Notes, quotes and comment

Bartolo Colon made what was presumably his sole minor-league tune-up start Thursday night for Rochester, the Twins' Triple A affiliate. His stat line was not particularly encouraging: 3.2 innings, 4 hits, 4 runs, 2 walks, 5 strikeouts. He threw 76 pitches.

Those determined to find a reason to believe can latch onto the strikeouts. I'm inclined to pay more attention to the walks, because Colon's success in recent years was based largely on the fact that he almost never walked anybody. His command was impeccable until this season. This year it has been emphatically peccable.

Still, the Twins roster lacks a fifth starter, and somebody's going to get called up to start Tuesday against the Yankees. Colon is lined up for that assignment. I expect him to get that start, and I expect him to get shelled.

I would also expect Felix Jorge to get shelled if he gets the start. It's not like the Twins are sitting on Clayton Kershaw. They have no good answers available.

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The Chicago White Sox picked up another prospect haul Thursday by trading lefty-starter Jose Quintana to their North Side neighbors. The Sox got four minor leaguers, including current Baseball America coverboy Eloy Jimenez and pitcher Dylan Cease.

Quintana is a quality pitcher, and he's under team control for several more seasons; that's the kind of asset any organization would value, and I'm sure the Twins would have loved to land him. But they do not have any prospects as highly regarded as Jimenez, a power-hitting outfielder, and their best pitching prospects are roughly comparable to Cease. 

The Sox farm system is getting pretty stocked up with the returns of the Adam Eaton, Chris Sale and Quintana trades. If their player development system gets this right, they figure to be mighty tough around 2020.

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Baseball's back today from the All-Star break, and hooray for that.

Baseball's version of 'Deflategate'

It has come to my attention that in the grotesquely popular spectacle/sport that is the NFL a controversy has erupted over whether a team tampered with the gameballs and garnered a competitive advantage by having said balls in sub-optimal condition.

For the baseball fan conversant with the history of the superior game, this is a big "been there, done that." And I'm not talking about spitballs, shineballs, scuffballs or any other pitcher shenanigans intended to enhance a pitch's movement. I'm talking about the ball before it's put into play.

The 1967 American League pennant race was a real doozy. Four of the 10 teams in the league -- Boston, Minnesota, Detroit and Chicago -- went to the final weekend for the pennant, and the first three teams were all still in it on the final day.

White Sox manager Eddie Stanky had a gifted pitching staff and a solid set of fielders but a lineup almost completely without power. This may sound odd to modern fans, used to the Sox as a collection of defensively challenged sluggers, but it was was typical of the White Sox back then; for decades, the franchise's operating philosophy was that if you never give up a run, eventually the opposition will make a mistake and give you one.

But even by White Sox standards, the '67 squad was challenged at the plate. Stanky, a disciple of Leo Durocher, came up with an inventive, if  unethical, solution for home games. The baseballs at Comiskey Park were stored in a damp storage room -- so damp, the story goes, that the balls (dozens of them) brought out for each home game had to be wiped clean of mildew and put in fresh boxes before being delivered to the umpires.

The soggy, moisture-laden balls didn't go far when struck solidly. Since the Sox didn't strike many balls solidly, that wasn't much of an issue for them, and the power gap with the opposition was thinned.

That may have worked for the Sox at home, but Stanky didn't have control over the baseballs for their road games. The Sox went 49-33 at home with the tampered balls, 40-40 on on the road. (I'm not sure how they wound up with an extra home game, but those numbers come from Baseball Reference.) As it turned out, the Sox had a better road record than two of the contenders, but they still finished three games out of first place.

Winter meetings, Day Two: White Sox strike

Jeff Samardzija has never
had a 10-win season.

The word in the wee hours of Tuesday morning (at least here in the Central time zone) was that the Chicago White Sox had both traded for Jeff Samardzija and signed David Robertson.

The first is a power starter who had a 2.99 ERA last season, the second a closer who racked up 39 saves as the successor to Mariano Rivera as the Yankees closer.

Added to the quick free agent signing of first baseman Adam LaRoche and reliever Zach Duke, plus the anticipated return to health of outfielder Avisail Garcia, these moves had some people proclaiming the Sox contenders in the AL Central for 2015.

I'm not so sure.

Every winter some team makes a big splash in the transactions market and is acclaimed the winner of the offseason, and then those expectations come to naught. Remember the Toronto Blue Jays a couple of winters ago? They added Jose Reyes and Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson and ohmigosh, what a team. They finished fifth, a.k.a. last.

Activity in December does not necessarily equate to wins in the summer.

Samardzija, LaRoche and Robertson might make the Sox better, Or the Sox might just spin their wheels.

The well-traveled LaRoche is 35 and slashed .248/.347/.429 the past two years combined in Washington. I don't see him as a real upgrade from the debated (and retired) Adam Dunn as the lefty slugger in the middle of the lineup.

Samardzija's reputation, and his talent, outshines his fairly pedestrian 36-48, 3.85 career record. He does represent an upgrade for the White Sox rotation, but his track record doesn't compare to the first three guys in the Tiger rotation, even excluding free-agent Max Scherzer.

The 2014 Sox had a below average offense (particularly troublesome for the White Sox because their home park is a hitters haven) and one of the worst defenses in the league. At the moment they have no obvious second baseman, a problem at catcher and an outfield that figures to display about as much range as the Twins outfield, which is to say not much at all.

I still don't see them as a threat to the Tigers and Royals at the top of the division.

Pic of the Week

How not to play a pop up, by the Chicago White Sox infield.

Perhaps you saw the incredible display of infield incompetence Tuesday night in Chicago, when White Sox third baseman Conor Gillapsie was settling under the pop-up that would end the game only to have second baseman Gordon Beckham brush by pitcher Addison Reed (who was just standing around rather than doing his job of directing traffic), stumble and take Gillapsie's legs out from under him, allowing the Mets to tie the game.

The Sox won anyway, but still ... this is 1962 Mets stuff. They've almost got to try to be this bad.

EPSN and MLB went with the Mets call on their highlights, which was amusing in its own right, with Gary Cohen suddenly squealing as "the Mets have tied the game!" But really, the call everybody wanted to hear was Hawk Harrelson's. He does not disappoint,  as transcribed by Jim Margalus of the South Side Sox blog:

Ohhhhhh ... you gotta be bleepin' me. [stolen base goes undescribed] You have GOT to be ... thisnmt, mmmghhh ... oh-and-one the count to Brown. [pause] Looooooooord have mercy. [pause] Unbelieveable. Un. Believable.

Margalus has some interesting thoughts about Harrelson, bad baseball and memories. 

Notes, quotes and comment

Aaron Slegers pitches in the College World Series. The
Twins fifth-round pick is 6-foot-10.

With the College World Series over, the Twins this week have largely wrapped up their draft signings.

Pitchers Ryan Eades (LSU, second round) and Aaron Slegers (Indiana, fifth round) signed shortly after their teams were eliminated in Omaha. Two other Indiana players drafted by the Twins, third baseman Dustin DeMuth (eighth round) and pitcher Ryan Halstead (26th round) have declared their intention to stay in school, but that may be a negotiating ploy.

The signing deadline is July 12.

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What an ugly doubleheader Friday between the Tribe and the White Sox. The first game was 19-10 Cleveland, with the two teams combing for more than 400 pitches total — 112 just to get the first nine outs. The White Sox alone threw 230 pitches in that game, the highest team total for nine innings in the pitch count era.

In the two games, the Indians had 28 runs and 33 hits, the Sox 18 runs and 26 hits. Cleveland pitcher Trevor Bauer, a prime prospect disposed of by Arizona during the offseason largely because the D-backs had tried of dealing with him, was so bizarre in his awful start (he pitched from the stretch throughout, even with no one on, and still paid no attention to the baserunners) that it was seriously suggested that the Tribe would send him back to A ball rather than Triple A.

Of course, things were already hideous on the South Side.  I'll talk more in Sunday's Pic of the Week post about the incredible dropped popup of Tuesday. In Hawk Harrelson's words: "You have got to be bleeping me."

On a different level of "you have got to be bleeping me," White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko reportedly had SIX pain-killer injections in his back the other day. Six. I'm no medico, but that sort of thing scares me.

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Miguel Sano hit a pair of home runs Friday night for New Britain; that gives him six since he moved up to Double A.

He started off slow when he hit Double A less than three weeks ago, and his batting average there is still only .236, but six dingers in 67 plate appearances (plus a double and two triples) ain't bad. It adds up to a .655 slugging percentage after 17 games.

AL Central: Going all festival

The Twins weren't the only major league team holding a promotional "fest" last weekend -- with the offweek in the NFL playoffs, it was a good opportunity to get some headlines and remind fans that spring training is just a couple of weeks away.

Around the division's fan fests:

Detroit: Perhaps the biggest question for the Tigers is: Who closes? Jim Leyland, the manager, had an amusing answer and a more sincere one, and the sincere one can be found in the link: Prospect Bruce Rondon is the leading candidate, but Leyland wants to get a sense of his makeup before committing to the kid in the ninth inning.

But I liked this one, from the first day of Tigerfest: This is why I like these forums, so I can think about these things. I don't know what I'm going to do.

Chicago: The ghost of A.J. Pierzynski, who signed with Texas as a free agent, apparently haunted Soxfest. That's understandable: Pierzynski has been a durable, productive catcher who fit well with the South Siders self-image, and nobody really knows what to expect of Tyler Flowers, the heir apparent.

I understand why the Sox let A.J. go. He's in his mid-30s, and he has a lot of mileage on his tires. Catchers typically don't last as long as he has. But I expect the Sox will miss him a great deal. 

Kansas City: Actually held its fanfest the previous week. The Royals, who've been compiling a lineup of talented young position players, were rather aggressive about getting starting pitchers -- Jamie Shields, Jeremy Guthrie, Edwin Santana, Wade Davis -- and the organization obviously wants to make its move up the standings now.

I have the sense that the K.C. fan base isn't fully buying it.

Cleveland: Also held its Tribefest the previous week. Hey: Terry Francona! Nick Swisher! A couple of new names the casual fan knows! 

The offseason move that matters most was probably trading for pitching prospect Trevor Bauer, but that's not the kind of guy who packs the autograph lines.

Ex-Twins watch: Francisco Liriano

Francisco Liriano gets the hook Tuesday against Cleveland.

Francisco Liriano started Tuesday for the White Sox. He didn't make it out of the fourth inning: 3.2 innings, seven hits, four runs — and the loss.

Losing Tuesday's game dropped the White Sox into a tie with the Tigers for first place. A bit more than a week ago, Chicago had seemingly left the Tigers for dead; now it's all even.

Liriano's ERA for the Sox is 5.39, and he's had just four quality starts in 11 starts -- with two of those good outing coming against the Twins. Liriano's White Sox ERA is now worse than his ERA with the Twins this year.

I don't think this was what the White Sox were looking for when they traded for him in July. I don't think this is what Liriano and his agent were hoping for in his free agent walk year.

And yet, as I looked Monday at this list of pitchers heading into free agency ... well, it's lacking in good bets.

I'm using Scott Diamond as my yardstick here. Who on this list figures to be better than Diamond over the course of the contract? I'm thinking, of course, in terms of the Twins. If they can come up with two starters who are better than Diamond — who has his flaws — they're contenders. If Diamond's their best starter, they aren't.

Free agents, by definition, are veterans with some miles on their treads. Zach Greinke is easily the best of this lot; everybody else comes with issues.

Liriano is comparatively young; he's talented; he doesn't figure to break the bank. He left on good terms. And he's looked very good in his two starts against the Twins, which feeds into their Craig Monroe Syndrome (a tendency to misjudge players who do better against the Twins than against the rest of the league).

When the Twins traded him, I couldn't imagine that they would have any interest in bringing him back this winter. Now I can imagine it.

Backing their way to the top

White Sox second baseman Gordon Beckham leaves the
field as the Kansas City Royals celebrate a 4-3 win
on Thursday.

A week ago today the Chicago White Sox took a three-game lead on the Detroit Tigers, and I opined in the next day's post that it would be "mighty difficult" for the Tigers to make up that ground in what remained of the season.

Today the Sox have lost five in a row, and the only reason they're still in first place is that the lowly Twins swept Detroit in a doubleheader Sunday.

Matt Carson slides into Detroit catcher Alex Avila during
the fifth inning of Sunday's second game. Avila threw the
ball into right field, allowing the Twins to tie the
game. It was Detroit's second error of the inning.

One of Chicago and Detroit is going to win the American League Central title, and I'm not sure either really deserves to.  There probably weren't a lot of Minnesotans watching the Twins-Tigers game Sunday afternoon instead of the Vikings-49ers, but I was one — and Detroit put on such a ghastly display in the field in the sixth inning that the notion of the Tigers in the playoffs seems laughable.

The Twins plated five runs that inning. All were officially earned, but by my reckoning the Tigers gave the Twins five extra outs and about eight bases. They played one fly ball into a triple, another into a single, failed to turn a double play, turned another grounder into an infield hit, threw two wild pitches, and mistook a tag play for a force out.

Which provided one of my favorite quotes of the 2012 season, Tigers manager Jim Leyland on pitcher Brayan Villarreal thinking he had a force play at the plate on a wild pitch: "He's probably not an expert on the rule book, to be honest with you."

Chicago and Detroit are clearly better this year than Kansas City, Cleveland or the Twins, but whoever emerges from this death grip on mediocrity will be no more than the seventh best team in the league.

The microcosm play

Detroit second baseman Omar Infante tumbles to the ground
after Alex Rios' takeout slide in the fifth inning Monday.
Infante's throw bounced past Prince Fielder at first base,
allowing two runs to score.

A major league team plays 162 games. Those 162 games are built out of thousands of plays (every American League team has had more than 5,450 plate appearances, and there are about two weeks to go in the season).

Every once in a while, one of those plays turns into a microcosm of the season. One such occurred Monday in Chicago, where the White Sox and Tigers were playing for, at least in theory, the last time in 2012.

Bases loaded for Chicago, one out in the fifth inning. Dayan Viciedo hit a two-hopper to shortstop Jhonny Peralta — a routine double play — and the Tigers didn't turn it. See the play here.

Credit Alex Rios for his takeout slide. Blame second baseman Omar Infante for turning his pivot in front of the bag, rather than behind it. Note that rotund Prince Fielder failed utterly in his task of picking the long bounce of Infante's throw.

There were a lot of pieces to the play. But the result was two runs —two runs that would not have scored had the Tigers turned the routine DP, two runs that turned the score from 4-3 Detroit to 5-4 Chicago, a score that held the rest of the way.

The second run, the one officially unearned run, was the 68th unearned run allowed by the Tigers this year. That's the most in the American League, and that's the stat that makes this play a symbol of what went wrong for the heavily favored Tigers this year.

They knew coming in that they would be a weak defensive team. They thought they could outslug their defensive problems. They were wrong.

Chicago now leads the AL Central by three games with 16 games to play. It's not impossible for the Tigers to catch them, but it's going to be mighty difficult.

Francisco Liriano and the Sox

Francisco Liriano delivers Saturday in a
familiar setting but an unfamiliar uniform.

A day or so after the Chicago White Sox traded for Francisco Liriano, Sox general manager Kenny Williams said that the organization, and specifically pitching coach Don Cooper, "(sees) some things from (Liriano) we think immediately will show some better results."

From this distance, it appears that something was: Pitch him against the Twins.

Liriano has had two starts against the Twins since the trade; 1-0, 2.77, with 17 strikeouts and 11 baserunners in 13 innings. On Saturday he made a short-notice start and threw seven one-hit innings against his old mates.

Against everybody else since coming to the South Side, Liriano is 2-1, 5.97. He had pitched his way out of the Chicago rotation, just as he had early in the year with the Twins.

Liriano was only starting Saturday's game because the first-place White Sox got rained out of a Thursday game with the second-place Detroit Tigers and the game is to be made up today. The weather washed out a mano-a-mano matchup between Chris Sale and Justin Verlander; the two aces pitched Friday instead, making each unavailable for today's makeup.

The Sox chose to push rookie Jose Quintana, originally scheduled to start Saturday, back a couple of days to face the Tigers. (He'll be opposed by Doug Fister.)

That backdrop — Liriano losing his rotation spot, the rainout in a crucial series, the reshuffled rotation to have Quintana face the team Chicago has to beat — made ridiculous Dan Gladden's analysis of the White Sox' likely playoff rotation.

Sale and Jake Peavy are the obvious top two guys, but then, proclaimed the Twins radio broadcaster during Saturday's game, it's got to be Liriano. How about Quintana, prodded Cory Provus. "Too young," said Gladden.

Quintana is young (23) and inexperienced, and the White Sox have handled him rather gingerly of late. He's also more reliable than Liriano, which is why he's getting the ball today.

Notes, quotes and comment

Quick, without looking it up: Which current Twins player is an Olympic medalist?

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Robin Ventura is having a good first season as manager.

The Chicago White Sox left Target Field on Wednesday having won the series — and in first place in the American League Central.

Not a bad season so far for a team whose general manager at one point during the winter used the word "rebuilding" to describe its status and his approach.

There is credit to be spread around, and some of it should go to Robin Ventura, the truly rookie manager of the Pale Hose.

Ventura's selection to succeed Ozzie Guillen raised eyebrows because he had not managed a team on any level. Nor had he been a coach. A successful player, absolutely— Ventura may be the best third baseman in franchise history — but making such a man the dugout boss without an intervening training period has long been regarded as a discredited approach.

I'm not aware of any specific change in on-field strategy or tactics between Guillen and Ventura. There is, however, an obvious difference in public persona. Ventura projects a aura of quiet professionalism. There is nothing quiet about Guillen.

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Manny Acta and the Cleveland Indians have seen
enough of Derek Lowe.

While the White Sox doggedly remain atop the standings, the Cleveland Indians are rapidly fading. And on Wednesday they designated Derek Lowe and his 5.52 ERA for assignment.

Lowe is 39, and this may well be the end of his road; his strikeout rate this year is almost half his career norm, and his walk rate is nearly a career high.

Not many pitchers have led the league (in different seasons) in wins, saves and losses. Lowe has.

Lowe also holds this distinction: In 2004, he was the winning pitcher for the Red Sox in all three postseason series — Game Three of the division series against the Angels, Game Seven of the ALCS against the Yankees, Game Four of the World Series against St. Louis.

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Answer to the Olympian question above: Brian Duensing, who pitched for Team USA in the Beijing Games in 2008. The Americans won the bronze medal in those games, the last with baseball or softball in the mix.

A farewell to Frankie: Liriano traded

Francisco Liriano: 50-52, 4.33 in his
exceedingly up-and-down Twins tenure.

The deal went down soon after the Twins clobbered Cleveland Saturday night: Francisco Liriano goes to the Chicago White Sox for a left-handed pitcher (Pedro Hernandez) who appears to be more command than power, and a good-glove, no-hit shortstop (Eduardo Escobar).

Both players have seen some major league time with the Sox; both are being sent immediately to Rochester.

The trade will be the topic for my Monday print column, so I'm not going to delve any more deeply than this into it tonight.

Pic of the Week

Kevin Youkilis was greeted on his return to
Fenway Park with a standing ovation.

One of the many things that has gone right for the Chicago White Sox -- the surprising leaders in the American League Central for much of the season, until they fell behind Detroit on Saturday -- was the acquisition of Kevin Youkilis.

Youkilis was a mainstay for the Red Sox for years, but he fell out of favor quickly with new manager Bobby Valentine, went on the disabled list -- not a rare event for Youkilis -- and lost playing time to rookie Will Middlebrooks. "Youk" hit .233/.315/.377 for Boston this year.

So the Sawx traded him to Chicago almost a month ago. Since changing his Sox from Red to White, Youkilis has hit (entering Saturday's play) .299/.389/.506 and has hit as many home runs (four) as he did in twice the at-bast for Boston.

Meanwhile, Middlebrooks -- who was hitting .326 the day Youkilis was traded -- has faded. Since June 24 the rookie's slash line is .203/.213/.339. And the Red Sox have already designated one of the players they got for Youkilis (Brent Lillibridge) for assignment.

It has not been a particularly good trade for Boston so far.

Grounds crew games in Chicago

Miguel Cabrera explains the issue
to the home plate umpire,
Adrian Johnson.

The groundskeeper for the Chicago White Sox, Roger Bossard, is the third generation of his family in the field, and he is widely regarded as the best in the business.

And the craftiest. His grandfather, Emil, was the man who helped Bill Veeck rig a movable outfield fence in Cleveland — the numbers on the fence stayed the same, but the wall would move in and out depending on the opponent. Yankees in town, move the fence back; the punchless Senators are visiting, bring 'em in tight. Such illicit gamesmanship helped the Indians win the 1948 pennant (and the World Series; Cleveland hasn't won the Series since). Roger Bossard is the heir to that tradition, and by reputation there is nobody better at grooming the field to the advantage of the home team.

Which makes Friday's batter's box incident at the White Sox's home opener curious indeed.

Miguel Cabrera noticed that the box was not properly aligned with home plate, and the umps quickly agreed. The grounds crew was ordered out to rechalk the boxes. The White Sox radio crew (I was listening via my iPad) ridiculed Cabrera for the delay, but described the boxes as "six to eight inches" too far out toward the pitchers' mound.

Now ... anybody who's watched a grounds crew chalk the boxes knows that kind of error is no accident. They use a template that fits the side of home plate. The only way to make the boxes a half foot out of alignment is to place the template a half-foot out of alignment, and that would be obvious.

Bossard does not run a slipshod operation. If the batters' box was six inches out of place, it was done deliberately.

The thing is, I'm not sure how it helps the White Sox in this particular matchup. Max Scherzer, the Detroit starter, probably throws harder than the declining Jake Peavy, the Sox starter Friday. Peavy could probably use the help — make his fast ball six inches quicker — but Scherzer probably stood to benefit more.

Around the AL Central: Chicago White Sox

The "Smells Like Mascot" take on the White Sox winter.

There is a different sense about the Chicago White Sox this year. Mark Buehrle, the rotation anchor for most of the past decade, is gone. Ozzie Guillen, for better or worse the focal point of the clubhouse for eight seasons, is gone. Kenny Williams, the (overly) aggressive general manager, has pulled in the reins. Robin Ventura, who has never managed on any level, is the dugout boss.

The Twins had the most disappointing season in all of baseball last year, but the White Sox were pretty unhappy with their lack of achievement too. Last year's motto, after all, was "All in." Now Williams is talking about rebuilding -- and that's not easy to do when you have (a) a collection of immovable contracts -- Alex Rios, Adam Dunn, Jake Peavy -- and (b) what is widely regarded as the weakest farm system in the game.

Old habits die hard, and the habit of regarding the Sox as a threat in the division is not dead yet. Wounded, but still breathing.

Much depends on those three aforementioned big-money disappointments. Peavy had five no-hit innings last weekend and says he feels better than he has since coming to Chicago. Dunn's horrendous 2011 may have been linked to his appendectomy and hurried return; that kind of falloff is otherwise inexplicable. I suspect he's primed for a good season. Rios has been bad two of the past three seasons; perhaps moving him out of center field will snap him back to the production he had as a right fielder in Toronto.

I don't see a middle ground here. If the big-money guys stink it up again and Ventura is over his head as manager, this could be a disaster; if Ventura instills a calmer atmosphere and the veterans snap back to the levels that got them their big contracts, they may even contend.

Notes, quotes and comment

It's the law in Illinois: An Illinois appeals court, in the course of upholding a trial court's dismissal of a civil suit filed against the Chicago White Sox for ejecting a fan, ruled (in a footnote) that the Twins are the "arch rival" of the Chicago White Sox.

The relevant text:

Fricano asserts that the Cleveland Indians are “the arch rival” of the Chicago White Sox. While the two teams maintain a healthy rivalry, this court notes that it is generally accepted, at least among informed baseball followers, that the title of arch rival belongs to the reviled Minnesota Twins, to be shared, during inter-league play, with the Chicago Cubs.

I assume that this ruling would be upheld on further appeal, and that a Minnesota court would concur. It should be noted, however, that the ruling specifically says it may not be cited as precedent.

$1,500 for this?

I wonder who a Michigan court would find to be the arch rival of the Tigers. Judging from the Tigers-oriented blogs I keep tabs on, the Twins might qualify there too.

Somebody had too much money: The Kardashian-Humphries ball that the Twins auctioned for their community fund drew a top bid of $1,500.

This is approximately $1,498 too much.

Wakefield calls it quits: Knuckleball artiste Tim Wakefield opted against accepting a minor-league contact with spring training invite from the Boston Red Sox. He announced his retirement on Friday.

So if Jamie Moyer doesn't win a job with the Rockies -- he is on the kind of deal Wakefield declined -- we will be back to not having an active 200-game winner.

R.A. Dickey is now the primary torch-bearer for the flutterball pitch. I have a fondness for knuckleballers, perhaps because it looks like a pitch even I could throw. If it were that easy, of course, there would be more knuckleballers. 

Pitchers and catchers: The Twins batterymen report today, with the first official workout on Sunday. It's a good weekend.

Ventura, Konerko and managing

If these cartoons are any indication, there's considerable skepticism about the selection of Robin Ventura as manager of the Chicago White Sox.

First, from Scott Stantis of the Chicago Tribune:

Then, this from Carl Skanberg of the "Smells Like Mascot" blog, linked to from the sidebar:

I can't help but wonder what the reaction would have been had the Paul Konerko as player-manager brainstorm gone anywhere.

There hasn't been a player-manager since Pete Rose in the mid-1980s. There was time — in the 1930s, during the Depression — when the majority of managers were players as well. It was a cost-savings thing, basically — and that probably was a reason for Kenny Williams to consider Konerko, to save on the salary of a manager.

Robin Ventura, manager

Robin Ventura spent most of his career with
the White Sox, but also played for the Mets,
the Yankees (above, in 2003) and Dodgers.

You can't accuse Kenny Williams, the general manager of the Chicago White Sox, of hiring retread managers. By tabbing Robin Ventura — probably the greatest third baseman in the franchise's 111-year history — to follow Ozzie Guillen as the dugout boss, Williams has hired a man who not only hasn't managed or coached in the majors, he hasn't managed in the minors either.

Trying to guess what kind of strategic manager Ventura is going to be is a fool's game. We do know that he'll have Don Cooper as his pitching coach, and he'd doubtless be wise to allow Cooper a great deal of autonomy in running the staff. 

The most important attribute for a manager is his credibility with the players. It's been seven years since Ventura last played, so his players are likely to know something of his exploits. That's instant credibility.

Keeping that credibility ... Ventura's dealings with players have been as a peer, not as their boss. He hasn't had to look a player in the eye and kick the man's hopes in the teeth, hasn't had to tell him he's getting demoted, hasn't had to tell him he's out of a job. He hasn't had to find the perfect balance between encouraging a struggling player and criticizing him. 

That's the real issue with hiring a completely inexperienced manager -- not whether he knows when to issue an intentional walk or his preference for power or defense at second base, but his ability to deal with egos and emotions over the course of a long season.

The end of the Ozzie era in Chicago

Ozzie Guillen, looking for his way out.

Ozzie Guillen is, finally and fer sure, out as manager of the Chicago White Sox. He had a good run there -- third most wins as a White Sox manager (behind Al Lopez and Jimmy Dykes), managed the only Chicago World Series winner in the past 94 years — but eight years is a long time for a high-pressure manager.

What comes next? For Guillen, it's fairly obvious:  He'll land in Miami as the manager of the Marlins. So will most of his coaching staff — but not pitching coach Don Cooper, who the White Sox are retaining. It will be interesting to see how Guillen fares without Cooper. The Sox have, during Guillen's run, had remarkable success at keeping their starting rotation healthy. Nobody knows how much credit to give anybody for such an accomplishment, but my guess is that Cooper and trainer Herm Schneider deserve more than Guillen.

Before hiring a new manager, the Sox should first decide: Stick with the current approach or blow the roster up and start over? I will be surprised if they take the rebuilding route, for two reasons:

• General manager Kenny Williams doesn't appear to be wired that way and
• The large financial commitments to Alex Rios and Adam Dunn (among others) aren't easy to dispose of.

Just as the Twins are committed to Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau as the core of their team, the Sox are anchored to Rios, Dunn and Paul Konerko.

Tony LaRussa has been linked to the Sox job for years, but the decision to keep Cooper probably rules LaRussa out; LaRussa isn't going anywhere without Dave Duncan as his pitching coach.

Dick-n-Bert, on the Twins telecast Monday night, touted Joey Cora, Guillen's bench coach, as a candidate; while I think Cora's a reasonable candidate elsewhere, Williams will probably prefer to sweep all of Ozzie's guys out the door.

Think fast

The third of Michael Cuddyer's three steals on Wednesday
against the battery of Gavin Floyd and A.J. Pierzynski.

The Twins stole five bases Wednesday night against the Chicago White Sox -- three by that noted speedster Michael Cuddyer, one each from Alexi Casilla and Ben Revere.

This came hours after the Chisox held a lengthy tutorial on cutting off the running game. 

A.J. Pierzynski's take on the track meet: 

We all know where we stand with the running game when Gavin (Floyd) is out there. Everyone knows where we stand, and it’s just part of the game.

The numbers for the Sox are rather grotesque, and Pierzynski, as the regular catcher, is taking heat for it. According to the above link, Chicago opponents are 61 for 75 in steal attempts -- and eight of the caught stealings are the result of pickoffs. 

I don't know that it's all Pierzynski's fault, although throwing is not the strongest part of his game. The opposition is 15 for 15 against Floyd, 14 for 15 against Edwin Jackson, 5 for 6 against former Twin Philip Humber, 3 for 4 against Jake Peavy (now on the disabled list). That's 37 for 40 against Chicago's four right-handed starters.

But don't look for the Twins to run wild this afternoon. Mark Buerhle is slated to start today, and nobody runs on him. (Seven attempts, two successes, five caught stealings.) Buehrle -- and the Sox' other southpaw starter, John Danks (5 for 10) -- can make even Pierzynski look good.

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Regarding Cuddyer's steals:

The first came on the back end of a double steal, with Casilla taking third on the play. Cuddyer deserves credit anyway, since he was the guy Pierzynski threw for.

The other two came on breaking balls in the dirt -- pitches difficult enough to catch cleanly, much less get off a throw afterwards. Selecting those specific pitches on which to send Cuddyer wasn't luck but acumen.