Last night’s 5-4 loss was certainly not enjoyable for White Sox fans. Despite facing Shane Bieber, who is off to a historic start to the season on the mound, the team was in position to win, but blew the lead in the eighth inning and lost in the tenth. As disappointing as such losses are, they happen to every team with some regularity. Of course, in a shortened season, the increased importance of close losses stings even more, but they still are just a part of baseball.
With a shortened season in mind, it is critically important to actively attempt to win every game. Losses will happen, leads will be blown, and mishaps will occur. As a result, it is important that teams do not take games off and are always playing at maximum effort and with an optimal group of players. Through sixteen games, I do not think one can say the White Sox have closely followed these rules. Consequently, it is Saturday’s loss that bothers me more than Sunday’s.
You do not need me to tell you that each individual game, especially within a team’s own division, is significantly more important this season with respect to playoff odds. Maybe the White Sox need to hear it, however, because watching a team with playoff hopes employ strategies that might be reasonable for a team twenty games out of the race in September is frustrating, to put it mildly. One can excuse losses (such as yesterday’s) where the team’s best players appear and simply cannot get the job done. Unfortunately, Saturday’s loss does not apply.
Punting games in a 162 game season, while irritating and perhaps extreme, can at least sometimes have justifications (if a bullpen is extremely taxed, for instance). Punting games in a 60 game season when a team is trying to compete is absolutely inexcusable, especially with a bullpen that is already well-rested. Such a “strategy”, if one can even call it that, brings flashbacks to the Bulls’ head coach Jim Boylen pulling his starters a few minutes into the second half in a relatively close game (by modern NBA standards) so that they can “rest for tomorrow’s practice”, only for the reserves to end up losing the game by a record margin and the aforementioned practice to be cancelled. This is a long-winded way of saying that actively attempting to lose is absurd, and it deserves to be called out.
Of course, I am talking about the fact that the White Sox trusted Drew Anderson to throw four innings of baseball against a division rival based solely on reports that his fastball had more life at the team’s Schaumburg training site. I truly hope Anderson lands on his feet after being designated for assignment yesterday, as it is not his fault that he was asked to perform an impossible task. Yet, one does not have to be a baseball genius to take even the slightest look at his track record or his tape and deduce that Anderson may not have been the best option to face Cleveland for multiple innings on Saturday.
The only logical counter I have seen for this move is that bullpen injuries have been piling up across the league, and saving innings on the bullpen should be a priority. I agree with the sentiment, but it does not apply when a multi-inning reliever in Ross Detwiler, who had not pitched in five days, ended up appearing in the game once it was out of reach. In fact, based on the pitchers who did pitch in the game and the schedules of those who did not, the majority of the bullpen was likely available on Saturday.
To conclude, the White Sox have still played respectable baseball this season, especially when one considers the injuries the team has dealt with. Yet, there seems to be a disconnect between the messaging the franchise has sent out to fans concerning the intention to win/make the playoffs and the way the team is being managed. While it is still quite possible, if not likely, that the team does make the playoffs in spite of punting a game here and there, it is disappointing that the organization does not appear to understand the extreme importance each game carries.
Should the White Sox miss the playoffs by a game or two, do not look back and lament close losses like yesterday’s; rather, blame purposeful non-competitiveness like Saturday.
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Renteria determines who plays and for how long not Coop, imo. Another disturbing trend is how the “Sox big guns” are consistently suckers for sliders and curveballs out of thee strike zone. Cleveland’s pitchers rarely threw pitches for strikes as they knew the Sox hitters would swing and miss at pitches wide and/or below the strike zone all day long. Where is the teaching by the Sox’s coaches to look for and take those pitches to force enemy pitchers to actually throw strikes to get them out???? The Sox has to be the easiest team to pitch to that has a lot of talent in mlb. If Renteria and company can’t fix this situation, get rid of them and hire someone who can actually help these guys be better hitters and reach their potential.
The decision to start Anderson was inexcusable.Cooper should be fired.
Cooper’s decision to start Anderson is inexcusable.
He is a loser and should be fired.