The White Sox named Robin Ventura their manager yesterday afternoon,  just like I predicted they would last week. Follow that link? Hey, at least I didn’t Rick-roll you. But it does sort of feel like Kenny Williams Rick-rolled Sox fans with the stunning news.

After the near unanimity in the media that the new manager would be Dave Martinez or Sandy Alomar, imagine Sox fans’– and players’ and writers’– surprise when the click the proverbial link “White Sox New Manager” only to find a guy they’d literally never heard even once in connection with the job. A complete shocker, but a vintage White Sox move. That big shock colors a lot of the initial reaction to the move, and when you take it away I really don’t know exactly how to feel.

While he is one of my favorite White Sox players of all time, Ventura never struck me as a manager at any point in his playing days or retirement. He seems like a good minor league instructor, a good commentator, maybe even a good hitting coach. But the big enchilada? It just didn’t seem to fit him. So I am showing the stereotypical blogger reaction to any news that comes from left field: I am skeptical.

I will say this: I don’t really care that much about Ventura’s perceived “lack of experience.” Seasoned veterans are nice, but Tony LaRussa, Terry Francona and Joe Torre were never serious options for this franchise, for a myriad reasons. Anyone disappointed the Sox didn’t land a guy like that is just oblivious to the situation, and the way the Sox do business. I will not fault the Sox for not going with experience in that sense, especially because I actually like that they are bringing someone young in. Martinez was my first choice for manager, and he would have been a rookie as well (albeit one with more bench coaching and grooming experience). Every manager, good and bad, has to be a rookie at some point.

What I don’t like is the fact that there doesn’t seem to be a clear specific strategy or reason in place regarding the  Ventura hire.  I’m not talking about an organization direction, like rebuilding vs. reloading. (Personally, I don’t think the Sox are going to be in as much of a rebuild mode as many others do anyway. Williams is publicly lowering expectations for his players, his acquisitions and his 2012 team– keeping himself once again well under the radar– but I think he ultimately plans to contend next year.)

If the Sox do rebuild, Ventura may be a good manager as a patient, nurturing instructor and role model for young players. Guys like Gordon Beckham, Brent Morel and Chris Sale can develop a more natural rapport with Ventura than with Ozzie Guillen, it would seem.

Even keeping mind how he is the understated, unexcitable Anti-Ozzie, Ventura didn’t come off great in his initial press interview. It’s important to note it wasn’t really a true press conference in which he was talking to the cameras and introducing himself– his true introductory presser will come with his full staff in place on Tuesday. Regardless, it was uninspiring. He didn’t sound like a guy with a plan. In fact he sounded, dare I say, a little Vinny Del Negro-ish. He seemed wishy-washy, without the specific convictions to ideas that even rookie Ozzie Guillen had at the beginning on his tenure. (Of course, no one asked Ventura the million dollar question: What does he think of bunting????)

That’s not to say Ventura doesn’t have ideas, but he discussed his apprehension with the role, his surprise by the offer and his dependency on veteran coaches more than he did his pure baseball ideas. Will he provide strong leadership? He’s going to have to give the public, and of course more importantly his players, something more concrete about his actual managing strategies.

A manager should be chosen because he has a good ability to manage a pitching staff, to motivate millionaire athletes, to navigate through statistics (both traditional and advanced), to handle the media and control ego clashes and clubhouse issues. Did Ventura really show these abilities to Williams?

I know Ventura is a well-respected man across baseball, and I know he’s been around the game his whole life. Those are positive qualities, but shouldn’t they just be “givens” for anyone taking on one of the only 30 jobs in all of America? Is anyone planning on hiring a guy who the community is chilly about and who is foreign to baseball to run their team?

So yes, Ventura meets that criteria. And yes, once again, he is one of my favorite players of all time. What he fails to demonstrate, at least initially, is how he stands out from the rest of the candidates within that qualification.

Sandy Alomar and Dave Martinez are both young guys with Sox connections that are well-respected and have an even keel. So why was Ventura picked over them? Just because his Sox ties are deeper? Because he comes cheaper? Because they can now play “Rockin’ Robin” (tweet, tweet) on the PA at the Cell again? Or is there something more that makes this a logical pick?

We don’t know. It is information we weren’t given, even if Ventura and Williams give the paper some boilerplate quotes tomorrow.  And like BP’s Kevin Goldstein says, right now we can’t know: we’ll just have to play wait and see, no matter how hard we try to react and how deep we try to dig. You could interview Ventura’s high school coach’s piano teacher, and you won’t be in any better place to make a judgement on Ventura as a manager going forward.

In the end, Ken Williams has given us somebody very intelligent and likeable that Sox fans will really truly root for. That is worth something. It’s a heck of a lot better than some veteran retread. Or Terry Bevington. Or 2011 Ozzie Guillen.

Again, no one truly knows anything about Ventura’s leadership or managing abilities. So while I was hoping the Sox would aim higher, or at least elsewhere (a true outsider with an entirely-fresh perspective), or bring in a more conventional choice, you just can’t not like Rockin’ Robin. (Yet.)