As long as Ross Detwiler is starting, he’s going to need better defense than what he received tonight.
The box score says Detwiler gave up five runs over four innings, and all of them were earned. A stricter official scorer probably would have taken at least three off his tab, and four if one could assume the double play.
Tim Anderson was at the center of both key miscues. He failed to flag down a pop-up in shallow center that he called for but didn’t commit to as Leury García came in to start the second, and while García robbed C.J. Cron of a homer for the second out, Detwiler needed it to be the third. He gave up a single to Ehire Adrianza before a two-run blast to Jonathan Schoop that gave Minnesota the lead.
An inning later, Detwiler dug himself into his own hole by loading the bases on a hit by pitch, double and an intentional walk, but he got a couple grounders that seemed to minimize the damage. A bouncer to second could only be converted into a run-scoring fielder’s choice at second, but Miguel Sanó followed by hitting a hard grounder at Anderson — after he stepped back into the box when his attempt to call time failed. Anderson was less ready for the ball than Sanó and was knocked over by the one-hopper. Instead of a 6-4-3 double play, one more run scored to make it a 5-1 game.
The Twins didn’t need more than their second-inning effort to win this game, although they tacked on three more with a pair of homers off Jace Fry in the eighth, including a second from Schoop.
The White Sox offense made a strong initial effort. García doubled on Jake Odorizzi’s first pitch of the game and scored two batters later on Jose Abreu’s 30th double of the year, giving the Sox a 1-0 lead. Yoan Moncada and Anderson both struck out, and that was more in line with the rest of the night. Odorizzi struck out eight over six innings en route to his 14th win.
Unlike Detwiler, he minimized the damage after jams. The Sox had their best chance to get back in the game when they loaded the bases with one out in the third on two singles and a walk. Matt Skole worked a full count, but he could only bounce into a 4-6 fielder’s choice to make it a 5-2 game, and Welington Castillo struck out.
Bullet points:
*Yoan Moncada had a great night in the field, saving a couple runs with a couple of nifty picks to his right, and also covering the ground in front of him. He didn’t have as much fun at the plate, striking out thrice, including a pair of backwards K’s.
*One of Moncada’s stops covered for Eloy Jiménez, who made an ill-advised throw to third after Anderson’s error, allowing Sanó to reach second.
*García allowed Jake Cave to stretch a single into a double when he was caught sleeping retrieving a grounder into the right-center gap. The line score only shows one error, but Moncada was the only thing the defense had going.
*Ryan Goins started in right field for the first time in his career, if you needed further evidence of the White Sox’ roster issues against righties.
Record: 60-72 | Box score | Highlights
Ugh, Tim’s defense really regressing, and that’s disappointing as hell given it was pretty unsightly to begin with. Fry also looks like he’s digging himself a hole again after recovering his poor first half numbers some.
What’s frustrating about Tim’s defense is that they’re bush league errors. Whether its ill advised throws or colliding with his fellow defenders. How many times have he and Yolmer went after the same popup this season? You’d think two seasons together would get their communication in order.
Maybe now that his bat is decent he’ll put in more defensive reps into this year’s work.
Yeah, a lot of his errors seem like the sort that should be easily corrected if he just slows down the game a bit. His footwork is still really bad out there just covering the basics.
Tim’s defense is inexcusable. Those are just careless errors. How is the popup he dropped not an error? Sign Didi and move him to the outfield.
Yes, his defense is inexcusable and bad. I just don’t understand this train of thought that believes moving him to the outfield will either make him a better defender or somehow more valuable.
A silver lining is that per Fangraphs, Yolmer Sanchez is the 2nd best defensive 2B in the Majors. He has quietly put a 1.1 fWAR value which is still a far cry short of what this team needs, but he could certainly be a very valuable infield depth
Not for $5 million. He should be nontendered. He is 145th in OPS out of the 146 qualifiers.
As infield depth, he is adequate
Am I missing something? His performance value so far this season – Ill be conservative and say $7M – has likely exceeded the value of his contract ($4.7M). I mean, shouldnt players be paid what theyre worth?
But assuming Madrigal is the 2nd baseman by May next year, do you want to pay Yolmer $5 million to be the backup or pay Danny Mendick $600K to be the backup?
right, teams with 150 mil payrolls can have the luxury of carrying a hitless 2nd base gloveman at 6 mil
teams who poo dick 80 mil payrolls absolutely have to save money when possible and mendick via sanchez is an easy call to save 5 or 6 mil
In the “rebuilding” context, yes of course
Even teams with $150M payrolls will find it an easy call to nontender the $5M guy and keep the $600K guy if their skill sets are similar.
probably but its a much more dramatic effect when the player represents 10 percent of your payroll as oppose to 5 percent
You sure do have high hopes for Mendick
You don’t think he can be a backup major leaguer? He’s plays good defense and can play all three infield positions. And he certainly has more pop than Yolmer.
Mendick is probably Yolmer without the defensive value, sorry to say. His triple-slash is a lot better than Yolmer’s was in AAA thanks to the bouncy ball, and he certainly has better plate discipline, but he’s just not likely to be anything more than a younger version of current Ryan Goins if we’re lucky.
He should have been called up earlier this year. But we’ll find out soon enough.
Disappointing night all around. Anderson cannot be a team leader if he continues to be a butcher in the field, and it was sickening to watch Skole and Castillo come up when we had a chance to get back in the game. Collins and Mercedes should have been hitting in those spots.
Agree that Fry isn’t showing any reason for us to depend on him for next season.
We must have caught the Twins by surprise last week when we won the series in Minnesota. Obviously, we’re not much of a match for a good team when it wants revenge on us.
Fry was electric after the All-Star break (I believe at one point he went 14 innings scoreless) but seems to have fallen apart for some reason. I still believe he can be useful out of the pen but he really needs to put in an Aaron Bummer-type workout in the offseason.
That bottom of the order was dreadful. Why are Robert, Collins, Mercedes and Mendick in Charlotte while Goins, Engel Castillo and Skole flail unsuccessfully at pitches in Chicago. Oh yeah, I forgot. Charlotte is trying to make the playoffs! Rick will now probably give Cease, Giolito, Yoan and Eloy an emergency rehab stint to save the sinking ship in Charlotte. Playoffs, baby!!
its crazy how much they have hyped the freaking charlotte wild card chase… just pathetic, stone and binelli mention it every broadcast, who the f cares
I agree completely. They mention it every chance they get. Sorry Rick, but this doesn’t break the White Sox string of not making the playoffs. Try making the major league roster better, not the AAA roster.
Don’t worry everyone Ricky says Tim’s defense is elite, its our lying eyes that are the problem…. and the lying eyes of the score keepers, and the lying eyes of every leading sabermetrician in the industry, and the lying eyes of every other organizations scouts….
>Every leading sabermetrician
Well, Baseball Prospectus last year rated Tim’s defense as elite according to their FRAA metric. It was positive this year until he came back from injury. Right now he’s at -0.2 so just a little bit below average.
he was a butcher the year before that, seems like 2018 is the outlier
If Tim finishes around average in FRAA it would make his early years seem more like an outlier. He was positive in this metric before coming back from Injury. Even right now he’s worth about the same amount defensively as Tatis.
Tim has great range- as good as any shortstop, but he is a butcher on routine plays. The two “errors” yesterday were both really bad.
I’ll just point out one thing which may be completely irrelevant. Ozzie Smith made 20+ errors in each of his first three seasons.
It just seems like his problem is a lack of concentration. Most of his errors are on routine plays. I thought the same thing with Moncada last year. At second he had more time to make plays and seemed to make errors on the routine ones. Third base is more reaction and less time to think, and he’s thriving there. The comparison to Ozzie Smith’s early career could have some merit. As Timmy matures, you would think the errors would go down.
I’m not trying to defend Timmy’s defense, it’s totally unacceptable as is. There is a chance he improves, but I don’t know how long the Sox can wait to find out. I’m a believer in defense first at SS, CF, and C. Both Luis Aparicio and Mark Belanger played 18 seasons, had a single OPS+ of 100 or better each and won 17 gold gloves between them. That’s my preference for a SS.