Championships since purchase by John Henry group: Red Sox 4 Yankees 1
The Red Sox are 8-1 in their last 9 postseason games against the Yankees.
I wouldn't put it that way.
1) I realize I do not know everything, and Cora has access to more info than I.
2) I'll never fully agree with anyone, and don't need to do so to "fully believe" in a baseball manager.
3) I may be the only poster who believes Cora is the best we ever had, so if I don't fully believe, I can probably still claim I "believe" in him more than anyone else here.
According to Pythagoras, the Sox are technically only 6 games behind the Yankees. I know that means nothing in terms of actual records, but don't kid yourself into thinking the Yankees are as great as their record says they are.
The Yankees still haven't won anything yet. I will probably have to concede the division to you at this point, but it ends there. The playoff results are far from being conceded.
Championships since purchase by John Henry group: Red Sox 4 Yankees 1
The Red Sox are 8-1 in their last 9 postseason games against the Yankees.
We are forgetting that Managers no longer have the sort of control over day to day decisions that they once had. The Spread Sheet boys have much to say about it now.
That said, from what I can see, I really don't have an issue with Cora. I would be willing to bet some of the in game decisions are coming right off some computer geek's data and forced on the Manager.
As for the pure rest days (not driven by a game matchup), that IS likely Cora and as much as they might frustrate us, how many key injuries to everyday players have we had in the last two years? Pearce, Moreland, Pedey, Holt this year....Pedey, Holt last year???? How important are any of those players? JD is about the only guy I can think of that is important to this team's efforts that has had some injury issues this year. I would hope Cora has learned his lesson about JD in any OF position that is a challenge, like ANY Fenway Park OF position for example.
The reason for the Pythagorean difference is simple. I’ve told you guys for years how to outperform your Pythagorean. Create a lockdown pen. Think about it. You’re gonna have beatdowns, you won’t win those. You’ll have games your are beating them down. You won’t lose those. Then there are the games in between. A good pen keeps you close in games you’re down by a run or two and locks down leads when you’re up a run or two. The Yanks pen this year is frickin legendary. Our overall might not be tops in the game since corpses like Brady Lail, Steven Tarpley and Joe Mantiply made appearances, but when the games are close, we unload multiple lights out relievers on the other squad. Heck, we’ve missed probably our best reliever in Betances and still dominate. The Sox have underperformed their Pythagorean because of their horrible pen.