Baseball

Series Wrap – Sox Take 2 of 3 From Royals: Tim Anderson Has Fun, Is Punished

By Andy Jonathan 1236 0

Well that was fun, right?  The first two games of this series featured some of the more timely hitting this club has done all year.  Of course, by “timely hitting” I mean “Mashing Dongs Out Onto The Dan Ryan.”  While the third game…well…we’ll get to that in a minute.  Suffice it to say, it was anything but boring, especially with Professional Diva Joe West along for the ride.

 

Anyways- MOAR BULLETS

 

-The first game started out exactly like Ervin Santana’s last start.  His fastball had the movement of Brent Seabrook chasing down an icing (SYNERGY), and was being clocked at a steaming 89-91 MPH.  Pitches like that to major league hitters tend to fly a long way, and that’s exactly what happened.  Dingers by Hunter “I’m Not Brian” Dozier, and Chris Ownings quickly put the Royals up 3-0, and a feeling of doom settled in the air.  To my pleasant surprise, he pulled himself together, and pitched well enough after that to keep the Sox within striking distance.

-And strike they did, scratching out a couple runs thanks to a timely challenge at first base, and a Leury Garcia double.  The Sox managed to give it back by having Manny Banuelos issue a lead off walk to Flash Hamilton who promptly beat a Wellington Castillo pitchout attempt that missed second base by what appeared to be 6 miles and ended up standing on 3rd.  One sac fly later and the Sox were down again.  Castillo didn’t let it get him down, as he took a Brad Boxberger 2 seamer opposite field for a 2 run shot, and the win after Alex Colome mowed down the Royals in the 9th.

-Game two featured a battle of the Lopez boys, as Reynaldo took the mound against Jorge in an attempt to get his ERA to a number that wasn’t cleanly divisible by 5.  He actually pitched well enough, even though it looked like the wheels were near to falling off in the 2nd with a solo shot off the bat of The Duda.  Much like Santana before him, he settled down for a solid, if unspectacular, start.  He was able to secure his first win thanks to…

-MONCADABOMBZ!  Seriously, I realize that the sample is still small but it’s hard not to watch Yoan at the dish and get super excited about what he could be.  His first dinger was awesome, as he worked the count in his favor, then was able to take a good looking 2 seamer tailing out of the strike zone opposite field about 5 rows deep.  His second one he took a hanging breaking ball and scorched it into right field.  He’s displaying pop to all sides of the diamond, and his eye for pitching combined with a newfound aggressiveness at the plate is awesome to see.

-Timmy continued his assault on major league pitching, raising his average over .450 going into today’s game.  The same game where he took a Brad Keller fastball and atomized it behind the Sox bullpen.  He then had the sheer AUDACITY to be excited about vaporizing Keller’s shitty fastball and gave a bat flip that would make a Korean-leaguer blush (If you don’t get that reference, google “Best Bat Flips in KBO,” it’s worth your time).  Wouldn’t you know it, the next time Timmy came up in the 6th inning, Keller drilled Anderson directly in the buttcheek.  Tim walked down to first very slowly as the benches cleared jawing at Keller the whole way down.  Then some more shit was said, and baseball tempers flared again and there was some light pushing and shoving which resulted in both managers getting tossed.  Then, just because he couldn’t stand that it wasn’t about him yet, Joe West decided to toss Anderson out for having the temerity to turn his ass towards West’s general direction.

-There’s a lot to unpack here, but the fact that it’s still acceptable in baseball to hurl a stone at a human being 90+ miles an hour because some dumbfuck unwritten rule got broken or your fee fees got hurt is absolutely asinine to me.  If MLB wants to market these amazing young players to a dwindling fan base then they need to take shit like this and fine/suspend it into oblivion.  Who’s more important to MLB’s future, Tim Anderson or some slack jawed John Lackey lookalike who’s gonna end the season with a 5.22 ERA and 4 wins?

-Anyways, the Sox couldn’t buy a hit after that, and still managed to lose in extra innings, so…progress?

-Finally…….fuck Joe West into the sun.  If you think he tossed Anderson today because of something he did on the field and not what he said 2 days ago about him (“everybody knows he’s terrible”) then I have several bridges and penny stocks to sell you.  Umpires have hard jobs, and 9 out of 10 times I feel for them, but 99% of the time, Joe West is the 1 out of 10 where I throw my hat at the tv and he needs to waddle off into the sunset.

Anyways another series win, and with the moribund Tigers looming this weekend a chance to make it 3 in a row.  I’d also like to point out the Sox are 2-0 in series where I do the recap, so you’re welcome Ricky.

Baseball

Series Preview – Royals vs. White Sox: You Can’t Steal First

By Sam Fels 1345 0

vs.

RECORDS: Royals 5-10   White Sox 5-9

GAMETIMES: Monday and Tuesday at 7:10, Wednesday 1:10

TV: NBCSN Monday and Wednesday, WGN Tuesday

WAITING FOR MAHOMES: Royals Review

PROBABLE PITCHERS

Heath Fillmyer vs. Ervin Santana

Jorge Lopez vs. Reynaldo Lopez

Brad Keller vs. Lucas Giolito

PROBABLE ROYALS LINEUP

Whit Merrifield – RF

Adalberto Mondesi – SS

Alex Gordon – LF

Jorge Soler – RF

Ryan O’Hearn – 1B

Hunter Dozier – 3B

Chris Owings – 2B

Martin Maldanado – C

Billy Hamilton – CF

 

PROBABLY SOX LINEUP

Leury Garcia – CF

Yoan Moncada – 3B

Jose Abreu – DH

Yonder Alonso – 1B

Eloy Jimenez – LF

Tim Anderson – SS

Welington Castillo – C

Daniel Palka – RF

Yolmer Sanchez – 2B

 

After getting Eloy Jimenez on the board, and taking two of three from the vaunted but decrepit (at the moment) Yankees, the White Sox have a brief pitstop at home to face the drain-scraping Royals before heading back out onto the road. Not that the Sox are all that concerned with “momentum” or getting on a roll this year, but this would seem an excellent chance to string a couple series victories together after having their brains scooped out by the Rays last week.

Of course, that task gets a little trickier when it starts with Ervin Santana and his magical gasoline-ball. Santana was clubbed hard by the Rays last out, giving up seven runs in less than four innings of work. Santana was his own worst enemy with walks last out, which were a major problem for him in a brief cameo in Minnesota last year. This is what happens when you have just a place-holder in your rotation, as until some kid comes up to claim that spot you’re just going to have to white-knuckle through a lot of his turns.

Reynaldo Lopez hasn’t been much better, as he’ll be seeking his first quality start of the season in a Lopez Battle on Tuesday. Lopez also has been allergic to the strikezone, walking four in each of his starts. And in a continuing theme, Lucas Giolito will also try to spasm the right arm of an ump again, as after a promising season-opening start in KC he’s put up eight walks in two starts since. Perhaps the sky blue of the Royals will rekindle something in him.

The problem for the Sox is that the Royals aren’t the soft-landing, at least for pitchers, that you would have thought. Six regulars are putting up 100+ wRC+ at the moment, led by Alex Gordon who I could have sworn misplaced his intestines two years ago and would fold in on himself at the sight of any half-decent fastball. He’s cut out a huge chuck of Ks and is hitting the ball harder than he has at any point in his career. The difference appears to be a great improvement in plate discipline, as he’s cut down on the amount of swings at pitches out of the zone while upping the swings and contact in it, and well a .640 SLG is the result.

He’s not alone as Merrifield and Mondesi are thwacking the ball everywhere, though with far less discipline. My former special boy Jorge Soler has cracked four homers, including a couple that should have probably counted double. Looks like we’re in the midst of a the few weeks per season when Soler is healthy and paying attention. Even Hunter Dozier is slugging near .500.

But that doesn’t mean the pitching staff can’t give away whatever the offense takes. Because they can and do. They’ve gotten decent work out of Brad Keller, who’s been able to dance his way around walking nearly five guys for every nine innings. That won’t last though. Fillmyer has only made one start but it wasn’t particularly pretty, as the unholy force that the Mariners are apparently tagged him for five runs in just three innings. Jorge Lopez has also benefitted from extreme luck on contact, and again, appears poised to go hurling over a cliff like Super Dave Osborne at any moment.

If the starters can get it to Jason Diekmann or Ian Kennedy, Royals fans can generally emerge from their bunker. When they can’t it’s time to stock up on canned food and bottled water. They’ve already tried 10 other goofuses, and it’s not going well. So you’re never out of it against the Royals.

Royals and then Tigers and Orioles. Only for the diehards, but also a fertile ground to harvest some wins.

Baseball

Methods Of Control

By Sam Fels 1564 0

The first few days of Chicago baseball haven’t lacked for intrigue, that’s for sure. And while I’m tempted to wade into the Cubs start and project not only how their first four games already mean the organization is a failure, but the entire city one as well, I’ll try and stay out of that for now. Let’s give it two more at least. Still, there was a curious cross-section of pitchers trying to improve their control over the weekend.

Let’s start on the Southside. There’s still a lot of hope for Lucas Giolito. After all, he was the prize of the Adam Eaton deal, and with Michael Kopech REHABBING SO HARD, BRO, there’s more focus on the starters who are here. Giolito flashed some decent control in his cameo with the Sox in 2017, but as is one of our favorite turn of phrase around here, couldn’t hit a bull in the ass with a banjo last year.

For Giolito to become anything like he’s promised, he had to make some changes. So his changes were to try and simplify his delivery. What the Sox and Giolito are calling it is “shortening his arm swing.” When you watch Giolito, his arm now stays behind his head before coming forward to release. And while one start is hardly anything to base a statement of “he’s been saved!” he also did just toss his best start in the majors on Sunday. While there’s still a long way to go, both Giolito and the Sox have been encouraged by what his new motion has done for his pitches, even if he didn’t always get the results in Arizona.

There’s another pitcher, on the other side of town, who had serious control problems last year. His name is Tyler Chatwood. He won’t get the opportunity to start much this season, but he still could have a role to play. But in order to play that role, he needs changes, too. And for him as well, it seems to be a simplifying of his delivery. Here’s a pretty complete summation by Sahadev Sharma from February about what Chatwood was doing and what he’s trying to do. And if you watch Chatwood this season, everything is a bit smoother. It’s not as herky-jerky, this guy is hearing voices style. Everything at least appears to want to work in the same direction for the same cause instead of the four limbs each trying to play a drum solo method of last year.

Are the results there yet? No, no they are not. There were some encouraging outings in the spring but Saturday in Texas was…well, less than optimal. Still, Chatwood’s search for control has led to simpler and smoother.

There’s yet another pitcher that needs help with his command/control. His name is Carl Edwards Jr. And he’s the infuriating one, because it’s so easy to see what he could be. And his answer to trying to find greater control was…this?

Instead of simpler and smoother, we got far more complicated, based on goofiness and timing. And what do you know, it didn’t work, and he’s already abandoned it. How could both Chatwood’s and Edwards’s answer to their control problems be right? Sure, every pitcher is different, every pitcher’s problem is different, but this seems wildly inconsistent. I’m just a drunk with some thoughts, but it seems to me if control is the problem, you’d want simple as possible so that a pitcher could fall into it as quickly as possible and thus be able to repeat it as quickly as possible, which is the base for command. Instead, Edwards gave us Kabuki theater for the deaf.

While Edwards’s command has always been a problem, I would suggest the larger one is in his head. Here are Edwards’s splits from last year by leverage, according to FanGraphs:

Season Leverage K/9 BB/9 K/BB HR/9 K% BB% K-BB% AVG WHIP BABIP LOB% FIP xFIP
2018 Low Leverage 14.14 3.86 3.67 0.64 35.5 % 9.7 % 25.8 % – – – 1.43 .394 80.7 % 2.23 2.72
2018 Medium Leverage 12.18 6.26 1.95 0.33 32.2 % 16.5 % 15.7 % – – – 1.21 .224 91.8 % 3.01 4.11
2018 High Leverage 6.75 5.91 1.14 0.00 17.8 % 15.6 % 2.2 % – – – 1.41 .267 46.7 % 3.63 5.95

Not that a 3.86 BB/9 mark is all that good in low leverage, but you can at least work with it when you’re striking out almost four times as many hitters. But the bigger the situation, the worse those marks get. I’m not sure that’s something you fix via motion. Feels like something you fix by smoking weed, honestly.

Same thing for 2017:

Season Leverage K/9 BB/9 K/BB HR/9 K% BB% K-BB% AVG WHIP BABIP LOB% FIP xFIP
2017 Low Leverage 11.10 4.44 2.50 0.37 30.9 % 12.4 % 18.6 % – – – 0.99 .208 100.0 % 2.83 3.76
2017 Medium Leverage 13.21 4.11 3.21 0.59 40.2 % 12.5 % 27.7 % – – – 0.72 .122 80.2 % 2.64 2.77
2017 High Leverage 15.09 9.53 1.58 2.38 35.9 % 22.6 % 13.2 % – – – 1.85 .333 44.9 % 6.69 4.50

While the Cubs front office has been really good at telling you why it’s not their fault lately, more and more eyes have been focused on their inability to produce any pitcher, starter or reliever, from their own system. Edwards was acquired by trade, but would count. Basically, it’s only Kyle Hendricks. Hector Rondon was a Rule 5 pick of theirs, but isn’t here anymore. Anyone else?

Those questions will only get louder if Edwards doesn’t find it one day, and their handling of other pitchers continues to be all over the map.