Well, cell
phones work from Indiana, which is always good news. Clare called yesterday afternoon to tell me
the White Sox sent Jordan Danks back to the minors. An above average outfielder who might hit
fifteen homeruns if someone gave him 500 at-bats, Danks and players like him
are all but non-existent on big-league rosters.
Thank you, Tony La Russa.
Once upon a
time, teams carried players who could come off the bench to play late-inning
defense, pinch hit and/or pinch run.
This was in the era of ten-man pitching staffs. Then along came La Russa with his lefty-lefty,
righty-righty matchups. Something has to
give on a 25-player roster, and it ended up being the jack-of-all-trades like
Jordan Danks. But, hey, this weekend the
Sox will have a Tony La Russa bobblehead giveaway.
With luck, before
long a team will make news by going back to the future with a ten-pitcher staff
and six-player bench. After some manager
steals a few wins with his extra bench players, the competition will look to
copy his success. And the legacy of Tony
La Russa will undergo a downsizing that has been too long in coming.
No comments:
Post a Comment