Savin Hillbilly said:
Actually we've lost 32. 59 games into the season and we're 6.5 games back in the division, 4.5 in the WC. Point being the Sox haven't elevated themselves beyond a .500 team, despite getting an historically strong rookie debut from Rodriguez.
Anecdotally I'd say, Farrell isn't good at putting players in a position to succeed or in rescuing players from failure. That said he has limited resources to work with. Although he's got some say as to what those resources are.
Last night is a perfect case in point. Hanley gets injured and Farrell can sub either Runsey or De Aza. So he subs the defensively superior Runsey. Totally defensible. That leaves De Aza, Leon, and Bianchi (I think?) on the bench to PH or sub. So we get into the 8th. The bunt call is what it is. However, it's totally predictable that whatever happens, Britton's coming in. He is a lefty. The 39yr old Ortiz cannot hit lefties this year. While Ortiz has had historical success against Britton, it's not like he's owned the guy - and, at this point, 4 year old data may not apply. At this point De Aza seems a better bet and his couple years of success against lefties would seem to weigh more than Ortiz's. (And while the Orioles certainly have a book on him, it's not like they didn't have one on Ortiz.
If he had faith in Ortiz to hit, why not sub De Aza for Runsey? If not, why not De Aza for Ortiz? Perhaps De Aza was unavailable or something. (And it's a damn weak bench. Are we still carrying Bianchi? Why?)
But it's hard not to view this as Farrell not thinking one step ahead.
When you've got a powerhouse team, Tito/Farrell overall management is great. When the team is scrounging for wins, I don't think good press conference skills outweigh the ability to string back to back wins together. I'm not into sports psychology, but repeated failures can't be good for the individual players or for the team.