Baseball

Series Preview: White Sox at Cubs – Know Your Enemy (Fels Edition)

By Andy Jonathan 1523

With the series against the Cubs this weekend, I figured I would eschew the normal preview and do something a little more fun. So let’s welcome back the Founding Father of FFUD and overall Maven of the blog: Sam Fels!

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Sam has been kind enough to answer a few questions about his beloved Cubs, and provide some insight into their hot start thus far. So without further ado, lets get to the questions.

 

AJ – So as I write this, the Cubs are 2nd overall in the NL with a 15-8 record. However, only 2 of those games came against a club with an above water winning percentage (Cleveland). Is the record indicative of the Cubs talent level, or more a result of who they’ve played thus far?

Fels – Eh, I don’t fucking know. It’s sample size. My gut tells me the rotation probably is that good.
Hendricks and Darvish definitely are, Lester has pitched well, and the thing with Chatwood is
that everyone knew if he could keep his stuff in the zip code he’s very effective. My gut says the
lineup is probably that good? While they have beat up on bad teams, the top of the lineup hasn’t
really done dick. The team has been carried by Happ or Caratini or my god Jason Fucking Kipnis.
Even Jason Heyward has been ok.

The eventually Baez, Contreras, Bryant will be Baez, Contreras, and Bryant, even if the others drop off at some point. My gut says the bullpen is absolutely a disaster area and if the Cubs hadn’t won in ‘16 this would absolutely be a fireable offense for Theo Epstein. So for the most part, yeah, I think they’re pretty good, but not .667 good. The thing is with the schedule only being intra-division and crossover, they might keep it up, because most everyone has been bad in both except for like, Minnesota.

 

AJ – Yu Darvish seems to be healthy and back to smoking chumps at the plate with a 10.5 K/9. Kyle Hendricks is his usual stalwart self, getting hitters to pound balls into the dirt with his sinker and keeping his typical low 3’s ERA. Jon Lester was cruising along fairly well until he burped on himself against the Brewers. Quintana tried cutting off his own finger making a pie and should be back fairly soon. It seemed like the starters were going to be a big question mark coming into the season, but they’ve performed well. Is this rotation good enough to make some noise going forward?

Fels – Define “noise.” Can they get into the playoffs? Absolutely, and at this point it would already be a
serious upset if they don’t. They have to win like 13 more games out of 35 to do so. Can they make a run once there? I mean, the playoffs are do dumb this year anyway but sure. Hendricks and Darvish are this good. That’s not a mirage. So they only have to produce one other start or bullpen game to win a series after that. If that. And they have time to figure that out (Alzolay and Quintana could be huge in this department). So yeah, it’s possible they can make noise…until getting thwacked by the Dodgers somewhere along the line.

 

AJ –  .202/.253/.622 with a 65 wRC+ is the kind of stat line you’d expect from Albert Almora and not Javy Baez. What’s up with him?

Fels – Woof, if I had any idea. It’s hard to say with Baez, because he goes off the boil like this once or twice a season. You just don’t notice as much because it’s not at the beginning of a truncated farce of a season. I’m guessing the short run-up didn’t help because he is so much on timing with that swing. I wouldn’t be shocked if the extension talks, or lack thereof now, are weighing on him a bit. And when Javy presses, it’s ugly. He’s also got a new approach, which Sahadev touched on in The Athletic.

He’s swinging at way less pitches, but he’s making contact on way less pitches too. He’s getting behind in the count and then pressing, and we know he likes a whiff. My hunch is that if he can continue to let more pitches outside the zone go, as he has done this year, and just spends a week hitting pitches to the opposite field–which he has incredible power to and he just forgets it at times–he’s going to be just fine.

 

AJ – On the flip side, Ian Happ’s batting line looks pretty glorious with a .313/.439/1.026(!) and a 181 wRC+. Has he arrived or is this just a small sample size?

Fels – Happ is such a funny character. Did you know he has 1100 MLB PAs? I didn’t even know that
until last week, he just has felt like such a yo-yo player. In those 1100 PAs, he’s got a 117 wRC+ and a .834 OPS. That’s certainly enough PAs with those numbers to say the guy is good. He’s had an odd way of getting there but he’s good, and his play in center keeps improving as well. Is he this good? The .410 BABIP would suggest no. However he is hitting the ball awfully hard, he takes his walks, and he’s not as susceptible to high fastballs as he was (though I think he might need to give up on the switch hitting thing and just be left-handed at some point). He’s not a 1.,00o OPS player, but is he an .850 OPS guy? I think so, and you take that from center field, especially with passable defense at worst.

 

AJ – Jeremy Jeffress and Rowan Wick (Hello, Mr. Wick) have been pretty solid thus far, but after that everything else has been pretty ooky. Is there any hope for the bullpen without a total teardown?

Fels – UGH. My least favorite subject. There is hope if the Cubs get creative, which they’ve shown no
willingness to do. IF they were the Rays or Brewers, Alzolay and Quintana would be multi-inning
guys tomorrow to shield everyone else. They would throw three-four times a week combined, maybe once through the lineup each time. Considering how good the starting pitching has been, that would be enough to get through a lot of games right there.

Beyond that, I don’t think I can help you or them. I don’t even trust Wick that far. Kimbrel has put
together three straight good outings by finally concentrating on the top of the zone where his
96-97 will play much better than at the bottom. That only means I hope he can be ok. Everyone else is ass, and they can’t make a trade this year because you can’t give up actual pieces for anything in this joke of a summer. My hope is that at least Alzolay and Brailyn Marquez get a chance to be something, and they just find some guy from elsewhere. Chatwood would also be an excellent candidate to be the multi-inning weapon, as he was last year sporadically before Joe Maddon got in the way. That’s if they want Q to start again.

 

AJ – Another nagging injury for Kris Bryant. Is this the end of the road for him in a Cubs jersey? Also: will Rizzo get that paper and stick around long term?

Who the fuck knows. I wouldn’t be shocked if Ol’ Tommy Ricketts uses the pandemic as an excuse to not pay anyone and lets the whole thing burn. Bryant’s been hurt and I can’t imagine that the Cubs could get any value for him if they moved him in the winter. Even Mookie Betts in the last year of his deal only got one guy in return really, and Bryant doesn’t look to be coming in nearly as hot. So maybe he just walks? I’m not sure. If he can’t turn it around next year, and I assume he will, then he’s kind of a prime candidate to just get a two-year deal to prove it before cashing in like we all assumed he would. We still have no idea what contracts will look like after this, ignoring the fantasy world the Dodgers live in. So there’s a chance he sticks around.

As far as Rizzo, he’ll have to prove his back isn’t going to turn to graham crackers in the next couple years. But I also can’t fathom they’d let Rizzo go. He’s the center of the team in so many ways. But I could also see him getting pretty pissed if other guys are allowed to leave or moved and he still doesn’t have an extension yet. But he’ll be in his early 30s when his deal is up, how many uber-productive years does he have left? That’s a hard one, but sometimes emotions do play a part.

AJ – Finally, with Summerslam coming up this Sunday I’m in need of some prognostications. Who ya got?

Apollo Crews vs. MVP (US Title) – Apollo

Street Prophets vs. Andrade/Angel Garza (Raw Tag Belts) – Something stupid will happen here
with a non-finish, and hopefully involves Bianca getting a full-run.

Eddie Guerrero’s Son Dominik Mysterio vs. Seth Rollins (street fight) – If Seth doesn’t turn him to dust I don’t even know what we’re doing. Get Seth in a program with Aleister yesterday and let’s fucking go.

Sonya Deville vs Mandy Rose (hair vs hair) – Yeah, Vince is really gonna have the blonde bombshell lose.

Sasha Banks vs Asuka (Raw Women’s title)/Bayley vs. Asuka (SD Women’s title) –

I think Asuka gets this one, or maybe both, but something will happen between Sasha and Bayley in both matches that sows the seeds of an eventual breakup. I think it’ll be Sasha helping Bayley but not the other way around. It gives you that, and it also gives you the added story line that Sasha has still never defended a singles title. She’ll get jealous of Bayley in that sense, and it keeps Asuka around. Maybe Sasha then leaves Bayley to get eaten by Shayna. Lot of ways this could go, and I’m sure they’ll pick the worst one.

Braun Strowman vs. The Fiend (World Title) – Gotta be Fiend. Braun has become so uninteresting, and The Fiend can do so many things. Very curious where this stuff with Alexa goes.

Drew McIntyre vs. Randall Orton (Universal Title) – I feel bad for Drew. He’s done nothing wrong but never got his moment in front of an actual crowd. But they’re building this for Randall, who
honestly has been incredible the past couple months. And it’s clear they want Edge to take the title off Orton, even though that’s a feud that does not need a belt on it. There’s too much to Orton now, he’s getting 14. Wouldn’t be shocked if they circle back to Drew soon though.

 

For more Fels action, you can find him on Twitter @FelsGate, in the pages of Deadspin weekly, or catch his dulcet tones each week on the FFUD podcast.

Baseball

Series Recap – Sox Sweep Tigers: And There Was Much Rejoicing

By Andy Jonathan 1376

BOX SCORES

Game 1: Tigers 2 – White Sox 7

Game 2: Tigers 4 – White Sox 10

Game 3: Tigers 3 – White Sox 5

Game 4: Tigers 0 – White Sox 9

 

Well I’ll say this much about the current iteration of this White Sox team. Unlike ones from the past, this team seems hell bent on punching down and beating the teams they should be beating. Which is exactly what teams with playoff aspirations should do. The team is now 9-1 against the Tigers and Royals, and they sit at 15-11 on the season. Progress is great!

 

TO THE BULLETS!

 

NUMBERS DON’T LIE

–Tim Anderson may not be your atypical leadoff-type hitter, but it’s pretty undeniable the effect he has on this team. In the 9 games since he’s returned from his stint on the IL, the Sox are 7-2 and averaging a little under 6.5 runs per game. Tim himself has gone 15 for 36 with 5 HR, 8 RBI and 15 runs scored. Oh, and he stole his first 3 bases of the season. He’s the engine that drives this rig, and when he’s running hot the Sox are gonna score in bunches.

-Welcome back, Lucas Giolito! After a disastrous 1st inning in his last start against the Cardinals, he was back to his old self today, punching out a career high 13 and keeping the Tigers hitters completely off balance. He even worked around a Yoan Moncada error that loaded the bases in the 4th and left them all there by striking out Niko Goodrum and Cristin Stewart with fastballs at the top of the zone. As much as I like the idea of Yasmani Grandal and his pitch framing abilities, but it’s time to anoint James McCann as Gio’s personal catcher. Thus far the results speak for themselves despite the small sample size.

–Dane Dunning made his first career start, and it’s hard not to get a little excited about the results. Granted, it’s against the Tigers but if he can exhibit the kind of control he showed Wednesday night it wouldn’t make much difference who he’s facing. Ricky left him in there probably one hitter too long, and it cost him 2 runs but in the long run it didn’t make much difference. He was optioned back to the training facility today, but if Lopez or Rodon have trouble getting back to game shape he should be called right back up.

-All was not sunshine and roses, however. Yasmani Grandal came up lame on Monday after fielding a chopper in front of home plate. Renteria said he wouldn’t need a stay on the IL, so hopefully he’ll be back this weekend. Same goes for Luis Robert, who managed to ding himself up laying out for a sinking line drive on Tuesday night after the game had already been put away. Steve Stone mentioned on the broadcast that it’s hard to teach younger players the times to try and save your body, and it’ll probably be even more difficult for Robert. He should hopefully be good to go against the Cubs this weekend.

-Speaking of the Cubs, they’re the next opponent for this weekend. I’ll be back tomorrow with a special guest for the preview. Until then, I leave you with Victory Okada!

Baseball

Series Preview: Cardinals at White Sox – Walking Dead

By Andy Jonathan 1370

VS

 

Records: Cardinals 2-3 / White Sox 10-9

Start Times: Saturday game 1 1:10/Game 2 4:00/ Sunday 1:10

TV: NBCSN

Dude, That’s Not Pizza: Viva El Birdos

 

Probable Starters

Game 1: Adam Wainwright (1-0 1.50 ERA) vs. Lucas Giolito (1-1 4.37 ERA)

Game 2: TBD vs. TBD

Game 3: TBD vs. Dallas Keuchel (2-2 3.04 ERA)

 

It’s been a bit since I’ve gotten the chance to talk with you all about the Sox. Unfortunately work occasionally cuts into my ability to churn these things out. Suffice to say in the time since I posted the Brewers preview some stuff has happened. The Sox started out gangbusters against the Brew Crew, then faded down the stretch. Then they lost 2 of 3 to the Tribe, and the first game to the Tigers before Dallas Keuchel decided enough was enough. He gave the young offense a verbal lashing, then repeated what he said (with less cursing, I’m assuming) to the local media.

What he said apparently worked, as the Sox dropped 15 runs on the heads of the Tigers after only scoring 10 the previous 6 games combined. Having Tim Anderson back certainly helped, as he kicked off the party by drawing an 8 pitch walk his first at bat back and was later knocked in by Eloy Jimenez with the 3 run shot. He also fell a double short of the cycle on Wednesday, going 4-5 and welcoming Matthew Boyd to the game by smoking a no-doubter into the left field seats.

Taking 2 of 3 from the Tigers should be the bare minimum for this team going forward if they have any interest in making the postseason this fall. Standing in the way of that this weekend are the Rona-laden St. Louis Cardinals, who have thus far only played 5 games this season.

We could go over how ridiculous it is ad nauseum to have the Cards try and pack 55 games in 42 days like they’re going to have to do to play out the string, but that’s best left to angrier people like our old boss Sam.

What this does mean is the White Sox are getting to play a team that hasn’t taken the field in over 2 weeks. One would have to assume both their hitters and pitching staff will be pretty rusty, and with the appropriate aggressiveness, be taken advantage of.

The Red Birds have only announced one starter thus far, and that’s the aging prince Adam Wainwright for game one of the doubleheader tomorrow. After only pitching 160 innings total from 2016-18 due to various maladies, Wainwright was able to reinvent himself last season which for a 39 year old is no mean feat. He started 31 games in 2019, going 14-10 with a 4.19 ERA. While that’s nowhere near the numbers when he was at the height of his powers, for a 5th starter on a team with playoff aspirations you could do a whole lot worse.

For the Cards actual ace, they turn the ball over to Jack Flaherty. Last year Flaherty went 11-8 with a 2.73 ERA and 231 strikeouts. His WHIP was outstanding at .093 which is pretty nuts for an entire season. Flaherty doesn’t throw smoke, usually topping out around 93-95 mph. What he does have is pinpoint control, which his 2.52 BB/9 rate proves. He mixes 4 pitches with regularity (4 seam, curve, changeup, and slider), and the slider has the kind of movement usually reserved for frisbee golf. Luis Robert is gonna see a lot of those, as will Eloy.

Were I a betting man, I’d put my money on him facing off against Keuchel on Sunday. The kid is the real deal, and as long as he’s healthy should anchor the Cards rotation for the foreseeable future.

Speaking of the future of the Cardinals, this weekend should feature the debut of uber-prospect Dylan Carlson (#1 in the Cards pipeline and #18 overall in MLB according to MLB.COM). Carlson was the Cards #1 overall pick in 2016, and slashed his way through their minor league system without getting much competition. Through AA and AAA ball last year, Carlson slashed  .292/.372/.542 with a .914 OPS in 126 games, which looks kind of like the Sox own CF prospect. Carlson is a switch hitter with a plus hit tool, and is an above average defender in the outfield. Hopefully he takes a few games to get his feet under him and is more a problem for the Cubs and not the Sox.

For the pale hose this weekend, the question is whether or not they can sustain the hot hitting they got in the final two games of the series against the Tigers. Pitching wise having both Giolito and Keuchel going in the series is a good thing, and game 2 Saturday would be the perfect time to use Ross Detwiler in an opener role. Detwiler has been pretty nails thus far in the season being used in a relief role, but hasn’t thrown hardly at all lately. Ricky Renteria decided he’d rather have Drew Anderson get rocked by the Indians on Saturday rather than use Boss Ross. Anderson has since been punted to the land of wind and ghosts (Schaumburg), so this seems the perfect opportunity for Detwiler and pleasant surprise Matt Foster to eat some innings tomorrow.

With the Cards hardly playing since the calendar flipped to August, the timing is perfect to steal at least 2 of 3 from STL. Having Tim Anderson lighting the fuse at the top of the lineup seems to be working, so more of that please. Luis Robert smoking that bases clearing double Wednesday is hopefully a sign he’s adjusting to the steady diet of breaking balls he’s been seeing over the past few weeks. Keep Eloy out of the netting, and the series should be theirs.

Let’s Go Sox

 

 

Baseball

Series Preview: White Sox vs. Brewers -Beer Me

By Andy Jonathan 1543

         VS

Records: White Sox 5-4 / Brewers 3-3

Start Times: All Games @ 7:10

TV: NBCSH

Bud Selig’s Ghost: Brew Crew Ball

 

PROBABLE STARTERS

Game 1: Carlos Rodon (0-1, 12.27 ERA) vs. Brett Anderson (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

Game 2: Lucas Giolito (1-1, 6.52 ERA) vs Brandon Woodruff (1-1, 1.59 ERA)

Game 3: Adrian Houser (0-0, 1.80 ERA) vs Dallas Keuchel (2-0, 3.38 ERA)

Game 4: TBD vs. Gio Gonzalez (0-0, 7.36 ERA)

 

After this very successful weekend for the Pale Hose, our attention turns to the next series against the Brewers. Having had their weekend tilt against the Cardinals postponed due to some apparently casino-related Rona action, the Brewers not only sat around and didn’t do much, but they lost Lorenzo Cain as he decided the risk wasn’t worth it and opted out for the rest of the season. While he hadn’t been what he was during his heyday in KC, Cain was still a solid contributor who posted at least an .800 or greater OPS in 3 of the last 5 seasons. He was also a plus defender on the other side of the ball, having won a gold glove last year.

Replacing him in the OF will most likely be Ben Gamel, who is the definition of “a guy,” and he’ll be joined Old Friend Avisail Garcia and all-universe Miami cast off Christian Yelich. The Brewers infield has improved simply from bringing their #1 overall prospect Keston Hiura up late last season. Hiura managed an impressive .303/.368/.938 slash line last year with 19 home runs in only what amounts to half a season. The kid has pop in his bat for days and the patience to match, making him and Yelich a deadly combo at the top third of their lineup.

As far as their rotation goes there really aren’t many big names here, but they somehow always manage to be at least league average. Brandon Woodruff is the de facto ace of the group, who relies on his mid 90s fastball and a plus changeup that he uses for his punchout pitch. He came tearing out of the gate last year, going 11-3 and earning his first ever all star game nod before he hit the IL with an oblique issue in July that kept him on the shelf until just before the playoffs.

After Woodruff, the rest is just sort of there. Craig Counsell is the type of coach that’s not afraid to go to his bullpen and when it’s as good as the one he has you can’t really blame him. With the back end of Brent Suter, Corey Knebel and Josh Hader shutting down pretty much everything from the 7th inning on, teams have to make hay against the starters in the early innings while they can. If the Sox bats can get ahead of Woodruff and company, they stand a decent shot of being able to make Counsell go to his pen early and often hopefully wearing them down.

The Brewers with Cain were a pretty solid offensive team in 2019, ranking 10th overall in the league so the starters should probably have their A game especially with Hiura and Yelich at the front. Keeping the walks to a minimum is a must, as the Brewers like to swipe bags when they can (ranking 3rd overall in the NL last season). Grandal and McCann are going to have their hands full, so keeping as many Brewers off the basepaths will be appreciated.

As for the Sox, they announced the arrival of Nomar Mazara today off the RONA-IL, which hopefully should signal the end of the Nicky Delmonico Experiment for the time being. With Leury Garcia most likely out for at least game 1 of the series while he tends to a death in his family, Danny Mendick and his creepy mustache will most likely get another start at SS. Luis Robert has probably cemented his spot atop the lineup for the foreseeable future with his performance in KC over the weekend. His easy power is a sight to behold, as I’ve never seen someone seemingly put less effort into ponging baseballs off the outfield fence.

With the Sox now sitting in 2nd place division-wise this week should provide a good test for the young team. Carlos (Hard Karl) Rodon gets a shot at redemption, and I fully expect him to have the same result that Dylan Cease did yesterday. If he’s able to turn it around, suddenly the only question in the pitching rotation is Gio Gonzalez (who looked pretty pedestrian in his 3.2 innings on Saturday). If he’s unable to start giving the Sox at least 4-5 innings per start I could see Rick Hahn eyballing Dane Dunning for some starts.

This should be a fun series between two very solid teams. Bare minimun here for the Sox should be a 2-2 split, which the way the rotation lines up should be pretty achievable. 5 is better than 4, keep the party going. Let’s Go Sox.

 

White Sox "Elite" Image By @SavesTuesday

 

Baseball

Series Recap: Sox Sweep Royals – nWo

By Andy Jonathan 1444

BOX SCORES

Game 1: White Sox 3 – Royals 2

Game 2: White Sox 11 – Royals 5

Game 3: White Sox 9 – Royals 2

 

While this weekend wasn’t completely flawless, it was exactly what the doctor ordered. The Cuban Club was absolutely dominant, Nick Madrigal and Yasmani Grandal busted out in a big way, Dylan Cease found his fastball control again, and even Nicky Delmonico hit one out of the infield. The Sox are over .500 in August for the first time since Robin Ventura first found himself in the 3rd base dugout. It’s obviously a technicality but I’m completely going to take it.

It’s Sunday night, the Sox swept the Royals in KC for the first time in modern memory, and I get to watch hockey for the next few hours before I get to sleep in for as long as I want tomorrow. Life is good (if just for a little bit), and I’ll see you all tomorrow for the Brew Crew preview. CELEBRATE!

Side Note: The Phenomenal Photoshop you see above comes courtesy of my man Dick The Knife (@SavesTuesday). Give him a follow if you love rasslin and Sox baseball.

 

 

 

Baseball

Series Preview – White Sox at Royals: Herd Immunity

By Andy Jonathan 1494

VS

RECORDS: White Sox 2-4 / Royals 3-4

START TIMES: Fri 7:05, Sat 6:05, Sun 1:05

TV: NBCSCH

Are You Missouri Or Are You Kansas: Royals Review

 

Probable Starters

Friday: Dallas Keuchel vs. Kris Bubic

Saturday: Gio Gonzalez vs. TBD

Sunday: Dylan Cease vs. TBD

 

Heading into the second weekend of the season, did anyone out there pick the Royals to have a better record than the Sox? Put your hands down, you’re a goddam liar. Anyways that’s where we currently sit, with the Royals having one more win than the SouthSiders coming into Friday night’s tilt. Granted, they’re coming off a 4 game swing against the Tigers, but Ws are Ws and they have more.

This is a team that’s actively battling the Tigers and Orioles for the #1 overall pick in next year’s draft, and is throwing everything at the wall this season to see what’s going to stick for the future. Whit Merrifield and Jorge Soler are basically the only pieces that are worth anything and yet the Royals don’t seem interesting in moving them for parts. They’re also the only two members of the lineup currently hitting, so the Sox starters should probably keep that in mind.

On the pitching side of things, the Royals have brought up their prized rookie pitcher Brady Singer who started the other night against the Tribe, giving up 2 in five innings and keeping the Cleveland bats off stride. Other than him, it’s a bunch of rookies and journeymen (and Danny Duffy, who’s still around so fantasy baseball writers can list him as a potential breakout each year) that they’ll toss out each night. This is evidenced by the fact that they have TBD penciled in as their starter in 2 of the 3 nights against the Sox.

The most obnoxious elements of last year’s dustup with Tim Anderson are still here, so we’ll at least have a little drama to eyeball. Fingers crossed Timmy hits a few bombs and pimps the living shit out of each one. Professional curmudgeon Ned Yost has grabbed his hobo bindle and fucked off into the sunset, but he got replaced by Mike Matheny (who’s basically the same guy) so most of the Sox players can expect to get thrown at and then lectured about how to play the game the “right way.”

For the Sox, the story is the same. If the starting pitching can keep from giving up 5 runs in the first 2 innings the odds of victory go up exponentially. Just don’t walk anyone not named Merrifield or Soler and things should go swimmingly. Cease and Gonzalez have the perfect lineup to bounce back against and build some confidence and momentum going forward. Keuchel just needs to repeat his performance against the Twins and he should be able to keep the Royals bats at bay.

For the Sox hitters, they’re facing a starter Friday night that’s never pitched above the high A ball level and I guarantee he’s never seen anything like Luis Robert or Yoan Moncada. This is a rotation and bullpen just asking to be pummeled into submission, so a little patience at the plate and they should crumble like the argument of a facebook science denier. Now that I’ve said all that, I fully expect the Sox to have 12 hits total over the course of the series because life is pain and we are in The Bad Place.

Of course, this all could be a moot point thanks to the announcement today that the Cardinals and Brewers game is postponed due to at least two Cards players testing positive for The Rona. All while the Marlins are bussing 20 players positive with the virus home to Miami. Can you imagine actually wanting to stay in Philadelphia instead of going home to Miami because the hospitals are nicer? Welcome to 2020!

 

 

Baseball

Series Recap – Sox Lose 2 of 3 To Cleveland: Ending On A High Note

By Andy Jonathan 1214

BOX SCORES

Game 1: White Sox 3 – Indians 4

Game 2: White Sox 3 – Indians 5

Game 3: White Sox 4 –  Indians 0

 

With the second series for the Sox in the books, some familiar trends are starting to take shape. One good pitching start and two not so great ones, combined with a few…interesting lineup decisions resulted in the Sox dropping 2 of 3 to the Tribe. While the end result is the same, this series at least feels far more positive than the previous thwacking at the hands of the Twins. If you squint really hard, I believe there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. We can discuss further IN THE BULLETS

 

Numbers Don’t Lie

-Let’s get this out of the way right at the top: Nicky Delmonico sucks, and Rick Renteria’s love affair with him is puzzling to the extreme. While I get the desire to mix up the handedness of Sox at bats, in no possible reality is putting him in the cleanup spot an acceptable setup. I don’t care if it’s the 3rd game of a triple header, batting him in front of Luis Robert qualifies as coaching High Crimes and Misdemeanors. If you’re worried about his knees, Yasmani Grandal can still DH in that spot instead of Zack Collins and either put Delmonico at 9 or play Adam Engel. Matchups don’t matter when the guy you’re matching with can’t hit the ball out of the infield. Shit, bat Leury Garcia 4th, at least he’s hit a few dingers.

-Phew. Anyways, Dylan Cease and Carlos Rodon continued the new Sox rotation tradition of not being able to command their fastballs and getting the piss hit out of them in the first 3 innings. Walks were an issue particularly for Rodon, who loaded the bases with them in the 4th during game 2. While my initial reaction to their two starts was a calm and predictable “FUCKING COOP IS TRASH FIRE HIM AND MAKE ONEY GUILLEN PITCHING COACH,” after watching Lucas Giolito pull himself together in his start last night I retract my previous outburst. This season is weird, and a 3 week wind up for pitchers is clearly not enough to get younger starters ready. If Cease and Rodon struggle again with their command in the next starts they have we can revisit. For now I’m willing to chalk it up to rust.

-The Sox bullpen, on the other hand, was nails in this series. Evan Marshall in particular has been pretty much unhittable thus far, and his breaking pitches have “shit yourself” quality. Aaron Bummer even had a good night on Wednesday, vulturing the win after pitching a scoreless 8th. Colome made it interesting in the 9th, but eventually locked down his first save of the new season. More of this, please.

-In true Sox fashion however, we can’t continue to just have nice things in the bullpen. Jimmy Lambert went on the 10 day IL with a “forearm strain,” which for someone returning from Tommy John surgery is never a good thing to hear. Hopefully it really IS just a strain and not a herald of something much much worse.

-While looking at the box scores it would seem that the Sox bats failed against some less than quality pitching, the Indians D had something to do with it as well. Oscar Mercado absolutely robbed Zack Collins of what should have been an RBI triple in the 8th inning of game 2. The Sox also threatened in the 9th in both games of the double header, falling just short. I’m not super concerned about the offense…yet.

-Being 2-4 after the first two series is less than optimal, but looking around the league you can see that shit is super weird right now. The Giants took 2 of 4 with the Dodgers, the Tigers are 4-2 and the fucking Orioles (the team actively trying to get worse) is .500. Yes, 60 games is very short and you can’t fall too far behind but I’m not convinced what we’re seeing around the league at this moment is genuinely how it’s gonna go the entire season. If we even get to finish a whole season, which is questionable at best.

-Next up is the exactly what the doctor ordered, the Royals. With the potential debut of Nomar Mazara sending Delmonico back to the utility role where he belongs combined with Dallas Keuchel taking the bump, Friday SHOULD go a long way in putting some perspective on the first 6 games. If we’re in the same spot Sunday as we are today…the panic button may have to be smushed.

 

Baseball

Series Preview – White Sox at Cleveland: Rona Rodeo

By Andy Jonathan 1149

VS

RECORDS: White Sox 1-2 / Indians 2-1

START TIMES: Mon/Tues 6:10, Wed 5:10

TV: NBCSCH

Too High? What Do You Mean Too High?:   Let’s Go Tribe

 

PROBABLE STARTERS:

Monday: Dylan Cease vs. Aaron Civale

Tuesday: Carlos Rodon vs. Zach Plesac

Wednesday: Lucas Giolito vs. Shane Bieber

 

So after the orbital strike from Nelson Cruz and company this weekend, the Sox pitching staff looks to right the ship versus another sold offensive team (though not to the extent of the Twins). The Tribe come into this series after taking two of three from the moribund Royals on opening weekend. While Cleveland dropped 9 on the heads of the Royals on Sunday, the other two days saw them fight to scratch across 2 runs against the legendary KC rotation. On the pitching side of things the Cleveland Triumvirate of Shane Bieber, Mike Clevinger, and Carlos Carrasco made short work of the Royals bats, only giving up 2 runs between the 3 of them, to go along with 30 (!) strikeouts. Fortunately for the Sox they miss 2/3rds of them, only having to deal with The Biebs on Wednesday.

The offense of the Tribe is still fired by Francisco Lindor (at least until they don’t pay him and he ends up in pinstripes), who along with Jose Ramirez and the rapidly aging Carlos Santana provide most of the pop from the middle of the order. Ramirez had a rough year in 2019, with a steep drop in both his batting average and Slugging percentages from the previous season. His .806 OPS was the lowest since 2015, before his first full season in the league. On the flip side, Santana had an excellent year in 2019 posting a .911 OPS to go along with 34 dingers and 92 RBI. While he continues to slow down on the basepaths and is no longer a viable option behind the dish, Santana is still a force at the plate and his ability to hit for pop from both sides should be something Sox pitching (and Rick Renteria) should keep in mind.

For the Sox, the main storyline is still the 9.00 team ERA heading into this series. While there were a few bright spots over the weekend (Keuchel, Lambert and Marshall to name a few), the bad hovered over the heads of the rotation like a Lucas Giolito fastball exiting the stratosphere. Dylan Cease and the freshly elbow-ed Carlos Rodon get their chance to erase the bad memories of the weekend as they take the bump Monday and Tuesday. The bullpen would appreciate them lasting at least 5 innings each, as the workload thrust upon them Friday and Sunday is not conductive to long term health.

On the offensive side of the field, the Sox are in pretty good shape unless Eloy is still dizzy from running into the LF fence yesterday. If he is unable to go, get ready for an outfield that features Luis Robert (that’s good!), Nicky Delmonico (that’s bad), and Potassium Benzoate (that’s Engel). Can I go now? Yoan Moncada should be in the lineup all 3 games, as all 3 starters are righties and we saw this weekend that he hasn’t missed a step in punishing them. I would also hope Grandal would be hitting in all three as well, giving the Sox 4 lefties to counter the Tribe’s starters.

Realistically there’s no reason the Sox shouldn’t be able to take 2 of 3 here, as the Tribe struggled to find hits against the likes of Brady Singer and Danny Duffey (both of whom are less than Cease and Rodon, though Singer may have a future). If they’re able to neutralize 2 of the 3 hitters mentioned above the Sox bats should be able to provide sufficent offense to propel them to the series win and a good palate cleanse after Sunday’s debacle. The pitching matchup Wednesday could be fun, but only if Giolito finds the command of his fastball. If he’s back to what he was in 2019, the game could be over before the sun goes down.

Of course, none of this will matter if MLB shuts down because of the fucking Miami Marlins and the Rona Party they probably had with a bunch of Philly strippers over the weekend. Why is it ALWAYS Florida?

 

Let’s Go Sox

 

Baseball

Series Recap – Twins Take 2 of 3 From Sox: Nuked From Orbit

By Andy Jonathan 1530

BOX SCORES

Game 1: Twins 10 – Sox 5

Game 2: Twins 3 – Sox 10

Game 3: Twins 14 – Sox 2

 

 

Where to begin? The first series of an abbreviated season finds the White Sox with  1-2 record looking up at the Twins, Indians and Tigers(?!) after the pitching staff got pummeled to the tune of 27 runs in 3 games leaving the team with a cool 9.00 ERA. Reynaldo Lopez left Sunday’s game in the 1st inning with shoulder tightness, and my beautiful boy Eloy left shortly thereafter when he crashed into the LF fence attempting to track down a Nick Cave (sigh) grand slam. While this was a very inauspicious start to a season where the Sox have deigns on a playoff berth all was not totally terrible. For one thing, the Sox don’t see the Twins and their orbital battle station offense again until the end of August so there’s plenty of time for the team ERA to come back to earth. To the bullets!

 

 

NUMBERS DON’T LIE

-Let’s start with the most pressing issue: Nicky Delmonico is probably not a major league starter in even the furthest stretch of your imagination. He went 0-9 with 3 strikeouts and managed to overthrow multiple cutoff men slow pitch softball style on Sunday. More damning for him was that in limited time Adam Engel went 4-6 against mostly right handed pitching and is automatically a defensive upgrade over everyone not named Luis Robert in the outfield. Leury Garcia will be in RF full time when the team stops fucking with Nick Madrigal’s service time, but until that happens I think Engel has earned the right to start. His last  month of the 2019 season carried a .286/.314/.571 slash line with a couple of dingers. It’s time.

-Speaking of Leury Garcia, his start at 2B on Friday night didn’t endear himself to anyone when his failure to turn an easy double play turned into 5 runs for the Twins. He completely redeemed himself with 2 dingers the next day, however, proving that baseball truly is a fickle mistress. He’ll be even better when he’s in right field so Robert doesn’t have to go line to line and play the entire outfield by himself.

-Since we brought him up, Luis Robert had himself an excellent first series. The first MLB pitch he saw in his career he roped a single to LF that had an exit velocity of 115.8 mph. He finished the night 2-4 adding a double. With Saturday being a little forgettable at the plate, Sunday he bombed his first career home run to dead center field off Kenta Maeda. That one merely had an exit velo of 114.4 mph. He also can run down pretty much anything in center field. The kid can not only play, he can fucking roll. It’s gonna be fun to watch.

-As mentioned above, the Sox pitching staff didn’t exactly slather themselves in glory this weekend with the exception of Dallas Keuchel. He kept the Twins bats off the board until the 6th inning Saturday, leaving the game with 2 on base. Steve Cishek promptly tacked them onto Keuchel’s ERA, serving up a cookie to Nelson Cruz that he did not miss. Other than that little blip Keuchel looked very solid, proving himself a great addition to a rotation that suddenly needs it.

-With a shitload of runs being scored across the league this weekend it’s pretty obvious that the 3 week mini camp was not enough to get most major league pitchers not named Bieber up to speed. I’m not super worried about Lucas Giolito yet, but a good start against the Tribe on Wednesday would alleviate a lot of that tension.

-Yoan Moncada dominated Twins pitching the first two games, which makes Renteria’s decision to give him the day off Sunday particularly puzzling, especially with a precious off day after the series against the Indians. If you don’t want him playing the field after returning from COVID that’s fine, but statistically speaking you’d rather have his slash line up there against Maeda than Jose Abreu’s.

-Next up is the team the Sox will be battling with the rest of the way for the expanded playoff spot, the Indians. Giolito and Bieber on Wednesday should be a good time, and the Sox should be able to take 2 of 3 against a team that’s not on the same offensive plane of existence as the Twins. Get it done, and move on to the Royals.

Baseball

Series Preview – Twins At White Sox: LFG

By Andy Jonathan 1489

   Twins VS.

 

2019 Series Record: Twins 12 – Sox 6

Gametimes: Friday 7:10, Saturday/Sunday 1:10

TV: NBCSCH (Which I guess is the new branding for NBCSN.)

Circle This, Bert: Puckett’s Pond

Probable Starters

Friday: Jose Berrios vs. Lucas Giolito

Saturday: Rich Hill vs. Dallas Keuchel

Sunday: Kenta Maeda vs. Reynaldo Lopez

 

Four months later than it was supposed to be, opening day is finally here. We’ve gone over ad nauseam the threats that COVID still poses to the season, as evidenced by Juan Soto testing positive just before first pitch yesterday against the Yankees. Sam even talked about the insanity of it all over at his new home yesterday. Yet despite all this, baseball really is back for the time being and if there’s Sox baseball to be watched, I’m going to watch it.

Which brings us to their first opponent of the season, and the biggest obstacle standing between them and their first playoff birth in what seems like an eternity: The Fucking Minnesota Twins. As noted above, the Twins pretty much dominated the Sox last season taking 2/3rds of the games in pretty handy fashion. The Twins bats (which had the kind of pop only seen in The Show 2020 while playing the Orioles on Rookie) were way too much for anyone not named Lucas Giolito. The Sox offense, while infinitely improved from the season before, still struggled to get the clutch hits that could’ve leveled the playing field against their hated rivals.

So what’s changed since last season? For the Sox, the addition of Yasmani Grandal should go a loooong way to help the young staff against the plutonium bats of Minnesota. Dallas Keuchel should also help keep the ball on the ground instead of plonking off the side of the giant goose head in right field. Oh, and some kid named Luis Robert will be playing in his first MLB game tonight. You might have heard of him, or seen this ridiculous home run he hit while falling on his ass the other day:

 

For the Twins, their attempt to surround staff ace Jose Berrios with something other than a bunch of reclamation projects ended with adding Kenta Maeda (who is good, but has spent his last few years coming out of the Dodgers bullpen) and Rich Hill (who’s fastball routinely topped out at 72 mph before he had major elbow surgery in the offseason). The Twins also decided that they didn’t hit the ball far enough last season so they added Josh Donaldson to the mix. Donaldson had a nice bounceback season last year after signing a one year “prove it” deal with the Braves, but isn’t exactly the piece that the Twins should’ve been looking for after their rotation was pummeled by the Yankees in the postseason.

Shockingly, Byron Buxton is already hurt after tripping over the mysterious lump in center at Target Field where the Twins may or may not have buried the bodies of Kirby Puckett’s accusers. He appears to have dodged major injury, but it’s probably only a matter of time before he runs into the outfield wall and all his limbs fly off. Miguel Sano had a case of the Rona, but (much like Yoan Moncada) appears to be ready to go this weekend. His move to 1b will certainly help a Twins infield that ranked in the middle of the pack defensively last season. Max Kepler appears ready to make the leap into the upper echelon of American League outfielders, as long as Buxton doesn’t detonate too close to him.

With the season being such a compressed mess, to have any hope of the playoffs the Sox have to start off on a good note. Taking 2 out of 3 against their biggest rival in the division would go a long way to setting the tone. Berrios has ace level stuff, but tailed off drastically at the end of last season. Rich Hill can be gotten to, and if the Sox are patient they can wait out Maeda and make it to a bullpen that at times was pretty shaky last year.

We all know the kind of pop the Twins bats have, so Giolio, Keuchel and Lopez have their work cut out for them. The Sox bullpen is still a work in progress, so the longer those 3 can go the better. Grandal should be able to provide some much needed framing strikes for Reynaldo Lopez, so let’s hope we get the dominant version of him that keeps his fastball at the top of the zone where it’s nigh unhittable.

Questions abound for the Sox this season, hopefully a few of them get positive answers this weekend against the Twins. The sprint to the World Series begins now. Let’s Go Sox.