Blaming The Fans–Again

After a fashion and given the circumstances, the White Sox feel like they’ve been ending the season on a pretty good note.  They’ve won five in a row, guaranteeing that their win total will be higher than 2015, and keeping the hopes alive that they’ll make it to .500 for the first time since 2012.  Todd Frazier got his 40th home run, Miguel Gonzalez continues to look like a solid asset for 2017, and–for the petty and malicious like me–the Royals were eliminated from playoff contention.  But of course, that didn’t stop the White Sox from making negative headlines yesterday.

It started with a Bob Nightengale writing that, although contract negotiations had not yet begun, the front office had decided to bring Robin Ventura back if he wanted to continue managing.  Although Dan Hayes sort of denied it, and even if the language between the two reports don’t technically contradict each other, White Sox fans took to Twitter and berated the team’s social media intern for the remainder of the evening.

So, Mr. Nightengale updated his piece, this time scolding the fanbase for daring to question the organization for its beautiful loyalty and contorting his narrative to defend Ventura while acknowledging that the team has been an abject failure under his stewardship.  The piece cites a “high-ranking White Sox executive,” which calls for speculation about motivation and identity that isn’t very fruitful, but it is ironic that a front office that prides itself on its secrecy–a sort of superficial false cunning as they stumble about the league getting duped by savvier organizations–decides to break its silence purely to insult fans for pointing out the unassailable fact that this team has been a trainwreck under the same leadership for about a decade.

While these attacks aren’t as unpleasant as the ones shaming the fans for not spending money on the team when it is unwatchable and bad, these arguments are ludicrous on their face.  Either Nightengale or the front office argues that it is not Robin’s fault that the team has been horrible, because they haven’t had enough talent, no matter who had been manager.  And yet, the fans are excoriated for not putting their trust in the same front office that has–by this argument–failed to supply adequate talent for five years.

The article goes so far as to say that no manager could have made the playoffs with these rosters, ignoring the fact that the 2012 team missed the postseason by three games, and Ventura basically sabotaged their whatever chance they had of winning with his sheer inexperience and tactical ineptitude.  I am reminded of the extra innings loss to Oakland with six failed bunts, or the crucial September game where Kevin Youkilis was asked to sac bunt for the first time in his career, or Leyson Septimo pitching the highest leverage at bats of the season.

The argument for Ventura as manager was always, “Trust us.”  Even though he had no managerial experience, even though his in-game decisions exist solely as fodder for ridicule by opposing teams, the front office made bold claims about value of his personality and leadership.  Five years later, young position players have flopped and failed to develop, the team has fielded disastrous defenses and posted horrid baserunning numbers–the types of “fundamentals” often attributed to the manager–and every time the team has been positioned to achieve something they have completely and utterly collapsed.  However, until this year, the organization could trot out the argument that he still owned the clubhouse and the players still liked him.  That argument was pretty much unassailable and it is a really important part of a manager’s job.

But then 2016 happened.  The biggest news items this year were ludicrous stories about the clubhouse melting down in humiliating fashion.  As far as we know, Ventura was a non-figure in the Adam LaRoche saga, as the front office advised the public that he was not to be involved in getting everybody back on the same page.  With regard to Chris Sale and the uniforms, we are basically told that Ventura did not back his ace against the front office, and Sale explicitly called him out for it.  Now, these situations were unusual, and there is evidence that both LaRoche and Sale are atypical personalities.  However, Ventura evidently was unhelpful at best, or actively harmful at worst.  Jose Abreu possibly maybe maybe not calling out the team’s competitive desire was seen by some as a final nail in Ventura’s coffin, as his last purported virtue had crashed and burned along with the rest of them.

The impact of a manager is nebulous and frequently overstated.  The teams with the most depth and talent tend to win, and winning tends to make for a happy clubhouse.  At the same time, there are only thirty of these coveted positions, and it is a lot easier to control who is managing your team than it is to make sure you have the most talent on the field.  Therefore, the manager position becomes a proxy for being willing and able to identify problems and correct them.

But take your pick of how you want to analyze Ventura as a manager.  The results have been terrible–I have not even mentioned the fact that the White Sox have disproportionately gotten their heads kicked in by their key division rivals during Ventura’s tenure.  The process has been terrible.  Ventura’s hand-picked bench coach was fired because the in-game tactics were so bad. The clubhouse is in disarray and morale is low. What else is left?

The front office asked its fan base to take a leap of faith and trust them that Robin Ventura was the best man for the job, and evidently, continues to think he is the best man for the job to the exclusion of all others.  The problem is, there is now five years of data where any way you slice it, he has been an absolute disaster.

Now, the only argument left to keep him has become the front office saying, “Trust us, it’s not his fault. We’re the incompetent ones.”  I find this argument self-defeating and comical, and there is now a very real chance that Robin Ventura will outlast Chris Sale with the White Sox–and the front office is angry that their paying customers think that’s bad.

Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn.