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Assistant FBI Director Skinner called last night to discuss the White Sox call-ups.  (In case you’re wondering, Clare got a big promotion at work, to assistant director of something, and what better way to celebrate than a new nickname that combines the formal title with Clare’s longstanding dislike of my TV tastes, including the X-Files?)  The assistant director was happy to see Daniel Palka back from Triple A, if not quite the dead.

Of course, Luis Robert and Nick Madrigal, the two most-ready-for-big-league-action-now prospects, were not part of the mix.  From high-A to the bigs in just one season would be asking too much of the kids, said a concerned Sox GM Rick Hahn.  Service time had nothing to do with it, Hahn also told reporters.  Whatever.

Among the call-ups is catcher/first baseman Zack Collins, a first-round pick taken by the Sox in 2016, tenth overall and ten ahead of infielder Gavin Lux for the Dodgers.  Lux hails from that mysterious land known as Wisconsin, which apparently does not appear on any maps or GPS systems used by Sox scouts.  Better yet, Lux is the nephew of the baseball coach at Carthage College of the good old CCIW.  Who knows, maybe we saw Lux without knowing it on one of our trips to Wisconsin to see Clare and Elmhurst square off against Carthage.  Of course, that would’ve depended on Lux’s high school varsity schedule at the time.

In two stints with the Sox totaling ten games, Collins is hitting .103 with a homerun and three RBIs.  In two games with the Dodgers, Lux is three for nine with three runs scored.  You can see why the Sox wouldn’t be having any second thoughts about who they drafted.  The Sox never have second thoughts, if any.