Nighty Night

It was 11 PM last nighjt and I’d had enough reading about the Battle of the Somme. After a quick check of the White Sox game, they were down 5-3 going into the bottom of the eighth against the A’s in Sacramento (!), time for bed. Daddy doesn’t stay up late anymore to catch the latest installment of the Reinsdorf Follies. Sure enough, I woke up this morning to find the (un)lovable misfits lost 6-5, in large part because of a porous bullpen and the continued atrocious play of centerfielder Luis Robert Jr., who went a whopping 1-for-4 with a walk, a run and three strikeouts. Robert is batting .143 on the season with a godawful six RBIs. Jacob Amaya, who would never be confused with a major-league hitter, has four RBIs in 46 at-bats (to Robert’s six in 84). The one thing that Robert excels at right now is striking out, 33 times so far for a 39 percent rate (throw in his fourteen walks, and it goes down to a slightly less egregious 33.7 percent). And still he bats up in the order (second last night), and still manager Will Venable calls upon his inner Mickey Mouse to offer excuses. Robert also had an error in the field that cost the Sox a run in the sixth inning. The future Mouse defended the 27-year old, telling reporters afterwards, “I'm not sure if it [either the ball or Robert’s career, at this point it’s hard to say] snaked on him or what happened as he got to it. It was unfortunate that the play went that way, but he's going out there and giving everything he's got.” No, Skipper, he isn’t, and pretending otherwise only makes it worse. [quote from today’s story on team website] A stopped clock gets the time right twice a day, or so the saying goes. Starter Shane Smith and utilityman Brooks Baldwin would be the Sox front-office equivalent of that, Smith a Rule-5 pickup by Chris Getz and Baldwin a twelfth-round draft choice by Rick Hahn (!!) in 2022. Baldwin hit a two-run homerun in the ninth last night to set up the final score of 6-5, A’s. The unheralded Baldwin has twelve RBIs in 68 at-bats. Maybe he could offer some batting tips to his teammate Robert? Continuing with the broken-clock metaphor, we also have Hahn (!!!) to thank for Edgar Quero, acquired from the Angels in exchange for Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez about a month before Hahn was shown the door in late August of 2023. Quero looks to be a keeper, and there was no way Reinsdorf was going to sign either Giolito or Lopez, who were in their walk year. Also keep an eye on the Sox possible shortstop of the future, and I don’t mean Colson Montgomery, he of the .169 BA at Triple-A. I do mean 20-year old William Bergolla, a middle-infielder at Double-A Birmingham; Getz got him last summer from the Phillies for reliever Tanner Banks. Bergolla hit .300 for two teams in High-A last season and is hitting .328 this season for Double-A Birmingham. Colson Montgomery is the anointed one at short in large part because he fits the analytics-driven profile of what a hitter should be, tall (6’3”, 230 pounds) and strong (eighteen homeruns and 21 doubles at Triple-A Charlotte last year). Too bad he only hit .214, which happens to be 45 points higher than he’s hitting right now. No doubt it’s just a problem with his mechanics that can be tweaked once his swing his analyzed with the right gizmos. The Dr. Frankensteins who control most front offices in baseball wouldn’t take a second look at Bergolla, who stands a mere 5’9”. Yeah, nice eye and some speed (27 stolen bases last year, nine already this season), but not enough hard contact. Lucky for Bergolla the White Sox organization is so dysfunctional he has a real shot at making the major-league roster by this time next year. I can dream, right?