OK, Whatever

So, one day after I rip into Luis Robert Jr. he goes 3-for-4 with two doubles. I’ll take the credit, thank you very much. It’s also worth noting that Tim Anderson and Yoan Moncada went a collective 0-for-6, though Moncada did manage two walks and a run scored in the White Sox 7-3 win over the Angels. I’m at the point now where it’s better to go with the flow rather than get worked up over the state of things. Rick Hahn did his Rich Hahn thing Monday, telling reporters, “The frustration we all felt in April, we haven’t rinsed ourselves of it.” [today’s Tribune] Who talk like that? Oh, right, Rick Hahn. Scout’s honor, I’ll try to focus more on the positive, like Jake Burger picking up three hits and Romy Gonzalez getting himself a double and a homerun. Since coming off the IL, Gonzalez is 10-for-31 with eleven RBIs. He should keep playing second base until he cools off, if he cools off. Signing Elvis Andrus for second was an afterthought by Hahn. Time to see if his initial idea of going with Gonzalez was the right one. That would officially make him the proverbial stopped clock getting it right twice in a day. Andrew Vaughn collected three RBIs last night on a bases-clearing double, which now gives him thirty-nine RBIs and twenty-four extra-base hits on the season. Compare that to twenty RBIs and eight extra-base hits for the departed Jose Abreu. Then we have Andrew Benintendi, like Tim Anderson, still waiting for his first homerun, 199 at-bats into the season and counting. I did call Hahn a broken clock, right?

This is Hell

Hell is being a White Sox fan, seeing your team with a 22-34 record on Memorial Day and, worst of all, realizing that a teardown is irrelevant if the same people who built this roster are allowed to do the next. Oh, Rick Hahn can get fired, but, as long as Jerry Reinsdorf owns the team, meet the new GM, same as the old GM. Luis Robert Jr. is back to striking out, fanning twelve times in his last twenty-seven at-bats. Yoan Moncada strikes out less while grounding out more, as evidenced by a .167 BA over his last seven games. At some point, the front office will admit Moncada is hurt, some combination of back and oblique problems, put him on the IL and offer that rest should resolve the problem. It won’t. Moncada will never be the player Rick Hahn dreamed he was acquiring, along with Michael “I like homeruns and strikeouts” Kopech, in exchange for Chris Sale. Tim Anderson? Come June 23, he’ll be on the wrong side of thirty, and he’s giving a preview of what that’ll look like. The erstwhile minister of fun hasn’t homered in 153 at-bats so far this season, and there’s no reason to think he’ll heat up anytime soon. Defense was never Anderson’s strength, which makes his lack of power—think six extra-base hits going into June—so worrisome. Break up the team? Why bother? Hahn or whoever replaces him will want to hold onto Robert and Moncada until they have virtually no value, and probably Anderson, too. I’d trade all three, today if not sooner, and build the team around Eloy Jimenez. An injury waiting to happen, yes, but an extraordinary hitter and someone who exudes a joy missing in the other three. It's also worth noting that Hahn stinks when it comes to acquiring minor leaguers in-season. During the 2016-17 seasons, the Sox GM traded away Zach Duke; Todd Frazier; Dan Jennings; Tommy Kahnle; David Robertson; and Anthony Swarzak. In return, he got six prospects, plus Tyler Clippard. Of those six, only Ryan Cordell and Charlie Tilson made it to the majors. Let’s just say their impact on the South Side was minimal, and leave it at that. Of course, I could be wrong, and things will turn around. Excuse me while I go feed our pet unicorn.

Dunce Caps

If Pedro Grifol is teaching, Dylan Cease, Luis Robert Jr. and Tim Anderson sure aren’t paying attention. A round of dunce caps, please, after a 6-5 loss in ten innings against the Tigers. Start with Cease, who’s giving added meaning to the term “backsliding.” This is the Cease of 2019-2020, not 2021-2022. He got out of a bases-loaded jam in the second only to load the bases again in the third. Nothing says “loser” like an 0-2 pitch that goes for a grand slam. Cease went all of four innings, needing 102 pitches to get there. Not that he deserved it, but Cease had his teammates bail him out with a four-run seventh inning to take a 5-4 lead. Gavin Sheets proved himself again as a decent clutch hitter with a pinch single, and Eloy Jimenez had himself a nice dink double good for two runs; Eloy also scored the go-ahead run on a short sacrifice fly to left-center from Andrew Vaughn. The man does hustle. Which brings us to Robert, he of the rollercoaster season. Not only did he strike out three times, Robert misplayed a ninth-inning single into a one-out triple. What good are five tools if you use them only some of the time? As for Anderson, forget the three hits. For the second time in a week, he bobbled a ball hit at him with the infield in. Anderson’s hands seem to be getting harder as he ages, if that’s possible. If it isn’t, he’s still showing why he’s a liability at shortstop. Speaking of liabilities, Grifol may want to order one of those dunce caps for himself. Bringing in Reynaldo Lopez to pitch the tenth inning with a batter on second would seem to be a recipe for disaster; it was. Then, Girfol felt the need to defend both Robert and Anderson. What a joke. Too bad it’s at the expense of White Sox fans.

Nostradamus

I worried about the White Sox coming close to the seventeen hits of Friday, and I was right. They got all of four against the Tigers yesterday, with the first one not coming until two out in the sixth inning against Michael Lorenzen. And still they could have won. Gavin Sheets gave them a chance with his bases-loaded, bases-clearing double in the seventh inning, which put the Sox ahead 3-2. Enter Joe Kelly. Watch the balls fly—homerun, double, double, single. Enter Jimmy Lambert an inning later. Watch the balls fly—double, homerun. Sox lose, 7-3. Coming into the game, Kelly had retired thirty-four of the last thirty-six batters he faced. His ERA jumped from 2.51 to 4.30. Good teams find a way to win, bad teams a way to lose. Which do you think the White Sox are?

Winning Formula

Pitching and hitting, fielding not so much. And there you have how the White Sox beat the Tigers last night, 12-3. Seventeen hits usually does the trick, and it was certainly good to see Tim Anderson collect four of them. Yoan Moncada topped out the five players with at least two hits by going one better, which made up for his defense, more or less. That Lance Lynn survived the first innings was nothing short of a miracle. Lynn yielded a walk and a double to the first two Detroit batters. Javy Baez then hit a grounder to third, where Moncada was late in tagging the runner coming in from second. Bases loaded, nobody out. The next two hitters made outs, bringing up Akil Baddoo, whose grounder to Moncada was ruled a base hit. That made the score 3-1 Sox, but lucky for them and Lynn the Tigers let Miguel Cabrera play. Cabrera at age forty is not the Cabrera of thirty, or thirty-five even. The future HOFer struck out with the bases loaded. I should also note here that left fielder Andrew Benintendi could’ve made a nice catch on a line drive in the first but lost the ball in the sun for that double. Then again, Benintendi also had two hits. Like I said, pitching and hitting, fielding not so much. Today, rookie Jesse Scholtens starts in place of the injured Mike Clevinger vs. Michael Lorenzen, as known for his hitting as his pitching. I’d be happy with nine hits for the Sox, if it meant a win. We’ll see.

Makes Me Wonder

Pitching stunk, hitting stunk. White Sox lose to Tigers, 7-2. After the game, starter Lucas Giolito called his seven walks in 3.2 innings of work “unacceptable,” and he’s right, of course. [story today on team website] Giolito sounded so upset, it made me wonder. As he was walking batter after batter, what went through his mind? Did alarm bells go off—or wind chimes, since he’s a Southern California kind of guy—or a voice scream, “Danger, Will Robinson, danger!” after the third or fourth free pass? Somebody should ask. Jake Burger stole a base to set up the Sox first run, and Gavin Sheets hit a ball that went about twenty feet off the ground for a homer, so there’s that, I guess. Oh, and tonight’s game is on Apple TV+. They tear down Tiger Stadium and Comiskey Park for this? No, thanks.

Resurrected

Until the last week or so, both Michael Kopech and Romy Gonzalez were dead to me, and for good reason. Has there ever been a more disastrous first start of the season than Kopech’s on April 3, when he gave up five homeruns to the Giants and failed to get out of the fifth inning? I can’t think of one. As for Gonzalez, he hit .118 in April in thirty-four at-bats, and that’s where he was a week ago after a stint on the IL. Then something clicked, and he’s had three two-run doubles in his last four games, including yesterday’s 6-0 win over the Guardians. Kopech pitched in with seven shutout innings, on top of the eight he had against the Royals in his previous start. Now, here’s how dead those two were. Kopech is 3-1 in May with a 1.99 ERA, nice numbers until you realize he’s 3-4 on the season with a 4.24 ERA. And Gonzalez, for all his recent hitting, finds himself smack dab on the Mendoza Line. Funny how a .200 BA can look good in comparison to everything before it. The White Sox took two out of three in Cleveland and now move on to Detroit for another four games. If the Sox want to keep going, they need more resurrections—Reynaldo Lopez, Seby Zavala…

OK, I Guess

How can a team look so bad hitting and still win? The White Sox put on a clinic in Cleveland last night showing how. Start with five strikeouts from Jake Burger plus two apiece from Tim Anderson and Andrew Vaughn. Still, the Sox topped the Guardians, 4-2. Dylan Cease looked like a major-league pitcher through six innings, giving up two runs on five hits and two walks. Right now, Cease is more Tommy John than Randy Johnson, as evidenced by three strikeouts vs. ten groundouts. For a starter, though, it’s less how you record the outs than recording the outs in the first place. The Sox were down 2-1 heading into the seventh inning, when they put runners on second and third with nobody out, Yasmani Grandal up. Grandal hit a grounder to third baseman Jose Ramirez that was so perfect Ramirez couldn’t make up his mind whether to throw home or take the sure out at first, Grandal carrying that piano on his back. The usually sure-handed Sox killer split the difference by dropping the ball. A run scored, and we’re tied. After a walk to Clint Frazier, Romy Gonzalez (!) doubled in two. And this is where I thought they’d blow the game open, three runs in, two runners in scoring position and nobody out. So, what happened? Anderson, Burger and Luis Robert Jr. all struck out. Thank heavens for the likes of Keynan Middleton, Joe Kelly and Kendall Graveman, who put in three innings of scoreless relief. I have absolutely no idea what to expect today. I guess that’s why they have to play the game.

One-man Wrecking Crew

So, how exactly did Yasmani Grandal blackmail the Guardians’ official scorer? Because the wild pitch charged to White Sox pitcher Jesse Scholtens sure looked like a catchable ball to me. With Scholtens called up to take the place of injured starter Mike Clevinger (right-wrist inflammation), Cleveland had a runner on third with two out in the bottom of the second when Scholtens threw a breaking ball low and away to center fielder Myles Straw. Most catchers handle that pitch, but not Grandal. Ball goes to the backstop, run scores, game over. I should mention here that the Sox managed all of three hits against a host of Cleveland unkowns on their way to a 3-0 loss. Wait, there’s more. Scholtens pitched five innings of one-run ball (and still he picks up the loss. Go figure.). With two out in the seventh, the Guardians had a runner on second, when Gregory Santos was brought in to face Mike Zunino, a career .199 hitter forever challenged to hit his weight (235 pounds). All I know is Grandal set up low and away, and that’s where Santos threw it; at no point did it look like the rookie righthander shook off his catcher. Maybe he should have. Zunino hit a two-run homer, which gives him a .178 BA on the season. Wait, there’s more. Grandal went 0-for-3 on the night.

Will He Repeat Himself Yet Again?

Why not? The White Sox will win with a combination of pitching and hitting. Yesterday against the Royals, they got both, with Romy Gonzalez coming back from the dead to collect three hits and two RBIs in a 5-2 win over the Royals. Lance Lynn picked up his third win in his last four starts while Andrew Benintendi—how do you say Mike Hershberger reincarnated from the left side?—drove in two. A few random observations here, mostly on how bad the Sox start to the season has been. Even with his recent return to form, Lynn is sporting a 6.28 ERA; he needs to shave 2.29 runs off of that for me to get excited. As ever, I’m hopeful. And speaking of bad, Aaron Bummer has turned in six scoreless appearances out of his last seven, which is impressive, considering he had a 9.64 ERA coming into May. And now? Why, it’s down all the way to 8.40. Truly, baby steps. Last and certainly not least is Joe Kelly, that perpetual friend of the IL. Well, Kelly has kept himself injury-free long enough to post nine straight scoreless appearances out of the pen, totaling 9.2 innings, over which he’s given up one base hit. It’s easy to see why teams fall in love with Kelly—he’s a string bean with a funky stork/flamingo delivery who gets the ball up there in the high nineties. Right now, he has a 0.60 WHIP with nineteen strikeouts in 13.1 innings of work, good for a 2.70 ERA. Gonzalez hitting, Kelly healthy and dealing—however did we slip into this alternate universe? Just so long as we stay there, I don’t care.

That Old Broken Record of Mine

The White Sox will win with a combination of pitching and hitting. Yesterday against the Royals, they got both, plus a bit of defense, in a 5-1 win over the Royals. Lucas Giolito went six innings, pitching one-run ball to square his record at 3-3. Yoan Moncada had two RBIs with a single, and Jake Burger drove in three with a bases-clearing double. A nice bit of hitting there, as Burger took a 1-2 pitch down and away from a side-arming righthander. He’s now batting .292 on the season, a good fifty-eight points higher than Andrew Vaughn. But Vaughn, unlike Tim Anderson (0-for-4, including a strikeout and two double plays), offers something defensively. With the score 2-1 in the top of the second inning, the Royals’ Nick Pratto doubled and then tried to advance to third on a grounder by Freddy Fermin. With Moncada having to stay back to play a tough hop, Pratto broke for third on the throw. He was out on Vaughn’s perfect throw across the diamond. Will Vaughn heat up at the plate? Probably. Will Rick Hahn address—in any meaningful way, none of that passive-voice double talk of his—Giolito’s impending free agency? I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Like I Said, Again

The White Sox will win with a combination of pitching and hitting. Last night against the Royals, they got the pitching and just enough hitting to win 2-0. Kansas City managed the minimum of twenty-seven at-bats against Michael Kopech and Kendall Graveman. Kopech was a revelation, allowing one hit—followed by a double play—over eight innings; he also recorded ten strikeouts vs. no—that’s right, no—walks. So, the question now becomes, is this the real Michael Kopech or just the one who pitches well on his son’s birthday, which he noted on the postgame interview? Gavin Sheets provided what proved to be the game-winning RBI single. Sheet’s reward? He gets to sit against a righty starter. Pedro Grifol’s ways are not my ways…

Like I Said

The White Sox will win with a combination of pitching and hitting. Yesterday, they had pitching, but not enough to avoid a 3-1 loss to the Guardians. With the scored tied at one and one out in the top of the seventh, Dylan Cease gave up two hits to put runners at second and third. As those of us who’ve played enough Strat-O-Matic know, that’s the time to play infield in. You just don’t want the ball to go to your shortstop, if he’s a four. Tim Anderson is a four. Which is to say he misplayed a chopper pretty much hit right at him for an error and a run. For all intents and purposes, game over. Ten straight Sox hitters made outs until two out in the ninth, when pinch-hitter Yoan Moncada singled. Seby Zavala then struck out to end the game. You could also argue the game was pretty much over when the Sox failed to score in the second inning, despite having bases loaded and nobody out. A popup and two strikeouts from the bottom of the order usually won’t cut it, and didn’t here. Oh, well. Manager Pedro Grifol discovered he had Garrett Crochet in the bullpen and actually used him. Crochet retired all three batters he faced, on seven pitches no less. I hope other Sox pitchers were watching.

Rock the Casbah

Last night, it was Gavin Sheets, Andrew Vaughn and Jake Burger homering in a White Sox 7-2 win over the Guardians. Manager Pedro Grifol kept his lucky streak going by letting Mike Clevinger pitch into the seventh inning, up to and including loading the bases with nobody out. Grifol then doubled down by bringing in Reynaldo Lopez, who only walked in one run. Sox win, 7-2. Here's a question: What happens when Eloy Jimenez comes back from his appendectomy? Burger has ten homers in seventy-nine at-bats, and seven of them are against right-handed pitching. Sheets now has six homers and looks to be on the verge of figuring things out as a left-handed power hitter. As I’ve been saying, this is a power-stacked lineup with twenty-homer-plus potential from seven of nine positions. Andrew Benintendi most likely isn’t going to hit twenty, but he’s the big free-agent signing and won’t be going anywhere. That leaves second base. If only Eloy or Burger could play it; they can’t. Yoan Moncada could, which leaves me to wonder…

Mostly Positive

Clare couldn’t help herself last night. She needed someone to talk to, so she called to ask if I was watching the White Sox game. To which I said, No, I was watching the Jeopardy! Masters tournament. But good father that I am, I let her tell me the news—Gavin Sheets hit a three-run homerun and Jake Burger followed with a two-run shot. What she didn’t say was how this all started with two out in the bottom of the fifth with Cleveland catcher Mike Zunino called for catcher’s interference on Luis Robert Jr. After that, six straight hits, all against Shane Bieber, no less. Sox win, 8-3. Homers by Sheets and Burger, and another by Robert. Lance Lynn pitches into the eighth inning. What’s not to like? Well, the fact that Lynn was pitching in the eighth, for one. Lynn came into the game with a 7.51 ERA and had never made it through seven innings in any of his previous eight starts. Trot him out there in the eighth, and you’re asking for trouble. Which leads us to how the White Sox will win most of their games this year, hitting (see above) and pitching (ditto). The defense, though better than last season, isn’t going to lead to any talk of Gold Gloves, except maybe Robert in center field. Did I mention Tim Anderson? Myles Straw led off the eighth with a groundball to Anderson, who threw way high to first. E-6. Note: This is when a manager on top of his game changes pitchers, but not Pedro Grifol. He let Lynn face Steven Kwan, who doubled home Straw. That, finally, was enough for Grifol, and in comes Keynan Middleton. Groundball to short, where Anderson doesn’t charge, but does get the call at first, only to have it challenged and overruled. The ensuing double play didn’t score a run, but the single after that did. A good manager doesn’t wait too long to change pitchers, and the top of the eighth would’ve been the perfect spot for Garrett Crochet to make his first appearance of the season. Grifol was lucky. He needs to be good.

Odds and Ends

In the six games since his recent callup, the Cubs’ Christopher Morel has gone 9-for-26, with four homeruns and nine RBIs. Morel will cool off, and he does show a tendency to chase balls well out of the zone. That said, he hit sixteen homers for the Cubs last year as a twenty-two year old rookie and sure looks lightyears’ better than a whole lot of infielders on the South Side of town. Like who? How about Romy Gonzalez, whose .139 BA includes one RBI in thirty-six at-bats? Or subtract six points to arrive at Lenyn Sosa’s .132, with three RBs in sixty-eight at-bats. And let’s not forget Elvis Andrus, he of the .201 BA and thirteen RBIs in 134 at-bats. Get the picture? If not, then consider Tim Anderson, the erstwhile minister of fun who’s batting .260 with five RBIs in ninety-six at-bats. And yet Rick Hahn gets to keep his job while Jerry Reinsdorf gets to run his ballclub into the ground. Happy days. One more thing. The Royals took three of four from the Sox last week and have now gone on to lose four straight.

Blah Blah Blah

Lucas Giolito gave up three runs in the first inning and said later he pitched like horse crap; he also said this was the worst he’s felt on the mound this season, along with the admission that’s something he has to deal with as all pitchers do. Manager Pedro Grifol went back to praising his players, to the point another loss, this one 4-3 to the Astros, comes as a surprise. The 14-28 record indicates otherwise. This is what I know. Rebuild keystones Tim Anderson and Yoan Moncada went 1-for-8. Hanser Alberto and Seby Zavala totaled 0-for-7 on the afternoon, and Andrew Vaughn, another keystone, continued to look lost, going 0-for-4. Throw in thirteen strikeouts, and you have a team ready to go belly up. Luis Robert Jr. homered for the third straight game, and Jake Burger went deep in his first game off the IL. Obviously, keep those two in the lineup. Everyone else? Time to back up the truck. Oh, wait. Rick Hahn’s doing the driving. My bad, the Sox bad.

East of Eden

Definition of a White Sox fan, myself included: Somebody complaining, loudly, about the accommodations in heaven. The Sox beat the Astros 3-1 last night behind Dylan Cease and Joe Kelly. These mints taste terrible. Yeah, it was nice to see Cease throw six shutout innings (and distressing to behold another instance of manager Pedro Grifol’s misplaced faith in Reynaldo Lopez. But, hey, only one run in .2 innings. Get him warmed up for today.). Maybe he could do it again in his next few starts. The hitting still looks bad, with Andrew Vaughn now taking it out onto the field with him; it’s a shutout win for Cease if Vaughn doesn’t range halfway to second base on a ball fielded by Kelly. But Tim Anderson and Yoan Moncada managed three hits apiece, and the Luis Robert Jr. of May looks like the anti-Luis Robert Jr. of April. Robert had two hits last night, including a homerun, and is hitting .415 on the month, vs. .202 in April. The heir to Landis, Berry and Rowand now has as many RBIs (thirteen) in half a month as he did in all of April. Consistency may be a hobgoblin to certain people and in certain situations, but it sure would be nice if Robert could achieve more consistent results. So, Lucas Giolito pitches today in the rubber game. I imagine a scene straight out of “The Natural,” the owner and his lackies gathered together hoping the star fails. Only Jerry Reinsdorf and Rick Hahn want Gioltio to win. That would increase his trade value.

Proof's in the Pudding

One day after his White Sox lose 4-3 on a walk-off squeeze bunt, manager Pedro Grifol held a team meeting behind closed doors. And how did his charges respond? By losing to the Astros at home, 5-1. Good thing they had that meeting; otherwise, 28-year old rookie J.P. France might’ve pitched a perfect game instead of just picking up his first major-league win in his second major-league start. Accentuate the positive, I always say. But it is challenging with these White Sox, who managed to collect all of three hits on the night. Yoan Moncada returned after missing more than a month with back issues, and it’s like he was never gone; check out his 0-for-4 on the evening. And Tim Anderson? Nothing like going 0-for-4 at the top of the order. And Gavin Sheets? How can someone so big generate so little power? The commissioner must’ve issued a directive that fines the Sox $100,000 for every stolen base. How else to explain—other than players’ inability to get on base—why the running game has come to a complete stop? Nice to see the Astros pick up three steals, though. And Seby Zavala may be ready to prove Casey Stengel’s wrong about the need for having a catcher behind the plate. With a .161 BA, Zavala’s not hitting, and he’s doing next to nothing behind the plate. What’s a few passed balls thrown into the mix? “Fear the Walking Dead,” one of my guilty pleasures, starts its last season tomorrow night. Maybe Grifol and the boys want to take over as the new zombie show in town. Right now, they’ve got it down part.

And the Scales Fell From His Eyes

Color me wrong and surprised. White Sox manager Pedro Grifol is in fact capable of criticizing his team, if in general terms only. It only took losing three out of four in Kansas City to get him there. The Sox lost 4-3 on a safety-squeeze walk-off, Sox reliever Reynaldo Lopez looking part-sloth, part-walrus trying to field the ball. As for the rest of the game, Royals’ starter Brady Singer came in with a 2-4 record and 8.82 ERA. Holy Lance Lynn! Singer limited Sox hitters to one run on five hits and two walks over six innings. After the game, Grifol let loose, telling reporters, “We go outplayed in the series. Flat out.” Grifol also said he was disappointed by the “lack of urgency” his team shows at times. “Absolutely. I am. Absolutely. That starts with me. So we’ve got to be better. We’ve got to be better as a staff. We’ve got to be better as a ballclub.” The above comes from today’s Tribune, with basically the same remarks appearing in the Sun-Times. Funny, sort of, that the team website didn’t include the “outplayed” comment. You’d almost have to wonder how beat writer Scott Merkin missed that while quoting Grifol on the lack of urgency. Interesting. Grifol wouldn’t offer specific examples for what’s bothering him, so I’ll offer a few of my own. The Sox tied the score—remember, they were handcuffed by Singer and his sky-high ERA—in the eighth with a two-out, two-run double from Luis Robert Jr. off of Aroldis Chapman. Seby Zavala could not strike out quick enough to strand Robert. The top of the ninth went one-two-three and out, after which enter Lopez. Calling on him, my friends, is playing with fire, as evidenced by his leadoff walk to Nick Pratto. One out later, Matt Duffy singled Pratto to third, and Freddy Fermin followed with his bunt. From the moment of Robert’s double, I didn’t see that sense of urgency Grifol alluded to, either from Sox hitters or Lopez, though Joe Kelly, bless him, turned in his fourth consecutive scoreless appearance. I’ve said this before, and it bears repeating—something’s wrong with Tim Anderson, as evidenced by a .253 BA and five RBIs. If Grifol wants to salvage this season and his reputation (it’s going to get ugly each time he steps out of the during this upcoming homestand), he needs to get through to Anderson. Otherwise, move over Don Gutteridge and the 1970 White Sox. You’re going to have company.

Pedro Grifol and the Three P's

I’ll start at the start because that’s where it all went bad last night in Kansas City. Royals’ starter Brad Keller, he of the 2-3 record and 4.67 ERA, walked the first two batters he faced, Tim Anderson and Andrew Benintendi. Andrew Vaughn then hit into a double play and Luis Robert Jr. struck out. No double steal, single steal or hit and run. Just a grounder to third and a punchout. Robert struck out all four plate appearances, by the way. That gives him forty-two in 138 at-bats, for a k-rate of 30.4 percent. Wait, there’s more. Lance “Keuchel” Lynn gave up four runs on six hits in the bottom of the first, plus another three over the course of five innings. Lynn falls to 1-5 on the season with a 7.51 ERA, worst of any qualifying starter in the AL. Wait, there’s more, specifically manager Pedro Grifol telling reporters Lynn “had a good game plan going in.” Grifol noted Sox hitters had a plan, too, to be more selective. The eleven strikeouts suggest otherwise. You have to love postgame commentator Ozzie Guillen. The word “filter” carries no meaning with him. After hearing Grifol’s comments, Guillen urged Grifol to throw out the plan because it’s not working. Better yet, he said he gets mad when Grifol “thinks we are stupid,” the “we” in this case being Ozzie and his fellow analysts. I feel his pain. Listen to Grifol, and he talks about the Three P’s—plans, practice and preparation, all of which have gotten the Sox to a 13-25 record. Guillen and Scott Podsednik wondered how much worse things will have to get until Grifol says his players’ performance is unacceptable. My guess is Grifol is incapable of offering such criticism. It’s one of the reasons he was hired in the first place.

Professor Gump Says--

Stupid is as stupid does. With the White Sox, that applies ever so many ways, even when they win. Last night, Lucas Giolito was pretty much in control from the start, picking up a 4-2 win in Kansas City. Giolito gave up two runs in six innings, actually keeping his team in the game until Luis Robert Jr. and Andrew Vaughn could hit two very long homeruns good for three runs. So, of course, there are stories circulating that the Sox are shopping Giolito. Keep in mind the righthander has gone six-plus innings in six of his eight starts this season. No other Sox starter comes close to Giolito’s 3.59 ERA or 1.11 WHIP. Why the rumors, then? Because this is Giolito’s walk year, and the Sox don’t like signing pitchers to long-term deals (see Jack McDowell, Mark Buehrle and just about any other above-average young Sox pitcher developed by the organization). Bob Nightengale of USA Today is pretty much a Jerry Reinsdorf/Sox front office mouthpiece, so, if he says the Sox are shopping Giolito—which he did this week—that means they’re shopping Giolito. Never mind they only have Dylan “What, Me Worry?” Cease and Michael “Gopher” Kopech signed for next year. Nightengale also reported the Sox are considering trading at least one of their core players to shake up the clubhouse. Many of us humble fans out there—OK, me—thought that the team should’ve done that a year ago. A package of Yoan Moncada and Giolito back then could’ve netted who-knows-what in return. A year later, that deal won’t get anywhere near the same level of talent back. By the way, if I’m manager Pedro Grifol (perish the thought), I’m showing greater awareness of how things operate around 35th and Shields. I definitely wouldn’t be saying, as Grifol did after last night’s game, about Giolito, “He’s been our horse, man.” [today’s Tribune story on newspaper website]. Pedro, get with the program. In the weeks ahead, Rick Hahn will address the media and blow copious amounts of smoke on Giolito’s immediate and long-term status with the club. Then comes the trade. It’s the White Sox way.

On Full Display

One day after their 17-4 thrashing of the Reds, the White Sox showed the full ineptitude of Rick Hahn’s rebuild of the team. What else would you call a 12-4 loss to the Royals? By way of context, know that only the A’s have fewer victories in all of baseball. Dylan Cease is supposed to be the staff ace, based on the fact that he pitched as an adult last season. This year, not so much. For the sixth time in eight starts, Cease failed to make it through the sixth inning. Two-run lead going into the bottom of the fourth? Gone by the fifth. Back to a tie going into the bottom of the sixth? Royals score eight in the bottom of the frame, three off of Cease, four off of Aaron Bummer, one off of Jimmy Lambert. Cease’s record falls to 2-2 with a 5.58 ERA and a 1.51 WHIP. How sad that Cease went into full “it ain’t quacking like a duck” mode following the game. In essence, he advised everyone to ignore what they saw for this: “I was throwing in the zone much better. Just working through some things right now, but I think it’s close.” [today’s story on team website] Close to excrement, maybe, but not major league pitching. Wait, unfortunately, there’s more. Pedro Grifol, Hahn’s pick for manager, was either full-out delusional or earning extra pay as an enabler when he told reporters, “I actually thought Cease had really good stuff. His velocity was high. He felt good. He was strong.” [today’s Sun-Times] And I am the walrus. Silly me, I thought the Sox had a shot at sweeping the Royals. If the Royals sweep the Sox, guess who drops into last place in the AL Central?

We'll See

Two questions come to mind in the wake of yesterday’s 17-4 White Sox beatdown of the Reds yesterday: Will they get shut out in Kansas City tonight, and what’s up with Michael Kopech? The skeptic in me doubts the offense—in whole or part, either would be fine—will carry over. Andrew Vaughn and Hanser Alberto, four RBIs apiece; Gavin Sheets, three RBIs; Andrew Benintendi, Yasmani Grandal and Luis Robert Jr., two RBIs apiece—it feels more like Christmas come early than anything sustainable. But, hey, I’m happy to be proven wrong, and the Robert rollercoaster sure is something to behold, a .216 BA a week ago and .260 today. That’s what nine hits in five games will do. Now, for the enigma known as the Sox number-five starter. After the game, Kopech told reporters he let pitching coach Ethan Katz know before the start of the fifth inning, “My stuff’s not great today, but I’m prepared to give you as many as you need. I’ll go out there and do the best of my ability, whatever that is.” [today’s Tribune] “Whatever”—exactly. Kopech gave up four solo shots in six innings to earn his first win of the season. His record now stands at 1-3 with a 5.97 ERA and 1.57 WHIP over seven starts. Kopech has thrown his homerun pitch twelve times this season, tied for most in all of baseball. You have to wonder if opposing hitters think facing the twenty-seven year old righthander is Christmas come early.

A Message Here?

Torture, thy name is Mike Clevinger, Rick Hahn’s idea of a bargain-basement find. Well, this one took a two-run lead last night in the fifth inning in Cincinnati and turned it into a one-run deficit by giving up a single to the number-nine batter, who came into the game batting .185 with one run scored and zero RBIs; a walk; and a three-run homerun. White Sox fall, 5-3. Hahn’s find is now 2-3 on the season with a 4.84 ERA. Wait, there’s more. Eloy Jimenez had emergency appendectomy surgery after Friday’s game and is expected to miss four-six weeks. That’s not on Eloy, unlike all the pulls and tears, which remind me of Luis Robert Jr. and Yoan Moncada. Come to think of it, Carlos Rodon could never stay healthy, either. Jake Burger broke down in 2017 and didn’t play organized ball again until 2021. Nick Madrigal broke down; ditto Matt Foster and Code Heuer. And let’s not forget Zack Burdi. Micheal Kopech, too. Year after year of players getting injured. The training staff has changed, but maybe that’s not where the problem lies. What about the front office? Who’s in charge of scouting? What do scouts look for? Who does the drafting; trading; and signing? I keep coming back to the same name, and it rhymes with “Hahn.” No, it is Hahn. Keep the same main ingredient, get the same general result.

We'll See

Luis Robert Jr. hit the go-ahead two-run homer last night to propel the White Sox to a 5-4 win over the Reds in Cincinnati, and the team website is offering that Robert’s “season seems to be turning a corner.” Yeah, I’d hold on to that “seems” if I were the beat writer. Consider that Robert went 3-for-4 last night, which is nice, to raise his batting average to .236, which is sad. Now in his fourth big-league season, Robert has never amassed more than 380 at-bats in a year. If he can reach 500 with decent stats, then I’ll consider climbing onto the band wagon. Ditto yesterday’s starter and winner, Lance Lynn, who would’ve gone seven innings had Yasmani “Iron Hands” Grandal not dropped a popup in fair territory. Am I excited Lynn threw over 100-plus pitches in his fourth consecutive start? Not when you consider this was the first time in those four starts that Lynn won or that his record now stands at 1-4 with a 6.86 ERA. Get back to me when he wins his next three starts. Until then, we’ll see.

Same Old Same Old

What’s there to say, really, about another White Sox loss this one 7-3 to the Twins in twelve innings? That whatever Reynaldo Lopez found last year out of the bullpen he’s misplaced it so far this season? One homer over 65.1 innings in 2022 vs. six so far this year in just 13.1 innings. Lopez keeps the ball in the yard in the eighth, and the Sox win 2-1. Of course, they should’ve had more than two runs, as evidenced by a collective 1-for-16 with runners in scoring position, including innings ten through twelve. And perhaps that one measly run they scored in the twelfth would‘ve been enough had Tim Anderson not butchered a groundball in the top of the inning. Something’s not right there. The Dodgers are looking for a shortstop, this season looks shot… But enough crying over three-game win streaks snapped. Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf ventured into daylight this week to tell a friendly group of business people in Los Angeles that fans just want to know their team is in contention the last month of the season. A few things about that. Former baseball executive David Samson has said that when he was starting off Reinsdorf advised him to finish second every year because that will leave the fans happy and excited for next season. Of course, Reinsdorf denies having said it and certainly didn’t practice what he might have been preaching. An owner who in forty-three years has made the postseason all of seven times doesn’t care that much about finishing .500, let alone first or second place. Did I mention Billy Hamilton popped up and struck out with the winning runs on base?

Growing Up

Clare-a Barton took a few minutes away from caring for her two patients last night to call. “I can’t believe Billy Hamilton,” she said. I was a few minutes behind watching the White Sox game on TIVO and hadn’t yet seen what the recent (re-)addition to the roster accomplished. But, yes, wow. Hamilton came in to run for Yasmani Grandal after Grandal opened the bottom of the eighth with a single and the Sox ahead of the Twins by a run, 5-4 (and wouldn’t you like to see those two in a tortoise-and-the-hare race?). Hanser Alberto sacrificed Hamilton to second, and that’s where he scored from on a groundball out by Elvis Andrus to second baseman Jorge Polanco. The play at the plate wasn’t even close. Talk about a tantalizing skill set. Hamilton is exceptional both at running the bases and playing the outfield; the man just can’t hit. He has a career .239 BA, and it hasn’t been that high or better since 2017. Hamilton is still playing because of that skill set and his willingness to do whatever is asked of him to help his team. If only Dylan Cease did as much. Last night marked Cease’s sixth start of the season. He hasn’t gone more than six innings since Opening Day on March 30th, while his last four starts have gone four; four; five; and five innings. Last night, he blew an early 3-0 lead. The four walks didn’t hurt him, but the five hits certainly did. Another homerun by Nick Gordon? Really? After the game, Cease told reporters, “It wasn’t good, but it was good enough.” [today’s Sun-Times] No, it wasn’t, not for someone who’s supposed to be the staff ace and one of the best pitchers in baseball. Cease has a 4.58 ERA. I’m sure Scott Boras will spin that as a reflection of the bad baseball the White Sox are playing. And Dylan Cease is right in the middle of it. Bad pitching makes for bad scores.

Ch-Ch-Changes

Clare stopped playing nurse for a sick son and spouse long enough yesterday to call and tell me, “The White Sox made nine roster moves. No, wait, make that eleven.” Captain Smith should’ve been so active on the Titanic after the iceberg hit. Long list of moves short, Tim Anderson’s back while Jake Diekman and Oscar Colas are gone, Diekman DFA’d and Colas to AAA Charlotte. If I’m right about Colas possessing a good bat, he’ll be back before long, unless Billy Hamilton has suddenly learned how to hit. As to the game against the visiting Twins, our listing Sox managed their second straight walk-off win, 3-2, with Andrew Benintendi doing the honors with a two-out single in the bottom of the tenth. They were in extra innings because Alex Colome—remember him?—gave up a game-tying homerun to pinch-hitter Nick Gordon, who entered the game batting a robust .127. Some things never change. But at least Eloy Jimenez homered, and Michael Kopech looked like a major-league starter, throwing six innings of one-run ball. The win gives the Sox their first two-game winning streak of the season. One more and they’ll have their first series to boot. Whoopee!

Any Regrets?

Poor Jerry Reinsdorf. His White Sox stink, and so did his Bulls this season. Worse, an ex-Bull is doing a spot-on imitation of Superman in the NBA playoffs. That would be Jimmy Butler, who took Zach LaVine—one of the players he was traded for—to school during the play-in game, when he scored 31 points. The eight-seed Heat should’ve been easy pickings for the top-seed Bucks. Instead, Butler led the way to a 4-1 upset in the Eastern Conference quarter finals. In the last two games, Butler scored 56 and 42 points, respectively. That comes out to a total of 98 points for any fans doing the addition. Try to imagine the Bulls pulling off an upset of this magnitude. Then, Sunday against the fifth-seed Knicks, Butler led the way with 25 points in a 108-101 win at the Garden, where, as we all know, basketball was invented. How interesting that Butler has made the playoffs each year since Gar Forman and John Paxson traded him as part of their 2017 rebuild of the team. And now for a little insult on top of the injury, or vice versa, if you prefer. The Bulls also got Lauri Markkanen in that deal. Markkanen basically played his way out of town after five seasons, going to Cleveland and then Utah Guess who won the Most Improved Player Award for his play with the Jazz? Lauri Markkanen with his average of 25.6 points a game, that’s who. LaVine averaged 24.8, if you’re wondering.

Respite

The White Sox stunk again yesterday, turning a 4-2, eighth-inning lead against the Rays into a 9-5, bottom-of-the-ninth deficit. Truly, they have no relief pitching, as evidenced by Kendall Graveman’s third straight appearance in the series in which he gave up a homerun. Oh, and they scored seven runs in the last frame, capped by Andrew Vaughn’s three-run walk-off homer. Sox win, 12-9. All of which changes what, exactly? I mean, Aaron Bummer got the win despite giving up two runs in the top of the ninth. Bummer now sports a 9.64 ERA on the season, not to be confused with Reynaldo Lopez’s 8.76. Lopez allowed three runs in .1 inning, but he may be headed for the IL. So, there’s that. I’ll try to stay positive, if just for a day. No more talk of pitching, then. Let’s look at the hitting and start with a tip of the cap to Adam Haseley, who led off and started in place of Luis Robert Jr. Hasely went 4-for-5, with three runs scored. He singled in the tying run on a two-strike pitch, this while facing a lefty-lefty matchup against Garrett Cleavinger. Here’s an interesting question. The only time Haseley made an out was on a dropped third strike in the bottom of the eighth. By beating the throw to first with two out, Haseley allowed Elvis Andrus to score from third. Would Robert have shown the same hustle or deemed it a non-game-changing situation not meriting full-out effort? More good things: Eloy Jimenez hit the last of his four singles with one out to start things off in the ninth while Jake Burger got a run-scoring double that kept the inning going. Elvis Andrus collected three hits, Lenyn Sosa two (though I think he’ll go down when Tim Anderson and Hanser Alberto come off the IL Tuesday). Now for Vaughn. He had two hits to lift his average to a blah .255 but the homer gives him a quiet twenty RBIs, good for a share of twelfth place in the AL. Jose Abreu, the man he replaced at first base, is hitting .235 for the Astros with zero homers and 11 RBIs. Abreu is hitting .183 over his last fifteen games. Vaughn, eleven years younger than Abreu, is the better defender and now probably the better hitter. Here’s what I wonder, though. Did Abreu keep Jimenez and Robert focused? No, I wouldn’t have re-signed him to keep doing that job. But, if he was in fact an effective mentor, the Sox have yet to find someone to take his place. If Pedro Grifol and his coaching staff can’t do the job, then it’s a case of one step forward, two steps back, and that’s now how you move on from an 8-21 start.