Bob Christiansen
- 4th & Chalmers, a few years ago...Now? Weeki Wach
2016 White Sox
- Status
Joel Goodson
- how was I to know, she was with the Russians too?
Renteria: good move
Next, get Kenny to stop big footing Hahn.
Would be nice for baseball to be relevant again.
Next, get Kenny to stop big footing Hahn.
Would be nice for baseball to be relevant again.
I know it won't happen, but it is time for Kenny to go as well, imnsho
I don't know enough of Renteria to speak intelligently on him. However, I'll speak anyway
.
I don't like this move for two reasons.
1. He's been here already. He was part of this terrible season, and to me, he has the stench from that.
2. Williams, Hahn, and Reinsdorf hired him. That's a huge strike against him.
.I don't like this move for two reasons.
1. He's been here already. He was part of this terrible season, and to me, he has the stench from that.
2. Williams, Hahn, and Reinsdorf hired him. That's a huge strike against him.
HA. Hard to argue with that.
There's lots left to learn, but I'm mostly positive on him for a few reasons:
A. He overachieved with a talented, but very young roster on the north side (in an admittedly small sample size). I think Epstein and co. planned to retain him before Maddon came along. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong on those details.
B. He's a minority manager, and somehow the ONLY Latin American manager in the bigs. Good move there.
C. He can't possibly be a worse tactical manager than Robin.
I'm also wondering if their pool was limited because of an imminent rebuild. Not many (with experience) would want to sign on for such a task.
Just curious - would you show Cooper the door too?
There's actually been some rumors floating around on White Sox twitter since last week that he is indeed stepping away. That would be ideal.
Joel Goodson
- how was I to know, she was with the Russians too?
Great question.
Illiniwek06
- N of I-80
Don't tease
I hope you are correct, or rather, the rumors are correct.
+1.
ray:Cooper I'm unsure of. I'd need to know how much input he had on the handling of the bullpen and the bringing in of Shields.
The issue with the bench coach is that he is supposed to be "the right hand man" who is the sounding board and who is asked for advice. Robin's bullpen management and frankly all of his game management was pathetic. If Renteria was his advisor, I have to wonder what kind of advice he was giving.
If instead it was Cooper who was advising Robin on his handling of the bullpen, and if he told the front office that he could fix Shields, send him on his way.
Now, I voiced my concerns with Renteria a bit jokingly. I don't know enough about him. I do question his hiring based on what I have already described. However, I am actually inclined to believe this is a good hire. I base that only on the fact that Epstein hired him. Epstein understands statistics and knows how to run a club. Of course, there is the chance Epstein never viewed Renteria as the long term solution. Perhaps he hired him purely to nurture and develop young talent. It's possible Epstein hired him, when the Cubs had no chance, to develop talent but knowing that he wasn't the guy who had the right statistical slant to put a contending team in the best position to win.
Now, that's a presidential race type of rationalization. But, I have such distrust for our front office that that is where my mind goes immediately.
The Cubs were going to bring Renteria back and only let him go because Maddon became available. As far as I know, nobody with the Cubs ever had a negative thing to say about him.
His 73-89 record with the Cubs in 2014 doesn't look great, but consider: They were coming off a 66-96 season where a bunch of the young players seemingly regressed. They added no free agents of note. And they had a miserable 13-27 start, with a bunch of close losses while Arrieta was on the DL. From the time Arrieta was back in the starting rotation until they traded away Samardzija and Hammel, they went 25-19. They went into a tailspin without 2/5 of their starting pitching staff, but then Baez was called up and Hendricks became a starter full time, and they went 22-15 until both Rizzo and Castro got hurt at the end of the year.
This was a shallow, young team that literally nothing was expected of, and yet during the two stretches where Renteria had a full roster of MLB caliber players, they played pretty good baseball. I wouldn't call him a tactical genius by any means, but he'll make the right calls more often than not. He does a good job of putting young players in a position to succeed.
I expect the timing of the Sox move was to get Renteria in the fold before the offseason officially began and other teams had the chance to hire him.
For every James Shields, there's been 4 Miguel Gonzalez. I'm in the camp of keeping Coop for as long as he wants to stay.
I am not sure how accurate your math is. Maybe I'll go through the guys we've brought in during Coop's time in Chicago when I have the time. I think we all remember the successes and forget the "failures" because they should have not been so great anyway.
However, Shields is a much different story than Gonzalez. Shields cost money and has limited our flexibility this coming year. If Cooper said he could fix Shields, and the deal was made with that in mind, that's a huge problem. Coop needs to be more humble with regards to his ability.
Nevertheless, the more important issue IMO is the bullpen management. If Cooper was involved with that, it is a serious strike against him.
Illiniaaron
- Geneseo, IL
I'm a Cubs fan but I do follow the Sox to an extent. Does the hiring of Renteria really excite any Sox fans? Or is he just a place-holder until the Sox get good again, similar to his position with the Cubs? I thought Hahn's reasoning for not interviewing anyone else was fairly lame.
It would be hard to "excite" me with any managerial hire. There's not much to managing. The best managers are the one's that don't overthink it, ie Showalter last night.
It's hard to say for sure, but I doubt they'd be able to land a big fish (if there even are any) to manage had they conducted interviews. I always liked Dave Martinez, but the guy has interviewed for a bunch of head gigs and never gotten hired.
ILL in IA
- Iowa City
No manager will excite me right now, if they go the direction I think (and hope they will) the roster wont be ready to win, and the manager wont matter for a few years. (outside of helping develop young talent at the big league level).
I will also disagree that Renteria was a placeholder till the cubs got good. That was Dale Sveum. Theo has been pretty open that if Maddon didn't become available, Renteria is managing the cubs right now.
Have a cousin whipping through LA today from Chicagoland. Of course he's making me locate a Chicago bar to catch potential history. Sure, whatever, fine...but I'll be dusting this guy off for a wear.
Sorry Cuz, I'll never bring myself to root for that franchise.
Just texted a buddy this might be a Sox fan's (at least this Sox fan) worst nightmare, Cleveland v. Cubs in World Series. Ouch
Cub fans, this would be like a Sox-Cardinals World Series ( for most of you)
Joel Goodson
- how was I to know, she was with the Russians too?
Not averse to moving Sale, because the Sox are at least a couple seasons from contending. They'll have to get a king's ransom though. Sounds like Boston may back up the truck.
If the Cubs are involved, I would say start with Baez, but these playoffs are making that unlikely.
BananaShampoo
Captain 'Paign
- Phoenix, AZ
No true Cub fan would EVER root for the Cardinals. Under any circumstances.
Unfamiliar with the distinction. You mean, like, somebody whose lunch break from the attorney's office coincides with day games? Somebody who packs a spare pair of boat shoes so that they don't have to worry about getting Wrigley piss all over their good ones?
Illiniwek06
- N of I-80
- Status