Terry Francona returned to Boston in the opposing dugout tonight for the first time since being fired as the Red Sox manager following the 2011 season. Francona received a very warm welcome from the Fenway faithful when he was shown on the stadium's video screen, and the skipper received the best gift of all when his Indians beat up on the Sox in a 12-3 rout.
Here are some items from around the AL Central…
- The Indians are off to a great start under Francona but ESPN's Jim Bowden (Insider subscription required) thinks the team should still look to move some veterans in order to build for the future, rather than focusing on this season.
- Royals GM Dayton Moore isn't panicking about his team's recent slump, Bob Dutton of the Kansas City Star reports. Moore said the Royals weren't likely to send any of their struggling young hitters to Triple-A, and the GM didn't give any indication if Jeff Francoeur was nearing the end of his time with the team. “You’re always looking to improve your roster but it's still very early,” Moore said. “It’s the same team that we left spring training with….We’ve got (118) games left, we’ve got a lot of baseball left, and we’re going to remain patient with the guys we have. I like the potential of this group."
- White Sox trainer Herm Schneider might be the greatest asset in baseball that virtually nobody recognizes, writes Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports. Teams pay over $500MM to players on the disabled list every year, but Schneider has managed to keep his players exceptionally healthy over his 34 seasons in Chicago.
- In division news from earlier today, the White Sox placed Angel Sanchez on waivers, the Indians designated David Huff for assignment and MLBTR's Marc Hulet examined the Twins' top minor leaguers in the latest edition of the Prospect Rumor Roundup.
MLBTR's Zach Links also contributed to this post
