Spiegel: Time for Ventura to fix what's going wrong

The last few years, Robin Ventura has often been "bringing knives to gunfights," as White Sox general manager Rick Hahn told us Wednesday on the radio show.

I've cut Ventura plenty of slack for the overall win-loss record. There was an Ozzie Guillen leftover team that led the division for most of 2012 until a September collapse. Then there was a bad 2013 team that we all knew didn't have it from the start. The 2014 season was a mildly disguised rebuild, with other goals being understandably prioritized.

In fact, Hahn has said that what sometimes looked like horrific bullpen management last season was really just Robin and Don Cooper trying to figure out what they had for the next competitive window.

Well, that window is now. Robin, show us what you've got.

So far, not so good.

Fans are seldom presented with tangible evidence that a manager has made a mistake. Robin has given us three bad moments in losses this past week.

• There was the bunt attempt from Adam Eaton with two on and no outs in the ninth in Cleveland, against a closer who was struggling to find the plate. Eaton bunted foul with two strikes, and the Sox quickly went down.

• There was the horrific non-challenge in Detroit in the ninth last Friday, when there was absolutely nothing to lose by requesting a review. Hahn told us "we messed it up. As a group we messed it up." The manager has to know the rule book inside and out and helm that group to a better decision.

•And there was bringing in Carlos Rodon with men on base in the middle of an inning for his first major-league appearance. The kid has been a starter his entire life, including just last week in Charlotte. At least let him begin his relief career with a clean inning.

Then there is the overall execution, focus and detailed preparation of a team. Much of that, of course, is on the player himself, but an alarming consistency of sloppiness has marked the last two years and two weeks of White Sox baseball. Baserunning blunders, miscommunication in the infield, overthrown cutoff men.

These things continue to happen, and the only true constants are the shortstop and the manager. It is Ventura's responsibility to make sure these men are in the best frame of mind to perform at their peak - and are preparing as they should be.

Jose Abreu, the best player on the White Sox, spoke about the overall malaise this week. He said, through an interpreter, "We have to make some changes probably in the way we are approaching the game. We have to be more a unit, like a team - the players, the coaches, everybody. Maybe at some point have a meeting and think about what we have been doing or what we need to be executing."

His comments are troubling testament to a lack of cohesion.

Fix that, Robin. That's the gig.

Or someone else may be asked to do it.

Maddonisms:

In his weekly appearance on our radio show, Cubs manager Joe Maddon explained his willingness to challenge conventional wisdom. He wants his players to "Eradicate Assumptionism." Make sure your mind is wide open to the new.

A quick Google search reveals him using that phrase as early as 2007 in Tampa, again in 2011. We all have our favorite maxims.

I knew a strategic choice would present a quarrel, I just didn't know what they would be. Maddon keeps pulling his starters before they even reach 100 pitches, usually before the end of the sixth inning. This has led to the likes of Brian Schlitter and Edwin Jackson being exposed in big moments.

Unless you have a four-inning shutdown bullpen, you have to try and get more from your starters. Not every team is the Royals.

I'm sure he has his reasons and will expound on them as we go. But right now I think it has cost the Cubs a few leads.

• Matt Spiegel co-hosts "The Spiegel & Goff Show" 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday-Friday on WSCR 670-AM. Follow him on Twitter @mattspiegel670.