Good and Bad

Let me get this out of the way right now—White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal is having himself one heck of a season, ex-Sox catcher James McCann not so much. With four RBIs last night against the Royals in a 10-7 win, Grandal has 53 on the year to go with nineteen homeruns and a .227 BA. McCann in contrast has nine homers, 35 RBIs and a .238 BA. Over their last fifteen games respectively, Grandal is hitting .413 with eight homers and 24 RBIs while McCann has come in at one homer and three RBIs with a .180 BA. Truly, numbers don’t lie. Which brings us to Sox reliever Michael Kopech, who gave up four earned runs in 1.1 innings of work last night. Kopech saw his ERA climb to 4.00 on the season; it was 1.52 through July 28. Over the last fifteen games, it’s been a staggering 9.77. Yikes. What gives? From what I can see, none of Kopech’s secondary pitches are working, so hitters are zeroing in on his fastball; the one Sal Perez hit last night for a three-run homer clocked in at 99 mph. If that’s what’s wrong, how do you fix it? Got me. It’d be nice, though, if pitching coach Ethan Katz had an idea or two. Otherwise…