Back to Earth

Well, it was nice while it lasted, but you’re never going to extend a four-game winning streak by walking the bases loaded and balking in a run. Rays 4 White Sox 3. That the Sox get any attention at all right now is miraculous. Why? It’s all things Bears, that’s why. “The Ben Johnson Show starts now at Bears camp. All eyes and ears are on him,” reads a headline in today’s The Athletic. “All” basically means each and every media outlet in and around Chicago. That leaves it to yours truly to do the work of a beat writer and/or columnist. What I find fascinating is how the Sox are handling Colson Montgomery, batting mostly down in the order and playing third base instead of shortstop. It feels like Montgomery is being handled differently than, say, fellow rookie Chase Meidroth. Is that a good thing? Yes, maybe. Meidroth has led off or batted second since his arrival back in April. The 24-year old—happy birthday, Chase—recently went through a brutal 6-for-50 stretch. The thing is, Meidroth wasn’t benched or moved down in the order, and now he’s on a 7-for-14 tear with four doubles. Compare that to Montgomery, who batted in the six spot last night and hit his major-league first homerun in the seventh inning. The big concern here is strikeouts—the 23-year old has fourteen in 46 at-bats. Anything more than 30 percent gets problematic. This probably explains why he’s batted sixth, seventh or eighth in the order; playing should also be easier than short, where Meidroth has performed surprisingly well. I’m sure GM Chris Getz and company want Montgomery batting third or fourth long-term. Exactly when is hard to say. I’m not a sportswriter.

What's Going On Here?

After beating the Rays 8-3 last night at what really looks like a minor-league ballpark (and how delicious that it’s named after George Steinbrenner), the White Sox have won four games in a row. Not only that, they’ve scored 35 runs in the process. What gives? Sox manager New-Mickey Venable says that, coming out of the All-Star break, the coaching staff has emphasized a better approach to hitting the fastball. Other than that, ir’a just blather about everybody pulling together, blah, blah, blah. But the reasons for this sudden change do matter. Because if a new approach fixed things, Venable should’ve called for it months ago while his hitters were flailing away at fastballs and just about every other pitch. If my least favorite hitting coach is the primary factor, what exactly is he doing? How is Marcus Thames getting through to players where he couldn’t before? And if it’s because of adjustments made after studying gizmo-derived data, what gizmos and what data? All I know right now is this team is hitting. What made last night so much fun is that the “right” people were getting hits, along with “will he or won’t he be traded?” Luis Robert Jr., who had two RBI singles. Robert is 12-for-33 for the month. Who lit a fire under him? With Brooks Baldwin, at least we know he sought help in slowing the game down. Maybe that explains his three-run homerun off of Rays’ starter Shane Baz in the second inning. Maybe rookie Chase Meidroth did likewise. Whatever, Meidroth went 4-for-5 with three doubles. Miguel Vargas, who may be a textbook case of the streaky hitter, added a two-run homer while Colson Montgomery chipped in with an RBI single. All I can do is Venable goes with another young-player lineup tonight, and the Sox win again. Then, maybe sports’ writers will get around to asking the same questions I have. As they say, hope springs eternal.

Baby Steps

By beating the Pirates 7-2 yesterday, the White Sox became the last ML team to sweep a sereis this season. Well, better late than never, I always say. Of course, parts of the result don’t matter. Mike Tauchman with his three RBIs is pretty much auditioning for a trade to a contender; ditto Aaron Civale with his six innings pitched with zero earned runs allowed. He gone, or should be. What mattered was Grant Taylor striking out three of the four batters he faced in the seventh inning. In truth, the rookie righthander struck out four Pirates that frame because home-plate umpire Jansen Visconti suffered from a serious case of floating strike zone. The less said here the better. But Chase Meidroth and Miguel Vargas do merit attention, both with two hits and a double, Vargas also with a three-run homerun in the first inning. And Colson Montgomery with an RBI single (while playing third base, like he is tonight in Tampa. Hmm.). Speaking of tonight, Lenyn Sosa gets the start at second and Brooks Baldwin in left. That’ll mean six rookies and young veterans in the lineup. I’d say that’s OK for now.

Nostradamus

Can I see the future or what? Just like I predicted, Colson Montgomery played a different position last night; Egar Quero sat; Kyle Teel caught; and Josh Rojas got a start at third base. White Sox 10 Pirates 4. Montgomery struck out twice; Teel got two hits; and Rojas somehow managed to double in a run and raise his BA to .177. As much as it pains me to, I have to give kudos to manager New-Mickey Venable for two decisions, starting with Montgomery. Rather than have the lefthanded rookie face lefty reliever Caleb Ferguson with two runners on, Venable went with righthanded Austin Slater to pinch hit, and Slater singled in the tying run. Montgomery was 0-for-2 on the night with two strikeouts. Risking three risked a setback in Montgomery’s still-shaky confidence at the plate. The second kudo comes from an old-school decision by Venable to call for a sacrifice bunt in the seventh with two runners on and nobody out; Brooks Baldwin delivered as asked, and Lenyn Sosa singled in both runners. Ah, Sosa. If Nancy Faust were still around on a regular basis, I wonder if she’d be tempted to play “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria” as Sosa’s walkup song. If only the guy could field the way he hits. Last night, Sosa went 3-for-3 with three RBIs; two runs scored; and a walk. It helped, at least defensively, that he wasn’t playing the field. A DH can’t muff a ground ball. My suggestion would be to alternate the 25-year old between second base and DH for the rest of the season; that would minimize the damage from his defensive limitations. Did I mention the guy can hit? What I like about Sosa is he seems to understand he’s 5’11” and leaves launch angle/velo to the big folks. Rather, he puts the ball in play and takes his RBIs. That said, Sosa also has nine homeruns. I keep wondering if the Sox have any idea who Mike Heath was. For that matter, Daniel Murphy.

If Only

If only this were the Luis Robert Jr. who showed up for every game, like the one in Pittsburgh last night who went 2-for-2 (plus two walks!) with two runs scored and two runs batted in and who made a great play in the outfield. But that would be too much to ask. So, you take what you can get, the Robert who showed up yesterday and may or may not today. In the meantime, you savor that play he made, running to deep left-center field to make a diving, backhand catch of a ball off the bat of the Pirates’ Isiah Kiner-Falefa in the bottom of the third. And you also cross your fingers that these are the real Jonathan Cannon and Edgar Quero. Cannon needed just 86 pitches to throw seven innings of one-run ball in a 10-1 Sox win. The 25-year old righty didn’t walk anybody, which is great, while only striking out two, which probably leaves the analytics’ crowd flustered. Those are the people who put a premium on strikeouts, damn’ the likelihood of injury to the pitcher. Instead, Cannon went old school, and depended on his fielders. Along with Robert, Michael A. Taylor had a nice, sliding catch in left field in the second inning, when the Pirates had two on and one out and it was still a ballgame at 3-0. Old school works for me. As for Quero, he had a double and a homerun, along with two runs scored. Right now, Quero’s hitting (.274 BA, 21 RBIs in 190 at-bats) is ahead of his catching, but we’re talking about a 22-year old here. I hate to sound like a broken record, but the Sox should be playing both their catchers as much as possible. In the name of Mike Heath, you just don’t have to play one position if you’re a catcher. Odds are, manager New-Mickey Venable will sit Quero and start Kyle Teel; it seems he’s learned his lesson not to DH one of his catchers while playing the other behind the plate. Bad things can happen, like losing the DH when you pinch run for the catcher. Fellow rookie Colson Montgomery has a better chance than Quero to play again tonight. The only question is where? Venable put Montgomery at third with Chase Meidroth at short; it was Montgomery’s second start (and third appearance) at the hot corner vs. eight starts at short. Does the Sox “brain trust” see Montgomery as a possibility at third base? Instead of Josh Rojas? If only.

Treading Carefully

Everyone was over for Michele’s birthday yesterday, my grandson, of course, wanting to hit in the backyard. At one point, he was on the backporch, practicing his swing, Tiffany-inspired lampshade be damned. Nothing got smashed. I made sure to give Clare a story in the Tribune about Kim Ng and the new Athletes United Softball League. The story had two takeaways—Ng has spent most of her career in major-league front offices and an AUSL game drew 2000 fans, apparently an impressive number. The birthday girl cum grandma wanted pizza for dinner (along with chocolate cake from the Oak Park Bakery, talk about your recipe for a night of dreaming). This meant a trip to Carbone’s in Berwyn, by the Burlington Northern tracks. I had to wait a few minutes, which was just enough time to see what the bar had on the TV. As in a guy striking out against a softball pitcher. So, I’m guessing this was ESPN or the MLB Network, part of an effort to elevate softball to equal status with baseball. The baseball-player-striking-out-against-softball-pitching is a staple in women’s sports, dating to at least to 1961, when Joan Joyce struck out Ted Williams. Never mind Williams was just short of turning 43. Joyce was 20 at the time. What if Williams were, too? And how about some money on the line? Maybe the results would’ve been the same. Even if they were, questions remain. The most obvious one is this: If a great softball pitcher can strike out a great—or even a good—major-league hitter, why aren’t there women pitching in the bigs? What, they don’t want to? Do I think a woman can pitch in professional baseball? Yes, but not windmill style. To the best of my knowledge, Joyce wasn’t standing 60’6” when she faced Williams. Hand size and leg size would tend to work against a female pitcher, unless she could be another Tim Lincecum (5’11”). I could see that. Where I really think women could excel would be at the plate. Pick a guy 6’ or under, and a female hitter could do that. But baseball—and softball, for that matter—runs from the possibility. Better to establish a Negro Leagues 2.0 than look for the next Jackie Robinson. But if I make this point too strongly or for too long, someone I cherish gets upset. So, I tread carefully, pass along a story, make a simple point and ask for another piece of pizza.

Compare and Contrast

Milwaukee is what you might call a small-market city. By contrast, Chicago is a big market where the sports’ teams often go small. The White Sox are the Brewers, minus the track record. Right now, the Brewers are one game behind the Cubs—whose ownership pretends not to belong to a billionaire family—in the NL Central. The White Sox are in a slightly different position in the AL Central, trailing the first-place Tigers by 27 games. I’m not hopeful they can close the gap. The Brewers are smart, the Sox not. Milwaukee traded for Andrew Vaughn and then found a way for him to produce, as in ten RBIs in fourteen at-bats. In exchange, the Sox received pitcher Aaron Civale, who’s gone 0-4 with a 5.58 ERA in six starts. Good luck flipping him. Far be it from me to dump on Sox GM Chris Getz, at least not until I’m done fulminating over the reign of his predecessor, Rick Hahn. Back in 2022, Hahn selected pitcher Peyton Pallette in the second round; Pallette is 6-15 with a 4.35 ERA over three minor-league seasons. Hahn could’ve taken Jacob Misiorowski, which the Brewers did with the next pick. Need I say more?