Red Sox Hire Cora

The Red Sox made if official, hiring Alex Cora as their new manager:

The Boston Red Sox have hired Houston Astros bench coach Alex Cora to be their new manager. The team made the announcement on Sunday, a day after Cora’s Astros reached the World Series.

Cora replaces John Farrell, who was fired this month despite winning back-to-back AL East titles. Farrell’s teams won the 2013 World Series, finished last twice and then in each of the past two years won the division but got eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

Cora was a middle infielder who didn’t hit. Teams gave him over 800 PA in the 1-2 table setter slots, and he posted a .277 OBA batting first, .282 batting second. His greatest success as a hitter was in the ninth hole. He posted a .352 OBP batting ninth in 640 PA. He would work well setting up power number two hitters in a number of lineups in use today. The difference makes me wonder if Cora was the type of hitter who adjusted his approach based on his lineup position. When he was batting ninth, nothing was expected of him, and he ended up hitting pretty well.

The Red Sox job is a pressure job. It’s nothing like batting ninth.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2xYiMN3