The White Sox could
have gone in a different direction.
Instead of a rebuild, they could have signed Jeff Samardzija after his
free-agent year with the team in 2015.
Instead, they handed Samardzija his 13th loss of the season
last night in a 13-1 beat-down of the visiting Giants. James Shields pitched seven innings of
two-hit ball for the Pale Hose. I verge
on speechless.
You have to wonder how
the Giants’ front office felt after Samardzija gave up four homeruns, with the
bullpen coughing up another two. I also
wonder what the fans at Guaranteed Rate Whatever thought when Jose Abreu
decided to try and stretch a double into a triple in the eighth inning. When
the cloud of dust settled, Abreu was safe at third, which gave him the cycle,
only the sixth time in Sox history. (I
must be very old, since I’ve been around for all of them except Ray Schalk’s in
1922.)
Former Sox GM Kenny Williams
was a stopped clock getting the time right with Abreu, who has a good chance of
hitting 100 RBIs for the fourth time in his four major-league seasons. After the game, Abreu heaped praise on
teammates past and present while referring to himself as a warrior (one
concerned with his family weathering out Hurricane Irma down in Miami). Some people think a rebuild means trading
away anyone out of diapers. Translated
to the South Side, that would mean Abreu (age 30), Avisail Garcia (26 and
hitting an impressive .321) and possibly Yolmer Sanchez (only 25 but a possibly
unwelcome challenger to the anointed Tim Anderson and Yoan Moncada).
It’s not even spring,
and yet I feel the hope budding for next year.
That is, if the Sox keep who they have on the field while finding out
whom among their prospects can actually pitch at the major-league level.
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