The Three E's

I’ve been so busy complaining about Jake Diekman that I’d totally forgotten about Kendall Graveman. Where would the White Sox be without him? Graveman entered a 1-1 game in the eighth and promptly went to work. Four singles and a wild pitch later, and you have a 4-1 Tigers’ lead, which would turn into the final score. Consider the hit-by-pitch as a non-run-scoring bonus. A big free-agent signing by Rick Hahn in the offseason, Graveman is sporting a 1.43 WHIP on the season. Throw in six save in twelve opportunities, and you could be forgiven for thinking Hahn made (another) bonehead move. Only how do you explain Graveman having a 1.77 ERA in 2021 and ten saves (in fifteen opportunities)? Was that a one-season fluke, or was there something rotten in the Denmark known as the 2022 White Sox? Judging by what acting manager Miguel Cairo said after yesterday’s loss, the sixth straight and all of them at home, it definitely looks to be more of the latter than the former. Cairo told reporters, “Today was the worst one. Today was, that’s not acceptable. That’s not baseball. That’s not what the Chicago White Sox are about. It was terrible.” In case anyone was wondering, Cairo meant, “Execution. Effort. Everything.” Cairo’s wrong about one thing, what the White Sox are about. Under Jerry Reinsdorf, this has been an organization based more on who you know than what you know. Hence, the second coming of Tony La Russa. Sadly, La Russa forgot to implement the three E’s Cairo referenced after yet another loss in a dismal season.

Insanity

White Sox acting manager Miguel Cairo keeps sending out the same lineup as if certain underperforming players will grab the opportunity to turn things around. Nope. Yoan Moncada and Yasmani Grandal keep doing the same old same old. Moncada went 0-for-3 with a walk in yesterday’s 7-2 sleepwalk of a loss to the Tigers while Grandal chipped in by going 0-for-4. The Tigers recorded one stolen base (giving Grandal a caught-stealing rate of sixteen percent), and Vince Velasquez was charged with a wild pitch, nudge-nudge, wink-wink. No passed ball there. And don’t let me forget reliever Jake Diekman. Tuesday, Diekman gave up three runs on five hits to the Guardians, a performance he managed to top in the seventh inning last night with four runs on five hits. This gives Rick Hahn’s big trade-deadline acquisition a 7.31 ERA since coming over from Boston. Speaking of the Red Sox, remember Reese McGuire, the catcher Hahn traded for Diekman? Since going over to Boston, McGuire has hit a torrid .361 in eighty-three at-bats with three homeruns and twelve RBIs. For the season, he’s hitting .274 with twenty-two RBIs in 234 at-bats. Compare that to Grandal with his .205 BA and twenty-six RBIs in 307 at-bats. Oh, and McGuire has a caught-stealing rate of forty-five percent. Crazy.

The Fruits of His Labors

At age twenty-eight, Lucas Giolito still hasn’t decided what he wants to be when he grows up, not entirely. By my count, Giolito has reinvented himself at least twice since coming to the White Sox in the Adam Eaton trade back in 2016. And he’ll be doing it again this offseason. Giolito came to camp in March some twenty pounds heavier, all muscle. Our California dreamer said he felt great, initially, only to realize over time that the extra muscle affected his athleticism. Of all the places to be the Incredible Hulk, a pitching mound is not among them. I can’t wait to see what Giolito comes up with for his next incarnation. I only wish it could withstand the touch of Yasmani Grandal, the man made rich by GM Rick Hahn. Grandal was a virtual one-man wrecking crew in the game against the Tigers last night, only the wrecking cost his team the game, 5-3. Detroit stole bases in the seventh and eighth innings. Both runners scored courtesy of our catcher. In the seventh, Akil Baddoo continued on to third base because Grandal threw the ball into center field. In the eighth, pinch runner Willi Castro stole off of Grandal and went to third on a wild pitch. Virtually any ball in the dirt turns into a wild pitch because Grandal can’t block it. But, hey, he got a double and a walk Nothing says “success” like a .208 BA and .309 OBP. And let’s not forget Yoan Moncada, another of Hahn’s great acquisitions. Moncada went 0-for-5, which he does a lot given how acting manager Miguel Cairo likes to bat him second instead of, say, eighth or ninth. Can you bat bench? Moncada is hitting .213 on the season. To think that we once had Robin Ventura and Joe Crede at the hot corner. Heck, Pete Ward and Bill Melton. Heck again, Vance Law and Eric Soderholm. Pitcher to catcher to third base—what hath Rick Hahn wrought?

Now What?

The White Sox lost to the Guardians 4-2 last night. The series they had to sweep turned into the series where they were swept, at home. For as long as I can remember, Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf has always had at least one apologist in the media willing to spout the company line about why things went the way they did, and didn’t. Thankfully, those folks have all moved on, while the people out there now talking and writing seem plenty upset about this bad joke of a season. Now what? It's reached a point where I wonder if the scorn Reinsdorf often heeps on his critics and the spite that guides the operation of his team will be of much further use to him. I just saw an excerpt from yesterday’s pregame show where a panelist nearly suffered a stroke on-camera calling out a certain HOF manager and the organization he works for. Folks, this was on the pregame show, where everything is supposed to be sweetness and light. My guess is Reinsdorf’s instinct is to hunker down and wait for the anger to subside; then, it’s back to business for the 2023 season. Bad Doug would love for him to do just that, because it would all but guarantee an Opening Day crowd that would make Phillies’ fans look a bunch of tea-drinkers. Not-Bad Doug wonders how Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn keep their jobs and who’ll be the manager come Opening Day. In Chicago sports, things stay the same forever, until they don’t. The Cubs were owned by the Wrigleys, until the Trib bought the team. There was day baseball, until the Trib decided otherwise. The Bulls and Hawks played in facility steeped in lore and personality, just like the Sox did, until they didn’t. Mike Ditka was the one and forever coach of the Bears, until he wasn’t. I could be wrong, but we may be coming to another of those epochal “until” moments in Chicago sports.

Compare and Contrast

Dylan Cease is the best pitcher on the White Sox. Tuesday night, he struck out three Cleveland Guardians in an eventual extra-inning loss for the Sox. Triston McKenzie is not the best pitcher on the Guardians, not yet at least. Last night, he struck out thirteen Sox “hitters”—down from fourteen the last time he faced them—in an 8-2 Cleveland beatdown at Guaranteed Rate Whatever. Last night, Lance Lynn didn’t have it. Of course, if he did pitch well, he still could’ve lost, given that he was pitching to Yasmani Grandal with Yoan Moncada playing third base. Watching those two was like watching a goalie camp for the Blackhawks. That, or they were swatting at flies all night. Bad Doug is back in that part of me wants to see this team lose all its remaining thirteen games, just to see how owner Jerry Reinsdorf would respond. Oh, he could extend Tony La Russa, all right. Reinsdorf is nothing if not spiteful. But just how dumb is he? We’ll soon find out.

Like I Said

Like I said, the White Sox aren’t going to win their division. They showed why, yet again, last night in losing to the visiting Guardians, 10-7 in eleven innings. For better and worse, the game bore the handiwork of general manager Rick Hahn. If only every deal Hahn has made were of the caliber of Joe Quintana for Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease, this would be a whole different conversation. Last night, Eloy hit when it counted, driving in the tying run in the sixth inning, and Cease pitched the same way, giving up one run over six innings. Alas, most Hahn moves have been a good two or three or a hundred notches below Jimenez/Cease. The Sox scored three runs in the sixth to take a 3-1 lead. Jimmy Lambert relieved Cease to start the seventh and promptly walked the only two hitters he faced on twelve pitches. Aaron Bummer relieved Lambert, which is to say things got interesting and the Sox were lucky to be in a tie game going into extra innings. If Liam Hendriks counts in Hahn’s column of good acquisitions (he pitched a scoreless ninth), Kendal Graveman belongs elsewhere. He gave up two runs that his teammates were somehow able to match in the bottom of the frame. Which brings us to Jake Diekman, the only pitcher Hahn thought to acquire before the trade deadline. Diekman absolutely stunk and was charged with five runs on three hits, a walk and two wild pitches. Wait, there’s more. Back in 2019, Hahn signed Grandal to a questionable four-year deal for $73 million. In three-plus seasons, Grandal has never hit above .240 or driven in more than sixty-two runs. This year, he’s batting .201 with twenty-six RBIs. Though he’s only played in eighty-nine games on account of injury, Grandal is tied for the most passed balls (eight) in all of baseball. A brick backstop would have a higher WAR. With the Guardians ahead by five runs, Grandal the purported master of bat control came in to pinch hit only to strikeout on a full count, swinging at a ball in his eyes. A.J. Pollock, in one of his two-game stretches of looking all-world, then hit a two-run homer. With Grandal on base and Bryan Shaw, Cleveland’s version of Diekman, pitching, it would’ve been a 10-8 game, making Seby Zavala’s double all the more interesting. In reality, the score was 10-7, with two outs and Zavala on second. And up comes the piece de resistance in the series of roster moves made by Rick Hahn. That’s right, Leury Garcia, he of the three-year $16.5 million re-signing, stepped to the plate with the season on the line. As might be expected, Garcia popped out to short. End of game, end of season, barring a miracle. Age appears to have caught up with Tony La Russa; the odds of his returning to manage next year lie somewhere between slim and none. But can Hahn be trusted to reshape a roster he bears full responsibility for putting together in the first place? Not from where I stand.

The Only Game in Town

In today’s Tribune, Bears’ pictures got more space than the Cubs and Sox combined. Ditto stories on the Munsters. Over at the Sun-Times, things were a little more fair. Munsters, seven pages of coverage, Sox and Cubs four pages combined. I wonder, are the Giants and Jets knocking the Yankees and Mets off the front page? Trust me, if the Sox and Cubs were having seasons as good as their Gotham brethren, it’d be the best-kept secret in all of Chicago.