Rick Renteria

[thomas35forever]

Rick Renteria officially lost me tonight. I know he lost a lot of people a lot sooner, but the seventh inning in a high leverage situation was not the time to test out Carlos Rodon. It may turn out to be the move that cost the Sox the division. Sadly, I don't have a lot of faith in Sox management to see Renteria as anyone other than the manager at the time the Sox got back to the playoffs, so I fully expect him for next season and possibly beyond.

Is there any way Renteria can get back on your good side, or has he lost you for good? At this point, it might take a pennant for me to become a fan of his again.

[voodoochile]

He's here this year and next minimum I figure so I will just wait and see. I don't control that anyway and ranting about it won't do anything but raise my blood pressure. I admit I thought the move to bring in Rodon instead of Bummer was an odd one. Sometimes you got to not follow the book and this was one of those situations.

[Nellie Fox]

I thought it was crazy to bring in Rodon; his first appearance back should have been a low-stress, bases empty situation. I was even more upset that they pitched to Ramirez. In that situation, with an open base, and the way he's been hitting, put him on or at least pitch around him. I was yelling that before the first pitch was thrown.

[DrCrawdad]

Why the heck do you bring in Rodon a career starting pitcher in with bases loaded when he hasn’t pitched in 2 months? 😡

Stone, Benetti, Ozzie, Frank, many Sox fans and me were surprised to stunned by Renteria’s decisions.

Fans, like me, can be fickle. But I have to wonder if Renteria has lost the team.

[MrX]

He's here this year and next minimum I figure so I will just wait and see. I don't control that anyway and ranting about it won't do anything but raise my blood pressure. I admit I thought the move to bring in Rodon instead of Bummer was an odd one. Sometimes you got to not follow the book and this was one of those situations.

His reasoning was just as stupid as the move. He said Rodon could face that situation in the playoffs and he wanted to see how he'd handle it.

When you're team is in a tailspin heading into the playoffs still fighting for positioning, that's not a great time to start experimenting,

[FourGoldGloves]

Stone, Benetti, Ozzie, Frank, many Sox fans and me were surprised to stunned by Renteria’s decisions.

I think I understand the logic of the Grand Strategy:

By clinching a playoff slot, the Sox have already accomplished all they need to have accomplished at this point. If you intend to win it all then where you are seeded only determines in what order you must beat the other contenders. If they had won the division, they might have been tempted to rest on their laurels and not be hungry enough to win the playoffs. Leading the Sox into the playoffs like whipped dogs with their tails between their legs ensures they have no laurels to rest on.

Not the strategy I would have chosen, but Renteria is the pro.

[Harwar]

I've been trying to ignore the fact that Ricky Renteria seemed to make questionable choices with the bullpen for quite some time now . but it's now turned into the,"in your face" type of blunders that are so glaringly ridiculous as to boggle the mind, and make you wonder if this guy is actually in way over his head . to even casual observers, judging by whats on my phone, it seems that it's fairly obvious that he is . we all know that JR won't fire him, so we are just stuck with him, to sink or swim . all i can say, is the guys better get ready to tread water.

[ChiTownTrojan]

His reasoning was just as stupid as the move. He said Rodon could face that situation in the playoffs and he wanted to see how he'd handle it.

When you're team is in a tailspin heading into the playoffs still fighting for positioning, that's not a great time to start experimenting,

Reasoning like this explains many of Renteria's questionable moves. He always values long term "wins" (player development, giving players experience in different situations, etc.) over short term goals like winning individual games. In some sense he has a point - the Sox already have the playoffs locked up, and I don't think seeding is really all that important without any byes this year. However it's painfully obvious to everyone that this team really needs a win to start to get some confidence back heading into the playoffs. That should have taken precedence over any other considerations. I expect this to change in the playoffs, but still maybe Renteria is so used to managing rebuilding teams that he doesn't know how to flip the switch to contention with his in-game decisions. I hope that's not the case, because the players do seem to like him and overall he has done a good job this season off the field.

Another related aspect is stubbornness. It's clear Renteria wants to win "his way." I don't doubt he has a plan, and maybe that plan is sound in a world where everything goes his way, but he doesn't seem willing to deviate from his plan when it's not working out and would rather take the whole ship down with him than adapt on the fly.

[ChiTownTrojan]

Another possible explanation for Renteria's decision: Bummer is a lock for the postseason roster. The only thing left for him to do is shake off the rust, which is best if he can do that in a clean inning. Rodon is on the bubble - he's got to go out and prove that he can step up in a big situation for him to be able to be relied on in the playoffs, otherwise he'll be staying home.

[Kobo]

Another possible explanation for Renteria's decision: Bummer is a lock for the postseason roster. The only thing left for him to do is shake off the rust, which is best if he can do that in a clean inning. Rodon is on the bubble - he's got to go out and prove that he can step up in a big situation for him to be able to be relied on in the playoffs, otherwise he'll be staying home.

Last night was not the night to test Carlos Rodon in a high leverage situation for a potential playoff spot. In fact, why are they even considering having a guy who has spent the majority of this 60 game season on the DL? I can understand Bummer and wanting Bummer to be on the playoff roster as his role is well defined. But Rodon's isn't. If they wanted to see what he has and how he might perform then he should have been named a starter for one of the games this weekend. But the organization decided to try and use him as a reliever and on top of that insert him into a situation he has no business being inserted into. That's not what good managers do. Good managers would have realized last night that their young team who has been struggling over the last week desperately needed a win and would have managed for the win. I said it last night and I'll say it again, Ricky managed the 7th like it was a ST game. It starts with bringing in Cordero to start the inning. Unacceptable at this point.

[Marqhead]

I like to give managers the benefit of the doubt as my general belief is they have a minor impact on the game and it's up to the players to perform. I also gave Ricky some extra slack because I wasn't expecting this to be a contending year (if it was a full season, I don't think the Sox would have made the playoffs.) But as we move from our rebuild towards our competitive window, it is clear that he should not be the one running the ship. Unfortunately we are stuck with him for at least next year, but I can only hope he's gone after that.

[A. Cavatica]

I like to give managers the benefit of the doubt as my general belief is they have a minor impact on the game and it's up to the players to perform. I also gave Ricky some extra slack because I wasn't expecting this to be a contending year (if it was a full season, I don't think the Sox would have made the playoffs.) But as we move from our rebuild towards our competitive window, it is clear that he should not be the one running the ship. Unfortunately we are stuck with him for at least next year, but I can only hope he's gone after that.

Why do you say we are stuck with him for next year? If he’s under contract, demote him to bench coach and let him look for other opportunities (as if).

[MrX]

Last night was not the night to test Carlos Rodon in a high leverage situation for a potential playoff spot. In fact, why are they even considering having a guy who has spent the majority of this 60 game season on the DL? I can understand Bummer and wanting Bummer to be on the playoff roster as his role is well defined. But Rodon's isn't. If they wanted to see what he has and how he might perform then he should have been named a starter for one of the games this weekend. But the organization decided to try and use him as a reliever and on top of that insert him into a situation he has no business being inserted into. That's not what good managers do. Good managers would have realized last night that their young team who has been struggling over the last week desperately needed a win and would have managed for the win. I said it last night and I'll say it again, Ricky managed the 7th like it was a ST game. It starts with bringing in Cordero to start the inning. Unacceptable at this point.

Yes, it's not time to experiment when at that point you had lost 5 of 6, are trying to hold onto second placee, and have the current weakest link in your rotation starting the next game. Like Ozzie said in the postgame, he managed last night like this was instructional league.

[KW1989]

I don't think he cares about winning the division. Which is disappointing, because I know that as fans WE care about it. But I really think Renteria is looking at things more along the lines of, the Postseason has been clinched, so now it's time to work out situational things that might factor in October--to see if Rodon can handle being in a high-leverage bullpen situation, for example.

It's not...the WORST strategy. I don't personally agree with doing it while the AL Central is winnable, but it's the reason why, when I'm coaching basketball, I'll do things like make my forwards run point guard in blowout games, just to get them the experience in case we ever find ourselves in a position where our guards are injured or in foul trouble in a competitive game.

If it pays off in October, and Rodon has to come out of the bullpen in a 15 inning game and shut things down, it might end up being worth it. Who knows.

[Dumpjerry]

This was Rodon's first time coming into a game from the Bullpen in 12 years, according to Andy and DJ last night.