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.