Chicago White Sox: Time For Change On The Coaching Staff
By Brett Pnazek
Fifty-one games into the 2015 season the Chicago White Sox are teetering on the edge of disaster. After doling out mega contracts to Melky Cabrera, Adam LaRoche, Zach Duke and David Robertson the Sox have only managed 24 wins.
With the likely resurgence of the Cleveland Indians and the surprising start of the Minnesota Twins the White Sox will have an uphill battle just to get out of the cellar.
Where does the fault lie for the slow this slow start?
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Clearly the players are not performing up to the back of the baseball cards and deserve the lion’s share of the blame but you can’t get rid of them all at this point in the season.
You could get rid of the manager in Robin Ventura but that does not seem likely yet since the team is still only three games under .500. However you could get rid of one of the coaches beneath Ventura in the hitting and pitching coaches.
It’s highly unlikely that the Sox will opt to fire one of their most popular and more tenured coaches in pitching coach Don Cooper, so that leaves the hitting coach Todd Steverson to fall on the sword.
Steverson is the most likely and deserving candidate to be terminated because frankly the Sox offense sucks and it’s his job to help them out of the rut and there have been no signs of this happening.
As of today the Sox rank second to last in runs per game just ahead of the paltry Philadelphia Phillies. As a team they are hitting .247 (before Thursday’s game) and have only taken 119 walks on the year which is third to last in all of baseball.
This isn’t the Sox teams of old where they do most of their damage with the long ball, they’ve only hit 35 home runs on the seasons which also ranks near the bottom of all baseball.
If you look up and down the Sox roster nobody will stand out. They lack a statistical stud. Jose Abreu will more than likely become that guy however he’s been lacking the power he showcased in the first half of last year. At this point in the season my hope is waning for everyone else rebounding to their career norms.
Mind you we are only four days into June so the season is still young but remember the Sox also have already had a seven-game winning streak so they’ve been playing losing baseball for the majority of the season so far.
They have two months before the trade deadline to make up ground but this team lacks passion and seems to be lethargic. Part of this could be the void left by Paul Konerko’s retirement but the team needs something to snap them out of whatever funk they are in and it needs to be done today with the firing of the Steverson.
As for his replacement it may not even matter who you bring in but you have options on the MLB bench in Harold Baines or you could even look down at Triple A Charlotte and see if their hitting coach can provide a different insight as their team is hitting a solid .268. A change is needed and sometimes a small change is all that is needed to turn the tide and get the team back on track.
Next: Chris Sale To The Rescue