Fundamentals

The White Sox topped the Orioles 10-5 yesterday after Dylan Cease spotted Baltimore a 4-0 lead in the first inning. Andrew Vaughn, Oscar Colas and Luis Robert Jr. all homered while Eloy Jimenez had himself a for-hit afternoon. I’m sure the ’62 Mets had games like this, and I know the ’70 Sox did. Walt Williams bested Jimenez by a hit in the Sox 22-13 win at Fenway Park on the day of my high school graduation. But a win’s a win, and it gave something for me to talk about with Clare when she and Leo came over for dinner. Of course, I played trucks with my grandson, but, Leo being the two-year old that he is, we had to do other stuff, like going into the basement. He probably didn’t expect to watch his mom hitting a homerun back in the day. But there she was on the computer screen, going deep against Illinois Wesleyan and working the count for a double at North Central against her high school teammate. And the ball off the fence at Carthage, you could hear it clank. Leo sat in my lap, mesmerized. “Mommy!” he shouted more than once. Eventually, the person in question came down to check on us. I think she was pleased how I was preparing her son to learn hitting from someone who knew how to do just that.

Sad Sox

Before last night’s White Sox game with the Orioles, (a 9-3 loss), I wrote down the batting averages for the Sox seven-through-nine hitters, that being .225; .173; and .083. C’mon down, guys. Oscar Colas, you saw your average dip to .221 after an 0-for-4 performance with an RBI and an absolutely atrocious bunt attempt in the seventh inning of what was then a 1-1 game with two runners on and nobody out. Korey Lee, your 0-for-4 night shrinks your BA to a microscopic .063. Lenyn Sosa, you, let’s talk. Your three hits, including homerun number five (and fourth in your last twelve games), has you at .196, or four points below the Mendoza Line, so that’s a start. But why did you follow Colas’s bunt attempt with one of your own? Yes, that moved the runners into scoring position, but it also meant the hottest bat in the lineup sacrificed himself for the coldest bat, Lee’s. And let’s not forget the ninth inning. On second thought, maybe we should. The Sox were down 9-3 after having scored two pity runs and runners on the corners. You were on first with your third hit, only to get doubled off on a short fly to right that should have been obvious to you was going to be caught. It was, and you were doubled off of first to end the game. Afterwards, Sox manager Mickey Mouse talked about the importance of fundamentals, which he noted—correctly, I might add—don’t suddenly start at the major-league level. So, why do our rookies look so bad fundamentally? Rumor has it Chris Getz will be the new GM. Guess who’s been in charge of player development the past three years. Yup. Gulp.

Back to Reality

You could tell the White Sox were playing a real team from the score, a 9-0 smackdown by the Orioles in Baltimore. None of the happy talk generated by a split with the A’s applied. Young players finding their groove? Lenyn Sosa and Oscar Colas went a combined 0-for-6 with Colas overthrowing the cutoff man, again. Yoan Moncada turning a corner? Not if 0-for-2 with a walk is any indicator. A reawakened Sox offense? Luis Robert Jr. had two hits, everybody else a total of zero. This is how bad it was. The Orioles brought in a new pitcher for the ninth, and he sported an ERA of 7.60. And by that, I don’t mean six or seven innings pitched; try 67.1 instead. It took him all of seven pitches to retire Tim Anderson, Andrew Benintendi and Trayce Thompson. And then we have starter Michael Kopech, who gave up four runs on seven hits and four walks in all of four innings. Listen to what Kopech told reporters after the game: “Ultimately, I'm not terribly upset with how I pitched. Pretty upset with the results. We are looking to win games, and it's unfortunate when I can't get to the fifth and can't take a little bit of the load off of the bullpen, and can't put us in a better position to win." [story on team website today] Not upset about his effort but upset with the results? Talk about detachment. And it’s “unfortunate” he “can’t” pitch into the fifth? No, better to say there’s a problem whenever he doesn’t get to the fifth, which is way too often. Maybe Manager Mickey Mouse will add this to the list of things he says the team has to “clean up.” Because his team sure is a mess.

Pause and Reflect

Well, it’s been quite a week for the White Sox. We don’t have Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn to complain about anymore, and we might not have a team either, once the lease at Guaranteed Rate Whatever expires in 2028. Wait, there’s more. Bob Nightengale reported on Sunday the Sox would be interested in a retractable-roof facility close to the United Center; Arlington Heights (whether in place of the Bears or as part of a stadium complex Nightengale didn’t say); or on the lakefront, as in Soldier Field reworked with a roof. That last one brings back memories. A very long time ago I suggested Soldier Field as a temporary home for the Sox so Comiskey Park could be renovated. A shill for the team replied that was impossible because of a rule MLB had adopted to avoid any repeats of the dimensions at the Coliseum, when Dodgers played there waiting for their new home to be built at Chavez Ravine. It was 251 feet down the left field line and 301 down the right field line. Something like that would play out at Soldier Field, unless it was totally rebuilt, which to my way of thinking would have to include an upper deck as well. Nightengale didn’t say who’d be picking up the tab for a new Sox home. But enough of that. I’m supposed to rejoice because the Sox earned a split with the worst team in baseball, beating the A’s 6-1 yesterday afternoon. Mike Clevinger gave up one run over seven innings while Yoan Moncada picked up four hits. If only the story on the team website considered the following. As in, will Clevinger be back next season? And why would he, if he can make more money elsewhere? And would we want back a player who at the very least has some very peculiar domestic arrangements? And do we have any idea how long Moncada can go until the next back injury? The talk about the Sox possibly moving to Nashville led Clare to tell me, “I won’t follow baseball if they leave.” I told her it’s not easy being a Sox fan. You have to be tough enough to deal with rumors of them going to Milwaukee or Denver or St. Petersburg or…

Sad

The Mouseketeers beat the A’s 6-2 last night for the first time in three tries, and here’s what the team website has to say about it: White Sox inch closer to Grifol’s vision of the future. In case you were wondering, anything approaching Mickey Mouse’s vision of the future qualifies as dystopian. Ooh, winning pitcher Touki Toussaint looking at video of his performance, reliever Bryan Shaw and catcher Korey Lee doing some postgame analysis, and it’s the second coming of 2005. Also of stop-the-presses importance: Lenyn Sosa’s third homerun in a week. But over at the Sun-Times James Fegan said Yoan Moncada, three-run homer notwithstanding, has a “clouded” future given his back issues. That’s the thing about backs in baseball. Once they become a problem, they don’t really get better. So, answer me this: Given that they had to know about Moncada’s iffy health, why did the Sox trade Jake Burger, who’s still batting .349 with his new team in Miami? Is there somebody in the minors ready to play third in case Moncada goes on the shelf again? I sure hope so.

Trying? No, but Trying

Say this for White Sox manager Mickey Mouse—he can see that things aren’t working. He’s just clueless how to fix them. Speaking to reporters after a second straight humiliating loss, this one 12-4, to the worst—for now—team in baseball, Mouse said, “The whole thing is frustrating. We’ve got to get better. That’s plain and simple,” offered Mouse. If only he had stopped there, but, No, that instinctive need to circle the wagons and protect his players took over. Which must’ve been why Mouse was compelled to add, “It’s not for lack of trying. These guys are out there doing their work. We’ve just got to get better. There’s no excuses. It’s not Major League Baseball. We’ve got to tighten up.” Let me note in passing that saying his “guys are out there doing their work” qualifies as an excuse. But let’s say I’m wrong. Then it becomes a mystery verging on the profound how Sox pitching can give up twenty runs in two games to the worst-hitting team in baseball (as defined by runs scored and BA). Calling Dylan Cease. Per his custom lately, Cease failed to get out of the fifth inning, departing after giving up eight runs, seven earned, on nine hits and five walks. Nick Allen, Oakland’s number-nine hitter, touched Cease for three hits. Allen had four on the night, along with five RBIs, the first time in A’s franchise history that a nine-hitter had been that productive. Oh, and Allen entered the game batting a robust .195. Wait, there’s more. Thirty-four-year old Zach Neal started for Oakland and picked up his third career win; Neal came into the game with an 8.25 ERA. Sox hitters touched him for four runs, two earned, after which thirty-year old Sean Newcomb made his second appearance of the season. Newcomb threw two scoreless innings, leaving Francisco Perez to hurl another two shutout innings. Perez entered the game with an 8.53 ERA, BTW. So, let me ask: This is trying? I’d hate to see what mailing it in would look like.

Overstaying a Welcome

White Sox manager Mickey Mouse had dinner with Jerry Reinsdorf and henchman Tony La Russa Wednesday after a rare Sox win, 5-4 over the Mariners. Mouse wouldn’t go into specifics with reporters about it yesterday, other than to say Reinsdorf is committed to winning over the long haul. But if that were true, Mouse would’ve left the dinner as the ex-manager of the White Sox. Consider that the Sox lost last night 8-5 to the worst team in baseball, their “pitchers” unable to hold two leads while giving up—count ’em—five longballs to an Oakland team seventh from the bottom in the homerun department. Oh, and Sox “hitters” couldn’t solve an A’s staff with the worst ERA in all of baseball. But am I worried? Not entirely. Why? Because initiating change is not the same as controlling change. Reinsdorf started something that may very well go in directions he neither anticipated nor wanted. Put another way, his team may be so out of it mentally that they keep losing until they close in on one hundred losses. It could happen. At the very least, the Mouseketeers look headed for a minimum of ninety-five losses come October, when their crosstown rivals could very well be in the postseason. Try and sell a losing product with a losing manager to this extremely disaffected fan base. My guess is that the drop in season-tickets sales for 2024 will be a closely guarded secret. The Chairman doesn’t like embarrassment, sometimes.

Ick.

It’s two steps forward, three steps back for the White Sox. They clean house one day, then let Tony La Russa loose on the field the next. La Russa advising Jerry Reinsdorf is a little like George Custer giving advice to Dwight Eisenhower on D-Day. And the last thing you need, the last thing GM candidate Chris Getz needs, is praise from manager Mickey Mouse. But there he was yesterday before his team actually won a game, 5-4 in ten innings against the Mariners, praising Getz’s smarts. Mouse knows Getz from their time together in the Royals’ organization. That would be the same organization with the second-worst record in baseball. Next up on the homestand is Oakland, the team with the worst record in baseball. I mean, the Sox actually have fourteen more wins than the A’s. Let’s see Mouse show his worth to his new bosses by sweeping the four-game series. I won’t hold my breath. Speaking of three steps back, Zach Remillard was demoted to Charlotte. What, did he hustle down the line on groundballs too much? Not a smart move by an organization desperate to show it’s not brain dead.

OK. Now What?

Well, well, well. Jerry Reinsdorf fired Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn before last night’s latest White Sox loss, 6-3 to the visiting Mariners. As ever with Reinsdorf, a day late—actually, more like thirty—and a dollar short. Had he moved a month earlier, Jake Burger would still be playing on the South Side. By letting Hahn clean house before firing him, Reinsdorf dumps a bunch of prospects the new general manager probably wouldn’t have gone after. Way to go, Jerry. According to Bob Nightengale in USA Today, Tony La Russa is back working as a team consultant for Reinsdorf. He’s scouted the minor leagues and no doubt will have some kind of influence over the hiring of replacement(s) for Hahn/Williams. Whoopee! Ex-Sox infielder Chris Getz could be the frontrunner as GM, though Ozzie Guillen is predicting Jim Thome. Either one will do, if. If what? Manager Mickey Mouse has to go. Again, per Nightengale, Mouse is safe, at least for the time being. Kick him upstairs, I say, or none of this will matter. Consider that Eloy Jimenez told reporters after the game he really hadn’t considered being a team leader, a sentiment shared by Luis Robert Jr. Mouse failed to get two of his best players to understand what it takes to be a complete ballplayer; leadership is part of that, at least if you bat third or cleanup and are touted as an extraordinary talent. The next manager has to get those two to lead, or show them the door, with help from the next GM, of course.

Back to Business

Now, that’s more like it, a 14-2 drubbing at the hands of the visiting Mariners. Nothing like watching Touki Toussaint give up five in the first. Toussaint was tagged with seven runs in five innings, the other seven coming from that back-to-the-future bullpen, ca. 1970. And let’s not forget the contributions from the White Sox offense, starting with those fourteen strikeouts. You can see the plate discipline. Let me confess to a guilty pleasure here—I love listening to the postgame comments from manager Mickey Mouse. Last night, Mouse talked about how pitching coach Ethan Katz is trying to get Toussaint to attack the strike zone rather than pitch to spots. Talk about cutting edge. If only one of the reporters had pointed out this is Toussaint’s fifth organization. If he wasn’t listening before, why would he start now? I could be wrong, but that 5.30 ERA hardly indicates someone who’s listening. And how does Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf respond to this mess? He goes mute in light of a report in Chicago Crain’s that the Sox want out of Guaranteed Rate Whatever when their lease expires in six years. It could be to another spot in the city, or the suburbs, or, get this, Nashville. Yeah, I can see cities and towns lining up at the chance to build a home for this circus.

Totally Unexpected

Oh, well. You can’t lose ’em all, though Dylan Cease sure did his best. I mean, what good’s a White Sox starter if he can’t cough up a lead? Cease did just that, turning a 2-0 advantage into a 5-2 deficit before leaving with two out in the…fifth, after throwing 105 pitches. If manager Mickey Mouse wanted, I bet Cease or Michael Kopech could throw 100 pitches over the course of three innings. Or two. But the Sox came back in this game (though against a Rockies’ team even worse than they are) to win 10-5. Oscar Colas calmed down enough in the batter’s box to double in two runs in the eighth, and Sosa followed one batter later with a three-run homer. I’ll be impressed with Colas the next time he doubles against someone with an ERA under 5.00 (Justin Bruihl’s ERA when he faced Colas). Sosa I’m a little more impressed by. He hit three line drives in Colorado that should’ve dropped in for extra-base hits, only to be robbed each time by the Rockies’ outfield. Maybe Sosa’s turned a corner, maybe not. Let’s give him a few more starts at second base to see. In the meantime, whenever Zach Remillard wants to get two hits in a game, that’s fine by me. Andrew Vaughn and Andrew Benintendi chipped in with three hits apiece. More of that, please. Now, far be it from me to be Dougie Downer, but Jake Eder, the pitcher we got from Miami for Jake Burger, started for Double-A Birmingham yesterday, and he lost. Eder gave up five earned runs in 3.1 innings of work, which, in a way, kind of qualifies him as a Sox starter, doesn’t it? That’s three starts for Eder at Birmingham. In 8.1 innings pitched, he’s 0-2 with a 15.12 ERA. For Eder’s sake, I hope Sox scout(s) saw something we mere mortals would’ve missed.

Yeah, Right

In today’s story on the team website, White Sox manager Mickey Mouse talks about team “energy,” how it comes and goes and the importance of maintaining it. Whatever. All I know is that Mouse’s team is getting its clock cleaned in Colorado. Friday, the Mouseketeers lost 14-1, yesterday, 11-5. If this organization operates with a rhyme or reason, it’s a mystery to me. All I see is a bunch of sleepwalkers. Take Yoan Moncada. Please. For the month of August, Moncada is hitting .220 (13-for-59) with one homerun and four RBIs. Over in Miami, ex-Sox Jake Burger is batting .359 (23-for-64) with two homers and eleven RBIs. And you know how fast Moncada is on the bases, right? Well, he’s scored four runs so far this month, compared to eleven for Burger. The only Sox player showing the requisite energy is veteran Elvis Andrus, who’s pretty much come back from the dead. Through July, Andrus was hitting an anemic .208. He’s up to .241 as of last night, thanks to batting a Burger-esque .375 in August. That comes with two homers, fourteen RBIs and nine runs scored. I’m sure Andrus wants to play next year, and this is his way of showing that he has something left in the tank. Good for him. Of course, he won’t be playing for the Sox, to which I can only say, lucky son of a gun.

Forty to Go

The White Sox lost, again, loss-number seventy-four coming last night in Colorado by a score of 14-1. The Rockies have a worse record than the Sox, by the way, if just by a game. Michael Kopech, staked to a 1-0 lead courtesy of an Elvis Andrus leadoff homerun, gave it all back, and then some, in the first inning. Walk; homerun; walk; double; groundout; homerun. That made the score 5-1, and counting. Kopech let in four two-out runs in the fourth to leave with a line of four innings pitched, nine earned runs allowed on six hits and four walks. Three of the hits were homers and two were doubles. Andrus collected three hits on the nights while the rest of the lineup managed one single, that by Andrew Vaughn. Luis Robert Jr. and Yoan Moncada combined for an 0-for-7 night, Moncada adding another two strikeouts on his season total of sixty-four. That’s a strikeout rate of thirty percent, based on at-bats. There’s no reason to pitch Kopech the rest of the season, unless Jerry Reindsorf is in my corner about losing the last forty games of the season (forty-two, actually). This is a mental thing affecting Kopech, addressed best by a willingness to admit that and seek counselling. Anything else will result in more of the same. But, hey, it could be worse. Double-A Birmingham lost 18-1 to Chattanooga, though the Barons did manage three more hits than the parent club. Speaking of worse, Jake Burger, the third baseman the Sox didn’t want, hit a three-run homer last night for the Marlins in their 11-3 win over the Dodgers. Burger has twenty-seven homers. Moncada has twenty RBIs. Who knew?

Explain This to Me

At the age of eighteen, Oscar Colas left Cuba to play in Japan, where he played well enough for the White Sox to sign him. He looked to be a player to watch based on his two seasons in the minor leagues. In 2022, Colas batted .312 with forty-two RBIs for High-A Winston-Salem, which earned him an in-season promotion to Double-A Birmingham. There, he hit .306 with fourteen homeruns and thirty-three RBIs. Those numbers in turn got him a late-season callup to Triple-A Charlotte, where he hit .387 in thirty-one at-bats. Last year in Charlotte, he hit .293 with nine homers and twenty-nine RBIs. So, what happened? Colas is hitting .212 for the Sox far this season in 179 at-bats. To me, he looks like a nervous bundle of energy at the plate, with happy feet. Was he that way in Japan and the minors? I don’t see how anyone could hit with such an approach. Right now, Colas looks to be either a Four-A level talent or someone being hurt rather than helped by his big-league coaches. Until and unless he goes to another team, we may never know the answer.

Done

Another walk-off loss via the homerun, and all White Sox manager Mickey Mouse can say is, “It’s a tough loss, man. The toughest loss of the year, in my opinion.” [story on today’s team website] Mouse forgot the ugly part. The Sox were ahead of the Cubs 3-0 heading into the bottom of the eighth, but the score felt the reverse. Why? Because the Sox didn’t score in the top of the inning despite having the bases loaded and nobody out, heart of the order up. Some heart. Luis Robert Jr. struck out on three pitches from Micheal Fulmer. Next up, Yoan Moncada, also out on three pitches. After Moncada, Andrew Vaughn, who waited to strike out on the fifth pitch he saw from Fulmer. Sadly, there’s more. Like ex-Sox Nick Madrigal hitting a pinch homerun against, wait for it, Aaron Bummer, on an 0-2 pitch, no less. At that point it was just a matter of time before Mouse and company lost another one. Enter Gregory Santos. Double, walk, homerun, as simple as that. After the game, Santos admitted to reporters he should’ve thrown his best pitch, the slider, to Chritopher Morel instead of a 1-2 sinker. Ya think? But there’s enough blame to spread around here. Santos did just fine the night before, dominating over 1.2 innings for the save. He was either gassed, which falls on Mouse, or done in by his catcher calling for that sinker. Which falls on Mouse and Yasmani Grandal, take your pick. Speaking of Grandal, why was he even in the game at that point? It’s not like the Sox are going to re-sign him, and Carlos Perez is a better defensive option, with a chance of making the team next season. Last night was a chance to see how he could get his closer to the end line with a win intact. Nope, Mouse went with Grandal. As far as I’m concerned, the Sox can lose every game from now to the end of the season. Not for better draft position, but for Jerry Reinsdorf to reap what he’s spent decades sewing. Hawk Harrelson crawled out from under his rock to give an interview in today’s Sun-Times. In it, Harrelson said, “Nobody is hurting more than Jerry [Reinsdorf], I can guarantee you that.” I hope so. No one deserves it more.

The Little Things

Zach Remillard didn’t do enough of the big things to get promoted to the White Sox until midseason this year, at age twenty-nine. But Remillard does the little things well. Last night’s 5-3 win over the Cubs at Wrigley was a clinic in that regard. In the second inning, he bunted for a hit; stole second base; and nearly passed Yasmani Grandal—who had a ninety-foot lead at third base—to score on a single by Elvis Andrus. That was it for Remillard offensively. But he found other ways to contribute. In the seventh inning with the Sox up by a run, Nico Hoerner singled with one out. Given that Grandal was behind the plate, of course Hoerner was going to try to steal second. Miracle of miracles, Grandal got the throw to the bag and Remillard applied the tag, holding his ground on a hard slide by Hoerner. That play came an inning after Remillard ranged far to his left for a popup from Christopher Morel, with a runner on and nobody out. Remillard misses the ball, and it’s runners on the corners and the makings of a big inning. Speaking of little things, Andrew Benintendi increased his RBI total by one, with a run-scoring double in the ninth. That gives the White Sox player with the biggest contract ever thirty-two on the season, or one less than Andrus. Benintendi has 421 at-bats to Andrus’ 270, and most of those have come at the lower end of the order. No doubt, Rick Hahn would point out Benintendi’s fifty-six runs scored vs. Andrus’ twenty-seven. Feel free, Rick. You still overpaid. There was nothing small or little about the homerun Luis Robert Jr. hit in the top of the seventh off of Julian Merryweather, not at a measured distance of 422 feet. And it was hard to miss Robert turning around after he hit it to shush some Cubs’ fans who were riding him. That’s the problem with heckling the opposition. It can blow up in your face at the worst time.

What Am I Missing Here?

White Sox GM Rick Hahn gutted his major-league roster for prospects. I wonder why. Double-A Birmingham has a record of 38-70. Add that to Triple-A Charlotte’s 41-73, and you come up with a combined total of 79-143 for the two teams that could be expected to provide major-league talent to the parent club as early as next year. Lack of talent or coaching, take your pick or mix and match. Consider that the players netted from Hahn’s recent deals haven’t contributed to those totals much one way or another. My question/worry is what happens when you put young players on teams with terrible records. How exactly does growth occur, by watching the other guys screw up? I’ve already mentioned Jake Eder’s struggles. New teammate Nick Nastrini is getting his lumps Birmingham, too, as evidenced by a 6.97 ERA in two starts. Yet both Eder and Nastrini are doing better than Ky Bush, obtained in the Lucas Giolito deal. Bush is 0-2 in three starts, with a 10.22 ERA. Meanwhile, reliever Jordan Leasure sports an 0-2 record, with a 9.64 ERA in six appearances at Charlotte. The stats are somewhat better for the two catchers acquired. Korey Lee is hitting .250 at Charlotte with three RBIs. Interesting that he was batting .283 with thirty-two RBIs for the Astros’ Triple-A team. The one undisputed bright spot is Edgar Quero, hitting .326 at Birmingham, eighty points higher than he was in Double-A for the Angels. Quero also has twelve RBIs at Charlotte, which is nice. Good thing this isn’t a rebuild. If it were, I’d be worried about the lack of talent on hand to start it, let alone finish things.

Marlins Win! Marlins Win!

The White Sox are going to have a postgame concert next week with Vanilla Ice and some other musical relics from the 1990s, so you could say they’re focused on turning back the clock. Yesterday, they trotted out 2013- (or 2014- or 2015- or…) level talent from the bullpen in the eighth inning of a 2-0 game with Milwaukee ahead. Nothing says Aaron Bummer like two walks, a wild pitch and a three-run homer, better yet if it’s from Carlos “I Kill This Team” Santana. Brewers 7 Sox 3. On top of that, I found out Yoan Moncada has been dealing with extraordinary pain all season that radiates down his back into his legs. Good to know. Did Rick Hahn? I mean, if he knew Moncada has a potentially serious back condition, then why did he trade Jake Burger? Oh, that’s right. The team needs to rebuild a farm system its general manager can’t stock properly on his own. Not to pick on the kid, but Jake Eder, the 24-year old lefthander Hahn received in exchange for Burger, has made two starts totaling five innings for Double-A Birmingham. Eder is 0-1 with a 16.20 ERA. Darkest before the dawn, I guess. That, or just very dark on the South Side for a very, very long time. While the Sox were slipping to twenty-five games under.500, the Marlins rallied with five ninth-inning runs against the Yankees for an 8-7 win. Jake Burger delivered the walk-off single to the delight of 35,000 fans. I watched the postgame interview, Burger getting not one but two Gatorade baths. He smiled throughout. The ex-Sox third baseman is hitting .317 with six RBIs for his new team. Good for him. Good for the Marlins. Sad for me.

Like I Said

The Guardians and Yankees are bad teams in part because the White Sox can beat them. The Brewers are a good team in part because they can find ways to beat a bad team like the White Sox. (And the Braves are a very good team that will be known for dropping series to bottom-feeders like the Sox and A’s, an anomaly that will not haunt them come the postseason.) Last night, for the second time in two games, Milwaukee exploited a weakness in the opposition. Friday, it was Michael Kopech’s inability to hold a three-run lead. Saturday, it was Sox manager Mickey Mouse giving a master class in ineptitude—as if we needed any more from him—by overextending his starter. Jesse Scholtens has shown he can go six innings in the bigs, but never anything more. Staked to a 2-0 lead, Scholtens took the mound in the seventh inning and promptly walked Mark Canha; Mouse left him in. Andruw Monasterio followed with a single; not a mouse stirred in the dugout. Brice Turang flied out to deep center field, allowing both runners to tag up. Mouse let Scholtens keep pitching. Only after Tyrone Taylor doubled in the tying runs did Mouse act, if you can call giving the ball to Bryan Shaw, he of the 5.94 ERA, a sign of intelligent life. Yes, somehow Shaw did manage to strike out Christian Yelich, only to give up what proved to be the game-winning single to William Contreras. Mouse has said multiple times he will not compromise on the goal of winning games. That seventh inning proves otherwise. Mouse also uses the other side of his mouth to say that the remainder of the season is about giving new players, like rookie reliever Lane Ramsey, a chance to show what they can do. How nice. The 6’9” righthander pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth, retiring all six batters he faced. I can only wonder what Ramsey would’ve done had he come in an inning earlier.

Oldies

Something about the 606 Trail brings out the Venice (California) in people. Thursday, I rode my Schwinn past a couple on electric scooters; the man had a dog stuffed in his backpack, a terrier mix, I think. The dog was wearing sunglasses. People like to bike or skate to a music accompaniment, oftentimes rap or salsa. Not long ago, I heard “Riders on the Storm,” by The Doors. I kept a respectable distance. “There’s a killer on the road/His brain is squirmin’ like a toad.” The selection Thursday was a bit more upbeat, youngish Springsteen. No vocals, just Clarence Clemons wailing away on his sax. It would be nice to turn the clock back to when whatever song that was first came out. Then again, Jerry Reinsdorf has owned the White Sox for so long, since the 1981 season, very little of the Springsteen playlist dates to the ownerships of John Allyn and Bill Veeck. For White Sox fans, their only hope for either release or salvation rests with actuarial tables. There’s no good reason to follow the team anymore outside of muscle memory. It’s Saturday or May or Wednesday night, I’ll put the game on. Only there’s no there there with this team, just a mouse at the helm and a bunch of anonymous players, any of whom can be shipped off in the next round of rebuilding. Reinsdorf has no personality. Why should his team be any different? And why root for players who, if they show a spark of personality, will be shipped off for daring to express an opinion or decline a contract extension to forgo arbitration? After Jack McDowell; Frank Thomas; Robin Ventura (the player, not the manager); Maglio Ordonez; Mark Buehrle; Yolmer Sanchez; Adam Engel; Lucas Giolito; and Jake Burger, you grow numb, and there’s nothing comfortable about it. Brewers over Sox, 7-6, in ten. Michael Kopech is still searching for answers.

Litmus Test

Here’s how a team can tell if they’re playing good baseball: Can they beat the White Sox? It’s not that hard, evidenced by the Sox record of 47-69. But the Guardians couldn’t do it over the weekend, and neither could the Yankees after their visit to the South Side. The New Yawkers lost two out of three games, including last night’s 9-2 finale. How bad are the overspending Yankees? In the top of the seventh inning, they had one in and the bases loaded with nobody out, the Sox up by three, 5-2. Out goes Jimmy Lambert, in comes Aaron Bummer, he of the 6.53 ERA. A strikeout and double play later, the Sox are out of the jam and an inning away from scoring four in the bottom of the eighth against what’s supposed to be the best bullpen in baseball with a 3.18 ERA. Michele and I were downtown yesterday to see Richard Thomas in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” We saw a number of Yankees’ fans walking about, hours away from seeing their beloved Bombers lay an egg at Guaranteed Rate Whatever. I hope only hope they all had a nice “El” ride back to O’Hare and none of the doors hit them on the way out. Losers.

What's the Buzz?

Well, dinner at my daughter’s yesterday was certainly enlightening. Along a nice meal, I enjoyed a big helping of White Sox gossip. According to Clare (and whatever her sources were), the Marlins did not come calling for Jake Burger. No, they wanted Eloy Jimenez instead; the Sox countered with Burger. I won’t risk repeating myself to the point of embarrassment how this organization is clueless about the kind of player its fan base wants. Oops, I just did. Clare also fingered the suspected cancers in the Sox clubhouse—Eloy, along with Yoan Moncada and Yasmani Grandal. If true, there’s some cause for hope. Grandal is gone the second his contract expires at the end of the season. As for Moncada, I doubt his back will let him be on the active roster very much next year. That leaves Eloy, and the best way to handle him—barring a trade for Burger—would be to keep him healthy, which would keep him productive, which would keep him happy and waving to the cameras. Say what you will about the man, but he has one beautiful swing. Clare had nothing on the future of manager Mickey Mouse, who spent his one-game suspension from Sunday’s “Thrilla on the Shores of Lake Erie” watching Monday’s game from the owner’s box at Guaranteed Rate Whatever. The Sox beat the Yankees, 5-1. Mouse was back in the dugout last night, for a 7-1 loss. Just a coincidence, right?

Culture Club

The White Sox are reaping what they’ve sown for ever so long, which is funny in a way, because what they’re stepped in generally doesn’t come out of the ground but lands there. Saturday it was Tim Anderson hitting the canvas and then going mute (except for a series of profanity-laced tweets). Sunday it was ex-Sox reliever Keynan Middleton alleging, among other things, that a Sox pitcher fell asleep in the bullpen and people didn’t show up for assorted meetings and practices. Then came Monday. According to 670 The Score sports-talk radio, catcher Yasmani Grandal slapped Tim Anderson just before the All-Star break. Imagine that, Grandal making solid contact. Ironically, if the story proves true, Anderson comes out the good guy. Apparently, Grandal indicated he wanted to leave the team and get an early start on his All-Star break because he wasn’t starting that day. This didn’t sit well with Anderson, who, the story goes, offered to pay his ticket if he wanted to be somewhere else. You can’t tell the heroes from the villains on this team, I swear. Meanwhile, Sox GM Rick Hahn addressed the media and admitted the team has had some longstanding “cultural issues,” an admission backed up by manager Mickey Mouse, who said, “Over time, I realized that the leaders I thought we had in there weren’t leaders. So we took a step back, we regrouped and here we are.” [Steve Greenberg, today’s Sun-Times] Where they are is where they stepped in it and remain. If Hahn or Mouse wants fans to believe that Lucas Giolito and Jake Burger were part of the problem, they’re as clueless as everyone thinks. Not that owner Jerry Reinsdorf cares. The enigmatic one was spotted on the field before last night’s 5-1 Sox win over the Yankees at Guranteed Rate Whatever. Asked to comment, all Reindorf could come up with was, “No.” As in nothing, which Reinsdorf and his team have a whole lot of.

MIA

White Sox manager Mickey Mouse said embattled shortstop Tim Anderson didn’t play yesterday on account of a scheduled day off, nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Third baseman Yoan Moncada played, not that you’d notice other than Moncada collecting another o-fer, 0-for-5 out of the two-hole, to be exact. Somehow, though, the Sox topped the Guardians 5-3 with three two-out runs in the ninth inning. Not that the win stopped the Sox from being the laughingstock of baseball, with Anderson going down for the count in his Saturday-night fight with Jose Ramirez at second base. On top of that comes a blast from ex-Sox reliever Keynan Middleton, who wasn’t exactly upset he was dealt to the Yankees at the trade deadline. Middleton told ESPN that, as a new player to the Sox, he “came in with no rules. I don’t know how you police the culture if there are no rules or guidelines to follow because everyone is doing their own thing.” Middleton alleged, “You have rookies sleeping in the bullpen. You have guys missing meetings. You have guys missing PFPs [pitching fielding practice], and there are no consequences for any of this stuff.” [ESPN story as quoted in today’s Sun-Times] Nothing on Middleton on the Sox website today, just Mouse talking about the leadership qualities of Elvis Andrus, and on that I agree. (A mouse in charge of a ballclub is another story.) The Yankees come to town for a three-game set starting tonight, which should be interesting. That is, if the Sox can score enough runs to get into the Yankees’ bullpen. See Moncada, above.

TKO

Count on the White Sox to tarnish a 7-4 win in Cleveland courtesy of Michael Kopech’s pitching (two runs in 5.1 innings) and homers by Luis Robert Jr., Andrew Vaughn and Elvis Andrus. Thank Tim Anderson in particular. Anderson and the Guardians’ Jose Ramirez went a round at second base after Ramirez slid under Anderson’s tag on a double in the sixth inning. Ramirez said something, Anderson answered back, followed by some shoving and Anderson dropping his glove to fight. Ramirez obliged and landed a haymaker right on the chin. Down went Anderson, which emptied the respective benches and bullpens. Ramirez later charged Anderson with “disrespecting” the game, by which he presumably meant the Sox shortstop getting an out the night before when he got an out by knocking Brayan Rocchio’s hand off of second base on a slide. If so, I stand with Anderson. Cleveland manager Terry Francona intimated there were a number of factors involved, including Anderson badmouthing first baseman Gabriel Arias all night. Again, if so, I go with Anderson. But start throwing punches, and you risk injury, to yourself and teammates. Considering that ever-fragile Eloy Jimenz was seen limping by the end of the contretemps, and part of that falls on Anderson. So does the responsibility to explain himself. If he could find words for opposing players, he could find words to share with the Chicago media. After the game, Sox manager Mickey Mouse declined to offer any insight on what transpired, leaving it to MLB officials. Oh, that Mickey, forever backing his players. Blah, blah, blah. Squeak, squeak, squeak.

The Mouse That Roared

White Sox manager Mickey Mouse had some interesting things to say in today’s Sun-Times. Start with the incomprehensible. “We’re never going to compromise a major-league win because they’re really, really hard to come by.” Excuse me, a lot of teams don’t seem to have a problem winning games. By my count, nineteen teams are over .500, and the Guardians will be there if they beat the Sox two more times over the weekend like they did last night, 4-2. Back to Mouse: “I want to clean some things up, the fundamentals. The details. Just things that kind of get away from us a little bit. It wasn’t that we didn’t address them. It’s just that they haven’t gotten better.” Damned if not fired by his own words. Here’s what I see. Luis Robert Jr. constantly chasing breaking balls down and away, then moping his way back to the dugout; ditto Yoan Moncada. Andrew Vaughn doesn’t mope when he strikes out. Instead, he looks befuddled at the mystery presented by a changeup in the strike zone. Last night in the third inning, the Sox had the bases loaded and two runs in. Robert and Vaughn proceeded to strike out, followed by a Moncada groundout. Then, in the eighth with two on and nobody out, Vaughn struck out and Moncada hit into a double play. Oscar Colas and Yasmani Grandal also hit into double plays. Mouse is right. The Sox haven’t gotten better. Somehow, they’re worse than when Tony LaRussa managed them. That’s a fireable offense in my book. Lucky for Mouse the Sox operate under clown rules.

And a Mouse Shall Lead Them

The White Sox jumped on Max Scherzer for three first-inning runs in Texas yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, they had to let the Rangers bat, too. Final score, Rangers 5 Sox 3. I heard Sox manager Mickey Mouse say nice things about starter Touki Toussaint. Four runs in 5.1 innings makes for a low bar, but this is the White Sox we’re talking about. “That’s a really tough lineup to navigate through, and we just came up short,” Mouse told reporters after the game. [story in today’s Tribune] Truly, Abraham Lincoln couldn’t have said it better. Funny that Mouse didn’t have much to say about the fourteen strikeouts—forty in three games—his “hitters” racked up or the continued struggles of “star” third baseman Yoan Moncada, now 7-for-30 with four RBIs since coming off the IL. Maybe that's what they mean by "quiet leadership." Or not.

So Professional

Dylan Cease’s Alfred E. Neuman “What, me worry?” mentality caught up with him last night in Texas. Neuman couldn’t make it out of the second inning, giving up seven earned runs on seven hits in an 11-1 humiliation. Meanwhile, Sox “hitters” struck out sixteen times on Tuesday and another twelve times last night. How nice to see Cease keep his focus amidst trade rumors and manager Mickey Mouse put his leadership skills on full view. Also, a shoutout to Rick Hahn, who’ll go to the far corners of the earth in search of the pitching he can’t develop on his own. The Rangers’ winning pitcher was Dane Dunning, sent over in the deal for Lance Lynn. Only a professional of the magnitude of Hahn could get it wrong both coming and going.

Contempt

White Sox general manager Rick Hahn is a smug, arrogant fool, smug and arrogant because those are traits valued by owner Jerry Reinsdorf, fool because the acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree. With the trade deadline ticking down yesterday, Hahn traded Jake Burger to the Marlins for minor-league pitcher Jake Eder. Hahn told reporters, “We love Jake,” so why did they trade him? “We needed to be compelled to do that, and Eder, we think, has a chance to be very special and help many White Sox teams for a long time going forward.” [story today on team website] Yeah, until he refuses to sign an extension, at which point he goes the way of Jack McDowell, Mark Buerhle, Lucas Giolito… The White Sox acquired seven pitchers, which tells you how good they are at developing their own. The twenty-four year old Eder was a fourth-round draft pick in 2020. Given how high Hahn is on him, you’d think Sox scouts would’ve convinced the front office to draft Eder in the second or third round. Instead, the Hahn brain trust took Jared Kelley (career 5.18 ERA in the minors) and Adisyn Coffey (career 5.07 ERA). Neither has gotten higher than Double-A, and neither is at Double-A right now. I doubt Hahn would know talent, even if it bit him, hard and repeatedly, somewhere. Beyond that, he doesn’t understand the Sox fan base. Very few of us are plumbers or laborers—I have a Ph.D.—but blue collar is in our DNA. We love the occasional superstar like Frank Thomas but identify more easily with yeoman talents like Buehrle and Paul Konerko. Burger would’ve been the next Konerko. Hahn already has a third baseman. (Apparently, he drafted Burger in order to trade him.) That would be the grotesquely overpaid and underperforming Yoan Moncada, who struck out three times last night in a 2-0 loss to the Rangers. There’ll be more of that and more of those in the months ahead, I’m sure. You know things are bad when a Cubs’ fan calls to tell you it was a bad trade, and that’s what happened to me. Right after that, Clare called, screaming into the phone. She’s a smart kid, a true fan who saw the Burger-Konerko connection. Held in contempt by the people who own and run the team she roots for, she returns that contempt, in buckets and tubs. I do, too.