Mismanagement

By some miracle last night, reclamation project Jose Urena pitched creditably, holding the Twins to just two runs over six innings. Then, something happened. Urena gave up a one-out single, followed by a double, single and homerun. A 2-0 game suddenly turned into a six-run deficit on its way to a 10-2 route. And where was White Sox manager Mickey Mouse during all this? According to his postgame comments, Mouse didn’t want to change pitchers because the Twins’ starter Kenta Maeda was doing so well, giving up just three singles over six innings. Mouse then offered that he might’ve considered changing pitchers in the seventh had the score been tied. Along with analyst Gordon Beckham, I have no idea what he meant. I’m also a little tired of the way Luis Robert Jr. is being touted as the Next Real Big Deal, all because of thirty-five homers and doubles along with seventeen stolen bases. And the .266 BA or the 161 strikeouts, including three last night? Not a word. One of the reasons Willie Mays was a great ballplayer is the fact that, over the course of twenty-three seasons, he struck out over a hundred times just once, at age forty. Mays recorded 112 walks to go with 123 strikeouts that season (1971). And at age twenty-six, Ken Griffey Jr. drove in 140 runs while striking out 104 times. In other words, Robert is good, but he has a ways to go before achieving anything close to greatness.