Additions

The White Sox started a six-game road trip last night with an 8-2 win over the Padres. Four players contributing to the win weren’t on the team this time last year. Three are from the Sox farm system while the other may be from another planet, and, if not that, another hemisphere. That would be Munetaka Murakami, who clubbed his major-league leading thirteenth homerun, good for three of seven runs scored in the second inning. That was all that Noah Schultz, one of those farmhands I mentioned, needed. The 22-year old recorded his second career victory with six innings of shutout ball, at one point retiring sixteen straight San Diego batters, with a little help from a double play. Did I mention Colson Montgomery and Sam Antonacci? My bad. Montgomery started the second by walking; two batters later, Antonacci drove him in with a single. Montgomery also homered in the fifth while Antonacci had two hits on the night with a run scored and RBI. More, please. Now, to give the devil his due. Schultz and Montgomery were both drafted by the old regime headed up by Rick Hahn (or Hahn-Kenny Williams, the uncertainty of which was a big part of the problem). So were starter Hagen Smith and infielder Jacob Gonzalez, both of whom are putting up call-up worthy numbers at Triple-A Charlotte. Hahn deserved to be fired. That said, if this rebuild—I forget which number we’re on—starts taking off, Hahn deserves part of the credit. You have no idea how much it pains me to say that.

Market Discipline

I saw a survey not too long ago that found baseball fans are warming to the idea of a salary cap. So, maybe I should get onboard, too. In fact, I will just as soon as owners can spell out how savings for them will be passed on to me. In the meantime, I’m still inclined to point out how well the market works on its own: The Dodgers get what they’ve paid for. The Mets, not so much. After blowing the rubber game to the Nationals at home yesterday, the Mets have themselves a 10-21 record to go with a $357.6 million payroll, the highest in baseball for a 40-player roster (per USA Today from 3-25-2026). Francisco Lindor is hurt; Juan Soto has been hurt; and free-agent acquisition Bo Bichette is hitting .230 with fourteen RBIs. Guess who has fifteen? Miguel Vargas. Speaking of ex-Sox players on the Mets, Marcus Semien is looking every bit of 35, with a .218 BA and nine RBIs in 110 at-bats. And Luis Robert Jr., who not too long ago was saying how nice it was to play in front of a lot of fans for a change, just went on the—wait for it—IL with “lumbar spine disc herniation.” Bet that clears up real fast. The only way for things to improve is if everyone starts to play up to the stats from the back of their baseball card. If they don’t, the Mets end up like a Rick Hahn team. Wait, wasn’t Hahn the one who told Sox fans to chill because it was only a matter of time before Yasmani Grandal—wait for it—played up to the stats on the back of his baseball card? Only it didn’t happen. Mets’ owner Steve Cohen spent recklessly and is paying the price. Why let a salary cap protect a fool from his folly?

By Way of Comparison

And the young shall lead them. Rookie Sam Antonacci tripled in the tying run with two out in the bottom of the ninth yesterday afternoon against California. One inning later, second-year player Colson Montgomery delivered a walk-off single. White Sox 3 Angels 2 for a Sox sweep. Antonacci isn’t setting the AL Central on fire, but he exhibits an intriguing skill set, heavy on contact and hustle. He has nine hits in 40 at-bats for a .225 BA, with four walks; five runs; and six RBIs, including yesterday. He also has a double, two triples and an inside-the-park homerun. Did I mention a .347 OBP? Now, compare that to Fernando Tatis Jr., the one who got away. Tatis is hitting .250 in 112 at-bats with eleven runs and thirteen RBIs. The thirteen walks help elevate his OBP to .323, but the 32 strikeouts are more than a little concerning, especially when you consider Tatis has yet to homer. Tatis is averaging just south of $24.3 million a year, part of a fourteen-year deal with the Padres worth $340 million. The Sox travel to San Diego for their next series. This could be interesting.

History

“That’s interesting,” I said watching the White Sox game from the couch last night. “What?” asked Michele. The dog didn’t say anything. “Drew Romo homered, again.” The 24-year old catcher, called up from Triple-A Charlotte three days earlier, had already gone deep in the fourth inning against Angels’ ace Jose Soriano, who came into the game sporting a 5-0 record and 0.24 ERA (!) over 49.2 innings. Impressive, given that it was Romo’s first-ever major-league homer. Wait, there’s more. Romo is a switch-hitter. He batted lefty against Soriano, then righty against reliever Brent Suter. Yup, another homer, this one to the stands in left field. The history that I sensed was Romo being the first-ever switch-hitting catcher to homer from both sides of the plate in Sox history. I later found that he’s just the third player in MLB history to record his first two career homers switch-hitting in consecutive at-bats. There was a TV show back in the 1960s that opened with the voiceover, “There are seven million stories in the Naked City, and this is one of them.” Something like that applies to Romo, who was a first-round draft pick out of high school by the Rockies in 2020 and who made his debut for Colorado in 2024. He showed some pop in the minors, but apparently not enough to keep the Rockies from releasing him last December. The Orioles picked him up, then released him. The Mets then picked him up, only to release him in early January. Then the Sox signed him; released him; and re-signed him. Either I’m missing something here, or other teams are. The only possible problem I can see with Romo is a so-so arm. Maybe he goes down as a one-game overachiever for the Sox like Merv Conners, who hit three homers and a double in a game against the A’s in 1938. Or he could turn out to be a steal, like Nellie Fox or Billy Pierce. Time will tell. In the meantime, it sure was fun to watch.

Awaken, Remember

I went to bed last night around 11:15. The last time I checked, the White Sox were losing to the Angels by a score of 4-0. Why they were even playing was beyond me. A three-hour rain delay could only mean one wet, muddy field. Then I got up this morning to find the Sox had rallied from a 5-1 deficit with a seven-spot in the seventh and hung on for an 8-7 win, highlighted by a three-run homerun off the bat of Munetaka Murakami, who now leads the majors with twelve long balls. Now, if the Sox would just stop pretending that Anthony Kay—four innings, four earned runs on seven hits and two walks—is a major-league starter, there might be cause for hope. Funny thing about the weather. It was the same fourteen years ago today, only colder. We were in Appleton Wisconsin for a doubleheader between Elmhurst College and host Lawrence University. Clare had a forgettable two games until her last at-bat, when she hit a ball a good 260 feet or more to give her Blue Jays a sweep. Six days later, she hit a ball maybe 20 feet further in the conference playoffs. A prophet of power to come.

Good Pitching, Bad Hitting

If good pitching stops good hitting, the White Sox have one and not the other. Nationals 2 Sox 1 in ten innings. I don’t want to get too excited, but rightie Sean Burke does seem to be figuring things out on the mound. Yesterday, he threw 7.1 scoreless—and walk-free—innings, only to have his teammates strike out thirteen times. And that’s actually an improvement over Saturday, when they whiffed fourteen times in ten innings. We turn our lonely eyes to you, Braden Montgomery. Speaking of which, the Luisangel Acuna watch continues. Acuna’s BA has hit .179 and shows no signs of stopping its downward spiral there. Did I mention Derek Hill, with his one RBI in 34 at-bats or Tanner Murray, with 3 in 28? Murray most likely will be the first of this trio to exit, but only because he hurt his left shoulder making a diving catch in the tenth inning yesterday. The Sox being the Sox, expect them to promote Jarred Kelenic, batting a robust .190 for Triple-A Charlotte. The late, great Bob Newhart used to do a bit about how a roomful of chimps at typewriters would produce the works of Shakespeare over the course of eternity: To be or not to be, that is the @@!#. That’s the White Sox front office, bringing up Noah Schultz, finding a way to tap into Sean Burke’s potential, along with signing Anthony Kay to a two-year deal, even though he has no real future on the South Side. @@!#

Full Circle

White Sox rookie lefthander Noah Schultz had himself a very nice third start in the majors, six innings pitched, two earned runs, eight strikeouts. Too bad Vibes Venable went with Jordan Leasure to open the tenth inning. Nationals 6 Sox 3. Not that I watched the game in real time. No, we had to be at our grandson’s t-ball game, where his mother made her coaching debut, subbing for the absent head coach. Where my daughter found the patience is beyond me. Clare didn’t start t-ball until she was six, and here she was dealing with a bunch of four-year olds, some of whom found it hard to stand up for any length of time. As for hitting, they made more contact whacking the tee than the ball. And there was my daughter, getting little knees to bend and eyes to concentrate on the ball in front of them. This from someone who is very much like her father, someone who doesn’t suffer fools gladly and considers way too many people to be fools. Leo at least drove the ball and knew to touch the bases; no doubt, Mom will work with him about standing in the field. A glove doesn’t do much good when you’re lying down.