Winning the Central division without your closer and 1st baseman is a big accomplishment and Ron Gardenhire is not a bad choice for AL manager of the year.
But staying in the race with almost everyone injured I think is a bigger one. I really thought Terry Francona was going to win manager of the year.
the Bleacher report is angrier than me and gives a bit more detail:
By the end of the year, about two-thirds of the everyday starting lineup was made up of minor league journeymen, young kids, and fill ins. Names like Daniel Nava, Bill Hall, Ryan Kalish, and Darnell McDonald quickly became household names.
This, coupled with inconsistencies from the starting rotation (John Lackey, Josh Beckett, and Daisuke Matsuzaka never quite put it together), and one of the worst bullpens in baseball (4.24 ERA, 12th in the AL) might lead fans to think that they had a very poor season.
But they didn’t. They went 89-73 (.549)
To put this in perspective, the Sox won one less regular season game than the AL Champion Texas Rangers, and three less games than the NL Champion San Francisco Giants.
Injuries to key players + inconsistent pitching + a poor bullpen + playing the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays eighteen or so times a year shouldn’t equal 89 wins. But it did. Terry Francona made it happen.
Well Yeah but you it’s not as if during his seven years and two world series wins he didn’t get consideration in the past, oh wait:
You might think that a manager with a resume like Francona might be a valid candidate for the AL Manager of the Year. Yet, this is not so. In his seven years with the team, Tito has never won the award, nor has he ever finished above fourth place.
In fact, he’s never even received a single, solitary first place vote.
The masses of Massachusetts choosing to inflict the democrats on the state again, that tragic, but Terry Francona never EVER getting a first place vote for manager of the year by a group of people that write about baseball for a living. That’s a TRAVESTY.
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