Dazed and Confused, and a Little Cranky.

 Back in olden days, when the peasants came in from working the far fields on their nobleman’s estate, we gathered ’round the radio or television to catch a few innings of the ballgame, or read about it in the paper the next day.  But as sure as sure as our work stayed the same one year to the next, so did the rosters of our favorite ball clubs.  Baseball’s serfs labored for their respective owners year after year, until traded or released.

Put a gun to my head, and I can still give you the starting lineup of the 1965 Cubs and White Sox, along with a few other teams from that year and time; just don’t ask me to do that for teams today.  Between free agency and rebuilds, you can’t tell the players without a scorecard, and try to find one of those the next time you’re at a game.

For what it’s worth, I can start in on memorizing the names of new White Sox players if for no other reason than Phase One of the Grand Rebuild seems to be over; really, there’s no one of much value left to trade.  Chris Sale went last November; Jose Quintana departed for the North Side last week; and two days ago it was David Robertson, Todd Frazier and Tommy Kahnle going to the Yankees.  If nothing else, I won’t have to watch Quintana give up any more walks after getting ahead 0-2 in the count or Frazier lunge after yet another pitch as he strikes out.  By the way, guess who went down swinging in his first appearance for the Almighty Pinstripes?

Where the Sox had four major-leaguers this time last year, they’ve traded them for 17 prospects.  Just about everyone from ESPN to sports’ talk radio says GM Rick Hahn has stocked what is now the best minor-league system in all of baseball, which is nice, I guess.  But if the other teams involved in the trades—the Red Sox, Nationals, Cubs and Yankees—weren’t totally asleep when the deals went down, they got some value (see Chris Sale) in return.  Which leads to the observation—in these quarters, yet again—that the problem on the South Side in recent seasons hasn’t been the players (the two Adams, Dunn and LaRoche, excepted) as much as it has been the coaching.  Rick Renteria is certainly a better manager than Robin Ventura, but is he a good manager?  We’re going to find out.

I hate losing because, well, I hate losing.  Renteria should, too, given how the guys in the dugout at the start of a rebuild, e.g., Dale Sveum and Bo Porter, aren’t always around when it’s complete.  But I will make an exception every time James Shields pitches.  Shields has nothing left, as demonstrated by he’s given up 11 homeruns in 42.1 innings, which translates into a 5.10 ERA.  If it’s a rebuild, Shields needs to go.