Hittmens wrote:Doesn't help when half of your sp are hurt. Indians almost won because of Francona. Cubs won despite Madden. Hal wouldnt have screwed up as bad as Madden. Biggest Francona mistake was pulling Crisp and not having him bat at end of game.
Everyone (including me) seems to be doing a lot of second guessing of Joe Maddon’s moves in the World Series. Until Hittmens' comment, I had not seen anyone else questioning Terry Francona for a couple of questionable moves that came back to bite the Indians.
- I am convinced that bringing in Michael Martinez as a defensive replacement with the score tied is a bad move. With two outs and the tying run on base they would have been in much better shape with Coco Crisp (hitting .333 in 12 ABs with 2 doubles) at the plate.
- I also wonder about walking Rizzo, which I have not heard anyone mention. I understand that intentionally walking Rizzo is a no-brainer if you are tied in the bottom half of the 10th inning and one run beats you. I don’t think it’s automatically the right move in the top half of the 10th, though. Obviously, Rizzo scoring turned out to be the difference. I would be curious to see some sort of simulation regarding whether or not walking Rizzo is more likely to lead to the win.