Same Old Same Old

First, the good news on Michael Kopech—he struck out five batters in two inning of work yesterday in his first start of the spring. The bad news—it took him 29 pitches to get out of the first. In comparison, the second inning took a mere sixteen pitches. Did I mention Kopech went 3-2 on six batters? Teams don’t win when their starters spend half the day getting six outs, which goes a long way explaining why the White Sox don’t win with Kopech on the mound. Another reason is the team’s pitching philosophy based on the belief pitchers are interchangeable. The Sox will prove this idea even if it kills off their fan base. This is an organization that alienated Jack McDowell; let Mark Buehrle walk; and failed to build a team around Chris Sale, so they traded him. Jerry Reinsdorf doesn’t like committing long term to pitchers, which leads to rotations that are a patchwork of rookies and castoffs and wannabes. Kopech and Jonathan Cannon and Erick Fedde, oh my. The Sox had a 6-2 lead against the Cubs going into the bottom of the fifth yesterday, the North Siders’ two runs coming courtesy of one inning of work by Jesse Chavez, he of the 24.00 ERA. Chavez looked lights-out, though, compared to Touki Toussaint, who gave up six runs, four earned, in .1 inning of work. That comes out to a 108.00 ERA in case you’re wondering. The Sox went on to lose, 10-6. But, hey, it’s only spring. They’ll find out which pitchers can pitch before the month is out. Or they won’t. Either way, it’s only pitching, which is why they can trade away Dylan Cease.