Displaying items by tag: Terry Francona

In the heart of January, where the snow and wind nip the noses of everyone young and old, it was nice to talk baseball and the boys of summer. And for a good cause, to boot.

The WAKR Speaker Series brought the long-time voice of the Cleveland Indians, Tom Hamilton, to St. George Fellowship Center in Fairlawn for an hour-long sit-down on all things Tribe. Hosted by Sr. Vice President of Public Affairs, Bob DiBiasio, the conversation touched on the team itself to the hot stories going on around baseball. Hamilton, a Wisconsin native, talked about his rise to calling major league games, to recapping the last decade of Indians baseball, the hiring and impact of Terry Francona, to how the Tribe will look in the 2020 season.

Proceeds from this event benefitted the Salvation Army of Summit County. Major Stephen Stoops kicked off the broadcast with WAKR’s Ray Horner, and he discussed the outreach the local Salvation Army has in the Greater Akron community.

The entire broadcast has been made available below via SoundCloud.

On the All Star Game edition of the Sam and Brad Show Podcast, with Jasen Sokol.

Indians manager Tito Francona joined the show to talk all things All-Star and also talk about his ballclub as well. (22.3 seconds) 

ESPN MLB Analyst Buster Olney joined the fellas on site at Progressive Field to talk a little baseball ahead of tonight's Midsummer Classic.  (11:11) 

Since he’s been with the Indians, Terry Francona has seen nothing but success: two playoff appearances, two Manager of the Year awards, and four-straight winning seasons. As the 2017 season gets ramped up, he’s looking to extend all of those accolades.

Tito sat down with Ray Horner during Wahoo Week in Goodyear, Arizona, to not only talk about the current team, but also a little about him. Many years ago, Francona played with the Montreal Expos, and an injury to his knee paved the way for Tim “Rock” Raines to have a hall-of-fame career.

Horner and Francona also discussed other aspects of the game that have changed through expanded analytics, as well as the up-and-coming prospects in the organization, like Yandy Diaz.

Two days after losing the World Series to the Chicago Cubs, the Cleveland Indians are wasting no time in making moves.

And the Indians have exercised the two-year club option on manager Terry Francona, keeping the skipper through 2020.

"A really easy decision and actually something we had talked about a while ago," Antonetti said at the team's year-end wrapup press conference Friday at Progressive Field. "He's made a huge difference on our franchise, and having him going forward as a partner is something we're really excited about."

And also on board for another year is Carlos Santana...his 2017 option has been extended as well.

"I think his play speaks for itself, and the performance he had this year," Antonetti said, "both on the field, the mindset that he had, his team first approach, his willingness to do anything to help the team made the decision to exercise his option really easy for us as well."

Antonetti and general manager Mike Chernoff say that there's a range of emotions among the team, from pain from the loss ...to pride in the season.

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(Previous coverage) The Cleveland Indians have announced Friday that they have excercised the 2019 and 2020 club options on Manager Terry Francona and the 2017 club option on fristbaseman/DH Carlos Santana. 

The Indians are coming off of their first World Series appearance in 19 years. 

Details regarding today's moves are listed in the press release below: 

CLEVELAND, OH - The Cleveland Indians today announced the following roster moves relative to the 2016 Major League roster:

Exercised the 2019 and 2020 club options on Manager TERRY FRANCONA.

Exercised the 2017 club option on DH/1B CARLOS SANTANA. 

 

Francona, 57, recently guided Cleveland to its sixth American League pennant in 2016, compiling a regular season record of 94-67 (.584) followed by a postseason 10-5 mark.  During his four-year stint as Indians manager, the club has qualified for the postseason play two times and finished with a winning mark in each of those seasons.  He owns a 352-294 (.545) mark as Indians manager, the 6^th-highest winning pct. in the 116-year history of the franchise.  He is 8^th all-time in club history in managerial wins. He owns a 16-year career managerial mark of 1381-1209 (.533), the fifth-highest win total among active managers, and has led his clubs to 12 consecutive winning seasons.

 

Santana, 30, is coming off his best Major League season, hitting .259 (151-582) with 89 runs, 31 doubles, 3 triples, 34 home runs and 87 RBI in 158 games, collecting single-season career bests in homers, extra-bases hits (68), total bases (290), RBI, hits, OPS (.865) & runs.  He finished tied for the club lead in homers (T-14^th in the American League) and was 3rd in the A.L. in walks (99) and 8^th in on-base pct. (.366).  His 34 homers were the most by a Major League switch-hitter since 2011.  Over the last 15 games of the regular season he batted .411 (23-56) with 7 2B, 2 3B, 3 HR and 13 RBI.

The first ALCS in nine years for the Indians is set to kick off Friday, and this time, the Tribe has the home field advantage.

Terry Pluto, author and long-time columnist for the Akron Beacon Journal and now the Plain Dealer, joined the Ray Horner Morning Show to talk about this run from Terry Francona’s Indians. Pluto discussed Tito’s managerial style and how the players have come to embrace it. Though Francona may not show it publicly, Pluto believes beating his former team in the ALDS was huge.

Onto the ALCS, Pluto calls the Blue Jays a “strange” team, in that not many believed Toronto would get this far. The Plain Dealer writer said the strength of the Blue Jays was not necessarily their power hitting, but their pitching, which had a lower ERA than the Indians.