A Day Late and a Dollar Short

And now comes news the White Sox are about to sign free-agent infielder Paul DeJong to a one-year deal. I guess this qualifies as progress. I mean, Kirby Puckett and Curtis Granderson literally played a short car ride away from Sox scouts, and don’t get me started on Jim Thome. Somebody find a map that shows Peoria. Last week, the Sox traded for Nicky Lopez, who went to Naperville Central, then Creighton. With DeJong, it’s Antioch followed by Illinois State. Lopez was drafted in the fifth round (2016), De Jong in the fourth (2015). Lopez will turn twenty-nine in March, De Jong thirty-one in August. Wouldn’t it have been better to acquire them when they were younger? Along those lines, the Sox also picked up minor-league pitcher Riley Gowens in the deal that brought Lopez to the South Side. Gowens went to high school in Libertyville before attending the U of I in Champaign-Urbana. The Braves drafted him this June. At least we didn’t wait until he was thirty.