A Genius He is Not, Maybe

White Sox manager Tony La Russa is nothing if not weird when filling out his lineup cards. Last night, for example, he penciled in both his catchers, Zack Collins at DH and Seby Zavala behind the plate. Let me note here the Sox carry only two catchers. The problem is, Zavala can’t hit, or at least he hasn’t shown he can so far, with a .167 BA in eighteen at-bats and a career .256 BA in the minors. What happens when Zavala comes up with the bases loaded? Well, last night in the sixth inning against the Twins, he grounded out to end the inning. A similar situation unfolded in the bottom of the eighth with the Sox down 5-4, two runners on and one out. This time, La Russa pinch-hit for Zavala with Andrew Vaughn, who singled in the tying run. Yea, only now Collins has to go in and catch, which means the Sox lose the DH for the rest of the game. Good thing Billy Hamilton (!) singled in the go-ahead run and Jose Abreu followed with a three-run bomb to make it all academic, if you will. But, still, both catchers? Am I missing something, unable to see a genius at work here? I doubt it. But enough of my troubles with Tony La Russa. How ‘bout those Twins, with two back-to-back soul-crushing losses? To which I can only say, would you like to make it three in a row? I did a quick check and, according to mcubed.net, for every decade since the 1960s through the 2010s, the Sox came out ahead of Minnesota all of one time. Turnaround is fair play, I say, especially when you can do it against Josh Donaldson and company.