I'm coming from the Cubs page here on SB Nation.  As you probably know we're looking for a manager and we have lots of debates about how the manager should use statistics to manage the team.
The reason that I am posting this is people bring up Francona's role on the Red Sox all the time.  Here's what I think: I remember reading somewhere that the reason Little got fired was because he left Pedro in despite the fact that the statistics showed that he loses his effectiveness after about 90 pitches, and thereby disregarding Epstein's instructions.  The way I remember it, Francona got  hired because he basically told Epstein that he would listen to his instructions and pay attention to them and Epstein pretty much handed him a binder of statistics to follow and Francona managed the games based on them and ended up winning the world series.

Can anybody confirm this for me?  Does anybody know where a source about this might be?
I think I'm probably right but maybe to a greater extreme than I think.