Boston will finally let outfielder Carl Crawford get Tommy John surgery (to correct a chronic UCL tear in his left elbow) on Thursday, after hemming and hawing about it for way too long. The only reason I can surmise for why this didn't happen weeks ago is that the shameless owners and front office wanted to squeeze as much money as possible out of fans. They had to pretend that the playoffs were a real possibility. When they put Crawford on the shelf for 6-9 months, that is the proverbial white flag admitting what we've all known for months-this season is over.
Reports came out last weekend in New York that Crawford was going to have the surgery but the Red Sox denied it. Crawford has basically admitted he wasn't right, he didn't make his 2012 debut until July 16 due to wrist surgery over the winter and then he hurt his elbow while rehabbing in April. I actually feel bad for him since he seems like a honest player and he was never able to peform like himself to try and atone for his miserable first season in Boston.
The part that made this situation so frustrating was that Bobby Valentine said weeks ago that he needed special rest and couldn't make good throws from the outfield (hence taking him out late in close games). Yet Crawford appeared in last night's series finale in the Bronx. At some point, they should have cut their losses since waiting this long means he probably won't be ready for Opening Day 2013. Ironically, Crawford played pretty decent in 31 games: .282 batting average, .306 OBP, .479 SLG, 3 home runs, 19 RBIs, 23 runs, 10 doubles, 2 triples, 5 stolen bases.
If that wasn't enough, the Red Sox made another move that you could see coming for a long time: they fired manager Bobby Valentine's mortal enemy Bob McClure and promoted assistant pitching coach Randy Niemann to the head pitching coach position for the last 40 games. Haha I'm pretty sure no other team in MLB has an assistant pitching coach but that's beside the point.
The wheels have completely fallen off for Boston as they have lost 12 of their last 18 games to fall 13.5 games behind the Yankees in the AL East and 7.5 games back of the Orioles for the second AL wild card spot.
As everybody knows, the main catalyst of this trainwreck baseball team has been their awful starting rotation, headlined by Jon Lester (7-10, 5.03 ERA) and Josh Beckett (5-11, 5.23 ERA) The Red Sox' team ERA is 4.30 which is 11th in the AL heading into tonight's games and the starters ERA is 4.82, 5th-worst in MLB. This will be the fourth pitching coach in three years for the Red Sox which speaks to the lack of order in the foundation of the franchise.
The scary part is that this move indicates that Bobby V gets his way in a small sense. McClure wasn't his guy and during the season, there were reports that they didn't even talk to one another (don't ask me how that's possible). Niemann was the only coach that Valentine was able to bring in this offseason so there has to be a sense of loyalty for that. McClure had been the pitching coach for six seasons in Kansas City and Niemann was with the Mets organization for 24 seasons. I don't think pitching coaches mean much but when you hire them from shitty clubs like that, it should be no surprise when stuff like this flares up.
The Red Sox (59-63) will interrupt their regularly scheduled soap opera to actually play a game tomorrow night (7:10 p.m., NESN) as the Los Angeles Angels (62-60) come to Fenway for three games. Aaron Cook (3-6) takes on Ervin Santana (6-10) in the opener. Stay tuned tomorrow to see what other useless coach gets fired and which player elects to shut it down for the rest of the season (looking at you David Ortiz).
UPDATE 8/21: Daniel Nava returned to Boston today and he'll DH in tonight's lineup vs. the Angels. He replaces Crawford on the Red Sox roster. Also, Vicente Padilla was activated from the DL which meant Danny Valenica was sent to Pawtucket to make room for him.
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