This can serve as an example of where to draw the line between idiocy and trolling.
Bababooey=JDC

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For years now everyone has been saying Tim Anderson will never be good because he has the audacity to swing at pitches he wants to hit. Yet he keeps getting better and better.

At this point you'd be foolish to continue betting against him. He probably wont win a batting title again, but that may have less to do with him being worse and likely will have more to do with someone else from the field having a career year.

He's always had a knack of putting balls in play when he makes contact. He's not a "foul ball back, out of play" hitter. Eventually that starts translating into squaring them up. There won't be much regression.

We are discussing a baseball team on a message board. Fucking relax.

He'll be up during the year. Probably will come up in the June time frame or before.

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An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

Pair that skill with really good speed and its no mystery at all why he had the season he had. Players like him will always confound and irritate the statistical community that desperately want the game played a certain way and get very uneasy when players fuck with their gospel.

Two good posts above

What I love about Anderson is his balance at the plate. You have to have this kind of balance to make as much solid contact as he does even with pitches that are not strikes. Down the road, I can see this guy being a middle of the order hitter as he gains some more muscle weight. Same thing with Moncada. I see this guy as a legit 3 hole hitter. In my line-up, my best hitter hits 3rd and I think that Moncada will be the Sox best hitter for a long time. As I see it, this might even happen this season where Abreu drops down the 6th in the order Moncada hit 3rd when they bring Madrigal up and bats lead-off with Anderson hitting 2nd.

_________________
An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

The White Sox are on the right track. I like that they're not going over 4 year contracts on free agents. Building a nice group of players. Still, no one is the Rizzo, Bryant, Baez, Contrares, Lester class. A plus, no Theo or crazy Joe at the helm.

Moncada and Giolito are definitely in that class. Eloy and Robert looks like they are nearly certain to be joining them in the very near future.

Looking at the likely 26 man roster that they will field this coming season, I guess I understand why Renteria has been given the reins of this team, namely most of the good to great players are Hispanic.

I got to know Mark Salas in the late 90's and early 2000's pretty well. He owned a hitting and pitching complex out here where I used to teach young pitchers as well as have some guys on my travel teams take batting practice. This was the era of Ozzie, right? Mark, for those who didn't know, was the former bull-pen catcher of the Sox and knew Ozzie quite well.

So one night, Mark and I were talking and I asked Mark what he thought about Ozzie as a manager. He said that Ozzie was a "decent" manager in the "Hispanic" way. That, I confess, threw me. I never heard that before, especially from a guy who was a Hispanic former major leaguer himself. What he told me that evening was that Hispanic managers have to be harder on the Hispanic guys but also show them understanding and yeah, "love".

I think that looking back on it, that Salas was right and this pretty well explains Renteria being the manager of the White Sox. In fact, I think that the White Sox might be way ahead of the curve in terms of recruiting and being successful with Hispanic players. IF I am right, whoever was responsible for this deserves big time accolades.

So, bottom line, I think Renteria is still a bad game day manager. But, if he knows how to motivate the guys in the clubhouse, then so what. Go get em RICKEY!!

_________________
An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

Rick is a born and bred American.

I guess Herrera, Alonso, Castillo, and Rondon are all outliers?

Yes. And so is Mark Salas. That isn't my point. Renteria is Hispanic. He is fluent in Spanish. He is of Hispanic culture. I think that it plays well within Hispanic players on the team that their manager kind of understands their heritage, including their language.

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An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

What is your point?

_________________
An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

Giolito career 4.60 era. Way too early hof.

My point is, this Hispanic manger garbage, is just that. It sounds just like Dusty Baker's quote about big guys needed more time in the season to get loose. Are there caucasian managers?

As I've stated many times, I don't really think the manager matters at all as far as strategy is concerned. It's really just a matter of getting the guys to all pull on the same rope. It's not a skill so much as being the right guy in the right place at the right time. Maddon is a good example. He was a good manager for the Cub team in 2016, a not so good one for the Cub team in 2019. He didn't become a different guy. The dynamics changed.

As far as Hispanic players are concerned, I know a guy who has worked in baseball his entire life and is a highly respected guy. This is probably not something he would ever say at a conference because it could easily be taken the wrong way, but his contention is that it is difficult win in the big leagues by building a team where a Hispanic player(s) is the centerpiece.

And that isn't a statement regarding race/skin color. By "Hispanic" he isn't talking about the player's ancestry but rather where and how he learned the game. Nolan Arenado is obviously Hispanic by ethnicity but he came up in the system of American baseball. If the guy I'm talking about had the first pick of any player to start a team, I think Arenado may be his choice. He loves the guy.

No, what he means is that there is a completely different paradigm for guys who are trying to make it in Puerto Rico and especially in Cuba and the Dominican. It's necessarily a "me-first" game there. These young guys have limited opportunity to show scouts what they can do. They can't afford to do the "right things", like hitting behind the runner. They have to try to make a splash when they have the chance. Unfortunately, that leads to bad habits that they carry with them all the way to the majors.

My guy says that if you're going to win in the big leagues you need a guy like Rizzo, Pedroia, Granderson, Arenado, or Tim Anderson to lead the clubhouse. The players will pay attention to a guy like that way more than they will a manager.

With the White Sox, Abreu is an exception to the typical Cuban player. He can certainly be that guy that carries the weight in the clubhouse along with Anderson. I think that's probably why the Sox think they could handle taking on Puig.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Didn't a few people laugh at me, when I said that is why they overpaid for him?

To your overall point, I agree. Ricky is not the type of person to lead those types of guys, and he sucks at in game management. He literally has no idea how to manage a pitching staff.

Ricky= Caribbean Hispanic like Nardi=Australian. I'm going to have to assume Ricky is baseball-wise, more aligned with Carlton Fisk than Manny Ramirez.

It sure isn't "garbage". When virtually half of the team is Hispanic, it makes sense that a key coach or manager is Hispanic. I am talking about culture here. I think the fact that there is someone in the dugout that can talk directly to a player in the language that they are fluent in and not through an interpreter can mean something. I also think that we will see a lot more Hispanic coaches and managers occurring in baseball. When you take a look at baseball, there are helluva lot more Hispanic players on virtually all teams both in the majors and minor leagues. It just makes common sense to me, that eventually teams will hire coaches and managers with skills with this in mind.

_________________
An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

Yep. This isn't about race. It is about culture. I've seen it play with the games my team had against teams from South America and the Caribbean teams. Even at that age, you could tell how differently the game was played.

_________________
An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

First of all, they didn't "over-pay" for Abreu. If Abreu wasn't a legit #3 hitter and RBI machine and they paid that money to him, it would be different. The "mentorship" he does doesn't result in a paycheck in the millions.

I've said myself that Renteria, to me, is a bad game manager and I also think that he appears weak at managing a pitching staff. But there has to be another reason why he is the Sox manager and because of my conversation with Mark Salas, I think that it may be because he understands the way to interact with Hispanic players.

_________________
An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

Yeah. He was born in southern California and went to high school here. However, he also played baseball in Mexico and managed teams in the Mexican leagues He also managed the Mexican national team. You have to understand that when you do that, you may have a different perspective on players and how to manage them as a result.

_________________
An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

Renteria is Mexican and there are a lot of Mexicans in southern California who are closer in culture to the people in Mexico or south America than they are to whatever Fisk grew up with.

_________________
An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

Mexico has like 5 players in MLB. They like soccer. Dominica has over a hundred. Ricky was an American baseball player and is an American manager. Speaking spanish is obviously helpful but I don't get that Ricky is somehow tuned in to caribbean culture just because he's a Mexican-American. Now excuse me, I have to go put another shrimp on the barby.

Enjoy the shrimp

Mexico has a lot of interest in baseball and there eventually will be a major league team in Mexico City. YOu say that Renteria is an "American" manager. What does that mean to you? If I tell you that you can go a short way from San Diego and be in completely immersed in an all Mexican area, would you believe me? Same thing in LA. Also, the WAY OUT for many kids in both Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean for many is athletics. For some, it is baseball which is an individual sport contained in a team framework. So, when I talk about "culture", I am talking about baseball culture or how the game is played and managed in Hispanic areas or countries. It is different.

The other thing is that young players typically in these areas or countries are pretty poor They many times do not have good gloves or good bats. They also do not have access to nice fields to play on. Even in the United States in the areas where they live. In short, they have it much tougher than American kids. In my experience, for a lot of these kids, the families cannot afford the money that sports of all kinds require to have their kid play. Black kids in the US also face the same reality. Fields a lot of time aren't there for these guys to play on let alone coaches to teach them how to play.

Shrimp does sound good. My stomach has started to growl. Have to talk to my wife.

_________________
An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

By American, I mean American baseball. I thought that was obvious. Do you think Ricky was down in Mexico teaching the intensity of Dominican ball? It's influence on the American game is great but Ricky is along for the ride just like ever other American. He doesn't have special insight. Mark Salas doesn't have special insight. Ozzie had special insight.

I think it's worth pointing out that when we're talking about Dominican and Cuban players having a different approach to the game, that's just in general. Obviously, there are exceptions. And there are plenty of American players who are selfish and have bad habits too. And I wouldn't be as quick to excuse those guys as I am a guy who had to bust his ass to get out of a cane field.

To me, one of the best examples of different approaches to the game are two Americans who played on the same team- Jeter and A-Rod. The modern fan who is steeped in Moneyball ideology looks at Fangraphs or Baseball Reference and thinks that A-Rod was an obviously superior player. Every amateur GM thinks it was stupid that Jeter played short instead of A-Rod. But people in the game know better. Yeah, A-Rod had video game numbers, but Jeter was a winning-type ballplayer. The Yankees were smart enough to know which guy they wanted in the middle of the diamond.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Jeter was at short because he was Billy Baseball. Even ARod knew that Jeter was the glue that held the pinstripes on their uniforms.

There are plenty of Jeter haters out there. Like the guys who nicknamed him "Pastadiving" Jeter. For me, if you don't like Jeter, you don't like baseball.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don