White Sox New Manager is Robin Ventura

[EmpireWF]

'ol Grand Single himself.

Mark D. Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune reports that the White Sox have named Robin Ventura as their new manager.
"I wanted someone who met very specific criteria centered around his leadership abilities," White Sox general manager Kenny Williams said in a statement. "Robin Ventura was that man." The news comes as a surprise, but Ventura played 10 of his 16 major league seasons under White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf and that relationship has clearly remained healthy to this day. Ventura will be replacing Ozzie Guillen, another high profile player-turned-coach who recently inked a four-year contract with the Marlins. Ventura has barely any managing experience.

http://www.rotoworld.com/headlines/m...as-new-manager

No managerial experience and he ends up in the big seat.

FedEx, thoughts?

[FedEx227]

Bad, bad, bad.

I like Robin Ventura as a player and he seems like a great guy but I don't like the idea of hiring someone with no coaching experience. It's always a bad path to go down... and one that Chicago (more specifically Jerry Reinsdorf) went down a few years ago on the NBA side... Didn't work out too well.

I'll wait and see, I'm not too happy with it though.

[Youk]

He's about to get rocked...AGAIN.

[NAHSTE]

What a laughable hire. You finally rid yourselves of Ozzie and end up with ... this?

What's next? They promote Ken Williams, Jr. to the majors?

[DJ Fog]

Hank Williams Jr was just hired by the White Sox to sing ARE YOU READY FOR SOME BASEBALL prior to the games for next season.

[Senser81]

Ozzie Guillen had little to no managerial experience when he was hired by the White Sox, IIRC. It might not have ended well, but Ozzie did win a World Series, for what that is worth.

I think in basketball if you hire a guy like Robin Ventura (Vinny Del Negro?), you have problems because the guy will have no credibility with the players, and the players run the show in the NBA. In football if you hire a guy like Robin Ventura (Mike Singletary with the Niners?), you have problems because a football coach is singularly important to the outcome of a game.

But in baseball, I don't think its that big of a problem. To me, baseball "strategy" is WAY overrated, as are the impact of baseball managers. I really like Jim Leyland, and I respect Tony LaRussa in a Pat Riley way, but they have very little impact over the course of a 162-game season. The only thing a baseball manager can do is lose games by sticking with ineffective players and repeatedly using the same strategies that have proven to fail on a regular basis. Ozzie did both these things last season, and thats why he was let go.

So, my reaction to the Ventura hiring is the same as my reaction to all baseball manager hirings...who cares?

[FirstTimer]

Fed,

Not sure if you listened to the conference call yesterday but did it seem to you like Robin ventura was really unsure about wanting this job? He didn't really sound like a guy who was juiced up and exicted for the job and the way he phrased or what he sad in some of his answers really made it seem like he had to kind of be talked into the position a bit and wasn't 100% sure he wanted it.

[FedEx227]

No, he basically said I had no intentions, Kenny called me up and I agreed to do it.

Without even interviewing another candidate. That's troubling.

[FedEx227]

Ozzie Guillen had little to no managerial experience when he was hired by the White Sox, IIRC. It might not have ended well, but Ozzie did win a World Series, for what that is worth.

He had 3 years of coaching experience with the Expos and Marlins. Ventura has no coaching/managing experience at any level.

[EmpireWF]

He had 3 years of coaching experience with the Expos and Marlins. Ventura has no coaching/managing experience at any level.

Unless you count high school. :yes:

[FedEx227]

Half year of high school coaching.

I do agree with Senser that it doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things but it's a troubling hire in that Robin didn't seem to even want the job and they didn't bother interviewing any other candidates.

Most managers are worth AT MOST +/- 12 runs or 1 win, so no it's not a huge deal it's just a very, very odd hire.

[Sigona]

Most managers are worth AT MOST +/- 12 runs or 1 win, so no it's not a huge deal it's just a very, very odd hire.

Unless you're this guy.



Then you're worth 5-7 wins and -15 runs for, +20 runs against.

[Obst]

Can't be any worse than making an offensive line coach the defensive coordinator.

[EmpireWF]

They also considered making Paul Konerko a player-manager.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/2011/10/06/2011-10-06_robin_ventura_with_no_managerial_experience_to_replace_ozzie_guillen_with_chicag.html

The White Sox's stunning hiring of Robin Ventura to replace Ozzie Guillen as manager Thursday came as a result of board chairman Jerry Reinsdorf instructing his general manager, Kenny Williams, "to think outside the box on this one - no retreads."

This was a conversation Reinsdorf and Williams had in early September, when it was becoming obvious that Guillen was going force himself out of Chicago for a multiyear contract in Miami. A week or so later, Williams came to Reinsdorf with two lists, one with what the chairman termed "a lot of the usual suspects" and the other with Ventura - a White Sox third base icon from 1989-98 before he spent the next five years in New York with the Mets and Yankees - along with Paul Konerko, their present-day first base icon. Though Ventura, who has no managerial experience, had been lured back into the White Sox organization over the summer to be a minor league player evaluator for farm director Buddy Bell, Reinsdorf told Williams: "That's a very interesting name, but he'll never do it."

As Reinsdorf said by phone Thursday night: "When we first approached Robin to offer him the job, he was stunned. But after we explained to him that we already had Don Cooper in place as his pitching coach to keep the continuity up there, he seemed very interested but still said he had to talk it over with his family. I think the single biggest factor in him taking the job was that his wife was all for it."

Once Ventura accepted, there was no need to further discuss the possibility of making Konerko a player-manager. On a conference call with Ventura Thursday night, Williams said he'd been interviewing Ventura about managing "from 1994-1998 only he didn't know it," adding that the popular former third baseman fit the specific criteria he was looking for in a manager: "passion for the city, the organization, the drive to win a championship and leadership and communication ability."

Ventura, for his part, said he was not concerned that the White Sox underachieved greatly this season under Guillen or that Reinsdorf is likely to cut the club's record payroll of $127 million.

"I do have a passion for the game, this team and this city," Ventura said. "This is the only place I feel this way about. I've jumped right in the deep end, but I know how to swim."

Nevertheless, one of his former White Sox managers, Gene Lamont, who is now Jim Leyland's third base coach with the Tigers, thinks Ventura doesn't realize just how deep that water is.

"Robin's really smart," Lamont said Thursday night, "but it's very tough to manage in the big leagues when you've never managed before, and even tougher when you've been away from the game like he's been. If he was in the National League, I'd wish him luck, but in this league, in our division? I can't do it."

[FedEx227]

Now THAT would've been awesome.