{"id":7573,"date":"2015-02-21T09:02:28","date_gmt":"2015-02-21T15:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/?p=7573"},"modified":"2016-12-10T15:12:59","modified_gmt":"2016-12-10T21:12:59","slug":"169-mike-caruso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/169-mike-caruso\/","title":{"rendered":"#169 – Mike Caruso"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"mcaruso\"<\/a>Name:<\/strong>\u00a0Mike Caruso<\/p>\n

Rank:<\/strong>\u00a0169<\/p>\n

Position:<\/strong>\u00a0SS<\/p>\n

Years With White Sox:<\/strong>\u00a01998-1999<\/p>\n

Mike Caruso was the centerpiece coming back to the White Sox, along with Keith Foulke,\u00a0Bob Howry,\u00a0Lorenzo Barcelo, Brian Manning, and\u00a0Ken Vining, in the so-called White Flag trade on July 31, 1997 that sent Wilson Alvarez, Danny Darwin, and Roberto Hernandez to the Giants.\u00a0 Caruso was a 20 year old in Class A who was expected to be the heir apparent to Ozzie Guillen on the left side of the White Sox infield.\u00a0 He fought his way on to the opening day roster in 1998, beating out Benji Gil, and became an instant success story.<\/p>\n

He made his major league debut on Opening Day 1998, going 1 for 5 in a White Sox victory against the Rangers.\u00a0 By the time the year was over, he had compiled a .306 average, the highest rookie total by a Sox player since Minnie Minoso in 1951 and the best for a shortstop since Luis Aparicio in 1970.\u00a0 He finished 3rd in Rookie of the Year voting, behind winner Ben Grieve and two spots ahead of teammate Magglio Ordonez.<\/p>\n

Things started to go south in 1999.\u00a0 Without veteran third baseman Robin Ventura to cover him, Caruso’s defense, already thought to be suspect, was exposed thanks to a strong arm and\u00a0shrinking range.\u00a0 Offensively, his average dropped to .250 and he managed only 17 extra base hits in 529 at bats, for a slugging percentage below .300.\u00a0 Manager Jerry Manuel called out his young shortstop, for his\u00a0poor production, lack of preparation, and a general lack of baseball smarts.<\/p>\n

The 2000 season saw Caruso back in the minor leagues, thanks to the arrival of Jose Valentin.\u00a0 While his former teammates went on to win the AL Central, Caruso struggled against minor league pitching before an injury ended his season prematurely.\u00a0 Following the season, he was designated for assignment and was selected off of waivers by the Mariners.<\/p>\n

Caruso’s numbers\u00a0in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Career Batting<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/tfoot>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Name:\u00a0Mike Caruso Rank:\u00a0169 Position:\u00a0SS Years With White Sox:\u00a01998-1999 Mike Caruso was the centerpiece coming back to the White Sox, along with Keith Foulke,\u00a0Bob Howry,\u00a0Lorenzo Barcelo, Brian Manning, and\u00a0Ken Vining, in the so-called White Flag trade on July 31, 1997 that sent Wilson Alvarez, Danny Darwin, and Roberto Hernandez to the Giants.\u00a0 Caruso was a 20 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[5331,3368,1509,4887,2596,256,7035,1674,2600,2594,2598,4585,909,124,2599,1552,893,111,2597,45,2595,49,1494],"class_list":["post-7573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball","tag-ben-grieve","tag-benji-gil","tag-bob-howry","tag-brian-manning","tag-danny-darwin","tag-giants","tag-jerry-manuel","tag-jose-valentin","tag-keith-foulke","tag-ken-vining","tag-lorenzo-barcelo","tag-luis-aparicio","tag-magglio-ordonez","tag-mariners","tag-mike-caruso","tag-minnie-minoso","tag-ozzie-guillen","tag-rangers","tag-roberto-hernandez","tag-robin-ventura","tag-white-flag-trade","tag-white-sox","tag-wilson-alvarez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7573"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11429,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7573\/revisions\/11429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

BA<\/span><\/th>\nAt Bats<\/span><\/th>\nRuns<\/span><\/th>\nHits<\/span><\/th>\nRBI<\/span><\/th>\nWalks<\/span><\/th>\nStrike Outs<\/span><\/th>\nDoubles<\/span><\/th>\nTriples<\/span><\/th>\nHR<\/span><\/th>\nSB<\/span><\/th>\nGIDP<\/span><\/th>\nErrors<\/span><\/th>\nGames<\/span><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
0.240<\/span><\/td>\n25<\/span><\/td>\n3<\/span><\/td>\n6<\/span><\/td>\n0<\/span><\/td>\n0<\/span><\/td>\n1<\/span><\/td>\n1<\/span><\/td>\n0<\/span><\/td>\n0<\/span><\/td>\n0<\/span><\/td>\n0<\/span><\/td>\n3<\/span><\/td>\n6<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
0.278<\/span><\/td>\n1052<\/span><\/td>\n141<\/span><\/td>\n292<\/span><\/td>\n90<\/span><\/td>\n34<\/span><\/td>\n74<\/span><\/td>\n28<\/span><\/td>\n10<\/span><\/td>\n7<\/span><\/td>\n34<\/span><\/td>\n14<\/span><\/td>\n59<\/span><\/td>\n269<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n