The Dog Days of August

August 9, 2017

Football is right around the corner. The exhibition games are a waste of time so we’ll look into the dog days of baseball. Although much is decided there are still things to talk about. For instance, did you ever think that there would be a day when the White Sox would beat the Astros? And the Cubs would lose to the Giants?

Chicago Cubs – Wilson Contreras has elevated his game and if he’s not the best catcher, he’s in the picture. He plays great defense and is carrying the club offensively. Add great pitching and you have a division winner. However, there are 4 other reasons explaining why they will enter the playoffs. The over achieving Milwaukee Brewers, the middling Cardinals, the going nowhere Pirates and the terrible Reds. As evidenced by their 2-4 home stand, the Cubs may be good but not the elite team it was last year when everything went right. Even when not facing one of the Nationals top three pitchers they still lost 2 of 3. Their record against .500 or better teams is 8-15. If you add the games to the over .500 American League teams it gets worse. The rest of the month should not make fans overly confident. After this weekend series against Arizona (which could be tough) you have a plethora of games against Cincinnati with a little bit of Philadelphia thrown in, which just about clinches the division.

Chicago White Sox – Rick Hahn did a great job trading everybody who was not part of the future. His tenure as a general manager will be defined by the development of these young top notch prospects. If things go well, they should be ready by 2019 or 2020. Only about 5 players will remain: Abreu, Moncada, Anderson, A. Garcia and Rodon. Matt Davidson will be a stop gap at third base until top pick Jake Burger is ready (that’s because he strikes out in over 40% of his at bats). Aside from seeing other prospects get promoted, even the lousy football exhibitions will be more watchable…

I want to end by giving out White Sox season rewards:

The Mat Latos reward goes to James Shields. Pelfrey gets some consideration, as he has been awful. Shields who allows multiple runs (many which come via the home run) and can’t get through the fifth inning has been vomit inducing.

Speaking of vomit inducing, the John Danks reward goes to Derek Holland. With Jennings gone, this was a no brainer. Another pitcher who can’t go more than 5 innings. His crowning moment was giving up back to back to back home runs.

The Tim Beckham award. This is someone called up and has a good ½ season then sucks the next year. This goes to Tim Anderson.

By the way, last time I looked Frazier was batting .206.