of idiots, but outside Millar and Ramirez those guys were about working hard and doing things the right way.  Francona's hands-off approach maximized the best attributes of Damon, Nixon, Schilling, Mueller, and Ortiz, as well as Millar and Ramirez.  The leaders led, the crazies were crazy, and the players in between like Foulke, were along for the ride.  Lest we forget, Pedro's worst attribute also thrived in this situation.  He almost blew up game 7 of the ALCS getting Francona to throw him in there for no reason in the late innings.  With players like Pedroia, Youkilis, Lester and Papelbon he had more hard chargers to ride through the World Series in 2007, but cracks have showed ever since.  Francona's whining about west coast road trips and interleague play did nothing but give his teams excuses to play poorly, and his anything goes approach led to lazy play and entitled players, the kind that lay down in the playoffs instead of stepping up.

Bobby V might not win anything, and the honeymoon period with the media is amusing to see.  This Blog sees a similar meteoric rise in year 1 to Francona, but his micromanaging ways won't last long.  And if the team struggles through April this could become a full on meltdown if things don't go well.  But any pining for Francona should be put aside.  He was the right person at the right time.  Times changed, he didn't adapt.

Until next Week,

The SAHD

Don't Trade Rondo Edition

With all the recent Celtics talk recently the most troubling to this Blog is the thought of trading Rondo.  Only caveat to that would be a trade for Deron Williams with 90% chance of him resigning then getting 65+% chance of getting Dwight 'Super Man' Howard as a free agent.  The odds of those things happening are close to 0% so trading Rondo, a relatively cheap triple double every night threat, seems foolish.

Remember Paul Pierce throwing a nutty in the 2005 playoffs by taking off and tossing his jersey after a questionable call?  That was Pierce's 7th year in the league and he was 27 years old. Rondo's recent throwing a ball at the ref happened in a regular season game, it's his 6th year in the league, and he just turned 26.  Pierce had some similar maturity, moody, not getting along with teammates issues when he was young and look at him now, a sure Hall of Famer and top 5 scorer in Celtics history.  On both WEEI and The Sports Hub callers and hosts alike are leaning on the 'Rondo can't carry a team to the Finals' argument.  Could Paul Pierce?  Sure, Paul won the Finals MVP in 2008 over the Lakers but everyone knows Kevin Garnett was the heart and soul of that team.  One could argue Paul was still immature at that point considering his carry off the court injury then miraculous come back to the court antics in Game 1 of those Finals.  Hey, this Blog loves The Truth, but he couldn't carry his team to the Finals as the central piece either.

How does Rondo compare career and this season-wise to other top pointguards?

Rondo
Career 10.9 ppg, 7.7 apg, 4.4 rpg, 1.9 spg
This year 14.2 ppg, 9.6 apg, 5.0 rpg, 1.5 spg

Derek Rose
Career 21.0 ppg, 6.8 apg, 3.9 rpg, .9 spg
This year 22.4 ppg, 7.6 apg, 3.3 rpg, .9 spg

Deron Williams
Career 17.5 ppg, 9.1 apg, 3.3 rpg, 1.1 spg
This Year 21.9 ppg, 8.3 apg, 3.5 rpg, 1.1 spg

Sure, Rondo doesn't score as much, but even with the motley crew that's healthy at any one time on this year's Celtics he's increasing his assists and filling some of the rebound void even more than usual.  Williams is clearly a notch above Rondo but Derek Rose, last year's regular season MVP, looks up at Rondo in all but one stat, Points Per Game.  Is Rondo perfect?  No, he shoots poorly both from the floor and the line, but still gets it done in all other areas.  Need a big rebound? Need an open shot?  Need a defensive stop? Rondo can take care of all that.  Rondo is incredibly valuable, the most valuable of all the Celtics for the foreseeable future.  He's the one that makes the other players look better than they are.  So what if he doesn't score as much.  Trade any or all of the aging big three, but please Celtics do not take anything less than Deron Williams for Rondo.

Until next time,

The SAHD