No. Take a Peek

The White Sox haven’t been this good since they went bad under Tony LaRussa in 2022 Success is relative to a point, I guess. With the exception of Davis Martin, nobody from then is n the roster now; different players definitely generate different results. Coaching helps, to a point. Now, consider Colson Montgomery. Starting with 2022, here are his predecessors at shortstop: Tim Anderson; Elvis Andrus; Paul DeJong; and Chase Meidroth/Jacob Amaya. Anderson, Andrus and DeJong were all on the decline while Meidroth was just holding Montgomery’s spot for him while he got ready. As for Amaya, I never understood why he was on the team, and we’ll leave it at that. Right now, Montgomery rates as a cornerstone of the current rebuild, surprisingly good in the field and with plenty of left-handed power. He hits in the clutch but so far hasn’t hit for average (.221 BA this season, .233 over a two-season career). Cause for concern? Depends who you ask. Montgomery told the Sun-Times today, “I don’t look at my average.” Instead, he checks “production, on-base percentage, OPS [on-base plus slugging percentage], things like that.” OK, let’s do that. The 28 RBIs in 145 at-bats would come out to 112 in just under 600 at-bats, so that’s good. But Montgomery also projects to score 64 runs, which isn’t. Long story short, batting average matters. If you don’t get on base, the next guy(s) can’t bat you in. Somebody needs to explain that to Montgomery, and soon. The Sox have a whole bunch of promising middle infielders in their system along with the number-one pick in the upcoming draft, which could turn out to be a shortstop. Players needs good numbers all along the board. To me, OPS is overrated because slugging is a statistic that can be distorted from a lot of solo-shot homers. The other part of OPS comes from on-base percentage, and guess what that depends on? Hits as well as walks. Thirty-two hits and fifteen walks times four in a season won’t cut it, Colson. Either start hitting, or start looking over your shoulder.