Warming Up

As good parents, grandparents and in-laws, we went to the last game of the season for the Lake Park Lancers, coached by our son-in-law Chris. And, because we are parents, grandparents and in-laws of a certain age, we left in the third quarter. Something about the temperature dipping into the forties makes a body feel its age, and then some. We listened to the World Series on the way home. Michele loves baseball on the radio; it feels like summer, she says. Me, I think of the time driving in Colorado, an Oakland A’s game fading in and out. I was too preoccupied with not driving off the side of a mountain road at a time of night when all sane people were asleep in bed. I don’t listen on the radio now as much with Ed Farmer gone. Anyway, we heard Daulton Varsho go deep against Blake Snell to tie the game at two. And we got home in plenty of time to see the Blue Jays score nine runs in the sixth against Snell and the Dodgers’ bullpen. Final Score, Toronto 11 Los Angles 4. What really stuck out is how the Dodgers struck out, thirteen times in all to four whiffs by the Jays. Toronto hitters are geared to contact, which shows in the stats—best team batting average (.265) and on-base percentage (.333) in all of baseball. The Dodgers hit twelve points lower and had an OBP six points lower than the Jays. However, the boys of Tinseltown did lead the majors in striking out, 1627 as compared to 1099 for the Jays. That’s the second lowest in baseball. Game two, who can say? All I know is, you can’t win unless you hit the ball (or walk a lot). That, and dress like it’s winter even if it’s only late October.

Ice Berg Tips and Coal Mine Canaries

The NBA has been hit by a betting scandal, again, only now it involves HOFer and current Portland Trailblazers’ coach Chauncey Billups along with Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former player and former assistant coach Damon Jones. What the various charges do is raise questions, again, about the honesty of NBA games, of their outcomes. (A second scandal involving Billups concerns high-stakes’ card games, rigged by the Mafia.) It also raises questions about the integrity of broadcast networks that show games and push betting. I’m talking about you, ESPN, Marquee and CHSN. Right now, it’s the NBA. How long until a scandal rocks the NFL or MLB? Is tonight’s game one of the World Series on the legit? You have to wonder.

A Sleeper, or Not

The Bulls kicked off their season last night, beating the Pistons 115-114 before a packed house at the United Center. They almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, only to think better of it. This is an odd team, one where the second unit looks nearly as talented as the starting five. That’s either a good thing, or bad; only time will tell. But nobody seemed to miss guard Coby White, expected to be out another two weeks with a calf strain. In which case, thank goodness Arturas Karnisovas decided to keep Tre Jones around for another three seasons. The 25-year old scored twelve points while dishing out eight assists, the sort of performance he gave on a regular basis last season after being acquired from the Spurs. A smart move by Karnisovas—who knew? Sort of like Nikola Vucevic, the human tree on skates, scoring 28 points to go with fourteen rebounds. Now, if the big tree can do that in March and April, there may be cause for hope. I’d also trade some of the 50 or so guards Karnisovas has collected, but that’s just me.

Do the Math

I wonder what Jerry Reinsdorf and Tom Ricketts are going to do during the World Series. Wag their fingers and say, “Tsk-tsk,” maybe, or lay the groundwork for a work stoppage after the CBA expires at the end of next season? A hard salary cap for the good of the game, anyone? At the very least, they should both be rooting for the “small-er” market Blue Jays, who have a $255.2 million payroll vs. $350 million for the top-spending Dodgers, per spotrac.com. Number seven payroll vs. number one. Go, seven. What I’d love to ask these two whiny billionaires is this—why are you team owners if you don’t want to spend money? By all means, be smart in spending the cash (think Blue Jays), but spend it or get out of the business. Instead, the odds are we’re talking about two owners who are going to spearhead the drive for a hard cap. What a bunch of cry babies.

Two Jays

Say this for the White Sox under GMs Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn. When they made a dumb trade (and they made lots), you could count on it being a doozy. Take this one from December 2014. Hahn—or maybe Williams, the former was GM by then, but that never stopped the latter as team president from interfering—engineered a trade of four prospects for ex-Cub Jeff Samardzija and a minor leaguer. Three of the ex-Sox—pitcher Chris Bassitt, catcher Josh Phegley and infielder Marcus Semien—all have had pretty decent (or better) major-league careers. In fact, Bassitt and Semien are both still playing, and come Friday, both can say they’ve been on World Series teams. Samardzija? He pitched one year on the South Side before having five pretty-blah seasons with the Giants. I was reminded of all this last night when Bassitt came out of the bullpen to pitch a scoreless eighth inning while protecting a one-run lead for the Blue Jays. Jeff Hoffman did the same in the ninth, and the Jays beat the Mariners 4-3 in game seven of the ALCS to advance to a date with the Dodgers in the World Series. Three of the runs came courtesy of a George Springer homerun to erase a two-run Seattle lead in the seventh. Ah, George Springer. I’ve never been a fan, at least of his contract, six years at $150 million. At the time of signing, Springer was already 31 years old. I wondered what would happen the last two years of the contract. Well, what I thought would happen, sort of. Springer started 80 games as a DH, which suggests he won’t be seeing much of the field either in the World Series (honesty forces me to admit he took a fastball off the knee in game five of the ALCS) or next season. But, right now, I doubt Blue Jays’ fans care much about that, and I can’t say I blame them.

Walking Around

Michele calls what we did on Saturday part of the “best day of the year” for her. With Open House Chicago, you have access to places you wouldn’t get into the other 365 days, like the rooftop garden at McCormick Place. Trust me, it offers views of Chicago you can’t get anywhere else. We walked through an area generally referred to as the “South Loop,” an area once marked by abandoned buildings, old warehouse and vacant lots, along with a few Prairie Avenue mansion hanging on for dear existence. Well, the mansions are thriving now, and you’d be hard-pressed to find an empty lot. The place has been transformed to the point that, if you told me this was a new residential development in lower Manhattan, I’d believe it. Between an iffy weather forecast and the uncertainties attached to the “No Kings” march downtown, we didn’t know if we could do Saturday; Open House is a two-day affair. But everything worked out, so that we didn’t have to go on Sunday. Not that we could have, not really. As it was, I had a hard time finding street parking; let’s just say if you don’t live in the area and have a sticker on the windshield to prove it, you’ll be in trouble. But I found a spot that allowed us to walk around to three places, and all was good. But Sunday, the odds are somebody going to the Bears-Saints’ game at Soldier Field likely would’ve snagged it ahead of me. No doubt they’d have had a happy walk back to the car after the Munsters dominated the visitors, 26-14. Or they might’ve stopped in to celebrate at any of the restaurants and bars we passed. That’s the thing. The Bears right now generate all sorts of economic activity centered in the South Loop. The resulting tax revenue goes to the city. If the Munsters move to Arlington Heights, that economic activity will tag along. The team basically will be generating the same amount of business wherever it plays. It won’t matter to the state of Illinois where the McCaskeys pitch their flag, just to the communities within walking distance of wherever the Bears play. The Bears are already bad neighbors (What? We’re not responsible for that $534 million in construction bonds still outstanding for the 2003 Soldier Field renovation. We’re just tenants.) If the Munsters move out of the city, Arlington Heights and surrounding communities will learn just how bad.

Smart Money

Poor Tom Ricketts (relatively speaking). He must’ve drawn solace from the fact that his Cubs lost the NLDS to the kind of team he wishes his Cubs were. In other words, underpaid overachievers. According to sportac.com, the Cubs’ payroll this season is $211.9 million, as opposed to $121.7 million for the Brewers. And then the Dodgers had to go and ruin things by sweeping Milwaukee in the NLCS. Nobody spent more on salary this year than Los Angeles, at $350.3 million. Call it smart money, especially when compared to the Mets spending $342.4 and not even making the postseason. You can draft; develop; trade; and hope or draft; develop; trade; and spend smart. That’s what the Dodgers do. Oh, and gamble smart. They signed Blake Snell this year and Tyler Glasnow last year. Both have a history of arm problems, and neither pitched much in the regular season. But both were ready for the postseason, as evidenced by Snell’s eight shutout innings in game one of the NLCS. The same goes for Shohei Ohtani, who pitched all of 47 innings during the regular season. As if that kept him from throwing six shutout innings as he scattered two and three walks against strikeouts against the Brewers last night in the series clincher. We won’t even mention the three homeruns he hit in the game. This is the player Jerry Reinsdorf publicly stated the White Sox wouldn’t be pursuing when Ohtani was a free agent in 2023. Yes, by all means draft; develop; and trade. Just don’t expect to win unless you spend smart, which is not the same as spending less.

An Embarrassment of Choices

You want baseball? NLCS or ALCS? Hockey? Check the Hawks’ schedule this week? Basketball? The Bulls start next week. Football? NU or the Bears? Truly, this is the one time of year where Americans sports overlap. I hope to live long enough to see an October where the Cubs and White Sox are in their respective championship series, TV schedule be damned; the Hawks and Bull are looking to defend championships; ditto the Wildcats and Munsters. I’m pretty sure that never happened over the course of Sister Jean’s 106 years on the planet. I can wait.

Freeze Frame

My latest purchase arrived in the mail on Monday, an 8”x10” photo of Tommie Agee sliding under the tag of Lee Elia during spring training, 1966. Oh, the memories. Agee was part of a three-way trade with the Indians and A’s. We sent Fred Talbot, Mike Hershberger and Jim Landis to Kansas City for Rocky Colavito and then shipped Colavito and Cam Carreon to Cleveland for Agee, Tommy John and John Romano. Nice deal, that. Elia was already a baseball lifer when he debuted with the Sox as a 28-year old rookie in ’66. A .205 BA in 195 at-bats didn’t win him a second season on the South Side, just a cup of coffee with the Cubs in 1968. But his career in baseball was hardly over. Dallas Green named him Cubs’ manager in 1982. Elia gained notoriety for speaking truth to conceit in April of 1983. His team had just lost a close game to the Dodgers and gotten off to a terrible start at 5-14. Let’s just say Elia wasn’t a fan of the fans who showed up back then, saying that, “Eighty-five percent of the f****n’ world is working. The other fifteen come out here.” Unfortunately for Elia, his words were caught on tape. Not that he was wrong. This was the era of “Bleacher Bums,” which offered a fanciful take on that fifteen percent. Bums they were, and unemployed Elia became late in the ’83 season when the Cubs fired him. I see those full houses at Wrigley Field, and I can still hear Elia cursing, good White Sox that he was.

Now, That's What I'm Talking About

So, if Blake Snell was doing Sandy Koufax Monday night, then Yoshinobu Yamamoto stepped into the role of Don Drysdale last night. The 27-year old righthander threw a 118-pitch complete game helping the Dodgers beat the Brewers 5-1 win in Milwaukee. It’s the first postseason complete game since Justin Verlander in 2017. Eight innings from Snell, nine from Yamamoto—the analytics’ world must be reeling. What about batting average third time around the order? What about starter fatigue? What about leveraging power arms out of the bullpen? Who cares?

Stop the Presses!

How old school was that? Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts let starter Blake Snell go eight innings last night in game one of the NLCS in Milwaukee. It didn’t hurt that Snell gave up all of one baserunner enroute to a 2-1 LA win over the Brewers. That’s the good news for those of us who remember going to ballgames on our brontosauruses. The game still took 2:53 to play. Yes, Brewers’ pitchers—and there were six of them—issued eight free passes, but the Dodgers helped things along by hitting into two double plays. And the Brewers chipped in, so to speak, when Caleb Durbin was picked off of first in the third inning. Gosh, I wonder if an onslaught of TV commercials had anything to do with an excruciating pace? Nah. Commissioner Rob Manfred cares too much about the future of the game to let anything like that happen. Right?

Done

With the Cubs’ loss to the Brewers in the NLDS Saturday night, the Chicago baseball season is officially over. It’s liberating, in a way. Now, I don’t have to listen to White Sox manager New-Mickey Venable—and I’ll call him by his given name the day he gets his team ten games over .500, I promise—start every answer to a question with “Yeah” or wonder why the lineup features the likes of Jacob Amaya or Josh Rojas or Will Robertson or why a hot hitter sits for one of the above. I miss reading box scores, but only for the 60 wins on the season. On a possibly related note, the 1967 team-autographed ball I bought arrived over the weekend. Talk about a stroll down memory lane—Wayne Causey, Don McMahon, Don Buford and, oh, so many more. Best of all, the autographs are clear, which makes it easy to spot Ken Boyer and Rocky Colavito (acquiring aging talent, always the White Sox way). The only tough signature to decipher belongs to coach Kerby Farrell, born two weeks after my dad and died 25 years before he did. Gary Peter, Joel Horlen, Walt Williams. Perfection, or almost. There’s no Cisco Carlos, who amassed an eyepopping 0.86 ERA in 41.2 innings. The 26-year old rookie got his first start August 25th (Bukowski father and son were in the stands, I distinctly recall), and Colavito was acquired July 29th. My guess is the autographs were amassed sometime between July 30-August 24. I lived and died with this team, the last gasp of a “Go-Go” Sox iteration dating to 1951, before my birth. With five games left in the ’67 season and one game out of first place, the Sox finished out the schedule against the tenth-place A’s and seventh-place Senators. Easy-peasey, right? No, a five-game losing streak brought me to tears and ushered in three miserable seasons of losing culminating in the 56-106 debacle of 1970. Hope returned in the following season with the hiring of Chuck Tanner. I already have the 1971 team ball: Bart Johnson, Jay Johnstone, Carlos May…Venable as the new Tanner? Sox fans should be so lucky.

Finis

The Brewers sent the Cubs packing with a 3-1 win last night at a rocking American Family Field to clinch the NLDS. Put another way, the team that finished 22nd in homeruns during the regular season bested the team that finished with the sixth most longballs by outhomering them, three taters to one. Best of all, ex-White Sox Andrew Vaughn hit the deciding go-ahead homer for his new team in the fourth inning. Oh, where to start? The emperor’s new clothes seems the best bet, the emperor here being Cubs’ team chair and de facto owner Tom Ricketts. This is the man who claims his cash cow is but a small or medium market franchise. Hence, only the tenth highest team payroll this year, per sportrac.com. Up until around 9:30 or so last night, Ricketts was probably feeling downright proud of himself. Why, his team with a $211.9 million payroll had a good shot at advancing to the NLCS. Not like the Mets, who didn’t even make the postseason despite spending $342.4 million on player salaries. Too bad the real small-to-medium market team, the one with the eighth-lowest payroll ($121.7 million), won when it counted. The other team? Oh, they played the analytics-driven game of longball and launch angle all season while their opponents opted for on-base percentage. The team that had the sixth most homers in the regular season lost the division, let alone the NLDS, to the team that finished with the second-highest on-base percentage. And that really mattered because the home team won every game in the series. Would the Brewers have won game five if it were played at Wrigley Field? I really, really doubt it. But we’ll never know, courtesy of front-office decisions made by Jed Hoyer and company, at the behest of their emperor. Which leads me to my last point, that Emperor Ricketts also subscribed to the Jerry Krause dictum that players and coaches alone don’t win championships, organizations do. That’s were willing to spend $40 million in the 2023 offseason to make Craig Counsell the highest paid manager in baseball. (The Dodgers’ Dave Roberts signed an extension at the beginning of 2025 that gives him $8.1 million a season to Counsell’s $8 million.) The Cubs thought Counsell provided more value than any potential free-agent signing. In other words, they spent money to save money, however imaginary the savings might be. Great philosophy, only it didn’t work for the Krause’s Bulls after Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson left, and it’s not working for the cash cow on Addison. Let’s see if the postseason changes anything.

Not My Cup of Tea

I bailed on the Tigers-Mariners’ ALDS game five after thirteen innings. Where FOX announcer Adam Amin saw baseball poetry in motion which he described in hyperbolic flourishes, I saw two teams incapable of bunting the ball or stealing a base. Heaven forbid someone try a hit-and-run. The Tigers struck out seventeen times in fifteen innings, the Mariners twenty (!) times in 14.1. Somebody had to win, and it was the Mariners 3-2 on a walk-off single by Jorge Polanco. Yea. They still lose to the Blue Jays in the ALCS.

Sister Jean

Sister Jean Schmidt died yesterday at the age of 106. She was an actual person turned into a media star. If you’re Catholic and of a certain age, the odds are you knew someone like Sister Jean, a teacher probably along the way from kindergarten through twelfth grade, although it’s worth noting Sister Jean also taught on the college level. If you’re looking for a “the nun(s) beat me every day for x-years” story here, sorry, I don’t have one. Members of the Sister Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary taught me as best they could at St. Gall. In many ways, I was a challenging case. Sister Jerome Marie, my teacher in fourth grade, gave me batting tips, which was very nice of her considering how I tried to forge my mother’s name on my report card in the spring. Like I said, no “she beat me silly” stories here. To me, Sister Jean and Sister Jerome Marie are interchangeable; nuns were jacks—and maybe Jills—of all trades who helped the students entrusted in their care. Because she was the team chaplain for the Loyola Ramblers men’s basketball team and Loyola went deep in the NCAA tournament in 2018, a national audience learned all about Sister Jean, or some cute version of her. Make it to 106, and you outlive just about everyone you’ve ever cared about. Age brings sorrow as well as wisdom. That Sister Jean chose to smile for the cameras diminished neither her wisdom nor her sorrow. We’re diminished, or should be, by her passing.

Minority Report

According to today’s Tribune via the AP, viewership was way up for MLB’s Wild Card Series, especially among the young folks. There were big gains registered for both the under-35 and under-17 demographics. Something about trotting out relief pitchers, maybe, in which case I don’t get it. What’s so exciting about watching a parade of pitchers following the starter, e.g., seven relievers for the Guardians in their October 2nd loss to the Tigers? And who gets a kick out of watching batters fan time after time, e.g., the first Tigers-Guardians’ game that featured 28 strikeouts? I can’t wait to see the numbers for the ALDS and NLDS. I mean, the Yankees struck out fifteen times against eight Toronto pitchers on October 5th. Talk about exciting.

Like I Said

Pardon my crude analytics, but I said the other day the Blue Jays should’ve kept Trey Yesavage in for more than 5.1 innings of no-hit ball on 78 pitches. Here’s why. Last night in the Bronx, four of the relievers who appeared in Sunday’s game came out again in what at one time was a 6-3 Toronto lead. Three of those four were scored on, this after they posted scoreless outings on Sunday. So, it does in fact look like the Yankees gained momentum scoring those seven runs in a 13-7 loss. Final score of Yankees 9 Blue Jays 6. But what do I know?

The Ex- Factor

Oh, my Cub-loving hardware guy must’ve been in seventh heaven last night after Seiya Suzuki hit a three-run homerun in the top of the first inning. Cubs 3 Brewers 0. Oh, to have seen his reaction when ex-White Sox Andrew Vaughn tied the game with a three-run homer of his own in the bottom half of the inning. Final score: Brewers 7 Cubs 3. After the game, Vaughn said all the right things while his teammates and manager said all the nice things. All White Sox fans can do is note that Vaughn was hitting .189 when he was shipped off as opposed to the .308 BA he put up just north of the border. Nothing says “good trade” for a team better than the player you acquired having 46 RBIs in a mere 221 at-bats. How did the 27-year old, former first-round pick do it? In part, he credits working “my butt off” at Triple-A Nashville and then taking advantage of the opportunity when the Brewers called him up. [quote in story today on team website] And nothing more than that? Vaughn never struck me as a prima donna in any sense of the term applied to sports. After he homered, Clare texted, “That’s the first time I ever saw Andrew Vaughn smile,” which is probably little if any exaggeration. The guy was always serious, always looking to do his part. But it didn’t work. If the trade shook him and showed him he had to change, good for Andrew Vaughn. If the Milwaukee minor- and major-league coaching staff was able to reach him unlike anyone with his former team, shame on the White Sox. I checked, and none of the five hitting coaches in the Milwaukee system Vaughn has encountered since the trade got beyond Triple-A. It's not enough to go all-in on analytics, if that had anything to do with Andrew Vaughn’s resurgence. You have to have the right people doing the analyzing. The proof’s in the homerun that denied the Cubs any momentum.

Two Questions

First question: Why did Blue Jays’ manager John Schneider pull his starter? I ask because 22-year old Trey Yesavage had thrown 5.1 HITLESS innings, striking out eleven Yankees along the way. Yes, the Jays won 13-7, but why not let Yesavage at least go six innings? I mean, he’d thrown all of 78 pitches. If he goes six or seven, the Yankees may not have scored the seven runs they did off of Toronto relievers, giving them the tiniest bit of momentum. No doubt Schneider went by the analytics’ book. God forbid the home-team fans or those watching the game on television get a chance to see some no-hit history. In any event, the Yankees are now down two games to none, which leads to my second question. If Aaron Judge and company stink the way they did the previous two games, how will Yankee fans react? Class has never been a strong suit in the Bronx.

A Dream Come True

This is every White Sox fan’s dream come true: The Cubs are in the postseason, and manager Craig Counsell’s first call to the bullpen is for ex-Sox Micheal Sorka…in the first inning! Yes, it happened, with results any Sox fan could’ve predicted. Soroka entered with his team already down 4-1 with two runners on and two out. A walk and a single led to two more runs. Wait, there’s more. The 28-year old righthander, who was not a happy camper on the South Side last season, gave up three consecutive singles to start the second inning. Before long, another two runs had crossed the plate, and Counsell called the bullpen for another ex-Sox pitcher, Aaron Civale, and Civale promptly gave up a run-scoring single. Final score, Brewers 9 Cubs 3. Now, far be it from me to gloat, at least not until another two Cub losses. I can almost tolerate the North Siders. The older I get, the less any one Cubbie player bothers me. Not so the fans, like the one I ran into at a hardware store Friday night in the northern suburbs. I was there to have two screens fixed for my soon-to-be 94-year old mother-in-law. Silly me was wearing his Sox cap, which apparently offended the employee in question. He started in on what a terrible team the White Sox are, blah, blah, blah. All in good fun, of course. Maybe I get the last laugh.

Show Me the Money

The Bears released updated renderings of their stadium project this week, the better to extort money—along the lines of $855 million—from local and state government for infrastructure. Wait, there’s more. The accompanying buildings to the site are featureless geometric patterns, not that the stadium itself is anything to get excited about, unless your fancy runs to classic hubcaps. The team website offers all kinds of reasons why the project makes sense, up to and including better household water pressure for surrounding homes. The team claims the McCaskey clan needs a new stadium “[t]o remain competitive in the NFL today.” Funny, but I thought a hard salary cap allowed them to do exactly that.

New Screen Readers

On Monday the White Sox gave four coaches—including pitching coach Ethan Katz and hitting coach Marcus Thames—their walking papers. I won’t hold my breath that their replacements will be any better. Just different guys reading a computer screen. Katz was a minor leaguer who never rose above A-ball (but did coach Lucas Giolito in high school) while Thames collected 450 hits over a ten-year career with the Dodger, Tigers and Yankees. My guess is that their replacements will have similar backgrounds. I keep hearing on broadcasts how it’s the postseason and everything is different. If so, wouldn’t you want people who’d been there coaching players who want to get there? At least Thames appeared in five postseason series and even collected nine hits. Too bad he never articulated a hitting philosophy. It’s worth noting the assistant pitching and hitting coaches, were kept on. Joel McKeithan never hit a major-league pitch while Matt Wise went 17-22 with a 4.23 ERA in his eight years with the Angels, Brewers and Mets. Big-league success doesn’t matter to the White Sox or any other team these days. They want coaches who can break down data and facilitate tweaks in mechanics per the data Mark my words—the White Sox will hire people who have never been there to coach players who want to get there. Good luck with that.

Ex-Sox Starters

The wild card has been very good for ex-White Sox starters, beginning with Garrett Crochet. Pitching Tuesday night in the lion’s den known as Yankee Stadium, the 26-year old lefthander went 7.2 innings, during which time he allowed one run on four hits, with eleven strikeouts making the zero walks all the sweeter in a 3-1 Red Sox win. Crochet told manager Alex Cora he would only need to make one call to the bullpen, and he was right. Last night, Cora called down to the pen six times, but it didn’t work. Yankees 4 Red Sox 3. For better or worse, now-32-year old Carlos Rodon made the Yankee win possible with a pretty good six-inning performance—three runs; four hits; three walks; and six strikeouts. I never doubted Rodon’s grit when he pitched on the South Side. With him it was—and always will be—a question of health. Well, he was healthy enough last night. Did I mention Dylan Cease? Lo and behold, the great enigma threw goose eggs through 3.1 innings, after which San Diego manager Mike Shildt went into analytics’ mode and went to his bullpen. Unlike Cora, Shildt was able to get by on three relievers in a 3-0 Padres’ win. No doubt Cease’s agent Scott Boras will have something to say about the quick hook. Lest I forget, the Cubs called on ex-Sox Michael Soroka, who responded with .2 innings of scoreless relief. So, former Sox pitchers have acquitted themselves well. Now, we’ll se what ex-Cub Yu Darvish does against his old team in the third and deciding game at Wrigley Field late this afternoon.

Venue

The thing about Wrigley Field is, you know it’s Wrigley Field. No other ballpark has that outfield or walls down the line. The area around home plate used to be unique, so much so other teams copied the brick-and-limestone design for their new parks. Oh, and it’s loud because the upper deck is right on top of the lower deck rather than terraced up and away like in all new stadiums, baseball or football. When those members of the great Cubbie Cult start to screaming, the opposition has to hear it. If they say otherwise, fine, in which case, they can feel it. And when the Cubbie Cult starts to cheering at full lung capacity, the home team can’t help but feel the energy projected. All of the above came into play yesterday during the North Siders’ 3-1 win over the Padres in their Wild Card matchup. Players felt what fans were channeling their way, viewers knew exactly where the game was being played. I wonder, how much of this does Jerry Reinsdorf understand? He once had a ballpark just as unique as Wrigley, only bigger, and he walked away from it for a ball-mall. Stupid is as stupid does, I guess.

Rooting Interests

The Padres play the Cubs this afternoon in the NL Wild Card Series. I’ll be rooting for Gavin Sheets. Dylan Cease? Probably not. And while I certainly don’t want the Yankees to prevail over the Red Sox, I will be rooting for Carlos Rodon. If Cease had a little bit of Rodon in him, his record would be a lot better than 8-12 with a 4.55 ERA. A beard can’t hide that, Dylan. Speaking of the BoSox, too bad Lucas Giolito won’t be pitching in the Wild Card; he has some sort of elbow issue. With luck, it won’t be anything too serious. But I’m sure Giolito will be a good teammate cheering for Romy Gonzalez. The ex-White Sox infielder hit a career-best .305 this year with 53 RBIs in just 315 at-bats. Somebody on the South Side knew Gonzalez was worth an eighteenth-round draft pick back in 2018. Gonzalez was the 528th player chosen. A year later, Andrew Vaughn went third in the draft to the White Sox. If anything, his draft status cast Vaughn as a considerably bigger disappointment on the South Side than Gonzalez. Which makes his revival with the Brewers all the more notable. I mean, going from hitting .189 in 185 at-bats with just nineteen RBIs to .308 in 221 with 46 RBIs sure says something. You can decide what exactly. I’m not saying the Sox should’ve kept all of the above players. But is interesting how this group with the possible exception of Cease has flourished once they escaped Jerry Reinsdorf’s employ. Glass half-full: The Sox can identify talent, whether at the top of the draft or towards the bottom. Glass half-empty: They just can’t develop it.

Bookends

The White Sox bookended their seasons with wins, 8-1 against the Angels on March 27 and 8-0 over the Nationals yesterday. It was all the games in between that were a problem. But at least Shane Smith righted his ship and once again looks like he can thrive as a top-of-the-roatation starter. Five days after limiting the Yankees to one run in five innings, the 25-year old Rule 5 acquisition did even better against the Nats, retiring the first sixteen batters until giving up a single to Brady House, who was the only National to reach base. Smith went six innings, and three relievers didn’t screw anything up. Did I mention Brooks Baldwin? If not, I should. Baldwin went 2-for-4 with a homerun and double good for three RBIs. The former twelfth-round pick finished with eleven homers and fifteen doubles in 300 at-bats, numbers that move him back into the “Maybe” category. As I’ve said on occasion, Baldwin intrigues with his ability to play multiple positions. He played everywhere this year except first and behind the plate (and was listed as the team’s emergency catcher). If the 25-year old switch-hitter can add 25 to his BA, he’s a keeper. The Sox under New-Mickey Venable finished the season at 60-102. According to Chris Getz, I should be impressed. Funny, but baseball-reference.com gives them a Pythagorean won-loss breakdown of 71-91. That was attainable, and getting there next season won’t be cause for celebration.

Picking and Choosing

For the White Sox to go anywhere next season, they have to be able to evaluate talent. If only for argument’s sake, let’s say they can. Yeah, I know it’s a stretch, but what else is there to do on the last day of the regular season? Off of yesterday, it’s a definite “Yes” with Colson Montgomery, plus a couple of “Maybes.” Montgomery hit his 21st homerun of the year to give the Sox a 2-0 that eventually turned into a 6-5 defeat. Oh, that bullpen. Grant Taylor, Mike Vasil, maybe Jordan Leasure. After them, a whole lot of “No’s,” especially if they’re lefties. Sean Burke, a starter who was relieving because that’s the silliness of a “bullpen” day, struck out ten in 4.1 innings of work. I want to say “Yes” about Burke, but that 4.29 ERA forces me back to “Maybe.” Ditto Brooks Baldwin. He joined Montgomery in hitting a two-run homer in the fourth inning. That gives him ten along with 35 RBIs in 296 at-bats. The “Maybe” comes in due to a .236 BA and 85 strikeouts. Yes, No, Maybe—let the evaluations begin.

Just Desserts

The White Sox jumped ahead against the Nationals 8-1 after 4-1/2 innings; they deserved to win. Then Jordan Leasure gave up four runs to put Washington up, 9-8, and the Sox truly deserved to lose. No doubt they would have and should have. You shouldn’t win a game after blowing a big lead and letting the other team hit six—I repeat, six—homeruns. But the other team also committed four—I repeat, four—errors. The last one brought up rookie shortstop Colson Montgomery with one out and one on in the top of the ninth. Montgomery put an 0-1 pitch into the rightfield stands for a 10-9 lead that Grant Taylor did not give up. Sox win, 10-9. At this time of year, you look for the little things to keep going. Montgomery provided some last night. He’d gone 0-for-4 to that point, with three strikeouts. Oh, and he connected off Jose Ferrer, a lefty who’d held lefthanded hitters to a batting average in the .180s. It was Montgomery’s fourth homer against lefties in 73 at-bats; he also has four doubles. It’s enough to keep me going.

We'll See

Chris Getz doesn’t want White Sox fans to focus on a third 100+ loss season. No, he sees the future, and it will be full of players from Double-A Birmingham, which repeated this week as Southern League champs. Maybe, but I wonder. The easy part will be, or should be, pitching. The Barons led the league with a ridiculous—by modern-day standards—2.99 ERA and fifteen shutouts; the 1237 strikeouts ranked second in the league. If Shane Murphy doesn’t get an invite to spring training after posting a 9-4 record for the Barons with a 1.38 ERA in 110.2 innings, there’s something wrong with the Sox front office. There are plenty of other Birmingham pitchers I’ve mentioned periodically who should also get a serious look-see, unless Getz thinks Jonathan Cannon and Sean Burke are a tinker or two away from rebounding. In which case, he’d be in the marked minority. Now, for the hard part, the position players. Oh, the Barons have them, but are the Sox willing to bring them up anytime soon? Like 20-year old middle-infielder William Bergolla, who hit .286 and stole 40 bases? Or 24-year old infielder/outfielder Rikuu Nishida, who batted .273 with 40 stolen bases? Or 22-year old Sam Antonacci, who hit .292 with 21 stolen bases? Throw in what he did at High-A Winston-Salem, and Antonacci hit .284 with 48 stolen bases and 75 runs scored. Last and not least is 24-year old infielder Jordan Sprinkle, who played at the A- and High A-levels before being promoted to Birmingham. For the season, Sprinkle stole 80 bases in total. How are you going to keep them down on the farm if they keep stealing everything in sight? A more pertinent question is, what do you do with your major-league infield if the kids keep producing? Sox fans may rebel or boycott if subjected to another season that sees the likes of Jacob Amaya and Josh Rojas getting significant playing time. And they may not want to see Triple-A Charlotte being the team that gets an infusion of talent. Long story short, I can see people moving to the outfield, and it could include Colson Montgomery. I may even hope it includes Montgomery.

A Modest Proposal

Last night at Yankee Stadium, the White Sox recorded loss #100 by an 8-1 score. I expect loss #101 to happen tonight. Here’s an idea for when the current collective bargaining agreement expires at the end of next season—instead of focusing on a nonstarter like a salary cap, why don’t owners discipline their own ranks with a form of receivership/trusteeship or a compulsory-sale formula? Oh, I know why they won’t, but the idea would be wildly popular with fans and players. In terms of receivership/trusteeship, it used to happen all the time with clubs in financial difficulty; think Brooklyn Dodgers. How fitting if the team of Jerry Reinsdorf, more a Dodgers’ fan than he ever has been a Sox fan, should be placed into the same status. Or just forcing the team to sell off 10-25 percent of its stock for every season of 100+ losses after, let’s say, three straight seasons of such misery also makes sense. If not to MLB ownership, then everyone else who consider themselves fans of the game.

Meet the New Boss

White Sox GM Chris Getz keeps talking about building a new, winning culture for the organization, but I don’t see it. His manager proved, yet again, a déjà vu ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. This new Mickey is pretty much the same as the old Mickey. Last night at Yankee Stadium, starter Shane Smith threw five innings of one-run ball; he left after 93 pitches. Why? Lefthanded reliever Tyler Gilbert followed with a scoreless inning. Why not stretch him to four outs against a lineup with five lefthanded batters? Jordan Leasure followed Gilbert with a scoreless inning, and Grant Taylor followed Leasure with one of his own. Why didn’t each of them stay in for an extra out or, perish the thought, allow Taylor to go for a two-inning save? Instead, New-Mickey Venable brought in Brandon Eisert, who responded with a wild pitch and two-strike single—both with two out, no less—to give the Yankees a walk-off 3-2 win. Colson Montgomery hit a monster two-run homerun off Luis Gil in the sixth inning. Venable turned what could’ve been a big deal into a so-what moment. Same as the old Mickey.

Take a Walk

The last two Mondays, Michele and I have walked the lakefront. Yesterday, we did nine miles, give or take. Catch us, if you can. Over the last ten months, we’ve been to NYC, London and Paris; each city has a unique claim to world status. Chicago? Maybe the architecture—don’t get me started on the visual sameness of Paris—if only they didn’t keep tearing down landmark buildings. Definitely the lakefront. On the one side, sand and water. On the other, a never-ending variety of apartment buildings (for contrast, see Paris, above, while contrasting “polychromatic” with “monochromatic,” variety with uniformity). When I bike the lakefront, everything tends to zoom by; walking it, I get a sense of nature. Grass; trees; sand; waves. These are the elements of reverie, or can be until some idiot zooms by on an e-bike or scooter. Did I mention food? There’s actually a nice variety to be had, and it’s no more expensive than what you get at the ballpark, cheaper, probably. Both Mondays, we’ve ended our walk at a place familiar to anyone who’s watched enough Cubs’ broadcasts. Directors love that shot of the lake with the clock tower off of Addison, sailboats gliding along in the distance. (Sure beats Jim Blushi singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”) Well, there’s a dive bar next to the clock tower. You can eat inside or out. There’s a great view of the public golf course that abuts. Don’t worry. Protective screening keeps out any errant golf shots. My recommendation—the Wisconsin brat; that, and good walking shoes. Both are well worth it.

Ninety-Eight and Counting

Another game, another loss for the White Sox, this one 3-2 against the Padres in the last home game of the season. Nothing says defeat like a team going 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position. If the Sox have but four position players worth keeping (Chase Meidroth, Colson Montgomery, Edgar Quero and Kyle Teel), they have four-plus pitchers: starters Davis Martin and Shane Smith, relievers Grant Taylor—who wants to start—and Mike Vasil. Both relievers pitched yesterday. Vasil went three scoreless innings to lower his ERA to 2.37 in 98.2 innings (!). You have to love those numbers, along with the ones put up by Taylor in his last seven games—twelve strikeouts in six innings with a 0.00 ERA and 2-0 record, plus a save. Wikelman Gonzalez (2.66 ERA and 25 strikeouts in 20.1 innings) probably is a keeper, as is—and trust me, I never thought I’d be saying this—Jordan Leasure. God-awful April through July, the 27-year old righthander seems to have finally figured things out. The 3.09 ERA in August was nice, but nothing in comparison with what he’s done this past month: nine game; eleven innings; two hits; zero runs; ten strikeouts. Pinch me, I must be dreaming. A major-league roster consists of 26 players. By my reckoning, the Sox have fourteen, tops, and that’s if you include Andrew Benintendi; Luis Robert Jr.; Lenyn Sosa; and Miguel Vargas. The remaining twelve will be the difference between progress and a fourth straight season of 100+ losses.

Back on Track

The White Sox are back on track to losing 100+ games for three seasons in a row with last night’s 7-3 loss to the Orioles. Maybe someday the front office will find a lefthanded reliever or two who can get lefthanded batters out with the bases loaded and two out in a tied game. Or not. Core-wise, Kyle Teel had an RBI double against Yu Darvish while Chase Meidroth had a hit and a run scored; ditto Colson Montgomery, who also managed a walk (!). Those who would be part of the core also continued to press their case. Miguel Vargas went 2-for-4 with a double and RBI, and Lenyn Sosa hit his 21st homerun of the season, to go with 71 RBIs. Do you keep them or trade them? Vargas has 32 doubles in 478 at-bats with 56 RBIs; his defense at third and first hasn’t been atrocious. Sosa is Sosa. He’ll hit wherever you put him. Field? Well… A week to go, three games coming up with the Yankees in the Bronx after today’s last home game against the Padres. I think loss-100 comes before the Sox end their season against the Nationals. Let’s see if they can prove me wrong.

Same Old Same Old

The enigma that is ex-White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease started against his old team last night. That would be the second-worst team in all of baseball. Did I mention that Cease and the Padres lost, 4-3? I caught Cease talking to San Diego reporters after the game, and he came off as he always did on the South Side, laid back to the point of total detachment; he didn’t seem too upset with his performance of four earned runs over six innings. Those two Sox batters he hit in the fourth, both of whom scored? Stuff happens, he all but said. At the risk of sounding like Jerry Reinsdorf, the Padres aren’t getting their money’s worth from Cease, not with him going 8-12 with a 4.64 ERA. Cease is earning $13.75 million this year, and God knows how much next season when he signs with somebody—my guess the Yankees or Dodgers—as a free agent. The 29-year old, whose beard and hair make him look like he plays for the House of David, lost to Davis Martin, who now has a record of 7-10 with a 4.03 ERA. Martin is pulling down a shade over $765,000. I can’t wait to see how super-agent Scott Boras spins his client’s stats into a windfall contract. Unless he can’t.

Making Memories

Well, that certainly changed fast. The past few times I’ve pitched to my four-year old grandson, his bat was allergic to contact; tennis, anyone?. Then yesterday, he put nine balls over the fence, with one nearly clearing a second fence. Joy, except for the Packers’ t-shirt he was wearing. Leo will probably grow up a Cheesehead because his mom doesn’t really care about the Bears-Packers’ rivalry. If her boy wants to make a pilgrimage to Green Bay, that’ll be fine with her, provided he knows where his baseball allegiances lay. Amen to that, my daughter and grandson. If all goes right, seventy years from now, Leo will be looking at the latest iteration of the JumboTron I was watching Wednesday, and he’ll have the same reaction. Luke Appling retired before I was born, and I only remember Nellie Fox in his last season on the South Side. But there I was, holding back tears while Appling and Fox were brought back to life on the screen. No doubt, every team has the same sort of video clip to play at the start of a game. “Innovation” and “Jerry Reinsdorf” don’t usually appear in the same sentence, unless maybe you throw in “salary cap.” Whatever, the clip works in ways the Sox marketing department couldn’t begin to imagine. If those folks did, they might worry. Because watching reminds me there’s a connection to this team that extends generations, back and forward. My father cheered Appling, and my father-in-law, too. I lived and died with each at-bat Walt Williams took. Clare did the same with the Big Hurt. For Leo, Colson Montgomery could be his Nellie Fox or Walt Williams. Whomever his hero(s) turn out to be, it’ll be four generations of Sox fans and counting. At some point, the latest generation will demand accountability, and there’ll be no satisfying them until it’s had. Just saying.

The God’s Honest Truth, per Pinocchio

I’m tired of all this talk coming from White Sox GM Chris Getz and his favorite New-Mickey of a manager about how important it is for the team to finish strong. Here’s why. Tuesday night, Andrew Benintendi and Kyle Teel hit homeruns. Neither of them started yesterday in a 3-1 loss (their sixth in a row, but who’s counting? Certainly not Getz and New-Mickey.), even though the Orioles starting Tyler Wells would’ve meant a lefty-right advantage for both Benintendi and Keel. Wait, there’s more. The starting outfield yesterday consisted of Will Robertson (batting .143 at the start of the game, .135 at the end); Michael A. Taylor (.206/.204); and Dominic Fletcher (.231/.188). The trio went 0-for-8 on the day. I was there, section 145, row seven. I saw a bunch of young players sleepwalking over the course of nine innings; I also saw Oriole baserunners steal seven bases. Getz and New-Mickey can spin things all they want. That won’t change the fact this team is three losses short of 100 and next year could be a fourth straight season of 100+ losses

Getting Real

The White Sox had a chance to pull out a game last night against the Orioles. Up until the eighth inning, it was another pathetic effort, with Shane Smith setting the tone in a bad way, giving up six runs on nine hits in 4.1 innings of work. But five runs in the bottom of the eighth pulled the Sox to within a run at 8-7. The bottom of the ninth offered the “core” a chance to show what it could do. With one out, Chase Meidroth collected his second single of the game, bringing up Kyle Teel. The rookie catcher hit his eighth homerun of the season in the first and worked the count to 3-1. Then he struck out on a pitch in his eyes. Up next was Colson Montgomery, who’d struck out twice already. Make that three times, number three on a fastball Montgomery swung through. The 23-year old has now struck out 75 times in 216 at-bats. He’s hitting .095 (2-for-21) over his last seven games, .196 over his last fifteen (10-for-51). Where’s hitting coach Marcus Thames? Teel I’m not too worried about; he admitted after the game to trying to do too much. Everything so far, a .281 BA with 33 RBIs in 224 at-bats suggests he will in fact learn from his failures. That said, I hope Thames or some other coach is there to point out he left a walk on the table with the game on the line. As for Montgomery, I worry all the time. I see the Angels just sent down onetime phenom Scott Kingery. That could be Montgomery in the not-too-distant future if he doesn’t fix his swing. But not to worry. It’s all rainbows and unicorns, or as Sox manager New-Mickey Venable put it in his postgame comments, “Another great example of these guys continuing to battle. Got off to a great start there offensively [the two-run homer by Teel]. Shane did, too. Just as the game went on and they continued to score runs [!!#@!!], our guys continued to battle and it was nice to see us make it interesting.” [quote from today’s Tribune online] They still lost their fifth straight, Skipper.

More...Pathetic

Last night with the score tied at one in the top of the sixth inning with two out and a runner on first base, White Sox manager New-Mickey Venable made a move straight out of the Old-Mickey playbook—he brought in reliever Tyler Alexander. Consider that Alexander sported a 5-14 record with a 5.01 ERA and that he had been scored on in his previous six appearances. No matter. In he went and out went a three-run homerun by Colton Cowser, preceded by a Samuel Basallo single. Basallo went into that at-bat hitting .177, Cowser .197. Both are lefthanded batters. White is a lefthanded pitcher. Orioles 4 Sox 1. I looked for a postgame comment from Venable but couldn’t find one. Maybe words failed him, too.

Pathetic

Guardians’ catcher Bo Naylor entered yesterday’s game against the White Sox batting .183 with 32 RBIs in 326 at-bats. You know what that means, right? In the bottom of the fourth inning with the Sox up 1-0, Naylor hit a two-out, two-run double off starter Yoendrys Gomez. Wait, there’s more. With one out in the seventh and the game tied at two, Naylor homered against reliever Brandon Eisert, who made sure the lefty-lefty matchup didn’t work to his advantage. Final score, Cleveland 3 Chicago 2. The Sox were the most accommodating of visitors, dropping all six games this year at Progressive Field. After the game, Sox manager New-Mickey Venable offered that, “The guys continued to fight and grind. It felt like really all series we had good at-bats where we were making good decisions. Just didn’t really have anything to show for it.” [quote from today’s Tribune story] Words to rebut fail me.

Not Ready for Prime Time

Last night in the bottom of the second inning against the Guardains, White Sox starter Davis Martin gave up a two-run homerun to C.J. Kayfus, who came into the game batting an even .200. Wait, there’s more. In the bottom of the eighth with the Sox down 2-1, Sox reliever Fraser Ellard grooved a pitch to pinch-hitter Jhonkensy Noel. And Noel’s batting average at the time? A less-than-robust .146. That, my friends, is how you lose a game 3-1 and the kind of game you lose on the road to accumulating 92 losses on the season, and counting.

Energy, Talent

This morning, I watched my grandson run around a soccer field. He scored three goals plus an assist (unintended, I think, unless four-year olds really want to pass the ball), showing more energy than the White Sox did last night in Cleveland. Guardians 4 Sox 0. They managed two singles against Tanner Bibee, who came into the game with a 4.69 ERA and came out of it with his first career shutout and second complete game. The Sox won’t beat this kind of pitcher until their lineup stops featuring four starters batting under .240. I include Colson Montgomery (.228) and Miguel Vargas (.233) in that category. Maybe next year they’ll capture some Leo’s energy.

Good News

Four White Sox rookies stepped up yesterday to help take the three-game series against the Rays with a 5-1 win heavy on the contribution of starter Shane Smith. What a story Smith is, the Rule 5 player who made the All-Star team and then looked ready to flame out only to come back strong. Smith had an ERA of 4.26 going into the break. After 5.1 shutout innings yesterday, he’s lowered it to 3.78. The 25-year old righthander has been pretty much lights-out since the start of August. This returns him to “keeper” status in my books. Chase Meidroth? Maybe, maybe not, but he has been on a tear lately, going 13-for-24 over his last seven games. To be truly effective, Meidroth has to get on base and score, as he did yesterday, going 2-for-2 with two walks and a run scored. He’s now hitting .269 on the year with a .348 on-base percentage. The problem here concerns durability and defense. The 24-year old has gotten dinged up a lot over the season, which may or may not affect his play in the field. He’s good on groundballs and double plays, has good range at both second and short but looks to be below-average on anything flared over his head. Did I mention the Sox have a ton of intriguing middle infielders in their system? So many in fact it may affect Colson Montgomery’s future. I’d say our young shortstop is a keeper, but I’m not sure where, exactly. He could stay at short, and that’d be fine. Or he could slide over or try center field in the not-too-distant future; we’ll see. What I can say with certainty is Montgomery delivered yesterday when it counted, with a two-run single in the first inning. He now has a ridiculous 49 RBIs in just 202 at-bats. The .228 BA is nothing to write home about and the 65 strikeouts are a cause for concern, but, still. The 23-year lefthanded hitter old has shown a knack for coming through in the clutch. And his hit yesterday came off a lefty, Ian Seymour, who entered the game with a 2.89 ERA. There is, I think, cause for hope. Ditto with Kyle Teel, whose two-run pinch-hit single in the seventh inning gives him a fairly ridiculous 31 RBIs in 207 at-bats. Oh, and the batting average is an impressive .290. As ever with this rebuild, the question becomes where does Teel play? Somehow, the Sox have ended up with two talented starting catchers, the other being switch-hitting Edgar Quero, and they haven’t shown a willingness to play either Teel or Quero anywhere but catcher and DH. That is less a solution than putting off an inevitable decision. But that’s for another season. Right now, the Sox have some good young players who make the upcoming offseason both tolerable and a little irritating. Why so long until Opening Day, 2026?

Shaky

The White Sox recalled starter Sean Burke from Triple-A yesterday to see if he’s worked out his walk-happiness. Nope. The 25-year old righthander walked four Rays in 4.1 innings of work and was lucky to be charged with only three runs, given that he also coughed up to homeruns. Final score, Sox 6 Rays 5. Which represents good news and troubling news. The good consisted of Lenyn Sosa, him, hitting a two-run double as part of a five-run second inning. The troubling news concerned pitching, and not just Burke. Rookie Grant Taylor entered the ninth in a save situation, only to walk the leadoff batter and leave after one more pitch to the next hitter. Right now, they’re thinking strained right groin. As for prized minor-league starter Noah Schultz, the 22-year old leftie is being shut down to address “continued [right] knee soreness.” No Arizona Fall League for Schultz. And come spring training, who knows? Pitching’s the name of the game. I just wish the Sox had enough of it.

Unhealthy

Tyler Alexander’s pitch to the Rays’ Tristan Gray in the top of the seventh inning last night wasn’t so much fat as obese. Never mind lefty on lefty. The 29-year old Gray smashed a 92.2 mph “blah” fastball into the right field stands for the difference maker last night. Rays 5 White Sox 4. For Christmas, I’d like to have a bullpen that’s actually good. But there were positives, like Kyle Teel clearing the fence in dead center field for his seventh homerun of the season and Colson Montgomery driving in a run with a double instead of a homer, for a change. And Lenyn Sosa, my favorite problem, went 2-for-4 with a run scored. Maybe I should get my eyes checked. The glass almost looks half-full.

All in a Row

The Bears had all their ducks lined up in a row—stories about the Arlington Heights stadium flooded local media; new head coach Ben Johnson had generated plenty of buzz; the team pulled on all available heat strings with a pregame tribute to the late Virginia McCaskey and the ’85 Bears (yet again and again until they’re all gone, and then some more, I’m sure). The one thing Kevin Warren and Ryan Poles didn’t attend to was preventing a fourth-quarter collapse to the Vikings, who scored three late touchdowns to win, 27-24. Not that man-in-the-street interviews are in any way accurate, but, still, I was struck by the number of fans who expressed misgivings about a move out of the city. Probably the best way to address that would’ve been for the team to announce how much personal seat licenses will cost in the best stadium ever designed for a loyal fan base. Just kidding.

Repeat

Let me repeat: What do you do with a problem like Lenyn (Sosa)? The answer matters. Yesterday in Detroit, Sosa hit a 451-foot, game-tying homerun in the third inning before singling in two go-ahead runs in the eighth, giving the White Sox a 6-4 win and the series against the Tigers. In their last seven wins, six on the road, the Sox have come from behind in all seven games. Back to Sosa. In a postgame interview, the 25-year old admitted he was most comfortable at second base but added he was getting accustomed to playing first. Second would seem to belong to Chase Meidroth or one of the talented middle infielders presently at High-A and Double-A. If Sosa moves to first, what happens to Miguel Vargas? Is he the answer at third? GM Chris Getz and manager New-Mickey Venable are going to have to make a decision. Me, I like Sosa’s offense; as the saying goes, he’s clutch. And he does seem to be getting better at first base. Why not leave him there for the rest of the season? If he cracks 70 RBIs (right now he’s at 65), it will show just how good an offensive player he is and indicate what he can be. After that, decide. But if they do trade the righthanded-hitting Sosa, try to get equal value in return, unlike, say, Gavin Sheets or Andrew Vaughn.

Two Questions Worth Asking

The game was over as soon as White Sox starter Martin Perez threw his second pitch in the bottom of the first, which Jahmai Jones promptly hit over the left-field wall. Tigers 6 Sox 0. To say that Tigers’ starter Tarik Skubal dominated would be a gross understatement. The 28-year old lefty went seven innings, giving up two hits and a walk while fanning six. The win gives Skubal a 13-4 record with a 2.10 ERA, stats that could earn him a second consecutive Cy Young Award. Which got me wondering. Would the White Sox consider going after Skubal, a free agent after next season? Would they pay to keep one of their own pitchers with Skubal-level talent? Holy Mark Buehrle, I don’t think so.

Streakin'

The White Sox made it six straight wins, all come from behind, by beating the Tigers 7-5 last night at Comerica Park. Talk about a change in fortune. The Sox lost ta one-run lead in the fourth inning, when two runs scored on a Shane Smith wild pitch. Smith bounced a pitch a good ten feet in front of the plate that catcher Kyle Teel deflected up with his glove. Pitcher and catcher collided trying to field the ball in the air. Pitcher and catcher both looked to be down for the count. But, no. Smith finished the inning and one more after that. Last season, both players would be headed for the IL, and the Sox would’ve lost, either 4-3 or 100-3, whichever struck the Almighty’s fancy. Something’s changed. Did I mention Colson Montgomery? I do all the time, usually with a note of concern attached. None of that off the rookie’s most recent performance, 2-for-4 with two runs scored and four RBIs, two on a seventh-inning line-drive homerun that gave the Sox a 7-4 cushion. Montgomery now has 46 RBIs in 185 at-bats. Not bad. Maybe he can get more and the Sox a seventh straight win.

Another Painful Admission

As much as it pains me to admit (and trust me, it pains me a whole lot), new White Sox manager New-Mickey Venable is not an entirely hopeless case. He has a knack for the unexpected, like last night when he batted his two rookie catchers at the top of the order. How did that work out? Well, Edgar Quero went 3-for-5 DH’ing in the leadoff spot with a double and two runs scored while Kyle Teel followed with a 3-for-5 night of his own with four RBIs, three coming on a game-tying homerun in the seventh inning. Sox 11 Twins 8. The two rookies I’m most concerned about also chipped in, Colson Montgomery with a monster 454-foot shot good for two runs in the ninth and Chase Meidroth with four hits. Montgomery needs to make regular contact and Meidroth, contact that eludes the opposition. Montgomery can’t be hitting .227 this time next year or Meidroth .258. But you take the hopeful signs and see what happens in the offseason. Right now, I’d have to say there’s not much good Jonathan Cannon will be taking from this year. Called up to pitch as long as he could in the series finale, Cannon struggled to last 2.1 inning, yielding five earned runs on five hits and two walks. I think it’s a head thing with the 25-year old righthander. Either he figures things out, or one of those talented starters in the minors will take his spot in the rotation come spring. The Sox have now won five in a row, all come from behind. Who’ve thought it? And sweeping the Twins four games on the road. That, my friends, has never been done since Harmon Killebrew and company decamped from D.C. in 1961. So, if that feat is possible, why not a Friday-night win in Detroit? A guy can dream.

Painful to Admit

It pains me to admit that the White Sox won their fourth straight game last night, 4-3 over the Twins at Target Field, in large part due to the effort of two of my least favorite players, Michael A. Taylor and Jordan Leasure. But that’s what happened. With two on and two out in the top of the ninth, Brooks Baldwin blooped a broken-bat single to right, good for a run. That put runners on the corners, until Baldwin stole second with Taylor up. Twins’ reliever Justin Topa made Taylor look sad swinging at two straight sweepers that broke well out of the strike zone. Too bad for Topa he couldn’t do it a third time. Somehow, Taylor laid off the next two sweepers, both pretty much where the earlier two were. Then came sweeper #5, right over the plate. Taylor, who at that point was 0-for-3 on the night with two strikeouts, turned on the pitch, lining it down the left-field line, on the line in fact, a double plating two runs. Wait, there’s more. That was in the person of Leasure, who gave up a leadoff double to Byron Buxton followed by a walk to Trevor Larnach. Leasure induced the next two batters to hit shallow flyouts to left, requiring Andrew Benintendi to run in for the catch both times. That made it two out and two on for catcher Ryan Jeffers, 3-for-4 on the night with a run scored. Lo and behold, Jeffers grounded out to third. Sox win, Sox win. They hadn’t come back to win a game when trailing in the ninth since August 6, 2023, in Cleveland. That’s a span of 205 games. My problem with the two players who broke that streak is purely performance-related. Taylor is hitting .205 on the season and hadn‘t driven in a run since August 9. Leasure can either be very good or very bad out of the pen. Average it out, and he has a 4.08 ERA. At 34, Taylor may not be back for a second year with the Sox. He’s a plus-outfielder and a very good interview; I can still remember him from the 2019 postseason, when he helped the Nationals win their first and so far only World Series; Leasure is less articulate but just as sincere. So, hats off to both. Now, do it again.

Hitting on All Six

Hitting, pitching and defense, oh, my. White Sox 12 Twins 3 The last time he started, Martin Davis pitched scared, or so I thought. Last night, he did OK+, allowing three runs in six innings for the win, his sixth this season. Two more, please. If Martin keeps getting a 7-5 double play in support, it just may happen. As to hitting, where to start? Probably best to go with Andrew Benintendi, who hit two homeruns, collected four hits and drove in five. Youngsters Kyle Teel and Lenyn Sosa also homered, going back-to-back in the seventh inning. Now, for two other kids. With the Sox down 3-1 and two on nobody out in the fifth, Bryan Ramos doubled in both runners. Definitely more, please. In addition to Ramos delighting, Brooks Baldwin went 3-for-4 with a walk, run scored and RBI. That’s what I’m talking about, Brooks. Nothing says commitment like going 16-for-48 over your last fifteen games. Next, the near-impossible—three straight at Target Field.

When

One of the few intelligent comments ever spoken by “Hawk” Harrelson went along the lines of: It’s not only who you play but when you play ’em. From there it’s a short distance to: It’s not only what you hit but when you hit it. Take yesterday’s 6-5 White Sox win over the Twins. Colson Montgomery homered, again, so, Yea! But it was a solo shot in the second inning. With two on and two out in the seventh, Montgomery struck out. A three-run homer beats a solo job in my book. Montgomery is going to get the benefit of the doubt given his production so far and his standing as a, if not the, cornerstone in this latest Sox rebuild. And, yes, he deserves it. But also consider Brooks Baldwin, on the periphery of the rebuild unless and until he’s gets his batting average in the vicinity of .280. After his two doubles yesterday, Baldwin has 42 points to go. But consider that his leadoff double in the fifth led to a run and his two-out double in the eighth scored the tying run; Baldwin then scored the go-ahead run on Mike Tauchman’s double. The 25-year old utility player was at least a little bit clutch, I’d say. With Luis Robert Jr. on the IL and Michael A. Taylor batting a mere .204, Baldwin has a chance to make a case for himself in this last month of the season. That works for me.

The Two that Count

The White Sox managed five hits against the Yankees yesterday; the back-to-back doubles by Curtis Mead and Will Robertson qualify as unlikely-to-be-repeated flukes. And forget the first-inning single by Lenyn Sosa. What counted were the solo shots by Colson Montgomery in the sixth and Sosa in the eighth. White Sox 3 Yankees 2. Montgomery has fifteen homeruns to go with a .224 BA. All you can do is wonder and hope, that he stays healthy; that he learns plate discipline; that he can hit singles and doubles as well as homers. With Sosa , it’s more about wondering. Two years older than the 23-year old Montgomery, Sosa is a more mature hitter, which isn’t to say that his sixteen homers, 61 RBIs and .269 BA represent a ceiling. I can see 25 homers and a .275 BA within reach if he gets hot in September. Sosa could easily knock in 80 or more runs on a good team. Where does he play? First, second, third? Who does he play for, given the preponderance of middle infielders among top Sox prospects? Something to ponder come the offseason.

This is What Happens

What happens when a baseball team can‘t do any better than promote a retread like Will Robertson from its minor-league system and inserts him in the lineup against the Yankees? He goes 0-for-5, which puts him at 1-for-23 on the season, 0-for-13 with the White Sox. Oh, and the Sox lose for a third straight time to the Yankees, 5-3 in eleven innings. What happens when you bring in a retread like Tyler Alexander to pitch the eleventh inning? He gives up three runs to take the loss and put his record at 4-13 with a 4.88 ERA. But, hey, Alexander is 1-8 with a 3.88 ERA in 23 games for the Sox. What happens when you hire someone like New-Mickey Venable to manage a major-league team? He guides them to a 48-88 record after 136 games—hey, that’s seventeen games better than last season!—and says after the latest loss, “It’s a tough one, no doubt about it. These guys battle and put themselves in a really good spot to win that ballgame and just came up short.” As in going 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position. What happens when you hire someone like Venable? He looks at yet another example of offensive ineptitude and says something like, “We just have to make good swing decision and use the middle of the field. Each guy in different situations is going to attack differently. At the end of the day, you have to shorten up, put the ball in play and use the whole field.” [both quotes in today’s Tribune story online] Move over, Casey Stengel. There’s a new “perfessor” in town. With the reincarnation of those early Mets’ teams now playing on the South Side, nothing could be more fitting.

Look Away

There was no ballgame at the Rate last night, not in any real sense. But it definitely was an embarrassment, Yankees 10 Hapless Sox 2. How embarrassing? How about the nine walks issued by Sox pitchers, five of which scored, or a call of catcher’s interference, also which scored? Or the regression of rookies like Tim Elko (0-for-4 with two strikeouts subbing for an injured Miguel Vargas) and Grant Taylor (four batters faced; two walks; two singles; three runs allowed)? Or the continued inanity of a manager who praises the other team? I don’t care if the Yankees “make really good swing decisions.” [online story today on Tribune website] For some unknown reason, though, I do care about this team. And with each loss, it’s becoming painfully obvious the leader in the dugout this season is just as clueless as the leader in the dugout last season was.

When It Rains...

For reasons that escape me, the White Sox are enamored of infielder Curtis Mead, acquired in the trade for pitcher Adrian Houser. Mead is 14-for-56 with his new team, thirteen of those hits being singles. And yet he plays over the likes of Tim Elko and Bryan Ramos. In the fifth inning last night, Mead airmailed a throw from third base that took his first baseman into the path of runner Aaron Judge trying to beat out a grounder Mead’s way. The first baseman happened to be Miguel Vargas, who’d hit his first career grand slam in the second inning. Maybe Vargas doesn’t have a broken wrist or even a sprained one. And maybe Luis Robert Jr. will come back from his hamstring injury before the end of the season, and maybe Colson Montgomery’s aching left side will allow him to play tonight. And maybe the bullpen won’t give up six runs like it did last night in a 10-4 Yankees’ win. And maybe New-Mickey Venable will stop managing scared. But I have my doubts.

Stupid Is...

Pitching Aaron Civale, who fell apart in the fifth inning last night against the Royals, giving up five runs; Civale is now 2-7 with a 5.37 ERA in thirteen starts with the White Sox. Or then relieving Civale with Tyler Gilbert, who proceeded to give up six runs in .1 inning of work. Or then pitching Mike Vasil for two innings with the score 11-1 Kansas City. Talk about the return of Mickey Mouse. Sox manager New-Mickey Venable didn’t see fit to use Vasil—now with a 2.38 ERA—in the eighth inning Tuesday night with the Sox up 4-0 but wastes him the next night down by ten runs. And with the Yankees coming to down tonight, Venable should’ve gone with Vasil Tuesday and rested him yesterday. Stupid is as stupid does. Royals 12 Sox 1.

Crash and Burn

Last night, White Sox starter Martin Perez threw seven innings of one-hit shutout ball against the Royals; he left with a 4-0 lead the bullpen turned into a 5-4 loss. Somebody needs to teach manager New-Mickey Venable how to handle a pen. You know who Venable brought in to start the eighth, right? Good ol’ Jordan Leausre, who needed 26 pitches to record two outs. Unfortunately, Leasure also gave up two singles and a walk. Enter Grant Taylor. A two-run single by Maikel Garcia followed shortly thereafter. Back out for the ninth, Taylor loaded the bases on three singles, one out. Venable then switched to lefty Tyler Alexander, who promptly gave up a two-run single to lefthand-hitting Michael Massey. Wait, there’s more. Alexander then hit lefthand-hitting Adam Frazier to load the bases. Still more. Alexander then gave the go-ahead single to Kyle Isbel on a 1-2 count. So, Alexander failed to get out any of the three lefty hitters he faced. Way. To. Go. Colson Montgomery hit a homerun in his fourth consecutive game, and Kyle Teel collected three more hits. None of it mattered, though, because Venable didn’t know which pitcher to put in when.

As Simple as One, Two, Three

The White Sox won their third straight game last night, 7-0 against the visiting Royals. You guessed it, they followed that can’t-lose recipe of pitching, hitting and defense. Starter Shane Smith looked like the pitcher he was the first 2-1/2 months of the season, throwing seven shutout innings, allowing just one hit and a walk. Simply put, Smith attacked, with 21 first-pitch strikes against the 23 KC batters he faced. He also struck out three, which means his performance was double old-school. In other words, Smith induced weak contact his defense was able to handle for outs. I’ve been on the fence all year about Miguel Vargas, and still am. I’ll jump on the bandwagon if he can add fourteen points to his batting average and end the season at .250. But I will say this regardless—the man hustles out of the box. That mentality turned two singles into two doubles. More, please. What do you do with a problem like Lenyn Sosa? Enjoy him, if only in the short term. Last night, Sosa went 2-fpr-4 with two run-scoring singles, giving him 59 RBIs on the season. And to think that two years ago, he looked utterly lost at the plate. More recently, Brooks Baldwin did too, until the end of July, Since then, he’s added 21 points to his batting average, which is what going 17-for-56 in August will do. Last night, Baldwin followed Korey Lee’s two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth with a solo shot of his own. Wait, there’s more. Playing left field in the top of the fifth, Balwin raced into foul territory to retire Adam Frazier on a sliding, cleats-into-the-wall catch. More, please, even though you can never get enough of that kind of thing.

Ask and You Shall Receive

Holy-moly, the White Sox did it for two straight games, employing pitching, hitting and defense to take the rubber game against the Twins, 8-0. Kyle Teel had three singles and two RBIs as the DH while Edgar Quero did the catching, and some hitting of his own, with two singles and three RBIs. And then we have the curious/hopeful case of Colson Montgomery, who missed his chance at hitting grand slams in two consecutive games when he flied out to right field with the bases loaded in the bottom of the first. Did I mentioned Montgomery hit a two-run homerun in the second? Luis Robert Jr. collected a single and run scored, which was OK, but his defense, oh my. Robert made two run-denying, diving catches. The one in the fifth inning was especially impressive, as he raced hard into left-center to make a backhand grab. Are you going to be able to replace this level of defense, Chris Getz? Think long and hard before you move this guy, who finally seems comfortable with the team around him. Starter Yoendrys Gomez also seemed comfortable, throwing 4.2 innings of shutout ball for what would’ve been his third win for the Sox, who picked up the 25-year old righthander on waivers from the Dodgers back in May. Other pitchers find success by switching from starting to relieving; Gomez is trying to go in the opposite direction. The Sox have won all three games he’s started. Why isn’t he 3-0 for his new team? No one knows because no one asked manager New-Mickey Venable on why he pulled Gomez, one out short of qualifying for the win. Gomez didn’t mention an injury in his postgame comments, and Venable didn’t say anything, either. God bless Ozzie Guillen for calling out the Sox beat writers for not asking Venable to explain. You gotta love the guy.

A Simple Formula

Pitching, hitting, defense—do that, and you win games. White Sox 7 Twins 3. Davis Martin had another pretty good start, pitching five innings of two-run ball. For once, the bullpen didn’t collapse, and the defense avoided making any errors while turning a double play. Davis aided his cause by scattering five hits and walking one Twin while striking out six. He also picked a runner off of first. More, please. Ditto the hitting, where Colson Montgomery went 2-for-4 with a grand slam. Miguel Vargas chipped in with a double, a run and an RBI on a 2-for-3 night, a performance slightly better than The Enigma’s. Luis Robert Jr. went 2-for-4 with a solo shot and his 33rd stolen base of the year. Why can’t they play like this all the time? I guess that’s like asking, who wrote the book of love?

Better Late than Never

Well, the White Sox finally got around to DFAing Josh Rojas, he of the .180 BA in 189 at-bats. Maybe next, GM Chris Getz will clean house with the pitching staff. Nothing says “loss” like Aaron Civale walking two Twins before giving up a grand slam with two outs in the fourth inning to Royce Lewis or Brandon Eisert allowing two runs in an inning of “work.” Twins 9 Sox 7. The good news, I guess, is the hitting returned. Kyle Teel went 2-for-4 with an RBI and run scored while Lenyn Sosa had two hits and two RBIs, as did Colson Montgomery, who scored two runs on a double and two-run homer. So goes Montgomery, so goes the rebuild. That and the pitching.

Batting Practice

Another visit from my grandson, another session of batting practice in the backyard. “Grandpa, let’s play baseball,” followed by a poke in the stomach with a wiffle-ball bat. Charming child. Again, I can’t get over how different Leo is to his mom at the same age. With four-year old Clare, the higher the pitch the better, which explains why a parent in college offered to buy her a ladder for when she hit. With her four-year old son, nothing above the belt, please. The lower the pitch, the more contact he makes. The one thing son and mother have in common is the ability to pull inside pitches. The boy is half-Yogi Berra, half-Paul Konerko. Leo put a whole bunch of balls into the yard next door. He’s going to start t-ball in the spring. That should be interesting.

What Bad Teams Do

The White Sox found a different way to lose last night—Colson Montgomery mishandled a semi-tough groundball to let in a run. Final score: Braves 1 Sox 0. Lose. It’s what bad teams do. Gone was the hitting of the two nights previous. The Sox managed all of four singles, and only one from anyone close to a core player, Brooks Baldwin. It would’ve been nice had one of the other guys stepped up, but they didn’t. If only the bullpen could’ve tallieed 1.2 innings of scoreless work the on Tuesday like they did Wednesday. The real concern is Montgomery, and not because of the error; another scorer might’ve given Ozzie Albies a hit. It’s the hitting, or lack thereof, that concerns me. After going 0-for-3, Montgomery lowered his overall average to .215; .111 over his last seven games; and .170 over his last fifteen. He says he’s making adjustments, and I hope they work. Otherwise, this bad team will keep finding ways to lose.

Mission Accomplished

Monday night, the White Sox bullpen nearly blew a nine-run lead. Last night, they gave away a 10-4 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh. Braves 11 Sox 10. After the game, manager New-Mickey Venable blamed himself. “It’s my job to put these guys in position to succeed and just haven’t been able to do it the last two nights. So that’s on me,” Venable told reporters. “[I have to] Reflect on what we could have done better from my end.” [quote in today’s story on team website] Yeah, reflect as in, why am I saddled with these guys? Consider: Tyler Gilbert, .1 inning, two earned runs on two hits; Elvis Peguero, two earned runs on a hit and two walks; Tyler Alexander, .2 innings, two earned runs on two hits and two walks. Maybe pitching coach Ethan Katz could remind his charges there’s not defending a walk. Or GM Chris Getz might consider calling up some of those promising relievers he seems to be sitting on. I won’t hold my breath. On a positive note, Kyle Teel continued his tear, with a double and homerun to go with four RBIs while Miguel Vargas chipped in with two hits, a walk and three runs scored. Core-wise, Brooks Baldwin; Chase Meidroth; Edgar Quero; and Lenyn Sosa each had a hit and a run, with Sosa also tallying an RBI. The enigma known as Luis Robert Jr. had himself a bases-clearing double good for three RBIs. But what difference does it make if you’re content with a mediocre—or worse—bullpen? A loss is a loss.

Problems Good and Bad

The White Sox beat the Braves last night, 13-9. Yea. That said, there were all sorts of problems on display. Let’s start with the good ones. Lenyn Sosa homered for the third time in four games. He also had four RBIs, giving him 54 on the season. But where does he fit in long-term? Of the Sox top-30 prospects, sixteen are position players, ten of them infielders. Of that number, eight are listed as playing shortstop and/or second base. Is Sosa better than all of them? Should he be traded in the offseason? Or do you move him to first? I don’t know. Kyle Teel had four hits on the night, including his third homerun. Is he your #1 catcher, or Edgar Quero? Do you keep both, or trade one? If trading, which one? What would a trade of one of them plus Sosa bring back in return? Brooks Baldwin homered, scored two runs and walked three times, all at the bottom of the order. Baldwin is batting .318 (14-for-44 with three homers) over his last fourteen games. The 25-year old switch-hitter has played six positions so far this season, which right now qualifies him as a poor-man’s Ben Zobrist. Will GM Chris Getz and his manager see the value of that? Now, for the bad problems, as in starting and relief pitching. Sean Burke got sent down to Triple-A Charlotte, where he joins Jonathan Cannon, who’s been pretty mediocre in two starts there. All of a sudden, the rotation features Aaron Civale and Martin Perez. Nothing special there. Why not bring up people from Double-A Birmingham or Charlotte? I mean, other than Owen White? C’mon, four runs in .1 inning. Again, nothing special. It’s odd that an organization with a boatload of minor-league relievers having career years won’t bring any of them up. Now, for last problem, Colson Montgomery. Good news—he looks really good at shortstop and third base. Bad news—he’s hitting .148 over his last seven games, .167 over his last fifteen. Those are concerning numbers. The good news is the rookie doesn’t have a long swing or chase all that much, though he does have 42 strikeouts in 132 at-bats. He’s not chasing after pitches so much as he is swinging through them. Which is what Brooks Baldwin was doing until about seven weeks ago. Brooks, talk to Colson, tell him what adjustments you made to get back on track. That could take care of a big problem.

Anyone Home?

Maybe White Sox pitching coach Ethan Katz was all tired out from guiding starter Travis Martin through six innings of one-hit, shutout ball, or maybe hitting coach Marcus Thames could only focus on Brooks Baldwin, who went 3-for-4 on a very hot afternoon in Kansas City. In which case, too bad. The Sox needed nine outs for a 2-0 win. Instead, they got a 6-2 loss, their fourteenth straight at Kauffman Stadium and eleventh loss in their last thirteen games overall. Steve Wilson surrendered a game-tying, two-run homerun with two outs in the seventh. Grant Taylor followed, giving up the go-ahead run with two outs in the eighth, followed by another. Jordan Leasure entered with one on and promptly served up a two-run shot. Damned if I could see any coaching or coach at work in all that. Ditto the hitting, which went 1-for-8 with RISP. Baldwin doubled with two outs and a runner on in the eighth, only Chase Meidroth found a way not to score. What do you say about that, Skipper? “Not sure if he scores there, but that’s really besides the point. In that situation, process-wise, we have to be in tune with the situation.” [quote from story today in the Tribune] Huh? If New-Mickey Venable spoke in plain English, he might say, “Meidroth screwed up there. We always want to force the issue with a chance to score the go-ahead run in late innings.” That’s what a real manager would say, no?

Two Clown Shows

The Savannah Bananas took the South Side by storm Friday and Saturday, drawing over 80,000 fans for two games at The Rate. Part Indianapolis Clowns, part Harlem Globetrotters and part whatever it is they are, the Bananas featured guest appearances from Mark Buehrle; Ozzie Guillen; Paul Konerko; and A.J. Pierzynski. Talk about smart marketing. Over in Kansas City, the White Sox put on their own clown show Saturday night, losing for the thirteenth straight time at Kauffman Stadium, 6-2. And by clown show I mean starter Sox starter Sean Burke fielding a comebacker for a potential double play and then throwing the ball into center field. Burke failed to get through the fourth inning, again. And by clown show I mean playing people like Tyler Alexander, Mike Tauchman and Michael A. Taylor, who won’t or shouldn’t be around beyond this season. And by clown show I mean manager New-Mickey Venable putting a shine on things, as he always does. Wait till next year, or whenever.

A Waste

The White Sox lost to the Royals last night, 3-1, their twelfth straight loss at Kauffman Stadium. The visitors haven’t won there in close to two years. Here’s what I don’t get. Manager New-Mickey Venable used fourteen players on the night, yet only five of them could be considered part of the rebuild. That doesn’t include Luis Robert Jr., because the Sox have no idea what to do with him. Is Curtis Mead part of the rebuild? Mike Tauchman or Michael A. Taylor? Aaron Civale or Brandon Eisert or Steven Wilson? If not, then why did they play? Anybody with a heartbeat should be up from Charlotte. Beyond that, Double-A Birmingham is 68-44; the Barons’ pitching staff leads the Southern Association with a 2.78 ERA. Not Civale, Eisert and Wilson but Murphy (1.32 ERA); Palisch (1.68); McDougal (1.94); and Dalquist (2.09). Notice that I didn’t even mention Hagen Smith or Noah Schultz in this groups. But what do I know?

Won't Get Fooled Again

The signs looked good—the Hollies’ “Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress” the first song we heard on our way to our seats right behind the Sox dugout. Then a little bit of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck,” just enough to get me feeling like one of the Winchester boys on the hunt for demons. Or maybe Detroit Tigers. Another good sign—the last time Clare and I went to a White Sox-Tigers’ game at the ball-mall Daniel Palka and Matt Davidson hit ninth-inning homers to win it. Why couldn’t magic repeat? A 1-0 Detroit lead going into the bottom of the ninth. If one Sox batter reached base, Colson Montgomery would’ve batted. No such luck. A very sad comebacker, strikeout and flyout gave the visitors the series’ win. The Sox got all of two hits. Talk about lethargic, I don’t care how much praise Sox manager New Mickey Venable heaped on Tigers’ starter Troy Melton, and it was a lot. His team looked like it was going through the motions at the plate. I will say this about Montgomery, who went 0-for-3 on the day: The kid looks like he can play shortstop. Twice he made strong throws on grounders to get the runner, once from deep short. If he can hit .250 with the power he’s shown, I’ll be happy. Enough to go to another game? I don’t know. I’m at that point in life where the little stuff is starting to bother me big time—beef sandwich race on the scoreboard; challenging a fan to get the ball in cup more times than Lenyn Sosa could over the course of a minute that felt endless; t-shirts tossed into the crowd as if we’re a bunch of seals performing for fish. Just play winning baseball, for God’s sakes.

More Good than Bad

The final score should’ve been White Sox 9 Tigers 3, or 9-1, even, depending on Luis Robert Jr.’s ability to take away two homeruns. But I’ll settle for a final score of 9-6, my guys. Kyle Teel and Edgar Quero combined for five hits and four RBIs, definitely nice to see, along with a two-run single from Colson Montgomery on a 1-2 pitch from usual Sox-killer Jack Flaherty. Yoendrys Gomez came out of nowhere, or at least Charlotte, to pick up the win with five innings of one-run ball while Jordan Leasure picked up his fourth save. Words fail me there.

More of the Same

Another game, another homerun from Colson Montgomery, another loss for the White Sox, 2-1 to the visiting Tigers. This script needs tweaking. At least now I have a clue to Montgomery’s recent success. When he went Triple-A Charlotte to Arizona for his reset, he worked on “trying to keep the ball kind of low to the ground, line drives and things like that. Some of my cues in the cage, I’m trying to hit a low line drive to the shortstop. Keeps me tighter to the ball. Not really a normal home run swing.” Montgomery thinks this matters because “A lot of the hitters can tell you if they tried doing homerun swings, it’s probably not going to work.” Young Grasshopper added, “The biggest thing is not trying to do too much.” [quotes from today’s story on team website] My only question is, why didn’t the Sox try a similar approach with Tim Elko? I mean, the guy bootstrapped himself up through the minor-league system to dominate at Triple-A. He appears to be a plus defender at first and a good teammate. Am I missing something here, or does Chris Getz have access to a Paul Konerko clone ready to unveil next year? Curious minds want to know.

Poetry

In the bottom of the first inning in yesterday’s 6-4 White Sox win over the Guardians, rookie shortstop Colson Montgomery crushed a ball 452 feet back to the last row of seats in right field at the old ball-mall. Starting pitcher Davis Martin described what he saw as “beautiful, man, just beautiful. It's something about a lefty swing. Sitting on the bench, we were in the middle of our in-between meeting, and you just hear crack, and you just see everybody's head rip up and we're just like, 'Oh my God, that ball's destroyed.'” [quote from story today on team website] I second that emotion. This is one of the reasons I like Martin—he’s articulate and, in his own way, unfiltered, which means he comes from the Ozzie Guillen School of Speaking. If he can become as good a pitcher as Guillen was a player, so much the better. As for Montgomery, I wish to God someone would explain to me how this transformation has come to be. We’re talking about someone who hit .244 his one season in Double-A ball and .214 his one full season at Triple-A Charlotte, along with .218 this year. So far, the 23-year old lefthanded hitter is batting .238 in 105 at-bats. That comes with nine homeruns; fifteen runs scored; and 25 RBIs. It took Montgomery fifteen games to hit his first big-league homer; he’s hit eight in the sixteen games since. Those numbers suggest the ability to adjust. At least I hope they do. Lest I forget, Lenyn Sosa also homered and drove in three runs. What do you do with a problem like Lenyn? One way or another, we’ll find out.

Crash and Burn

So much for that surge coming out of the All Star Game. After falling to the Guardians 3-1 last night, the White Sox have themselves a six-game losing streak to go with a 42-75 record, which ties a season-worst 33 games under .500. Losing pitcher Sean Burke needed 88 pitches to go 3.1 innings. To call that unacceptable would be one of the great understatements of the year. Right now, a young pitching staff looks more green than promising. Jordan Leasure has been pretty good lately, getting his ERA close to under 4.00, but you have to wonder how long that will last. As for the young position players, ditto. Edgar Quero suddenly looks lost at the plate, and Kyle Teel hasn’t been much better. Shortstop Colson Montgomery stands 6’3”; the last thing you want to see is him expanding his strike zone, but that’s what he’s doing. Dog days, indeed.

Hold that Plane

Yesterday, the White Sox did something both simple and smart—making it doubly surprising—when they sent down starter Jonathan Cannon to Triple-A Charlotte in order for him to figure things out (or else). They may want to give Cannon a travelling companion after what Aaron Civale did last night against the Guardians. I’d call nine earned runs in 3.1 innings demotion-worthy, but, again, I’m a mere fan. However, long-ago injured Martin Perez had a rehab start last night in Double-A that wasn’t bad (four innings, one run), so at least there’s a chance of swapping one veteran pitcher for another. I mean, a guy can dream, right? After all, Brooks Baldwin homered in last night’s 9-5 loss, and he’s playing again tonight. That would suggest at least some dreams come true.

Spinning Wheels

Bryan Ramos made a brutal error yesterday in Seattle, throwing away a bunt attempt in the tenth inning that allowed the Mariners to tie the score before winning 4-3 in eleven innings. No, wait. Ramos is still exiled in Triple-A Charlotte. That was Josh Rojas who airmailed his throw to first. If we’re in a rebuild, I’d rather have the 23-year old making the error than the 31-year old. But what do I know?

Unflattering Imitation

Jonathan Cannon pitched last night just like Davis Martin did the night before, only worse. Cannon couldn’t make it out of the second inning, giving up seven runs, all earned, on four hits and three walks. Nothing like seeing those three walks all score. Final Score: Mariners 8 Sox 6. With the loss, Cannon’s record stands at 4-9 with a 5.34 ERA. The Sox actually have a lot of pitching talent coming up, and not all of it included on their top-30 list (e.g., Riley Gowens and Shane Murphy). If Cannon can’t turn it around, the rotation next year won’t lack for alternatives. Despite the hole Cannon dug, his teammates nearly came back, putting the tying runs on base with nobody out in the ninth against closer Andres Munoz, who’d already given up a long ball to Michael A. Taylor. Munoz came into the game with a 1.26 ERA. He departed with his 26th save and a 1.43 ERA. Oh, well. Two ripples of silver lining—Lenyn Sosa homered again, and Brooks Baldwin went 1-for-3 with a run scored. Baldwin also worked the count for a walk against Munoz, no small feat that. In a real stunner of a move, manager New-Mickey Venable has Baldwin penciled in again today. Wonders never cease.

Or Not

Maybe I gave Chris Getz too much credit for a growing interest in winning games this year as opposed to seasons down the line. In other words, Mariners 8 Sox 3. Sox starter Davis Martin has an irritating—and career threatening—habit of alternating unhittable pitches with godawful fat ones, oftentimes in the same at-bat. We are not amused. Then, there’s the case of Josh Rojas, the new Jacob Amaya. Rojas is hitting .174 in 184 at-bats. Last night, he went 0-for-2 (plus a walk) while making an error at second base that came around to score on a Josh Naylor—him, again—homerun. In what world does Rojas play ahead of Bryan Ramos? I’d like to see what Ramos could’ve done in a game like the one last night. Lenyn Sosa—him, again—hit a first-inning homer against winning pitcher Bryan Woo. Then, nothing happened until the ninth, when Luis Robert Jr. and Colson Montgomery went back-to-back for the other two runs. Ramos brings youth; energy; power; and a decent glove, not unlike Montgomery. You’d think a rebuilding team would want all the players it could get with those attributes. Yes, Chris?

Message Unspoken, Still Sent

The Chicago sports’ universe is all agog over the training-camp travails of Bears’ quarterback Caleb “Oops” Williams. The White Sox are lucky to get what coverage they do. So, nobody has really paid much if any attention to what happened, or didn’t, at the trade deadline last week—Luis Robert Jr. stayed put. Consider the implications. First, there’s someone in the outfield who can catch the ball. Nothing breaks the spirit of a pitcher, especially a young pitcher of which the Sox have a staff full, than watching balls that can be caught fall in for base hits. And nothing buoys a pitcher like seeing a centerfielder save one or multiple runs with a Gold Glove-worthy catch. Yes, the Sox could still move Robert in the offseason or decline his $20 million team option. But the first would be a studied, not a rushed, transaction while the latter appears increasingly unlikely. This is where the deep-pockets’ presence of investor-cum-future-owner Justin Ishbia comes into play. The Sox no longer need to cry poor—if they ever did need to—with Ishbia around. Something else worth noting here—by keeping Robert, GM Chris Getz signaled the rebuild has entered a new phase. The stockpiling of young players is no longer a major focus. Of course, the draft still matters, only now the team doesn’t need to lose to secure a good sport in the draft. Getz and company appear confident they can spot the talent, regardless draft position or round. Winning games is back on the agenda. Happy days are here again.

Still Bad, But--

Sorry. A good team doesn’t blow a 5-0 lead going into the sixth inning, only to lose on a three-run walk-off in the bottom of the ninth. Angels 8 White Sox 5. Bye-bye, sweep. What makes it all so frustrating—and/or promising—is that Colson Montgomery drove in four of the Sox runs, three on a homer of his own in the first inning, followed by an RBI single in the third. The rookie did his mashing from the five-spot in the order, the highest he’s batted so far in his 25-game major-league career. Is it too early to let go of my concerns about Montgomery? Maybe, maybe not, though seven homers and 23 RBIs in 86 at-bats make it hard not to think the pride of Holland, Indiana, has figured things out. We’ll see, just like with second-year man Brooks Baldwin, who went 3-for-4 with two singles and a double yesterday. Too bad Baldwin was batting ahead of Josh Rojas. Who knows how many runs he might’ve scored otherwise. Baldwin is six for his last seven at-bats over three games, all of which suggests he’ll see more playing time with Miguel Vargas going on the IL with an oblique strain. The switch-hitting utility player has raised his average 26 points, to .239. Baldwin sought help in slowing the game down, and the results are plain to see. That’s the kind of stuff that keeps a Sox fan from going totally nuts, along with Montgomery driving in runs. More, please, guys.

The Twilight Zone

It’s official—with their 1-0 win over the Angels in Anaheim last night, the White Sox have entered that place known as the Twilight Zone. Let me be your host. Consider the case of one Aaron Civale, a journeyman pitcher hanging on with a pretty anonymous team. As recently as three weeks ago, Civale sported an ERA of 5.30, a number that suggests he should start looking for another line of work. Then Civale entered the Twilight Zone. The 30-year old righthander has two wins in his last three starts and has lowered his ERA to 3.99 in the process. Civale yielded one hit, an infield single, in 6.1 innings of work against the Angels and sure looked like he could’ve gone seven at least. The Twilight Zone had other ideas. Like following Civale with Brandon Eisert, a pitcher so anonymous as to verge on invisible. This Invisible Man went 1.2 hitless innings before giving way to…Jordan Leasure!!!! Blare the opening voiceover. Leasure pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his third save. No drama, as much as I expected a two-out walk followed by a walk-off homerun. Instead, a second-inning RBI single from Kyle Teel held up as the winning run. Sox go for the sweep this afternoon. Key closing credits.