Bobby Valentine takes his managerial skills to fantasy baseball after being fired by the Red Sox. | Keith Allison/Flickr.com
Oh the disappointment.
The only word that can be used to describe the Bobby Valentine era in Boston, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ second half of the 2012 season, and the Los Angeles Dodgers after their big time waiver acquisitions of Adrian Gonzalez and Josh Beckett.
The Boston Red Sox entered the 2012 season with high hopes, a new manager and a clean slate. After their historic September collapse in 2011, the Sox had a chance to erase their nightmare finish in 2011 with a strong 2012 campaign.
Then it got worse.
Boston and their 173 million dollar payroll (third highest in the MLB) finished 69-93, good for last in the American League East and third worst in the American League. The 2012 season was their first season of 90 or more losses since 1966, and their worst season since 1965.
How could a team this talented struggle so mightily?
Two reasons: One, this team was devastated by injuries the entire year. The Sox were forced to use 56 different players in 2012, the most in MLB history. Two—and this one is blatantly obvious—was the hire of Bobby Valentine. He just wasn’t the right fit for this team, and everyone but Red Sox ownership knew it from the start.As for the Pittsburgh Pirates, they started off the year flying high and as of August 8th, were 63-47. They sat right in the thick of the National League playoff chase. Andrew McCutchen was having an MVP-caliber season, leading the majors with a .372 average. The Pirates starting pitching was just as impressive, getting quality start after quality start from A.J. Burnett and James McDonald. They even bolstered that rotation by adding Wandy Rodriguez at the trade deadline.
Then the Pirates’ ship began to sink.
A 16-36 finish pushed them out of playoff contention and right back into the obscurity they’ve become accustomed to. Even worse, the collapse caused them to finish with a 79-83 record. The Pirates have finished an active pro-sports-leading 20th straight losing season.
What the Pirates did so well for most of the season ultimately was what did them in. A team that relied heavily on the bat of McCutchen saw him struggle mightily over the season’s last two months as his average dipped almost 50 points during that span. AJ Burnett, who was so good over the first 4 months of the season, began to falter as well as the rest of the Pirates starting staff.
But what ultimately did the Pirates in was their lack of experience. Maybe next year they will have enough to get it done. They certainly have the talent, but it didn’t happen in 2012.Last but not least, the Los Angeles Dodgers round out the most disappointing MLB teams of 2012. After the midseason acquisitions of Shane Victorino and Hanley Ramirez, and the August waiver additions of Adrian Gonzalez and Josh Beckett, the Dodgers had a lineup chock full of MLB all-stars and MVP candidates. So when mid-August rolled around, the stretch run to the playoffs was soon to follow, right? Well, somehow it never happened. Adrian Gonzalez and Shane Victorino underperformed, the pitching staff suffered some big time injuries, and it just never came together for Magic Johnson’s Dodgers.
Talent was never an issue for the Red Sox, Pirates, or Dodgers this season, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find fans of these clubs who didn’t sum up 2012 without using the word “disappointment”.
Shawn Ferris can be reached at sferris@spartans.ut.edu
