A New Format

So...in the event I still have any readers remaining, one might notice this is my first entry in two months. Sadly this phenomenon cannot be explained by a lack of White Sox news as both Tadahito Iguchi and A.J. Pierzynski were signed during that span. My explanation (aside from the nightmares generated by the thought of attempting to spell the names of those two players) is sadly mere general laziness. In an attempt to rediscover my original intent in creating this space, I am hoping that writing shorter, less expansive analysis will make writing these entries more fun and less daunting. Hopefully what will be lacking in the length of the entries will be made up for in the frequency with which I post. Here goes nothing:

The Daily Southtown and a number of other sources are reporting that at this point in time the Sox are leaning towards moving Aaron Rowand to left and leaving Scott Podsednik in center field as a means of keeping Rowand healthy. The timing of the report is somewhat odd, considering that Rowand played in 140 games last season - the second most of his career - and as far as I can tell did not miss a single game to injury. The club's concerns about Rowand's health presumably stem from the fact that he has a reputation for playing with reckless abandon, earning the nickname "Crash" due to a propensity to collide with the outfield walls. The reality of the situation though is that apart from missing a handful of games after slamming into the wall on a highlight reel grab in '01, Rowand has never missed substantial time due to injury and has never landed on the DL. The only serious injury Rowand has experienced while in the organization was a non-baseball injury, his dirt bike accident in the 2002 offseason. Furthermore, there are outfield walls to crash into in left field as well as center field. The unique health benefits of a move to left are almost completely lost on me.

As I noted in my previous entry on the club's outfield defense, he downside to selecting Podsednik and not Rowand as the team's center fielder is considerable. BaseballProspectus' metrics rate Rowand as slightly above average in '04 while rating Podsednik below average in his two full seasons. Perhaps more importantly, as noted in the Southtown article Rowand had more outfield assists last season and conventional wisdom suggests a strong arm is more important in center field than left field.