Silly Season

What could be sillier than White Sox manager Mickey Mouse starting Martin Maldonado behind the plate and Maldonado responding with four strikeouts in a 5-1 Sox win over the Cardinals? Why, reading the sports pages. Like the story in the Sun-Times last week floating the possibility of trading both Luis Robert Jr. and Garrett Crochet. Substitute Micheal Kopech for t Crochet, and I get it. Robert and Kopech both young-ish, and teams might be willing to overpay at the trade deadline, assuming Robert can stay off the IL and Kopech can keep his WHIP in the neighborhood of 1.25. But Crochet? He doesn’t turn 25 until late June. His stuff reminds me of Chris Sale. Why do I say that? Well, this lefthander has a 1.01 WHIP to go with 53 strikeouts in 40.2 innings; opponents are hitting .211 against Crochet. Yesterday, he limited the Cardinals to one run on three hits over six innings, striking out six and walking none. At some point, a team has to identify building blocks and proceed from there; Crochet looks to be a foundation piece. To trade him invites a perpetual rebuild, the sort of hell the Pirates seem to be in. Then again, some people look to be OK with that. In today’s S-T, columnist Rick Morrissey urges Sox fans to “revel in a team with an opportunity to become the worst ballclub in modern history.” This is how Morrissey would get back at Jerry Reinsdorf. If that means watching more of Martin Maldonado flailing at the plate, no, thanks. I’ll take my chances working a square peg into a round hole, or waiting out Reinsdorf, whichever comes first.