Torpedo That

I wonder if the Mariners or Royals had opened their season by hitting a whole bunch of homeruns with a different kind of bat how long it would’ve taken the national media to take note. Because the Yankees did it with the so-called bottle bat, baseball fans have been hearing about it 24/7. And— So what? A hot team beat a cold team (the Brewers’ pitching staff gave up fifteen longballs), and one of the cold team’s starters, Nestor Cortes, used to pitch for the hot team, which may be why they knew what to expect. Cortes, who grooved five pitches over two innings, is now on the IL with elbow issues. So, there’s all that to consider. Plus the fact that after sweeping a cold team, the Bronx Bomber have gone 3-4, including yesterday’s 6-2 loss to the Tigers. Those torpedo bats haven’t helped Carlos Rodon much. Rodon’s record slipped to 1-2 with a 5.19 ERA on the season. Oh, and no homeruns for the visiting New Yorkers. Before the torpedo bat with its bulging barrel (one person’s torpedo is another person’s humpback whale, by the way), we had the cupped bat; the maple bat; and the ash bat, to name a few types and fads. And did I mention the bottle bat? Nellie Fox used one in the 1950s and ’60s, and it looked pretty much like a bottle, if more 7-Up than Coke. My point is, different bats work for different players for different reasons. It’s too early to say that the torpedo bat is the wave of the future. Maybe a torpedo bat in hickory…

A Different Tune

No unicorns and rainbows out of the mouth of White Sox manager Will Venable after yesterday’s 4-3 loss to the Tigers, set up by a bullpen collapse. Nope, it almost sounded like the skipper was ticked. Lefty reliever Fraser Ellard nearly got himself a double play in the ninth, which would’ve meant two out and nobody on with the Sox ahead, 3-1. Instead, with one out and a runner on first, Ellard proceeded to walk Zach McKinstry and Riley Greene, both lefthanded hitters. That brought in Jordan Leasure, who is so early last year. It took all of two pitches for Leasure to give up a walk-off double to Spencer Torkelson, leaving the Sox at 2-7. As for Venable, he told reporters after the game, “Just too many walks out of the bullpen. We expect better out of those guys.” Venable added that Fraser was “in the game to get those guys out, and we’ve got to make them put the ball into play.” [quotes from today’s story in the Sun-Times] Nice to see the manager hold his players accountable in public, so very unlike the previous two seasons, four, really, given how Tony LaRussa never said a bad word about his players. Now I want to know if the manager and general manager care enough to at a minimum move the deck chairs around. You can’t keep sending out the same people if they keep giving you the same results; that’s crazy. Do the sane thing and find the right mix of pitchers, no matter how long or painful the process.

What he Said

Davis Martin pretty much stunk up the joint in Detroit yesterday, allowing seven runs on nine hits over five innings in a 7-2 loss, their fourth in a row. And I thought this was old last season, and the one before that. All of which reminds me of something former GM Jim Bowden said last week on CBS Sports, that this Sox team couldn’t win a championship at the Double-A level even. Bowden cited young pitching and a “lineup filled with fourth and fifth outfielders, fifth and sixth infielders on other teams.” If only he were wrong. But consider today’s lineup against the Tigers. There’s Matt Thaiss (.231); Miguel Vargas (.172); and Jacob Amaya (.111). All three have been written off by other organizations. As for Luis Robert Jr. (.143) and Andrew Vaughn (.154), well, it’s like waiting for Godot, and Godot ain’t coming. Michael A. Taylor and Mike Tauchman? Did Bowden say something about fourth and fifth outfielders? The Sox have a game in Detroit followed by three in Cleveland before coming home to face the Red Sox. Things could get ugly at (Cut)Rate ball-mall by next weekend.

Meet the New Boss?

It’s early, I know, but new White Sox manager Will Venable is starting to sound more than a little like old White Sox manager Mickey Mouse, and that’s not a good thing. Yesterday, Jonathan Cannon labored through 3.2 innings in a 7-4 loss to the Tigers; Cannon threw 88 pitches. But talk about a glass full. “He did a nice job getting ahead and just wasn’t able to put guys away, and the pitch count got up on him,” Venable in spin mode told reporters after the game. Oh, and Cannon “did a nice job dealing with some traffic,” as in three hits, three walks and two hit-by-pitch. [quotes in today’s Tribune] Down at Triple-A Charlotte, heir apparent at shortstop Colson Montgomery continues to struggle. Last night, Montgomery went 1-for-3, which raised his average to .087, with sixteen strikeouts in 23 at-bats. According to Venable, not to worry. It’s early, a weekend hot streak will give him good numbers. Montgomery “left spring training in a good spot. I don’t think anyone’s going to look too deeply at 20 [now 23] at-bats.” [quote in today’s Sun-Times] Ah, Skipper, Montgomery was not in a good spot at the end of spring training, because he got sent down instead of opening the season at shortstop for the Sox, as just about everybody—including you, I’m sure—expected. He didn’t hit well last year at Triple-A (.214), so the worry is, or should be, that this is a continuation of that. There’s a difference between accentuating the positive and living in an alternate reality, where Mouse pitched his tent for close to two years before getting what he so richly deserved. Do you really want to join him?

Front and Back

Everything was backwards—I pitch out front and play catch in the yard. No, wait. I did out front with Clare. Leo wanted to hit in back. Everyone came over for dinner yesterday (White Fence Farm fried chicken, family pack, hush puppies to die for), and there was enough time for a half-hour of hitting. Leo also wanted to show off his new shoes. “They’re fast,” he declared before losing a race with the dog to the kitchen. “Why is Penny faster?” “That’s because she runs on four paws,” I answered with the wisdom of a grandparent. It was also dinnertime, and my dog will not be beat to her bowl. In another two months, I’m going to switch out bats so that my grandson is swinging the same one his mother did at that age (3-5/6 years). What impresses me isn’t so much that he can put plastic balls into the neighbor’s yard so much as his doing it off of live pitching instead of a tee. Maybe that makes him further ahead in development than his mom, maybe not. I never even thought to pitch to Clare at the exact same age. But it should get interesting come June.

The Real World

The greatest clown show on earth, aka the Chicago Bears, were at it again yesterday, promising another hundred years of mediocrity while displaying an arrogance to take your breath away. Munsters’ chair George McCaskey, at the NFL owners’ meeting in Palm Beach, told reporters, “We’ve said for many years we intend to own the Bears for as long as possible. Another hundred years would be great.” Read it and weep, fans. Then we had team president and CEO Kevin Warren perform the latest version of his shakedown dance for public money to help build a stadium, anywhere, somewhere. For the past year or so, Warren has tried to generate public support behind a behemoth on the lake south of Soldier Field. Yesterday, he signaled that suburban Arlington Heights was in play as well. Wait, there’s more. In true “cake and eat it too” fashion, Warren wants the Bears to own the project while paying next to no taxes on it. “We don’t want tax certainty for the first five years with a building you hope lasts for 30 or 40 years. We want to pay our taxes, but you don’t want to find yourself in the position where fifteen years down the road, your tax bill quadruples.” [all quotes from today’s Tribune] Kevin, real estate taxes go up all the time in Cook County, and it doesn’t matter—at least for homeowners—how unfair or onerous it might be; if the assessed property rate goes up, so does the tax bill. Given that you keep promising a unicorn entertainment/stadium district, that means the value of the property will increase yes? But it should be other property owners who pay full freight on their tax bill? Sorry, but that’s not how things go in the real world. You should visit sometime.

The Path Not Taken

The White Sox have had themselves a nice little run of starting pitching the first five games of the season, including last night, when Rule-5 acquisition Shane Smith threw 5-2/3 shutout innings against the Twins. Too bad Smith lost his control and walked the final two batters he face3d. That led Will Venable to call on his bullpen, as if he had one. A 3-0 lead turned into an 8-3 loss. Of course, Smith and Martin Perez might not be with the Sox if management had decided to keep Garrett Crochet, someone the Red Sox think enough of to award a six-year, $170 million extension. But, hey, we got a whole bunch of minor leaguers in exchange for the 25-year old lefty. Who cares if Kyle Teel sits in Triple-A? Crochet and Sean Burke and Jonathan Cannon and Davis Martin and Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith? We don’t need no stinkin’ high-priced ace. That’s big-market ball. The White Sox prefer to develop, then trade. It’s the path they’ve taken, every time.