Sitting on a Dock of the Bay

With two days off from worrying about the White Sox (as opposed to the slow countdown to grandparenthood), I’ve considered the question, Would the Sox be where they are—first place in the AL Central with the best winning percentage in the league—without Tony La Russa? Fairness requires me to answer, Yeah, I think so. If you’ll pardon the pun, yes, the injuries to Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert hurt, but I’d bet Rick Renteria would have his players all in just as much as La Russa has. And Renteria probably would’ve avoided the Yermin Mercedes contretemps. Maybe the same goes for Bruce Bochy and A.J. Hinch. We’ll never know. Rather than ponder the unanswerable, I prefer to look at the minor leagues. Daniel Palka is hitting a point under .300 (!) for Rochester (Nationals) while Matt Davidson is cranking out homeruns for Oklahoma City (Dodgers); Yolmer Sanchez is scuffling at Gwinnet (Braves). May any or all of them find their way back to the show, and soon.