Jim Parque said he was “confused.”
Gary Glover said he was “disappointed.”
Ken Williams said he’s still “optimistic,” while Jon Rauch didn’t have much to say at all.
Just another day at White Sox camp, where the pitching puzzle continues to perplex one and all.
Williams on Tuesday downplayed the Sox’s meteoric earned-run average this spring, pointing to the Arizona elements and Curt Schilling’s similarly high ERA while pitching in the same ballpark.
“I’m still very confident and very optimistic about the pitching, and the team as a whole as well,” Williams said.
The White Sox’s general manager thinks reports of the team’s pitching problems focus on the “negative,” a theme he has repeated this spring.
“There’s a positive as well,” he said before Tuesday’s 11-6 loss to San Francisco. “We’re focusing on a Jim Parque and Bob Howry, but we’re neglecting that a Jon Rauch, whom I anticipated not being part of the equation at all, stepping up to the forefront, and the ball is coming out of his hand in a better fashion than it did before he got hurt.
“We lost something on the Parque or the Howry end, but you gain on Rauch and Lorenzo Barcelo and Antonio Osuna and Kelly Wunsch coming back. So there are positives to come out of this whole thing as well.”
Only minutes later, in his first spring start, Rauch gave up a home run to Tsuyoshi Shinjo, the first batter he faced. Three batters later, Rauch served up a two-run homer to J.T. Snow. He left after 3 2/3 innings, allowing seven runs on eight hits, including three homers.
“It was a [terrible] outing, plain and simple,” Rauch said. “End of story. I know what I need to work on and I’ll go from there.”
Rauch, the likely No. 5 starter, declined to elaborate what needs work.
“It was kind of a bad day to have a bad day,” Rauch said, ending the interview.
Parque earlier said he was tired of pitching in “B” games and is ready to rejoin the rotation for Cactus League games. The Sox have no plans for him to do so, leaving Parque “confused” by the lack of communication with management.
“The game has nothing to do with throwing hard,” Parque said. “They know it. I know it. Everyone in baseball knows it. I can get hitters out.”
Williams understands Parque’s feelings but said the Sox plan on going north with pitchers who are 100 percent ready.
“We’d love nothing more than for [Parque] to come back and do some of the things he has done in the past,” Williams said. “I continue to try to be positive with him. But at the same time I think everyone around here knows I can be a realist as well. The reality is we’re going to take the best 11 or 12 who we feel, at the time, will best enable us to win when the season starts.
“If he’s part of that. Great. Move along. If he’s not, we’re going to have to come up with a different plan.”
Glover said he was disappointed to move from possible starter to setup man in Howry’s place, but tried to look at the bright side.
“They made it sound like it was temporary,” Glover said. “Three weeks down the road, things could be completely different.”
