BOSTONThe Red Sox made several roster moves late Saturday and Sunday. None of them impacted the bullpen. Could such a move or series of moves be in the near future?
After Saturdays ugly loss to the Yankees, general manager Ben Cherington said that was not the time to make moves. Its better to sleep on things before making a decision.
After Sundays series finale with the Yankees was postponed because of the weather, manager Bobby Valentine said he had not had that conversation with Cherington.
I think what all teams want, all players want is defined situations in the bullpen, Valentine said. Thats probably what Ben was talking about and were trying to establish that. I think players establish their roles You do that early in the season, unless you have it going into the season. Then you just write it in, This is the way we did it in the past, this is the way were going to do it this year. We dont have the luxury of past performance to designate these roles. So were working on it.
I dont know that theres changes right now that were ready to make. But were going to just try to be as good a team as we possibly could be, and build from within or make any changes that have to be made. I kind of like this team. I know when youre 4-10 its not easy to say that everything is going perfectly. But I think that the players are good players, high quality, who are going to win a lot of games.
In the aftermath of Saturdays debacle, with a 4-10 record, how does he stay confident?
Just knowing the guys, Valentine said. Ive been with them now for a couple months and just see the way they play the game of baseball and how they act. You know, the pitchers, we obviously are going to pitch better. I look around we have the fewest errors in baseball. We worked hard at fielding all spring. Thereve been a lot of balls in play, these guys have been out on the field as much as anyone because of the pitches that have been thrown and I think we have three or four errors four, actually the whole year.
"We have guys who are busting their butt on offense, who are scoring runs, swinging the bat well. Weve had some good starts and weve had some good relief appearances. When you see the good you think that it could be replicated. I dont think its a fluke.