The White Sox enjoy their only day off on the spring schedule today, and nobody could use it more than Joe Crede. He went 0-for-3 in
today's 4-1 victory over the Rockies and saw his average drop to .080 (2-for-25) in the process.
Since blasting a monster homer off Arizona's Max Scherzer March 1, he's 1-for-18. He has one more hit this spring than Jose Contreras. On top of that, he has committed four errors, all of the throwing variety, although Mark Buehrle did see
the return of the dive, stab and throw Tuesday.
For most of the spring, Josh Fields struggled right along with him. But since he mentioned
making an adjustment with his hands, he has five hits in two games and raised his average from .105 to .250 in the process.
Kenny Williams maintains that
he won't trade Crede if he doesn't find an offer that excites him enough --
the scouts are down on Crede right now -- and some hold onto the thought
that Crede is a "hot commodity" and the Sox are better with him in the lineup.
I think most people here would beg to differ, at least in terms of hitting. I'm going to take it one step further and wonder if Crede is emotionally off-kilter right now. And my 4+ years of residence in Missouri and a lifetime of watching the Sox and deriving half-assed conclusions make me the perfect guy to play a-hole armchair psychologist.
As good as Scott Boras is at maximizing his clients' deals, sometimes he misses. He hasn't exactly been the best thing for J.D. Drew's career, and he put Alex Rodriguez in an awkward spot last October with the opt-out announcement during the World Series. Let's also not forget
the case of Matt Harrington, who was drafted five times and never signed once, with Boras steering him away from a second chance at a hefty signing bonus.
Crede, as far as we know, doesn't like to make waves. He doesn't seek the spotlight, he's a small-town guy, and when contract extensions aren't the topic, he's never at the center of controversy.
So maybe -- and understand that this could very well be oversimplistic thinking -- the uncertainty and potential acrimony over contractual demands and trade talks is something that Crede isn't accustomed to. If both
Williams and Crede told the truth about the very quick talks Williams had with Boras about a two-year deal, then Crede may be the victim of bad advice, at least advice that doesn't suit his personality and situation. It wouldn't be the first time.
Of course, maybe his back is affecting him more than he's letting on. Let's just hope we can chalk it up to getting back in the swing of things, because I'm not sure which would be worse -- mental or physical discomfort.
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If there is one advantage to Crede starting, it should help out Orlando Cabrera considerably. I wasn't particularly impressed with his defense (my dad backed me up on that) during the trip to Tucson, because he missed a couple plays in the hole that Juan Uribe makes by planting his right foot and making a strong throw without a lot of weight transfer.
The Cheat posted some numbers that confirmed the observations -- Cabrera is below-average at going to his right, and above-average at going to his left, while Uribe is the opposite.
Theoretically, if Crede is playing third, he would be covering one more step to Cabrera's weak side. I'm more concerned about that hole than the one up the middle, because Sox pitchers typically defend their position well, although they'll be losing one of the best in Jon Garland.
If Cabrera plays short and Uribe plays second, hitters would be hard-pressed to get a ball through the middle. On the other hand, if Uribe can't go his left well, and Cabrera can't go to his right, and Fields and the even-more-rangeless Paul Konerko can't move their feet fast enough on ground balls... yech.
In a video game, the obvious solution would be to swap Uribe and Cabrera to back up Fields and Konerko at the corners. Unfortunately,
Cabrera has already been deemed the field general, and as the Yankees and Derek Jeter have shown, field generals can't be moved off short, range issues be damned.