A Kinder, Gentler Ahab

You’d think most people would know better than to follow a latter-day Captain Ahab, but not Jerry Reinsdorf. Tony La Russa as manager suits the White Sox owner just fine, Pity the players on team Pequod. Let me be clear here—La Russa rests players in May as if it were August, and he makes out lineups that defy sense, as do many of his bullpen decisions. Take yesterday’s doubleheader in Kansas City, please. In game one, La Russa sat Andrew Vaughn, then batted him sixth in game two. The last three games Vaughn has played, he’s batted second, ninth (!) and sixth. It appears that Vaughn’s place in the lineup is anywhere his manager feels like putting him. La Russa then sat Tim Anderson in game two. Nothing like a lineup with three hitters—Yasmani Grandal, Leury Garcia and Josh Harrison—all batting under .186. And the thing with La Russa, a game off is a game off, no pinch-hitting or any other activity for the sitting player. Consequences, like a great white whale, be damned. The Sox took the first game against the Royals, 3-0. In the second game, they called up righthander Davis Martin to start. Martin responded with five innings of one-run ball. Too bad that wasn’t good enough to get the 25-year old a win. La Russa being La Russa (and a HOFer, BTW), Martin was followed by rookie lefthander Tanner Banks, who gave up a career-first homerun to lefty-hitting M.J. Melendez. Game over, it just took the Sox three more innings to realize that. The Sox did score a run in the eighth inning, just as they had Harrison thrown out at the plate for the third out in what would become a 2-1 final score. Maybe Anderson could’ve pinch-hit at some point, say, for Garcia, who led off the inning? If not, why not? Calling all beat writers. If, by some miracle, the Sox advance to and through the playoffs, it will be in spite of Ahab, not because of him.