How to Win

The White Sox broke their eight-game losing streak yesterday because thirty-year old rookie Mark Payton hustled out of the box in the eighth inning after hitting a routine popup to second baseman Nick Gordon, who promptly dropped the ball. Yea! Steve Stone sounded like he was ready to leave the booth and personally award Payton a medal for hustle. Payton scored what proved to be the winning run on a Jose Abreu double. The best that can be said for Yasmani Grandal is he caused no irreparable harm during the game. I want to talk about both Payton and Grandal. Payton, who stands two inches taller than Clare, was born two weeks after my daughter. He attended St. Rita High School on the South Side, where eighteen Mustangs have gone on to play in organized ball, five making it to the majors. Payton joins pitchers Jim Clancy; Ed Farmer, blessed be his name; Lefty Sullivan; and Tony Zych as major-league ballplayers. I should also note one of Payton’s high school teammates, drafted by the Rangers, happened to be the brother of one of Clare’s high school teammates. Oh, and both teams were the Mustangs. I doubt Payton will be with the Sox next year; journeymen on the smallish side aren’t hard to come by. That said, he demonstrated how baseball is supposed to be played, full-out all the time. So, like a stopped clock twice a day, Stone got it right about a Sox player who actually hustled. I can’t wait for the next time. If and when it comes, I doubt it will have anything to do with catcher Yasmani Grandal, who gave up another three stolen bases. That’s forty-six successful steals out of fifty-four attempts for a fifteen percent caught-stealing rate. Wait, there’s more. Grandal has been catching eleven seasons. He has ninety-one passed balls to go with a twenty-five percent career caught-stealing rate. Once upon a time, the Sox had A.J. Pierzynski behind the plate. Over a sixteen-year career, Pierzynski accounted for only eleven more passed balls than Grandal has, and, remember, the season isn’t over yet. While Pierzynski was as bad as Grandal in throwing out baserunners (twenty-four percent vs. twenty-five), it’s worth noting that A.J. had 2043 hits total to 841 for Grandal. So, yes, I wish we had A.J. in his prime. I also wouldn’t mind a Sox catcher from the 1980s and ’90s. In twelve seasons on the South Side, Ron Karkovice was charged with fifty passed balls in 6972.2 innings behind the plate; compare that to Grandal’s ninety-one in 7707.2 innings. Wait, there’s more. Karkovice has a career forty-one percent caught-stealing rate. As MC Hammer might say, Grandal can’t touch that. Sox GM Rick Hahn likes to read the backs of baseball cards. Maybe he should start looking at baseball-reference.com every once in a while. He might learn something.

Oh, Well

Oh, well. Another game another loss for the White Sox, last night’s 8-4 drubbing by the Twins their eighth in a row. What more can you say? I could mention that Andrew Vaughn is hitting .218 over his last thirty games and .083 over his last seven, but what’s the point? Then I’d have to say Eloy Jimenez is hitting .185 over his last seven and Romy Gonzalez .167 over his last seven. Again, I could point out that Johnny Cueto, last night’s starter, has a 5.01 ERA over his last seven starts; Jake Diekman an 11.81 ERA over his last seven appearances; or Jose Ruiz a 6.43 ERA over his last seven. And the point would be? That they all pitched last night, I guess, along with Joe Kelly. At least Kelly didn’t see his shadow and hurt himself. Good news, White Sox style.

Did He Say Something?

This is how the White Sox responded to their (acting) manager calling them out after a sixth straight defeat—they went to Minnesota and lost a seventh time. They also struck out fourteen times while collecting two, that’s right, two, hits on the night. That 4-0 score wasn’t nearly as close as it looks. Lance Lynn pitched like he didn’t care while his teammates batted the same way. You’d think they’d never seen a slider before and that 27-year old Twins’ starter Bailey Ober was the second coming of Cy Young. Jose Abreu looked absolutely awful, with Andrew Vaughn right behind him. When those two quit, folks, we have a problem. If silver linings do in fact exist, at least this is happening to Jerry Reinsdorf. I can’t think of a more deserving owner.

How Low Can They Go?

Right now, the White Sox are like a bad accident that people can’t help but look at. Which explains why they keep getting end-of-season coverage, in the Tribune even. What I didn’t expect was who’d be bumped. The Cubs, yes, but Northwestern, too? The Wildcats lost to Miami of Ohio at home on Saturday. The game ended just before 10 o’clock, too late for the Tribune to print a story on Sunday. When the folks at Alden Global Capital got around to it on Monday, they went with a short AP story, buried on the back page of sports. Talk about callous. The same story ran in longer form on the web site, only it wasn’t identified as an AP piece. There were also stories on the Notre Dame and Northern Illinois games, both from the AP (I checked), both without AP attribution. Maybe the online Trib is too embarrassed to admit the paper can’t be bothered to send reporters to cover games. I know I’d be.

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?