October 05, 2008
Loving Francona
Daniel Drezner disputes the argument of Dan Shaughnessy and Jack Curry that Red Sox fans don't appreciate Terry Francona as a manager:
As a Red Sox fan who talks to other Sox fans, I have rarely, if ever, heard an unkind word directed at Francona during his tenure as manager here. In fact, most Sox fans think Francona excels at the three biggest challenges a Red Sox manager faces: a) keeping the players on the same page; b) handling the media; c) never panicking during the season.
If anything, it's the national media -- I'm looking at you, BBWAA -- that underrates Francona. Consider that he's never won Manager of the Year. In the miracle year of 2004, he finished fifth in the voting, receiving zero first-place ballots. In 2005, he managed to get a team without a true #1 or #2 starter and no established closer into the postseason and finished sixth in the voting, receiving zero first-place ballots. Last year, despite helming the team with the best record, he finished fourth in the voting and received zero first-place ballots. Oh, and he's not going to win it this year, either -- Joe Maddon will.
If the Red Sox win another World Series this year, shouldn't everyone hold Francona in the same high regard we hold Joe Torre? I'd argue at this point Terry manages the personnel as well as Joe, and might even manage the actual game better.
Posted by David Pinto at
10:46 AM
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Management
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not only would a lot of us take the opportunity to prevent him from paying for a meal, i think there are a bunch of us here in boston who worry about him and his health as much if not more than josh beckett's.
I don't think there's any doubt that Francoma is a better tactical manager than Torre; it's a pretty low bar to get over. Torre's skillset is managing the press and player personalities; he's below average with bullpens and handling young players.
Yeah, I also think that the "might even manage the actual game better" construction is silly. I don't think that they're even comparable as tactical managers.
Francona leaving rookie Masterson in for 2nd inning to give up Figgins triple in 2nd game shows again how questionable Francona's pitching decisions are. Besides Paplebon, Francona had Lopez & Delcarman in bullpen to start that inning. Francona once left M. Clement in for 8 runs each in less than 3 innings in back to back games. He also let Wakefield completely blow a 7 run lead in 04 WS opener. This year he let a knuckleball rookie in 1st MLB game blow almost all of a 10 run lead.
He reminds me of Bobby Cox when the Braves used to be good. He figures they have a good team, they have a plan they're going to follow and they stick to the script. There's nothing spectacular in that but it's worked twice in 4 yrs. I'd say now with most of the '04 nutjobs replaced by mostly young guys he deserves a lot of credit for helping the team transistion but other than that he's FranComa.
