posted on Saturday, March 01, 2008 1:54 AM
by
Jim
Owens inconsistent, but has leg up on Quentin
Jerry Owens bunted unsuccessfully, successfully, walked, struck out looking and singled to short. Five plate appearances, not a single ball out of the infield...
...and that's just the way Ozzie Guillen likes it.
"As long as he can stay healthy and do what he's doing right now, trying to get on base .... if you look at our lineup ,and J.O. is out there first, leadoff hitter, our lineup is going to be a lot better," Guillen said. "That's our expectation, and we'll give him the shot to play everyday, and hopefully he can grab it and keep it and we don't have to worry anymore about center field and signing $100 million players."
"We're going to give this kid a chance, and hopefully he'll make us look good."
Owens also stole a base successfully, but he was a couple steps short of making some plays in the outfield, both coming ahead and going back towards the right-center gap. He attributed those to his tweaked groin, which means that he might be wowing his manager at only 85 or 90 percent right now.
That seemingly leaves Carlos Quentin, who made his White Sox spring training debut today, in the dark.
Quentin himself had a solid debut. His one hit of the day was a smoked single over the head of Arizona shortstop Augie Ojeda, which started a two-out, two-run rally -- and it sure sounded good off his bat. On the other hand, he struck out in his only RBI situation, with runners on the corners and two outs in the eighth.
He showed a good arm in left field, although he missed an opportunity for an outfield assist at third base with an off-target throw.
It's not like anybody can hold these small failures against him -- it's his first game, he's coming off surgery, and he's certainly did enough good to offset them. But when listening to Ozzie gush over Owens, Quentin doesn't have much of a safety net.
It's always dangerous to make too much of anything Ozzie says, but all signs indicate that Quentin is going to have to rake -- and Owens will have to stumble -- to shift the balance of power for the third outfield spot.