Guardians rookie manager Steven Vogt has big shoes to fill in baseball lifer Terry Francona

So what is it that bothers you the most about the Guardians' new manager, Stephen Vogt? That you have never heard of him? That he's too young? That he has zero experience at being a manager at the major or minor league level? That he's never been on "Dancing with the Stars?" OK, here's my guess about what bothers Guardians fans the most about the Guardians' new manager: He's not Terry Francona. We've been spoiled by the last 11 years of Tito Time, by the winningest manager in franchise history who took his job exceedingly seriously but himself — not so much. He was just the right combination of managerial genius and motor scooter-riding hardball harlequin. Six trips to the postseason in 11 years, four division championships, three manager of the year awards and one American League pennant. That's a tough act to follow, so Godspeed, Stephen Vogt, who with Manny Acta are now the bookends to the Francona Era. It's official. That does not mean that local ball fans have to like it. Somebody had to follow Francona as the manager of a team that has gone 75 years without winning the World Series. Well, here he is. Whoever you, me or we were hoping they would hire as manager doesn't matter. They hired Vogt, who on Friday will be officially introduced to the Major Leagues' most tortured fanbase. Given that fact alone, on the surface this doesn't seem like the kind of job to entrust to a rookie manager — not just a rookie major league manager but a rookie manager, period. The last time the franchise hired a rookie manager was 2003, when Mark Shapiro favorite Eric Wedge was promoted from Triple-A Buffalo to manage the big-league club. It did not go well — at least not initially. In Wedge's first year, the team went 68-94,and finished in fourth place in the division, 22 games out of first. However, four years later, Wedge guided the team to within a win in Game 7 of the ALCS vs. Boston from reaching the World Series. Vogt will be inheriting a team that in 2022 came within one win over the Yankees of reaching the ALCS. That didn't happen and now Vogt has happened. For Guardians fans, saying goodbye to Francona was hard enough. Saying hello to a rookie manager is even harder. The first year for any manager — much less one who has never managed before at any level — can be, um, challenging. It can be especially challenging when the actions or, in this case, the inaction of ownership suggests it is more interested in making money than winning games. Despite such limitations, Francona and one of the most resourceful front offices in the game were able to pull a rabbit out of the hat more often than not. Indeed, the 2022 season was one of the most magical in franchise history. Maybe rookie manager Vogt will be able to do the same in his first year on the job. Maybe he won't. What's worrisome is that Francona had several years on the job before he became a hall of fame-caliber manager. Voigt is now officially a rookie manager in every sense of the phrase. That's not his fault. It's also not his fault that he's been hired to sustain and, ideally, build upon the success Francona made commonplace during his 11 years on the job. That, to these eyes, is the head-scratcher. (Or maybe the eye-scratcher?). It's also perhaps yet another indicator that the analytics boom is the engine driving the game today more than ever before. A game in which old-school managers are seemingly being marginalized. In recent years, we've seen veteran, proven, winning managers such as Joe Maddon, Joe Girardi, Buck Showalter and, yes, Francona, either walk away on their own or shown the door. Like it or not, young, pliable managers are becoming the norm. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's also not necessarily a good thing. Hopefully there's a middle ground to be struck that will accommodate both the new-breed of younger managers, but also those who are the keepers of the baseball flame. Where the changing of the guard is most jarring, however, is when — for whatever reason — an old-school baseball lifer is replaced by a new-school, analytics-schooled hard-drive disciple. There should be not just room for both but room for the theories and strategies of both, which they've accumulated during their time in the game, whether that's 10 years or 30 years. That's where we are now with the Guardians' changing of the guards. The fans knew what they had in Francona, a known and adored quantity delivered. The new guy is an unknown following a legend in a city that hasn't won a World Series in 75 years. Other than that. ... Contact Jim Ingraham at jingraham4@gmail.com.