posted on Wednesday, July 26, 2006 11:57 PM
by
Jim
The disuse of a utility man
Rob Mackowiak's various misadventures in center field have overshadowed the fact that he's having some sort of season at the plate. In his
season preview, I went over his monthly lines and found that only once in his career had he put two above-average months in a row. The rest of his career has been defined by one great month followed by mediocrity or worse.
But as July comes to a close, Mackowiak is closing out his third straight above-average month. Not only that, but July has been even better than the two months preceding it. He's posted a line of .444/.516/.519 entering today, has walked as many times as he's struck out, and is even 3-for-3 in stolen bases (and he hit a homer today, so watch that slugging percentage go up.)
Take out his abysmal April, during which he went 5-for-35, and here are the numbers he's put up:
| AB |
R |
H |
XBH |
RBI |
BB |
K |
BA |
OBP |
SLG |
137
|
18 |
48 |
9 |
10 |
17 |
25 |
.350 |
.427 |
.453 |
The strange thing about Mackowiak's run is that while his averages are going up, his playing time is going
down. Mack had 64 at-bats in May, 46 in June, and he's on pace to finish with far fewer plate appearances in July -- all while having an OBP nearly
50 points higher than Jim Thome during this period.
Part of the "problem" has been Brian Anderson's emergence as a major-league hitter. Since Anderson's hitting .314 in July, Mack isn't forced to play square peg in a round hole as often. As one of Anderson's more steadfast supporters, this is considered an absolute positive on this site.
However, the other part of the equation is that Ozzie has abided to the depth chart by the book, and as a result, Mack is not being employed in situations where he has a better chance of succeeding than others.
When Ozzie needs a left-handed bat off the bench in a key situation, he isn't going for the best left-handed bat. He's going for the left-handed bat who can take over for that position in the next half-inning. That being the case, Scott Podsednik always pinch-hits for Pablo Ozuna, Alex Cintron always pinch-hits for Juan Uribe, and Mackowiak always pinch-hits for Anderson.
That's all well and good, except that because Anderson always hits ninth, Mackowiak always has the fewest chances of making an impact off the bench. In three games the past week, Podsednik has entered a game to pinch-hit for Ozuna. He's 0-for-4, and the Sox have dropped all three games. Cintron is 0-for-3 in similar situations, again all Sox losses. During that stretch, Mack hasn't entered the game as a pinch-hitter. He did have a single at-bat after pinch-running a couple innings earlier, but that's not the same thing.
With Anderson no longer in need of training wheels, you'd think Mackowiak would be able to explore the studio space and make use of his greatest asset: versatility. Instead, he's somehow become more confined.
He's not being used as a pinch-hitter, despite being 5-for-11 in that situation with a homer (Pods is 1-for-7, Cintron 1-for-9). He's not being used as a defensive replacement in left field, even though he was Ozzie's preferred late-inning choice earlier in the season. He's not being used as a third baseman, where he could easily become the Sox's second most capable man on the hot corner with a few more reps. He could be giving Jermaine Dye or Paul Konerko a day off, but he may see only a handful of starts the rest of the season at either position.
Instead, we only see Mackowiak in center, getting playing time against righties even though Anderson has hit righties with much more authority so far this year (.686 OPS, compared to .585 against southpaws). And of course, there's also the defensive discrepancies.
I'm not all that frustrated with Ozzie's handling of the pitching staff, which has become a whack-a-mole game with a different pitcher struggling every day, and I don't care what he says as long as 1) it's not illegal and 2) he doesn't make his team turn against him.
I do get frustrated, however, when I see the team's hottest hitter only used in a role for which he's the least-equipped. This 2-10 stretch is a time where Ozzie should be pulling out all the stops, but in this case, he's too occupied keeping them in order.