Francona Blew This One
I know we’re not going to win every game for the rest of the year, and that’s acceptable. What’s not acceptable is handing a win over to the other team, which is exactly what Terry Francona did last night.
When you have to defend a lineup by saying, “there are a lot of people who are going to be mad at me when they see this lineup”, that should tell you right there that you probably shouldn’t be putting that team on the field.
It’s understandable that Damon was not in the lineup as banged up as he is, and we pretty much knew that was going to be the case, and I can understand (but don’t agree with) why Tek wasn’t in there, after catching in that Texas heat followed by the late arrival in Baltimore. But, Tek was ready to go anyway and didn’t ask for time off, and there is really no excuse for Renteria and Manny not being in there.
Francona cited the very late arrival in Baltimore as his reasoning for giving so many regulars a night off. He also mentioned that right-handed hitters were batting something like 167 against Baltimore starter Daniel Cabrera. So what? Is he trying to tell me that Sox newcomer and left-handed hitter Alex Cora is going to have a better chance against Cabrera then Renteria would? Cora, a utility guy, did not play much in Cleveland and when he did he was not hitting much.
Okay, so he says he wants to load the lineup with lefties because of the problems righties have against Cabrera, so he puts Olerud in there at first base. Fine, but how does he justify taking the best right-handed hitter in the game out and moving Millar to left field? If you’re going to put in a left-handed bat in favor of a right-handed bat, shouldn’t you leave the better right-handed bat in the game?
He’s already forced to substitute his leadoff hitter for a guy who does not have a Major League at bat, and he’s decided to give his switch hitting catcher the night off in favor of the right-handed hitting catcher. He then decides to take out his number 2 hitter in favor of a light hitting utility man, and also takes out the best right-handed hitter in the game.
All of this, and he knows there’s a very good chance the weather is not going to let them finish the game. Cabrera may be tough on righties, but he also has serious control problems. If he ever gets that problem resolved, he’s going to be one nasty pitcher. But until then, our patient and good hitting lineup should be able to take advantage of those control problems and get some runs off of him as well as drive him out of the game early. The lineup that was out there last night was actually able to do the second part, but if we had a better lineup out there, we might have also been able to do the first, and most important part.
You have to assume that Wells is going to give up a couple of runs at least, and knowing that the weather is probably not going to hold, you have to put a lineup out there that is going to get you some runs early as well.
I don’t get it. Francona is going to get away with a lot of things from me and most other members of The Nation because he won the World Series last year, but this one just really doesn’t make any sense and is inexcusable. And if they had actually managed to pull it off last night (which was highly doubtful), I would have still written all of this only adding at the end that he was lucky to get away with one.
But he wasn’t lucky, which was the only way he was going to win that game last night.
On another note, also indirectly affecting the outcome last night, was the removal from the roster of Jay Payton. It was terrible timing as we really could have used him in place of Johnny but it was also understandable and had to be done. The guy was not happy here, he continued to let it be known and gripe about his playing time, and I think Francona did the right thing by getting him out of here.
About a month ago I noted (but didn’t write it here) that with the griping of Payton about playing time and the benching of Kapler in Japan, it probably wouldn’t be long before Kapler came back and replaced Payton on the roster. It looks like that may be happening very soon now.
Although I believe Payton is the better overall player, Kapler is a much better fit for this team. He accepted his role as a part time player, and he was good at it. We shouldn’t lose much with this move, and it will be nice to have him back.
When you have to defend a lineup by saying, “there are a lot of people who are going to be mad at me when they see this lineup”, that should tell you right there that you probably shouldn’t be putting that team on the field.
It’s understandable that Damon was not in the lineup as banged up as he is, and we pretty much knew that was going to be the case, and I can understand (but don’t agree with) why Tek wasn’t in there, after catching in that Texas heat followed by the late arrival in Baltimore. But, Tek was ready to go anyway and didn’t ask for time off, and there is really no excuse for Renteria and Manny not being in there.
Francona cited the very late arrival in Baltimore as his reasoning for giving so many regulars a night off. He also mentioned that right-handed hitters were batting something like 167 against Baltimore starter Daniel Cabrera. So what? Is he trying to tell me that Sox newcomer and left-handed hitter Alex Cora is going to have a better chance against Cabrera then Renteria would? Cora, a utility guy, did not play much in Cleveland and when he did he was not hitting much.
Okay, so he says he wants to load the lineup with lefties because of the problems righties have against Cabrera, so he puts Olerud in there at first base. Fine, but how does he justify taking the best right-handed hitter in the game out and moving Millar to left field? If you’re going to put in a left-handed bat in favor of a right-handed bat, shouldn’t you leave the better right-handed bat in the game?
He’s already forced to substitute his leadoff hitter for a guy who does not have a Major League at bat, and he’s decided to give his switch hitting catcher the night off in favor of the right-handed hitting catcher. He then decides to take out his number 2 hitter in favor of a light hitting utility man, and also takes out the best right-handed hitter in the game.
All of this, and he knows there’s a very good chance the weather is not going to let them finish the game. Cabrera may be tough on righties, but he also has serious control problems. If he ever gets that problem resolved, he’s going to be one nasty pitcher. But until then, our patient and good hitting lineup should be able to take advantage of those control problems and get some runs off of him as well as drive him out of the game early. The lineup that was out there last night was actually able to do the second part, but if we had a better lineup out there, we might have also been able to do the first, and most important part.
You have to assume that Wells is going to give up a couple of runs at least, and knowing that the weather is probably not going to hold, you have to put a lineup out there that is going to get you some runs early as well.
I don’t get it. Francona is going to get away with a lot of things from me and most other members of The Nation because he won the World Series last year, but this one just really doesn’t make any sense and is inexcusable. And if they had actually managed to pull it off last night (which was highly doubtful), I would have still written all of this only adding at the end that he was lucky to get away with one.
But he wasn’t lucky, which was the only way he was going to win that game last night.
On another note, also indirectly affecting the outcome last night, was the removal from the roster of Jay Payton. It was terrible timing as we really could have used him in place of Johnny but it was also understandable and had to be done. The guy was not happy here, he continued to let it be known and gripe about his playing time, and I think Francona did the right thing by getting him out of here.
About a month ago I noted (but didn’t write it here) that with the griping of Payton about playing time and the benching of Kapler in Japan, it probably wouldn’t be long before Kapler came back and replaced Payton on the roster. It looks like that may be happening very soon now.
Although I believe Payton is the better overall player, Kapler is a much better fit for this team. He accepted his role as a part time player, and he was good at it. We shouldn’t lose much with this move, and it will be nice to have him back.
posted by Bob at 7/08/2005 09:37:00 AM
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