When Rich Renteria was announced as Cubs manager, I had no personal opinion about him. His name seemed vaguely familiar. At his first press conference, he reminded me of a jovial Lee Trevino.
Renteria had a marginal major league career for three teams. In 5 seasons, he played in only 184 games, hitting 4 HR, 41 RBI, .237 BA, 6 SB, a .975 career fielding percentage (at 4 total positions) but with a negative 0.5 WAR. He is the classic AAAA player.
There is no detriment to have a AAAA player become a team's manager. In fact, if he realizes what he could not do well in his own career, he may be able to understand the frustrations of young players when they hit their first set-backs. As a struggling player who did reach the majors, he has that life experience of what he had to do, how he had to train, and what he needed to do to stay in the majors. He should be able to cope with stress, since his career was basically the last bench player on the roster year after year.
Renteria being bilingual should help with the communication skills with players. I got the impression that with Sveum and Piniella, they would only speak to their players when they had something to say to them. Renteria seems like a guy who is more extroverted and conversational which could be a needed change of pace in the clubhouse.
But there are few key things I want to see from the new manager from Day One:
1. I want him to create a set line-up and hold fast to it. I don't want to see 110 different positional line-up cards next season. I don't want to see Castro batting 1st, 5th, 2nd and 4th in a week. Players are creatures of habit. A routine is important so that they don't have to overthink what they are supposed to do. A set batting order is an easy way organize the team and set individual expectations of each batter's role.
2. I want him to create a set bullpen order to finish games. Since today's modern game is adverse to starting pitchers completing games, let alone getting through the 7th inning stretch, I want him to communicate the bullpen roles clearly. Yes, he will have Veras as his closer. But he should also have a "spot" closer on days when Veras is not available or is ineffective. If this is the 8th inning bridge guy, fine. Or it could be what I call the "fireman" whose role is to put out bad situations in any inning (1st through extra innings). I also want a defined long reliever/spot starter who can go two innings or more. Villaneuva was close to that guy last season. If a starter only lasts 5 innings, I want the long reliever to take the ball and pass it off to the bridge guy or closer. I also want him to downgrade the notion that there is lefty specialist in the bullpen, whose job is only to get out left handed hitters. He should instill the expectation that all relievers should know how to get out all batters in all situations.
3. I want him to stress after spring training the importance of defense. I would like to see him install defensive drills at least once per series like Ozzie Guillen did with the White Sox. So many players leave spring training thinking that they have done all their work. But it is a process, a regiment and a repetitive eye and muscle coordination that needs to be sharpened like a chef's knife.
4. I would really like the catcher to "call" the game with the pitcher. I get quite annoyed by major league catchers looking into the dugout for signals on which pitch to throw. A pitcher and catcher should go through the opposing teams scouting reports and their own notes prior to each game to formulate how they will attack the opponent's line-up. Greg Maddux knew how he was going to pitch batters innings ahead when he was on the mound. And on his days off, he could accurately predict what pitchers throwing sequences were going to be. But in the sabermetric era, where managers tend to view the field as a video screen that they can control, no catcher has the real authority anymore to call a game. Which is a shame, because if they were allowed to, it would actually speed up the game, and get the pitcher into a quick rhythm.
5. I want him to teach the team the various ways of "manufacturing" runs through the use of walks, "productive outs," stolen bases, taking the extra base on a hit, hitting and running and bunting to advance a runner into scoring position. Even a team that does not have any power or high batting averages, can manufacture a run via a walk, stolen base, bunt and sacrifice fly. But that is not the modern or glamorous way to play the game. Players are obsessed with their own stats because that is how the market values their talent level. Players believe they need to hit .300, and hit home runs to be paid big dollars. With a bad team like the Cubs, Renteria needs to re-educate the players into putting the team ahead of personal stats in order to generate more wins. This is going to be his hardest sell.
