Renteria Has A Fresh Start With Braves
By Rick Hummel
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
March 13, 2006
LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA.
There were a couple of glaring entries in a reasonably positive statistical scan of Edgar Renteria's 2005 season.
In his first - and only, as it turned out - season with the Boston Red Sox, the former Cardinals shortstop struck out 100 times - he had fanned more than 78 times just once since 1997. But a more troubling number was "30" in the errors column for the two-time Gold Glover.
"That's a lot of errors," said former Gold Glove third baseman Terry Pendleton, who played mostly for the Cardinals and Atlanta Braves and now is the Atlanta hitting coach. "But I made 20-something one year and people said, 'That's a lot of errors,' and I won a Gold Glove.
"A guy who gets to balls a lot of people don't get to is susceptible to making more errors than anyone else. We knew what we were getting. He hasn't changed. He still plays good defense and he still swings the bat."
The Cardinals found out first-hand that the new Atlanta shortstop can swing it when Renteria banged a three-run homer to beat them Sunday in an exhibition game.
"I try to do the same against everybody, no matter what team you're playing against," Renteria said, smiling.
The 30-year-old Colombian wasn't always smiling last year when he found himself booed early in the season at Fenway Park. But Renteria, who hit .276 with 70 runs batted in, said he enjoyed his time with the Red Sox, if not the time spent in Fenway.
Renteria, who spurned the Cardinals for a four-year, $40 million deal with the Red Sox after the 2004 season, said: "To me, (Boston) was a great experience. But it didn't work out. People point to the defense. They said I played bad defense and I had a bad year, but I really think it wasn't a bad year."
Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty noted that Renteria hadn't secured no-trade language in his dealings with the Red Sox and thus wasn't surprised he was traded after the season.
"I didn't think he'd be there the life of the contract," Jocketty said.
Renteria was taken aback, though, by being swapped for infielder Andy Marte, who since has been moved to Cleveland. "When you sign for four years, you think you're going to finish out over there," he said. "I don't know why they traded me. It was nothing off the field. ... But that's baseball. Sometimes things happen for a good reason."
The increasingly cost-conscious Braves are on the hook for only $6 million a year of the $10 million Renteria is owed, with Boston paying the rest.
"I think Renteria always has been one of the premier defensive players, plus we also talk about his clutch hitting," manager Bobby Cox said. "We were concerned about his back a little and he's had some weight problems sometimes. But the minute he was available, we hopped on it. It took the front office about three days to get Renteria ... but we had to do what it took to get him. He's that good."
In his previous three seasons, all with the Cardinals, Renteria hadn't made as many as 20 errors in a season.
Cox was hesitant to blame the typically uneven surface at Fenway, and Renteria said he didn't want to blame it either, although he admitted he let the issue get to him.
"The field is not good. That's no secret," he said. "But that came into my head. One of my mistakes was paying attention to the field. I didn't feel comfortable."
The sensitive Renteria, who became attractive to the Braves after they lost free agent Rafael Furcal to the Los Angeles Dodgers, really never had been booed before. "It took 10 games," he said. "Maybe that got into my mind and maybe I tried to do too much.
"I said, 'I have to do something quick to show the fans I can play the game.'"
Indeed, Renteria had a six-game trip to Toronto and New York in May in which he was 16 for 24. But this spurt merely was a harbinger of Renteria's roller-coaster season. He hit .228 in April, .354 in May, .251 in June-July, .342 in August and .224 in September-October.
"They stopped booing," he said. "But that was in my mind. It's no fun to play like that."
Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, aware of Renteria's sensitive nature, said the Boston experience "had no chance of working. He's a very private guy.
"There, they treat every game like the seventh game of the World Series. If you do great, they love you. If you don't, they let you hear about it. But it was said today, twice, that he's a National League player. He can play anywhere."
With the Cardinals
1999-2004
Avg.
G AB R H RBI BB SO
151 560 83 162 75 51 70
Since the Cardinals
2005
Actual
G AB R H RBI BB SO
153 623 100 172 70 55 100
Source: MLB.com
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