Paul Konerko a Kink in White Sox Defense: How Much Did It Hurt Matt Thornton?

Chicago White Sox left-handed pitcher Matt Thornton's pitching line for Thursday night's game against the Cleveland Indians looks messy:

1 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 1 ER, 3 K

Thornton pitched the eighth inning, surrendering Chicago's slim 3-2 lead and setting up the eventual 11-inning loss the White Sox would suffer. He earned a blown save for his efforts.

But the numbers could not more starkly misrepresent the game Thornton had.

After punching out the first two batters of the inning, Thornton induced a sharp ground ball off the bat of Cleveland's left-handed designated hitter, Travis Hafner. It seemed a sure out, a two-hop worm burner straight to the normal defensive position of a first baseman.

Because of Hafner's left-handedness, and because the White Sox did not want to allow a runner in scoring position with two outs, first baseman Paul Konerko was playing with his left foot just inches inside the right-field foul line, several feet behind the bag.

This is not only a reflection of defensive strategy; Konerko's slow reaction time and minuscule range at first base necessitated an above-average degree of adjustment in order to prevent a would-be extra-base hit. 

At any rate, Konerko, playing so deep and so far toward the line, took a step and a half to his right, angling forward slightly, and tried to make a backhanded play on a short hop as he went awkwardly to one knee. Instead, the ball glanced off the heel of Konerko's glove, skipped high into the air, and bounced into right field.

The official scorer wasted no time in concurring with White Sox TV analysts Ken Harrelson and Steve Stone, who immediately leaped to Konerko's defense. "Nothing you can do about that," said Harrelson.

Beyond the obvious untruth of that statement (Konerko got his glove on the ball, after all, and would have had all day to corral it and throw out the slow-footed Hafner with Thornton covering the base had he only kept it in front of him) lies a certain misconception about the responsibility of a defender in such a situation.

Like so many of the traditionalists who reject advanced statistical analysis of the game of baseball, Harrelson said what he said under the misguided assumption that a fielder's job is merely not to make mistakes. In the error and fielding-percentage framework, the lone virtue of a defensive player is the ability to make routine plays, or at least to make them look far enough from routine to avoid being tagged with an E-3.

Intuitively, however, that is not the real point of defending the diamond. The point is to get outs, and on a ball that 90 percent of Major League first basemen would have fielded with ease, Konerko failed to do so.

After the so-called single, Thornton gave up a game-tying double to Cleveland third baseman Jhonny Peralta and then walked first baseman Matt LaPorta intentionally before fanning second baseman Luis Valbuena to end the inning.

On the double, as Hafner scored from first, right fielder Carlos Quentin mishandled the ball against the wall in right-center field. For the second time in the game, second baseman Gordon Beckham (a converted shortstop) failed to position and align himself correctly for a relay throw to the plate, eliminating any chance of retiring the painfully slow Hafner.

Had it not been for defensive mishaps, then, Thornton might well have had an easy 1-2-3 inning, or at least have successfully stifled the Indians for another inning, before turning the ball over to closer Bobby Jenks. Of the 31 pitches Thornton threw, four were intentional balls to LaPorta. Nineteen of the other 27 were strikes, and Thornton struck out the side in the appearance.

Without question, Thornton deserved better from his teammates, and he certainly deserves a rosier statistical evaluation of his performance.

In the meantime, Chicago needs to consider moving Konerko into the designated hitter role and shifting either Quentin or outfielder Andruw Jones to first base. Both men currently play middling defense at their primary positions, lacking range because of age (for Jones) or simple immobility (for Quentin).

But either would have better range than Konerko at first base, and both have the hand-eye coordination to make all the catches on tough throws from across the diamond. 

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