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player ready...Unfortunately, you couldn’t picture White Sox General Manager Ron Schueler pacing his Anaheim hotel room Friday, saying, “Now I have to do something.”
If Schueler did any pacing, it was from the 150-yard marker to his golf ball. What, him worry? So Cleveland added Milwaukee pitchers Steve Woodard and Jason Bere to a rotation of mostly bald tires? Adding Woodward and Bernstein would have struck similar fear in Schueler.
All-Star closer Bob Wickman was a nice pickup, but he can’t close 10-4 deficits. Woodard is 1-7. Post-Tommy John surgery and his White Sox career, Bere has had his moments and his Mylanta moments. He’s 6-7.
So it’s highly unlikely Schueler, who quit smoking earlier this season, started again Friday. The Indians’ pitching is better than it was Thursday only because horses Charles Nagy and Jaret Wright aren’t expected back from injuries until September, if then. GM John Hart already waved a miniature white flag by trading David Justice to the Yankees. The Indians have basically lost Hart.
He made this deal only to humor fans who pack Jacobs Field. Hart claimed he came close to acquiring Curt Schilling, which would have sent shock waves through Chicago’s South Side. But Friday’s deal wasn’t worth two shillings.
When Hart sold it as giving his team “a chance to play meaningful games in September,” he had to be thinking wild card at best. The Indians entered Friday night three back of Oakland in that race–and 10 1/2 back of the Sox in the division.
The Sox–to borrow their GM’s nickname–are a “Shoo”-in. But for now they’re also a lock to exit the playoffs quickly and quietly. With the postseason in mind, Schueler needed to at least outbid the Yankees for Denny Neagle or the Braves for Andy Ashby. Schueler had more young-arm ammo. Instead it looks as if he’ll rest on his laurels, fiddling while the Jim Romes burn.
Schueler could have defended sitting tight and preserving clubhouse chemistry until Cal Eldred was lost to an inflamed elbow. Eldred had become the unofficial No. 1 starter, the staff’s big brother and the team’s good-guy leader. At best he’ll return in September, but can he regain the form at 32 no one expected in the first place?
Eldred is a much bigger loss than this club wants to acknowledge.
As incongruous as it seems, these Sox would be slightly better off in the playoffs with the Cubs’ rotation. Kerry Wood, Jon Lieber and Kevin Tapani would inspire the Sox and scare foes more–maybe far more–than James Baldwin, Mike Sirotka and Jim Parque.
Baldwin’s fragile confidence can’t be trusted, especially in October. Parque wore down last season and went 0-9 after the All-Star break. Sirotka is the closest the Sox have to an ace, but what chance would you give him in a Game 1 against Boston’s Pedro Martinez?
The Sox would enter the playoffs with probably the least imposing rotation– backed by the leakiest defense–in postseason history.
And Schueler would love it. No GM in baseball has more job security and autonomy than this 52-year-old Bret Maverick of a maverick. If Schueler reads columnists or listens to talk shows, it’s only to decide what not to do. He didn’t show up at the winter meetings last December, and he has been known to balance work with golf.
Schueler enraged fans by making the White Flag Trade four years ago. Now he could set them off by doing nothing.
Veterans Sirotka and Frank Thomas have hinted to reporters that they’re concerned by the nuclear buildup among other division leaders. Ditto manager Jerry Manuel. When they hear Schueler say “no one’s left out there worth pursuing,” you hear a little “gee, thanks, Shoo,” in their reaction.
Schueler owed it to this team to maximize its chances. But he’s clearly thinking long term–thinking Atlanta-style dynasty.
History teaches that you do whatever it takes to win the first championship, then worry about the others. As yet no surefire Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz or Millwood has emerged. Young arms have a way of making GMs old.
But Schueler is a big, tough ex-pitcher who carries himself like a Vegas card shark who knows something others don’t. He did tell me in spring training that “Cleveland has holes in its pitching,” and I didn’t buy it.
Now Cleveland has too many holes. The Indians have put no real pressure on Schueler, and his team will pay in October.
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