Three Strikes

Here are three reasons the White Sox won’t win their division; all were on display in yesterday’s 4-0 loss to the Rockies. If you want to make these three reasons to fire GM Rick Hahn, be my guest. Start with catcher Yasmani Grandal, so brittle in the third year of his four-year contract that he can’t be counted on as a starter. And why would you want him to start, anyhow? He runs like a boulder stuck in the middle of Kansas. Really, strikeouts are preferable to groundballs with runners on base; no double plays that way. Garandal struck out pinch-hitting yesterday, putting his BA at .202 with sixty-eight strikeouts in 282 at-bats. That’s a k-rate of just over twenty-four percent. And let’s not forget A.J. Pollock, who Hahn acquired in exchange for Craig Kimbrell back in April. Think of Pollock as Kimbrel with a bat. He’s red hot for two games, ice cold for three. Yesterday, Pollock went 0-for-4 with a double play; strikeout with two runners on; a second strikeout; and a groundout to third with a runner on second base. Gosh, maybe the 34-year old Pollock won’t exercise his player option for next season. Yeah, right. Last and certainly not least is Yoan Moncada. The Rockies thought so little of Moncada they brought in a righthander to face him in the bottom of the seventh inning and two runners on. Colorado manager Bud Black knew what he was doing. With that strikeout on four pitches, Moncada is now batting .196 lefthanded with seventy-nine strikeouts in 260 at-bats, for a k-rate of thirty percent. We won’t talk about his .250 OBP lefthanded. There you have it, three reasons why this season has gone bust. I’ll be happy to be proven wrong today with the Sox playing a makeup game in Cleveland. But I won’t hold my breath.