Bobby V
Posted: October 19th, 2009 | Filed under: Baseball | 30 Comments »
A few years ago, I pitched hard for Bobby Valentine to become the manager of the Kansas City Royals. I felt — and feel to this day — that he would be the PERFECT Royals manager. Here’s a team that has less money and fewer resources. For most people around baseball, the Royals are utterly irrelevant.
Bobby V. would make the Royals matter. And, I suspect, he’d help them win too. The guy’s a fighter, he’s obviously very smart, he loves being the underdog, he would get the Royals playing baseball a certain way (rather than the way the Royals are drifting now) and he could try all the crazy things that come to his mind. Plus he would promote the Royals at every Optimists and Kiwanis Club meeting that would have him. Perfect, I tell you. Absolutely perfect.
Now, the news: Bobby V is a finalist to be the manager of the Cleveland Indians.
Well, that would be good too.
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surprised, Cleveland’s a dead-end job.
I can see him waiting a year, then taking over for Torre in LA.
stay away, he’s ours (oh wait, never mind, it makes too much sense to fire the god-awful Jerry Manuel and bring back the overwhelming fan favorite. The Wilpons would never do that. I hate being a Mets fan)
I will just be happy to see Bobby V back in baseball.
I would also be happy to see Omar Minaya repeatedly kicked in the groin.
I’d bet $1 that Royals management’s reaction to Bobby V’s availability was: “We’ve learned our lesson — we’re never again hiring a manager who most recently managed in Japan.”
Well, the umpires are determined to give the series to the Phillies. Watching at Gameday, the first pitch to Howard was a borderline strike (some of it inside the rectangle, none of it outside the rectangle) but they called it a ball. The next pitch was swung at and missed. The next was solidly a strike (most of it inside the rectangle, none of it outside) called ball two. The fourth pitch was ENTIRELY inside the rectangle, still called ball three, so the options are: throw a fat pitch or just intentionally walk Howard. Boom. Worst home plate umpiring I’ve ever seen. In the top of the first, the first two strikes on Andre Ethier were CLEARLY balls, both completely outside the rectangle. So the fix is in. I don’t know why the umpires want the Phillies to win, but they’re fixing this series.
And now we have demonstrated favoritism. The umpire just called Loney out on an inside strike. All three of the balls called on Howard were further over the plate than this inside pitch to Loney. So it’s not just that the umpire is calling inside strikes to LHB as balls and close outside balls to LHB as strikes. He’s calling inside strikes to Phillies as balls and inside balls to Dodgers as strikes. You can’t win a series if the umps are against you.
Please, oh please someone higher Bobby Valentine. The dude is too entertaining as a manager to not be doing substantial baseball work. If Baseball Tonight would let him do Bobby Valentine schtick, I’d feel differently, but they won’t.
As an Indians fan, I’ll be extremely disappointed if they hire Valentine. Not because of of who he is, but because of how much he’ll make. The difference between what he made in Japan and what you could get a AAA manager for is more than Porcello’s overslot signing bonus. The Indians would be much better served taking “his” money and investing it in the draft.
I became a Bobby V fan for life when after being tossed from a game as the Mets manager, he snuck back into the dugout with his disguise of glasses and a fake nose.
A Royal Valentine?
Too Hallmark for my taste…
uhh…marco…valentine made $4 million in japan last year…the average manager in baseball, even excluding Torre’s $5 million is $1.22 million. if you want to use replacement player values for a manager, he’d have to make a one win difference over your generic AAA manager to be worth it
oh…and i meant to add that $4 million is significantly less than Porcello money
Richard Aronson …. I am trying to read your posts, but all I see is:
WAHHHH, WAHHHH, WAHHHH, WAHHHH, WAHHHH
Give it a rest. Broxton blew it last night.
The Tigers did this kind of thing when they signed Ivan Rodriguez. After he was traded away last year, people in Detroit lauded Pudge for bringing credibility back to the Tigers. I think prior to Pudge, the Tigers decided to spend money but couldn’t lure anyone there (especially after Juan Gone’s disastrous tour of duty there in ‘00). I recall them trying in vain to get Derek Lowe in ‘05, I believe. But Pudge apparently changed all that.
Could work with KC. KC right now is not a place players go to unless they have no other choice. Bobby V could possibly change that.
Interesting video up on thehardballtimes.com:
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/shysterball/article/did-mariano-rivera-throw-a-spitball/#comments
Of course you all realize that you can NOT judge a manager, or a Major League ball club, by wins and losses alone. Oh no. You must: Trust. The. Process.
The buzz is that the three finalists for the Cleveland job are Valentine, Acta, and Fryman. Valentine would be the best candidate for the job out of the three. I think a lot of people here would prefer Fryman because they liked him as a player, however, he only has two (short) seasons experience as a manager. I’d love to have him manage the Indians in a few more years. As for Acta, well, we’ve seen what he can do with a club that has limited talent. But I’m a Cleveland fan–we’re used to getting other teams’ crumbs. (Yes, I’m talking to you, Eric Mangini.)
Do you think when Chip Carry’s done calling a game, he just gets up and says, “All right. Good job everybody!” Or do you think he buries his head in his hands and waits for everyone to leave. Wow, did he blow another call last night!
uhh…patrick…as long as we’re being snarky and condecending, Porcello’s signing bonus *was* less than $4M. And why would you “exclude” Torre’s in the average?
In any case, I don’t care if it’s $3M or $1M difference – for a team fire selling top players to make ends meet, they need every penny they can muster for the draft, beacuse it’s their only hope of being competitive.
Bobby V. would never take it, Joe. The Royals just don’t have the offensive players to compete. Sparky Anderson would look at their line-up and retire. Far too many turds, far too few stars.
I kind of get why Jerry Manuel gets a free pass on the 70-win season (heck, only Daniel Murphy, Luis Castillo and David Wright even managed 400 plate appearances this year), but Bobby V would be a fantastic fit for Mets. He knows the pressure of NY, did well with what I would judge as less talent than they have right now, and from what I’ve been reading the fans are actually pining for him.
The Mets have bigger problems (health, what the heck to do at 1B… every starting pitcher not named Johan… every outfielder not named Beltran… relatedly, the fact they are putting faith in Jeff Francouer… David Wright’s power outage… finding the world’s best sports psychologist for Oliver Perez, etc.) but I think hiring Bobby V would not only be a smart baseball move but would also give a fan base that’s been abused by the team the past few years a jolt of excitement (and God forbid the Yankees win the championship this year). I wonder if the Mets would think about bring back Pedro as well.
And really, if the Mets came calling, there’s no way Bobby V goes to Cleveland, right? Nothing against Cleveland (my dad loves his Indians) but Los Mets seem like a better situation to jump back into MLB.
But no matter what happens, there’s no way Bobby V manages the Royals. What a crazy fit that would be. He’d be wearing a paper bag over his head as a joke by midseason.
[...] Bobby V, anyone? “A few years ago, I pitched hard for Bobby Valentine to become the manager of the Kansas City Royals. I felt — and feel to this day — that he would be the PERFECT Royals manager. Here’s a team that has less money and fewer resources. For most people around baseball, the Royals are utterly irrelevant. Bobby V. would make the Royals matter. And, I suspect, he’d help them win too. [...] Now, the news: Bobby V is a finalist to be the manager of the Cleveland Indians. Well, that would be good too.” [Joe Posnanski] [...]
Justyo @20. That’s why Bobby V would be a good addition, because guys like him would never take the job. That’s the whole problem with the Royals. Nobody wants to go there. Going back to the Tigers example, they landed Pudge Rodriguez in ‘05 because they offered him 4 years. Nobody else wanted to give him that. Then they signed Magglio Ordonez for 5 years, $75 mil, with 2 option years that would bring the total to $105 million. He was available because he had a serious leg injury the previous year and nobody else wanted to take the risk on a long term contract. After ‘05, they signed Kenny Rogers, another player nobody wanted because of his age and his tendency to put the beat-down on camera guys. Detroit was a place nobody wanted to go, but the Tigers got it done by overpaying for damaged goods. Bobby V would take the Royals job, I’m sure, so long as he was paid enough for a long enough time, and so long as the Royals FO assured him they would commit to spending some money on free agents. The problem is the Royals won’t do either of those things, and that’s why he would never go to the Royals.
marco….the indians arent selling off players bc they cant make ends meet. theyre trading players b/c they wont be around when the team is competitive so trading them is the smart thing to do.
and i excluded Torre b/c he’s an outlier, so, include him if you want, it helps my argument.
and porcello got over $7 million in guarantees…i dont know why you wouldnt count his guaranteed money.
Would never happen. KC’s a great place but it’s beneath guys like that, and not just because of the team’s level.
Valentine’s major influence was Lasorda and Lasorda’s, though he never played for him, was Leo Durocher (that’s why Tommy wore #2). Here’s what Durocher said in “Nice Guys Finish Last” about being offered a job managing the KC A’s about 50 years ago:
“Charley Finley called one morning to offer me a 3-year contract. The Athletics were playing the Yankees at Kansas City that night, and all Finley wanted me to do was hop right on a plane so that I could sign and be introduced to the press before the game started. Kansas City? What the hell was I going to do in Kansas City? I tried to be a little more diplomatic than that about it, but when Finley refused to believe that I was turning him down I brought the conversation to an end by saying, ‘If I want a steak that badly, Mr. Finley, I’ll send for it.’”
Are you saying Valentine has intangibles?
When you have a chance to hire “one of the best baseball minds of his generation” you take it. That would be Trey Hillman not Bobby V.
Bobby V would be a good sign for a team. Instant interest in the ballclub from the media, and by all accounts seems like a pretty solid manager.
He would never do something like start a pitcher who historically can’t get lefties out against a lineup full of elite left handed bats in an elimination game, or start Ronnie Belliard over Orlando Hudson, or leadoff with Rafael Furcal, or any of those things. Can’t really think of any elite managers who would do that, though…unless I’m forgetting someone. Help me out here.
Cleveland hired Acta.
Cardinals’ job might become open one of these days though.
Spud @ #29.
Yeah, when Pujols leaves and LaRussa bails with him to avoid the risk of looking bad.