Look at Ray Ray Run

Hmm who knew he brought him in for a ground ball. Bad managers dont have valid reasons for decisions. Bringing covey in to get a ground ball was not a bad reason. *this does not mean Rick is a good manager but questioning this decision is just blah.

If the bad guys are so bad, he'll be pitching in after they blow the 4 run lead. Guys, coaches don't win and lose the vast majority of baseball games. Hitting coaches... jeeze dont even get me started. Next to impactless. If a hitting coach can turn around 1 hitter in a few year period he's worth it. The insistence on blaming coaches on this website is just maddening. Covey was clearly brought in to get a ground ball. It's not as if Rick just spun a wheel. It's not as if he had covey starting the inning..he brought him in for a specific reasons and his plus defensive 2nd baseman dropped an easy line drive. The Sox lost because the bullpen has been terrible. Not because of Rick renteria.

Eloy Jimenez does not lack bat speed.

Its April on a team trying to evaluate players. Your insistence on only pitching 2 relievers - the veterans - because winning is all that matters to you is short sighted and not how a rebuilding team should handle business. They are evaluating guys. Covey sucks, sure but he's on the team transitioning to reliever. He's a GROUND BALL pitcher with a heavy sinker and they neeDed a ground ball. It makes sense. Fact is he pitched the young guys that inning and they sucked. Getting mad at the manager for pitching guys available to him when his two best arms pitched 2 days in a row is crazy imo.

Lol frare threw 97 balls in a row and was lucky they swung.

Really? So you only pitch those guys when leading by a few late? Wont be pitching much I guess if you bring in your shit guys everytime you're down 1 or 2.

And every other reliever was awful also.

Why are people blaming renteria for using the arms in the bullpen lol? Who was he supposed to bring in. I would have probably stuck with fry but every pitcher sucking, once again, isnt the managers fault.

Yolmer is playing the worst baseball of his life. Amazing how bad that was.

Yoan with 2 strike hits left and rivht.

Nova is a quality major league pitcher.

Lol I blame Tim for caring about his kid there. Eloy gonna have to learn to truck through there. He covered the ground.

Worst. Player. In. Baseball.

Yeah, hitter profile definitely matters. Like Josh Donaldson saw more off speed pitches than the three hitters when they were batting him second. Just because you hit second doesn't mean you're guaranteed it, but because of the stolen base threat, the typical profile of a 2 hitter, and the threat of the hitter behind him they tend to see more. I find it interesting that Dave asked back then why more teams don't put a better hitter In the two hole and since then we have seen a mini evolution of this which has led the data to normalize a bit but in the case of someone like Palka (who's bad) hitting behind moncada (who is a SB threat) and in front of Abreu (who's good) I imagine he would see more fastballs despite his power but I dont think it really matters for him because he's bad.

Nah the article stated Latin manager who spoke Spanish. I was wrong and he was right. Won't be the last time I'm wrong or misinformed that's for sure.

I dont think I can post my entire database here, but the theory is as this. #2 hitters see more fastballs for a multitude of reasons. 1 being, the lead off spot has the most stolen base attempts than any other line up spot by nearly 100%. The threat of the stolen base leads to more fastballs seen for the #2 hitter. Two, people don't like walking a guy in front of a power hitter and two hitters tend to possess less power than others - in the past couple years though, this is changing as guys begin to put power hitters in that slot. Guys will less power see more fastballs - in general - than guys with less power. I tried searching out a publically accessible report on this but all I could find is a Cameron article in which he references my points above. Cameron discusses why hitting in front of a power hitter leads to more fastballs in this series if you read the other ones and the one I am linking https://blogs.fangraphs.com/2-hitters/

Well color me impressed and misinformed. Learn something knew everyday.

He's a special assistant to Friedman - he does not run the Dodgers farm system.

When he was hired, this was a fact. Since then, as has been pointed out - Davie was hired, as was Cora and this year Montoyo but at the time he was the only latin manager in baseball and that was just in 2017.

I understand your point completely, but command of off-speed stuff is frequently lesser than command of fastballs - there are obviously exceptions. And Palka isn't dangerous enough to avoid throwing him any pitch, so rather than walk a bad baseball player you may go with the pitch you have the most command with. Guys in front of good hitters factually see more fastballs. My issue with batting Palka second is he blows, and you're giving the second most at bats in the game to a guy who sucks.

Yes, but he's not a coach so that doesn't really matter. I speak Spanish too but I'm not a MLB manager so I thought that tidbit would be irrelevant to the thread jaja.

Yes, I should have said when he was hired. Other managers have now joined him.

As I said, I agree it means nothing in the W/L column but it's better than everyone hating each other I guess. Ventura did not have control of his locker room at all. He had his best player cutting up jerseys in the locker room before a game. He had the team ripping his decisions in the media. As a fan, that was more embarrassing and harder to watch than just sucking but liking each other. A good locker room is one of those things that may be able to help a really good team overcome some turbulence and struggles throughout the course of a year, but it has next to zero impact on a bad team.

A players production really says nothing about their comfort in a clubhouse. The White Sox have not had players speaking anonymously in a negative manner against the team. You don't hear of fights or mutiny in the locker room. These guys seem to really like each other - which doesn't really mean much, but it's better than a team that sucks and hate each other I guess. The players don't openly question his decisions either. To use an example; the White Sox players openly questioned Ventura and the organization, and were critical of both in the media. We haven't seen any signs of that with Rick.

You think Rick Renteria isn't good in the locker room? That's literally the only thing I think Rick is good at. He's the only latin/spanish speaking manager in baseball on a team full of Hispanics. Rick is a players coach. As for this angst about Yoan hitting first instead of second - it's pointless. Yoan will see just as many fastballs leading off as he will hitting second, and even if he attacks earlier in the count this year he'll always be a naturally patient hitter. He's attacking earlier in the count this year because he was TOO patient last year and MLB pitchers attacked him with the first pitch, but by years end he'll be top 50 in pitches/pa because that's who he naturally is. Walking is one of yoan's strengths - he's not going to suddenly become one of the most aggressive hitters in baseball. If Yoan has turned a corner this year, and has begun to figure it out, it won't matter if he hits first or second.