There is no mercy rule in Major League Baseball, but last night the Texas Rangers mercifully ended the Chicago White Sox 2015 season. General Manager Rick Hahn’s vision of rebuilding on the fly is now a view through a kaleidoscope of calamity. The questions no longer linger. The Chicago White Sox should be sellers right freaking now.
The Durham Bulls Manager said it best, “This… is a simple game. You throw the ball. You hit the ball. You catch the ball.” Skip forgot one thing: you have to run the bases, too. The White Sox can’t pitch, can’t hit, can’t play defense, and they can’t run the bases.
There is a fallacy in baseball that April doesn’t really count. The problem is that the 20-something games usually scheduled in April are official. The White Sox got smoked 8-2 by Baltimore and 12-2 by Minneosota to finish 8-11 in T.S. Eliot’s favorite month. April, indeed was “the cruellest month” for the Southsiders, as they shivered and shirked their way through the calendar telling everyone that it’s a marathon not a sprint. It’s not a marathon or a sprint, but every game on the schedule counts. First place Minnesota, Detroit, Kansas City, and Cleveland don’t like the cold any better.
Now, they’re dead last and “only” seven games out. The problem with that fallacy is the White Sox would have to leap all four teams ahead of them for a shot at the Central. A wildcard spot is a pipe-dream; now it’s already time for a postmortem.
In early May, after an 0-5 roadtrip, Jerry Reinsdorf opened up the boardroom for a three-day series of meetings with Executive V.P. Kenny Williams, Hahn, and Manager Robin Ventura. Bruce Levine of WSCR Chicago reported on the proceedings and quoted Rick Hahn’s assessment:
“I don’t think anything has changed dramatically, as far as the amount of communication that occurs around here,” Hahn said. “More recently, the issues have been more consistent and run a little bit deeper. Therefore our conversations have run longer. This is more about making sure we are covering everything that is going on. I would not say we are more hands on. We are having open conversation about all of our issues, which at this point at least last week were pretty numerous.”
Presumably, someone should have been more hands on. When a baseball team throws the ball around, stumbles along the bases, whiffs at the plate, and can’t get anybody out, it’s usually the manager who starts to take the bullets. Reinsdorf and his management team show no signs of removing the lethargic Ventura from his perch in the dugout. As the villagers gathered their pitchforks and torches in early May, Hahn came out in support of Ventura:
“We’re all accountable for where we sit right now,’’ Hahn said. “That starts with the players, it goes to the coaches and Robin and myself and the front office. To make one individual the focal point? I don’t think that’s fair.”
Starters Chris Sale and Jeff Samardzija were supposed to anchor a stout rotation. Sale has been far from dominant, posting a 3.66 ERA, but Samardzija is downright shaky with a 3.84 ERA and 1.25 WHIP. Their 1.39 team WHIP is tied with the Phillies for 29th in MLB. An awful defense, ranked 28th in MLB with a .668 Defensive Efficiency Ratio, has not helped the issue. The White Sox are 29th in runs scored and are ranked 27th in MLB by Baseball Prospectus in advanced baserunning metrics. Nobel Prize winner Elias Canetti once wrote, “A man undertakes to count all the leaves in the world. The essence of statistics.” That may be true, but Rick Hahn better start raking leaves. He just spent $110 million on refuse bags.
There is one statistic the White Sox should pay close attention to – win probability. Right now, FanGraphs gives the White Sox with a 6.6% chance to make the playoffs. One can practically hear the fat lady singing. They’re not going to get hot and overtake the division, and they’re not going to chase down the wildcard pack. Rick Hahn has two decisions to make, and he better make them quickly: when to fire Ventura, and when to start the firesale.
Hahn gambled on Samardzija, Melky Cabrera, and Adam LaRoche. He might as well cash in those tickets for some young and viable prospects. Since 2005, the Sox have been a mishmash of square pegs and round holes. A perfect example is signing the defensively-gifted LaRoche and making him sit the bench while Jose Abreu remains simply adequate in the field. It doesn’t help that their highest paid player, John Danks, sports a 4.81 ERA. Melky Cabrera is second and has provided a .276 slugging percentage in return for that investment.
Kenny Williams has not overseen a real contender since 2005. Robin Ventura’s teams have regressed steadily as he slogs through his fourth season. The White Sox are a mess, and it is high time Jerry Reinsdorf reexamined his legendary loyalty. Rick Hahn tried to pull a rabbit out of the trick box the organization found itself in after pawning off all its prospects for futile late-season runs. The magic show is already over.
Photo Credit:
E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune
