Nick Cafardo, respected Globe columnist, began his "On Baseball" column last Wednesday with the line "The Red Sox' John Farrell was as surely the AL Manager of the Year as the sky is blue." He referred, of course, to the 112-96 baseball writers' vote naming Terry Francona to the award.
Since the voting took place before the playoffs, let's examine a couple of the positives and negatives of both managers during the regular season. First, Farrell definitely had a better roster to work with. The Indians' opening day lineup had names like Jason Kipnis at second, Asdrubal Cabrera at short, Lonnie Chisenhall at third, and Drew Stubbs in right. The Sox, on the other hand, had men like Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia and Jon Lester- all former all-stars. Later in the year, David Ortiz, a DH headed for Cooperstown, joined the mix. Boston's top three starters- Lester, John Lackey, and Clay Buchholz (when healthy) were superior to the Indians' Justin Masterson, Ubaldo Jiminez, and Cory Kluber. Closer Chris Perez had a good year, but he was no Koji Uehara. Francona brought a 68-win team in 2012 to a 92-70 mark and a wild card spot. He was doing this with a payroll of $76 million. The nod here goes to Terry.
On Farrell's side, the Sox' former pitching coach had to deal with much more scrutiny. Under Bobby Valentine, the team had become a laughingstock, full of players who barely spoke to their manager, coaches, or even each other at times. It often appeared that the baseball field was the last place they wanted to be. They had finished 2012 with the worst Boston record since the notorious Billy Herman led them to 100 losses in 1965. Fans were expecting improvement, at least contending for a wild card spot. Though the attendance at Fenway dropped a bit, the park was still close to full in 2013. Fans and writers were ready to pounce on the new skipper if losses began adding up. In Cleveland, on the other hand, the Indians 42 times played before crowds of under 20,000. Unlike New England, baseball in the City by the Lake is hardly a religion.
What might have swing the pendulum in Francona's favor is the team's second half performance. On June 18, they stood at 35-35. In the 92 games that followed, their mark was 57-35 for a .619 percentage. They finished the year with ten straight wins. For a group that had collapsed in the second half of 2012, this was quite an achievement. Tito had put Indians baseball on the map again, similar to what Dick Williams had done in 1967. Though the Cleveland finish lacked the drama of the Impossible Dream, it certainly made people in baseball take notice. A squad which had not contended since 07 was suddenly a power in the AL Central Division.
My personal feeling is that by the end of the 2013 regular campaign, writers realized that the 2012 Sox had been a fluke- a talented team that had totally lost its way. In addition, Ben Cherington, voted Executive of the Year, brought in players who totally changed the team's attitude. Francona, on the other hand, seems to have gotten more out of less than any other league skipper. If I had a vote, I had given it to Terry, with Farrell just a hair behind.
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