Wrong Model

A few weeks ago, the English-made leather seat on my Schwinn got loose and refused to be tightened, at least by me, so I took it to my friendly Schwinn dealer on North Avenue. I always like it when people ooh and aah at my stuff. Going to the dealer is like watching a repeat of The X-Files. Not a spooky place but one run by three guys a la The Lone Gunmen; if you watched the series, you get the reference. Otherwise, think two brothers and a cousin or some other Beach Boys’ kind of connection that’s been going on for a very long time. When I mentioned to the big brother/cousin/Mike Love that I was toying with the idea of taking the plunge on a Schwinn Paramount, I said I wanted to upgrade from a Buick, and he corrected me. The difference between a Paramount and my Sports Tourer is the difference between a Corvette and a Cadillac, performance and comfort. Off of yesterday, I think he was right. I did 42 miles or so on the lakefront trail, this despite my Goldilocks’ rules when it comes to cycling. You couldn’t ask for clearer skies, but the temperature was closer to 60 than 70, and there was a steady wind out of the northeast. But wait too long in Chicago, and the weather can hit 100 or -10 in the blink of an eye. So, off I went. For a 52-year old bike, the Sports Tourer was pure joy to peddle. I’m pretty much a one-gear guy, and the ST has one that allowed me to make like the Energizer Bunny. Oh, going north required some effort, but whenever someone in spandex passed me, I had plenty of incentive to keep going. And the way back, let’s just say I was able to go from near the north end of Chicago down to Hyde Park on the South Side in record time. Could I have done better riding a Corvette? If only somebody would lend me one to try.

The Twilight Zone

Well, that was exciting, the White Sox waiting until two out in the bottom of the ninth to score a run, but Korey Lee’s homerun allowed the South Siders to avoid being shut out for the eleventh time this season. Oh, they still lost, 3-1 to the Blue Jays, but it’s the little victories that count, right? The loss puts the Sox at 15-42, on a pace to out-lose the ’62 Mets. A nice cool evening last night drew 11,599 fans to see the game. According to baseball-reference.com, the Sox are 28th in attendance, averaging 15,009 a game. Only the Marlins (12,584) and A’s (6,297) are worse. With a little effort, who knows? Any rational owner would have fired a manager with the worst winning percentage in franchise history by now, but not Jerry Reinsdorf. He keeps Mickey Mouse around to say things like “There’s no magic remedy here. The remedy here is you know what? Let’s get ready to work again in Milwaukee. That’s it” and “It’s about work. It’s about preparing, working. These guys are not afraid to sweat, not afraid to get after it. We have to continue to get after it. As far as the statistics and the history of this team and what we are doing, I’m not really focused on that. I’m focused on where we are at and where we gotta go.” [both quotes from today’s story on team website] If you can make sense of that last one, you’re better at deciphering gibber than I am. In his column in today’s Tribune, Paul Sullivan wrote “Grifol makes it impossible to feel sorry for him with his serial bootlicking and insistence that things really aren’t as bad as they seem.” Pretty strong words, if only Reinsdorf bothered to read them. And there’s no way to know if he watched the postgame show last night. If by some miracle he did, oh boy. Frank Thomas said it’s time to starting “DFAing” players to send a message while Ozzie Guillen picked up on Mouse’s preparation-mantra, pretty much saying preparation without the requisite talent is mostly a waste of time, only Ozzie said it better. Reinsdorf isn’t in the habit of accepting bad news or responsibility for failure. The thing is, it’s getting harder to avoid. Maybe he’s found a way to slip into the Twilight Zone and make friends with the gremlin that drove William Shatner crazy.

He Can Run, But He Can’t Hide

The White Sox are off to their worst-ever start (15-41, one worse than the ’62 Mets after 56 games) with their worst-ever manager for more than a cup of coffee. Mickey Mouse checks in with a .349 winning percentage after last night’s 7-2 loss to the Blue Jays. Flat or not? You be the judge. Deep down, Mouse must know how bad things are, which would explain the story in today’s Sun-Times. Mouse said he talks and texts with Jerry Reinsdorf on a regular basis and, “Nobody wants to win more than he does.” Mouse also called the Sox owner a “smart, smart business guy and baseball guy.” I don’t know what’s worse, Mouse saying it or believing it.

Change in the Air?

Is it possible the White Sox are finally reaching rock bottom after yesterday’s 5-1 loss to the Blue Jays? I hope so. Before the game, manager Mickey Mouse told reporters, “I’m doubling down on what I said yesterday, OK?” [quote from story today on team website] But since Mouse’s initial “f****** flat” comment after Sunday’s game (which the Sox lost by two fewer runs), four players have publicly disagreed with their manager, to one degree or another. Garrett Crochet, Korey Lee, Gavin Sheets and Nickey Lopez have all come out to defend team effort. Long story short, Mouse is losing, if he hasn’t already lost, the clubhouse. Tough to get a publicly-funded stadium when that happens. Tougher yet when your team slips to 15-40, the worst-ever start in team history and one game worse than the ’62 Mets, even. In the words of Lee Dorsey and Devo--Lord, I'm so tired/How long can this go on[?] I may be wrong here, but I things are about to change.

The Mouse that Roared

Another game, another loss, another flirtation with being no-hit. White Sox lose, 4-1. Same old same old, with a difference because manager Mickey Mouse finally blew his cool. Addressing reporters after the game, Mouse said starter Garrett Crochet “pitched his a** off,” and the future ex-manager was spot-on about that. Crochet went six innings against the 33-18 Orioles, giving up two runs on three hits with a walk and eleven strikeouts. Crochet would repeat what Steve Carlton did in 1972 (27-10, 1.97 ERA, Cy Young Award) if only the Sox could replicate the Phillies’ 59 wins that year. And that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. Maybe Mouse came to this depressing realization, and maybe that’s why he added “most of the guys were f****** flat today. Unacceptable. That’s all I’ve got.” [quotes from today’s Tribune and Sun-Times, which couldn’t agree on the placement of quotation marks and whether or not to use “butt” in place of “ass” or go with “f—” or “[expletive]’ ] Postgame analyst Ozzie Guillen praised Mouse for his honesty while noting he waited 216 games to hear it. Better late than never when it comes to speaking the truth and hiring a new manager.

Losing Ugly

For the second straight game, White Sox manager Mickey Mouse called on reliever Michael Kopech in the eighth inning, and for the second straight time, Kopech blew it, giving up not one but two homeruns. Sox lose to the Orioles, 5-3. I’d fire Mouse not because he went with Kopech but for his refusal to say anything critical; saying “I’m sure that’s not where Michael wanted to throw it” to Anthony Santander on Santander’s two-run homer doesn’t exactly qualify. [quote from story on team website today] Then again, very little of what Mouse says or does qualifies as major league. And, if Mouse goes, pitching coach Ethan Katz has to follow him out the door. Yesterday, Erick Fedde pitched 6.1 innings of shutout ball against the Orioles, less a reflection on Katz than GM Chris Getz, who went shopping in the bargain basement and got himself a real steal in Fedde. The 31-year old righthander is 4-1 with a 2.80 ERA in eleven starts this season. In five seasons with the Nationals, Fedde never had an ERA under 4.29. Rookie Jordan Leasure, a Rick Hahn find from last year, is also doing pretty good, but not yesterday. Leasure paved the way for Kopech by giving up a two-run homer of his own in the eighth. Personally, I’m sick of Sox righthanders pitching lefthand hitters down in the zone. Those pitches have a tendency to go far, far away. Somebody tell Katz. And catcher Martin Maldonado, for that matter. Maldonado went 0-for-2, dropping his average to .086 (7-for-81) with 33 strikeouts. For perspective, let’s look at another 15-38 team. Yup, the ’62 Mets. The benchmark for MLB utility went through seven catchers, only one of whom put up worse stats than what Maldonado is now. And Joe Ginsburg batted a mere five times. In other words, Chris Cannizzaro (.241 BA, nine RBIs); Sammy Taylor (.222, twenty); Choo-Choo Coleman (.250, seventeen); Joe Pignatano (.232, two); Hobie Landrith (.289, seven); and Harry Chiti (.195, zero) were better options than Maldonado is now. That’s on Getz. The one silver lining here involves Eloy Jimenez’s latest injury, a left hamstring strain that is expected to sideline Jimenez four to six weeks. Now, Mouse has little choice but to play Gavin Sheets all the time. The lefthand-hitting Sheets responded yesterday with a bases-loaded triple, against a lefty, no less. So, there’s that if little else.

Trial by Fire

Another game, another loss, this one 6-4 to the Orioles because Michael Kopech can’t be expected to control the count. The White Sox record now stands at 15-37, the worst-ever start in franchise history. It also equals the ’62 Mets 52 games into the season. All I have going for me right now is stopped-clock optimism. Ex-GM Rick Hahn got so much wrong (Andrew Benintendi and his .183 BA, for example), but he seems to have gotten it right with catchers Korey Lee and Edgar Quero, currently driving in a ton of runs at Double-A Birmingham. Hahn also seems to have saved his best draft for last. Speaking of stopped clocks, there‘s current-GM Chris Getz, who’s swung and missed on Robbie Grossman (assuming the Rangers didn’t part with a sleeper of a minor-league pitcher); Kevin Pillar; Dominic Leone; and Brad Keller, to name a few. But at least in trading away Dylan Cease, Getz seems to have gotten back an intriguing prospect in 23-year old starter Drew Thorpe, who’s 7-1 with a 1.50 ERA for Birmingham. There I go talking about the minor leagues again. But like I said, this is all I’ve got to keep me off the ledge. Shortstop Jacob Gonzalez has gone 9-for-19 since his promotion while shortstop-to-second-baseman Brooks Baldwin—switch-hitter, switch-hitter!—is hitting .362. All of which leads to the question— How long until players get promoted and/or released?

Time's a Wasting

After last night’s 8-6 loss to the Orioles (now, that’s how you do a rebuild), the White Sox are 15-36 on the season. That’s one game better than the ’62 Mets at the same point in the season. You would think the record alone would be enough to get second-year manager Mickey Mouse fired, but you’d be wrong. Here’s another—how the game ended. Third-base umpire Junior Valentine called baserunner Andrew Vaughn out for interfering with shortstop Gunnar Henderson on an infield fly with runners on first and second and one out in the midst of a four-run, bottom-of-the-ninth rally by the Sox. If by some chance owner Jerry Reinsdorf was watching, he would’ve noticed two things. First, nobody knew what was going on. Second, once it became clear the game was over, Mouse went out to talk to the umpires, upset but by no means incensed. After the game, Mouse told reporters, “He [Vaughn] didn’t make contact on purpose. He wasn’t trying to impede Gunnar from catching the fly ball. He wasn’t doing that. It has nothing to do with the way the umpires called the play. I just have an issue with the rule.” Just have an issue? Sorry, a smart manager goes all Earl Weaver/Ozzie Guillen ballistic at the call. He lets Valentine know he’s “Junior” on a good day, and this isn’t one of them. He considers tossing a base or getting thrown out of tonight’s game while exchanging lineups. At no point in all this does a good manager do anything but lose his cool.

Carpe Diem

Well, stopped clocks and White Sox manager Mickey Mouse can get things right, once in a while. Mouse called yesterday’s start for rookie Nick Nastrini “opportunity time.” [today’s Tribune] Mouse also said, “I always tell our guys, opportunity meets preparation at some point. Prepare yourself for when you get that opportunity. It might be once. One inning or two, but that one inning can get you a second inning. One start might get you a second start and get you a third. A lot of great careers have started off with that one inning.” Nastrini responded by laying an egg, big time. As in seven two-out runs in the bottom of the second inning. Nastrini gave up six hits, four with two strikes; he also walked six batters in 3.1 innings. Sox lose to the Blue Jays, 9-2. This is seizing the moment? Toronto starter Chris Bassitt looked wobbly early on, putting two runners on in the first inning, only for Paul De Jong to hit into a double play; De Jong repeated the feat in the sixth. And for this he bats cleanup, with Andrew Benintendi fifth? Benintendi went 0-for-4, by the way, lowering his average to .186. But, hey, that’s better than Martin Maldonado. He went 0-for-4, too, putting him at .089. Good thing he brings so many intangibles with him.

Rick Hahn's Second Rebuild

White Sox general manager Rick Hahn got the ax last August because his grand rebuild crashed and burned, though with a big assist from a certain owner who insisted on rehiring a certain manager. That said, the current rebuild may be showing results sooner than expected, and much of it will feature the handiwork of Hahn. Front and center are—or should be—pitchers Garrett Crochet and Michael Kopech. Crochet ran his scoreless streak to nineteen innings with six shutout frames against the Blue Jays in a 5-0 Sox win in Toronto last night. Kopech struck out the side in the ninth. If either is traded come July, it will be a sign the current front office is either clueless or doesn’t care about winning for another three or four years. The thing of it is, it could all turn around by next season, depending who gets promoted when and where and who manages on the major-league level. The sooner Carson Montgomery is playing shortstop on the South Side, the better. The sooner Bryan Ramos goes back to third base, the better. As for second base, current GM Chris Getz moved Double-A shortstop Brooks Baldwin there this week after promoting shortstop Jacob Gonzalez from Winston-Salem. Baldwin is leading the Southern Association with a .355 batting average. Gonzalez was hitting .273, and he celebrated his promotion by going 3-for-5 last night. Both were drafted by Hahn. So was Montgomery, the eleventh ranked prospect according to MLB Pipeline, and 20-year old pitcher Noah Schultz, promoted with Gonzalez to Birmingham. Schultz had 42 strikeouts in 27.1 innings at Winston-Salem with a .91 WHIP. Fingers crossed there. It’s worth remembering Hahn also signed Ramos (and Luis Robert Jr.) and traded for catcher Edgar Quero; the 22-year old has 32 RBIs for Birmingham. Reliver Jordan Leasure was another acquisition as Hahn was headed out the door. All in all, it’s almost enough to forget the Jake Burger deal. When he traded Dylan Cease back in March, Chris Getz got a return that included starters Drew Thorpe (6-1 with a 1.50 ERA at Birmingham) and Jairo Iriarte (1-3 with a 2.89 ERA and 56 strikeouts in 43.2 innings at Birmingham). There’s talk of Thorpe getting called up sometime during the season. To which I say, Great. But then what? Does Getz want any of these prospects assembled by him and Hahn to be coached by the likes of Mickey Mouse and Ethan Katz? Sox fans have seen one rebuild goes bust. They could do without a repeat.

Spring Cleaning

The White Sox stink, as evidenced by their 14-34 record, which includes yesterday’s 9-3 implosion against the host Blue Jays. How manager Mickey Mouse gets out of bed knowing his team has a .292 winning percentage—with the odds pretty good that it’ll go down after tonight’s game—is truly a mystery for the ages. The man needs to go. And he can take pitching coach Ethan Katz with him. Toronto is having a bad, for them, season at 21-25. In a nutshell, they don’t hit. That is, until the White Sox came to town. The Sox have scored the fewest runs in all of baseball. Guess who’s next worst? Yup, the Blue Jays. You’d never know it off of yesterday, with twelve hits and two homeruns. Dante Bichette, a possible trade candidate come July, entered the game batting .211. That average went up nineteen points, courtesy of the Sox pitching staff. That’s what going 4-for-4 will do for a player. And if Katz goes, hitting coach Marcus Thames should be right behind him. Fewest runs and homeruns in baseball, lowest batting average—sorry, even if you’re working with a lot of pig’s ears, you’ve got to do better. Jerry Reinsdorf insisted on bringing Tony La Russa out of retirement. Maybe he should’ve gone with Walt Hriniak instead. But, hey, Double-A Birmingham has the third-best team ERA in all the minor leagues. Tomorrow, tomorrow…

Compare and Contrast

Why do the Yankees have the best winning record in the AL and the White Sox the worst? All you had to do was look at the pitching matchup yesterday to get your answer. The Yankees always go for broke and are willing to risk signing players who don’t work out. The organization goes big because it doesn’t want to go home come the postseason. That’s why they signed Carlos Rodon to a six-year, $162 million contract before the start of last season. Rodon responded with an injury-plagued 3-8 record and 6.85 ERA. No doubt, in the world of Reinsdorf, picking up Mike Clevinger looked like a great bargain in comparison. Not this year. Yesterday afternoon in the Bronx, Rodon notched his fifth win of the season, giving up two runs in six innings of work. Chris Flexen wasn’t nearly as lucky for the Sox. Flexen struggled through four-plus innings, giving seven runs, all earned, in a 7-2 win for the Bombers and a three-game sweep of the series. The Yankees also went out and acquired outfielder Juan Soto in this, his walk-year. With Soto’s 37 RBIs already, I doubt if they’re complaining. For some reason, they took a pass on Tommy Pham. More crumbs for the bums, you could say.

Silence is Golden

White Sox manager Mickey Mouse did an interview on the team website today where he said, “I actually love” Sox fans “because they are passionate, they are smart.” But why in heaven’s name would we love him back? Yesterday, Mouse’s team sleepwalked its way through a 6-1 beatdown in Yankee Stadium. Brad Keller got the start and fell in love with the number four, as in four innings pitched, four strikeouts, four solo shots. Keller told reporters afterwards, “Stuff felt good, made some mistakes but just tried to settle in and get as deep in the game as I could.” Follow that up with Mouse’s observation, “Keller was OK at time but missed out over the plate enough to give up some runs,” and you can see why Sox fans are a grumpy lot. [both comments in today’s Tribune] They’re too smart to listen to remarks so dumb.

Insane

The White Sox, make that manager Mickey Mouse, keep playing Andrew Benintendi and Martin Maldonado, as if things are going to change. Talk about insane. Mouse’s idea of batting Benintendi lower in the order is to slot him fifth, why, I have no idea. With the Sox down 4-2 to the damn’ Yankees in the eighth inning last night, up came Benintendi with the tying runs in scoring position. The Yankees brought in lefty Caleb Ferguson to face the lefthand-hitting Benintendi. Ferguson had a 6.00 ERA while Benintendit was 3-for-32 against lefties. After striking out, he’s now 3-for-33. Sox go on to lose, 4-2. And Maldonado? Why, 0-for-3 with another two strikeouts along with a passed ball that set up a New York run. Maldonado is now batting .097 with 31 strikeouts in 72 at-bats. Insane.

The Strange Case of Kevin Pillar

The White Sox DFA’d outfielder Kevin Pillar on April 28th . The Angels signed him two days later. The numbers tell some sort of story. For the Sox, Pillar batted .160 with a homerun and four RBIs in seventeen games. With the Angels, Pillar is hitting .455 with three homers and fourteen RBIs in ten games, though he’s had eight more at-bats with the Halos. Still, what gives? How can an eleven-year veteran, so obviously motivated to extend his career, fall on his face with one team and then magically turn it around with another? I’m sure Sox manager Mickey Mouse had nothing to do with it. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. A nod’s as good as a wink to a blind horse. Say no more.

Family Trip

Clare and I went to the White Sox game against the Nationals yesterday afternoon, which meant we brought my granddaughter along, too. Her mother sent along good womb-vibes courtesy of a 2-0 Sox win. How many people were there? Not so many to keep fans from hearing Garrett Crochet swear when he missed with a pitch; the box score gave the attendance at 11,008. For some reason, we didn’t get to guess. Even though Bryan Ramos didn’t play, he continues to impress. The pregame activity featured a federal judge swearing in 24 new citizens. Ramos watched proceedings from the dugout steps and then helped distribute Sox caps to the new citizen/fans. Civics is a big thing for me; I take my e pluribus unum very seriously. So, to see Ramos and, yes, manager Mickey Mouse do that was, as I said, impressive. But then I had to read in today’s Tribune what Mouse said about catcher Korey Lee, who caught Crochet and went 3-for-3 with an RBI. Well, you be the judge. “I know people want to see Korey play every single day. But that’s not in his best interest right now and, in reality, not in ours either because we have a lot of development to do with him.” Catch-22, White Sox-style: Lee needs to develop more to play more, only development is tied to playing. But you take your wins where you can find them while stepping over the mouse droppings. And, if you’re like me, wonder what planet Jerry Reinsdorf inhabits. It’s obviously not one that includes the neighborhood of Bridgeport. Driving to and from the game, I couldn’t get over the redevelopment that continues in the neighborhood Richard J. Daley and my father both once called home. The old and very, very new mix in Bridgeport unlike any other neighborhood in Chicago; at some point in the not-too-distant future, it will become official with a story in the New York Times. Bridgeport is a place that makes you want to walk around in and explore or, in my case, remember. As for Guaranteed Rate Whatever, it looks like it always has since opening in 1991, a concrete blob in the middle of 70 acres of parking. Not that Reinsdorf ever cared about the fan experience outside his stadium, but it’s definitely there in restaurants on side streets and thoroughfares. Night games and driving present a challenge in growing an entertainment district a la Wrigleyville. It’s by no means impossible, and I’m not even sure how hard it would be, but the Sox have wasted over 30 years not looking for answers. For day games (and more of those, please), I’d encourage fans to do a combination of public transportation and Uber/Lyft; that way, they don’t have to clear out of a parking lot after the game. They can come early; stay after a game; explore. Ditto for driving before a day game. Park the car, explore. Heck, come early to a night game. Park the car, explore. But the Sox have never encouraged it, never shown how to do it or where to go in Bridgeport. What a waste, sort of like most any Kenny Williams’ trade. Or when Rick Hahn traded Chris Sale or Chris Getz…

Hits and Misses

It’s official—the White Sox are playing the contract, not the player, with Andrew Benintendi. You’d think manager Mickey Mouse would sit his left fielder in game two of yesterday’s doubleheader with the Nationals after Benintendi went 1-for-4 (a meaningless single) and hit into two double plays, but you’d be wrong. Out he went for game two, and out he went with his bat, 0-for-3 with another double play. Sox split. I guess it could be worse, and Martin Maldonado could’ve started both games behind the plate. That way he could’ve gone 0-for-6 with six strikeouts instead of 0-for-3 with three. But ask Mouse and no doubt he’d say that Erick Fedde threw seven shutout innings for his fourth victory of the season because Maldonado was catching him. Yeah, right. Speaking of the manager with a career .361 win/loss percentage, he actually came out and criticized a player in public, two actually, Bryan Ramos for missing a hit-and-run sign and Gavin Sheets for sleepwalking in right field. Will wonders never cease? Oh, and Andrew Vaughn hit two homeruns to drive in all four runs in that game-two win for Fedde. So, they’re not ceasing yet.

Waiting and Wondering

No soup for you, Korey Lee, not when you let Michael Soroka give up four earned run in 5.1 innings. And no five-game win streak. Guardians 7 Sox 0. But enough of that. How about this? As a parting gift to his team (not that he knew he was going), ex-GM Rick Hahn drafted three shortstops for the organization. Two of them are doing really well, to the point of meriting a promotion. And the third? That would be Colson Montgomery, the Sox top prospect. The good news is, Montgomery’s in Triple A at the age of 22. The bad new is, he’s hitting .225, with six homeruns and 46 strikeouts in 129 at-bats. The longer Montgomery takes to figure out his hitting, the longer Brooks Baldwin stays at Double-A Birmingham, where he’s leading the Southern Association with a .360 BA. Baldwin has eighteen RBIs in 114 at-bats to Montgomery’s fifteen in 129. Interesting. The longer Baldwin stays in Double A, the longer Jacob Gonzalez stays at High-A Winston-Salem, where he’s hitting .289, with three homers and twelve RBIs in 121 at-bats. Something’s got to give. Ideally, it would involve Montgomery going on a hot streak and getting promoted to the Sox, allowing for some piggy-move-up action with Baldwin and Gonzalez. Or the Sox could get creative (perish the thought) and try the other two at new positions, like second base and centerfield. It’s something to keep an eye on. Along with waiting for Soroka to get sent to the pen, if he’s lucky.

Double-dumbing

Yea, the White Sox won their fourth in a row last night, beating the Guardians behind Mike Clevinger and three relievers. But leave it to manager Mickey Mouse to put a damper on things. In answer to my question from the day before—would he start Korey Lee behind the plate?—the answer was both obvious and depressing: No. More of Martin Maldonado doing his thing, striking out once in three at-bats, although I admit Maldonado did chip in with an RBI single. Mouse also talked gibber before the game about rookie Bryan Ramos, who made two nice plays at third base. The manager with the tiny .361 career win/loss percentage said it’s “not obvious” Ramos will be staying around after Danny Mendick comes off the IL. As God is my witness, Mouse’s logic was more twisted than a bag of pretzels. Please, oh please, Bryan, hit two homeruns today. I can’t imagine what you manager would say to that.

Nitpicking

White Sox starter Garrett Crochet invites cliché adjectives: electric, dominating, knee-buckling, etc. I’ll stop as soon as he does, which better not be anytime soon. Last night, Crochet shut out the Guardians over six innings, giving up five hits while striking out eleven. He’s gone two starts without a walk and has given up one free pass over his last seventeen innings. Sox win, 6-3. Now, for the nitpicking. I heard Crochet say how much he likes talking with Erick Fedde. OK, then imagine what he could learn from Dylan Cease. Oh, wait. We couldn’t sign Cease to an extension, so we traded him for three prospects. And in the bizzarro world of manager Mickey Mouse, Korey Lee got to catch Crochet last night. I can only hope Mouse didn’t blame Lee for any of those five hits Cleveland got. Better yet, maybe Mouse read the box score and saw that Lee went 2-for-4 with his fourth homerun of the year. Most places, that would be enough to merit starting the next game. But this is the White Sox. We’ll see.

Grab Hair, Pull Hard

With the White Sox, you don’t take anything for granted. Other teams go full-in on a rebuild and play their prospects, but that’s not how they do things at 35th and Shields, not all the time. So, I’m nothing short of ecstatic that rookie third baseman Bryan Ramos has started five straight game. Better yet, Ramos is producing, another two hits last night, including his second double, in a 3-2 win over the visiting Guardians. Now, guess who caught and went 0-for-2? Yup, Martin Maldonado, now batting a meager .095. Pretty soon, you’re going to read a microscope to see his stats, except for the 25 strikeouts in 63 at-bats. Another start or two, and Maldonado should be cracking the 40-percent mark there. Why, oh, why, is he playing? The Sox are in a rebuild, not a pennant race. In 183 innings behind the plate, Maldonado has been charged with two passed balls while throwing out two of 22 would-be base stealers. Sox pitchers have also thrown 20 wild pitches with Maldonado catching. In 147 innings, Korey Lee also has been charged with two passed balls while throwing out six of 24 would-be base stealers; that’s 25 percent, above the league average of 22 percent. Did I mention wild pitches? Sox pitchers have only uncorked nine when Lee’s behind the plate. That might say something about his mobility, and Maldonado’s lack thereof. Did I mention Lee’s hitting? To me, a .273 BA with eight RBIs sure beats .095—.095!—with three RBIs. I must be missing something. Oh, right, the veteran presence behind the plate. If you say so. Again, this is a rebuild. How is Lee going to earn the trust of his pitchers, assuming that’s even an issue, if he doesn’t catch more? Give him what he needs. And why not promote a catcher from Triple A, while you’re at it?

Random Stuff

Ex-White Sox pitcher Chris Sale is having a nice bounce-back season with the Braves. Sale is 5-1 with a 2.95 ERA. But, hey, Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech could still pan out. Ex-Sox pitcher Dylan Cease is having a nice bounce-back season with the Padres. Yesterday at Wrigley Field, Cease threw seven shutout innings, striking out 12 while walking two and giving up but one hit. Cease is now 5-2 with a 2.19 ERA. But, hey, we can always sign him when he becomes a free agent after next season. The Sox beat the Rays 5-1 last night, with rookie third baseman Bryan Ramos going 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI. Ramos is 5-for-14 in four starts since taking over for the injured Danny Mendick, who was taking over for the perpetually injured Moncada. I wonder who gets sent down and who sits once Moncada comes back. It doesn’t matter in a way because Moncada will get injured again within three weeks of coming back. You can bank on it. Just like you can Sox manager Mickey Mouse doing and saying something profoundly dumb. A day after rookie catcher Korey Lee went 2-for-4 and threw out a another baserunner, Mouse sat him for, yup, Martin Maldonado, and Maldonado, yup, went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. For anyone keeping track, Maldonado has struck out 24 times in 61 at-bats, or 39 percent of the time. I guess he doesn’t have much knowledge of the strike zone, unlike the recently traded Robbie Grossman. Now there was a guy with "incredible knowledge of the strike zone,” according to Mouse in today’s Tribune. I guess that’s why Grossman was hitting .211 for the Sox and .243 over his career. GM Chris Getz sent Grossman to the Rangers for a 23-year old minor-league pitcher. Apparently, no broken bats were included in the deal.

Denial

The White Sox are in denial, and I don’t mean the river. Take last night, please. A 5-1 loss to the Rays puts the Sox record at an atrocious 8-28. Not that you would know it from listening to losing pitcher Mike Soroka or manager Mickey Mouse. “I think we’ve all gotten to a point where we want to be the group that turns this around,” Soroka was quoted on the team website today. “We want to be the guys who say, you know, ‘Enough’s enough.’ We just have to start putting together full games.’’ Did I mention Soroka is 0-4 in eight starts with a 6.34 ERA? Or that Mickey Mouse is Mickey Mouse, someone incapable of uttering a single critical word about a player? I don’t care Soroka “ended up strong” by retiring eight of the last nine batters he faced. He gave up four runs (three earned) in five innings. And before anyone tells me only one of the four walks Soroka issued scored, know that it took him 102 pitches to struggle to fifteen outs. And I really, really don’t care that Rays’ starter Zach Elfin “made the perfect pitch” on Gavin Sheets in the fifth inning. Bases loaded, two out, 3-0 count. They call that a “hitter’s count” because the hitter doesn’t have to swing. Sheets did and hit a sad little flyball to right field. Blah-blah-blah “Sheets has been clutch for us all year long” blah. Sheets swung at a pitcher’s pitch, and it cost the team. Part of managing, I would think, involves admitting to the obvious. But not when it comes to the White Sox.

Why?

Mike Clevinger made his season debut last night against the Rays, though for the life of me I don’t know why. Manager Mickey Mouse saying that Clevinger is a pitcher “who wants the ball” doesn’t exactly help. [White Sox story in today’s Tribune] By definition, a pitcher has to want the ball in order to be a pitcher, yes? I mean, why not lose behind Nick Nastrini and Jonathan Cannon, both now back in Triple A? Clevinger is 33, so it’s not as if he’s going to be around for the long haul. Basically, he wants to put up good numbers so he can go to a contender at the trade deadline. Those numbers weren’t too good last night—two innings, six hits, four runs (three earned), four walks in an 8-2 Sox loss. But, hey, it’s early, and nothing matters with these Sox, except, of course, securing public funding for a new stadium.

Silly Season

What could be sillier than White Sox manager Mickey Mouse starting Martin Maldonado behind the plate and Maldonado responding with four strikeouts in a 5-1 Sox win over the Cardinals? Why, reading the sports pages. Like the story in the Sun-Times last week floating the possibility of trading both Luis Robert Jr. and Garrett Crochet. Substitute Micheal Kopech for t Crochet, and I get it. Robert and Kopech both young-ish, and teams might be willing to overpay at the trade deadline, assuming Robert can stay off the IL and Kopech can keep his WHIP in the neighborhood of 1.25. But Crochet? He doesn’t turn 25 until late June. His stuff reminds me of Chris Sale. Why do I say that? Well, this lefthander has a 1.01 WHIP to go with 53 strikeouts in 40.2 innings; opponents are hitting .211 against Crochet. Yesterday, he limited the Cardinals to one run on three hits over six innings, striking out six and walking none. At some point, a team has to identify building blocks and proceed from there; Crochet looks to be a foundation piece. To trade him invites a perpetual rebuild, the sort of hell the Pirates seem to be in. Then again, some people look to be OK with that. In today’s S-T, columnist Rick Morrissey urges Sox fans to “revel in a team with an opportunity to become the worst ballclub in modern history.” This is how Morrissey would get back at Jerry Reinsdorf. If that means watching more of Martin Maldonado flailing at the plate, no, thanks. I’ll take my chances working a square peg into a round hole, or waiting out Reinsdorf, whichever comes first.

Same Old Same Old

It was like old times yesterday in St. Louis with ex-Sox Lance Lynn pitching—five innings, five runs, three walks, though he did keep the ball in the park. And this being the 2024 White Sox, Lynn didn’t get the loss. One of his relievers did in a 6-5 ten-inning win for the visitors. On the plus side, Korey Lee started and had two hits with two RBIs. Naturally, Sox manager Mickey Mouse is starting Martin Maldonado behind the plate today. Lee has eight RBIs in 59 at-bats to six hits and three RBIs in 53 at-bats for Maldonado. Like they say, stupid is as stupid does.

Compare and Contrast

With last night’s 3-0 loss to the Cardinals in St. Louis, the White Sox record fell to 6-26. After 32 games, the 1962 Mets were 12-20. The Sox have been shut out nine times in 32 games. The Mets weren’t shut out until their 49th game. The Mets were managed by Casey Stengel, who was never at a loss for words. The Sox are managed by Mickey Mouse, who lacks all of the wit and wisdom of his cartoon namesake. In seven years, the Mets would go on to win their first World Series. In seven years, the Sox will be in a rebuild.

Nice Ride

Life has meaning when an attractive young woman notices you exercising. Only in this case she said, “Hey, nice bike,” instead of “nice bod.” Oh, well. I was out Tuesday and Wednesday riding my Schwinn Sports Tourer, 1972 model, on the 606. Tuesday’s ride was cut short when the new Brooks Saddle seat I installed came loose and stayed that way despite all efforts to tighten it. So, off to the Lone Gun Men Schwinn shop. No, it’s not actually called that, but it definitely gives off a little of that X-Files vibe with the three guys who are always—and I mean always—there. Someday I might even bump into Scully and Mulder. Anyway, the boss of the Gun Men took my bike and spent a good ten minutes reinstalling the seat. Then he sized it for me; with the bike in a stationary position and your butt on the seat, you should be standing on the balls of your feet. And so I was. We got to talking, and I asked the boss the difference between a Sports Tourer and a Paramount. “The difference between comfort and performance,” he answered. “The Tourer is a Cadillac, and the Paramount’s a Corvette.” Suddenly, it all made sense. I asked if there was any way I could get my Belgian-made rims to shine, and he sold me a tube of special wax made in Germany. The boss also advised me to get a high-performance car wax to protect the frame. “That’s opaque green. Schwinn only used it for one year, and you can’t find any touch-up paint. But people are going to notice that bike.” After I got those rims to sparkle, someone sure did. I’ll be spending the next few weeks trying to decide if I want to switch to a Corvette. Vroom, vroom.

Make It Stop

Another game, another bullpen meltdown, another loss, 10-5 to the Twins. How do you say, 6-25? Oh, I just did. The White Sox bullpen was handed a 4-2 lead going into the sixth inning yesterday afternoon. Five pitchers combined to give up eight runs, six earned. Shortstop Paul DeJong is hitting .216. He really can’t afford to make an error that would’ve allowed Steve Wilson to escape an inning where he’d walked the bases loaded. Then again, it may just have delayed the inevitable. On a positive note, as positive as anything with this team can be, rookie catcher Korey Lee homered and threw out two baserunners trying to steal. It’s getting harder and harder for manager Mickey Mouse to justify playing Martin Maldonado. Ditto for Chris Getz keeping Maldonado on the roster. Consider that ex-Sox first baseman Jose Abreu agreed to go to the minors in an effort to find his swing. Abreu was 7-for-71, with no homers and three RBIs for the Astros. Maldonado is hitting .100, with his three RBIs all coming on his one homer. What a difference .001 makes, I guess.

Take What You Can Get

Michael Kopech, Michael Kopech, Michael Kopech. Another appearance, another run, another loss. The White Sox have now lost six in a row to the Twins. I almost feel bad for manager Mickey Mouse; anybody in his position would call on Kopech, whose fastball is the best it’s been in three years at least. But the old saying, walks will kill you, fits here. Kopech walked the first batter in the ninth inning, and he scored what proved to be the winning run in a 6-5 game. Kopech has walked nine batters in 16.1 innings. Not good. Quite unlike Danny Mendick, who hit a two-run homerun and a double last night. Mendick is 10-for-37 since being called up. Compare that to Martin Maldonado, who started again last night for reasons beyond my comprehension. Maldonado is 5-for-50, and to say his defense is not on a par with Mendick’s would be an understatement. So, it goes, just like you’d expect for a team 6-24