Baseball

Series Recap – Sox Split With Yankees: The Boulder Rolleth Down Again

By Andy Jonathan 1223 0

Game 1: White Sox 5 – Yankees 4

Game 2: White Sox 10 – Yankees 2

Game 3: White Sox 4 – Yankees 8

Game 4: White Sox 3 – Yankees 10

 

 

This series against the Yankees this Father’s Day weekend was the entire season in a microcosm.  You had the dizzying highs of watching Giolito twirl another gem, Eloy bombing 2 HR in a game, or Leury Garcia win an 11 pitch battle against Adam Ottavino to send the game winning home run over the right field fence.  Then you had the terrifying lows of the back 3/5ths of the worst starting rotation in the major leagues being unable to find the strike zone, to Ricky Renteria’s mystifying lineup decisions to getting a taste of .500 and having it snatched right back from you.  There have been plenty of times in the past I’ve been frustrated with the White Sox front office, but their insistence on filling the rotation with trash heap rejects might be the worst it’s ever been.

To the bullets

NUMBERS DON’T LIE

 

 

– Watching Leury Garcia and Tim Anderson take game one by the nuts and drag it over to the White Sox side of the win column was a thing of beauty.  Timmy went down and popped a pitch that he had no business getting to and put it over the center field fence to tie the game when Nova tried his best to gift wrap it to NY.  Then watching Leury go down 0-2 to Adam Ottavino (who is no joke in the reliever department) and fight off 8 more pitches before he finally got one he could do something with was just awesome to behold.  I see Leury as a Ben Zobrist type of player where he will be in the field every game, just not in the same position.  Fangraphs has him at a 2.6 defensive WAR which is highest on the whole damn team by more  than a full point (McCann is next at 1.2).  For that price, he’s well worth the roster spot.

– Eloy is blazing hot right now, as he now sits with 11 home runs.  That doesn’t seem like much, but when you consider the fact that he’s hit 8 of those 11 since May 20th that picture becomes a little clearer.  On top of that, he’s seeing the ball better in the box and laying off more and more breaking pitches out of the zone.  His K rate is still kinda high, but if he’s averaging one tater every three games I’ll take it.  Plus the kid is hilariously awkward on TV:

– Lucas Giolito wasn’t at his sharpest in this game, but he certainly did enough to keep the Yankee bats at bay until the Sox could respond to the Luke Voit solo shot he gave up in the first.  He walked 4 on the night, which is the most he’s had since the last time he faced the Yankees back in April.  The fact that you’d pitch a little more carefully to this team speaks more to the heavy bats of the Yankees (Now even heavier with the acquisition of Edwin Encarnacion from the Mariners) than to a lack of control from Gio.

-Kelvin Herrera came in game one and struck out the side in the 8th to set the table for Aaron Bummer’s first save of the year. Apparently Colome was not available after throwing almost 40 pitches in his 5 out save the previous game.  Bummer looked competent in the role, which may be where he ends up if Hahn decides to move Colome for another Tommy John surgery in the making at the trade deadline.

-Reynaldo Lopez really only had one bad inning in his start, but it was enough to do him in.  He’s still not attacking the zone enough, but his underlying talent and promise continue to merit him a start every 5 days.  It’s not like there’s anyone else to take the job from him anyways.

-Yonder Alonso has played 5 games in the month of June and gone 1-15 in that span.  Jon Jay is dead in a ditch somewhere, and Manny Machado and Bryce Harper are not here.  What a bang up free agency season for Rick Hahn (OK fine James McCann has been awesome, but there is not a single person out there who thought he was going to be anything other than 1 game a week).

– O-Driss went from being a very small, novelty pumpkin to a gigantic first prize in a county fair one with his start on Sunday.  Happy Fathers Day to all those Sox Dads out there who had to watch that steaming pile of shit that he shoveled out there.  I know the Yankees fans appreciated it.

– Next up are the 2 games up in Wrigley against the Cubs.  Who’s pumped to try and take back the Crosstown Cup Sponsored By BP Oil and Probably Papa John’s Pizza or Maybe Ankin’s Law Office With Ozzie Guillen?

-Sisyphus White Sox meme idea courtesy of @TheBennettK

 

 

Baseball

Series Preview – Yankees at White Sox: Blood Money

By Andy Jonathan 1215 0

  VS  

Records:  Yankees 41-25  White Sox:  32-34

Gametimes: Thurs/Fri/Sat 7:10pm.  Sunday: 1:10

TV: NBCSN

The Evil Empire: PinstripeAlley

Probable Starters:

Thursday:  JA Happ vs Ivan Nova

Friday:  CC Sabathia vs Lucas Giolito

Saturday: TBD vs Reynaldo Lopez

Sunday: Masahiro Tanaka vs Odrisamer Despaigne

PROBABLE LINEUPS

YANKEES

1. DJ LeMahieu (2B)

2. Aaron Hicks (CF)

3. Luke Voit (DH)

4. Gary Sanchez (C)

5. Didi Gregorius (SS)

6. Clint Frazier (RF)

7. Kendrys Morales (1B)

8. Gio Urshela (3B)

9. Brett Gardner (LF)

 

SOX

1.  Leury Garcia (CF)

2. Tim Anderson (SS)

3. Jose Abreu (1B)

4. James McCann (C)

5. Eloy Jimenez (LF)

6. Yonder Alonso (DH) (SIGH)

7. Jose Rondon (3B)

8. Yolmer Sanchez (2B)

9. Ryan Cordell (RF)

 

The Evil Empire comes to town for a 4 game set this weekend, with the Yankees splitting a double header against their crosstown counterparts the Mets this past Tuesday, with them banging out 16 runs between the two games.  The Yankees haven’t had as much luck with the win column in June, constantly flip flopping with the Rays for first place in the division.  That hasn’t stopped them from hitting the shit out of the ball during that span, however.

This is a different Yankees team than the one that visited back in April.  While Giancarlo “Mike” Stanton and Aaron Judge are still on the IL along with Luis Severino the rest of the team has mostly gotten healthier.  The replacements for the ones that haven’t continue to hit at a prodigious pace, with DJ Lethal LeMahieu leading the way with his .316 average and 47 RBIs.  Doughboy Luke Voit and Gary Sanchez are pummeling the ball right now, with a combined 37 home runs between the two of them.  With the return of Didi Gregorious to the lineup after Tommy John surgery there aren’t too many weak spots in the lineup as it stands right now other than Brett Gardner, and he’ll get punted to the bench when Stanton comes back in the next week or two.

As far as their pitching staff goes, this unit is currently anchored down by Masa Tanaka who currently has an ERA that sits in the mid 3’s.  James Paxton had strung together a few solid starts in a row before the wheels came off against the Mets on Tuesday.  He didn’t make it out of the 3rd inning while giving up 6 runs.  He got booed off the mound by the New York “faithful”, and may have his turn in the rotation skipped as a result.  Personal favorite CC Sabathia is also still here, the retirement train still chugging along with a 3.66 ERA.  JA Happ is still struggling to string together decent starts, and he stands as the Sox best chance to pull out an easy win this weekend.

As for the Pale Hose, after their split with the Nationals earlier this week they still sit 2 games under .500, with their odds of getting past that not looking great.  With both Lopez and Nova on tap this weekend, they’re going to need to have better control than they’ve shown of late if they want to see the 5th inning, Nova in particular.  Giolito gets his sternest test to date against this lineup of mashers and it will be interesting to see how he responds.  O-driss gets his second start in a Sox jersey, and if he can replicate what he did against the Nats on Monday night, I’ll be shocked.

 

This could be ugly…

Baseball

Yankees Spotlight: The CC Sabathia Farewell Tour

By Andy Jonathan 1258 0

Just gonna get this out of the way right at the front.  I like CC Sabathia, always have.  When he came up with the Indians back in 2001, I loved the way he pitched.  He just didn’t give a shit.  Walked out to the mound with his jersey 12% tucked in, hat askew, and just threw smoke.  This was back when the Sox teams were nothing to sneeze at, too.  Frank Thomas, Jermaine Dye, Jim Thome.  It didn’t matter who was up there, he just toed the rubber and THREW.  Much like Johan Santana with the Twins back then, you couldn’t help be impressed.  Those opening years his ERA was always hovering right around 4ish, but you never seemed to notice because the Indians rosters back then were hilariously loaded.  Shit, Cliff Lee had a 5.53 ERA in 2004 and STILL won 14 games.  CC was different, however.  You could always just see that this dude was destined for something greater than the Mistake By The Lake.

As his career moved on, this became clear.  The last 3 years in Cleveland you could see the switch flip.  He became a pure workhorse, winning 48 games between 2006-08, and going the distance in 20(!!!) of them.  His ERA went down almost a full point by the time he was traded to the Brewers at the deadline in 2008, and he tried his damnedest to drag Milwaukee to the promised land (nope).  After that, it was time for him to get paid, and that’s exactly what happened.  The Evil Empire signed him to a 7 year deal worth $161 million, the largest ever given to a pitcher at the time.  He responded by winning 19 games that season with a 3.30 ERA and helped the Yank to their first World Series trophy in almost a decade.

Usually when a player, especially a pitcher, signs a wacky deal like the one CC signed, the odds of him finishing that contract with the same team are pretty damn low.  Not only did Sabathia finish that contract, but signed two extensions after it.  During the 2013-15 seasons, injuries began to plague the big man.  This really isn’t a surprise when you look at the innings he pitched up until this point.  He battled through them and came back healthy in 2017, in which he had something of a renaissance.  He started 26 games that year, racked up 14 wins and 150 innings.  The Yankees believed (rightly so) that proper management of his innings, combined with the introduction of a cutter to his repertoire after years of a mostly fastball/slider 1-2 punch would extend his shelf life. It worked, as the now 39 year old CC is one of only 7 other pitchers to ever win 100 games with two different teams.  He missed some time at the beginning of this season, mostly because doctors were putting a stent into his heart, but he still made it back in time to beat the Sox in April.

As his career winds down to a close, all you have to do is  look at his career statistics and you’ll see a six time all star, and a first ballot hall of famer.  He’s won 248 games and counting, struck out over 3,000 batters in 3450 innings, and won the AL Cy Young in 2007.  He won a world series in 2009, and been nothing but classy his entire career.  There’s really nothing else for him to do, except retire on his own terms, which I have the utmost respect for him doing.  Despite him playing exclusively for teams that I despise, I’ll truly miss seeing him pitch.  Just not when he was pitching against the Sox.

Baseball

Series Recap: Sox Take 2 of 3 from Royals – Bare Minimum Edition

By Andy Jonathan 1180 0

Game 1: Sox 4 – Royals 6

Game 2: Lucas Giolito 2 – Royals 0

Game 3: Sox 5 – Royals 2

 

Rarely this season do the White Sox win a series and I’m left slightly disappointed, but that’s right where the front office of this team has left me.  There’s no reason that the Sox shouldn’t have been able to sweep the Royals this weekend, or at least split with the Nats a few days ago.  Had they decided to upgrade their starting rotation instead of going dumpster diving for Manny Banuelos or Ivan Nova, or even just called up Dylan Cease the wild card could be right there for the taking.  As we sit right now the Sox remain 3.5 games out of the last AL playoff spot, and you can’t tell me that adding a starter like Gio Gonzalez or god forbid Dallas Keuchel wouldn’t have given the Sox a better shot at playing meaningful baseball in September and October.  God forbid we deviate from whatever nebulous “plan” that Rick Hahn has for the future of the team, regardless of however many elbows explode off the starters like tree branches in a hurricane.

Anyways, to the bullets.

NUMBERS DON’T LIE

 

-Game one was where Nova’s inability to get through a batting order 3 times jarringly came to light.  He had been serviceable up until the middle of the 6th inning, when the Royals started their conga line around the bases.  He was unable to generate any soft contact, and it seemed like his velocity dipped as well.  He was let off the hook by Tim Anderson and Yoan Moncada who managed to tie the game at 4 the next inning.  It didn’t last, as it seems the clock has struck midnight of the usefulness of Jace Fry in the major leagues.

-Game two…I mean…Lucas Giolito is a damn ass Man.  He currently leads every pitcher in the AL in WAR thus far this season.  Honestly, going from what he was last year to what he is now is just mind boggling.  He went 7.2 innings on Saturday, striking out 11.  All of his 11 K’s in this game happened in the first 5 innings, with him striking out the side in the 2nd, 3rd and 5th innings.  In his last 7 starts, he has an .088 ERA and opposing hitters are batting .146 against him.  Wow.

-Hey look, more dingers from Eloy on the road!  All told this series Jimenez went 5-12 with two dingers, one of which only came down because it hit the fucking International Space Station first.  The rough estimate was 471 feet, and if it wasn’t for the Royals stupid looking scoreboard it would’ve rolled another 120 more.  He’s looking better and better, and that can only mean good things (less of Yonder Alonso, who sucks).  He even laid off a few 0-2 breaking pitches, and that was almost as impressive as his nuclear warhead on Sunday (not really).

-Moncada is hitting again, currently on a 10 game tear where he’s had 15 hits, 5 of which have gone for extra bases.  He’s still a much better left handed hitter, as Garbage Monarch Ned Yost has yet to figure out, but as long as he’s hitting to all fields with power I’m here for it.

-Reynaldo Lopez had his first good outing in what seems like ages.  He went 6 today, while striking out 8.  Soler touched him up early for a solo shot then he really settled down and worked the zone with his fastball, which had more life on it today.  His ERA is still an unsightly 6.21 but the raw stuff is there.  It seems like he has better focus of the zone when Castillo is behind the dish, which is a shame because the Sox should move him at the first opportunity.  Hopefully Lopez can string together a few quality starts here, as confidence is a thing with him.  Baby steps.

-Kelvin Herrera looked better today, even though he gave up a run.  He was getting squeezed by home plate ump Paul Emmel, who had a pretty good zone up until that point.  I’m putting this one in the plus column.

-Next up is the Nats again, which will see the return of an old enemy in Anibal Sanchez.  The Sox miss Strasburg and mouth breathing psycho Max Scherzer, but catch Patrick Corbin instead.  He’s had a rough go of it lately, getting knocked around by the Padres and Reds in his last few starts.   Who will start for the Sox?  Who the fuck knows!  Rumor that Hahn is bringing in Odrisamer Despaigne off the trash heap for at least one of the starts.  Anthony Rendon has a career .669 average against him with 400 home runs, so this should go well.  At least the nice folks in Charlotte still get to watch Dylan Cease.

Baseball

Series Recap – Sox Swept In DC: Swiss Army Fail

By Andy Jonathan 1182 0

Game 1: Sox 5 – Nats 9

Game 2: Sox 4 – Nats 6

 

That’s what I get for being overly positive in my previous recap.

The Sox came into this shortened series against the Nats on quite the roll, having won 6 of their last 7.  In those 6 games, they found quite a few different ways to win games.  In this 2 game series, they found a bunch of ways to lose them, unfortunately aided and abetted by their coach.  God, the only thing dumber than sac bunts in baseball are the “unwritten rules.”   To the bullets.

 

NUMBERS DON’T LIE

 

– As I mentioned above, the Sox created ways to lose these two games.  In the first, it was a complete and utter meltdown by Reynaldo Lopez.  He was staked to a 5-0 lead by some nifty hitting in the first two innings, not the least of which was Yoan’s 11th dinger of the year which was an absolute BOMB.  In addition to that it was some timely hitting by (who else) James McCann and surprisingly Eloy, who worked the count in his favor by laying off some curveballs just off the outside of the plate forcing Strasburg to come inside with a fastball.  He laced it into the outfield for a run scoring single.  I’d like to see a lot more of this from him, it gives me hope.

-Sadly, the first 2 innings were the only ones that featured any offense from the Sox as 6 of their 8 hits were contained within.  After that it was a parade of soft contact against a tired Strasburg and the Nats dumpster fire of a bullpen.  They didn’t even really threaten again until the 9th, but that fizzled out quickly with Abreu popping out in the infield.

– Reynaldo Lopez just didn’t have it tonight.  Even though he got through the first 2 innings unscathed he threw a ton of pitches, and the cracks burst open the next 3.  Nothing he threw around the edges of the plate was close enough for a strike call, and the fastballs he did throw well caught way too much of the plate, as evidenced by the fact that Rendon positively ate his lunch with 5 RBIs off a double and a dinger.  This is 2 shitty starts in a row for Rey, both featuring him not being able to command his fastball with any degree.

– The 2nd game was a literal comedy of errors, as the Sox committed blunder after blunder in the field, most of which resulted in runs.  Dylan Covey didn’t pitch too poorly and deserved better than what his D gave him.  Yolmer made an error cutting in front of Tim Anderson, then Tim responded by dropping a pop fly in the infield.  The Sox looked like they wanted nothing more than to leave DC as fast as they could, and Renteria helped them along as best he could.

-Jose Abreu and Wellington Castillo tied the game for the Sox in the top of the 8th with a pair of home runs, which held up until the top of the 9th.  Timmy led off with a single, which brought Ryan Cordell to the plate.  Renteria promptly had him lay down a bunt to try and move Tim into scoring position.  Naturally it was a terrible bunt that ALMOST turned into a double play, but Cordell barely beat the throw to first.  Rondon laced a single that Robles had trouble with and would’ve resulted in Timmy most likely being on 3rd with 1 out, but instead it was 1st and 2nd.  Ended up being a moot point since All Around Good Guy Sean Doolittle struck out both Leury Garcia and Yoan to end the inning.

– Not to be outdone by his previous Galaxy Brained decisions, Renteria brought Colome in even though it was a non-save situation.  He proceeded to throw 7 straight balls, then gave up a walk off home run to Turner, bringing this short but brutal series to an end.

– The Sox now sit 3 games below .500, and need a sweep against the Royals to get back to where they should be.  So I’m guessing they’ll lose 2 of 3.  Fuck.

 

 

Baseball

Series Wrap – Sox Take 3 of 4 From Tribe: Feelin It

By Andy Jonathan 1193 0

White Sox 10, Indians 4

White Sox 6, Indians 1

White Sox 2, Indians 5

Lucas Giolito and Tim Anderson 2 – Indians 0

 

Is…is this what pride in your team feels like?  It’s been so long, I suppose I’d forgotten how nice it was.  While the Sox still have quite a ways to go hauling themselves up the side of the Sisyphean-esque mountain that Sox management has created for itself, this is a nice marker for a team that may just have deigns on competing this year.  Even if (when) the bottom drops out and the boulder rolls back over them, it’s cool for a weekend to own a team that has knocked their collective junk in the dirt the last 5 years.   Make no mistake, while the Sox are climbing up one side of the mountain it seems the Indians are picking up speed on the other side, hurtling down towards the burning shores of the Cuyahoga.

Let’s talk about some stuff, shall we?

 

NUMBERS DON’T LIE

 

– If you would’ve told me two weeks ago that Manny Banuelos and Dylan Covey would outduel Carlos Carrasco and Trevor Bauer I would’ve laughed and pushed you into the street (I’m a terrible person).  Night one saw Carrasco unable to keep his breaking pitches out of the zone, resulting in quite a few of them going back the opposite direction at speeds normally associated with satellites falling out of orbit.  Banuelos did just enough to keep the noodle-armed tribe off the basepaths and in the field, then let his offense do the rest.  Abreu, Alonso and Eloy had 7 RBIs between the 3 of them, with Jiminez breaking the ice with a 2 run double.  It’s nice to see Alonso contribute something to the equation, but he still shouldn’t be hitting fucking 4th.

 

-Night 2 saw the Covey give up a lead off bomb to Francisco Lindor (God it’s gonna suck when the Cubs sign him) that killed a Super Ropes vendor in the right-center seats.  This had me primed for another Covey Special, where I can turn the game off in the 2nd inning (the outcome predetermined) and fire up Mortal Kombat on my PS4.  I decided to keep it on a little longer, and was rewarded by the other side of the lineup jumping Bauer for 6 runs (2 earned) and making the Indians pay for some seriously shoddy D.  Covey ended up getting a quality start on the evening, plus his first win since August of 2018(!).  I’m happy for him, but if this team has any interest in making this season more than just a stop on the Eternal Rebuild Train, then he can’t be the 5th starter much longer.  Time for me to start beating the Marcus Stroman drum, eh?

 

– Game 3 was the lone blight of the weekend, with the Sox repaying the Cleveland error-fest of the previous night with the type of base running normally seen when I’m playing MLB The Show shitfaced in my basement.  The Sox ran into a double play with the Indians not even having to throw a pitch.  If you really wanna see it, you can watch the video here, but I’m not going to waste any more time on it other than to say that Yolmer and Tilson know what they did, and they better not fucking do it again.  The Sox stranded a shitload of players, Renteria left Nova in too long and pitched Herrera too much.  Fart.

 

– Game 4 was another masterful performance by Lucas Giolito, and another blast by Tim Anderson.  Seriously, I’m running out of superlatives as to just how good Gio has looked these last few outings, so instead just watch this curveball over and over again.  It’s hypnotic.  Gio ended up going 7.1 innings, with Bummer and Colome finishing off the Tribe for the series win.  The only downer on the day was Eloy striking out in each plate appearance today, still seeing a steady diet of breaking pitches.  I’m not ready to call him Pedro Cerrano yet, but the similarities are getting somewhat striking.  I still have faith he’s gonna get his timing down and send Alonso to the bottom 3rd of the order where he belongs.  Timmy continues to be the most entertaining thing since Ozzie Guillen, and his pose after he murdered the cutter from Plesac (who actually pitched pretty well) made me cackle like a mental patient.  More please.

 

Next up is a quick 2 game series against the Nats.   Thankfully the Sox manage to dodge Stephen Strasburg, who is back to his old dominating self.  The Sox currently sit 1 game out of .500 and 2 games out of the 2nd wild card spot.  The Nats are a beatable shitshow right now, then it’s another helping of the Kansas City Trash Goblins.  There’s no reason for the Sox to be anything but at least 2 games above .500 by the end of the week.  In the past, this is where the trap door would open and the Sox would plummet to the depths of the AL.  I have a feeling this time might be different.  ONWARD!

 

 

Baseball

Series Wrap – Sox Sweep Royals: KC Trash Edition

By Andy Jonathan 1292 0

 

Game 1 Box: Sox 2, Royals 1

Game 2 Box: Sox 4, Royals 3

Game 3 Box: Sox 8, Royals 7

 

 

The Sox managed to sweep a moribund KC team this week with some excellent Giolito pitching, solid offense in games 2 and 3, and a little help from Mother Nature in game one.  What does it all mean?  In the grand scheme of this season, not a whole hell of a lot.  The Royals are intentionally bad, with not much in their future that’s going to change the situation (unless watching Billy Hamilton bat .185 is your thing), and the Sox are 3 starters away from having an average MLB rotation.  That being said, the series was pretty fun, with some added spiciness tonight to add to an already simmering Hate Stew for these two teams.

 

TO THE BULLETS

 

-RIGHT TO THE SPICE!  With Tim Anderson missing the first two games because of a sore wrist, it looked like we might not get a continuation of the shenanigans that occurred the last time these two teams met.  That ended up not being the case, as Tim was in the lineup tonight and the first pitch from Glenn Sparkman sailed right over Timmy’s eyebrows and off the visor of his batting helmet.  Granted this was probably not an intentional pitch (it was a changeup that Sparkman lost the grip on and not a 4 seamer), but with the officiating crew well aware of the dumb shit that went down a few weeks ago, home plate ump Mark Carlson wasted no time sending the moon faced Sparkman to the showers.  This prompted Ned Yost to stop digging in the dugout trash long enough to come out and vomit some old timey coachins on home plate, but Carlson was not to be swayed.  Much to Anderson’s credit he kept his cool and walked down to first, later to get the last laugh in the bottom of the 8th, when he laced a double off a good Ian Kennedy slider to put the Sox ahead for good.

 

-Timmy shouldn’t have had to be so heroic however, but the continued mismanagement of the pitching staff by Renteria lead to the Sox blowing a 7-1 lead.  Going into the 6th, it was pretty clear that Rey Lopez was running out of gas.  That combined with the dreaded 3rd time through the order lead to him being charged with 4 runs in the inning.  Lopez ended up going 5.2 and throwing 118 pitches, 32 of which came in the 6th when it was clear he didn’t have it anymore.  Jace Fry and Marshall came in and performed admirably, but then it was KHT (Kelvin Herrera Time) and all of a sudden the game was tied.  It wouldn’t shock me to see Herrera on the IL here shortly, as he hasn’t been right since he tweaked his back awhile ago.

 

-Alex Colome had himself a heck of a series, getting the win in the continuation of game one yesterday, then getting the save later that night.  Tonight he was called on again to close out the win as well, pitching a solid 9th for his 11th save of the year.  With the emergence of James McCannonballs as a legit (at least for now) backstop, the trade that brought Colome here can be viewed as one of Hahn’s better moves in the past few offseasons.

 

-Lucas Giolito is now officially A THING.  It looked like his start against the Astros might have been a mirage if you watched the 1st inning in game two.  He started out pretty wild, walking one and plunking one, then giving up a bomb to Alex “Soul Stone” Gordon.  After that shot, Gio pulled his shit together and mowed the Royals down for the next 7 innings, never throwing more than 16 pitches in an inning.  His changeup is a thing of beauty, and his fastball has some pretty hilarious movement on it.  Top that off with 2 more offspeed pitches and he looks like a legitimate “top of the rotation” kinda guy.  To think this time last year I watched him give up 8 runs in 1.2 innings to a god awful Orioles team.  It’s a very welcome change.

 

-Jose Abreu and Yoan Moncada are hitting for power again!  They’re both still striking out too much, but I have a feeling once the weather settles into a warm pattern those folks sitting in the first 10 rows of the OF need to pay attention.  Moncada’s dinger tonight was also opposite field, which is awesome to see him taking what the pitcher is giving him.

 

-Eloy is still seeing nothing but a steady diet of sliders and curveballs.  When he gets his eyes timed with his wrists he’s gonna be right back to murdering the ball, mark my words.

 

-Leury Garcia started out the year with a brutal stretch, but over the past few weeks has turned things around completely.  He’s a Marwin Gonzalez-type player, with value all over the diamond and can also provide a little offense.  His robbery of Jorge Soler tonight was a well-timed thing of beauty, resulting in Soler tipping his cap to the diminutive center fielder.  I still don’t care for him leading off, but you can do a lot worse than him right now.

 

-Yonder Alonso is now batting .172, which is exactly what you want out of your fucking cleanup hitter.  /wanking motion.

 

-Next up is a 4 game series with the Tribe, with 3 of those starts featuring some form of Banuelos, Covey or Nova.  I’m sure Jose Ramierez will be hitting .340 by Monday.

 

 

 

Baseball

Series Wrap – Sox Take 2 of 3 From Blue Jays: The Long Slow Climb Out Of Hell

By Andy Jonathan 1212 0

This is a little more what I expected from this White Sox team: to be competitive against the bottom rung of the AL, and to show a little fight but ultimately get mushed by the top.  This very easily could’ve been a sweep against the light hitting Jays team were it not for 2 bad pitches by Dylan Covey, but boy were those 2 pitches shitty.  The Sox still have a ways to go before I will consider this rebuild on track, but a few more performances like this out of Giolito and I might allow myself to feel hope again.

 

 

YOU GOT A BULLET(S) IN YOUR HEAD

 

-Dylan Covey’s start was…not great.  The problems that plagued him last season (high pitch count, no punchout pitch) were on full display in the first few innings.  He’s a sinkerball pitcher who’s pitches aren’t sinking right now.  They either fly out of the zone, or just sit there belt high, begging to be pummeled into orbit.  That’s exactly what Randal “No Blanket Like A Wet Blanket” Grichuk did in the 1st inning Friday night.  Covey couldn’t get past strike 2 on anyone, and Grichuk made him pay.  Teoscar Hernandez did the same thing the following inning, and that was about it.  If Covey is going to be filling in for Carlos Rodon’s shredded elbow until Sox management decides Dylan Cease has dominated AAA enough to make an appearance at the big league level, then he’s gonna have to figure out how to get that sinker down, otherwise I’m just gonna skip each of his starts.  There’s only so much beer in my fridge, and it can’t handle Covey pitching every five days.

 

-Ivan Nova’s start, however, was pleasant enough.  Basically a repeat of his start against Cleveland, Nova worked both sides of the plate effectively keeping the light hitting Toronto team off balance.  The offense, perhaps worried that he’d melt down like a popsicle in a toddler’s hand, banged out 9 runs of support for him.  Quality starts are nice, more please.

 

-Speaking of the offense, James McCann is now officially a thing.  He went 6 for 9 (nice) in the series, and gunned down Vladdy Jr’s attempted larceny on Saturday.  It actually made me swear out loud when a Danny Jansen foul nailed him right in the McCannonballs (Hat tip to @WriteSox for that one).  It’s getting to the point now where there’s really no excuses to play Wellington Castillo much anymore, not that it’ll stop Renteria from doing so.

 

-Lucas Giolito is making a very strong case to be a large part of this rebuild.  His changeup looks like a completely new pitch, and it’s been there for him even when the fastball hasn’t.  Case in point the first 2 innings today where he couldn’t spot the fastball at all, but the change was still there to get him the strike when he needed it.  His FIP and BABIP are where you’d want them to be (3.45 and .301), so there’s no reason to believe that he can’t keep this up.  That being said, I’d like to see him take another turn at the Red Sox, or the Cubs for that matter as a true test of his stuff.  I’m very optimistic, however.

 

-Yonder Alonso hit a dinger, but he still sucks.

 

-Tim Anderson ALSO smoked a dinger to center field, but it did not lead to a bolt of lightning crashing through the TavaresDome and striking down Randal “Mayonnaise” Grichuk like I had hoped.  Next time.

 

Two games against the Tribe this week, which might also feature the return of ELOY to the lineup.  That would be nice, as I like Charlie Tilson as a 4th outfielder, but his 32 MPH exit velocity is not exactly MLB material.

 

 

Baseball

Series Wrap – Sox Split With Tribe 2-2: Yay?

By Andy Jonathan 1098 0

This series had a little bit of everything, from the Sox offense pounding Twitter Warrior Trevor Bauer, to Lucas Giolito morphing into early 2000’s Johan Santana, to a crushing 9th inning loss, to a soggy, depressing Banuelos-ing.  Despite the Sox merely splitting with Cleveland, there was a whole lot of good that happened in this series and just a little bit of bad.  Lets unpack it all, shall we?

 

TO THE BULLETS!

 

THE GOOD:

-Sox starting pitching reeled off 3 quality starts in a row, which if you’d looked at the Sox collective starting ERA you would have figured was a statistical impossibility.  Chevy Nova, Lucas Giolito and Rey Lopez went back to back to back and brought hope to those of us still paying attention to this season.  Nova was efficient with his stuff on Monday scattering 8 hits through 7 innings with a mere one walk.  Lucas Giolito found his changeup the next night, going 7.1 very strong innings while striking out 8 members of the Tribe.  His fastball was working as well, keeping the Indians flat footed while working both sides of the plate.  Jace Fry did his best to piss it all away, but Alex Colome came in with 2 outs in the 8th to complete the first shutout of the season for the Pale Hose.  The 3rd night featured what I thought was the most encouraging start I’ve seen out of Reynaldo Lopez all year, as he very clearly didn’t have his best stuff but ground his way through 6 innings, only giving up 3 and keeping the Sox in the game.  Last season would’ve seen him have 80 pitches by the 4th inning and another long night from the bullpen, but this time out he made the best use of what he had and kept his head in the game.  We’ve seen what he’s like at his best, and if this is close to his worst I’ll take that all day long.

– The Sox bats came alive in the first game, sending Trevor Bauer to an early exit.  James McCann continues to be a wonderful surpirse on both sides of the plate, and Yoan Moncada broke out of his slump in a big way with 4 RBIs.  Leury Garcia continued his hot ways as well, bringing his average up to almost .300.  The only person not to get into the fun was Jose Abreu, but he made up for it 2 nights later, immolating a Justin Bieber hanger at an estimated 410 feet.

-Alex Colome is the most exciting closer the Sox have had since Bobby Jenks packed up his churros and headed East.  His slider is nasty, and his cut fastball has the type of spin normally associated with celestial bodies.  He’s gonna blow a save eventually, but for now I’m gonna enjoy the ride right up until the Sox trade him to Boston.

THE BAD:

-Jace Fry continues to be a not great professional pitching person.  He tried to give away Lucas Giolito’s gem night 2, and ended up with the loss night 3 since he was the person who put Lindor on base before Kelvin Herrera surrendered the game to Jose Ramierez.  Speaking of Kelvin, he hasn’t looked comfortable on the mound in a few games now making me wonder if his back issue runs a little bit deeper than “just some stiffness.”

-Ricky Renteria’s lineups are turning into performance art, as he’s got Tim “AL Player Of The Month” Anderson batting behind Delmonico, Tilson and Yonder Alonso against right handers.  He’s also got Moncada leading off, which would be a great use of his talents, except for the small fact that he’s second on the team in RBIs, and it’s kind of hard to drive people in when there’s nobody in front of you.  He also got tossed in the 2nd game arguing balls and strikes, then didn’t call for the walk against Ramierez in a 3-1 count which turned into a 2 run bomb.  Not a great look.

-Manny Banuelos has had 2 brutal starts in a row, leading me to believe I may have been mistaken when I declared him worthy of a starting rotation spot.  That being said, I love yelling his last name when he strikes people out and would love to turn that into a drinking game if he can turn it around.

-Yonder Alonso still sucks.

-Carlos Rodon needs TJ surgery, so naturally the Sox went out and found the best available person to replace him.  LOL just fucking kidding they signed Ross Detwiler to a minor league contract.  I’m sure the bullpen catcher is thrilled for the added job security.

 

Next up brings the spawn of Vlad the Destroyer and his Blue Jay brethren.  Vladdy Jr is currently sitting below the Mendoza line, but one look at Jace Fry and he’ll be hitting .329 in no time.

Baseball

Series Wrap – Sox Lose 3 of 4 to Red Sox: When Fun Turns Into Not Fun

By Andy Jonathan 1574 0

At least the first night was fun, right?  If you didn’t watch another game in this series after Little Nicky Delmonico walked off Ryan Brasier in the 9th inning Thursday night you’d have been so much better off for it. Just when things were kind of sort of looking up, the water went right back to it’s own level. Everything flew off the rails in pretty spectacular fashion, and now somehow the Sox pitching rotation is even worse off than it was before they put Ervin Santana back in the discount aisle where they found him.  There’s a LOT of questions to be answered about this team, and I’m starting to wonder if Ricky Renteria is the guy I want on that wall answering them.

BULLETS

 

-Let’s get the worst thing out of the way: Carlos Rodon is most likely done for the season and headed to meet Dr James Andrews in the Don Cooper Ward at Our Lady Of The Shredded Elbow Hospital.  He left his start on Wednesday after 3.2 innings not looking right at all.  Turns out he wasn’t, as an MRI later revealed he had bleeding in the muscle tissue in his forearm which is usually an indication of a torn UCL.  It’s really getting kind of ridiculous how badly the health of the young Sox pitching talent has gotten.  If Rodon truly does go under the knife for a Tommy John surgery, that would make him the 5th one under the age of 27 to do so in the last 3 years.  Most of it is probably bad luck, but I can’t help but wonder if something was wrong with Rodon Wednesday, why the hell Renteria threw him back out there in the 4th inning?  I know he’s a bulldog and doesn’t wanna come out of games but Ricky’s job here is to protect these players from themselves.  At any rate, this makes an already grim situation worse as it probably means Dylan “Soft Toss” Covey riding in to take his rotation spot.

 

-After this series the Sox added onto their league lead for worst ERA by a starting rotation, all the way up to 6.82.  That is hilariously bad.  I can’t remember in my time as a Sox fan watching a rotation this inept at getting people out.  Even the great starts from these guys don’t make it out of the 6th inning, as we saw with Reynaldo Lopez against the Tigers.  Giolito and Lopez have a tendency to nibble at the strike zone instead of attacking it, and Nova couldn’t find it with a fucking GPS.  The bullpen, while not any great shakes to begin with, is horribly overtaxed and results in the type of outings seen today, where a 2-2 tie turns into a 9-2 loss in the span of an inning.  I’m pretty well done with the whole “Coop’ll fix em” mentality, as he hasn’t been able to bring a young starter along since Sale, and he was basically like “fuck you, I’ll do it myself”.  Knowing Jerry Reinsdorf’s mostly misguided loyalty to his guys, Don Cooper isn’t going anywhere soon but maybe he should be.

 

-Manny Banuelos is going to need some serious therapy after the 3rd inning on Saturday night.  The poor bastard gave up a whopping 9 earned runs on 10 hits in the 3rd as Ricky left him out there to watch the Red Sox lace his offerings off, under and over each outfield fence.  He didn’t even make it out of the inning, and out came former 1st round draft pick Arson Fulmer to hack up another 5 earned in 1/3 of an inning pitched.  What a nice reward to the 30,000+ people in attendance to see such quality major league level pitching.  At least they got an R2-D2 bobblehead to take home with them, so when they look at it they can be reminded of the soothing sound of a baseball traveling at 100+ MPH splashing down in the shitty water feature at the Goose Island Beer Garden.

 

-Moncada has traded places with Jose Abreu now, as he’s gone from taking what the pitcher gives him to trying to pull everything again.  It’s resulted in a lot of weak contact and K’s, and it might be time to give the kid a day off to clear his head.  Abreu meanwhile has been smoking the ball to all corners of the field, and has found his power stroke.  If there’s one positive to take away from the last 3 games this is probably it.  Yonder Alonso sucks.

 

-Tim Anderson’s average is down to .333 and everything is terrible.  Look on the bright side, however!  Friend of Manny and OF professional Jon Jay is on an extended spring training so help is on the way!  At the very least it means I won’t have to watch Adam Engel and his wacky Used Car Blowup Man act in the batter’s box much longer.

-Next up is the Tribe, who just took 2 of 3 from Seattle despite getting Banuelos’ed today 10-0.  They haven’t been hitting all that well, but as the BoSox proved today the White Sox rotation is the perfect medicine for that particular illness.