Rozner: It's a hair too soon for White Sox panic

Just a little past the first week of the baseball season, there are certain things you can count on this time of year.

One is overreaction and the other is panic.

This is as likely as rainouts or snowouts on the South Side in April. Honestly, you can't blame White Sox fans for thinking the weatherman hates them, not when it's 80 degrees on the North Side one day, and winter on the South Side the next day.

But if you're a Sox fan there's no reason to panic. At least, not yet.

There has been plenty of ugly so far, as in Losing Ugly, not the Winning Ugly that has become a punchline in these parts since 1983.

While there was so much excitement in spring training about the high-powered offense, what garnered little conversation was the defense, and if you intend to go far in the postseason you will have to catch the baseball.

Sounds simple - and it should be. But so far, the Sox can't catch the baseball. It's not sexy, not like 500-foot home runs, or weighted runs created plus, but you give away enough runs in the playoffs and you can start your golf season early.

Going into Monday night, the Sox had collected 9 errors in 9 games, not to mention a passed ball and 2 wild pitches. That's led to 7 unearned runs already this season, and that's an excellent formula for losing games.

The errors don't even count all the plays that should have been made that weren't considered errors, like breaking late on a ball in the outfield or simply being too slow to the baseball.

All these items increase pitch counts and increased pitch counts means an earlier exit for the starter. An early exit for the starter means more stress on the bullpen.

The Sox have a great bullpen, despite a couple hiccups, but you can't ask the bullpen to throw 4 or 5 innings every night.

Tony La Russa knows this and he seems to be fighting an inner battle on some nights, knowing he can't abuse the relief corps, while also knowing he must obey modern metric thinking on how long a starter can pitch, or face the Twitter consequences.

Speaking of stressing the bullpen, it would be nice if the Sox occasionally cashed in with runners in scoring position and built up a little bit of a lead to make finishing games a tad easier.

Going into Monday night, the Sox were hitting .227 with runners in scoring position, and that number falls to a pathetic .111 (5-for-45) in defeats, including 0-for-11 in one of the Los Angeles losses, and 1-for-15 Sunday against Kansas City.

The Sox walked 9 times in that game. Among others situations, they had the bases loaded with one out and didn't score, and a man on third with one out and didn't score.

It's April in Chicago and it's cold. The long ball will definitely arrive for this team, but right now there's no law that says you can't put the ball in play or move runners.

In the postseason, when facing better pitching, this is something the Sox will have to do. Situational hitting, like it or not, matters.

As for La Russa, he's had some good games and some not so much, but he's learning his pitching staff and in the past that's something he's been quite good at adapting to. To this point, he does seem to know what players he has available and what the other team has waiting for him.

That's a big deal because the game moves fast in the later innings and even younger managers mess that up all the time, seemingly unaware of what the other club has left on the bench or in the pen.

It's not clear yet whether he has a grasp of all the new rules and especially the replay challenge system, but he's got people who should be helping him with that.

All in all, it's been a rocky start for this club. It's very early, it's a small sample size and they are missing some big pieces.

Overreact? Sure, go ahead. It's expected. But it's far too soon to panic.