This is the state of sports
writing in the second decade of the 21st century. A columnist for the Tribune offers, “While
you were sleeping, young White Sox starter Reynaldo Lopez delivered a quality
start [in Oakland Monday], allowing just two runs in six innings and then the
bullpen and defense turned into a joke, giving up six runs in the seventh and
eighth innings to make sure the Sox couldn’t steal it. That’s pretty much the ideal game for a tank
season.”
“Tank season?” Says you, buddy. This kind of mindset is toxic. The more Lopez loses close games, the more
he’ll be tempted to push himself to be perfect the next time out, which for
young pitchers means wanting to throw fastballs and hard curves or
sliders. That’s a recipe for
injury. But, hey, injuries translate
into defeats, and defeats cement a good place in the next draft, right?
I wonder how often
managers, coaches and front offices fall victim to that mindset: Not this guy or this year, but those guys in
the pipeline, next year and the year after.
Before you know it, you’ve had five drafts in a row where 90-100 loss
seasons should’ve netted you a boatload of talent. Only players get injured or fail to develop
or don’t mesh with teammates. At the
risk of repeating myself (yet again), consider the track record of a team like
the Pirates. And that rebuild in Kansas
City sure had a short shelf life.
It’s not how you lose
that counts, it’s how you draft and trade and sign free agents, regardless your
record. In the long run, rebuilds are for
losers and snarky sportswriters.
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