Valentine on D&C: 'Haven't put it all together'

Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine joined the Dennis & Callahan show Wednesday morning, following Tuesday's loss to the Blue Jays that dropped the Sox to 1-4.

"We just haven't put it all together yet," Valentine said. "When we put it all together, I think we'll all be happy. That's what we're waiting for."

The interview turned contentious toward the end when Valentine was asked about criticism from Curt Schilling last month. The manager previously had dismissed the comments, telling reporters, "Consider the source." D&C pointed out that Valentine and Schilling were said to be friendly when they both worked for ESPN last year, and Schilling has a reputation as someone who understands the game.

"I think he knows a lot about baseball, and I did hang around with him a bit," Valentine said. "I don't think he knows anything about our team."

Valentine insisted, "It just wasn't credible for me," but when asked why, he let several seconds go by before ending the awkward silence by saying: "Next question, thank you."

Valentine sat struggling third baseman Kevin Youkilis in the third game of the season in favor of Nick Punto, but he didn't warn Youkilis ahead of time. The manager said it's too early to need to have that conversation with a player.

"I don't know if you do that the third game of the season," Valentine said. "Once you get into the swing of things and you have guys that are grinding it out five and six and seven days in a row, of course, you always talk with guys, and you say, 'It might be a good time for a blow here, or a good time to take a rest a day after tomorrow because we've got that left-hander and we'll give you two days in a row.' That's an easy conversation and I've always had them. This became a situation, the third game of the season, I think that's kind of a ridiculous conversation the third day of the season when you're trying to get everybody in the lineup."

The Sox were stung by the loss of closer Andrew Bailey to a thumb injury just before the start of the season.

"It's unsettling," Valentine acknowledged. "You like to have guys breathing easy when the season starts. I think it was just a little unsettling for the entire team. The offense didn't know how many runs they were going to have to score, and the bullpen was a little uneasy as to when they were going to come into the game and actually who was going to come in in different places. I would say it's unsettling and it takes a little time to figure out."

Valentine also was asked about Ozzie Guillen's situation in Miami, following the Marlins manager's announced five-game suspension for comments praising Cuban leader Fidel Castro that enraged Cuban exiles in South Florida.

"I hope he comes out of it OK," Valentine said, adding: "Ozzie and I have been friends for years and I'd hate to think that that's a big problem. But it looks like it is a big problem."

For a transcript of the conversation check the Full Count blog [1]. To hear the interview, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page [2]. For more Red Sox news, visit the team page at weei.com/redsox [3].