Thinking Ahead Criticism

I like the way Rick Renteria used a missed bunt attempt as a teachable moment:

One day after Rick Renteria benched Avisail Garcia for not hustling out of the batter’s box on a fly ball, he turned his attention to another outfielder. The Sox manager offered a measured but firm criticism of Adam Engel, who struck out when he fouled off a bunt attempt with two strikes.

…

“If he’s able to get it down, to slow the game down enough to do his job there, he’ll be able to slow it down and do it when it’s really, really important, which could be a playoff game, could be a wild-card game, could be a postseason game. You can’t expect that if you’re not going to do it here to expect to do it there. All these guys need to be able to do that.”

Renteria is thinking past the sale. That particular game doesn’t matter in the context of the 2018 season. Whether the bunt is a good strategy or not in that situation doesn’t matter. Renteria is telling this squad that they are going to make the it to the top. When it’s really, really important. It’s a nice bit of persuasion.

from baseballmusings.com https://ift.tt/2MZP42F