Tadahito Iguchi's ankle injury has caused me to do something I often regret doing -- listening to sports talk radio. So far, the only report is that The Emperor sprained his ankle when Jermaine Dye cut his legs out from under him while converging on a catch
tonight, briefly pinning Iguchi's ankle underneath Dye's upper body.
Herm Schneider usually will overestimate the severity of injuries at first if anything (remember Buehrle's phantom broken foot suffered while shagging flies?), so hopefully hearing that Iguchi will miss only a few games is a continuation of that method.
Hats off to Iguchi for holding on and trying to throw the ball in, and let's hope for a speedy recovery. It was eerily similar to Ozzie Guillen's collision with Tim Raines in 1992, which tore ligaments in Ozzie's knees, permanently limiting his speed and range. Fortunately, Tadahito was able to walk off the field by himself, which is an encouraging early sign.
Please drop any info you have on Iguchi in the comments below as they roll in, if you hear something before I do. New York isn't a great place to be for breaking White Sox news.
What isn't encouraging is the play of Chris Widger. An 0-for-3 game has made him hitless in his last 15 at-bats, and he's 2-for-28 if you back further. Worse yet, all his averages -- batting, on-base and slugging -- are under .300. He's dipped into Timo territory, in other words.
Of course, he wasn't that good last year, with an on-base percentage in the .290s. But there were two points in his favor -- hitting with a little more power (four homers), and possessing the lower catcher's ERA between him and A.J. Pierzynski.
Both have evaded him this year. A weak flare to right tonight (caught by Nick Markakis) was seemingly the first time he hit the ball to the outfield in at least a couple weeks, and his catcher's ERA is more than a full run higher than Pierzynski's (5.32 to 4.23). Some of that is luck, but some of that is that he appears to be a less creative pitch-caller than A.J. at times. Factor in that he's still not throwing out baserunners well (2 for 17 on the season), and there's really nothing about Widge's game that is appealing.
In the offseason, I
suggested bringing back Miguel Olivo, who signed a one-year contract for $700,000 with the Florida Marlins while Widger signed for $650,000 with the Sox. Here's what
Olivo is doing, compared to Widger:
| Catcher | BA | OBP | SLG | SB | CS |
| Widger | .209
| .286 | .299 | 15
| 2 |
| Olivo | .291 | .322 | .497 | 30 | 15 |
Of course, I can't really say "I told you so" because Olivo might've rather wanted the chance to start instead of play backup, and Olivo wasn't worth much more than $700K since he was the same guy who posted an OPS+ of 17 in Seattle the year after the Freddy Garcia trade. It's not all up to the Sox brass; there are other factors at play out of its control.
I do, however, hope that the Sox took a guy like Olivo into consideration, because Widger was probably the easiest piece to replace on the entire team. Backup catchers are a lot like back-of-the-bullpen relievers: Don't get attached to one guy, because you never know who will catch lightning in a bottle, and who will have the wheels come off their game.
The Cincinnati Reds are a good example of a team that has managed its catcher situation well.
Jason LaRue and
Javier Valentin formed an effective platoon over the last two seasons, combining for 20 homers and 64 RBI in 2004, and 28/110 in 2005. But when neither of them hit starting this year, they plugged Dodger castoff
David Ross into the lineup, and he's hit 12 homers in 110 at-bats. He may fizzle out soon, but he's hit more homers this year than Widger has in his last four combined. Ross is making $500,000 this year.
And while this is always a fluky stat, Olivo's catcher ERA is 4.31; Ross' is 4.71.
Who knows if the Sox had a chance at either of those guys, but there are probably another handful of guys who could be interchanged with Widger and spit out better numbers. Even
Sal Fasano is surpassing Widger this year with the bat and glove, and he brings a kickass mustache into the fold as well.
Iguchi's injury is unfortunate, but the Sox are prepared to replace him. They can use any combination of Alex Cintron, Rob Mackowiak and Pablo Ozuna at second, and both Cinton and Mack have handled starting duties for extended periods of time with other teams. I don't want any of our players to get hurt, obviously, but one to Iguchi is one of the easier ones to absorb if it's only 15 days at the most.
On the other hand, an injury to A.J. would probably be the hardest to take. With that in mind, I think a backup catcher might move past backup outfielder on Kenny Williams' priority list as the trade deadline nears. It's not a thrilling move, but neither was the Geoff Blum trade, and I think that worked in the end. Minor tweaks is all this team needs, and given the fluidity of the backup catcher market, it might be the easiest one for Kenny to make.