As I Was Saying...

Well, the Stink Sox sure put on an exhibition yesterday in losing a twin bill to St. Louis, a team that hadn’t played in seventeen days and was missing at least two starters from its lineup.  Where to start?

 

Oh, let’s go with Lucas Giolito, who hit two batters and walked another in giving up four first-inning runs.  This is a staff ace?  This is someone who thinks he deserves a contract befitting a staff ace?  I think not.

 

And let’s not forget those important offseason moves made by GM Rick Hahn.  Catcher Yasmani Grandal is hitting a robust .228 with zero homeruns while dh Edwin Encarnacion is raking at a .163 clip with two homers and 3 RBIs; and don’t forget those 17 punchouts in 44 total at-bats.  Either the 37-year old Encarnacion has lost it all at once (he hit 34 homers with the Mariners and Yankees last year), in which case Hahn exhibited bad judgment, or Encarnacion is the canary—or parrot, given his predilection for carrying an imaginary one with him around the bases on his homerun trot—in the coal mine.

 

Now, I’ll grant you Dallas Keuchel has been a good acquisition, though I’m betting Hahn wishes Keuchel had found a way to keep his recent criticism of teammates for lack of effort on the down-low.  But what about reliever Steve Cishek, with an 8.64 ERA over ten appearances?  Cishek comes in, and the balls go out.

 

The White Sox as a team are by no means talentless; rather, the problem is they have way too much talent to be 10-11 on the season.  Why does Yoan Moncada look gassed after playing 19 games?  Why is Eloy Jimenez batting just .254?  How can a team strike out eighteen times in two seven-inning games?

 

The answers, my friends, lie with the coaching staff.  Assuming coaches are coaching (you can never be sure with pitching coach Don Cooper), players don’t seem to be listening much.  And then we have the manager whose team has just been swept by an opponent that hasn’t played in seventeen days!  Rick Renteria was quoted in today’s Tribune saying the Cardinals are a “tremendous organization” and have been one “over a long period of time.”  Renteria added that St. Louis always “finds a way to get things done, however they need to.”  And what about you guys, Rick?

 

Change at the top of the White Sox will only come through illness or death; loyalty assures the continued employment of subordinates, most of the time.  All Sox fans can hope for is this one of those few times where loyalty doesn’t excuse the inability to win (See: Boylen, Jim).  I’d also urge Sox fans to start chanting:  Ozzie, Ozzie….