Bobby V meets with Beckett, Buchholz, Pedroia & Ellsbury. Still no Crawford
Bobby Valentine took over the Red Sox managerial position with the intent to meet all his players before Spring Training. So far he’s living up to that promise and has even had a face to face meeting with Josh Beckett. Valentine was ecstatic over the meeting with the Texas native and all appears to be well after Valentine criticized Beckett during an ESPN telecast of Sunday Night Baseball.
“I did backflips,” said Valentine, courtesy of Scott Lauber at the Boston Herald. “For 21⁄2 hours, he came out, asking questions. It was real long. We missed a whole football game.”
Valentine even met with Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury and Clay Buchholz, amongst others, and so far all the meetings have been positive. But there is still one name missing from the list of players to successfully meet with…..Carl Crawford.
Twice this winter Valentine has been in the state of Texas and twice he’s reached out to Carl attempting to meet up with the all-star outfielder. But Valentine is sitting in an 0-2 hole. Crawford has yet to commit to a meeting with the new skipper and it appears as though one may not happen prior to spring training.
Valentine has gone public and said that getting Crawford to rebound from last season is a high priority for him. How is he supposed to have any chance of that if the million dollar baby won’t even meet with him?
Some say Crawford is still irritated by the comments Valentine made about his batting stance and linked that to his troubles last season. Others say Crawford is embarrassed by his sub par performance in 2011 after signing such a rich contract and isn’t ready to meet with Bobby V. Either way, he needs to get over it and act like a man.
Crawford did meet with hitting coach Dave Magadan, someone he is familiar with from last season. But Crawford needs to meet with Bobby V. It’s his voice that Carl is going to hear all season and if the two aren’t on the same page now, how in the world will Carl play for him for six months.
The fans of Boston are getting restless with Crawford even though it’s been one bad year. He’s not doing himself any favors with the fan base by continuing to stay in hibernation this off season. Last year was a bad one, for a lot of people. The organization as a whole is embarrassed by what happened in September, so Carl you’re not the only one who’s being scrutinized.
We need Crawford to return to his Tampa Bay Rays style of hitting and base stealing, so please Carl, let’s put all this behind us, meet with your new manager and let’s get ready to right the ship in 2012.
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