Terry Francona?

Maybe it was like picking Dan Quayle as vice president. You knew nobody would go after the president if Quayle were waiting in the wings.

Former Philadelphia manager Terry Francona was picked as the Oakland Athletics' bench coach on Wednesday.

Francona's track record, well, it stinks.

2001 Special assistant to baseball operations for the Cleveland Indians
2000: Bench coach in Texas.
1997-2000: 285-363 overall record.
1996 Third-base coach for Detroit.
Managed Team USA to a silver medal in the 2001 Baseball World Cup in Taipei, Taiwan.

Bob Geren was the better choice. We can only hope Billy Beane is keeping Geren in Sacramento and plans to bring him up to the big club in 3 years when the latest batch of prospects comes through.

Right now Geren has a stock of organizational warriors and replacement level players to chide and coddle until the kids are ready to get out of single and double A.