Quote:
The White Sox have an excellent defensive center-fielder, Brian Anderson. His problem is that he doesn't hit all that well.
It stuns me in this enlightened day and age that there are still major-league-baseball organizations that undervalue or even dismiss the value of good defense — particularly up-the-middle defense.
Example: In 2003, the Mariners set a record by using the same five starting pitchers — Freddy Garcia, Jamie Moyer, Joel Piniero, Gil Meche and Ryan Franklin — the entire season. All are predominantly fly-ball pitchers. And all had great ERAs, thanks in large part to the fact that the M's had one of baseball's best defenders in Mike Cameron patrolling center field.
Come 2004, the M's started the season without Cameron, whom they cut loose because of their frustration with his high strikeout totals. In his stead, they played Randy Winn, who hit for a higher average with fewer strikeouts but had less range in center and probably the weakest throwing arm in baseball since the heyday of Omar Moreno. And Garcia, Moyer, Pineiro, Franklin and Meche had much worse seasons despite similar K/W numbers and other data.
It wasn't a coincidence. Dozens of the fly balls that Cameron turned into outs turned into singles, doubles and triples for batters, and extra bases for baserunners for Winn to chase down. (M's broadcaster Dave Niehaus once described Winn's routes to fly balls as "a child being chased by a bumblebee.") Winn was so bad in center that he was shifted to left, to minimize his weaknesses, for the 2005 season.
Look for the White Sox starting pitchers to suddenly "lose it."