Francona Talks About Chasing Yankees
bats.blogs.nytimes.com
INDIANAPOLIS — Sometimes, Red Sox Manager Terry Francona must feel as if he sees the Yankees in his sleep. As Francona was answering questions about the Red Sox, he was inevitably asked about how arduous it would be for the Red Sox to try to overtake the defending champion Yankees in 2010.
“They got a couple of things that make life difficult for us,” Francona said Monday. “They have a lot of money and they have smart people running what they’re doing. So you have to kind of acknowledge that. They’re not going to go away. I hope they don’t get better.”
The Yankees had a major-league-best $201 million payroll last season, while the Red Sox’ payroll was $122 million. The Yankees have spoken internally about decreasing their payroll for next year, something that Francona said he did not believe would happen.
“But that’s not my business, either,” Francona said.
Francona noted how the Red Sox won 95 games and “it wasn’t even close to being good enough to win the division,” because the Yankees won 103 games. Red Sox fans probably do not want to hear Francona discuss the wild card before the 2010 season has even started, but he mentioned how the other path into the postseason was important.
“Our division is a killer,” Francona said. “We won 95 games. It’s not easy anywhere. But in our division, it’s harder than people realize.”
After the Red Sox beat the Yankees in the first nine games of the season, the Yankees were forced to explain why they could not defeat Boston. By the end of the season, however, the Red Sox were answering questions about trying to stop the Yankees. Those questions have continued into the off-season.
“Again, they have a lot of money and they have smart people running it,” Francona said. “That doesn’t bode well for everybody. We have really smart people, and I guess we have a lot of cash, probably not endless. But we have a good situation here. So rather than worry too much about the Yankees, we do our own stuff.” |
