To the extent I follow the Chicago Bulls these days, it's mostly so I can understand all the jokes about Jim Boylen.
Boylen is completely overmatched as a head coach, but he's working with a gambit that I find fascinating: If he never changes his tone or expression, he can claim his messaging is consistent.
Most people should be worried about a 37-80 record, the 0-19 record against the East's current playoff teams. And even if he wasn't worried about the record, most people would worry about the rampant disrespect he's fostering among his players, most recently with the pointless timeouts he's calling at the end of losses.
But Boylen isn't most people. He instead plows ahead with a half smile and utmost confidence in whatever he just said, even if the people tasked with listening and documenting his statements can't square it up with everything he professed to be true before. That's their problem, not his.
At any rate, those stories were swirling when James Fegan wrote about Rick Renteria, who is on the cusp of his first-ever season where his record does matter. There are similarities between the two, because both are very much the result of the search process of a Jerry Reinsdorf team. Like Boylen, Renteria came from the coaching staff of the previous guy in charge with no real process behind it, and he was given an extension under questionable circumstances. And like Boylen, Renteria was tasked with creating a culture during a process of intense, intentional losing with underqualified players, which usually results in a manager wearing out his welcome.
But Renteria has emerged from the worst of the rebuild on stable footing, and not just because of the weirdness of the front office that employs him. He seems to have the respect of everybody he has to deal with, including opposing managers.
Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona paid Renteria the only type of compliment you want to hear from a division rival. Francona blamed the White Sox, and the 11-8 record they compiled against the 2019 Indians, for keeping them out of the playoffs. Asked what defined the Sox under Renteria, Francona spoke not about tactics but an element of their culture.
“They hustle every play and that may seem easy, but on a team that didn’t necessarily have the best record, they play hard,” Francona said. “They’ve always played hard. That’s a direct compliment to the manager and the coaching staff.”
The emphasis on hustle can seem superficial and outmoded to some; a demand of effort for the sake of show. But Francona cautioned that players don’t hustle because they’re lazy, but out of frustration, and combatting it is about making sure frustration never gets in the way of effort and execution. It’s a symptom of a more important concern.
Renteria flirted with overpolicing hustle in his second season, peaking with the benching of Avisaíl Garcia, who didn't bust it on a routine flyball because of a knee that wasn't close to 100 percent itself.
But he backed off, partially because it's an untenable approach, and partially because he's been able to transfer responsibility to the players. We've seen that with the Cuban chain of command, and elsewhere with Lucas Giolito inspiring Reynaldo López to try something different this offseason.
I have a little concern about that, although bringing in guys like Yasmani Grandal, Dallas Keuchel and Edwin Encarnación keep it from being the blind leading the blind. On that side, an unhealthy reliance on imported veteran presence helped turn the 2016 White Sox into a biohazard, which is something the Sox have approached more carefully with this rebuild, José Abreu's no-room-at-the-inn comment on Yasiel Puig being the latest example.
Renteria seems to have emerged from the rebuild with an ethos established, and before the White Sox actually got good. It remains to be seen how much that translates into wins, but I'll give him one "W" for this accomplishment alone. It's a difficult assignment for any manager and coach on any team, and as the Boylen and Robin Ventura administrations have shown, such attempts can quickly become a farce when the organizational chart is tangled and priorities warped.
If you want to picture the Boylen equivalent on the White Sox, it doesn't require a whole lot of imagine. Just picture the Sox lacking the initiative to hire Renteria to replace Mark Parent, and that'll get you most of the way there.
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Speaking of Renteria, he amended the talking point on Nicky Delmonico's strong start to his spring.
And getting back to Giolito, he's starting to round into shape after the flu and a chest muscle strain delayed the start to his activities.
Lucas Giolito worked on his slider as part of a bullpen session Tuesday. It was the right-hander’s second session in four days after being slowed by a muscle strain in his rib-cage area.
“His last side (Saturday) was a little better than this one (in terms of command), but they were able to incorporate sliders (and) curveballs,” Renteria said. “He’s moving along very well. He’s moving in the right direction.”
