A conversation with my spring training self

[BigHurtHallofFame201?]

I haven't read the board in a while, probably due to the hysteria I knew would be floating around here. I did skim some of the topics and I was right. I doubt this will calm the fire, but here goes. By the by, most of this was written prior to reading the board tonight, if you're interested in that sort of thing. So, here are my thoughts on this season's failures.

 

My Spring Training Self is asking me right now, “How are the Sox doing, buddy?”

“Well, our pitching staff of potentially five aces is one ace and four dysfunctional, schizo pitchers pitching well below their ability. Our leadoff hitter does not produce. The heart of our lineup is producing, heck we have the best 3-4-5 in the league, but when they are losing a game this team this year has not been able to get it done whether it is a bullpen pitcher allowing the go-ahead run or the bats coming up just short. On air, Hawk has frequently mentioned a lack of intensity between our team and the opposition making a distinction between playing hard, giving full effort and playing with the intensity to win. And so, here we sit on September 5, 2006 1 ½ games out of the Wild Card, 20 games above .500, and as Hawk puts it, “We still have not hit our rhythm yet.” So, despite the fact that our pitchers are underperforming, our leadoff hitter shows very little signs of the guy who was our motor last year, and a knack for coming up just short enough to lose: The Chicago White Sox are still in a position to possibly make the playoffs? The question becomes then, “How does one get a group of men who are playing hard the intensity required to win?” What can cause a lack of intensity?

 

There was a very important change made in the off season which was much heralded at the time and even more so throughout the course of this season. That would be, of course, the addition of Jim Thome, a much needed left-handed power bat to fill in the vacant DH slot. I’d like to posit that this had a negative impact on the mentality of the team in that the lineup became one where there was less of a focus on the base hit, the bunt hit, and the stolen base and an increased focus on that which failed us Pre-Ozzie: Long Ball or Nothing. It isn’t my position that this is a conscious choice by the players, definitely not, and perhaps it does not have the most impact on this team’s relative failure. My point is that inserting Jim Thome for Aaron Rowand changed the mentality of the lineup and, most importantly, that just because one player is “better” offensively than another does not mean that they are a better fit for a particular lineup. Rowand for Thome has implications on pitching as well and may be the more influential on our diminished success. Last year, our pitchers were tenacious from the start to the finish of a ballgame. They pitched well with a big lead or a small lead or even no lead at all, keeping us in ballgames and putting us in a position where if we could scrap together a few runs then we’d have a chance at a W. Though Garland has pitched well since May and been the veritable ace of this staff, fulfilling the same role of Jose “Floatation Device” Contreras last year, and Mark Buehrle seems to be turning a corner, there has been absolutely no consistency from this staff this year especially when it comes to pitching over defensive mistakes and pitching in a tight game. Why? Could it be related to the Rowand-Thome deal and a possible (subconscious?) change in mentality? What is it like to know that you have the best offense in the league supporting you? It could be relaxing in a good way. It could settle a pitcher down, allowing him, when he’s in trouble to think minimize the lead, keep the game close, retire this last batter and stop the flood gates. Or it could be relaxing in a detrimental way that takes a much needed pressure off the pitcher since he has the knowledge that he has the best hitters in the league supplying runs. I don’t know, but it seems our pitchers have a lack of focus throughout the course of a game in consistently allowing runs to be scored with two outs, or making mistakes when they have the count in their favor, 0-2 or 1-2.

 

Despite these failures of the pitching staff, the White Sox are only a game and a half back of the Wild Card. Hindering the best efforts of our mighty middle of the order is the poor performance by the man who should be the stabilizing influence on the lineup, the man who gets on base whether he is hitting the ball well or not, the leadoff hitter, Scott Podsednik. This year, Podsednik has never really found his way at the plate or on the basepaths. And that old baseball adage, “speed never goes in a slump”, has been proven to be a monumental fallacy. He dealt with a groin injury in Spring Training and that is why Ozzie Guillen’s original plan of trying Juan Uribe out in the two hole and Tadahito Iguchi in the 6 was never able to be fully tested. Scott’s average is down in the mid .250’s because he doesn’t have those hits-due-to-the-benefit-of-speed keeping it in the .280-.290 range; he hasn’t bunted for hits (or even tried) and he hasn’t beat out grounders to the left side of the infield. Is he playing injured? Has he lacked confidence stemming from that groin injury but is otherwise healthy? I can’t be sure, but what I am sure of is that he doesn’t accelerate through the base on grounders that used to be infield hits, he doesn’t even attempt to bunt, he hasn’t stolen as many bases, and he has not been the leadoff hitter this team needs

 

There remains one final, possible source of the lack of intensity or at the very least an answer as to why the team’s intensity has been consistently stagnant this whole season: Ozzie. Let me preface this by saying that I love Ozzie Guillen. I give him as much credit as one can give a manager of a team for the turnaround the organization has undergone. However, it is often said that a team takes on the personality of its manager, and I see a manager with a lot less intensity than the one steering the ship to Series last year. I see a manager that may be at a loss, that may not know what to do, that does not have a strategy. Since the All Star Break, Post-Sensitivity Training Ozzie seems a little less…what’s the word? Intense. Last year, Ozzie was the man who said his team “flat-out stunk” but also the man who in September ‘05 took the pressure off his team by placing the blame on himself. Where’s the fire, Ozzie? I miss the old, politically incorrect Ozzie who said exactly what he felt and didn’t censor himself. Why haven’t there been any post-game tirades this past month or more importantly these past few days? Is it because he has a club of veterans who he knows are busting their hump to win? That reason isn’t good enough for me and it should not be good enough for Ozzie. I’m not proposing that a verbal tirade directed at his players will be sufficient for the team to turn it around. But could it hurt? One needs to look no further than the front running Detroit Tigers to see the effect a managerial outburst can have. .”

 

“So,” my Spring Training Self begins, finally able to get in a word edgewise, “It’s early September. Are we gonna do it? Are we gonna “hit our rhythm” as Hawk would put it? Has this team quit?”

 

“I have no idea on the first two. But it’s gonna be damn near impossible for us to walk ass backwards into the playoffs. We’re going to have to play better baseball, but that is certainly possible. In terms of quitting though, I can give you a definitive answer: No. Anyone who thinks that a professional baseball team that is the defending world champions is quitting with 24 games left to make up 1 ½ games is so lost in their own misguided, misanthropic depression that they can’t grasp reality at all, in any way. Maybe they’re just like us. Maybe their best work, the work that indeed does make the final difference, is yet to come, with their backs against the wall.”