Thanks for that. Made for some interesting reading. Insight like this, however really points out how far-fetched the criticism of Francona as a tactician in the Series is:
Naquin is a poor center fielder who had a mess of a Game 6, but he does have a stronger arm than Davis, and who knows, maybe he makes the right read on that Contreras drive. The choice between those two players was a close one, and Francona shouldn’t come in for criticism for choosing Davis. Still, it might have cost him in the fourth inning. So what I'm hearing is that Naquin sucks but maybe in this instance, he wouldn't suck. Okay...and maybe he goes 5-5 with 11 RBIs too.
It's an easy call for me: a manager's job is to put his players and his team in the best position to win. Francona was a master, especially with his pitchers who were all lined up in game 7. To have made it this far with one bona-fide starter, a guy whose pitch count was deliberately kept down with game 7 in mind, was as good a shot as the Indians could have hoped for. Unfortunately, the players didn't perform as they had, or as was expected.
Maddon on the other hand, consistently put his players in situations built for failure. And the Cubs should never have been a single pitch away from losing game 7: that's what Maddon's tactics made possible. It's not that hard to analyze IMO.
