Experiment #18.36

Ingredients:
1 part mediocre sinker
1 part fastball with no control
2 parts sugar

Hypothesis:
Decent pitcher, could be good with a great defense.

Notes:
Too much sugar.

And what does this concoction yield? Jason Johnson. It was a nice experiment. We needed a 5th starter and Johnson, an extreme groundball pitcher, sounded like a good gamble for a team with the best defense in baseball. In last night’s game, the only way a defense could help him would have been with 8 infielders. The Marlins don’t exactly have as poor an offense as the Nationals, but they’re certainly not the offensive juggernaut of the White Sox (words I wouldn’t have expected to say at the beginning of the season). However, they were crushing every pitch they could from Johnson. At one point, Johnson had as many outs in the game as hit batters. Not exactly a recipe for success. Although I will credit the guy for settling down after giving up 5 runs and pitching to 15 players in the first two innings.

So what experiment does Theo have up his sleeve next? Jeff Weaver? Aaron Small? Kyle Snyder part deuce? I guess we’ll figure out soon what Theo has locked away in his lab book.

Oh, and even though the win streak ended yesterday, the Sox did set the new Major League record for errorless games. I’d rather it be the other way around, but a new Major League record is nothing to scoff at.