40 days
40 days until Spring Training begins. 73 days until the season opener against Detroit. 81 days until the home opener against Tampa.
That’s how long it will take until we see how the Red Sox do this season. Red Sox Nation will be excited to see how the team changed, how Ben Cherington and Bobby Valentine do, after Theo Epstein and Terry Francona left the club.
I dunno that much about Ben Cherington but the situation that will come up is comparable to the fate of Michael Rensing after succeeding Oliver Kahn as goalie for the FC Bayern Munich. Oliver Kahn was a goalie legend. People called him “Titan”. He played in 781 matches for Karlsruhe and Munich and played 86 games for Germany. He won the national championship eight times, the national cup six times, the UEFA Cup (Europa League) and the UEFA Champions League. He became the best goalkeeper of almost everything in his career. Then came Michael Rensing. Backup goalie, big prospect, had to wait forever until he moved up. In 2008/09 he became the #1. He played 37 games but at some point he got demoted to #2. In 2009/10 the new coach gave him a chance but he only made seven appearances.
Rensing was without a job for a half year, didn’t play for almost a year and then signed with Cologne where he became a great and #3 on the Goalie of the Year votings.
What I want to show is that it’s hard to fill successful people’s shoes. Rensing never was a bad goalie but couldn’t replace Kahn that suddenly. He got the chance in Cologne and is playing fabulous. Cherington has been with the Red Sox since 1999 and (I hope) had time to learn from Theo.
Bobby Valentine already has a good standing already but I bet once the Sox have a cold streak people will compare him to Tito. Or even now. I’ve heard friends mentioning that Valentine’s managing career hasn’t been that successful, not even close to Francona’s. Well, hold on. First of all it were the Rangers. From 1972 until 1985 they had five winning seasons. From 1986 until 1991 he had three winning seasons. Francona’s time in Philly didn’t include a winning season at all.
After a stop in Japan, where he did an excellent job, “Bobby V” joined the Mets and did good, even making it to the World Series against the Yankees in 2000.
Bobby Valentine and Ben Cherington deserve a chance.
Cherington worked on the roster trying to avoid the luxury tax and making room for a good rotation. Recently they traded SS Marco Scutaro to have some room for Roy Oswalt. I had to look him up as I’m not that much of a MLB expert and can’t keep track of all teams and players and what I saw wasn’t too bad. A career ERA of 3.21 and an average record of 16-10 looks good. His last season didn’t but maybe that was just an exception. He just needs to stay healthy. We also have other options regarding relievers and starters. Daniel Bard and Alfredo Aceves are still options for starters, although I think that Bard should stay as a reliever. Vincente Padilla might have a chance to get in the rotation. Andrew Bailey replaces Jonathan Papelbon and there are still a few more pitchers we can put in.
But who is gonna be on short? Scutaro’s backup, Jed Lowrie, got traded to the Houston Astros. That leaves us to Mike Aviles, Nick Punto and Julio Iglesias are options and should be given a chance.
Well, it’s still time until Spring Training begins… 40 days.
