Desperate Times

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  Last year, the Cubs and White Sox finished with identical records of 73-89.  With six games to go this season, the Cubs are 91-65 while the Sox can duplicate last year’s mark if they put their minds to it.  All we need to do is drop our last two series.  For this, I have full confidence in Robin and his staff.

If that happens, then what?  Allow me to meander a little in getting to an answer.  Right before the trade deadline at the end of July, there was all sorts of talk about the Cubs acquiring a closer.  There were at least two columnists—and you know who you are, Tribsters—and heaven knows how many sports-talk people jabbering for the Phillies’ Jonathan Papelbon, who instead went to Washington.  Thank you, Theo Epstein.  Seriously, thank you.

Papelbon tends to confuse his head with his ass and acts accordingly.  On Sunday, he grabbed Bryce Harper by the neck in an eighth-inning dugout scuffle for a couple of reasons—Harper didn’t run out a fly ball, and earlier in the week Harper had criticized Papelbon for hitting Manny Machado of the Orioles; Harper figured he’d be next.  Whatever the cause for the fight, the Nationals are a screwed-up organization, and those are precisely the kind of people you want to deal with.  Think Cincinnati trading Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas.

I talked with my assistant GM, who isn’t the biggest Bryce Harper fan; Clare was a hardnosed ballplayer, and she hasn’t mellowed much since graduating.  But the White Sox risk slipping over the edge into oblivion if they don’t do something in the face of what looks to be a long stretch of winning baseball on the North Side.  My assistant agrees that getting Harper is worth the risk that comes with his bouts of immaturity.  The Sox did something like this one time before, getting Dick Allen in a move that may have kept the team from moving.

The only problem with the Allen trade is we gave up Tommy John to get him; you don’t want to lose another potential HOFer trading for Harper.  In other words, you want to hold onto Chris Sale at all costs.  But do we have enough to interest the Nationals?  Would Jose Quintana, Avisail Garcia and Adam Eaton be enough to start a serious conversation?  Team Bukowski thinks so.  Now the actual Sox GM has to get to work.  Either Rick Hahn pulls a rabbit, aka Bryce Harper, out of his hat this winter, or he can shut off the lights at the Cell.  Believe me, no one will bother going to games next season.