The White Sox are in the process of turning some friendly scheduling into their best start of the Obama administration. So far, the winless Minnesota Twins are the perfect blend of (lack of) expectations and performance. While the Sox have yet to have an explosive game, they have put together enough offense on a regular basis to keep excessive worry from brewing beneath their 5-2 record. It’s been light offense; lots of singles with fortunate sequencing, and plenty of opportunity to take advantage of errors by the opposition. In short, the White Sox have been winning games with offensive performances resembling Twins teams that have tortured them on and off for a decade and a half.
Phil Hughes‘ main claim to fame has been his stinginess issuing bases on balls. If we lower minimums to accommodate his 155.3 IP in 2016, he once again finished with the lowest walk percentage in the major leagues by allowing free passes to just 2.5 percent of the batters he faced, up from the 1.9 percent he issued in the previous year. Since he’s been pitching in Minnesota, throwing strikes has been the name of his game. Small sample size be damned, the White Sox are walking at a better rate than we’ve seen in the past, but as testament to just how impatient they’ve been at the plate on a regular basis, they are still in the bottom third of the league on the young year in walk percentage. That tidbit is unlikely to change tonight, but Hughes didn’t allow a walk in his first 2016 start, so at least getting him on the board in that regard could be considered a minor victory.
Carlos Rodon’s 2016 started with him scattering seven hits over seven innings en route to a two-run outing which importantly only contained a single walk. While Hughes has a reputation for limiting, Rodon has a reputation for distributing. Seeing his good and bad starts become sortable by walks over the course of the year would not be surprising. Pitch selection on a game-by-game basis isn’t terribly telling, but in Oakland Rodon threw his two-seamer the majority of the time, leaning less on his slider and still going to the change with restraint. Feel for the latter pitch should go a long way towards allowing him to get ahead of the count and utilize his slider as the ridiculous out pitch that it is to make hitters feel bad about themselves, and perhaps even their lives.
A third of the Sox lineup is hitting with some sort of frequency and power. That’s a nice way to put it. Another way to put it is that two-thirds of the Sox lineup is slapping sporadic singles and being generally unimpressive. Despite some timely hits from all three, Jimmy Rollins, Brett Lawrie, and Avisail Garcia have been the most lacking contributors, and some extra-base hits from any would help keep the spotlight off of the remaining slackers by way of staving off the next loss. Avisail will have to wait for his opportunity to crawl out of his hole, as Robin Ventura is instead electing to allow Jerry Sands to dig his own against RHP, the very clear weak side of his split.
The Twins, lined up behind a pitching staff not as established or threatening, have managed to get even less performance out of the bulk of their lineup. Joe Mauer and old friend Eduardo Escobar are the only players with above-average production so far, with nobody else really sniffing anything near actual productivity. The Twins offensive output is tied for last in the league with the Indians.
White Sox Lineup:
- Adam Eaton – RF
- Jimmy Rollins – SS
- Jose Abreu – 1B
- Todd Frazier – 3B
- Melky Cabrera – LF
- Brett Lawrie – 2B
- Jerry Sands – DH
- Alex Avila – C
- Austin Jackson – CF
Twins Lineup:
- Brian Dozier – 2B
- Joe Mauer – 1B
- Miguel Sano – DH
- Trevor Plouffe – 3B
- Eddie Rosario – LF
- Eduardo Escobar – SS
- Max Kepler – RF
- Kurt Suzuki – C
- Byron Buxton – CF
Lead Photo Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn – USA Today Sports Images