The Red Sox extended Terry Francona’s contract through the 2008 season:
The Red Sox gave Francona a bonus for 2006; his salary in 2007 and 2008 will be $1.65 million and $1.85 million, respectively, ESPN’s Peter Gammons reported.
Francona’s done a good job of both managing the clubhouse and the game. He’s managed to let Manny be Manny without it causing rancour among the batters who do run out every ball. From what I’ve read and heard, he seems to use stats intelligently and effectively. Nice to see the Red Sox recognize his effectiveness.
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Francoma’s refusal to deploy Roberto Petagine and Kevin Youkilis in 2005 almost certainly allowed the Yankees to play post season baseball. However, that said, you’re right that he does a good job managing one of baseball’s more difficult personalities and he’s generally very good about deploying his team.
Yep, he does a pretty good job. The only faults I can see are his inability to manage a platoon situation effectively (but how many managers can do this?) and his refusal to play younger players over veteran, yet infinitely inferior, players.
Would playing Youkilis and Petagine over Millar and Olerud have made much of a difference? I think so.
But who wants to nitpick? Good signing.
I’m not sure Francona can be held accountable, or praised, for as many of those decisions as you guys think he should. I think, after the whole Grady Little Debacle, that Theo et al had a strong discussion with him in the interviewing process and made sure he was aware that the GM and owners would be making a lot of decisions like that.
I think you can give Francona credit for his rapport with the players. He’s a guy who you’ll never hear accused of “talking down” to people. Just a pretty charismatic guy.
It has been impressive, the job he’s done, considering he’s in one of the most media- and fan-criticized jobs on the planet. From a fan/media perspective, I always go back to the fact that we wanted him fired because he left the greatest pitcher in history in the most pressure-filled ballgame he’d ever played in – and this guy is someone who absolutely thrived on completely and utterly dominating his opponents. We didn’t know that management told him that under no circumstances was Pedro to pitch after #100. Grady got fired by management because he blatantly disobeyed them. He got fired by the fans and media for leaving his trust in, statistically, the greatest pitcher ever.
I don’t understand the Petagine thing, either. His stats suggest that if he ever got a chance he would put up good numbers – a good average, some power, lots of walks. But nobody’s ever given him a chance. I thought it would change last year with The Sox, but it didn’t. Maybe he has a bad attitude? He certainly needs to be on a team that doesn’t already have like 5 DHers.
Please stop making excuses for Grady Little. Yes, Pedro was the best pitcher at his disposal, and yes, it was a major pressure situation, something Pedro thrives on. But, he had NOTHING left. And, this was painfully obvious to EVERYONE watching the game. Everyone, except Grady Little.
I’d also like to point out that, if memory serves me, the Sox bullpen was lights out in the ’04 playoffs. There was no excuse for leaving Pedro in.