Analyze This

Last night, everyone at American Family Field outside of White Sox manager Mickey Mouse knew it was just a matter of time until the visitors found a way to lose their ninth game in a row. And, oh boy, did they find a way. Mickey’s kids were ahead 5-4 going into the bottom of the seventh inning when the Brew Crew hit them with a barrage of six singles and two doubles to take a 10-5 lead. The Sox bullpen, being both very bad and very generous, allowed another two runs in the eighth to complete a 12-5 pasting. Sox pitchers gave up 23 hits, eighteen singles and five doubles. Doing a spot-on impression of a deer caught in the headlights, Mouse told reporters after the game, “We have to look at the video for sure and see where we were, but look at the data and see what happened." [quote from today’s story on team website] A really good team beat a really bad team, that’s what happened. And the losing becomes all the more likely with Mouse at the helm. His infatuation with catcher Martin Maldonado is one for the ages. Maldonado went 0-for-3, dropping his batting average to .079, which is 121 points below the Mendoza Line. Not only that, Mouse has played both his catchers the past two games. Why does that matter? Well, if the game is in the late innings and Maldonado is due up, Mouse all of a sudden wakes up to the reality his catcher isn’t going to get a hit; Maldonado is 0-for-his-last-25. But if you pinch-hit for Maldonado and Korey Lee is already in the game, Lee moving from DH to catcher means the Sox lose the DH. That’s exactly what happened both Wednesday and last night, though, mercifully, the pitcher’s spot never came up. Like the philosopher said, stupid is as stupid does.