A total waste!

(April 21)

Short Take:  The wrong-thinking  of conventional wisdom

The Sox got beat again.  You're going to hear dozens of theories why this is so  from all the media "experts".  Sox Fans, it was a depressing game to watch and everyone is frustrated beyond belief.  The Sox got a great start from returning all-star James Baldwin, a gift run, and still lost 4-3 to the Twins.

Why the Sox lost this game ought to be obvious, but count on at least half of the media morons to get it wrong.  The Sox aren't scoring enough runs, period.  The line up is anemic, incapable of putting more than 3 or 4 runs on the board.  That simply isn't enough to win baseball games in the American League.  This isn't 1968!

Why can't they score runs?  This answer here is simple, too.  The top of the line up isn't getting on base enough (2 for 9 today), and the bottom of the order is inevitably filled with guys too challenged with a bat to stick anywhere else.  

Jerry Manuel isn't shooting straight when he suggests his revolving line up isn't to blame for the team's woes.  His most productive table setter, Jose Valentin, sat this game on the bench so Royce Clayton, Julio Ramirez, and Herbert Perry could play.  What flexibility is offered by Josh Paul sitting on the bench while Sandy Alomar goes 0 for 4?  Can Paul catch, pinch hit, pinch run--do anything of value?

Does good defense win ballgames?  Perhaps, but never at the expense of fielding a team with more bats.  If you think defense wins games, you must be scratching in your head in wonder how the Twins committed three errors and still managed to beat the Sox--even with James Baldwin leaving it all on the mound as the starter.  Nope, it's a plain fact that errors are hardly a measure of a team's true effectiveness in the field.  Playing a brain-dead outfit like today's Chicago White Sox, the Twins could probably have afforded to give a couple more errors and still won this game.

So Jose Valentin sits and Royce Clayton gets the #2 spot.  Only the continued hot hitting of Herbert Perry in the #7 slot kept the bottom of the line up from a complete 0-fer performance.  

Leadoff man Ray Durham reached base just once in five at-bats.  Frank Thomas and Magglio Ordonez were a combined 1 for 8.  Blaming reliever Gary Glover's poor performance (two batters faced, one double and a throwing error) for this loss is like blaming a band-aid for cancer.

What did the (alleged) improved defense earn the White Sox today?  More importantly, what did the lousy defense cost the Twins?  The answers to these questions reveal the lie that sits at the core of conventional baseball wisdom which the Sox front office has bought into.

This game is played to win, and the Chicago White Sox are playing to lose.  Defense be damned, you win games by scoring more runs!

Baldwin went seven innings, allowed six hits, and three earned runs.  That ought to be enough to win a baseball game, whether the opponent is the Minnesota Twins or the New York Yankees.

Instead it was a big, fat loss.  Expect plenty more of them until the madness of following conventional baseball wisdom is finally done away with.

Score some runs, dammit!