Baffoe: James Shields Doesn't Much Matter With Robin Ventura's Decisions

By Tim Baffoe--

(CBS) The deal that White Sox general manager Rick Hahn swung last weekend to get Wednesday night's starting pitcher James Shields from the San Diego Padres is a fine one. Hahn merely had to give up right-hander Erik Johnson, a once-promising name who has shown little promise, and a 17-year-old infielder Fernando Tatis, Jr., who's too young and raw to be any sure thing other than his name recognition. And Hahn got the Padres to eat more than half the money owed Shields to boot.

The new White Sox third-and-a-half starter has an opt-out clause at season's end that he'll likely choose not to exercise, so he's on the South Side for this season and likely at least next at a very reasonable price. Shields hasn't been that good since signing with San Diego, but he's still a commodity in a bad starting pitching market. That's Hahn doing a proper job.

What's a problem with all that is bringing in a James Shields or a lefty bat that Hahn is presumably shopping for doesn't matter -- that is, if manager Robin Ventura is going to unthink the thought process of getting this swooning White Sox team to the postseason.

"An acquisition like (Shields) does have an impact in the clubhouse," Hahn said, per CSN Chicago. "Not only from the standpoint of the players realizing that the front office is similarly focused as they are to do everything in our power to help them win as many games as possible this year, but also by adding a guy who has been through these battles before, a guy who has been a leader on successful clubs and the influence he can have when it's in difficult stretches like we're currently going through right now or crunch time when it comes time for the playoffs."

The general manager is going for it, which is noble and heartening in an early June in which Sox fans need something, anything to keep their noses above surface level of full-on Sox fan midseason frustration-turned-ennui. Because what the team has managed to do in a month is go from six games ahead in the American League Central to .500 and fourth place. That's not bad -- it's catastrophic.

Much of that is on the players themselves. Nobody but the guy at the plate can make himself hit. The guy in black and white on the mound is on his own.

Regression was expected after the super hot Sox start. This isn't just regression.

So what to the grand 2016 scheme is a James Shields? Ideally, he's an improvement to the rotation and a guy who will eat a few more innings to spare a taxed bullpen. But Ventura has shown too often that he doesn't handle the bullpen well anyway. A middle reliever can be on no rest or four days' rest -- it hardly matters when he's brought in inappropriately, be it for a specific hitter matchup or broader game situation, both of which Ventura has shown a seeming dismissal of.

What's a James Shields upgrade to a staff or a rumored Jay Bruce to a lineup if it's going to be undercut by Jimmy Rollins as the designated hitter or calling for a bunt with Melky Cabrera as No. 3 hitter? I'm not trying to beat a dead horse with that Cabrera bunt against Matt Harvey last week as Harvey was finally showing signs of cracking in an eventual White Sox loss to the Mets. Ventura has shown a propensity to bunt through logic, yet Hahn says that Ventura's thought processes in-game are part of organizational philosophy.

"The game-management realm is 100 percent the manager's purview, and I'm not going to stand here and second-guess any decisions he's making," Hahn told the Tribune. "Obviously we all have the benefit of hindsight right now in evaluating a decision. Our conversations in private are about … the thought process that leads up to the decision.

"It's important to make sure that process is sound and that he and our coaches all have the right information when they're making a strategic in-game decision, and I'm very pleased with where they are from an information standpoint and from a process standpoint. But it's not my place, certainly publicly, to second guess in-game managerial decisions."

But we know Hahn isn't about putting the team in a reduced chance position to win games -- like literally the most important part of a manager's job of managing games -- which is what Ventura has done too many times in his five seasons here.

Ventura has also opted to keep Mat Latos, whose talent has gone the way of the extra T in his name, in the starting rotation over Miguel Gonzalez. The latter has a better FIP, K/BB and HR/9 and a high BABIP (meaning bad luck). The former started Tuesday night against the Washington Nationals and, well…

Meanwhile, Gonzalez sat in the bullpen after throwing 16 strikes to five hitters in his scoreless relief debut Sunday. (Ventura is forced to have him make a spot start Thursday because Carlos Rodon has a sore neck.)

Wrote Joe Sheahan recently on the Ventura pattern in The Athletic:

"When the decisive runs were scoring in these two games, Ventura had Matt Albers, (Zach) Duke and (Tommy) Kahnle on the mound. When the Sox trailed or were up big, he had Jones and Robertson pitching. When he had a pitcher with command issues, he loaded the bases intentionally. When he had the opposing pitcher on the ropes Monday (against Harvey and the Mets), Ventura gave him an out."

Crazy odds have hit the White Sox this season: their unexpected start, their massive recoil. But then there's the blatant dismissal of in-game odds we see repeatedly from a managerial standpoint (that the front office is supposedly happy with).

The general manager is doing his job with player personnel. The manager too often is not. Forgive me if I then don't bet on the White Sox with Shields or any other acquisitions if the odds are the decisions between the white lines will continue to be made that negate them.

Tim Baffoe is a columnist for CBSChicago.com. Follow Tim on Twitter @TimBaffoe. The views expressed on this page are those of the author, not CBS Local Chicago or our affiliated television and radio stations.