Look at Ray Ray Run

The Rickettes are terrible people; I have no idea what I'd do if my favorite teams were owned by such heinous people. Jerry is a lot of things, but he's not a Rickette.

What an absurd take; I learned to hate the Cubs from my father and Uncle, who grew up in the 50's and 60's.

It hasn't amounted to anything, and I haven't actually looked fully at video etc, but I think Mazaras swing has been much better the past 10-14+ days. His rhythm as well. He has felt inbetween all year.

They both just faced the same opponent, and Reylo was better. This is the back up QB concept; always asking for the back up to someone who isn't good. I hope Stiever is awesome, but guy has thrown 3 2/3 inning above A ball and the Sox are in a pennant race. Reylo can be maddening, but he's also been a below avg MLB starter which is better than a lot of bad arms.

What has Stiever done to start over Lopez? Honest question. I like Stiever, but by no means has he earned anything over Lopez.

The no off days isn't great for the Sox starting pitching depth; or lack there of.

And managers really having no say over roster construction; for example, if he wanted to move on from Edwin it wouldn't be his choice and while he's there I'm sure there's directive to play him out of his struggles. Bottom line, the stuff fans think matters so much because they watch it just doesn't matter that much. A guy who is not the 100% right choice will still work out as the right decision 48-49% of the time. In some seasons, the non-optimal thing will actually work more than optimal one. The margins we are discussing on a bullpen move or lineup decision is like .01% each time. Sure over 162 games it might impact a game or two over a sample size 10,000 seasons big, but in reality each decisions right and wrong choice with professional ball players involved has a difference of expected outcome so small that b****ing about it and focusing on it as the main deciding factor in how good a manager is simply is wrong imo.

@Green Line, what do you think the Sox results/stats/record would be with a GOOD manager by your definition who made optimal moves?

How can someone who is getting results that are much better than projected outcomes be making awful decisions all year?

Renteria, to me from afar, seems like a heck of a guy. A guy who grinded the minor league managing jobs for 10 years - which is a shitttttttty career - to get a shot in the big leagues. Earned a chance with the Cubs after 15+ years coaching, then gets handed a shit roster and develops some young guys... nothing bad ever said about him or his clubhouse. Then the Cubs get good and can the guy. He then comes to the Sox, shit roster, never complains - no fighting in house, and everyone likes each other despite years of terrible terrible performance. Team gets good, guys swear by Ricky, he deflects all credit and all attention to the players; guy is literally crying after the Giolito no hitter because of how hard he knew Giolito fought and how much he loves his guys. People call me a Renteria stan, and while I hate plenty of decisions just like the rest of fans because I'm an "expert" too, you're right that I respect Renteria the coach and would have loved to play for a guy like him as all his players seem to love. That's what matters to most players, but I get why fans overlook something like that - which in baseball, means so much more than anything else.

Again, we all knew this before the season started. If people told you that on September 15th the Sox would have the 8th most WAR from SP and the 7th most from RP's you would have said no chance.

I know, it's insane! Brilliant business man who have built their empires on continuity in their professions - maintaining top employees and etc over searching for hopefully slightly better replacements - succumb to the peer pressure of their customers even though their customers peer pressure is the wrong move 99% of the time. It's baffling and something that has always infatuated me. The Bears fired LOVIE SMITH. He had won the 4th most games over a 10 year period in football. He had just won 10 games. The players loved him. He led a professional organization how you want it led. They fired him and replaced him repeatedly with lesser leaders. It's hilarious how often teams do that.

Yes, yes, yes. This is exactly statistical EVIDENCE that what fans view as optimum decision making means next to nothing. How can one argue with Renteria's bullpen or SP decisions? No one on this site think the White Sox have 4 good SP's, and plenty hate half of the bullpen... yet that unit has been one of the tops in baseball. Clearly the people who are responsible for putting them in positions to succeed have done that this year. I can be critical of things all I want, but the fact is the Sox have outperformed projections and etc. That is 99.9999999% the players themselves as it ALWAYS is, but that .0000001% is the coaching staff and they've done a terrific job. Everyone wants to fire Coop and Renteria and the PD department... and the Sox are sitting in 1st place, with the best team in the AL and at the start of this year 90% of this board was just HOPING to be competitive.

Yeah, I also find it ironic given how hard Steve has been on the negative fans and how much he's been telling them to enjoy the product you've been waiting for.

I agree with you by the way, and I certainly don't think it was a huge deal or a big lapse in judgement by the manager. I just thought the optimal move would be to play Dyson, but as I've always said there are personalities and etc involved. I'd imagine Eloy will want to stop embarrassing himself at some point though.

Why would McCann sub in? Who would Yolmer replace? What? Who is getting hurt? I'm being attacked for "defending" Renteria and "attacking" Renteria in the same thread. This is pretty hilarious. Gotta love the internet.

Fans are idiots for the most part Roache; I am in that group of idiots. Everyone has the answers from their couch. It's just the way sports and athletics make us feel. Reality is there's much more to many of these decisions and painting them all as black and white is fun for forums but not reality. In reality, turnover is really bad. The professional world teaches us that continuity drives success, but in sports that is ignored often because of fan and local pressures.

Bevington and it's not close.

I'm sorry that I made a post that you didn't understand. I'm sorry that I was "peddling an idea" by typing "With a 2 run lead you make the defensive sub. You dont manage scared." That was the only time I used the phrase or mentioned it. I also apologize that you somehow you can't figure out the logic behind; playing for the last three outs and not 3 potential outs that don't exist at the moment is not managing scared, but playing for 3 outs that only happen if you blow a lead is managing scared.

I'm arguing a manager who gets the most out of his team is in fact good at his job; even if you don't like his strategic decisions that have very little statistical impact on the team or the outcomes.

When you have a two run lead, and it's the 9th inning, your job is to get 3 outs. That's the only job you have left to do. Putting on the field the best unit to do that, is not managing scared. It's optimizing a lineup. Leaving a fielder in the game because you're scared you're going to give up the lead and might need his bat is managing scared. Putting a fielder into the game to maximize your chance to get the last three outs is managing smart. I honestly have never heard anyone in the game call a pinch runner or fielding sub managing scared. This is a first for me.

Rescue Ricky? Get a grip on yourself guy. Can I address a thread without you spewing your ignorant nonsense in rebuttal? Again, there are people in this thread defending the decision. I am not one of them. If you have a problem with them, go discuss it with them. Run along now.

No, leaving a batter in the game because you "might give up the lead and 2 runs in the 9th" is scared. Optimizing your defense at the risk of a bat that shouldn't come up in the 9th is managing to finish the game. How would playing for one more half inning be managing scared?

Ned. Yost. Won. A. Title. Please stop saying championship caliber manager. A manager's ability to get the most of his players is 10000% more valuable than any pitching decision or outfield swap.

There are actually people in this thread saying leaving Eloy out there was the right decision; I have said it was wrong and you don't manage scared and you're saying I'm defending the move. Instead of being an obsessive weirdo - obsessed with me an ricky apparently - maybe try giving the actual posts a read before responding.