Bobby Valentine Out of the Running as Fish Skipper?

Bobby Valentine may or may not be in or out of consideration to land or not even interview for the position of manager of the Florida Marlins. 

Now that we've cleared that up... According to multiple reports, Valentine, who seemed a shoo-in for the position as of about 24 seconds after the firing of Fredi Gonzalez, now may be completely out of the running as a candidate to manage the Fish.

Valentine was supposed to interview with the Marlins Friday, but for an unknown reason those plans changed and the interview never took place. According to Valentine, a formal interview has not even been scheduled.

The Marlins have not commented on the reports negotiations have broken down, but naturally, everybody and their cleaning lady has a theory as to why it may have happened. Those theories range from Loria's fear of ruining his friendship with Valentine, to a snag involving Bobby's contract with ESPN, to a delay tactic which would allow Edwin Rodriguez to manage the Puerto Rico series, to Valentine's distaste for being handed the pieces to a sub-.500 team, yet being expected to win the World Series, "or else."

According to FishStripe's own sources, however, the negotiations broke down after the Marlins bullpen--one of the worst in the entire league--blew yet another game Sunday afternoon, bringing the Marlins losing skid to four. Frustrated that his club is flailing despite being "well positioned to make the playoffs," and clearly having "all the ammunition [it] needs," Loria blamed Valentine for the loss and fired him preemptively, saying only, "we're going in a different direction."

Yes, and that direction would be south.