After finishing last in fielding in the American League last year, the White Sox return with the same basic cast of characters.
The only new position player is shortstop Jose Valentin, who finished 1999 with a career-worst fielding percentage of .937 with Milwaukee but is to replace Mike Caruso in the starting lineup.
So if almost everyone is back at their former positions in 2000, what evidence is there to make anyone believe the defense will improve much?
“I think we can be much better than last year,” manager Jerry Manuel said. “With a guy like Jose up the middle, that makes us a little more intelligent out there.”
Simply put, the upcoming White Sox season may rest on a single question:
Can they catch the ball?
“It’s too early to tell, but that’s No. 1 on my list and has been all winter, for us to catch the ball,” General Manager Ron Schueler said. “And really for our pitchers to pitch through it when they don’t. That’s something we’ve had difficulty doing in the past. Guys are so young they didn’t know how to pitch out of mistakes and errors. We have to develop that, catching the ball.”
Has Schueler seen anything yet to dispel the notion that the defense rests on the South Side?
“Valentin has been all right,” he said. “We still have to get more out of [Caruso]. He has to get better at it. Ray [Durham] hasn’t been out there a lot [because of a sprained ankle]. You’re going to see us work on that a lot now for the next 30 days. You’re going to get tried of us taking ground balls.”
Schueler and Manuel know that it wasn’t just the 136 errors that made watching the Sox a nightmare in ’99. It was also the mental errors that didn’t make it to the box score that were difficult to digest–players throwing to the wrong base, not knowing where to throw or being unaware of the game situation.
One player won’t necessarily change things overnight, but Valentin can change the perception of the Sox infield, according to Manuel. The manager believes Valentin’s presence will have a positive effect on Durham’s play at second, which then will make the Sox stronger up the middle.
“A lot of times, a good shortstop can help elevate the second baseman,” Manuel said. “It can help Ray evolve into the all-around player that he can be.”
But with Durham’s injury, Valentin won’t get a chance to work alongside his new partner until Wednesday at the earliest.
“It’s going to take a while before we click,” Valentin said. “Hopefully it won’t take too long. We have to get a feel for each other. I have to know where he wants the ball on the [double play] relay. But it will be good. Being good up the middle is the key to any team. To be good, you have to make the commitment to be better. We have that. But it’s going to be hard at first, especially because it’s my first year here.”
Even if Valentin and Durham become a steady combo, the Sox still have to make sure they have a happy camper at first base in Frank Thomas, who has been indifferent to his play on defense over the years.
Manuel said he thinks Thomas has improved on defense considerably since he became manager in ’98.
“I’ve seen a lot of work over there,” Manuel said. “When I came over, he assumed the DH role was his. Now he understands that he has to play there some of the time. Frank is a good target [for throws] and he’s getting pretty decent on scooping up low throws. His difficulty has been his throwing, but his last infield practice [Thursday] was pretty good.”
The Sox lost a vital cog to the offense when catcher Brook Fordyce went down with a broken foot last week, but may have gotten a defensive lift with the presence of rookie Mark Johnson.
“We may have lost some offense and leadership, but Johnson is a little better defensively [than Fordyce],” Manuel said.
Paul Konerko is a work in progress at third base, but he can’t make many more mistakes than Greg Norton did at third base last year. If he can handle the job on a part-time basis, Manuel thinks Valentin can shade to his right a little and make up for Konerko’s lack of range.
There are a lot of “maybes” in Manuel’s defensive game plan, but there’s one thing for certain about this year’s Sox defense.
It can’t be much worse than last year’s.
