2009 in Review: A Manager’s Season

[An MCOA post] What I’m interested in, when talking about managers, are the various things they do over the course of a season which have real and large effects on team wins – building bullpens and platoons, evaluating and developing young players, evaluating injured and aging players, and integrating both groups into the team – rather than tactics and lineup order.  On the Red Sox, we know that these choices are not made by Terry Francona alone, but that front office folks are involved in all larger issues of roster management, and John Farrell has a lot to do with the bullpens, in particular.  I think, though, that Francona should be evaluated based on the whole – he probably does hold a veto on most of these decisions if he absolutely disagrees, and he’s the man in the clubhouse telling the players what he needs them to do.  I’ve selected out several key problems that Francona had to resolve over the course of the season.  These were – the bullpen, the back of the rotation, ...