Yesterday, John Farrell Said Dustin Pedroia Would've Been In The Lineup If The Game Hadn't Been Rained Out. Not In Lineup Tonight.
I feel like hating on the manager is often just the trendy thing to do when you’re a baseball fan. If you question the decision-making of the person who’s in charge of your favorite baseball team, then that just creates the idea that you’re smarter than the person whose job it is to run a professional baseball team to somebody who doesn’t know any better.
Now, don’t get me wrong, John Farrell has deserved a fair share of the shit that he’s gotten from Red Sox fans and media alike over the last couple of years, but I honestly haven’t had too much of a problem with him this season. That being said, you can always count on him to say stupid things when he’s not doing stupid things. And I joke about it because that’s just how bad the Red Sox’ reputation has gotten in terms of diagnosing injuries, like when Dave Dombrowksi said that there was nothing on Jackie Bradley’s MRI that would indicate that he’d need the disabled list, and then he went on the disabled list the next day.
Yesterday, the Red Sox and Yankees were rained out at Fenway Park, but before the game, Farrell told reporters that Dustin Pedroia would’ve been in the lineup had the game not been rained out. Pedroia, of course, was injured after getting spiked by Manny Machado in Baltimore this past Friday.
I joked that Farrell saying that Pedroia would’ve been in the lineup had there been a game means that he’s going to miss the rest of the season. Well, it might not be the rest of the season, but he’s not in there tonight, just one day after Farrell told us that he was good enough to be back in there for the first time since the injury.
I can see how it might possibly be interpreted this way, so let me be clear that this is not me saying that Pedroia is soft for being able to play one day and now the next day, he can’t, even though nothing happened in between those two points. Anyone who thinks that Pedroia is soft has never watched Pedroia play and knows nothing about his professional baseball career.
What I am doing, however, is just adding another note alongside all of the other examples of the Red Sox’ INCOMPETENCE when it comes to accurately diagnosing an injury, forecasting a return from an injury, or having the foresight to avoid acquiring a player who might be susceptible to injury.