Two nights ago, the White Sox were beaten 5-0 by Oakland A's 22 year old rookie pitcher Vin Mazzaro, who earned his first major league win. While Mazzaro did a good job of spreading out only 3 hits over 6 1/3 innings, he only had 1 strikeout and walked 4 batters. The White Sox also continued their trend of shooting themselves in the foot by grounding into 3 double plays and wasting opportunities in the 1st and 2nd with runners on first and second.
While many may write this off as just a bad loss, this was in actuality another eerie demonstration of the White Sox inability to hit against rookie pitchers, especially those making their first ever big league start. But don't just take my word for it. Look a little earlier this season when the ChiSox played the Orioles on April 21st. 23 year old Brad Bergesen pitched 5 2/3 innings, gave up of 4 hits and 3 runs (only 1 of which was earned), and earned his first major league victory.
Once again, people may say, "Oh, this is just an isolated incident." Alas, this is not the case. Since 2004, a rookie starting pitcher has earned his first MLB victory 8 times against the White Sox (Daniel Cabrera 5/13/04, Kason Gabbard 9/5/06, Garrett Olson 7/15/07, Greg Smith 4/14/08, Nick Adenhart 5/12/08, Michael Bowden 8/30/08, plus the 2 instances listed above). (NOTE: This list does not include rookie pitchers at other points during their first season or pitchers that the White Sox have simply never faced before) Notice that in 2005 (the year the Good Guys in Black won the World Series for those of you who may not remember), they didn't allow this lovely feat to happen even once. What is truly scary about this list, though, is the increasing frequency that this is occurring recently ('08 and '09).
In this opinion of this writer, this is absurd. The White Sox hitters are professional athletes who should be salivating at the opportunity to give these pitchers a true welcoming to the big leagues by roughing them up. Instead, they seem to lose all patience at the plate, swinging at balls in the dirt and doing a lot of first pitch swinging. Overall, they just can't seem to figure these guys out. It's almost as if they have to watch film of who they are facing in order to have any idea as to how to even step into the batters box.
This is a major concern for fans and management because who knows when opposing GMs or managers are going to catch on to this trend. If I were an opposing GM or manager and had some good (not even great) young talent in the minors, I'd be looking to spot start these guys in case of injury or any other circumstance that would preclude my normal starters from playing against the White Sox.
Keep in mind, this list and conversation only considers rookie starting pitchers earning their first major league W. This doesn't include other starters who are in the midst of their rookie season. These pitchers too have fared well against the White Sox. For example, how about last night's performance by Oakland's Josh Outman. He is a rookie who got his 3rd win of the season earlier this evening by allowing 7 hits and 3 runs (only 2 earned) over 6 2/3 innings. While this is not a shutout or super dominating performance, it is another example of a young, unproven arm defeating the White Sox because they didn't bring their bats.
ASIDE - I'm just getting word from the TV, as I type this, that the White Sox are calling up Gordon Beckham. Thank god. Those of us loyal to the Black Sox are heaving a major sigh of relief. While not expecting him to single handedly right the ship, hopefully this kid can supply some energy and some sort of hitting during his first stint in the majors. (see pic above)
Anyway, the White Sox desperately need to figure out a way to hit against young pitching. Maybe that's changing the hitter's approach. Maybe that's infusing new hitters (Beckham, Beckham, Beckham, Beckham). Whatever it is, this is going to be key to the White Sox making a run at the AL Central crown this year and in the future.
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