Clay Buchholz walking off the mound after surrendering an early home run to Eric Chavez on Friday against the Yankees. During the Sox’ five-game losing streak, the entire pitching staff (especially the bullpen) have been inconsistent and given the team little chance to win games.
Through 14 games of the 2012 MLB season, the Boston Red Sox are 4-10. Not bad, but awfully similar to the 2-10 start the team stumbled out to last year. And with new manager Bobby Valentine at the helm, Sox fans don’t seem to be too willing to support a poor season from this team. Especially after he called out the notoriously hard-working Kevin Youkilis for not working hard enough; Valentine has received boos since when going to the mound to make pitching changes at Fenway. Since those comments, the team has not won a game, and even Bobby Vee admitted that he and his players have “hit rock bottom.” Fans, as well as Valentine, want this to be turned around as soon as possible; the question is, do the players have the work ethic to get it figured out and pull themselves together?
Personally, I think they do. It’s too early on in the season, in my eyes, to worry about the Sox collapsing already; we’re not even 20 games into the regular season yet. Valentine still has time to bring his guys together and get them to bond. I may not have much prior knowledge on the managing abilities of Bobby Vee, but I feel as if he can turn this team around. I’m not sure why, but ever since his hard-nosed personality made its way into this locker room I decided that I would support the move until it proved completely idiotic. I’m not saying that it’s quite time to make a change up top, but I think some shaking up needs to occur.
Maybe it needs to be in the line-up; or, better yet, the bullpen. Wherever it’s done, shaking things up would serve to motivate players stepping in to new, different roles. There’s no reason that doing so couldn’t have a positive outcome. After all, it’s happened in the past: remember the Nomar trade? They don’t need to make a trade, as it is not that late in the season, but they could certainly use a line-up adjustment. If this tailspin were to continue in the coming months, a trade occurring would be much more likely; but for know, it seems rather unlikely to happen. Whatever the team ultimately decides to do, I hope it turns this team into a winner; if not, we’ll have to wait until the fall to see a good Boston team play again.
New England Sports React knows that you care about how your personal information is used and shared, and we take your privacy very seriously. Please read the following to learn more about our privacy policy. By visiting our website, you are accepting the practices outlined in this Privacy Policy.
This Privacy Policy covers New England Sports React's treatment of personal information that New England Sports React gathers when you are on the New England Sports React website and when you use New England Sports React services. This policy does not apply to the practices of third parties that New England Sports React does not own or control, or to individuals that New England Sports React does not employ or manage.
Information Collected by New England Sports React
We only collect personal information that is relevant to the purpose of our website. This information allows us to provide you with a customized and efficient experience. We do not process this information in a way that is incompatible with this objective. We collect the following types of information from our New England Sports React users:
1. Information You Provide to Us: We receive and store any information you enter on our website or provide to us in any other way. You can choose not to provide us with certain information, but then you may not be able to take advantage of many of our special features.
2. Automatic Information:
We receive and store certain types of information whenever you interact with us. New England Sports React and its authorized agents automatically receive and record certain "traffic data" on their server logs from your browser including your IP address, New England Sports React cookie information, and the page you requested. New England Sports React uses this traffic data to help diagnose problems with its servers, analyze trends and administer the website.
New England Sports React may collect and, on any page, display the total counts that page has been viewed.
Many companies offer programs that help you to visit websites anonymously. While New England Sports React will not be able to provide you with a personalized experience if we cannot recognize you, we want you to be aware that these programs are available.
E-mail Communications
New England Sports React is very concerned about your privacy and we will never provide your email address to a third party without your explicit permission, as detailed in the "Sharing Your Information" section below. New England Sports React may send out e-mails with New England Sports React-related news, products, offers, surveys or promotions.
Cookies
Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer's hard drive through your Web browser to enable our systems to recognize your browser and tell us how and when pages in our website are visited and by how many people. New England Sports React cookies do not collect personal information, and we do not combine information collected through cookies with other personal information to tell us who you are or what your screen name or e-mail address is.
The "help" portion of the toolbar on the majority of browsers will direct you on how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to command the browser to tell you when you receive a new cookie, or how to fully disable cookies. We recommend that you leave the cookies activated because cookies allow you to use some of New England Sports React's coolest features.
New England Sports React's advertising partners may place a cookie on your browser that makes it possible to collect anonymous non-personally identifiable information that ad delivery systems use to present more relevant ads. If you would prefer to opt-out of this standard practice, please visit our advertising partner Platform-A's privacy policy and opt-out page.
Sharing Your Information
Rest assured that we neither rent nor sell your personal information to anyone and that we will share your personal information only as described below.
New England Sports React Personnel: New England Sports React personnel and authorized consultants and/or contractors may have access to user information if necessary in the normal course of New England Sports React business.
Business Transfers: In some cases, we may choose to buy or sell assets. In these types of transactions, user information is typically one of the business assets that is transferred. Moreover, if New England Sports React, or substantially all of its assets, were acquired, user information would be one of the assets that is transferred.
Protection of New England Sports React and Others: We may release personal information when we believe in good faith that release is necessary to comply with a law; to enforce or apply our Terms of Use and other policies; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of New England Sports React, our employees, our users, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection and credit risk reduction.
Syndication: New England Sports React allows for the RSS syndication of all of its public content within the New England Sports React website.
With Your Consent: Except as noted above, we will contact you when your personal information is shared with third parties or used for a purpose incompatible with the purpose(s) for which it was originally collected, and you will be able to opt out to prevent the sharing of this information.
Children Under 18 Years of Age
You must be 13 years and older to register to use the New England Sports React website. As a result, New England Sports React does not specifically collect information about children. If we learn that New England Sports React has collected information from a child under the age of 13, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. We recommend that minors between the ages of 13 and 18 ask and receive their parents' permission before using New England Sports React or sending information about themselves or anyone else over the Internet.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
New England Sports React may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time, at its sole discretion. Use of information we collect now is subject to the Privacy Policy in effect at the time such information is used. If we make changes to the Privacy Policy, we will notify you by posting an announcement on the New England Sports React website so you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances if any, it is disclosed.
Conditions of Use
If you decide to visit New England Sports React website, your visit and any possible dispute over privacy is subject to this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use, including limitations on damages, arbitration of disputes, and application of California state law.
Effective Date of this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy is effective as of April 19, 2012 and last updated April 19, 2012.