White Sox need to differentiate between the big and small stuff

Accountability Post #2 – In a White Sox season filled with disappointments, not everyone has one. But those that do deserve consideration.

During the White Sox final game broadcast, Steve Stone asked a revealing question of fellow broadcaster Jason Benetti: “What was your biggest disappointment of the 2018 season?”

Benetti sat in stunned silence, appearing less stumped by the question but more seemingly afraid to answer. As a seasoned corporate type, I could smell the hypocrisy. The surest way to a CLM (“career limiting move”) is to speak truth to power. Better to drink the Kool-Aid, toe the line, and not be different.

After a long and awkward pause – which amounted to dead-air – Benetti sat in silence, completely stumped. Stoney stepped in and offered his own benign – yet painful – suggestion: Michael Kopech‘s UCL surgery. Yep, that was pretty disappointing (and safe to mention). But Benetti still couldn’t come up with anything. And, there were a few things he could have picked:

Carson Fulmer’s implosion? Didn’t cross his mind.
Jose Abreu’s injury-shortened season and falling short of his fourth consecutive 25 homer and 100 RBI season? Nope.
Welington Castillo’s PED suspension?
The prospect of the team losing 100 games for only the third time in their long history?
A PLAYER NEARLY DYING?

Nothing.

In fairness, Benetti is a glass-is-always-completely-full kind of guy, and he likely didn’t want to focus on the negative. And lacking any meaningful positives, he could also have truly been stumped. But I don’t think so. Benetti continued to sit frozen until finally field commentator “Our Chuck” Garfien stepped in to kill the awkward silence.

This microcosm illustrates the broader scenario, which is an environment lacking accountability and truth, which is that the team has no demonstrable strategy. If there is one, what is it? I see “Rebuild” on the cover and skipping ahead 100 pages to “Contention” on the last page, but there is a huge middle section and therein lies the story.

At this point, Rebuild means throwing as much spaghetti on the wall and seeing what sticks.

Here’s my take on the biggest disappointment of the 2018 season: the manager. Rick Renteria incessantly focused on small things and not big things. The instances of benching over lack of hustle – whether real or perceived – seemed sophomoric and what one might expect an inexperienced Little League coach to do. Tim Anderson being benched for not running out a caught line drive, and Avisail Garcia being benched for not running out a ground ball while battling through a knee injury were absurd examples.

Renteria told Garcia he needed more from him. Should the oft-injured outfielder have risked injuring it further, potentially increasing the scope of surgery, treatment and rehab time? Should he have risked his career or jeopardized the team’s investment? C’mon, this is a big boy’s game. It’s this apparent inability to differentiate between big things and little things, every day stuff versus incidents that warrant concern. Should Garcia have not played due to injury and not contribute at all?