Recalculating

In the not-so-distant past, I’ve dissed Miguel Vargas, Lenyn Sosa and Mike Vasil. Time to un-diss. Vargas hit all of .217 in April with one homerun and seven RBIs. In May, he has seven homers and seventeen RBIs to go with a somewhat misleading .275 BA. By “misleading,” I mean the 25-year old is hitting .310 over his last 30 games. And he has fifteen doubles, including one yesterday in the White Sox 9-4 win over the Mets. Sosa didn’t do too badly, either, with three hits on the day plus an RBI. Also 25, Sosa is hitting .280—and .340 over his last fifteen games—with seventeen RBIs. Not bad. So, let me regrade them as solid-B prospects with this caveat—they have to stay at one position, Vargas at third and Sosa at second. If and when Colson Montgomery gets a crack at shortstop, that will mean Chase Meidroth slides over to second. Not good for Sosa, but I wouldn’t try to turn him into a utility player to take advantage of his bat; he’s just not that good of a fielder. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I have my doubts Montgomery will ever play an inning on the South Side. On to Vasil. Now, this is a guy I find intriguing. In seventeen appearances out of the pen, Vasil—yup, he’s 25, too—has pitched two or more innings eleven times and three innings six times, including three scoreless innings yesterday. Talk about a throwback player. Vasil has pitched 34.1 innings on a still-young season. I’m guessing I like him better than the analytics’ crowd because he only has 24 strikeouts. In other words, he pitches to contact. But, if people catch the ball, who cares? And, given his 2.10 ERA, it looks like people are catching balls. The Sox move onto Baltimore for a weekend series with the disappointing Orioles. Here’s hoping the three 25-year olds keep it up.