Kurkjian: Manager should choose coaches

ESPN's Tim Kurkjian appeared on Mut & Merloni on Thursday to talk about the issues surrounding Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine and pitchers Josh Beckett and Jon Lester.

Almost the entire Red Sox season has been wrought with rumors of clubhouse issues, and fingers have been pointed at Valentine. The manager has been accused of having a poor relationship with his coaches, who were selected by the team.

"I think [the organization] should have let him have his own coaches," Kurkjian said. "I'm saying any new manager should have a say on who his coaches are going to be. I firmly believe that. In 32 years of covering baseball, the coaches have to be your best friends in a lot of ways because when things go poorly you need somebody to turn to and discuss. I'm not sure that's the case in Boston. I'm not sure Bobby was as well equipped as he could have been."

Added Kurkjian: "I think way too much is being made over whether the coaches get along, or whether Bobby and the players get along as opposed to how poorly this team has played, how poorly it has pitched, especially from Beckett and Lester, and how many injuries it had. I'm not saying in a perfect world that this team would be 25 games over .500 and ahead of the Yankees. But this whole clubhouse problem -- which again, there is something to it to some degree -- to me the much bigger story is just how poorly this team has played. I don't think there is a direct connection that not everyone is really happy in there."

Beckett was the center of several trade rumors before Tuesday's trade deadline, but the Red Sox ended up keeping him.

"He's just not as hard a thrower as he used to be," the analyst said. "You guys have heard all this over the years, too many cutters, not enough cutters. I know a few people, again from a distance here, who'll tell you that he just doesn't look like the same killer competitor on the mound as that guy in 2003 that beat the Yankees with a shutout in Game 6 on short rest in the World Series [for the Marlins]. ... At some point all pitchers tend to get old and lose the stuff and that just may be the case with Josh Beckett. He's got two more months to show that he's a really good pitcher again."

On the other hand, the Red Sox were not interested in trading Lester, though the 28-year-old is a mere 5-8 with an ugly 5.49 ERA.

"Scouts have told me again, 'Too many cutters, he's not throwing the way he did three years ago as far as how he is using his stuff,' " Kurkjian said. "I'm just not sure he's throwing as hard as he did a few years ago, either, and again I've asked all sorts of people, 'What's going on with the Red Sox pitching?' and I don't really get a great answer from anybody on this, no answer that really explains all of this. ... It'd be one thing if this guy was old or he was hurt, but that's not the case at all with Jon Lester. It's just really time for him to pick it up. Again, they're not going anywhere if he and Beckett don't pick it up in a big way in the last two months."

To hear the interview, go to the Mut & Merloni audio on demand page. For more Red Sox news, visit the team page at weei.com/redsox.