"Mismatched Sox – The Extra Sox in the Basement"

The shortened 2020 season was supposed to mess with pitchers. They were going to struggle to amass their usual innings, they would be out of sync, etc. We were told to temper expectations for rookies who only played at alternate sites and even told that war horses like Lance Lynn would be something less than his 2019 self. We were told that guys who had opted out would be rusty, but maybe healthier than they’d been in years. We were told that the change in routine would mess with players.

BUT SERIOUSLY WHAT IS WITH THE HAMSTRINGS IN THE MLB???? Michael Kopech and Adam Engel are the other Sox that were notable for hamstring injuries in 2021 before losing Nick Madrigal, possibly for the season. But it is an absolute plague in the MLB right now. Searching the word “hamstring” on the MLB transaction pages for April, May and June 2021 the word pops 67 times. Clearly, there will be an issue ongoing this season with injuries that either MLB couldn’t have anticipated or just can’t stop. Regardless, Nick Madrigal won’t be the last star (he is a star, dammit) to be lost for a long time over an injury like this.

Where does that leave the Sox? Leury Garcia and Danny Mendick. Frankly, AAA Charlotte has no middle infielders that are better. Tim Beckham and Marco Hernandez are there with Zach Remillard, and all three are journeymen sorts that are unlikely to be improvements on Garcia in particular. That the Sox opted to call up Brian Goodwin to relieve Leury of OF duties is telling. The guys at AA are also not ready for primetime, and rushing lower prospects to the majors this year has been ineffective. Ask the Mariners about Jared Kellenic, who was viewed as can’t-miss and then proceeded to miss in 37 straight at-bats. The short-term answer is already on the major league roster, unless there’s a Jake Burger miracle at Charlotte where it turns out he’s a natural 2B the way Andrew “Nuthin’ but a DH” Vaughn is a legitimately good OF. So we get Leury and Danny…adequate to good gloves with weak to adequate bats. It would maybe be better hitting wise but way worse defensively to insert Jake Lamb at 3B while Yoan moves back to 2B. And the fact that such a thought isn’t patently unthinkable is frightening and frankly a pat on the back to Jake Lamb.

The silver lining for Sox fans is that they also won’t be the only team to lose star players. But the flipside is that the Sox are running out of replacements and so will other teams. The Sox already need to fill a hole in the OF, now they will need a 2B before the deadline.

SPEAKING OF THE DEADLINE

This feature was going to run next week with some fun trades, fantasy baseball-style, for guys that could help the Sox now and in the future with Adam Eaton being sent out to pasture. But emergency blogging is required when injuries strike. So let’s look at rentals and useful guys to replace Nicky Two Strikes, or at least keep Leury and Danny out of the everyday lineup. Keeping in reality, the Sox aren’t trading a king’s ransom in prospects that they no longer have in abundance to rent a star, nor are they taking on a huge contract for the next couple years. So guys like Trevor Story and Ketel Marte aren’t real options.

True Rentals:

Starlin Castro, Washington (.248 avg. .615 OPS). Not his best year, but Castro has been durable and decent for the most part. He’s never been the star that the Cubs thought he’d be, but the Nats are headed nowhere and Castro was just a guy brought in to make sure they had replacement-level or better infield production with guys like Carter Kieboom flopping badly at the major-league level.

Josh Harrison, Washington (.251 avg. .705 OPS). Harrison spent last season and started this season surprisingly looking like his younger self, but his last heyday year was 2017. He’s maybe less valuable to the Nats than Castro, or possibly the same.

Freddie Galvis, Baltimore (.255 avg., .784 OPS). Galvis has never been all that great but he isn’t bad either. He hit 23 homers in 147 games in 2019 and has 9 this year. The Orioles are a mess, Galvis is a guy that you suspect the Orioles brought in just to maybe flip him at the deadline. The fact that he was passed over by the rest of the league is an indication that he isn’t going to save the Sox this season, but he may be just good enough to not hurt them.

Eduardo Escobar, Arizona (.237 avg., .738 OPS). Escobar has had some really good years since he was traded from the Southside to the Twins for Franciso Liriano at the 2012 deadline. He hasn’t spent much of his time at 2B, in fact he’s primarily played 3B in his career. But he has played at the keystone. He has 14 bombs this season which is kind of eye-popping considering he’s never been regarded as a power guy, but he had 35 in 2019. His versatility might also be useful as the Sox have only Jake Lamb as a backup at third, and he’s looked a little, ummm, shaky with a glove.

Asdrubal Cabrera, Arizona (.275 avg., .828 OPS). This is basically Eddie Escobar 2.0. At this stage it is questionable how much time he can handle at 2B, but he has played at the keystone. He has power but hasn’t been playing everyday or all that much this season, which is kind of where he’s at in his career. His versatility might also also be useful as the Sox have only Jake Lamb as a backup at third, and he’s looked a little, ummm, averse to catching balls.

GUYS WHO COULD FIT IN FOR NEXT YEAR (OR BEYOND)

Adam Frazier, Pittsburgh (.329 avg., .863 OPS). Don’t get excited by the stats, Frazier is good but not that good. He’s a career .280 hitter with a decent .763 OPS for the Pirates, but the key here is that those solid stats come from a lefty bat that has a carer .282 avg. against righties and a career .275 avg. against lefties. So he hits righties well, a glaring issue for the Sox this year, and he’s a guy that can play 2B or OF. In other words, he’s what the Sox wanted from Adam Eaton but he can replace Nick Madrigal more than adequately this year at 2B. Next year, he can replace Adam Eaton. He’s 29, arbitration eligible for 2022 and making only $4.3 million this year. In theory, he could be a rental but as he’s under club control the Sox would view him as a 2-year guy at a minimum. The Pirates have been rebuilding since Doug Drabek, Bobby Bonilla and Bobby Bonds’ son were playing there. Frazier isn’t exactly in the way of some younger guys, but the Pirates have prospects that can take over. He wouldn’t come as cheap as the rentals, but he could also be worth it and would be in the budget.

Garrett Hampson, Colorado (.244 avg., .719 OPS). Not sure the Rockies would part with Hampson given that he’s 26, under club control until 2025 and in the midst of his best season so far. He’s played OF and IF this year, has 12 steals in 14 attempts, and is a guy that the Rox might be building around. But they need help, and Hampson could be a guy that the Sox use in an OF or super utility capacity for the next few years and the juice could be worth the squeeze in that regard.

Ryan McMahon, Colorado (.257 avg., .793 OPS). McMahon is a power guy, but frankly he’s a Coors Field guy too. His home and road splits in his less-than great career would be a concern. But, he’s off to a decent start and maybe G-Rate is a friendly enough park to keep the home fires burning (and not spending so much time in unfriendly San Diego, San Francisco and Chavez Ravine would help the road splats).

Michael Chavis, Boston (.273 avg., .758 OPS). Chavis can play 2B. He can play 3B. He can play 1B. He can hit. He can’t play much in Boston right now because Bobby Dalbec, Rafael Devers, Christian Arroyo, Kike Hernandez, Marwin Gonzalez and Danny Santana are all in the way. Chavis would take some trade capital as the Red Sox are very much in the hunt and Chavis is a guy that they could rely on in case of an injury.

Keston Hiura/Luis Urias, Milwaukee (stats very, very MEH). These two were the Brewers’ middle infield of the future when they arrived in 2019. Both have fallen out of favor by underperforming, and have been replaced by Willy Adames and Kolton Wong. Hiura still is stated to have a future as the Brewers’ 1B, but he’s been scuffling at the MLB level and raking at AAA. Urias had a great MiLB track record but hasn’t been great at the MLB level. Still, both these players would be a boom or bust type of trade, looking to get them to recapture their talent level as the 8th/9th place hitter in a very effective Sox lineup. As to whether they fit in 2022, if Hiura is a 1B in waiting he may have chances down the road and both could be key bench pieces. The hope would be that the Brewers will just want to cut bait.

Come back next week for some OF options and fantasy baseball-style deadline upgrades…and check out the show every Saturday and Wednesday wherever podcasts are found.

The Sox are in first place. They are in the conversation as the best team in the AL, and record-wise are up there with the best in the MLB. Not much to complain about, but being from Chicago, it’s a citywide pastime and one indulges in such things from time to time.

They could be better. Really. Had they made a couple of different decisions in the off-season the Sox could be even better. They’ll probably rectify some things at the deadline and guys like Jace Fry and Adam Engel returning (Eloy and Luis too) will help. Still, the Sox current state is tied to the Sox off-season in many ways. Let’s look at what they did and what they shoulda did. But note, this won’t involve spending more money or making moves for guys that didn’t move in the off-season. These are things that happened.

Trade they made: Dane Dunning and Austin Weems for Lance Lynn.

They should have: Made the trade and signed Lynn to an extension immediately.

Signing they made: Adam Eaton to play RF. His $8 million or so salary was reasonable.

They should have: Made the trade for Andrew Benintendi. The Royals gave up Franchy Cordero, Khalil Lee and two players to be named later to get Benintendi. That maybe equates to Adam Engel, who the Sox need now but have lived without, OF Luis Gonzalez, who is a better all around prospect than Lee, and maybe instead of Gonzalez the Sox have a pitcher equivalent to what the Mets sent Boston in the trade. Benintendi has rediscovered himself in KC, looking like his 2018 self. At 26 and costing all of $5 million each this year and next year, he would have been worth Engel. He’s absolutely mashing righties to a .319 avg. and .868 OPS, his overall .289/.762 is worlds better than what the creaky Eaton has done. Since Eaton hasn’t played any CF, to the extent that Benintendi might have slid over to CF (71 career games there) it would mean more Jake Lamb in LF with Andrew Vaughn in RF, where after this year he’ll probably take over.

Signing they made: Carlos Rodón (1 year $3 million).

They should have: Done everything the same. Maybe added an option year. Rodón has been one of their best in the early going, putting injuries and ineffectiveness behind him. His results were insane early and more “really good” as of late. Still, with Lynn and Rodón as free agents it’ll be rough if the Sox lose both next year.

Signing they made: Liam Hendriks.

They should have: Samesies. Hendriks has taken a couple of losses and blown a couple saves, but no one is perfect.

Signing they made: Evan Marshall (1 yr. $2 million).

They should have: Non-tendered him. No one knew he’d be as bad as he’s been and for a hot minute there was talk he would close. Instead they could have signed Yusmeiro Petit (1 yr. $2.55 million) or Ryne Stanek 1 yr. $1.1 million) or Mark Melancon (1 yr. $2 million base salary). Just to name a few guys.

Moves the Sox made that are keepers: Jake Lamb and Billy Hamilton signed during spring training. Re-signed Lucas Giolito to avoid arb.

Moves the Sox should have skipped: re-signed Reynaldo Lopez. That’s $2 million wasted when a non-tender would have been appropriate.

Let’s assume that they traded for Benintendi and signed Stanek. That’s $2.9 million-$6.275 million lower in payroll (assuming Engel and Lopez are gone) with better results overall from two players who have grossly underperformed in Eaton and Marshall. So what could the Sox have for $6.275 million?

The answer is one of the other relievers mentioned, a guy like Hunter Renfroe ($3.1 million) who is doing decent for the Red Sox but wouldn’t have had a role to start the season here, C Mike Zunino ($2 million)and his 12 HR (avg. is sub-Mendoza like Yas and Zack though), or Tyler Naquin ($1.5 million), who has 10 bombs and an .853 OPS against righties and might have been a Jake Lamb-type bench option to start the season.

Or, Rick would have that much more in the hopper to get a guy at the deadline.

SPEAKING OF THE DEADLINE

Here are four names to ponder, true rentals edition:

Relief – Ian Kennedy, Texas (2.35 ERA, 1.03 WHIP and 12 saves). The former starter has been a pretty steady reliever for the Royals and Rangers, and is on a one-year deal with a Texas team that is rebuilding. He’s the ideal candidate for the trade deadline but there could be a decent market for him, especially if there’s a contender that has a closer issue.

Relief – Mychal Givens, Colorado (3.10 ERA, 1.28 WHIP). A one-time closer of the future for Baltimore, it would be charitable to let Givens pitch for a good team. He’s on a 1-year deal with the Rockies as a prove-it and he’s been better than Rockies closer Daniel Bard.

OF – Corey Dickerson, Miami (.264 avg. .704 OPS). Not his best year but better than Adam Eaton, Dickerson might be squeezed from the Marlins OF if Jesus Sanchez rises to join guys like Garrett Cooper, Starlin Marte, and Adam Duvall. But he’s a true rental and a pro bat that shouldn’t be as big a hole as the Sox have had.

OF – Josh Reddick, Arizona (.328 avg. .816 OPS). Honestly this guy was out there for the Sox but they passed, for decent reasons. Reddick’s heyday is in the past but he’s been on a heater for the D-Backs and the Sox could do worse. He’s cheap and has a World Series ring, and eventually Arizona will want to play Pavin Smith, Ketel Marte, David Peralta, Christian Walker and Josh Rojas together, not to mention Daulton Varsho waiting at AAA.

The Sweat Meter, a system to manage your White Sox Worries.

As the Sox season carries on, concerns will pop up. Here, weekly, Sox in The Basement and Mismatched Sox will measure the concerning stuff, big and small, and determine whether to sweat it at all. The range runs from five Sweaty Freddies to one, five being sheer panic and one being nothing to worry about at all.

Desert: Tony bunting. His explanation was sound and he’s earned the right to make that choice. If Mendick gets the sac done right, and the rally is successful, TLR’s a genius.

After shower, with a fan: Evan Marshall is still shaky but also seems exposed in certain matchups over others. Maybe a pattern emerges?

After shower, no fan: Oddly, Billy Hamilton is very important and his injury is an issue.

Chicago in Summer: They need a bat. Eaton is done.

Call Family Waterproofing Solutions, its a flood: The Sox NEED another bat.

Forty Years of Training is Hard to Shake

Very recently, Sox in the Basement noted that the afternoon drive of the White Sox own flagship station called them basically irrelevant. With the Cubs making a run at their division in spite of a sell off, and the forthcoming Bears season, Waddle and Silvy proclaimed those teams as the story until maybe the MLB playoffs. It’s appalling to Sox fans to hear. On the show Chris thundered at them and Sox Twitter went on the attack. The Chicago sports media has long favored the Cubs like they were Cicadas with a butt fungus, compelled to do things against their will even if it costs them their own ass (that’s a real thing). But are guys like Waddle and Silvy merely the latest to have an accute case of the disease, or are they actually the disease?

I’m not defending them. But this town has been conditioned since it’s two MLB franchises were sold months apart in 1981. That was the year William Wrigley sold the Cubs to Tribune Co. and Bill Veeck sold to Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn.

Ownership of a sports team has basically two jobs: hire a knowledgeable front office and market the team.

Take the Bears. George Halas knew football as a coach and player, but his role in starting the NFL was as a marketer. Why are the Bears the most loved franchise in town? It isn’t because of the success of the team. Frankly, the Bears have sucked more than they’ve been good. The ’85 team is held up as the gods of Olympus because that’s all Bears fans have for proof the team is great. But Papa Bear taught us that the Bears are a reflection of Chicago: tough and gritty. We are the city of big shoulders, and guys like Nagurski, Ditka, Butkus, Payton, Hampton, Tillman, Urlacher and Mack are who the city is. One of the worst parts of living here isn’t bad winter weather, it’s Bear Weather. That’s not true of course. But marketing over decades has those ideas ingrained. Even today as we excite at the idea that the Halas/McCaskey family would ever sell, we still view the team as Virginia’s dad taught us.

Back to 1981. The Cubs are sold to a media company. The White Sox are sold to a tax attorney who turned a legal tax loophole into a real estate empire, and a broadcaster who had started and sold his own networks. Right off the bat, pun intended, the Sox were in a marketing hole.

Within years the Tribune Co. had taken Harry Carey, cast off from the Sox, and made him the voice and face of Cubs baseball. They broadcast games on their own station, WGN, and used WGN’s nationwide presence to their advantage. The Cubs were heavily promoted on WGN, Harry was cast as the host of a party. Bleacher Bums. Cubs best players becoming household names, whether they were really any good or not. Leaning into the Lovable Losers vibe. Wait until next year…but the party’s still here. Fun at the old ballpark. Why? Tribune was a marketing company, having worked for years to establish itself as the top of Chicago media. It had a marketing team that knew the city well. It knew what buttons to push…long before Tyrion Lannister, Chicago would drink and know things. If that doesn’t sum up the stereotype of Cubs fandom, what does?

Meanwhile, Jerry and Eddie are savvy businessmen. But they’re also from New York and New Jersey respectively. Jerry knows how to leverage an asset into legit levels of profit. Eddie is something of a marketer, but his heart is in creating TV networks. For Jerry, the Sox are a business. For Eddie, the Sox are programming. Within years, the Sox games are often scrambled unless you pay for Eddie’s Sportsvision. Their voice is Hawk Harrelson, a southerner who played in the majors but for a different set of Sox. They bring in superstar Carlton Fisk, but he and Harold Baines are great on the field and lousy in the media. The Sox are content to let their work on the field market the team. Even the players were just part of the asset. Ryno was a milquetoast guy who was a great 2B and was marketed as a star, Ozzie was a damn good SS who has personality to spare but was marketed as a damn good SS. Sammy was kisses, smiles and joy; Frank and Albert were calculated hitting machines. It took Mark Buerhle and Ozzie getting a daily show for the Sox clubhouse to be marketed as personalities. For much of the 80’s and 90’s, Sox players were marketed for their exploits on the diamond. Meanwhile the Cubs wanted you to like their players as people.

By now, long gone are the days of Sox fans being cast as a rowdy bunch who blow up things between games of a double header. Now they are cast as real baseball fans of a real baseball team. Serious fans. While Cub fan equaled Bud man, on the other side of town The Kids could play and Good Guys wore black.

After all, we had to be serious about baseball to love what we had on the Southside. Like Blackhawks fans, you had to pay to see the team. Skin in the fan game, so to speak. While Wrigley became surrounded with places to party, Comiskey remained in a quiet neighborhood. While Wrigley was the star of the show, Comiskey was demolished for a competent yet generic baseball facility. And that after fans were publically discarded while Jerry went to his roots and negotiated a real estate deal. It was all about the product on the field. Jerry ran a business, made a product and advertised it. The Tribune created a baseball fan lifestyle and sold it.

By the 90’s things got closer to level between the teams. Cable was more ubiquitous and Jerry used his leverage as Bulls owner to get the Sox on WGN. But they were by miles the third team behind the Tribune’s own Cubbies and the dynasty of the Bulls. Hawk and Wimpy became a fun and insightful duo, if an acquired taste. Unfortunately, Harry had the years and miles catch up to him and turn him into something of a self parody. The switch to silver and black uniforms brought Sox gear to the nation, but most upfront with rappers, who were polarizing to say the least. The Sox were the kind of fun you didn’t talk about in certain company; they were appreciated for their baseball quality and the image they gave their fans. The Cubs were the baseball equivalent of ABC’s TGIF lineup of sitcoms…it didn’t matter of they were any good but you could imitate Sammy Sosa’s homerun kiss thing as easily as you could do an impression of Urkel, Balky, or anyone on Full House.

That’s not intended as an insult to the Cubs or their fans. There are serious Cub fans who are serious and smart baseball fans. There are Sox fans who are a drunken parody of William H. Macy’s character on Shameless. The fact is that the actual fandom isn’t what drives the narrative about which baseball team is more important, it is the perception created by marketing to a couple of generations of fans. Sox fandom has become perceived as a club where you need to know the handshake and password, dress code and pass a test. Cubs fandom is far easier, you just need to show up and if you forget your shoes and shirt, that’s fine.

So back to Waddle and Silvy and the notion that the Sox aren’t the story until the playoffs. ESPN 1000, The Score, CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, the Tribune, the Suntimes, all the major media in Chicago that covers sports and sells advertisements based on ratings are looking for the broadest audience. Perception is that the Bears and Cubs are a more universal fandom, while the Sox, Blackhawks and Bulls are a more select group. So to get ratings, you aim at the bigger pile of bodies. Waddle and Silvy might just have pulled back the curtain too far, but from the standpoint of programming ESPN 1000, the Bears and Cubs fans are the biggest piles in town.

But they are the ones that have to change the narrative. Jerry is still a businessman and that doesn’t make him a bad owner. The Ricketts family are trying to peddle and control the lifestyle the Tribune Co. made for Cubs fans, and the Ricketts family may not be good owners. But there are multiple generations of fans who have their fandom framed by Jerry’s business-first approach and the Tribune’s marketing-first approach. And that won’t change really, unless Jerry and the Ricketts change the approach. Or unless fans are given coverage to consume. TV coverage and newspaper coverage are too fleeting to make a difference. Guys like Waddle and Silvy, Kap & Co., Mully and Haugh, Bernstein and Rahimi, Parkins and Spiegel, and Laurence Holmes are the first line of defense to make the Sox a bigger story. They can make stars out of TA where the Sox are content to let TA just be a good brand rep, or make Lance Lynn a city-wide hero for his humorous profanity and attitude. They can make the inner workings of a team meeting high expectations more front and center than the Cubs attempt to recreate the plot of Major League. Look, the Cubs are a story. The Bears are a story. But the Sox, they are a story too.

Ultimately, the media are just reflecting the perception of the Chicago audience. And starting in 1981, the Cubs and Sox owners made conscious choices about how they wanted their brands to be sold to the fans. One team sold the idea of being a fan, the other sold a product. One wants you to identify your personality by their brand, the other appreciates your patronage. Sox fans, as a result, have to create their own identity and value to media outlets, while Cubs fans are just presumed to be out there en masse. But Sox fans shouldn’t be mad at Silvy…he’s just been programmed by 40 years of marketing.

In the meantime, the password next month will still be bacon, but the handshake now has a second low five after the third snap. Study the ’85 and ’98 teams for those re-certifying, and remember that the shoes and shirt donations for Cubs fans will take place in August to get them covered for the fall. Go Bears.

The Sweat Meter, a system to manage your White Sox Worries.

As the Sox season carries on, concerns will pop up. Here, weekly, Sox in The Basement and Mismatched Sox will measure the concerning stuff, big and small, and determine whether to sweat it at all. The range runs from five Sweaty Freddies to one, five being sheer panic and one being nothing to worry about at all.

Shower Fresh: Injuries to Vaughn and Eaton. Better now than later.

‘Lil dampness: Carlos getting hit a bit more and Cease regressing. They will have their moments of both high and low.

Glistening: Kopech getting hurt. IL for hamstrings ain’t nothing to mess with. No.

Swampy Undies: You know, things are pretty good.

Call Family Waterproofing Solutions, its a flood: The Sox STILL need another bat.

THINGS I CAN’T PROVE THAT WOULD ANSWER IT ALL

Some questions lack answers, but I am here to talk crazy and answer them with very real-sounding fake facts that are just theories that I happen to base my existence around.

TONY LARUSSA IS PLAYING A CHARACTER NAMED TONY LARUSSA. He’s Vince McMahon playing Mr. McMahon. Publicly, in kayfabe, he’s this old-school curmudgeonly manager. Behind the scenes, he wants the team to be this joyous rambunctious group that flaunts the unwritten rules. He wanted Yermin to swing 3-0 on Astudillo because it is good for the Sox to completely disrespect and end the Twins. But “Mr. LaRussa” as a character had to corral him. It’s like Vince firing The Rock or Stone Cold Steve Austin in the late 90’s. Tony wants Yermin to be Yermin but his character has to be the wet blanket. He also knows the rules and is playing up the doddering old man bit to throw off guys like Aaron Boone.

THE SOX ARE SANDBAGGING EARLY GAMES AGAINST POSSIBLE PLAYOFF OPPONENTS. I mean, that Yankees sweep was pretty weak if you think about it. They couldn’t hit Montgomery? He’s not that great and the Sox rake lefties. Liam can’t throw strikes to Judge? The bullpen is tired? Dylan Cease is overwhelmed by Yankee Stadium? Those all seem oddly out of character for the Sox (maybe Cease was a little awestruck) and showed the Yankees nothing about getting the lineup out, the best use of the bullpen, or anything we had seen up to that series. They were planting seeds in the Yankees minds that aren’t true, and still messing with them enough. Hell, Vaughn is certainly in Chapman’s head after his homer. You think they are still wondering how Madrigal dropped that thing down the right field line? You think they’re ready for Kopech? Nope. Playing possum.

ANDREW VAUGHN WAS TOLD TO TAMP DOWN THE HYPE MACHINE. Vaughn was bound to struggle a bit and he’s looking better, but in the span of April and part of May he went from the next big thing to a guy that some fans are thinking is overrated. The Sox needed him to be more just a guy than hype because he’s not as marketable as Luis Robert, Eloy Jimenez, Lucas Giolito, Tim Anderson or even Yermin. Also, they needed spots in the lineup to lull pitchers a bit. Frankly, the idea that Vaughn went from handling it well in the spring to struggling to get past Nick Williams in the lineup accomplished one thing: established his mortality. Pitchers feel they can attack him, fan expectations are lowered and he can now slowly bring up the numbers without them having to make him the face of the franchise.

YASMANI GRANDAL WAS SIGNED TO MAKE ZACK COLLINS THE STARTER. Yas is a top-flight catcher with a playable bat. But he isn’t JT Realmuto or Will Smith at the plate. The Sox never wanted him as a key hitter, they wanted Yas to teach Collins how to be an actual catcher because he wasn’t responding to coaches. The hope is Collins is established by the end of the year and Yas either splits time with him like he did with James McCann and Austin Barnes or becomes a true backup. They’ve told Yas to focus on walks and homers at the plate hoping that Collins’ better average will sell it to fans. Now Collins has to hit…

LUCAS GIOLITO IS RESISTING BEING TRANSFORMED INTO LANCE LYNN. He’s not taking to it (not yet anyway), but the Sox are aware that Giolito’s reliance on high fastballs and changeups won’t play forever, and they are trying to use Lynn to get Giolito into tinkering with his fastball grip. Lynn throws different fastballs at different times and the hope is Giolito figures that strategy out. If he doesn’t, the Sox predicted Lucas would scuffle and are hesitating to sign him long term.

RODON TOOK A PAY CUT BECAUSE ETHAN KATZ KNEW HOW TO FIX HIM, AND THE SOX HELD THAT KNOWLEDGE HOSTAGE. They needed to get Carlos on the cheap to get Hendriks in, and Rodón knew that Ethan Katz could help and took the pay cut because otherwise Katz wouldn’t have helped him.

ELOY ISN’T AS HURT AS THEY CLAIMED. Once Yermin was hitting, they needed to establish Vaughn as a permanent OF and knew that putting Eloy on ice until the second half would keep him from really getting hurt before the playoffs. That’s also why Hahn hasn’t made a deal for anyone to replace Robert, they know Eloy will be back sooner than projected.

ADAM EATON WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A PLATOON PLAYER. Eaton can’t physically play 150 games at his age and game speed, and was signed to split time with Adam Engel or take a back seat to Andrew Vaughn. That was never explicitly stated, because fans were clamoring for an everyday RF. Truthfully, the Sox suspected that Vaughn would be their LF or RF starting in 2022 because they have too many DH candidates in-house with Mercedes, Burger and Eloy, and couldn’t commit to a long-term OF or DH. They also couldn’t play Engel everyday and needed to handcuff him against certain righties until he proves otherwise.

EDWIN ENCARNACION WAS SIGNED TO SHOW YERMIN HOW TO DH. Mercedes was never going to be a catcher in the majors and the Sox knew they wanted him as a potential DH, but like Eloy and others he balked. Encarnacion gave up fielding ages ago and was able to transition Yermin. Even if Encarnacion had hit, he would have been let go.

HAHN HAD A BIGGER BUDGET FOR 2021 BUT INTENTIONALLY SAVED IT. He wanted to establish his core: Vaughn, Madrigal, Robert, Eloy, Moncada, Kopech, Cease, and Crochet. Guys like Rodón, Bummer and TA are just icing, and guys like Giolito who may not be able to be re-signed are projects. Really, he wants to extend Lynn and have money for guys like Carlos who make the next jump. He will add payroll this year because injuries have dictated it, but he’s hoping to use it to keep guys.

REINSDORF WOULD PREFER THE RESTRICTIONS BE REMOVED SLOWLY. His long-ago threat to move the Sox to Tampa/St. Pete was really because he hates the weather in Chicago and what it does to his box office numbers before June. The 20% (now 60%) is the perfect excuse for low attendance and is creating more urgency for fans to get tickets early. Jerry might actually be smiling.

EVAN MARSHALL IS PISSED HE ISN’T THE CLOSER. He was a popular name when it looked like the Sox might not be able to land Liam Hendriks and he wanted it, and why not? It got in his head and he has been trying to throw the ball through the backstop, a mistake for a changeup guy.

BILLY HAMILTON IS HERE BECAUSE HE’LL BE A SOX COACH SOON. The Sox like his baseball IQ but know that at best he’s just a baserunner. He’s been given a long leash so he can translate the Sox coaching guidelines better in 2022 or 2023 when he hangs it up.

HAHN WANTED ETHAN KATZ AND KNEW LARUSSA WOULD TAKE HIM. Hahn didn’t talk to AJ Hinch or really any manager candidates because he knew they wouldn’t take a coach forced on them by the front office. Tony didn’t care, he just wanted to be back in the dugout and Katz was fine with him.

HAHN CAN’T MAKE A TRADE BECAUSE THE MINOR LEAGUES ARE FULL OF UNCERTAINTY. Jake Burger hasn’t played much. Gavin Sheets and Luis Gonzalez didn’t show in spring training. They aren’t looking to deal Stiever or even Lopez because they want the depth. The guys that they would have traded are up here already and what’s left are the guys that could be something or just as easily nothing. Hahn needs blocked guys like Burger and Seby Zevala to build some worth. The reason? If Hahn pulls the trigger it’ll be a bigger deal than we think.

THAT SAID, RODON AND CEASE WERE INTENDED AS TRADE BAIT. Kopech yoinking a hammy might collapse this, but Carlos and Dylan are the guys that Kopech would replace in the rotation this year. Cease or Rodón getting off to decent starts and then flipping them was the plan, letting Kopech ease in. Since neither had enough value for the Rangers to take them for Lynn, both Carlos and Dylan needed good starts. Hahn re-signed Rodón as a trade piece at the deadline if Kopech was ready to start down the stretch. Worst case scenario was that they flopped, but the other scenario is playing out. The fact that Kopech is their most reliable reliever, Cease has become a solid three (also taken to listening to Lynn), and Rodón has been lights out may have lampooned this a bit but who can complain?

THE SOX DRAFTED GARRETT CROCHET LAST YEAR BECAUSE HAHN COULDN’T MAKE A TRADE. Hahn was trying to trade for relievers and couldn’t get the guys he wanted. He knew that Crochet was a viable arm and no one would really question taking him in the first round. They don’t project him as a starter but would settle for having him as a closer. That’s why he hasn’t been treated the same as Kopech.

HAHN HELPED DIRECT THE PADRES TRADES AND THE DODGERS SIGNING TREVOR BAUER. His hope was that the Giants would fall out of contention but would have rebuilt guys like Alex Wood and Anthony DeSclafani into pieces he could trade for and Ethan Katz could continue their success (having been with the Giants last year). Hahn started the Padres’ path by under-offering for Joe Musgrove and planting a bug in the Cubs’ brain to trade Darvish instead of shedding salary elsewhere. Hahn used James McCann as a mole in the Mets organization to cause the leak that lead to Bauer choosing the Dodgers.

KATZ AND HAHN THOUGHT THEY FIXED REYNALDO. That’s the only reason he was not non-tendered.

JOSE RUIZ HAS NAKED PICTURES OF RICK HAHN, KENNY WILLIAMS, AND JERRY REINSDORF AND THEY ARE SCANDALOUS. That’s the only reason he was not non-tendered.

The Sweat Meter, a system to manage your White Sox Worries.

As the Sox season carries on, concerns will pop up. Here, weekly, Sox in The Basement and Mismatched Sox will measure the concerning stuff, big and small, and determine whether to sweat it at all. The range runs from five Sweaty Freddies to one, five being sheer panic and one being nothing to worry about at all.

Bone Dry: Too much Leury and Billy. It’ll change. Also any perceived strife between Tony and the players.

That thing where the air is heavy but it hasn’t hit you yet (pre sweat?): Vaughn will be up and down, and probably stabilize in the second half. He’s still in the Sox OF for good.

Mild Swamp Pants: Kopech getting hurt isn’t a happy thing. It isn’t serious, but still. No.

Wondering if your butt outline is visible in wetness: Runs shouldn’t be coming and going as drastically for the Sox as they have been. It should be a steady stream, like a guy who eats only day-old fast food. Also I regret this whole paragraph.

Call Family Waterproofing Solutions, its a flood: The Sox need another bat.

DON’T FORGET TO BUY YOUR SOX IN THE BASEMENT APPAREL

Let’s review the not really rules that a rookie broke that broke the Sox briefly sorta.

So to recap, in case you’re reading this from San Diego or have an enjoyable case of memory loss, Yermin Mercedes swung away against Twins Catcher/Utility guy Willians Astudillo on a 3-0 count in a blowout win and launched a homer as a result. The ensuing debate has players backing Yermin, TLR taking him to task, and Yermin declaring that he, truthfully, can only be Yermin. And as fans and analysts, the opinions have been divided to both sides and hopefully have not resulted in violence, though it may have been a minor part of the protests at Mayor Lightfoot’s house.

Let’s look at the unwritten rules and try and give them some written direction, and maybe write some new unwritten rules that will need to be erased then?

Here’s ones we know are out there, starting with two that are the basis of the Mercedes issue:

1. Do not swing on a 3–0 count when your team is comfortably ahead – Good Rule? Yes, in that a pitcher, a real pitcher, will generally throw a pitch on 3-0 that focuses on re-orienting their mechanics to get back to the strike zone, and is often done using a fastball grip thrown with less mustard, making it an easy target. Being a good sport, the batter lets the guy get himself righted with essentially a warmup pitch, and doesn’t inflate the guy’s ERA off said non-competitive pitch. Should it always apply? NO. Look, in a blowout if there’s a starter or reliever out there eating it, or if the mop-up AAAA/fringe guy from the bullpen who is clinging to his roster spot is on the mound, swinging 3-0 to add a pile-on dinger is screwing with the guy’s livelihood. But if it is a position player goofing around chucking eephus after eephus, you should swing because the guy’s career is at his actual position and he’s out there chucking for chuckles. Besides, that 3-0 swing on a non-pitcher is in service of this rule:

2. Do not work the count if your team is winning or losing by a significant amount – Good Rule? Yes, the game is in hand, go up there and swing and get things moving along. If you get a hit, you get a hit, but don’t take anything close and prolong the pain for all involved. Should it always apply? YES. For the good of the fans and all involved, because blowouts are long games and after a while they start to drag on even for the winning side. Also, screw your OBP, let’s try and raise that OPS and go for the long ball. ‘Tis sexier than a walk.

3. Do not spend your time admiring a home run you hit/don’t overly celebrate the homer – Good Rule? Yes. This is the “good sport” rule. Basically, don’t throw your success in your opponent’s face, and be a good winner. Should it always apply? Only in context. A meaningless tater in a blowout is probably not the time to go for a huge batflip and to stand there watching the grandeur. That’s just rubbing it in. But in a tight game, a huge moment? Hell yeah, celebrate that and ask the crowd ‘are you not entertained?’ and admire the majesty of your handiwork. After all, if the pitcher strikes you out in that situation, they’ll scream and appear to have a decent orgasm walking off the mound. But be reasonable, give the bat flip, watch the ball, scream, just do so on the move.

4. Do not steal bases if your team is ahead by a significant amount – Good Rule? Yes. This is kind of a practical one, because guys get hurt and the steal is trying to advance to scoring position when scoring hasn’t been an issue. Should it always apply? Yes, it is one thing to go to the plate in a lopsided affair still looking to add to your BA and OPS, but steals in a blowout is selfish stat padding. Besides, if you break a finger or jam your shoulder and are out 4-6 weeks as a result, that’s just stupidity.

5. Do not bunt to break up a no-hitter – Good Rule? In theory, yes? It should be easier to hold the bat out with both hands and use it to guide the ball to an empty patch of grass than it is to swing and hit a moving object. In 2011 Bill James showed that overall, that average on bunt hit attempts was .438, over .700 on the third base line. A BABIP that high would be insane overall. So going for the bunt is a cheap move. Should it always apply? Well…bunting for a hit is really a lost art these days. There were 383 bunt hits in 2019 out of 42,039 hits total (0.9%). Ten years earlier, in 2009, 550 bunt hits out of 43,524 (1.26%). Partying likes it’s 1999, 576 bunt hits out of 45,327 (1.27%). In 1989? 605 bunt hits out of 36,293 total hits. 1.67%. 1979? No one was keeping track. Anyway, in the near future bunting for a hit will be a rare skill, and what with the spin rates, velocity and movement these days it’ll be a well-earned hit if you can lay it down. Also, 6 no-hitters this year already and it isn’t even June? It’s becoming a lot less special.

6. Do not swing at the first pitch of the at-bat if the pitcher has allowed back-to-back home runs – Good Rule? Meh. It seems more condescending than sportsmanlike. “Here, you suck right now, let me give you one to think you don’t suck”. Should it always apply? No. Maybe if you’re on the upside of a blowout you take one. Maybe you take one because that’s your routine. But if this is the chance to put the game away, the pitcher should simply do better.

7. Do not rub the spot where you were hit by a pitch – Good Rule? Sure, tough guy. Whatever. Should it always apply? No. Guys throw over 100 for too often these days and a simple exam is warranted to make sure there’s no blood and/or you don’t have a hole in you.

8. Do not walk in front of a catcher or umpire when walking to the batter’s box – Good Rule? Yes. This actually could be a written rule. Between batters, catchers are calling out signals and the umps are watching the clock, the scoreboard, and probably making sure the pitcher isn’t putting vagisil on the ball. Walking in front of that isn’t cool. Plus, if they’re tossing a new ball into the pitcher and you walk in front of that, you’ll get one in the ear. Should it always apply? Yes.

9. Do not run across the pitching mound on the way back to the dugout. – Good Rule? Yes. The mound is pretty tailored to the pitchers plant and landing spots, and now they have ads on the back. Screwing with that is pretty unnecessary and the equivalent of a pitcher messing with the batter’s box. Should it always apply? Yes.

10. Do not stand on the dirt near home plate when the pitcher is warming up. – Good Rule? Sure. Especially because he could throw at you and just say he’s not warmed up. Should it always apply? I think it is actually enforced.

11. Do not assist a member of the opposing team. – Good Rule? No. Think about the collision between Hunter Dozier and Jose Abreu. Sure, the Sox infield is more worried about their teammate and friend, but Dozier was messed up too and helping him is not only good sportsmanship but actual good human behavior in that scenario. Should it always apply? No. A guy gets hurt, you knock him over, help the dude. I mean flex over him and wag your finger Dikembe Mutombo style first, but then lend a hand.

12. Do not speak to a pitcher who is in the process of throwing a no-hitter/don’t talk about a no-hitter. – Good Rule? Superstition more than a rule. If the pitcher wants to talk, it might be more fun to ignore him. It is tradition after all. But broadcasters and fans? That’s like trading Dylan Cease off a fantasy baseball team just before his breakout because you believe that you’re bad luck for any favorite player in fantasy sports. Umm…it probably has no relation to the game if you break the superstition…probably. Should it always apply? Yes. Probably. Don’t flick off the universe.

13. A pitcher who is removed from the game in the middle of an inning must stay in the dugout until the end of the inning – Good Rule? No. I mean, stick around and cheer your guys on. But if your back teeth are floating or you have taco gas, get things done. Or if you need a minute to get pissed off, do it in private. Should it always apply? No.

14. A pitcher should not indicate displeasure if one of his fielders commits an error – Good Rule? Yes. They don’t show displeasure at your crappy pitches. Don’t be a prima donna. Should it always apply? Probably not. There are some errors that are so bad it’ll be hard to hold it in, and if you’ve committed more than two errors in the game everyone should be indicating displeasure.

15. Don’t make the first or last out at third – Good Rule? Yes. It is pretty easy to score from second on a base hit and and if you’re on second with no outs, the odds are in your favor. As far as making the third out, that seems related to not making a stupid out to end the inning so don’t do that. Should it always apply? Seems like the smart thing to do.

16. Don’t yell at an opposing player to distract them. – Good Rule? Yes. That’s playground B.S. Should it always apply? I feel somehow that Anthony Rizzo gets away with it, but otherwise yes.

17. CF/SS gets priority over flyballs. – Good Rule? Yes. It’s like chess pieces in a way, OF gets priority over IF, but CF is over RF/LF and SS is over any numbered baseman. Catchers are armored. This avoids collisions and injuries. Should it always apply? Yes. In the case of Luis Robert and Eloy Jimenez in particular.

18. Kids get the foul balls and homers. – Good Rule? Yes. Should it always apply? Yes.

So the rules that are based on sportsmanship, really there should be game and moment-specific context. Yermin Mercedes didn’t show up Willians Astudillo, the guy was going to waft eephus in the general direction of the plate regardless of count. Also, waft eephus? Eephuses? Eephii? I think “waft eephus” needs to be used in more conversations.

Some of the rules are fading, some are more practical or just baseball smart, and some really come back to common decency. The overall rule seems to be “don’t kick a guy when he’s down” and don’t be a jerk.

On that thought, here’s some new and improved unwritten rules, that, uhhh, are now written:

1. Only throw at a guy if he calls you out on the field, online or in his presser. A bat flip or fist pump or scream or admiring a shot is just a celebration for the fans, unless they direct it at the pitcher.
2. If a position player is pitching, there are no unwritten rules. Seriously, that’s playtime.
3. No more beanballs for emotional hurts. Oh, a guy showed you up? Next out he makes the whole team screams like they just won game 7. Next at bat he gets mocking walkup music. Be creative.
4. If the teams need to fight, it happens after the last out of the 5th inning. Any later in the game and fans need to pee, get their last food and drink, etc. Any earlier and the game peaked too soon.
5. All fights end with a Stone Cold Stunner or RKO (nee Diamond Cutter). I’d accept a solid DDT. Like pro wrestling, the team can call the match on the field.
6. The 5-second rule. You can watch a ball fly for 5 seconds before going into the trot. You get to hold a tag for 5 seconds after the safe call. You get to sit on a guy for 5 seconds after a collision. And pitchers get 5 seconds to celebrate getting out of an inning or a save.
7. Every team gets one guy that can mess with the other side because he’s totally a good dude really. Rizzo, Miguel Cabrera, Sean Casey, Jim Thome, uhhh…ok your first baseman is exempt I guess.
8. In a blowout, if a guy is hitting .200 or under on the season, give him one to hit. Maybe even just for fantasy baseball purposes.
9. No shifts in a blowout either.
10. No comments on unwritten rule violations once the next game starts. Even if there’s retaliation.

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Nudity is fun, but in public this stuff is a good alternative:

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The AL Central can Rest…In Peace…but can the Sox?

Let’s look all the way back to May 7, 2021. The Sox were, at the time, entering a series with the division-contending Royals. The Sox had only recently overtaken KC and were nursing a 0.5-game lead as both looked up to the division-leading Cleveland baseball Assemblage. That weekend, by a combined score of 21-4, the Sox swept the upstarts in blue out to a 3.5 game deficit and overtook Cleveland for the division lead. After a Monday off, the Sox returned to action against a limping Twins team, one that desparately needed to take a series from the Sox and in general to put together a win streak. Brooms were wielded like the Staff of Cork and Kerry, and by Thursday the Twinkies were 10 games back, a hair under the Tigers for the division basement. The Sox were back to the Royals, who split a double-header with them on Friday and then ultimately split the series, failing to gain on the 6.5 games they entered the weekend behind the Sox. After an utter pounding on Monday May 17, the Twins are 11.5 back in the division, and the Royals 7 games behind.

So while the Sox pushed the Royals away, and are in the process of seemingly ending the Twins…is it too early to pop the bubbly and let the Sox coast to the division title? What of Cleveland, you ask? As this is being written, the once and future Spiders are 3.5 back, and represent seemingly the only real threat to the Sox.

Where did it go wrong for the rest of the division? Well, the Twins haven’t had any of their pitching work out. The bullpen is a disaster, the rotation is either under-performing or they’re all on the decline, they have had little luck staying healthy in the outfield and barring some “Major League” style hijinks/tomfoolery, there’s no clear path to resolve the issues. The Royals were simply hot out of the gate, but their youth and old age are showing at the same time. The bullpen, a Royals greatest hits of former closers, isn’t getting the job done at the moment. The lineup has some holes, but more importantly the rotation is inconsistent. They could get on another heater, but it feels just as likely they’ll follow the heater with a losing streak. The Tigers are a rebuilding team that lacks talent, though Robbie Grossman would make a nice bench piece Rick.

Cleveland needs to gel. They have Shane Bieber, who until proven otherwise is the best pitcher in the division. They have Zack Plesac, who can be a little streaky but is right up there as a solid starter. There’s also Aaron Civale who is either a statcast pipedream or a house of smoke and mirrors, but either way is a very effective starter. They have two guys in the pen who throw heat like Garrett Crochet and Michael Kopech, but with the control of a tipsy 2020 Dylan Cease. They have other talented arms that haven’t quite put it together, but 3 out of every 5 days Cleveland rocks. They just can’t hit. Jose Ramirez is doing fine, .262 with a .913 OPS; Franmil Reyes is at .250 with an .866 OPS and Josh Naylor at .258 with a .700 OPS. That represents the best of the Cleveland lineup. Eddie Rosario and Cesar Hernandez are under their career marks and should get better, but the rest is a giant question mark.

The White Sox need those questions answered, right? They need something behind them other than food they’ve played with, chewed and regurgitated to keep them on track to the playoffs, don’t they? In 2005, the Sox were 5.5 ahead of the Twins on May 18, and by the all-star game were 9 ahead of the Twins and 11 ahead of Cleveland, with the Tigers and Royals really out at 15 back and 27 back. By the end of August, Cleveland leapfrogged the Twins and the Sox lead was 7 games (38 over KC). By September 22, the Sox were only holding a 1.5 game lead. We know how it ended, but still.

In 1983, the Sox didn’t really take the division lead until July 18, sharing it with the Rangers for a week or so until never looking back and winning it by 20 games. In 1993 the Sox had a 2.5 game lead over the Angels on May 18, spent the rest of the first half trading between 1st and 3rd with KC, Texas and the Angels before really taking control coming out of July. In 2000, the Sox were tied with Cleveland on May 18 and by the all-star break were up 10 games and coasted. In 2008 the Twins and Sox needed 163 to settle the division. We know how each of those ended, but still.

So with the Twins’ season in severe jeopardy, the Royals and Tigers looking like their respective youth movements were expected to look, and Cleveland needing about 4-5 guys to step up, are the Sox in any danger of getting complacent and not being ready for the playoffs?

There’s no correlation in their history. After game 163, the 2008 Sox were done in by a much better Rays team; in 1993 the Sox were outplayed by the Jays is a pretty fair matchup. In 2000 the Mariners were otherworldly and the Sox were hurt, and in 1983 the Orioles were an even match on paper, but played better.

It is too early to really say what the current state of the division means. The Sox are pulling away now, but could have Cleveland make a late charge like 2005 or drift away with the rest of the division like 1983. More to the point, it is time to stop worrying about the division and measure up to the rest of the league. There are seven other AL teams at .500 or better, 8 if you count Cleveland. The Mariners are the weakest link at 21-21 with rotation issues and young hitters trying to find some consistency. The Astros have injuries and need some OF help. The A’s are doing A’s things right now with a bunch of guys that shouldn’t be doing that. The Yankees are hurt. The Red Sox are overachieving a bit. The Jays and Rays are counting on some guys that are scuffling and getting some guys back. As the Sox get their crack at those teams, starting with the Yankees this weekend, they can start counting nails and coffins to put them in.

THINGS THE TWINS SHOULD BE EMBARRASSED BY

A legit home run to Nick Madrigal.

JA Happ.

Random things

I’d like to formally call it that Andrew Vaughn is not a DH, but an actual fully-realized baseball player who should be a LF/1B until old age makes him less viable out there. Eloy Jimenez is a DH. Yermin Mercedes is a DH. Jake Lamb is a DFA.

Yermin tattooing a Willians Astudillo eephus looked like a 16″ softball game being played at the “good park”.

Jose gets hammered by Hunter Dozier, who lowered a shoulder into him. Dozier gets knocked out. Jose slides past Cam Gallagher safely by mere molecules and gets hurt. The lesson? Jose should have run square into Gallagher.

Also, Jose is totally getting hit by a pitch next time they play the Royals.

Madrigal’s home run trot was faster than some guys run the bases ever.

The Twins are mad that Yermin swung at a face-high eephus and connected for a homer? Have you seen Yermin and what did you think he’d do, bunt?

I’m not mad that Billy Hamilton is here or that Leury has been sharing time with him in center. I just can’t wait for Adam Engel to get back.

The Sweat Meter, a system to manage your White Sox Worries.

As the Sox season carries on, concerns will pop up. Here, weekly, Sox in The Basement and Mismatched Sox will measure the concerning stuff, big and small, and determine whether to sweat it at all. The range runs from five Sweaty Freddies to one, five being sheer panic and one being nothing to worry about at all.

No sweat: Nick Madrigal selling out for power now that he’s tasted it…no. Carlos Rodón was bound to have one meh outing.

Beading: Still need a better answer in CF and Adam Eaton needs some time off. Only so much Mendick, Hamilton, Garcia, and Lamb action this team can take.

Dampness creeping: Evan Marshall, Codi Heuer and Matt Foster still have ugly numbers, though Foster seems to be getting better while the other two seem to be Jeckyl and Hyde with each appearance.

Wish you dressed lighter: Lucas Giolito, in general, looks pedestrian. It is hard to tell if the control, the pitches themselves, or the sequencing is to blame. At least with Dallas Keuchel, you know that his stuff is meant for contact and he’ll get hit. Lucas is a strikeout guy.

Call Family Waterproofing Solutions, its a flood: This whole not hitting righties thing.

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Hunting the Elusive Dinger

The Sox just absolutely ate the Royals for Mothers Day Brunch, knocking hit after hit all over Kaufmann Stadium. Even Yasmani Grandal, who has an anti-baseball bat in his hands these days, was getting on via the walk. The thing that wasn’t happening? Those hits weren’t going over the fence. Only Zack Collins and Danny Mendick managed to hit homers during a 21-run weekend.

As a team, the Sox have 27 homeruns total. Jose Abreu leads the team with 6, Yermin Mercedes has 5, TA has 4 and the remaining 13 are spread between 6 players, including 1 for Luis Robert. Of the regulars/frequent starters, three have not hit one out. Predictably, that includes Nick Madrigal; unsurprisingly that includes Leury Garcia; and alarmingly that includes Andrew Vaughn.

At the MLB level, the loss of Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert is going to reduce the HR totals. It remains to be seen how many Yermin can hit at this level, but his career everywhere AB/HR is 26.18 while Eloy put up a dinger every 15.1 ABs the last two years. Robert, after really finding his power swing in 2019 and 2020, averaged a tater every 16.4 ABs. That’s going to be hard to replace, especially since the Sox haven’t drafted and developed a power hitter on that level since…uhhh…hmmm…

The current Homerun hitters on the team are Abreu, an international signing; Eloy, traded for as a near-ready prospect; Yoan Moncada, traded for as a near-ready prospect; Robert, an international signing; Grandal (when he’s right), a free-agent; and Yermin, a Crash Davis-esque minor-league free agent. Adam Eaton, Billy Hamilton, and Leury Garcia are not really power guys, and Jake Lamb was once but hasn’t been in years.

Home-grown talent on the roster includes TA, Vaughn, Madrigal and Zack Collins. Danny Mendick has been up and down and there are likely others on the way. For the sake of wondering why the Sox can’t draft for power, we can ignore middle infielders Mendick and Madrigal, as they were not intended to be homerun guys. Really, neither was Anderson, and his career 30.4 AB/HR ratio is less impressive than the fact he’s hit between 10-20 HR every year since 2017. Collins is on the fringes, a catcher with homerun ability, but including college he averages a HR every 23.9 ABs. Catcher is not a “premium power position”, and if Collins got 531 AB, his expected 22 HR would be a real nice total from the catcher slot. But that’s not Eloy or La Pantera replacement level or even really close.

Andrew Vaughn is still looking for his first MLB homer. Jason Benetti and Len Kasper opined all weekend at Kaufmann that Vaughn is very close to breaking that seal. And when he does, hoooo boy you better watch out. Right? Hard to say. In college he average a dong every 11.9 at-bats. Professionally in a very small sample, it’s fireworks every 45.7 at-bats. He has 6 total in 274 professional ABs.

So who’s next? In 2019 the team leaders at Charlotte were Daniel Palka and Matt Skole, two AAAA guys that were signed as MiLB free agents and are now gone. The next two were the aforementioned Zack Collins and his backstop timeshare Seby Zavala, who has a nice career 23.5 AB/HR but a really iffy .222 BA in 2019.

Birmingham is harder to hit out of, but in 2019 Gavin Sheets was the only guy in double digits. He hits one out every 41.9 ABs for his minors career. And for reference, had Luis Robert met Sheets’ number of at-bats in Birmingham, he would have hit 16 homers as well, but also had 33 doubles to Sheets’ 18. Sheets represents maybe the best hope for the next power hitter to come up, but so far he hasn’t shown it.

Jake Burger and Micker Adolfo are also not the answer, at least statistically. Burger has 6 HR in 206 pro at-bats, much like Vaughn. Too hard to tell yet on Burger, but he wasn’t as good as Vaughn in college (1 knock every 15.1 AB). Adolfo hits one every 33.8 for his career, though he’s now in the void in Birmingham so those numbers are likely to get worse even if he gets better.

So who is the last decent homerun hitter the Sox developed? From the standpoint of a guy that actually had a decent career, it’s El Caballo. In Carlos Lee’s prime with Milwaukee and Houston, he reached the Eloy/Luis levels twice and stayed around 19 AB/HR otherwise until his career declined late. Joe Crede’s best ratio was 2006, at 18.1 AB/HR when he hit his career-best 30. Josh Fields, in the one season he played as a near-regular (2007), hit one every 16.1 ABs. It is possible that had Crede and/or Fields been healthier, he might have continued to produce at their best. With Fields, he played so little it is hard to say whether 2007 was real and with Crede it feels like 2006 was still a possible high water mark.

So are there any former prospects running around that fit the bill? Fernando Tatis, Jr. comes to mind. I would argue he is a product of the Padres system, since he never appeared for a Sox affiliate. Marcus Semien? He hit 33 in 2019, and 27 in 2016, but those are the biggest totals in his career and he needed 727 at-bats in 2019 to get there.

It is a strain to think of the last time the Sox produced a viable major league 1B/3B, DH or corner OF that had a career marked by decent power numbers. Going back to 2005, Paul Konerko, Jermaine Dye, Jim Thome, Joe Crede, Carlos Quentin, Adam Dunn, Jose Abreu, Todd Frazier, and Eloy Jimenez have all topped the 30-HR mark for the Sox. Only Joe Crede was a product of the White Sox system.

The lineup needs a jolt of legit power right now and it will need to come from the outside. History suggests that the farm system isn’t going to produce that much wattage for the cottage at 35th and Shields.

The Sweat Meter, a system to manage your White Sox Worries.

As the Sox season carries on, concerns will pop up. Here, weekly, Sox in The Basement and Mismatched Sox will measure the concerning stuff, big and small, and determine whether to sweat it at all. The range runs from five Sweaty Freddies to one, five being sheer panic and one being nothing to worry about at all.

Shower Fresh: Vaugh hitting doubles instead of dingers. He’ll get some out.

GLOW: Too much Billy Hamilton will get sorted out eventually. TLR isn’t blind. Umm, I don’t think.

Collar is getting wet: Liam Hendriks really relies on a medium. Cool…that’s…cool.

Swampy: Well..

Call Family Waterproofing Solutions, its a flood: it remains worth the panic over whether they can overcome the losses of Jimenez and Robert in the same season. They got hot against the Royals but can they sustain that kind of attack with an above-average BABIP as a team? They are really, really going to rely on two rookies, Vaughn and Mercedes, to make this happen in 2021.

Hearing the news about Luis Robert, the temptation is to grab a fist full of your own feces, scrawl “why” on every surface nearby, sobbing over and over, pausing only to scream into the night that it isn’t fair.

Actually if that was your response to Luis Robert getting hurt, maybe seek professional help because that’s a bit much and other things had to be bubbling up, uhhh, in a non-fecal sense. Such things could include Eloy’s injury, but still.

More to the point, it is probably enough at the news to just yell the profanity of your choice and wonder if the White Sox can overcome the loss of a second major dynamic bat from what was supposed to be an insanely dangerous lineup.

Both Eloy and Luis could be back and in the lineup by September, hopefully for the playoffs. But in the meantime, the lineup needs a new center fielder and still has to sort out the replacement left fielders. For those worried that there’s been far too much Billy Hamilton, there’s bad news…and probably just bad news.

Still, there has to be 7 dudes standing behind the pitcher/in front of the catcher, and two of them will be standing to Adam Eaton’s right. Well…maybe standing on either side of him. Let’s dive into options, both elsewhere and in-house, and hopefully not to the outhouse.

NEXT UP:

Adam Engel. The Man of Steal is about to return, and the sooner the better. Reports are that he’s now looking at June. He’ll need to be the 2020 version, but that’s assuming that the Sox haven’t otherwise figured this out over the next month.

Andrew Vaughn. But wait, you might be saying and hopefully not writing in digested Taco Bell, he’s already here. Yeah, but now Tony has to commit, good bad or whatever. Vaughn has been pleasantly fine in left, catching things but throwing a bit erratically. His hitting has been unpleasantly erratic but lately better. He’s our Obi-Wan Kenobi. He’s our only hope. And ideally not a crazy wizard.

Leury Garcia. He’s had every opportunity to become an everyday player for this team and never stuck the landing. It’s a stretch to think he’ll do it now. His 140 games is a high mark, coming in 2019 with a .279 AVG. but a middlin’ .688 OPS. He was always likely to see semi-regular action around the diamond, now he’ll be more or less stuck in one spot. This isn’t his ideal usage.

Jake Lamb. I hope not. At best he recaptures the power that made him a regular for the DBacks, which was 2016-2017, but as a corner infielder. That was already four years ago and things since have been bad for Lamb. Besides, having another corner IF in the OF is just an F.

Billy Hamilton. Yeah…well…he’s here. He’s a veteran. He’s fast. He’s inspired to hit better than his career .241 mark, for what it’s worth. Even though he hasn’t been a regular since 2018, he’s at least been a starting MLB OF. Until Engel is back he’s probably the best option in CF. Unless…

Luis Gonzalez (AAA). Not the former all star, who is a bit old and retired at this point. This Gonzo will probably make a significant amount of appearances before it’s all said and done, barring a trade. The good news is that he was a badass in the NCAA, walking 124 times over 71 Ks, with an OPS over 1.000. Too bad in the minors he’s been a mixed bag at best, .269 AVG with a .756 OPS., and only as high as AA. He’s really not ready yet but pressed into action, maybe he can settle into an Adam Eaton-type. I’m guessing we’ll see soon enough.

Gavin Sheets (AAA). A slightly better hitter in the minors than Gonzalez, .280/.766, supposedly a power-type. Downside is that like Vaughn he’s a newbie to the outfield, in fact listed as an IF for Charlotte. And like Gonzalez, he had a lousy spring. He’s probably not ready for prime time either. Besides, an OF featuring two repackaged minor league 1B’s and better in RF Adam Eaton isn’t really a championship idea.

Blake Rutherford (AAA). A lefty bat, he’s Gavin Sheets with less power but better fielding. Probably needs to platoon, and that’s ok. Maybe he takes the next step, since he was at one point the best prospect the Sox had. If he can hit righties well, he can actually help that issue for the Sox as a bonus. Call him the dark horse?

Micker Adolfo. (AA) He looked really overmatched in spring. His minors numbers are underwhelming compared to the hype, a .249 average with an OPS under .800, worse overall than the light-hitting Gonzalez and Rutherford. Not good.

Nick Williams and Mickie Mahtook (AAA, not on the 40-man). Williams looked bad in his earlier stay and Mahtook was never all that good to start off with. Both are Billy Hamilton-esque in not being recent MLB starters, but with the added knock of not having Billy’s successful history. Mmm. No thanks.

In-house then, it’s really Vaughn, Garcia and Hamilton in some rotation until Adam Engel gets back. The minors lack that guy that’s really ready to make the leap, though a hot start over the next month could prove this wrong. It would be the best scenario if Vaughn and Engel took over, with Hamilton and Garcia there in support. The biggest loss with all of these option is power. Vaughn being the exception, none of the others are known as sluggers, or have minor league stats that support a slugging reputation. If the Sox stay in house, Vaughn needs to hit for power and Engel needs to complete his transformation into vintage Aaron Rowand.

SO…OUTSIDE HELP THEN:

Since what’s here is less than thrilling, it means looking out there is needed. The idea that in May there’s anyone notable available is not something you’d expect, and there aren’t guys on the street ready to go except maybe Jay Bruce. Rick Hahn said trades are possible, but they’ll have to see if the juice is worth the squeeze (his words…good ones actually). It makes sense that the Sox wouldn’t want to overpay for a guy that they only need to rent for one year. Under the right circumstances maybe there’s a player that becomes the long term RF, but it is unlikely that a star is walking into the clubhouse in May. The trading team needs to have said star, believe that they are totally out of it or need to shed salary, or be bowled over by the offer. Since Rick isn’t going to sell the farm to cover one position for 12-16 weeks, there’s no bowling. Since no one will concede the season after 4 weeks, stars are not really available. Likely the trade would be for an established, hopefully above-average MLB outfielder and hopefully with some power.

Let’s rundown each team and see if they have the juice:

AL EAST

• Rays – No Juice. Yoshi Tsutsugo, who hasn’t hit MLB pitching, is the odd man in the OF.
• Yankees – No Juice. Mike Tauchman was traded to clear room.
• Blue Jays – No Juice. Randal Grichuk looked expendable coming in, but he isn’t now that Hernandez/Springer can also DH.
• Red Sox – No Juice. They’re trying to get their OF in order.
• Orioles – You like the Juice? If Anthony Santander wasn’t hurt, they’d have Austin Hays fighting for time with DJ Stewart and Ryan Mountcastle in right. Santander is due back in May, but maybe Hays can be targeted (the other two are less established). It might take a pitcher and a position player, probably in the vein of Jonathan Stiever and a guy that hopefully isn’t the next Fernando Tatis Jr.

AL CENTRAL – No Juice. All the AL Central outfields have holes and who is helping the Sox anyway?

AL WEST

• A’s – No Juice. They’re patching it together a bit out there.
• Mariners – No Juice. Even with Jared Kellenic about to arrive, the guy that loses for now is Taylor Trammell, who didn’t capitalize on his spring. Mitch Haniger would cost a lot.
• Astros – No Juice. They’re still trying to replace George Springer.
• Rangers – No Juice. Doubtful they’d move Joey Gallo, and the rest are unproven.
• Angels – You like the Juice? Dexter Fowler looks like he’s done but Jared Walsh covered him; Brandon Marsh and Jo Adell await their chance meaning maybe…MAYBE Justin Upton can be had. But not cheaply.

NL EAST

• Nats – No Juice. It’s Juan Soto cosplaying Nats-era Bryce Harper out there as a lone wolf.
• Phillies – No Juice. They are searching for a CF from a pile of bodies and propping up Andrew McCutchen’s corpse.
• Braves – No Juice. They’re pretty bare after the starters.
• Mets – Weak Juice. If you like Kevin Pillar. He might be a cheap get, but that’s because he’s not that good.
• Marlins – You like the Juice? Starling Marte has a broken rib, but he’s in an OF that also has Garrett Cooper, Adam Duvall and Corey Dickerson in the best of times, with some young’ns behind them. Duvall is not an everyday player really, but Cooper and Dickerson have been. Dickerson is a free agent after this year and maybe a guy that the Fish would move on from, Cooper seems like a guy they’d keep around. Dickerson is a career .285 hitter and having a good season so far, while the Marlins are scuffling a little. But they aren’t out of it yet, so it’s hard to say they’d part with a useful bat without getting MLB help back. They can use bullpen and catcher help, which the Sox have.

NL CENTRAL

• Cards – No Juice. They’re finding out if they have any OF.
• Pirates – Some Juice. Gregory Polanco exists, he’s not been good this year but is a free agent at year’s end. He might not be an upgrade.
• Brewers – Ehhhh…Juice? Avi Garcia, the hurt Lorenzo Cain, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Christian Yelich are the main four with Tyrone Taylor impressing in the spring and his most recent stint. That is a bona-fide logjam, but Cain might be toast, which soaks up some jam. Meanwhile…we’ve seen Avi Garcia before. Anyone want another round?
• Cubs – Weak Juice. They are not trading Kris Bryant cheaply, and in particular with the Sox need to save face after getting hosed in the Quintana deal. Ian Happ, Joc Pederson and Jason Heyward are there too, but Heyward is under a nasty contract, Happ is hurt/bad, Pederson just got there and Jake Marisnick is a 4th OF for his career. It seems unlikely the Cubs will trade.
• Reds – You like the Juice? They came into the season with 5-6 outfielders, which has become really one open spot since Jesse Winker and Nick Castellanos hold down two daily. The others, Shogo Akiyama is hurt for now and not great, Aristides Aquino is out long-term, Tyler Naquin is not really as good as he’s been this year, and Nick Senzel is maybe going back to second base. Senzel is the guy here though, as the Reds never liked him at 2nd and Leury Garcia would help them there. He was a better prospect than he’s shown in the majors, and maybe with regular playing time he can help. But he might just be Adam Engel in red.

NL WEST

• Dodgers – No Juice, sorta. Of course the Dodgers have guys that they can trade, but they aren’t going to give up their depth unless it makes the big club better. And unless the Sox trade a key piece, that’s not going to happen.
• Giants – No Juice. They just added an OF because theirs weren’t getting it done.
• Padres – No Juice. They’re wringing all they can from Tommy Pham and Wil Myers, with Jurickson Profar covering them around Trent Grisham.
• Diamondbacks – Weak Juice. They’ve just had Pavin Smith seemingly settling their open CF job, with Ketel Marte and Cole Kalhoun battling injuries, and Tim Locastro hurt as well. Eventually, Smith, Calhoun, Marte, Locastro and Daulton Varsho could leave David Peralta available. He’s not a stud but would hold down a corner with Eaton in CF. The problem? He’s owed $7.5 million next year. Calhoun would have been the target but he’s out 6-8 weeks.
• Rockies – You like the Juice? They salary dumped Nolan Arenado in the offseason, so salary dumping Charlie Blackmon isn’t likely to be popular in Denver. That said, Charlie is a free agent at year’s end and the Rockies are not winning anything much this year. They are trying out youngsters all over the place, so youngsters could be welcome in return. And if there was ever a team that might give a Reynaldo Lopez a look, it’s the eternally pitching-starved Rockies. Not saying that Lopez alone gets Blackmon, but him with guys like Seby Zavala or Blake Rutherford who aren’t necessarily in the plans, or another guy that hopefully isn’t Fernando Tatis Jr. might get him.

The Sweat Meter, a system to manage your White Sox Worries.

As the Sox season carries on, concerns will pop up. Here, weekly, Sox in The Basement and Mismatched Sox will measure the concerning stuff, big and small, and determine whether to sweat it at all. The range runs from five Sweaty Freddies to one, five being sheer panic and one being nothing to worry about at all.

Bone dry: Ok, look….

Glisten, Linda: at the moment, there’s really only one thing…

Damped: and one thing alone that we need to look at…

Clearly wet: and frankly….

Call Family Waterproofing Solutions, its a flood: it is worth the panic over whether they can overcome the losses of Jimenez and Robert in the same season. It won’t necessarily kill the season off, but the lineup is more pedetrian and the pressure mounts on the pitchers. If there was ever a time to panic in sports, it is over an injury to a key player, and combining Eloy and Luis is there with Derrick Rose’s knee and Jim McMahon getting slammed by Charles Martin. Hopefully, Andrew Vaughn is not Mike Tomczak or Keith Bogans.

Coming off a sweep of the Rangers and finally over .500, with winnable games upcoming, the White Sox are in position to take over the division and fulfill everyone’s hopes and dreams including cures for Covid-19 and cancer.

That’s maybe putting too much on them but building to a healthy 6-7 games over .500 gets them where they need to be in the early going, with the goal obviously being a finish somewhere around 26 games over. That doesn’t happen in April or May, but gets built by adding a few games over each month.

There’s no denying that getting here has been a little bumpy and hardly how it was drawn up. Still, the Sox entered play Tuesday at 12-9, with an expected win-loss of 13-8 per MLB.com. So they are, in spite of it all, where they belong. And while Sox fans fret over the rocky start for the bullpen and wonder if the hot starts of Carlos Rodón and Yermín Mercedes are real, or whether Andrew Vaughn and Dylan Cease will ever get it, or if the rebuild was more hype than talent, they can relax knowing the rest of the division is also dealing with things not going as planned.

THE CLEVELAND BASEBALL ASSEMBLAGE

The narrative going in: Superior starting pitching lead by Shane Bieber and a young, hard-charging bullpen lead by James Karinchak, along with solid defense would overcome a fairly weak lineup.

The reality: The hitting part is true, with a team Avg. of .206 and a team OPS of .661. Yikes. The pitching, though, hasn’t been quite what they wanted. The bullpen has been really good outside of the struggling Nick Wittgren, and closer Emmanuel Clase has given up unearned runs in hopes of keeping the alive the illusion of having a 0.00 ERA. The superior starting pitching? Shane Bieber has been pitching like the reigning Cy Young winner. Aaron Civale has a 2.42 ERA and 0.88 WHIP, though a number of analysts think he’s been lucky, and a .177 BABIP suggests that might be true. Zach Plesac has been lit up a couple times now, to the tune of a 5.81 ERA and has only 18 K’s in 26 innings. Triston Mackenzie and Logan Allen haven’t held down the 4th and 5th spots, posting Dylan Cease-like innings but getting popped to ERAs of 4.32 and 6.28 respectively. If that doesn’t turn around, their .500-ish record seems safe to continue.

MINNESOTA TWINS

The narrative going in: A balanced team with sufficient hitting and pitching with good defense hang with any team and win in multiple days.

The reality: They are balanced alright, sitting 16th and 17th in pitching and hitting respectively. But that’s misleading in a sense, as the bullpen has been a disaster with Alex Colome blowing it like he’s Louis Armstrong in a trumpet store. The Twins primary relievers are sporting an ERA around 6.00. Kenta Maeda has a 6.11 ERA and a WHIP of 1.87, Matt Shoemaker has an ERA of 5.49. Hitting is the same issue, where Mitch Garver, Jake Cave, Max Kepler, Miguel Sano and Jorge Polanco are hitting a combined .174 with 5 HR and are being kept alive by Josh Donaldson, Nellie Cruz and Byron Buxton. The middlin’ team stats are being floated by a few boats with heavy anchors, and the record shows.

KC ROYALS

The narrative going in: Arriving youth, reclaimed veterans and maybe the last chance for legacy stars Whit Merrifield and Sal Perez to make some noise in the AL Central.

The reality: Things are going as planned to a degree, but they’re playing over their heads. The numbers are not spectacular for anyone other than Danny Duffy, who is not going to keep his ERA at .039, or Josh Staumont and Brady Singer, who are both really good actually but are probably due a little regression. Their best hitters are the aforementioned longtime stars Sal Perez and Whit Merrifield, who are hitting around their career norms. Really only Hunter Dozier is truly under performing, as others are either fighting a couple years of regression or are too young to know what they are yet. In the better to be lucky than good vein, they have gotten contributions and streaks and good bounces, and however you spin it, the division lead. However, MLB.com shows an expected win-loss of 11-10, so the 14-8 record is a bit of a mirage.

DETROIT TIGERS

The narrative going in: (Cue Kurt Angle’s WWE Theme Music) You Suck! You Suck! …well that was the league narrative, anyway, and the Tigers’ line was that they are trying to do what the Royals are doing.

The reality: It turns out, they suck. From the standpoint of the Tigers front office, they are trying to ID their next core and so far it is the solid but underwhelming Jaimer Candelario and Akil Baddoo!, whose name really should have an exclamation point. He’s also their only hitter with more than 10 extra base hits. The young pitching hasn’t been terrible or terribly effective, with Casey Mize and Tarik Skubal sporting ERAs over 5.00. Its bad.

Michael Kopech

My goodness.

The Sweat Meter, a system to manage your White Sox Worries.

As the Sox continue to be up and down to start the season, concerns will pop up. Here, weekly, Sox in The Basement and Mismatched Sox will measure the concerning stuff, big and small, and determine whether to sweat it at all. The range runs from five Sweaty Freddies to one, five being sheer panic and one being nothing to worry about at all.

Perhaps a bit chilly: Matt Foster, Codi Heuer, and Aaron Bummer all have BABIPs over .400 and Foster, Heuer and Evan Marshall all have expected ERAs below their current ERA. There really is some positive correction to be expected. Speaking of which, Yoan Moncada is only behind his 2019 expanded numbers in the power department, and that feels like it’ll be here soon.

Drippage: Giolito cutting his finger is right up there with Carlos getting the green apple quicksteps, but Garret Crochet’s bloody finger makes Lucas look like a wimp. Hendriks HR/9 is absurdly high right now and nothing in his career, even the bad years, suggests that this is anything more than a fluke. Get more sage.

A certain wet look: Dylan Cease was more of the same all over again.

Wet: They need to take a series from a winning team, next chance is probably the Royals.

Call Family Waterproofing Solutions, its a flood: Nothing to see here! ALL IS WELL!!!

It is early. We are but three weeks into a season that should last 26 weeks barring any Covid-19 issues or work stoppages or, you know, like a really good series premiering on Netflix or Hulu or some other streaming service.

Three weeks is enough time to start wondering about a few things, but early enough to ignore others. As noted by Jason and Steve, Jose Abreu doing naught but striking out and hitting ground balls is just because it isn’t May yet. He’s got a track record that suggests he’ll come around. The bullpen’s early ugliness was just a few bad moments that are getting smoothed out as Tony gets the feel for who should do what and to whom and for how long. Even Lucas Giolito getting shelled by Boston on a Monday morning is probably just a fluke; after all he was knocked around by the Twins on opening day last year and by the end of the season he was fine. Overall, it is too early to worry about the bats being a little down and some ERA’s being a little up. The Sox are splitting road series and hovering around .500, but are a winning streak or two away from potentially taking over the division and not looking back.

For all the “don’t panic” signs, there are a couple things that are kinda dogging the team and maybe need to be addressed now. Left Field and the Fifth Starter are the culprits. But one issue has no answer, while the other one does but it’ll never happen.

In left field the problem is summed up by the fact that Andrew Vaughn isn’t hitting and Tony isn’t just tossing him to the wolves. Adam Engel is a few weeks away, and maybe he settles things, or maybe Vaughn also heats up in May, but the question will seemingly linger all year until someone takes the reigns. If Engel is really just a fourth-OF type, we will know before Memorial Day. If Vaughn isn’t ready, that call feels like it could be made even sooner. Absent those two, can the Sox live with this patchwork of players that they’ve trotted out there? The answer has to be yes until June at least. It is too early to trade for anyone of note in April because teams aren’t really out of it yet, and those that are well behind like the Diamondbacks and Rockies don’t have anyone to trade that would be better than Vaughn at the moment. So the only other answer would be calling up Gavin Sheets or Luis Gonzalez, and…that’s not an answer until the MiLB season starts and they show that their poor springs are behind them.

So how do we solve the left field issue now? Pick a guy and play him. Vaughn seems the obvious candidate. If the guys hits, he’s been decent in the field and there’s no problem until Eloy comes back and we see how Vaughn stacks up with Yermin. If Vaughn fails, he goes down to AAA/AA and we side-eye Rick Hahn for not signing Eddie Rosario in the first place (or Jerry for not giving him the cash).

It stands to reason, though, that Tony will continue to use LF to rotate guys in and out, so get used to the 8th spot in the lineup and the 7 spot on the field being a land of confusion. But all in all, assuming Moncada, Abreu, and Grandal have their bats wake up to their expected norms come May 1, and Yermin, Eaton, Madrigal and TA keep hitting like they are (and why wouldn’t they?), left field can be a mashup until someone stakes a claim. My money is on Engel, but I’m jonesing for Vaughn to take it.

The perceived pitching issues are the more pressing, with the bullpen being wobbly early and now Lance Lynn on the IL. It isn’t a worry that the first couple times through the rotation that guys are a tad inconsistent. Lynn has been solid, Keuchel has been solid the last two times out, Giolito was fine before Monday, and Carlos has been stunning. The bullpen has settled in pretty well in games where those four pitch, including, obviously, Danny Mendick.

That’s mainly because Lynn has gone 9 innings and 6 innings in his last two starts; Keuchel has gone 5 in each of his; Giolito went into the 6th and went 7 in his first two starts, and Rodón went 5 and 9. The bullpen is set up to go from the 6th through the ninth with no issue, and using Kopech or Crochet for a couple clean innings takes the ‘pen down to covering the 8th and 9th. In those doses, Marshall, Foster, Bummer, Heuer and Hendriks are deadly; one of them can clean up the 6th if needed or take one of the last 2-3 innings. But if they need to be repeatedly and consistently stretched across multiple innings, it causes issues.

You’ll note that Dylan Cease was left out of the conversation so far, and that’s because he’s the broken gear in the machine. Each time out he’s thrown the bullpen out of whack and all three of his starts have been losses. He can’t get out of the 5th inning, going 4 2/3 each start and leaving a mess in the 5th. That has meant Jose Ruiz coming into a close game late in Anaheim where had Cease gone through the 5th or into the 6th Ruiz’ inning would have been covered; Cease was bailed out by Kopech against the Royals in his next start, but the next day Heuer had to go 2 1/3 (which is not ideal); and against Boston Tony had to be careful about who he used for the last 4 1/3 because the next day he had a double header (and was starting Kopech), which again had Ruiz come into a close game that turned into a loss. Where three of the other four starters have just had a random clunker (Keuchel’s first, Lynn’s first, Giolito’s Monday MASSacre), Cease is confoundingly starting hot and losing it way too early every time out.

The solution? When Lance Lynn gets back, Cease gets demoted. Cease has improved in strikeouts over last season, currently averaging 9.64 K/9, but he’s getting hit and walking guys more. He’s kept the ball in the ballpark unlike last year, otherwise his 3.86 ERA would likely be worse. His mechanical improvements are noticeably working, but he’s still not able to get through the lineup more than twice and too inefficient to spread that out over 5-6 innings. He needs to get this all sorted out if he intends to remain a starter, and for now he needs to either do that in the current Kopech/Crochet role, or at Charlotte.

In his place, the Sox should start Kopech and Crochet. Slate them both to pitch every 5 days or so, with their slot skipped for days off. Teams are free to figure out how to gameplan for that two-headed monster all they like. Kopech and Crochet can take turns opening, getting a feel for starting and planning on going 3-4 innings with the other guy taking the next 3-4. On their scheduled bullpen session days in between starts, they can still occasionally make an appearance as a reliever if needed (like Keuchel did), but they stay on a schedule. When the rotation lines up that the 5th starter is skipped, Kopech and Crochet are already a part of the pen. Their innings as piggyback starters are limitable and measurable, and they are stretched out and on a starter’s routine for next year. The rest of the bullpen gets used in a more traditional way, covering the 6th-9th in their games and Jose Ruiz is just a middle reliever again.

Meanwhile, Cease can take the long relief route and get through the lineup once where he has been really good. He takes Kopech’s role and can still spot start. That way Katz can watch him up close. Sure, his mentality will need to change, but tough noogies. The alternative is Zack Burdi and his 98 mph heater stays here and Cease goes to Charlotte to learn how to leverage his strikeout stuff into a 7 inning game or find a pitch that gets double play balls and quick outs. Either way, the Sox should desist on Cease.

The Sweat Meter, a system to manage your White Sox Worries.

As the Sox continue to be up and down to start the season, concerns will pop up. Here, weekly, Sox in The Basement and Mismatched Sox will measure the concerning stuff, big and small, and determine whether to sweat it at all. The range runs from five Sweaty Freddies to one, five being sheer panic and one being nothing to worry about at all.

Dry, dry again: Yermin is hitting like a normal hitter again, he’s still really good. Too much Jake Lamb will sort itself out…I really think Tony’s trying to get him a job elsewhere. Giolito maybe doesn’t do Monday mornings…is he a Garfield fan?

Just a few drops: Lance Lynn might just be sore; all the starters are likely to get a 10-day IL vacation here and there this year. A trap strain is not one that you’d expect to hear though. Jose Abreu was hitting .192 on 4/21/19; seems like he’ll be ok.

Slick skin: Yoan Moncada’s struggles are starting to resemble 2018 and 2020, and for him 2019 was the aberration. Andrew Vaughn’s playing time is down in favor of Leury Garcia, who is here because he’s versatile, not because he’s good, and unlike Nick Willams isn’t a DFA candidate.

The Dampening: They need a winning streak before the Royals or Twins really start to get going or Cleveland finds some hitting.

Call Family Waterproofing Solutions, its a flood: For now, things aren’t that bad. Be happy.