Five years ago, the petulant and pricey New York Mets were dubbed, “The Worst Team Money Could Buy.”
Before the leaves start falling in mid-September, the 1998 White Sox might be worthy of this title: “The Worst Team Jerry Could Buy.”
Want some perspective on how bad the Sox (35-51) were in the first half of the season?
If they had lost one more game to Tampa Bay, they would have the worst record in the American League. Or, if they were in the AL East, they would be a mere 28 1/2 games behind the first-place Yankees.
Everywhere you look, the Sox have problems. Here are the most glaring:
– The team earned-run average is 5.90 and rising.
– Frank Thomas is hitting 55 points below his .330 career average.
– The starting infield has combined to commit 47 errors (compared with 24 for Cleveland).
– Mike Cameron is striking out once every four at-bats.
– Staff “ace” Jaime Navarro is so annoyed with himself, he says he might want to be traded or demoted to the bullpen.
It’s no wonder that manager Jerry Manuel looks to the Bible to help him through his trying rookie season.
“I’m stubborn,” he said. “But intelligent baseball people tell me it’ll take about a year to really figure out what you have.”
Manuel knows he has a dilemma at first base. Wil Cordero has been a bust since signing with the club in March. He hasn’t adapted well to the position and is a major part of the reason why rookie shortstop Mike Caruso has 18 errors.
Cordero’s offense (.249, eight homers, 29 RBIs) has been no better than that of rookie Greg Norton, who has been given 75 fewer at-bats. Manuel says Cordero is a notorious slow starter, but the numbers don’t lie: Over the last five years, Cordero has hit .286 with 36 homers before the break and .265 with 20 homers after the break.
If Cordero’s play continues to slide, the Sox should consider releasing him before his option year kicks in. If Cordero reaches 400 plate appearances this season–he’s more than halfway there now–he will earn $2.5 million from the Sox in 1999.
Manuel has other options at first. Norton is a 26-year-old switch-hitter who has proven he can hit major-league pitching and can scoop errant throws. Mario Valdez, who played 54 games with the big club last year, is hitting .316 with 12 homers in 69 games at Triple-A Calgary.
The other candidate is Thomas, who was the Sox’s regular first baseman until the final 50 games of last season. He now plays the field only in interleague games, and some–including Albert Belle–say that has taken a toll on Thomas’ hitting.
“If you’re not hitting and that’s all you do,” Belle said, “it wears on you.”
Belle does have the numbers on his side. Last year Thomas hit .363 with 27 homers in 355 at-bats while playing first base and .314 with eight homers in 175 at-bats as the designated hitter.
Manuel said he will talk to Thomas this week about playing first, but Thomas has given every indication that he wants to DH for the rest of his career.
The other side of the diamond is also a quagmire, or at least a potential one. Nothing has changed regarding Robin Ventura’s future except that the July 31 trading deadline inches closer.
The latest rumor has the Sox talking trade with the Angels, who are unhappy with the production (.250 average, nine homers) of third baseman Dave Hollins.
Ventura joked last week that his current 6-for-47 slump might help him stay in Chicago.
“If I keep hitting like this, they won’t get much (in a trade),” he said.
Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf is handling negotiations for a new contract, but he has not been in touch with Ventura’s agent, John Boggs, since spring training. That’s foolish.
If the Sox lose Ventura, they lose their only good defensive player. Cameron is supposedly a potential Gold Glove center-fielder, but he has looked helpless for much of the season. Don’t let his low error total (three) fool you.
But the Sox will make no improvement if their rotation continues to be the laughingstock of the league.
Manuel has used 17 pitchers and tried nine different starters. The results have been dismal: The highest ERA among Yankees starters belongs to David Cone at 4.05, while the lowest among Sox starters is Mike Sirotka’s 5.06.
Is it any wonder the Sox’s average home attendance (16,047) is third to last in the league, better than only Oakland’s and Minnesota’s? Detroit even draws more at decrepit Tiger Stadium.
But then again, the Tigers aren’t “The Worst Team Jerry Could Buy.”
