Terry Francona is one of my favourite managers in major league baseball. He spent the 2004 – 2011 seasons in the Boston dugout, collecting two World Series championships along the way. He is funny with the media, and it was always great when he would get terse with a media member if they asked him a silly question. ‘Tito’, as he is nicknamed (a reference to his father), is well-liked just about everywhere he goes. Unfortunately, after the Red Sox’s collapse in September of 2011 (they went 7 – 20 and missed the playoffs by one game), Tito wasunceremoniously ousted by Red Sox management. To go with his firing, a horrible smear campaign was published in the local newspapers in which it was suggested that an addiction to pain medication affected his decision-making. The whole thing was ridiculous and a sad end to a wonderful period for the organization. He took a year off from managing, but then got back in the dugout in 2013 as the leader of the Cleveland Indians.
Since joining Cleveland, Francona has adjusted his managerial style from what it was during his time in Boston. Over his last three seasons he has incorporated many more small-ball tactics (e.g., sacrifice bunting) than he ever did in Boston. This is perplexing. He is certainly aware of the sabermetric research showing that such tactics are poor, so why would he change so abruptly? I explored this change in strategy at Beyond the Box Score this week and found that it looks like Francona is appropriately adjusting his style to the run environment and his team’s offensive capabilities. The run environment (runs per game; R/G) is an important piece of context for assessing the game. Two weeks ago I wrote about how low run environments can lead to more no-hitters. The run environment also has an effect of how bad small ball strategies are. While things like sacrifice bunts are generally bad for run production, the extent to which they are bad is actually smaller in lower run environments. Because Francona has managed Cleveland teams with much weaker offenses than he had in Boston, and managed them during a period of lower run scoring, his increased use of the sacrifice bunt actually makes some sense.
Head over to Beyond the Box Score to read the whole article: Terry Francona: Small-ball using, run environment chameleon.
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Update: Alex Speier, the excellent Red Sox beat writer for The Boston Globe, included my article in the Friday, September 18th edition of his 108 Stitches newsletter. That link may not take you to the relevant edition, so here is the cool part for me:
TITO CHANGES TACTICS: Interim Red Sox manager Torey Lovullo recently articulated his preference to limit the use of the sacrifice bunt. While Terry Francona used to express similar sentiments, his approach to the strategy has changed with a new franchise and an altered run-scoring environment, writes Chris Teeter for Beyond the Box Score.
Chris Teeter 
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