State of the Rebuild

If pitching counts, here’s forty percent of the White Sox starting staff: Manny Banuelos, 2-2 with a 6.67 ERA and 1.88 WHIP; Dylan Covey, 0-2, 5.91 ERA and 1.89 WHIP.  In other words, these two stalwarts are averaging nearly two baserunners per inning.  Take last night (please).  After a double play gave Covey two out and nobody on in the bottom of the first against the Blue Jays, he walked the next two batters, then gave up the homerun.  That’ll add to the old WHIP.

 

Maybe there’s help down on the farm?  Maybe not.  The top-ranked prospect not named Dylan Cease and not recovering from Tommy John surgery is reliever Ian Hamilton, he of the 12.24 ERA.  Alec Hansen has looked good enough at high-A Winston-Salem to earn a promotion to Double-A Birmingham, but Hansen is already 24, for gosh sake.  And then we have the position players.

 

Here are the batting averages for the top six prospects: .390; .266; .196; .205; .170; and .220.  And guess which one GM Rick Hahn has all but guaranteed won’t be coming up this year?  That’s right, outfielder Luis Robert with that .390 BA from high-A and Double A combined.

 

So, the Sox don’t want to win now so they can amass prospects likely to get injured or underperform, unless they’re so good they can’t be rushed to the parent club.  You can’t make this stuff up, I swear.