Tapping the Brakes

Oh, we wouldn’t want the White Sox to get ahead of themselves with their rebuild, now would we?  Things were apparently getting out of hand last week after Eloy Jimenez hit a ninth-inning homerun to beat the Cubs and move the South Siders to within one game of .500.  According to yesterday’s Tribune, that’s when manager Rick Renteria stepped in to slow things down.

 

“I have to defuse [expectations] a little bit, trying not to get these guys too pumped up, allow them to stay focused on the job they need to do between the lines.  And I hope that makes sense.”  It really doesn’t matter one way or the other.  Renteria is a good company man doing what the front office tells him to.  If general manager Rick Hahn didn’t write those words, Renteria did a spot-on impersonation.

 

How exactly do you keep a team from getting ahead of itself?  Why, you start Odrisamer Despaigne and play Yonder Alonso against the Rangers in Texas, that’s how.  Despaigne, he of the 0-2 record and 9.45 ERA in three starts, was staked to a 4-0, first-inning lead, only to give it all back by the third inning in a game the Sox lost, 6-5.   Despaigne called giving up the lead “unacceptable.”  No kidding.

 

As for Alonso, he’s living proof that the Sox will never admit to an error in acquiring a player (See: Adam Dunn).  He’s making $8 million this year, with a $9 million option for next season.  The buyout will cost the Sox $1 million, a bargain given that Alonso is hitting .178 with 53 strikeouts in 214 at-bats.  It only seems that he’s hit into that many double plays.

 

Yesterday, Alonso made a two-out error in the second inning that preceded a two-run homer.  Then, in the top of the eighth innings, runners in scoring position with one out and the Sox down by a run, Renteria kept the left-handed hitting Alonso to face lefty reliever Brett Martin.  Texas was playing the infield back, conceding the tying run.  No matter.  Alonso struck out on a 2-2 pitch.  Oh, and he hit into a double play in an eventual 7-4 Sox loss.

 

So, that’s how you keep a team from getting ahead of itself.  Again, I blame this all on my daughter.  If she had found a way to keep playing softball, I’d have something better to do than watch this “rebuild.”  Remember to dot that I.