Boston Red Sox: John Farrell no Manager of the Year
Is Boston Red Sox skipper John Farrell a Manager of the Year candidate? Not to me. He has made too many in-game mistakes that may hurt in playoffs.
Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell is on the receiving end of the discussion that he deserves the American League Manager of the Year Award. No doubt I will most certainly be receiving my Nobel Prize in Chemistry based on that C- grade back in high school.
Farrell getting such recognition certainly diminishes the award as much as Rafael Palmeiro receiving a Gold Glove for his grand total of 28 games played at the first base position in 1999.
Farrell has accomplished much with Boston and that is undeniable since the team won their division. Farrell has been that route before with the 2013 squad that captured 97 regular season wins and finished off the season with a World Series title. The team had finished dead last under the strange meanderings of Bobby Valentine in 2012, but Farrell did not win the award for the remarkable turnaround.
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The Red Sox have had two disastrous seasons, so the accomplishment of this season gets attention, but management also brought in two key ingredients. The first was David Price – one of the more notable talents in the pitching world defined as starters with a subset known as “ace.” The second addition was Craig Kimbrel to solidify the bullpen. Several other players have enjoyed remarkable seasons and a player of note is certainly enjoying a fond goodbye.
The manager often get too little credit and too much blame, but do they cost games? Yes – most certainly – especially with questionable in-game decisions that cause bleeding of the scalp from excessive head scratching over moves that have giant question marks attached. That has been the dead weight with Farrell all season. This is not new territory. Casey Stengel was classified as a “push button manager,” but Casey still had to push the right buttons. Farrell falls short in button pushing.
Getting back to the losing games, one need go no further than the Steven Wright pinch-running situation. This was a bonehead move that made even Grady Little seem to be sagacious by comparison. If any lifeline existed for this blunder it was the sudden surprise and remarkable surfacing of Clay Buchholz into a dependable starter. That gem was also matched by Eduardo Rodriguez, who upon his return from Pawtucket exile has shown just what one and all expected prior to a disastrous spring knee injury.
The manager still makes the moves and I will grudgingly give Farrell full credit for providing perceptive and bold leadership in September. When it counted most both Farrell and the team responded to the challenge and the icing was a nice 11-game win streak that sent the nearest competitors reeling. That, however, is not enough to sway my perception of Farrell.
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The strength of Farrell is well noted in his ability to keep the team under control. If there is any form of internal issues they have not surfaced and probably do not exist. Media in Boston is skillful at perceiving any possible dysfunction and rooting it out for public consumption. Hasn’t happened.
The real key to the pitching may actually be a shift that happened a few months back when Brian Bannister was anointed as assistant pitching coach. Bannister had a rather interesting title previous to that appointment serving as Director of Pitching Analysis. Bannister is a well know advocate of the application of advanced metrics to pitching, but application means little without the knowledge to correct the flaws the metric may detect. Bannister has that.
Farrell also has a successful bench coach in Torey Lovullo, who took over for Farrell in 2015 and had the team playing above .500. So, at least in my prejudiced view, a set of circumstances exist that have aided Farrell’s leadership.
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Farrell will be noted in the voting as he deserves some recognition, but not the overall award. As the playoffs approach my concerns will be management of the bullpen and in-game decision – both have been well-documented problems during the season. Farrell is certainly not Bill Belichick, who out coaches’ rivals as Farrell will not out manage rivals. Farrell is competent, but I have no illusions this is a great manager and maybe – to some – not even a good manager.