Where Were They?

Baseball has rules against a straight-tank, which is why the White Sox won’t be drafting first come June despite losing 121 games last season. Anyway, tanking in April is bad form. But here we have the White Sox with Will Venable penciling in lineups only Mickey Mouse would understand or appreciate. Yesterday in Boston, rookie catcher Edgar Quero didn’t get the start despite going 2-for-4 the day before. When Quero did appear, he pinch hit in the seventh inning with his team down a run, runners on second and third. Quero hit a shot up the middle good for two runs and the lead. So, Quero started today’s morning game, it being Patriot Day and all. But where was Andrew Vaughn, who hit a two-run homer to cement Sunday’s 8-4 win? Nowhere to be seen. Nick Maton and Brian Dalbec at first sure looks like tanking to me. Red Sox 4 White Sox 2.

By the Numbers

We could start with these: a 4-16 record after a ten-inning, 4-3 loss to the Red Sox. A 0-8 record on the road to go with 2-14 over their last sixteen games. Wait, there’s more. Andrew Vaughn batting .135, which happens to be 37 points higher than Jacob Amaya’s .098. Both Vaughn and Amaya are back in the lineup today unlike rookie catcher Edgar Quero, who went 2-for-4 with a double while throwing out a baserunner. Maybe Quero needs to get that batting average down a little so he can play more. But enough of the travails of these purported big-league White Sox. Let’s go down on the farm, where, supposedly, a rebuilt system will be developing more Queros and Chase Meidroths (both of whom came from other systems, by the way). Odd how the records don’t reflect all the talent I keep reading about. Triple-A Charlotte is 7-13; Double-A Birmingham ,7-6; high-A Winston-Salem, 5-9; and single-A Kannapolis, 7-7. They all must be playing tough schedules at the same time. In which case, let’s see what the talent is doing on an individual basis. Top prospect Noah Schultz—and how many times have I seen him compared to Randy Johnson?—is 0-1 with a 4.97 ERA at Birmingham. Prospect #2 Kyle Teel is hitting .215 with nine RBIs at Charlotte. Prospect #3 Hagen Smith is 1-0 with a 3.72 ERA at Birmingham. Prospect #4 Colson Montgomery is batting .162 with five RBIs at Charlotte. And Prospect #4 Braden Montgomery is hitting .326 with seventeen RBIs for Kannapolis. Funny how Braden Montgomery is just like Quero and Meidroth, from a different organization. There are some people further down the list who look like they’ll be cracking the top five soon along with a few unranked players who could be drawing attention before long. If I’m Andrew Vaughn, I’d be worried about multiple first basemen in the system. If I’m a Sox fan (and I am), I’d be worried about following a team with a solid shot at 110 losses, at least.

Ha-ha

What a joke, or series of jokes, each one worse than the last, all of them at the cost of White Sox fans. Last night, the Hapless Hose lost their fifth straight, this time 10-3 to the Red Sox at Fenway. They’ve started the season a team-record-breaking 0-7 on the road. Wait, there’s more for our 4-15 patsies. Today’s starting lineup—against Garrett Crochet, no less—features six “hitters” with batting averages under .200, ranging from a high of .190 (Chase Meidroth) to a low of .103 (Jacob Amaya). How do you say “six in a row”? Now, consider the standup routine manager Will Venable is working on. Martin Perez, last night’s starter, looked bad and exited after yielding four runs in three innings of work; Perez mentioned arm fatigue as a possible factor for his crappy performance. Whatever. So, Venable felt the need to tell reporters, “We need Martin. We need the things he does on the mound, the things that he does in the clubhouse.” Ha-ha, very funny, Skipper. Because we all know Perez is gone come the trade deadline if Chris Getz can get anything in return. Wait, there’s more. Miguel Vargas, Getz’s “get” for Michael Kopech, is stinking up the joint at third base, at least with the bat. Vargas is “hitting” .145 with six RBIs in 69 at-bats. But Venable has detected some recent signs of life in the 24-year old’s bat. Considering Vargas is 3-for-26 in last seven games, he must be using top-secret criteria. “That’s what we were waiting to see a little more of, where he’s making good swing decisions, having quality at-bats. Just need to impact the ball a little bit more, but [I] feel like it’s coming [around] for him.” [both quotes from today’s Sun-Times] Vargas is in the lineup today facing Crochet, who struck him out three times their last meeting. Ha-ha, joke’s on us.

Tell Me Why

The White Sox lost to the A’s 8-0 yesterday afternoon, their third shutout loss in a very young season. Three players hit four singles for the weakest-hitting team in baseball (collective .196 BA). And hitting coach Marcus Thames has a job why, again? Sox starter Davis Martin gave up four runs in 5.1 innings. I don’t know what I dislike more, the two homeruns Martin threw or his insistence that he and catcher Edgar Quero “executed” both pitches how they wanted to. [story in today’s Tribune] I’m also not a fan of a pitcher saying, “It is what it is. Some days, it’s a popup. Some days, it’s a homerun. You just live with the fact that you executed the pitch the way you wanted to and move on.” [today’s Sun-Times] Some days a popup? The gopher ball to Lawrence Butler traveled 414 feet, the one to JJ Bleday 372 feet. Outside of the Grand Canyon and or the wind blowing in from a hurricane, those are balls that are going to be out of just about any ballpark. One of the jobs of a pitching coach is, or should be, to make sure his charges are honest with themselves. I don’t see that here. You’d think that the pitching coach for a team with a 4.26 ERA could at least do that. Ethan Katz has a job why, again?

Jerry's Kids

The two Chicago sports franchises that Jerry Reinsdorf mis-owns both played in town last night. Did I mention they both lost? The Bulls stunk up the United Center from the get-go during their play-in rematch with the Heat. Down by eleven after one quarter, the home team managed to dig an even deeper hole by halftime, trailing Miami, 71-47. It was, as the saying goes, a team effort. Billy Donovan either did not or could not elevate his team, which shouldn’t have been hard given that they were playing at home in front of a full-house ready to go crazy, if only given the chance. Didn’t happen. The Heat kept going after Josh Giddey, who obliged every time. In what qualified as the biggest game of his career, Coby White came up beyond short, scoring a mere seventeen points on 5-of-20 shooting. White also committed a team-high seven turnovers. Did I mention the Bulls managed seventeen on the night? There is where I also mention the team enters its offseason trying to figure out what’s next. Arturas Karnisovas in possession of a clue? Good luck with that. Me, I’d sign Giddey to an extension—at least he scored 25 points to go with ten rebounds and four rebounds—and trade just about everyone else to get a real center under the age of 100. Ok, 28, then. As for my beloved White Sox, another game, another loss, this time 3-1 to the A’s. As long as they keep thinking Jordan Leasure is a major-league reliever, they’ll get the same results. No better way to kill a season than by giving up a two-out, two-run triple in the sixth inning. But, hark, do I spy a glimmer of hope through acts of subtraction and addition? First, the subtraction—Mike Clevinger was DFA’d yesterday. My daughter is ecstatic beyond belief. “What does it say about your organization when you have somebody like him on your roster?” Clare asked this morning. Nothing good, was the only right answer. Next, addition—catching prospect Edgar Quero was called up and will start today’s game behind the plate. Hallelujah. Too bad Omar Narvaez has to go, but he should have enough left in the tank to catch on with another team. Oh, and Andrew Benintendi was activated. Wow. Prospects Chase Meidroth and Quero both starting, along with an improving Brooks Baldwin. It’s enough to give a fan hope, maybe, keeping in mind the decades-long ineptitude of a certain owner.

Garbage

It’s a bad sign when the team website doesn’t even bother talking about the team’s latest game, which, in the case of the White Sox, was a 12-3 humiliation at the hands of the visiting A’s. But I did read what ex-Sox infielder Micah Johnson is up to these days. For fun, before the game I took a look at the Sox lineup, consisting of five players with batting averages of .194 or lower; that group managed three of the team’s six hits. Andrew Vaughn got himself a three-run homer, Miguel Vargas managed a double, Joshua Palacios a single. Again, hitting coach Marcus Thames has a job why? After a strong Opening Day start, Sean Burke has been god-awful, going 0-3 with a 7.56 ERA. In none of those three starts has Burke made it through the fifth inning? Again, pitching coach Ethan Katz has a job why? Burke gave up five earned runs last night in 3.1 innings. As for the other seven runs, that was the work of Penn Murfee (four) and Mike Clevinger (three). All these numbers add up to two more questions, starting with, GM Chris Getz has a job why again? And Jerry Reinsdorf gets to run a franchise into the ground because why?

Will This Amount to Anything?

For two straight years now, the Bulls have finished the regular season at 39-43, with a play-in game against the Heat. Same-old same-old? Yes and no. I think. For one, this Bulls’ team looks different from the other one, which featured Alex Caruso, DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine. Matas Buzelis, Josh Giddey and Kevin Huerter are a younger, faster, more athletic threesome. Same for the bench. Where once you had the trundling presence of Andre Drummond on the court, you now have the likes of Zach Collins and Jalen Smith. At least these guys can run. The Bulls have lost two straight play-in games to the Heat, so they definitely want three to be a charm. They have momentum, with fifteen wins in their last twenty games. They also have injuries, especially Giddey’s painful right wrist. Enter Coby White and Nikola Vucevic. The one has to keep leading the offense, the other has to keep up and make the occasional three-pointer while grabbing some rebounds. We’ll see.