Fire Sale

At the 2016 winter meetings, Sad Sox GM Rick Hahn traded Chris Sale for Michael Kopech, Yoan Moncada and two prospects who never developed as hoped. How White Sox, that. Sale spent seven seasons with the White Sox, going74-50 with a 3.00 ERA. In the seven seasons since, he’s 64-33, with an ERA a shade north of 3. From 2019-2023, he went 17-18. This year, the 35-year old lefty has gone 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA for the Braves. Cy Young, anybody? Jerry Reinsdorf would point to that 2019-2023 stretch as a reason not to sign pitchers to long-term contracts. As for the other side, there’s what Sale did for the Sad Sox and what he’s accomplishing this year with Atlanta. The Sox could’ve gone after their first-round draft choice from 2010 instead of signing Erick Fedde and Chris Flexen, but that wouldn’t be the Sad Sox way. IN January, the Red Sox traded Sale and $16 million to the Braves, who are paying him $16 million this season and $22 million the next with an $18 million club option for 2026. [figures from mlb.com, 1-4-24] Fedde signed with the Sox for $15 million over two years and Flexen $1.75 million. Penny-wise to say the least. Signing a player of Sale’s caliber would’ve sent a clear message. Going after Fedde and Flexen does, too. I could talk about Kopech and Moncada, but, really, why bother?

In Case You Were Wondering

How does a team lose for the 117th time in 153 games? Do what the Sad Sox did and start three players all batting under .175. And then manage the bullpen so that Chad Kuhl is your choice to hold a one-run lead in both the tenth and eleventh innings. Angels 4 Sad Sox 3 in thirteen innings. This is not a good week to be Jerry Reinsdorf, which sort of makes it a good week for White Sox fans. First, Reinsdorf’s little boat tour of the South Loop site for his new publicly-subsidized if not fully-funded stadium laid an egg. Then, today The Athletic ran a story by Brittany Ghiroli and Ken Rosenthal that traces all the team’s problems back to one source, the Chairman himself. My favorite adjective used in the story—“calcified,” as in Reinsdorf’s “views on the game.” Oh, and his team is going to set the modern-day record for most losses in a season.

Carrot and Stick

The Sad Sox reverted to form last night in Anaheim, losing 5-0 to the Angels. That’s the nineteenth shutout loss in 152 games played, or 12.5 percent of the schedule so far. The Cubs and Sox are tied for most shutout losses in a season with 32, so good news there. That’s one record that won’t be broken. On Monday, Jerry Reinsdorf and the developer for his proposed stadium sponsored a boat tour of the site on the Chicago River. Things did not go as planned, with a number of state legislators finding other things to do. What a difference half a lifetime makes. Back in the 1980s, local politicians were falling all over themselves in the rush to “save” the White Sox for Chicago. That ship has sailed, if you’ll pardon the pun. This time around, members of the General Assembly laissez faire attitude about public funding for a stadium. That can only mean one thing. Watch for the rumors to start about the Sox looking to move. Mark my

JMI, part II

Andrew Benintendi hit two homeruns last night while Andrew Vaughn and Lenyn Sosa each hit solo shots. Sosa is hitting .345 over his last fifteen games, .444 over his last seven. Sad Sox 8 Angels 4. On the mound, rookie Jonathan Cannon delivered another decent-plus start for the win. Cannon went 6.2 innings and could have been charged with giving up just two runs if not for manager Mickey Sizemore’s unjustified faith in reliever Chad Kuhl; both the runners Kuhl inherited scored. Same old same old, in my imagination or otherwise. This ups the Sad Sox record to 36-115. To put it mildly, they have to win tonight to have any chance of escaping a date with the record books.

Just My Imagination

If only it were late April, or mid-May even, the Sad Sox turning a corner by firing their manager and showing signs of life. Then, I could get excited by a series win over the A’s. Rookie Sean Burke won his first major-league start, with five solid innings of two-run ball. Gavin Sheets homered for the second straight game while Bryan Ramos added a double and a home run. Sox win, 4-3. But this isn’t a team turning corners. Instead, it’s trying to stave off the humiliation of suffering the most losses in a season. The ’62 Mets had 120; after 150 games, their record stood at 37-113. The Sad Sox are 35-115 Imagine that.

Oh, Happy Day

The Sad Sox won their 34th game 149 games into the season, beating the A’s last night 7-6 on a walk-off homerun by Andrew Benintendi in the bottom of the ninth. Maybe that will increase Benintendit’s trade value in the offseason. According to Paul Sullivan in today’s Tribune, the Sad Sox are sponsoring a boat trip on the Chicago River to where they want a new, publicly-subsidized stadium built for them. Far be it from me to wish another Titanic on the passengers. A Marie Celeste would do just fine.

18-16

No, it’s not the last year the White Sox finished above .500, but a combination of two humiliating statistics. With last night’s 2-0 shutout loss to the A’s, the Sad Sox were shut out for the eighteenth time this season while also managing to lose for the sixteenth straight time at home. Consider this: Twelve percent of the games played by the Sad Sox have resulted in shutout losses, and over fifteen percent of the losses have been shutouts. Yet Jerry Reinsdorf is proud of the professionalism shown by his organization. Right. Last night, the “brain trust” continued its routine of setting up Garrett Crochet for defeat. The lefthander pitched four innings, giving up one run, just enough to be tagged for his twelfth loss of the season. Teammates either could not be bothered to score a run for Crochet, or they don’t know how. It’s hard to tell which. I can only hope Reinsdorf has been on hand for each one of the last sixteen home games.

Company Man

Hawk Harrelson came out of the woodwork to say this to Sam Blum in today’s The Athletic about Jerry Reinsdorf and the White Sox, “As long as Jerry’s there, there’s going to be an effort to improve.” Really? Harrelson also said, “This is the worst team that I’ve ever been around, that I’ve ever been associated with. And I’m not associated with them anymore.” OK, now tell me how to fix things. But Hawk couldn’t because that would involve speaking hard truths about at least one person he’s always bowed down to. Mercy.

Silver Lining

How does a team lose for the 114th time in 147 games? By letting the opposition score four two-out runs courtesy of two infield singles. Oh, and by striking out eighteen times. Guardians 6 Sad Sox 4. How does hitting coach Marcus Thames keep his job, at least to the end of the season? By having a boss like team owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who finally deigned to say something about the mess he heads up. Yesterday, Reinsdorf released a statement, which read in part, “Everyone in this organization is extremely unhappy with the results of this season, that goes without saying. This year has been very painful for all, especially our fans. We did not arrive here overnight, and solutions won’t happen overnight either.” Huh, the last time Reinsdorf ventured out, he said the team owed it to the fans to “get better as fast as we can possibly get better. Speed is of the essence.” [all quotes from today’s Tribune] What a difference a year makes. Wait, there’s more. Reinsdorf said he was impressed by the “continued work” and “professional attitude” players and other team employees have demonstrated this year. Well, that explains how Thames stays employed. On a personal note, Michele and I went to yesterday’s game, where I was able to keep a promise I made to our grandson. The tickets, for two seats eleven rows back of the Sad Sox dugout, cost less than the parking did. The great part about going to a game with a few thousand people in attendance is you know the players can hear you. If only they’d taken my suggestions. The Guardians’ Kyle Manzardo hit a foul ball into the stands in the third inning. I didn’t even bother to track the ball, which had to fall a good ten-to-fifteen rows back of us. I didn’t account for the bounce, which took it to the row behind us. Still, I was too busy working my scorecard to pay attention until I saw a ball rolling at my feet. I picked it up, and now Leo has what I told him I would get him.

Agency

No hits for Bryan Ramos last night, but a decent game nonetheless. Ramos made a really nice play at third to throw out Lane Thomas in the eighth inning from deep behind the bag, and he lined out so hard in the ninth to end the game that he sent third baseman Jose Ramirez sprawling. Guardians 5 Sad Sox 0. What really bothered me, other than the Sad Sox losing their fourteenth straight at home and 113th on the season, was a comment GM Hahn-Getz made Monday. Hahn-Getz admitted he wouldn’t have been surprised if the team he’d assembled coming out of spring training went on to lose 100 or 105 or 110 game. He just didn’t think they’d be on the verge of breaking the MLB record for losses in a season. “But this is the cards we’ve been dealt at this point.” [quote in today’s Tribune] It's a bad sign when the guy dealing the cards thinks someone else is responsible. But that’s where we are.

Who Knew?

Last night, Sad Sox rookie third baseman Bryan Ramos got his first start in five games since being recalled from Triple-A Charlotte. Ramos responded by hitting his first major-league homerun, a towering fly to left in a 5-3 Sad Sox loss to the Guardians. The Sox sorry record stands at 33-112, or two worse than the pace set by the ’62 Mets. To hear Sad Sox manager Mickey Sizemore talk about trying to find at-bats for Ramos, you’d think the Sox were 112-33. Fat chance. In a season like this, you take the tiny victories where you can find them. The homerun probably put Ramos back in the lineup tonight, that and Miguel Vargas going 0-for-3 to lower his average to .110 (10-for-91). What I like about Ramos is what Ozzie Guillen repeated on the postgame show yesterday. During Ramos’ first go-around with the Sox in May, Ozzie said Ramos should stay at third, with Yoan Moncada switching over to second. That’s what just about everyone not employed by the Sad Sox feel about the 22-year old. Please, please, Bryan, get some more hits tonight.

A Win! A Win!!

The Red Sox must really stink, letting the Sad Sox score five in the ninth for win number 33 on the season, 7-5. Wow, Bryan Ramos even got to pinch run in the ninth. Fenway was a kaleidoscope of green and red, sunshine and shadow on a September afternoon. The place breathes history. Then again, so did Comiskey Park.

32-111

It seems to me that a starting pitcher is motivated by the opportunity to win a game. Not Garrett Crochet, not with the Sad Sox. You see, Crochet is on a leash of around 50 pitches. So, unless he can reach five innings, he has absolutely no chance of getting a win. Instead of achieving the impossible against the Red Sox last night, Crochet proved all too human, going through his allotment of pitches in just two innings, giving up four runs in the process. Red Sox 7 Sad Sox 5. It was Crochet’s eleventh loss of the season, his team’s. 111th. The ’62 Mets were 35-108 after 143 games. According to mlb.com, Bryan Ramos is the twelfth-best prospect for the Sad Sox, but you could’ve fooled me. Ramos hasn’t appeared in any of the three games since being recalled, and he’s not in today’s starting lineup. Nice to see the Sox brain trust thinking about next season.

Friday Night Lights and the Green Monster

I spent last night watching my son-in-law coach his high school football team to a 31-0 nonconference win. Or I should say I caught glimpses of the game while chasing my grandson around the endzone seating. Words on my tombstone: Grandpa, chase me! So, I didn’t get to see the Sad Sox lose for the 110th time this season, 3-1 in Boston, until I fast-forwarded through TIVO. Yeah, somebody for the Red Sox put a ball over the Green Monster to make the difference. What new? Davis Martin pitched well again. In his last seven starts totaling 35.2 innings, Davis 3.28 ERA and 1.21 WHIP. The twelve walks are a little concerning, but the performance is still noteworthy. So, too, how manager Mickey Sizemore is handling Bryan Ramos, called up to replace an injured Brooks Baldwin—two games glued to the bench. Yeah, that’s what White Sox fans want to see, if Lenyn will ever crack .225. Move over, Amazin’ Mets.

The Green Monster

My three-year old grandson has what I call 1-12 power. Any longtime Start-O-Matic player should know what I mean. Way, way back in the day, players with big power, low batting-average numbers received cards where the homeruns required you to get snake eyes or boxcars with two of three dice thrown; two dice are yellow, the other white. Long story short, it was hard to get 1-12 or 3-2 (and next to impossible roll 1-2, or three ones). Hence, 1-12 power. What this means in practical terms is that most times Leo will dink the ball off the tee or swing at and miss pitches thrown his way. But every once in a while, he rolls that 1-12 with his bat and lines the ball at your head or other places. Wednesday, he hit me in one of the other places. On Labor Day, he put the ball in our neighbor’s yard to the north, this with the tee just a few feet from the fence on the south, so the ball went a good 25 feet on the fly. He’s also cleared a six-foot fence at home. Interesting and encouraging. So, as I was trying to catch my breath after getting hit in that place, I mentioned that, one day, he might put a ball over the Green Monster. My bad, because right now Leo’s world is populated with werewolves and monsters. Luckily, the Sad Sox are visiting Fenway for a weekend series starting tonight. Mom or dad will show him that the only people who should fear this particular monster are lefthanded pitchers. Or anyone on the Sad Sox.

All Bad Things Come to an End

The Sad Sox snapped their twelve-game losing streak last night in Baltimore, topping the Orioles 8-1. Jonathan Cannon picked up the win to put his record at 3-9, which is pretty good by Sox standards. In all fairness to Cannon, he’s stuck on a terrible team, and he does show flashes, not that it matters. This is a team that let Mark Buehrle walk, rather than pay him what he was worth, which in my book was a lot. Buehrle left after the 2011 season, so he never got to team up in the rotation with Chris Sale. Now, that would have been something, Mr. Get-the-ball-and-throw the-ball paired with Mr. Try-and-hit-this-pal. No, Kenny Williams in all his brilliance thought Buehrle and his two no-hitters could be replaced by the likes of Philip Humber and Jake Peavy. Gosh, I wonder why nobody calls Williams to offer him a front-office job. No Buehrle and Sale pairing, no Dylan Cease and Garrett Crochet. Add Cannon to those two, and you’ve got yourself the makings of a staff. Oh, well. Maybe we can make it two in a row with a win in Boston tomorrow. You never know.

Getting Better?

Sad Sox manager Mickey Sizemore wants his team to focus on “getting better,” not avoiding the MLB record for losses in a season. The Keystone Kops may not be focused on futility, but they sure aren’t playing anything resembling major-league baseball. Orioles 9 Sad Sox 0. That’s sixteen shutout losses on the season; one more and over ten percent of the Sox schedule will consist of games where they couldn’t score just one run. Right now, the losing streak is at twelve. So, they could break either the AL record of 21, which they already set this season, or even go for the ML record of 23. You never know. Nick Nastrini started and lost, giving up seven runs—four earned—in 1.2 innings. Nastrini is 0-7 with a 7.79 ERA up here, 3-9 with a 5.24 ERA in Triple-A. By process of elimination, where do you think he belongs? Three unearned runs scored in the second when third baseman Miguel Vargas crashed into left fielder Andrew Benintendi going after a ball Benintendi could’ve caught coming in. Oops, bases loaded. Wait, they’re empty now. Did I mention the six hits, five singles, the Kops punched out? And, hey, Benintendi had a double. Somebody squirt me with the seltzer bottle.

Wretched

To quote Sad Sox manager Mickey Sizemore from the other day, “The record [for losses in a season] is not anything we can focus on. It’s about getting better, playing good baseball and competing.” Ok, then, let’s go with that pathetically low bar. On Sunday, Garrett Crochet pitched until he came to the end of that incredibly short leash GM Hahn-Getz has him on; the front office can’t have anything happen to its most valuable player, at least not until he’s traded. The sad ones lost to the Mets, 2-0 amassing two little singles. Yesterday in Baltimore, Chris Flexen pitched, and for the twentieth straight time, the Sad Sox lost a game Flexen’s started. A 2-0 lead turned into a 13-3 Orioles’ rout. That’s eleven losses in a row and 108 on the season. So, where was the improvement? The eight singles vs. two from the game before? As for the pitching, Flexen and the first three relievers to follow gave up eighteen hits. And Crochet’s the one who’s going to get traded? The bottom four hitters, all acquired since Hahn-Getz took over as GM, went a combined 3-for-13 with a run scored; they also struck out four times. If that means the glass is half-full, I must be half-blind. I still want to know why Bryan Ramos wasn’t called up. And what about Colson Montgomery? That one I know the answer to—the #2 prospect in the organization is batting .206 with140 strikeouts in Triple-A. If Triple-A pitchers can expose Montgomery’s weaknesses, imagine what big-league pitchers would do. This is a circus. No, check that. It’s a clown convention.

Nightmare on 35th Street

Another game, another loss, ten in a row and counting to a record season of a 121-plus. Mets 2 Sad Sox 0. Garrett Crochet stuck out the first seven batters of the game and still lost. The offense consisted of two walks and two singles, minus a runner picked off of first. With every passing game/defeat, we look to have Mickey Sizemore managing the team. Now, it’s also becoming clear that Chris Hahn is the GM. This guy is going to trade Crochet? Would he even want a player in exchange? Consider the Dylan Cease deal. Hahn-Getz got four players in return. Drew Thorpe, the most promising, will have season-ending elbow surgery to address a bone spur. By promising, I mean a 3-3 record and 5.48 ERA. After Thorpe, it’s a mixed bag at best. Steven Wilson is 1-6 with a 5.71 ERA in relief. Jairo Iriarte went 5-7 with a 3.71 ERA starting for Double-A Birmingham. And outfielder Samuel Zavala is hitting .185 with 35 RBIs for High-A Winston-Salem. And let’s not forget Miguel Vargas, part of the haul of prospects at the trade deadline in July. Since leaving the South Side, Michael Kopech has a 0.63 ERA in 14.1 innings for the Dodgers. Vargas is hitting .114 in 79 at-bats since coming over from LA, and that includes one of those singles yesterday. Did I mention Dominic Fletcher, who came over from the Diamondbacks in the offseason? Fletcher is hitting .222 with zero homeruns and ten RBIs in 153 at-bats. Or Zach DeLoach, another offseason acquisition whose tattooing the ball at a .130 clip (3-for-23)? If not, my bad. DeLoach, Fletcher and Vargas are all slated to start today in Baltimore, along with Jacob Amaya, a seven-year minor league veteran whose 1-for-8 with the Sad Sox and 3-for-18 in his big-league career. No one in today’s lineup is hitting higher than Gavin Sheets’ .241. Mercy.

By the Numbers

The Sad Sox lost again last night, 5-3 to the Mets. That’s nine in a row in a 31-106 season, three games ahead of the pace set by the ’62 Mets in their 40-120 season. Here’s where it gets interesting, or depressing, depending on your viewpoint. In 60 games this season, the Sox have scored two or fewer runs. In other words, the Sad Sox have scored fewer than three runs a game 43.8 percent of the time. Wow. They’ve been shut out fourteen times; gone 1-25 when scoring one run; and 2-21 when scoring two. So, when they score two or fewer runs in a game, there’s a better than 93-percent chance they’re going to lose. And Jerry Reinsdorf wants a new stadium? How sadly amusing.