Valentine: 'I'm not doing a good job'

NEW YORK -- Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine, asked for the criteria that go into a determination of whether or not a manager is doing a good job, declined to speak broadly on the topic. However, he took the line of inquiry as an opportunity to offer a very critical self-assessment.

"I only manage. I'm not going to assess managers. That's for all you guys and other people. That's not my job," said Valentine. "I'm not smart enough to give you a good answer on that. As far as my job’s concerned, whether I’m doing a good job, I’m not doing a good job. I didn’t get paid to do anything other than get to the playoffs, win a lot of games, be in the thick of things right down to the end, even be in first place. The team I’m managing is not there. My job has not been a good job, if I had to assess. But that’s not what I do. It's not my job."

While Valentine suggested that he is not meeting the expectations that greeted him upon his hiring as the Red Sox manager in December, he did offer a rebuttal to the claim by DH David Ortiz that second baseman Dustin Pedroia has been distracted on the field by the controversy surrounding the team.

"It looks like he's playing the best he's ever played, for this year. Maybe he got to the point where he just shut the whole [controversy] thing off," said Valentine, at a time when Pedroia is amidst a 12-game hitting streak during which he's hitting .426/.481/.660/1.140. "He's playing extremely well right now. He's an incredible player."

For complete Red Sox coverage, visit weei.com/redsox.