When it comes to ex-Sox in the playoffs, attention has largely been paid to the American League. And why not? Detroit has a true product of the White Sox farm system, one on whom many Sox fans hung their hopes. Meanwhile, Oakland's lineup features one of the greatest giants to ever grace the right side of the Comiskey infield.
But this October isn't all about Jason Grilli and D'Angelo Jiminez.
In comparison to
those text-messaging buddies, Frank Thomas and Magglio Ordonez, Jose Valentin has flown under the radar. His career was left for dead by most fans after his dreadful 2005 campaign with the Dodgers -- and I was solidly in this group, after
watching him in the Caribbean World Series -- but he's rebounded to have a fine season as the second baseman for the New York Mets.
My enthusiasm for Frank and Maggs is tempered, somewhat and significantly, respectively, by the circumstances of their departures. But I have no bile whatsoever for Valentin, who was about as solid a ballplayer as you can ask for, in all aspects of the game.
And he perhaps had the most grounds for complaint out of the three of them because the great tinkerer, Jerry Manuel, dicked around with him more than any other player. A lot was made of his 36 errors at short in 2000, but his bat, range and ability to turn two should've trumped that. No matter what, it certainly wasn't bad enough to be replaced by Royce Clayton; absolutely certainly not bad enough to not get his job back when Clayton was
hitting .115 through the first two months of 2001.
Valentin didn't bitch though. He played third, center, and finally short again in 2003. By then, his ability to hit lefties had deteriorated and Manuel and Ozzie Guillen couldn't find a way to compensate. Then he couldn't even hit righties in 2004, and Juan Uribe eventually took over.
But even with his struggles, Valentin was good for 25 homers a year. And while purely anecdotal, he might be the smartest baserunner in the Sox history I can remember. He never matched his basestealing from 2000 (19-for-21), but I remember him being great at taking the extra base and smart slides.
It's a shame he couldn't have stuck around through 2005, because he deserved a ring as much as anybody. After all, he was one of the few who
actually showed up during the 2000 ALDS. Sometimes the guys the Sox bring back confuse me -- I never thought of Joey Cora or Greg Walker as tutor material -- but I think Valentin is a guy who would look good on the Sox's bench or field whenever he's done playing.
He just made a nice defensive play for the second-to-last out of NLCS Game 1, so that might be a while.