It's easy to win in baseball.  Hit the ball.  Throw the ball.  Catch the ball.  Maybe the pre-season pessimism surrounding the Chicago White Sox is that they can't catch the ball.

Yesterday, the Sox had four more errors en route to a 12-10 win over Oakland.

Third baseman Josh Fields, taking over for the slick fielding Joe Crede committed his third error in the last two games.

After the game, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen blasted his team's defense. ""Our defense has to be better. This is two weeks before the season starts. They better start putting their act together. This is embarrassing. It's embarrassing watching big-league players play like that."

Yes, Ozzie, it is.

The biggest problem caused by a porous defense is that it puts pressure on the pitching staff.  Mark Buehrle has said on many occasions he never worried when he threw a pitch a right hander could pull because he knew (former) third baseman Joe Crede could handle it.  Now, Buehrle has to trust Fields, which may be a tall order.

Given the Sox starting pitchers, the last thing you want is for them to throw a lot of extra pitches to get out of trouble that they didn't cause.   Most of the Sox starting staff are finesse pitchers who have low strikeout ratios and induce the other team to put the ball in play.  Unfortunately, if the defense can't do the job, the pitchers throw extra pitches, pitch counts go up and before you know it, you are going to the bullpen in the fifth inning.  This does not bode well for the Sox if they want to repeat as Central Division champions.

The defense should be solid up the middle with Alexi Ramirez at short and Chris Getz at second.  On the infield corners, Josh Fields is a bona fide liability and Paul Konerko lacks range.  In the outfield, Jermaine Dye has a strong arm, but his range has been slowed by age.  In left field, Carlos Quentin is an average outfielder with an above average arm.  In center, only Brian Anderson can play the kind of defense needed to support Q and Dye.  Behind the plate, A.J. Pierzynski is a decent catcher but couldn't throw my grandmother out at second (and she's been dead since 2004.)

The Sox have few defensive wizards on the bench.  Jayson Nix may be an alternative at second, but is as good as Getz defensively.  Brett Lillibridge and Wilson Betemit have had their share of adventures in the field during spring training.  Jerry Owens throws like my wife (okay, honey, you actually throw a little better) and the jury is still out on Dewayne Wise in terms of his range.  Corky Miller is a defensive upgrade over Pierzynski, but his hitting at the major league level is suspect.

It doesn't really matter how well you hit or pitch if you are getting dinked, dunked and gapped to death.  Ozzie has two weeks to correct this or pray his middle relief is really good.