A week ago, Dan Hayes explored the idea of which manager would prevail if you put all 30 of them in a wrestling ring. It's a fun idea, although it'd be more fun if there were a little more variety in the physical builds and demeanors of the fighters.
However, Hayes' blurb on Rick Renteria suggests more differences could emerge if the fight-or-flight responses were truly put to the test in a Royal Rumble.
Don’t let Renteria’s calm and pleasant demeanor lull you into a false sense of security. His postgame alter-ego, Ricky Loco, has made him the cult hero of every coaching staff he’s ever worked on for reasons nobody will discuss publicly. While he prefers to keep a low profile in the dugout, Ricky Loco must be fed. His alter reminds us a lot of the “British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith, which makes Renteria a threat at all times.
We saw a bit of Ricky Loco -- and Jason Benetti dared speak the name -- during his ejection in the third inning on Sunday. Renteria stomped from home to first to simulate Jose Abreu's baserunning path to a less-than-receptive group of umpires, and it made for good theater.
Here's hoping this series against Detroit brings the return of the Renteria everybody enjoyed -- the one who led the league in ejections and led a team that played a flawed-but-inspiring brand of baseball. He's going to be around whether you like it or not, but maybe he has some options on the version of the guy who is going to be around.
(It's a travesty that Renteria ranked a spot behind Yost. I'd flip them, considering Yost broke his hip and is talking about it on Verizon commercials.)
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Jose Rondón made his first appearance in the outfield in an official stateside game on Sunday. Two batters in, Nicholas Castellanos lofted a flare into the left-center gap, then tested Rondón's readiness by gunning for second.
Rondón's throw left a lot to be desired.
It was an ominous start for the Rondón experiment, but any doom it foreshadowed wasn't realized immediately. Thanks to Reynaldo López's 14 strikeouts, Rondón only one other batted ball, and it was a lazy fly he caught without issue.
There will probably be more growing pains for Rondón, but it's worth throwing him out in left field as often as safety allows. He's on the roster because he's out of options, and if the Sox went through the whole season without understanding what he looks like when given everyday playing time, they'd end up confronted with another awkward obligation to navigate. It might not work -- I'd say it probably won't work -- but until the Sox can start winning wars, they have to focus on battles, and as G.I. Joe will tell you, knowing gets you halfway there on those.
Rondón blending in on his first game made me feel sorrier for Eloy Jiménez. In between Nicky Delmonico having an easy three days in Baltimore and Rondón seeing next to nothing Sunday, Jiménez only needed three innings to be thrown into a wall.
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Over at Statcast, Mike Petriello explored the best new pitches of the first month, and it's nice to get a third party reinforcing my reads on Kelvin Herrera's cutter and Iván Nova's also cutter, while putting them in a greater leaguewide context.
Regarding Nova:
Speaking of cutters that have become weapons, if we go back to that same list of 57 pitchers who have thrown 50 cutters, we'll find Nova at the very top. That's because he's thrown it 71 times and allowed just four singles, while collecting nine strikeouts. [...]
So far in 2019, he's had batters miss on 40.4 percent of the swings they've taken against his cutter, one of the 12 best marks in baseball.
Regarding Herrera:
(Herrera's average fastball velocity of 94.7 mph is) not slow, exactly, but it does open the door for a pitch to give a hitter a slightly different look. Enter the cutter, which comes in at 92.5 mph and offers five inches more drop and nine inches different movement than his main four-seamer. So far, Herrera has yet to allow a hit off of it, and he's off to a good start overall with a 1.48 ERA.
