Author Topic: Francona to manage the Indians.  (Read 2636 times)

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Offline JCA-CrystalCity

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Re: Francona to manage the Indians.
« Reply #25: October 08, 2012, 11:10:13 AM »
White Sox edged them in '05, Red Sox in '07 came back from 3-1 down.  Francona did some smart things in that post-season, like swapping out Crisp for Ellsbury and not panicking and throwing guys on short rest when they were down to Cleveland.   

Indians ran into the problem a lot of mid market teams face.  They can contend for extended periods and even win if they evaluate their players properly, trade high for good value, and stay free from injuries.  Case in point is that 2007 team.  Sizemore's injury and "Fausto Carmona" (whatever his real name is) failure to follow on that year with quality really screwed them.  Both signed contracts that should have been team favorable but end up being a drag.  With the way they budget, even $10 - 15mm of deadwood hurt.   It hurt enough that they decided they could not retain CC, Lee, or Victor.  For Victor, at least they got one starting pitcher, but for CC, they misevaluated LaPorta as the prize and did not get much more, and the Lee deal, I don't think they got anything more useful than Lou Marson and Jason Donald :spaz: .

I'd love to see things start to click for Cleveland.  It's great when old baseball cities get back behind their teams and resume their strong competitive position rather than spin downwards.