Simpler, Not Easier

A few weeks ago, I bought a snapshot on eBay. It shows Cubs’ outfielder Lou “The Mad Russian” Novikoff standing, glove in hand, with the Wrigley Field bleachers and scoreboard off in the distance. Novikoff belonged to what you might call the “fireplug” school of ballplayers. He stood 5’10” and weighed 185 pounds, at least at the start of his big-league career in 1941. According to his SABR biography, Novikoff’s family were the wrong kind of Christians in imperial Russa. Prudence, not to mention the threat of violence, led them to leave, first doe Armenia, then southern California. “The Mad Russian” was a nickname from Novikoff’s time playing softball. The Cubs were probably hoping for the second coming of Hack Wilson, who was actually four inches shorter than Novikoff. What they got was a part-time outfielder who had one really good season of the four he spent on the North Side. WWII interrupted Novikoff’s career, which ended in 1946 with the Phillies. I vaguely remember journalist Mike Royko having all sorts of Novikoff stories; let’s just say defense was not the man’s strong suit. What I don’t remember is Royko writing anything about Novikoff’s life as the child of immigrants or the difficulties he faced after his baseball career ended. Then again, compassion wasn’t really Royko’s thing. Novikoff isn’t smiling in that picture I have as much as he is trying to put a good face on things. Maybe it was windy that day, which would make playing the outfield even harder. Or maybe he battling a slump or an injury. Or maybe that’s how this child of Russian immigrants learned to smile for the camera. They were simpler times, not easier ones.

“Mercy”—

--as Hawk Harrelson used to say. The Cubs and White Sox played twelve agonizingly ugly innings yesterday, stranding forty-nine (!) runners between them before Jake Burger drove in Danny Mendick for a 5-4 Sox win. Dylan Cease threw seven innings, giving up but one run, unearned. Marcus Stroman went seven scoreless innings, only to be let down by his bullpen. The only way the Sox could score during the first nine innings was when ex-Sox David Robertson hurled a wild pitch with the tying run on third. Somebody explain to me why a run-scoring wild pitch is an earned run but a run scoring on a pitcher’s error isn’t. Anyway, two mediocre teams kept trading runs in extra innings until things came to a merciful end. Did I mention that Tim Anderson had to leave the game in the fifth with a groin injury? Yup. So much for Tony La Russa’s plan of resting his star shortstop, and so much for the Sox going in a different direction with conditioning. Maybe body mass index isn’t it’s all cracked up to be, guys. Anderson is expected to go on the IL; Eloy Jimenez had a setback in coming back from his leg injury. Yoan Moncada has been ouch-ie since spring training. This team is playing under a bad sign. Mercy. Please.

More, Please

The White Sox did a bit of housecleaning before yesterday’s 5-1 loss to the Cubs when they DFA’d Dallas “I’m a competitor” Keuchel, along with his 2-5 record and 7.88 ERA. By my calculations, they’re eating about $9 million in contract. Talk about money well spent. Too bad the moves will stop there, at least for now. Josh Harrison, batting .174 with three RBIs in 92 at-bats, is starting at second base today. That’s fine, in Charlotte or Detroit or some other place far from the major leagues. This team will not advance to the postseason with that version of Harrison. Unfortunately, there are no time machines or fountains of youth under the stands at 35th and Shields. Last night, a Sox runner was thrown out at the plate for the ninth time this season, tied for most in the majors. And what does manager Tony La Russa do? He told reporters after the game, “I patted Joe [McEwing, the third-base coach] on the back.” Do tell. Here’s why: “That’s one of the things you do when you’re struggling, man. You have to push. The ground ball that way, guy rushed it good, made a strong throw, so I thought you had to send him. They had to make a throw to stop it. [game story on team website]” Me, I’d think of replacing a coach who sent that many runners into an out that many times so early in the season. Then again, I’d also replace the person responsible for so much of the “struggling,” man.

Dinghy

Thursday’s frontpage of the Chicago Tribune sports’ section, story above the fold: “Win-win situation? If pass rusher [Robert] Quinn wants out of town, potential trade could be win for all parties.” With picture, the story takes up three-quarters of the page and up to a third of page two. The White Sox and Cubs played Wednesday, but the Trib didn’t bother with a box score for either, even though the Cubs started at 5 PM in Cincinnati. Maybe if a Bears’ player threw out the first pitch for a 7:10 PM Sox game, there’d be a picture, but don’t hold your breath for a story or box score. Friday’s frontpage of the Trib’s sports’ section, bottom corner of page one: “TE Cole Kmet ready to grow[.] In 3rd season, he’s working on chemistry with QB [Justin] Fields.” The story jumps to page two, where it takes up three-quarters of the space. Cubs have a day game in Cincinnati, so there’s a story and box score but no story on the Sox game. Today’s front page, bottom: “[Khalil] Mack’s departure gives [Travis] Gipson chance to excel in new defense.” Story jumps to page two, where it and a second Bears’ piece takes up three-quarters of the space. Remember, we’re talking broadsheets here, not tabloid pages. Also keep in mind it’s May. Thank goodness the Cubs and Sox got coverage despite both having off-days, ahead of the two Crosstown games this weekend. The Cubs stink as expected, and the Sox aren’t too far off, which anywhere else would qualify as big news. But the question, the mystery, is, why so much coverage devoted to a football team mired in its own, seemingly never-ending, mediocrity? Is the sports’ editor from out of town? There’s a difference between what goes on at Soldier Field and Lambeau Field. The Tribune has jettisoned spring-sports’ coverage for high school and regular-season college games. Northwestern teams are doing really well; there could be Trib writers and editors who are NU alums; some postseason attention is, finally, being paid to the Wildcats. So, too, the Sky, but just a fraction of what the Sun-Times does. I keep thinking of the adage, It’s not the size of the boat but the motion of the ocean. Most every day outside of Sunday, the Trib gives all of six pages to sports, which includes way too many photos (e.g., Quinn, Kmet, Gipson) and box scores from the day before. We’re not talking any kind of boat here but a dinghy adrift in the big, cruel seas.

Cha-Cha-Cha

It’s one step forward, one step back, for the .500 White Sox, who made the colossal mistake of starting Dallas Keuchel last night against Boston in the rubber match of the three-game series. Final score: Bad Sox 16, Sad Sox 7. Keuchel gave up six earned runs in a pitiful two innings of work, needing fifty-five pitches in the process. Throw in seven hits with two walks and you get a sense of how bad it was at Guaranteed Rate Whatever. But wait, there’s more. Keuchel thinks he’s still got a shot at staying in the rotation. Skeptics see a 2-5 record to go with a 7.88 ERA (talk about inflation) where the 34-year old lefthander sees…something eluding the rest of us. He was quoted on the team website saying, “If people want to write me off, that's OK. I've been written off before and I'm a competitor and I'm an athlete and we'll turn the tide. It's not the first time this has happened. It can turn right back into our favor." It’s a little weird how he switches between first-person singular and plural, no? The silver lining, if there was one, is Andrew Vaughn got to bat second, and he responded with a career-high five RBIs on the night, almost enough to keep his team in the game if not for Tony La Russa’s odd handling of pitchers. Reynaldo Lopez is as much a starter as a reliever; he could’ve gone more than two (scoreless, by the way) innings. And the league has caught up with Tanner Banks. Six earned runs in 1.2 innings along with a 5.03 ERA make that pretty clear. Then again, it’s not as if La Russa could use Joe Kelly two games in a row. After pitching two-thirds of an inning on Wednesday, Kelly landed on the IL with a hamstring injury. You have to wonder if Rick Hahn did his due diligence here. Sort of like with Yasmani Grandal (0-for-3 with his fifth passed ball) and Josh Harrison, who pitches about as well as he hits. Oh, well. Jake Burger got an RBI playing third in place of Yoan Moncada. Maybe we can beat the Cubs. God, please.

Two Takeaways

Here are two takeaways from last night’s 3-1 White Sox win over the Red Sox at Guaranteed Rate Whatever: Joe Kelly is injury-prone, and something has to be done about third base. Kelly got the first two outs in the eighth inning before removing himself with a hamstring tweak (fingers crossed it’s nothing more). Kelly once hurt his back boiling crawfish for his teammates with the Dodgers. He looks to be another Nate Jones, just as injury prone if more talented. Now, third base. Tony La Russa responded to Yoan Moncada’s lack of hitting by dropping him all of one spot in the batting order, to third. Moncada responded with an 0-for-4 night, giving him a .136 BA on the season, still sixteen points higher than his mark in spring. Every time Moncada steps into the batter’s box, his body language pretty much screams out that he doesn’t want to be there. Eyes and/or ears, La Russa should get his checked out. The White Sox won last night because dh Jake Burger, just recalled from Charlotte to take the place of COVID-suffering Luis Robert, waited back on a Rich Hill sixty-seven mph changeup and hit it 444-feet for a three-run homer. That comes out to one fewer RBI Moncada has had all season. Burger is a little over six weeks older than the 26-year old Moncada, who’s been the starting third baseman on the South Side since 2019. Except for that first year, every season has been a disappointment. How long do you wait? Burger has seventeen more at-bats than Moncada on the season and is hitting over a hundred points better. He’s a slightly better than average fielder while Moncada is a definite plus at the hot corner. But you don’t stay in the starting lineup batting .136, at least not outside Chicago. What to do? Well, first off, Rick Hahn should hire me, or someone just like me, to coach Burger, who has the same bad habit my daughter did hitting; the two of them love(d) sliders, the further outside the better. “And where would the ball go if you managed to hit?” I always asked a certain child after I threw a slider, away. Clare hated when I said that, as she still reminds me, but it worked. Check the school records for what she accomplished. Burger needs the same constant, unrelenting, if not quite as irritating reminders to stay focused at the plate; don’t chase pitches outside. There are no hits there, even if you do make contact. Know your pitch, and wait for it. As for Moncada, find out what’s wrong; I think it’s more mental than physical. He needs to talk to somebody, and the coaching staff needs to listen. Right now, playing third base and hitting second is not working. The question is, Why? The longer the Sox take to find out, the more they risk putting the season at risk. In the meantime, play Burger at third. When Moncada’s ready, ask him to switch back to second base, where he came up in 2018. I can’t imagine things could get any worse for him or the team.

Momentum

This is how the White Sox do momentum—follow up a doubleheader sweep at Yankee Stadium with a 16-3 loss to the Red Sox at home. I love this team, or not. All of a sudden Dylan Cease thinks he may be tipping pitches, given how he gave up a homerun on the first pitch of the game on the way to yielding seven runs, all earned, in a mere three innings. If he is tipping, wouldn’t that be as obvious from the press box as the dugout? But what do I know? If nothing else, a little more than Tony La Russa, who thought following Cease with Jose Ruiz would be a good idea. Nope. Ruiz jacked up his ERA to 5.17 in just .2 innings of “work,” as in four hits and three runs. Say this about La Russa: he’s either blind to reality or full of unquestioning faith. I’ll go with option A. And what would a White Sox game be without the manager ignoring reality to bat Yoan Moncada second and Andrew Vaughn eighth? Vaughan did what he does, collecting two hits, while Moncada did what he does, going 0-for-4 on the night. That puts his BA at .164, with seventeen strikeouts in fifty-five at-bats. That’s a strikeout rate of thirty percent, in case you’re wondering. They say baseball is a team game, and it’s true; La Russa couldn’t screw up so badly all on his own. GM Rick Hahn has done more than his share to put the team where it is. Leury Garcia went 0-for-4, putting his BA at .188, which is still better than Josh Harrision’s .176 average. There’s your classic “poke in the eye jab in the gut” choice at second base. And let’s not forget Yasmani Grandal behind the plate. Last year, Grandal couldn’t hit most of the season, though he did walk a lot. This season, Grandal is batting .174 with an on-base percentage of .272. Can’t hit, can’t catch, can’t throw baserunners out—hey, let’s sign the guy to a four-year contract. Mission accomplished. Should I mention Dallas Keuchel, he of the 6.60 ERA? Rumor has it he’ll pitch on Thursday. Whoopee, and heads up you guys in the stands. A stopped clock gets the time right twice a day, or so they say. Somehow, Hahn has managed to collect a number of intriguing catchers and middle infielders at Double- and Triple-A. I’d sure be looking to make some changes from within the organization right about now, but what do I know? I never would’ve hired La Russa in the first place, or gone to work for Jerry Reinsdorf, for that matter. With luck, rain enough to postpone the circus for at least a night.

Jake Jones, First Baseman and Ace

I came across a wire photo during my daily eBay rounds about an hour ago. It’s from May 1946 and shows two White Sox players, Bob Kennedy, whom I knew, and Murrell Jones, whom I’d never heard of. Baseball-reference.com didn’t list anyone by that name on the ’46 Sox, but did have a Jake Jones. This Jones was that Jones. The caption noted that Kennedy flew off an aircraft carrier during the Battle of Okinawa during WWII, which I couldn’t confirm, and that Jones was an ace with seven kills in the Pacific, which I did confirm. No doubt, the photographer thought the two infielders/pilots made for a great picture. Jones had two cups of coffee with the Sox, 1941-42, before going off to war. He played some on the South Side in 1946 and then had his best year in 1947, when he was traded to the Red Sox for Rudy York. Jones hit a combined nineteen homeruns with ninety-six RBIs for both Sox teams. He apparently became good friends with another former Navy pilot by the name of Ted Williams. Stuff happens in baseball, and Jones was out of the game after another year. But he and Williams were both called back to the service during Korea. Williams flew missions, Jones trained pilots. This year, Strat-O-Matic is offering the 1947 season. That will give me a chance to play the two fighter pilots in the same lineup.

Not Overly Excited

Yesterday, the White Sox swept a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium for the first time in nearly twenty-seven years. Anytime you make New Yorkers unhappy is a good day, but it could’ve been better. Yet again, this was a team winning despite, not because of, its manager. Ahab, as is his wont, made things hard on everyone involved. Tim Anderson didn‘t play the first game, and Andrew Vaughn only pinch hit (his run-scoring walk followed by batting eighth in game two). A.J. Pollock and Adam Engel, each with ninth-inning RBIs that led to a 3-1 victory in game one, also didn’t start in game two. But Yoan Moncada started both games, going 1-for-5 batting leadoff in the first game and 0-for-5 batting second in game two. Moncada is now hitting .176 in fifty-one at-bats, with four RBIs and two walks against sixteen strikeouts. How low will he go? Vaughn, the yo-yo in the batting order, drove in the first run of the second game, this in the eighth inning, and he was onboard for Tim Anderson’s three-run homer for all the Yankee Stadium boo-birds and Josh Donaldson to enjoy. A day after going at it with Donaldson over some Jackie Robinson business (Donaldson referring to Anderson as Robinson), the White Sox shortstop responded with three hits and that homer. Good. Good, also, the pitching. Johnny Cueto pitched six scoreless innings in the first game, Michael Kopech seven scoreless in the second for his first win of the season, 5-0. What happens to Cueto when Lance Lynn comes back? Maybe a better question is, What happens to Dallas Keuchel? There’s a good argument to be made that Keuchel was all that stood between the Sox and a Bronx sweep. There’s also a good argument to be made against resting young players in May and for employing a set lineup, which La Russa refuses to, outside of Moncada, it seems. Clare put it best when we were talking on the phone last night, “It’s like travel ball, where the coach says, ‘You’re playing. I’m tired of your dad yelling at me.’” In other words, anything can change at any time for the dumbest of reasons. The Sox find themselves four games behind the Twins, who had no problem going into Kansas City and sweeping the Royals. That’s why I’m not overly excited at taking two in the House that Ben Chapman and Josh Donaldson built.

On Ben Chapman's Return to Yankee Stadium

As long as the White Sox continue to insist Dallas Keuchel and Jose Ruiz are major league pitchers capable of winning games, they’re going to be humiliated the way they were yesterday at Yankee Stadium. Keuchel gave up six earned runs in four innings; a two-out, opposite field grand slam on a two-strike pitch to D.J. LeMahieu pretty much sums it up After the Sox clawed their way back to within a run, HOF manager Tony La Russa brought in Ruiz, who promptly gave the home team the two-run cushion they’d win by, 7-5. As for Josh Donaldson calling Tim Anderson “Jackie,” as in Jackie Robinson, he was merely channeling his inner Ben Chapman. The best response to a jerk being a jerk and, possibly, a racist is to come back and beat his team, which the Sox failed to do. That falls on La Russa; the people who hired him; and the people who assembled this ostensibly-championship caliber roster. Josh Harrison? Leury Garcia for another three years? The Sox are trotting out a lineup this afternoon with seven players batting .233 or lower; six .218 or lower; and three at .200 or lower. How exactly is a team like that supposed to win when Dallas Keuchel takes the mound? Bad decisions merit consequences. Or they do for any business not named your Chicago White Sox.

Don’t Call Us, We’ll Scout You. Or Not.

Twice this week, over the course of three games, Cubs’ pitchers have given up homeruns to rookies from the Chicago area. This has to be some kind of record. On Wednesday, 23-year old Jack Suwinski hit a game-winning homer off Drew Smyly for the Pirates. Suwinski attended Taft High School on the Northwest Side, apparently too far for scouts from the Cubs or White Sox to bother with. The Padres took him in the fifteenth round of the 2016 Draft before trading him to the Pirates last July as part of a deal for infielder Adam Frazier. Yesterday, Alek Thomas of the Diamondbacks went deep against Daniel Norris in a 10-6 Arizona win. If Suwinski has been struggling (batting .176 with three homers in 68 at-bats), Thomas has hit the ground running, with a .349 BA in 42 at-bats that includes three homers, seven runs scored and five RBI’s. Not bad for a kid who was playing at Mt. Carmel High School on the South Side in 2018. The Diamondbacks took him in the second round. Maybe the Cubs couldn’t find Mt. Carmel on a map; I wouldn’t be surprised. But what’s the White Sox excuse? Thomas’s father spent years the team’s strength and conditioning director, until this season. My God, the kid used to shag fly balls during spring training. And who did we draft instead? Steele Walker, since departed to Texas for Nomar Mazara and still in the minors. The Sox are said to be looking for a left-handed hitting outfielder. What a coincidence that Thomas bats lefty. Luis Gonzalez does, too. You remember him, right? Drafted in 2017, didn’t show much in two cups of coffee, released last season. The Giants signed him, and are they glad they did. Gonzalez is hitting .338 with two homers and fifteen RBIs in just 68 at-bats. Chicago, where the teams can’t scout local talent and can’t develop the talent they do scout.

Who Bats Where

Yesterday in Kansas City, Tim Anderson batted where he always does, leadoff. Captain Ahab hasn’t reached the point yet where he’ll fiddle with that, other than to give his shortstop all the rest he could ever ask for, and more. Anderson batting at the top of the order matters because he gets on base, as evidenced by two hits and two walks which turned into a run and two RBIs. The other thing Ahab-La Russa seems to have figured out is that Luis Robert looks very good batting third. Yesterday, Robert went 3-for-4 with four RBIs, including a two-run homerun, as the Sox topped the Royals 7-4 to take a five-game series, three games to two. How do you say, Whoopee? If only our HOF manager could figure out two more things about his batting order. Andrew Vaughn, the human yo-yo, found himself batting seventh on getaway day and responded with two hits along with a run scored. I keep hearing how the 24-year old Vaughn is key to the team’s chances of making the postseason. How that happens with him batting seventh or ninth is beyond me. Hey, here’s an idea—bat Vaughn in the two-hole instead of Yoan Moncada, who struck out twice yesterday while stranding six baserunners. Moncada went 1-for-5 with a run scored, each at-bat a study in discomfort. If something is bothering our third baseman, the team needs to find out. If our third baseman can’t be bothered, our manager needs to act, now. So, it’s on to New York for a weekend series. My daughter says Moncada is content just to have a job in the big leagues while Robert has the ego to accomplish things. We’ll see how that all plays out in the Bronx.

Something Fishy

Andrew Vaughn was back to batting ninth last night in Kansas City, which is just what the Royals needed for a 6-2 win. That, and Yoan Moncada being his enigmatic self in the two-spot. Moncada is now batting .200, not to be confused with the .121 mark he put up in spring training. This stinks. On a related note, Tim Anderson is upset that Ozzie Guillen wants him playing more. Anderson tweeted, “Ozzie need to stfu…talk too much,” then deleted said tweet. Manager Tony La Russa, as you might expect, came out in support of his (current) player. La Russa was quoted in the Sun-Times as saying there were thirty-one times in Guillen’s rookie season of 1985 that La Russa didn’t start him (though left unsaid was how Guillen still managed to appear in 150 games). “Why? Because I was the same guy I was then. The wear and tear.” Oh, really? Then tell me why La Russa had no problem putting 37-year old Carlton Fisk into 153 games that year, or 26-year old Harold Baines into 160. No wear and tear behind the plate or in the outfield, Tony? And how about first base? According to baseball-reference.com, Greg Walker played in every game that season and was second on the team behind Baines with 650 plate appearances. Again, do tell. Captain Ahab wants his players all rested so they can row the Pequod out of the doldrums. Add sad to stink, and you come up with the 2022 White Sox.

A Kinder, Gentler Ahab

You’d think most people would know better than to follow a latter-day Captain Ahab, but not Jerry Reinsdorf. Tony La Russa as manager suits the White Sox owner just fine, Pity the players on team Pequod. Let me be clear here—La Russa rests players in May as if it were August, and he makes out lineups that defy sense, as do many of his bullpen decisions. Take yesterday’s doubleheader in Kansas City, please. In game one, La Russa sat Andrew Vaughn, then batted him sixth in game two. The last three games Vaughn has played, he’s batted second, ninth (!) and sixth. It appears that Vaughn’s place in the lineup is anywhere his manager feels like putting him. La Russa then sat Tim Anderson in game two. Nothing like a lineup with three hitters—Yasmani Grandal, Leury Garcia and Josh Harrison—all batting under .186. And the thing with La Russa, a game off is a game off, no pinch-hitting or any other activity for the sitting player. Consequences, like a great white whale, be damned. The Sox took the first game against the Royals, 3-0. In the second game, they called up righthander Davis Martin to start. Martin responded with five innings of one-run ball. Too bad that wasn’t good enough to get the 25-year old a win. La Russa being La Russa (and a HOFer, BTW), Martin was followed by rookie lefthander Tanner Banks, who gave up a career-first homerun to lefty-hitting M.J. Melendez. Game over, it just took the Sox three more innings to realize that. The Sox did score a run in the eighth inning, just as they had Harrison thrown out at the plate for the third out in what would become a 2-1 final score. Maybe Anderson could’ve pinch-hit at some point, say, for Garcia, who led off the inning? If not, why not? Calling all beat writers. If, by some miracle, the Sox advance to and through the playoffs, it will be in spite of Ahab, not because of him.

Twists and Turns

The White Sox signed veteran pitcher Johnny Cueto off the junk heap last month. After a few Triple-A starts, Cueto got a shot against the Royals Monday night, and, boy, did he deliver, six shutout innings with two hits and two walks against seven strikeouts. Cueto left with a 3-0 lead that reliever Kendall Graveman gave away in the eighth (Sox Win! Sox Win, in ten), and he’ll in all likelihood get another chance to see if he can repeat his first-start success. The 36-year old sure looked like a righthanded version of Nestor Cortes, who pitched eight innings of one-run ball in the Yankees’ 5-1 win over the Sox on Sunday. Cueto probably throws harder, but he and Cortes both like mixing it up. This arm angle becomes that arm angle, the latest windup discarded for another, just like Luis Tiant back in the day. Well, everything old is new again, or should be, especially in the power-arm game of baseball in the year 2022. Cueto and Cortes mess with a batter’s timing, the trick being not the gyrations on the mound so much as the ability to throw strikes anywhere in the zone. Do that, and you’ll drive the opposition crazy. Anything less is just nibbling. Now, if we could just get ourselves a good knuckleballer or two….

Find Head, Scratch

Nothing like holding the Yankees to two hits and still losing the game, which the White Sox did yesterday afternoon, 5-1. It could’ve been one hit in a 3-1 loss, but manager Tony La Russa continues to think Jose Ruiz is a go-to pitcher in late-inning situations. It’s even possible the Sox could’ve won 1-0 on Adam Engel’s first homerun of the season, if only Michael Kopech had found a way to get through the second inning. With two out and nobody on, Kopech served up four walks, a single and a wild pitch to plate three runs. For all intents and purposes, game over, this even though Kopech and three relievers retired nineteen straight batters, starting with the third out in the second inning. After the game, Kopech soundly fairly incoherent—at least to me—about what happened. The agony of that second inning took 41 pitches and God knows how many minutes to unfold. Kopech said he turned things around by getting a “better focus.” If he lost it, his catcher and/or his pitching coach needed to find it for him quick. In that, Reese McGuire and Ethan Katz failed entirely. One might ask why McGuire was even playing, as a left-handed batter against lefty starter Nestor Cortes. An 0-for-2 day put McGuire’s BA at a paltry .140, not that Yasmani Grandal’s .165 is a whole lot better. Did I mention Jose Abreu is in a 1-for-28 sprial? That puts his BA at a sub-Mendoza Line .197. So, did the manager give him the day off? Of course not. Abreu went 0-for-4 as the DH. It was Yoan Moncada who grabbed some bench. Mind you that Moncada had four hits, two of them homers, in the first three games of the series. His bat could’ve helped beat the team with the best record in baseball. With the Royals coming up next on the schedule, he could’ve rested any of the next five games (in four days), and the Sox would still have a good chance of winning. But, No, Josh Harrison played instead. Harrison went 0-for-3 and would need to go on a tear to get above Mendoza’s line, as in adding fifty-one points. All I can do at this point is scratch my head and wonder what’s up.

Team Effort, II

What’s the saying? Oh, right—Baseball is a game that will humble you. That goes for opinionated fans as well as players, I might add. Last night’s 3-2 White Sox win over the Yankees left me duly humbled and reminded why you just have to love baseball. I mean, Dallas Keuchel with his 6.86 ERA started against a Yankees’ team that scored 25 runs in the first two games of the series. And what did Keuchel do? He shut down the Bombers for five innings. And what did manager Tony La Russa then do? Why, he had the sense not to send Keuchel out for another inning, unlike Sunday in Boston, when Keuchel tried to go six shutout innings only to give up two runs. But last night with nearly 33,000 raucous fans in the house, La Russa went with the much-rested Kendall Graveman for two innings, after which he rolled the dice on Joe Kelly in the eighth. Kelly gave up a run on three hits in .1 inning before Liam Hendriks bailed him out with two strikeouts; that kept the score at 2-1, good guys. Hendriks yielded the tying run in the ninth—no win for you, Dallas—but the Sox reached Aroldis Chapman for the winning run in the bottom of the frame on a run-scoring single by Luis Robert. The Yankees still have eight more wins than the Sox, who can do no better than a split if they win today behind Michael Kopech. But I will say this, the Sox have youth on their side. New York’s lineup featured six starters north of thirty, and Chapman’s no spring chicken (34), either. The core of Anderson; Moncada; Robert; Vaughn; Jimenez; Giolito; Cease; and Kopech is all under thirty and still intriguing. We’ll—humbly, of course—see what happens today.

Team Effort

As things stand today, the Yankees are second in the AL for runs scored and first for homeruns hit. By contrast, the White Sox rank twelfth and tenth, respectively. New York pitchers have the second-lowest staff ERA in the league while Chicago comes in at number eleven. Not good. To have a fighting chance in a four-game series against a superior opponent, you better have a plan. If the Sox came in with one, they better get another. In the first two games, the Bronx Bombers have outscored the peashooters of Guaranteed Rate Whatever by a combined score of 25-11, both games going to the visitors. What, if any was the plan? Dylan Cease struck out eleven New Yorkers in just four innings, just four innings because he also coughed up six runs. Last night, Vince Velasquez was hit for seven in five. As for Sox “hitters,” hitting coach Frank Menechino might want to update his resume. Consider last night’s lineup. Leury Garcia managed a hit in four at-bats to pull himself over the Mendoza Line at .205. But left fielder A.J. Pollock; second baseman Josh Harrison; and catcher Reese McGuire are still south thereof; Jose Abreu finds himself perilously close, at .202. This week’s heat wave has done little for our first baseman. If nothing else, Menechino and pitching coach Ethan Katz might want to site the adage about sows’ ears and silk purses. At the end of the day, Vince Velasquez and Josh Harrison are what they are and nothing more. Which brings us to general manager Rick Hahn. Velasquez and Harrison were the best you could do? Nobody in the minors? If both are true, Rick, shame on you. Last and certainly not least, we have the “manager,” Tony La Russa, who acts like more of a cheerleader for the opposition when he’s not busy making excuses for his players. Both habits were on full display in stories today. On the team website, La Russa praised Velasquez for the way he “gutted it out and gave us five. Otherwise, we would have been messy,” whatever that means. Over at the Sun-Times, La Russa was quoted saying, “We got torched. It was almost always missed location. You would see the catcher setting up the pitcher in a different place and missing. That’s what a hitter is supposed to do. They punish it, and they [the Yankees] did.” Yeah, New York New York. The manager covers for his players, who never have to worry about being called out for lack of performance. The owner has no intention of firing the manager, which all but eliminates any incentive for people acting to keep their jobs or the jobs of the coaching staff. Something’s rotten here, and we’re not talking Shakespeare.

Mercy

The White Sox stood toe-to-toe with the Yankees through 7.2 innings last night at Guaranteed Rate Whatever. Yessir, two out and nobody on. What could possibly go wrong? So, how did the visitors score seven, count ’em, seven, two-out runs? It would help if somebody asked Joe Kelly why he fell in love with his breaking ball. Because Kelly kept throwing it in the process of walking the bases loaded. Aaron Judge broke that string with a grounder up the middle that second baseman Leury Garcia fielded and threw to first, but late. For reasons best known to himself, Jose Abreu looked at the first-base umpire in disbelief. Excuse me, but you look home instead to keep a second run from scoring, then call time to question the call. Not only did Abreu fail to do any of that, he stumbled making the throw home. Did our first baseman retire without telling anybody? Sure looks like it. As for the rest of the debacle, manager Tony La Russa thought it made sense to have rookie lefthander Tanner Banks face righty Giancarlo Stanton, who already had four RBIs on the night; a two-run single made it six. La Russa kept Banks in to face another righty, Josh Donaldson, who hit a three-run homer. La Russa was quoted after the game on the team website that if he had used Kendall Graveman in the eighth, “he can’t pitch tomorrow, probably.” Why not? Wednesday’s game with Cleveland was cancelled due to a COVID outbreak that hit the Guardians’ coaching staff. Was Graveman pitching somewhere else? Again, we’ll see if this team can bounce back. Better managing would certainly help.

Make Room, Sweetie

The Tribune was over the moon Tuesday announcing a (female) reporter would be sharing a Pulitzer for local reporting. Page-one story, big photo, we’re so proud… But today you had to look real hard to find that the WNBA Sky won their first game of the season last night, routing the New York Liberty—remember, NYC is the true home of all things basketball, except winning—by a score of 83-50. Four paragraphs from the AP was all the Trib saw fit to print. Over at the Sun-Times, the Sky rate their own beat writer. If you want to know how the team is doing beyond Candace Parker, read Annie Costabile’s story. If you care about various scenarios for the Bears’ 2022 schedule, which gets released tonight, go to the Trib—and take a good, hard look at yourself in the mirror.

Better

My daughter wanted to talk about Monday night’s game, only I was out at a relative’s pulling dandelions for a good three hours yesterday afternoon. But I did call back once I got home. Clare wanted to know why Ryan Burr didn’t walk Josh Naylor in the eleventh; all I could say was, Ask the manager. We both agreed there was plenty of blame to go around, though I’m not certain the former ballplayer agrees with my stand that a manager/coach should publicly call out players from time to time. On this, a child may disagree with a parent. As to how the White Sox would respond after blowing a six-run lead in the ninth, Lucas Giolito led the way, pitching seven full innings of one-run ball in a 4-1 win over the Guardians. Giolito gave up but six hits and a walk while Gavin Sheets hit his second homerun in two games. But what would the Sox be without a little drama? Kendall Graveman put two runners on with two out in the ninth inning before inducing a groundball from Andres Gimenez to first baseman Jose Abreu, who’s something less than Paul Konerko on defense. Abreu, playing off the bag for the lefty-hitting Gimenez, fielded the ball only to stumble on his way to first. Rather than toss the ball to Graveman (and hats off to him for being where he was supposed to be), Abreu decided to slide into the bag feet-first. Meanwhile, Gimenez went head-first. Umpire’s call—safe! Great, bases loaded. Only manager Tony La Russa had sense enough to challenge the play, which was overturned on review. “Sox win, Sox win!” as Ed Farmer used to say. Now, let’s see them take the series from a team in the habit of giving them fits. If they do, I’ll adjust my opinions accordingly. Honest.

Past My Bedtime

I watched the White Sox blow a six-run lead in the ninth inning against the Guardians last night; load the bases in the bottom of the ninth without scoring; tie the game in the tenth, then load the bases with one out but failing to score the winning run. I saw Josh Naylor’s grand slam against Liam Hendriks in the ninth only to miss his three-run shot against Ryan Burr in the eleventh. Guardians 12, Sox 9. Manager Tony La Russa called it a “brutal loss” without going into specifics. Me, I’m pointing fingers at Hendriks (giving up a single before the homer); Tim Anderson (two more errors, one in the ninth); and Yoan Moncada (getting right into the swing of things with an error of his own in the ninth). It’s not for Hendriks and Burr to shoulder the blame. It’s for their manager to assign blame where due. This will be a good test of team resolve. I’ll leave it at that.

Prophecies Revealed

Yesterday morning at Fenway, the White Sox survived another day of Tony La Russa at the helm and another start from Dallas Keuchel. Oh, and Yasmani Grandal stole a base. Truly, End Times. Everybody, get your affairs in order. That Keuchel could survive five shoutout innings should have alerted La Russa not to tempt fate. Alas, it didn’t. Out went Keuchel for the sixth, in came two Boston runs to turn a three-run lead into a one-run nailbiter. Wait, there’s more. La Russa decided to rest both Tim Anderson (kind of understandable) and Liam Hendriks, who had saved all five victories in what was then a five-game winning streak. Definitely understandable. (Though the Sox might want to get Anderson in touch with Luis Aparicio, who, as a 36-year old shortstop in 1970, managed 616 plate appearances for the South Siders. Aparicio also made the AL All-Star team and won a Gold Glove that year, too. At age 39, he totaled 561 plate appearances with a .271 BA.) Kendall Graveman has also been pitching a lot lately, so La Russa chose to rest him as well. And, he may or may not have known about the knee injury that’s rumored to land Aaron Bummer on the IL. Come the bottom of the ninth and up by a score of 3-2, who does La Russa call on for the save? Why, Jose Ruiz, of course. And what does Ruiz proceed to do right off the bat, if you will? Give up a double to J.D. Martinez, that’s what. Only Ruiz managed to retire the next two batters, on a popup and strikeout. Like I said, End Times. Then La Russa did something I actually approved of—he brought in rookie lefthander Bennett Sousa to face lefthanded-hitting Jackie Bradley Jr. Bosox manager Alex Cora countered by pulling Bradley for righthanded-hitting Kevin Plawecki, he of the .138 BA. Plawecki flied out to Luis Robert, and the right Sox won their sixth straight. If not End Times, they do feel trying. Cleveland comes to town for three, followed by the Yankees for four. Yoan Moncada is back, along with Joe Kelly. Armageddon ensues.

Happy Endings

This is why I love baseball. Yesterday, the White Sox were shut out for eight innings at Fenway Park, when Jake Burger opened the ninth with a walk. Adam Engel, 0-for-3 with three strikeouts, then doubled down the third baseline to put runners in scoring position. Leury Garcia (!) tied the game with a sacrifice fly. Wait, there’s more. Manager Tony La Russa, being Tony La Russa, sent reliever Reynaldo Lopez out for a second inning of work. Lopez, being Lopez, put runners on second and third with one out. Then he got himself a strikeout and popup to send the game into extra innings. The good Sox scored two in the tenth and shut the door in the bottom of the frame to win their fifth straight game, 5-1. This is where fans of most other teams would start dreaming of a sweep. But to be a White Sox fan is to search out all possibilities for disaster. La Russa is resting Tim Anderson—batting .414 with twelve hits and six runs scored over his last seven games—and starting Dallas Keuchel. Oh, well. All good things come to an end.

Bucking History

The White Sox are suckers for pitchers down on their luck, be it Herb Score or Mat Latos. Best not to mention James Shields. But we should discuss Vince Velaszuez. Velasquez is an eight-year MLB veteran. In five of those seasons, including this one, he’s won no more than three games. So, a 2-2 record and 3.97 ERA in five starts qualifies as big news. The 29-year old right hander managed to get through five innings at Fenway Park last night, limiting a pretty listless Bosox lineup to one run on three hits and two walks. That performance took 79 pitches. So, Velasquez isn’t out of Latos territory quite yet. Before the game, some rookie and second-year players ventured inside the Green Monster. Relief pitcher Tanner Banks put it best in today’s Sun-Times, how “you feel the energy of not just the present game but those who came before. There were so many names in there, thousands. And we got to write our names up there, and you think, ‘Is this going to be around another 100 years?’ Is the ink going to fade? I guess it’s our job to make that ink have meaning.” Guys, when you get a chance, ask Jerry Reinsdorf about Comiskey Park. Talk about a place with history.

All the Sports It Pays to Print

This I will grant about New York and its Times—women’s sports merits consistent coverage unlike, say, Chicago. Here, sports’ departments still go guys-first, with women needing to force the issue, like the Sky did by winning the WNBA championship in 2021. So, some attention needs to be doled out. The Sun-Times is considerably better in that regard, with a pullout section last Sunday while the Trib spread—wait for it—the Bears all over page one of their sports’ section. If the Second Coming falls on a Sunday in October, at least one Chicago paper will be too busy following the Munsters to notice. Oh, the Trib got around to the Sky today; it is, after all, the start of their season. But, fear not, Bears’ fans, the good ol’ Trib hasn’t forgotten about you (has it ever?). On page two, a beat writer is answering three mailbag questions that could’ve waited for another couple of months. Spring sports? Not in the Trib or Times. Baseball coverage? Well, a B+ for the Times, where they do make an effort to include box scores from the night before, along with scores from the NHL and NBA playoffs. Don’t bother looking through the other sports’ section. The Trib is controlled by Alden Global Capital, a hedge fund notorious for squeezing profits out of newspapers by gutting coverage. The Times has a beat writer to cover the Sky; the Trib went with a freelancer for the season preview. Anything more could affect the bottom line. And so it goes in the brave, new world of 21st century media.

Redemption

The White Sox beat the Cubs again last night, 4-3, in a game that wasn’t nearly as cold or miserable as the night before. But I wouldn’t get too excited. This Cubs’ team has the stink of calculated defeat about it, sort of like the Sox of 2017-19. You can’t beat these guys, you’re in serious trouble. Not that Tony La Russa was committed to winning. Sorry, but bringing Aaron Bummer into a one-run game belies that notion. So, in went Bummer for the eighth inning, and, wala, the Cubs suddenly had runners on the corners with nobody out. After inducing a full-count lineout from Yan Gomes (miracle, that), Bummer yielded to Matt Foster. Once upon a time, that would’ve been greeted with cheers. Then, more recently, with groans. And, now? Cheers again. Foster got a popup and strikeout to end the inning. Foster came out of nowhere as a rookie reliever in 2020, posting a 6-1 record and 2.20 ERA. That was followed by a sophomore slump where the 26-year old righthander couldn’t seem to get anybody out, as evidenced by his 6.00 ERA, while yo-yoing between the Sox and Triple-A Charlotte. Foster was sent packing no fewer than six times. Now, it’s 2020 all over again. Foster is sporting a 0.77 ERA and 0.86 WHIP over 11.2 innings in eleven games. What happened, exactly? After the game, Foster talked about “getting my head in the right place.” Now, as a sportswriter, I’d want to know how, and if pitching coach Ethan Katz was part of the process. Heads are a funny thing. And arms, and pitchers…

The Cold, Hard Truth

So, now MLB players in Chicago know what athletes and parents of athletes who play spring sports in the Midwest go through. God, it was softball-awful at Wrigley Field last night. The wind, rain and cold reminded me of Clare’s visit to Judson University freshman year. That’s a tale best told over hot chocolate or hot totties, take your pick. According to the box score on MLB.com, the weather was “45 degrees, Rain” with wind “23 mph, In From LF.” Maybe the wind helped push Tim Anderson’s ball into the stands in right field for a solo shot in the third inning, but I don’t see how. The box score also put attendance at just over 34,000. Most of the fans must’ve dressed up as empty seats. Weather travails notwithstanding, the Sox won, 3-1. It sure would be nice to see Michael Kopech go long enough to get himself a win starting. Maybe next time. It would also be nice if no one had to be subjected to playing or watching a ballgame the next time conditions like these hit. Turn a crosstown game into a twin bill? Kopech could crack 200 wins before that happens.

Hmm…

Talk about a needed pick-me-up. Dylan Cease went seven shutout innings against the Angels yesterday, picking up the 3-0 win. Cease struck out eleven, including Mike Trout three (!) times. What’s amazing to me is he did it on 93 pitches, 64 of them strikes. Last season, the 26-year old right hander needed 90-plus pitches just to make it through the fifth or sixth. According to FanGraphs, Cease threw 49 percent fastballs vs. just over 47 percent curves and sliders. But it’s not so much the variety of pitches that made him effective as the ability to get the breaking balls over for strikes. The more Cease does that, the harder it is for batters to sit on his fastball. Depending on the weather (God hates Chicago right now), the White Sox travel to Wrigley Field with Michael Kopech and Lucas Giolito set to pitch. That’s how you want the schedule to line up. If Kopech and Giolito were paying attention to their teammate, it should be lights out. Otherwise, Sox fans will come away very grumpy. Me, I just want the rain to stop so we can see what transpires at the ballpark where Bill Veeck planted the ivy, lo, those many years ago.

Same Old Same Old

Another game, another loss, this time 6-5 to the Angels. Tony La Russa talks up the opposing pitcher and his guys’ effort (five runs in the ninth, whoopee) while Dallas Keuchel tries to stay positive. Tough job, that. Keuchel gave up four earned runs in five innings on six hits and five walks. Didn’t somebody once say there’s no defense against walks? Keuchel is 1-3 on the season with an 8.40 ERA and 2.33 WHIP. The thing of it is, though, he says, “I still feel good. That’s the main thing, and I’m upbeat with how things are progressing. [today’s story on team website]” Strange, but I’m not. In other news, MLB.com reported that the Mets have released Robinson Canó and will “eat the majority” of the $40.5 million remaining on his contract. And the White Sox aren’t considering the same with Keuchel, why exactly?

Alleluia

Vince Velasquez threw 5-2/3 scoreless innings against the Angels; Aaron Bummer worked a one-two-three seventh inning; home-plate umpire Larry Vanover gave Kendell Graveman an early Christmas present in the form of an extra-wide plate on a full-count call that should’ve loaded the bases instead of ending the eighth inning; and Josh Harrison looked like he knew what to do with a bat. White Sox 4, Angels 0. OK, it’s a new month, and Luis Robert just ended the old one with a three-run home run. Maybe he can build on that. Velasquez and Harrison, too. Then, Yoan Moncada can show what he’s got once his rehab assignment in Charlotte is over. At which point, all will be right for those of us who follow the White Sox. That, or it’ll just be one in a number of cruel teases from one month to the next to the end of a disappointing season.