American League Manager of the Year - Terry Francona

Selecting one Major League manager over another is truly a subjective enterprise. How do you measure managers? I have tried over the course of this site's history to try to figure out such a system. It does not work. I have looked at Pythagorean Win-Loss figures. I have looked at other models and methods of measuring a manager. Nothing solid comes from the exercises. How can John Farrell be a terrible manager in Toronto and then great in Boston? Were the Yankees lucky to win as many games with their talent or did Joe Girardi do a masterful job? There really is no way to quantify it. And yet, there is this award given to managers every year. So our job as baseball writers is to figure it out...somehow.

There are no shortage of candidates in the American League. You have the aforementioned Girardi and Farrell. You have Terry Francona, who, in his first year, got the Indians into the post season and won 92 games. You have Bob Melvin of the Oakland A's. You have Joe Maddon and Ron Washington and Jim Leyland. All of these managers had teams that performed admirably and most at least gave their teams a shot at the post season.

I have pluses and minuses for each one. Jim Leyland, for example, refuses to join the 21st Century game and only finished a game above the Indians, a team they thrashed in head-to-head competition. Joe Girardi did seem to get the most out of his awful, injury-riddled and aging team. He is the master of bullpen manipulation. But at the same time, he stuck with guys too long like Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay. Some will argue that he had nobody else. There is always somebody else.

Francona's team was terrible against the Tigers. Joe Maddon is the master of the metrics and for motivating his team (or so we are told). But he gets too cute at times and moves too many players around too often. Ron Washington gets criticized often for his love of the bunt and other on-field decisions. The Red Sox should have won even more than 97 games with their run differential. There are hardly clear-cut answers here. But somebody has to win.

I have boiled down my three choices to Terry Francona, John Farrell and Bob Melvin.

Melvin's team, the A's, proved that last year was not a fluke. They finished dead on with their run differential. They should have won 96 games and they won 96 games. They also had three awful teams in their division that they played nineteen times a piece in the Mariners, Angels and Astros.

Melvin got the nod last year because his team was considered a surprise. They were not a surprise this year. Does that rule him out? It shouldn't.  But again, I am rattled a bit by the competition in his division. Even the Rangers were not as strong as past years.

John Farrell certainly got rid of the bad mojo left behind by Bobby Valentine. With a few exceptions, his team performed brilliantly and stayed relatively healthy. He caught a break when his first two choices for closers came up lame and Uehara became the best relief pitcher in the American League. I cannot get beyond the fact that with the Red Sox scoring so much and pitching so well, their Pythagorean win-loss record was 100 wins and they won 97. And how could he go from being so terrible in Toronto to being so good in Boston?

There was that record against the Tigers. But Francona did finish one game behind the Tigers and won 92 games. According to their run differential, they should have won 90. So that is a plus. Then, Francona also had 38 games against the Twins and the White Sox which was a similar argument against Melvin.

But my choice comes down to Francona. Again, I would not argue if any of these guys won because it is so subjective. My final reason for picking Terry Francona is that he won 92 games despite an offense that finished eighth out of fifteen AL teams in OPS and seventh in pitching ERA. In other words, his team won with less talent than the Red Sox, the A's and the Tigers. And unlike Farrell, Francona's track record speaks for itself.

Here is my final (yes, subjective) list (I would fire the last six):

1. Terry Francona
2. Bob Melvin
3. John Farrell
4. Joe Girardi
5. Joe Maddon
6. Jim Leyland
7. Buck Showalter
8. Ron Washington
9. Bo Porter
10. Ned Yost
11. Mike Scioscia
12. Ron Gardenhire
13. Eric Wedge
14. John Gibbons
15. Robin Ventura

The Real Reasons Behind Terry Francona's Failure

Twitter is abuzz about Terry "Tito" Francona's future with the Boston Red Sox. Speculation abounds ever since Ken Rosenthal of CBS Sports tweeted his bombshell about Francona possibly being done with his current employers. There has been talk about the clubhouse and lack of leadership and all of that stuff that comes only in retrospect of a major team collapse. Talented and smart people are weighing in but they all have it wrong. This Fan knows exactly what went wrong with the Boston Red Sox and these are the following reasons behind Terry Fancona's failure:

1. Francona gave up chewing tobacco. Having that wad in his mouth made him more ornery and scary to his players. Chewing gum or spitting sunflower seeds doesn't quite have the same effect.
2. Tito stopped wearing a regulation uniform. Face it, the guy looked like a bum in the dugout. His mistake was thinking this lack of protocol worked for Bill Belichick and it would work for him. But every time he told a player what to do, they mistook him for a clubhouse runner.
3. Francona didn't insist on keeping Heidi Watney off the field. Of course his players would turn into "me first" players. They all wanted to be interviewed by Watney after the game. Wouldn't you?
4. The manager didn't put his foot down when the Red Sox introduced those red home uniform shirts. Hey, man, if you mess with tradition, it will burn you. You'd never see the Yankees out of pinstripes at home would you?
5. Francona employed too many short players. Heck, they had seven player on their roster under six feet tall. And their second baseman can't even reach the phone book on the top shelf.
6. He allowed David Ortiz to roam the streets looking for hugs. That took some of the competitive edge off the big guy. Even this writer didn't hate him any more.
7. Francona allowed Epstein to get rid of all those egocentric iconoclasts like Curt Schilling, Manny Ramirez and Kevin Millar. You need those kinds of guys for clubhouse chemistry. Right?
8. The manager signed off as good ideas hiring that pitcher from Japan and that other one from the Angels.
9. Tito didn't allow Josh Beckett to pitch with a bloody sock. Instead, he told him to hold the ball for three minutes between pitches so that his team became used to nap times during the game.
10. Francona is to blame that Curt Young went from being the brilliant pitching coach of the Oakland A's to the total idiot that he was coaching the pitchers in Boston. Call it the Leo Mazzone affect.
11. Tito didn't buy his notebooks from W.B. Mason.
12. His first baseman's team last year lost their playoff bid on the last day of the season. The guy brought that mojo to his new team and Tito let it happen.
13. Francona is brutal on the health of his right fielders. There was Nixon and then Drew. Drove both of those guys to their deaths.
14. Tito employed two catchers with last names impossible to spell. While he should have been thinking game strategy before the game, he would spend fifteen minutes of important time writing their names down on the line up card.
15. Francona totally ruined that guy the Red Sox got to play left field. Hey, the guy was a pretty good player before Francona got a hold of him.
16. He found Afredo Aceves so versatile that the pitcher had to clean the clubhouse and line up everyone's sunflower seeds before the game. One man can't do everything.
17. He had a 68 year old knuckleball pitcher that wasn't good enough for the bullpen nor the starting rotation. But even he was better than John Lackey.

And so you can see that all this debate about why Francona is losing his job is just plain spitting into the wind. As you can see from the above list, the guy definitely deserves to lose his job. After all, Jim Riggleman can be had much cheaper anyway.

The Boston Red Sox Are Just Plain Smart

While the Yankees made inking Joe Girardi for a multi-year deal (what was the rush?) a priority and Jeter their number two priority, and while the Tampa Bay Rays are figuring out how to stay competitive while slashing payroll, the Boston Red Sox made one of the wisest moves of the off season by signing Curt Young as their new pitching coach. Young will replace John Farrell, who left the Red Sox organization to manage the Toronto Blue Jays.

Both the Yankees and the Red Sox needed pitching coaches. The Yankees have fired Dave Eiland. Curt Young was the best candidate on the market after Oakland inexplicably allowed Young to walk by not increasing their offer to him beyond a year. The Red Sox and Terry Francona knew what they wanted and Young was the top of their list. While the Yankees were splitting attention on other things, the Red Sox pounced and got their man.

Curt Young should be perfect for the Red Sox, a team that will sink or swim with its home grown pitching talent. Lester, Bard, Buchholtz and others will benefit from Young's resume, which can be summed up with Anderson, Braden and the young Oakland A's pitching staff. Young would also be a good guy to get Beckett back on track and would have the type of resume that could make Lackey even better.

Francona is thrilled of course, and who could blame him. He himself alludes to the smartness of the Red Sox' move: “We really caught a break here. We got a really good pitching coach. I’m excited for that. I’m pleased because our expectations are always high, and we got a really good guy for the job.”


It really is no break when the Red Sox management has their heads in the game more than anybody else. Love them or hate them, the Red Sox are really, really smart.

The Astros Make a Solid Choice

From this Fan's perspective, the Astros dodged a bullet by losing out on the Manny Acta sweepstakes (for gosh sakes) and today named Brad Mills, Boston's bench coach for the last six years, as their new manager. For the story, click here.

Here is why the Fan likes this move: First, the Astros get someone who has been a part of a winning culture...ahem...unlike the guy that got away. Second, Mills has had a front row seat to one of the best managers in the business for six years. Francona is solid. He knows how to face pressure. He knows how to handle the media and he knows how to handle his players. And apparently, he knows how to delegate, a secret every good manager in any business, needs to have.

Francona's words speak for themselves: "I have given Brad more responsibility than I have ever seen a bench coach have. He totally runs spring training and he handles all the communication with the players." That my friends, is high praise. The best thing a manager does is give his charges the opportunity to succeed and have enough personal confidence to have his under-managers grow in their responsibilities.

The only question that remains is if Mills will have enough clout to help turn the Astros organization into one that mirrors Boston's. You may love them or you may hate them, but there is no smarter organization that Boston's. They just get it. Does that mean that everything always falls into place? Well, 2009 proves that it doesn't. But if you run your organization correctly, you never fall into the depths of hell and stay competitive throughout. And that's all a fan base can really ask for: a realistic chance to compete every year.