Critical Thinking

Off his performance Tuesday against the Cubs, White Sox starter Carson Fulmer reminds me of ex-Sox pitcher Jacob Turner, and that’s not a good thing.  Turner was the sunny optimist, when it came to his pitching.  He never did badly; it was just the occasional pitch that went where it shouldn’t have, or a seeing-eye groundball that prolonged an inning.  Maybe if he were a tad more critical of his performances, Turner would have better career numbers than a 14-30 record and 5.09 ERA.  That kind of performance with that kind of thinking is what lands you trying to make the staff in Miami, where Turner currently finds himself.

And Fulmer will be joining him, if he thinks his stuff is so good.  The 24-year old righty gave up four runs on five hits in one-plus inning of work.  Granted, he could have been out of the first with just one run scoring, if not for an error by left fielder Nicky Delmonico, but that’s when you bear down, or so I’m told.  All Fulmer did was keep surrendering baserunners.  To cap it off, he sounded downright giddy about his performance.

“I was able to pound the strike zone,” he told reporters.  “I got ahead of a lot of hitters.  With two strikes, I tried to be a little too fine.  [And when he gave up a home run to leadoff batter Ian Happ on a 1-0 count?]”  All in all, “a lot of positives.”  If you say so, Carson.

Maybe I should have Clare text him.  As soon as I thought she was old enough to handle it, I always let her know what I thought of her performance that day, with the emphasis on how it could improve.  I know my daughter didn’t like to hear it always, but I wanted her to be able to critique herself the way coaches did.  It must be different for #1 draft picks.