Sox Machine: Chicago White Sox blog

A very Freddy follow-up

Freddy Garcia's attitude during and after Friday's game didn't exactly jive with mine: 

“I tried to stay in the game, keep it close,” Garcia said. “If we don’t really hit too much, where are we going to be?”

So I went around the Internet to see how other evaluations of Freddy's performance stacked up.  Here's a sampling:

• ChicagoSports.com: Sox starter Freddy Garcia (11-8) was on the ropes for most of the game.

• Sun-Times:  Rather than putting his foot on the throat and locking Minnesota down, Garcia gave up a solo home run to the first batter he faced in the sixth.

• Daily Southtown: It seems to me that hot offense or not, a pitcher who has a game like that shouldn’t be complaining about his run support.

• South Side Sox:  I didn't see any of his teammates hang their heads when Freddy gave the Twins the lead, not once, not twice, but three times.

• ChiSoxBlog:  Freddy's hissy-fit in the dugout last night surely didn't endear him to Neal Cotts or any other reliever for that matter

That's what I thought.

Since he's getting about 5.5 runs a game each start, there's really not much to say about Garcia's quote other than he's being a pussy and a terrible teammate.  In my opinion, however, tonight's events made him look worse.  Jon Garland didn't get a lot of help from the offense tonight, but he somehow managed to win the game, and win it rather easily.  Freddy's question may have been rhetorical, but Garland's performance answered it in a way Freddy probably doesn't want to hear. 

Also, since I made the comparison yesterday, I paid a lot of attention to Brad Radke's performance today.  Like Garcia, his fastball is lucky to touch 90 once a game, and he's had some discomfort in his throwing arm.  Unlike Garcia, though, Radke has disclosed his problems, while Freddy pretends that nothing's the matter.

Also unlike Freddy, Radke has a quality off-speed pitch -- a change-up that looks exactly the same as his fastball coming out of his hand, which was up to 15 miles per hour slower than his heater.  Not to mention that he uses the black of the plate more than the white of it. 

So far, this comparison may be unfair to Garcia because Radke's change has always been his out pitch, while Freddy's forced to create one on the fly because he doesn't have his fastball.  Like I've said before, I'd be more than willing to see if a full off-season does anything to help his right arm regain strength.

On the other hand, the Minnesota defense let Radke down numerous times, with Luis Castillo losing the ball in the lights, Jason Bartlett throwing a ball away with two outs and Nick Punto letting a grounder go through his legs.  He had to work his tail off (95 pitches in five innings) to work around it and limit the damage.  Through it all, however, I didn't see one visual clue indicating that Radke was displeased with his team's effort. 

I can recall two occasions aside from Friday when Freddy embarrassed his teammates by throwing his hands up in the air after one isolated miscue -- April 16 when a ball hydroplaned underneath Tadahito Iguchi's mitt, and on July 8 against the Red Sox, when the ball fell in between second, short and center.  Of course, Freddy walked six batters while rain was soaking everything and everybody on the field in that first game, And he gave up seven hits over the fourth and fifth innings on July 8, accounting for five Boston runs.  Naturally, it's everybody else's fault.

Meanwhile, Radke actually pitched well -- six strikeouts and no walks in five innings, and two unearned runs -- so he actually had a reason to air his grievances.  But he didn't, because he's a professional pitcher, and more importantly, a professional pitcher who needs his teammates because he doesn't get a lot of guys out on his own.  Freddy needs more help than Radke in that respect, and if he keeps up the bitching and moaning, I wonder if he's going to get it.