The Devil His Due

The Devil His Due

Would I keep Rick Renteria as White Sox manager?  That’s a definite “maybe.”  On the one hand, I hate how he falls into gibber-speak with reporters.  GM Rick Hahn does it too, but I think it’s on purpose to confuse people.  With Renteria, it’s more a very mild case of Stengelese, though the party line always stands out.

Now, on the other hand, Renteria does things that point to him being a pretty savvy dude in the dugout.  No, I don’t mean who he tabs as his number-five starter or whatever he has Welington Castillo do; those are decisions dictated by the roster makeup, which falls on a certain general manager.  Rick Hahn, along with a questionable coaching staff, does not allow his manager to pull many rabbits out of his hat.

But what he can control, Renteria tries to control.  He won’t tolerate a player dogging it, and he’s not afraid to make moves, of which two stood out in last night’s win over the Twins at Target Field.  First, Renteria let starter Ivan Nova find his rhythm while weaker sorts might have been looking for a hook; three hitters into the game and Nova was all Dylan Covey, down by a score of 2-0.  In the olden days, we would’ve referred to Nova’s performance as pure “escape artist,” as evidenced by his allowing just those two runs on ten hits and a walk in 5.1 innings.  Then, with two runners on and one out in the sixth, Renteria went to his bullpen.  Yes, all managers go to their pens, but Renteria seems to have a good sense of when the time is right.

He also likes to bunt, much to the irritation of the analytics’ crowd, but not me.  Players bunt enough, they learn how to do it right, as evidenced by Yolmer Sanchez in the seventh inning.  Yolmer pulled off a two-strike squeeze to perfection.  Take that, Bill James.  According to the Sox/Pravda story, Sanchez has nine successful sacrifices this year, leading all MLB position players.  And the Sox got their first win in Minnesota in over a year by a 6-4 score.

I should also mention here that Jose Abreu hit a three-run homer in the third inning that in olden times we would have called “mammoth.” Apparently, the homer had an xBA of .970.  I have absolutely no idea what that means.  That Renteria is the skipper of the future?  Maybe.