October 10, 2018
There is another baseball team in Chicago besides the Cubs.
For the people who still care (I know you’re out there) this is the state of
the White Sox. The Sox looked like they
were getting better going 16-12 in August. Then came September. They had a
seven game losing streak in the middle of the month.
They lost their last five to reach 100 losses. Mercifully, the season
ended.
Are there any positives? They do have some good young
pitching. As rookies, they had the expected ups and downs. However, you can see
the potential that Carlos Rodon, Reynaldo Lopez and Lucas Giolito have. There
were times when each pitcher displayed major league quality stuff. At some
point they will add Dylan Cease to the rotation. Michael Kopech was the story
of the year. He added excitement to what was otherwise a dull year. Alas, when I heard he needed Tommy John surgery it
was worse than the day the music died. He will be back in 2020. They should be
competitive by then. The rebuild has been stalled by injuries but should take
shape by 2020. Patience is a virtue.
As for 2019, expect Eloy Jimenez to be the starting left
fielder, Jose Abreu needs regain the form that made him one of the
best hitters in baseball. Before he got hurt and as the season wound down you could see flashes of how good Joan Moncada can be.
He has to learn that some pitches are too close to take. Good hitters
tend to foul off pitches until they get one they like. He also has to work on
his fielding. Eloy Jimenez will eventually be the left fielder once the obtain the extra year of control.
That’s it for the positives. Adam Engel in center. He
seemed to get an idea of what he was doing and improved his average from .167
to at one point rose to .235. An excellent defender some think if he could hit
.250 that would be acceptable. This is only true if the rest of the team is
hitting. He would be a good late inning defensive replacement. In right field, Avi Garcia hit .330 in 2017. He regressed in 2018, often swinging at pitches out
of the strike zone. He also suffered through injuries. What he did do was
decrease his value in any trade possibilities.
The left side of the infield needs a complete make over.
There doesn’t seem to be anyone to replace Yomar Sanchez. With a .246 average
with no power and barely .300 on base percentage, he is not your prototypical
third baseman. Shortstop Tim Anderson did hit twenty home runs and stole over twenty bases. He also had over twenty errors. I will admit his fielding did improve
over the course of the season. He can hit home runs and would steal more bases
if he wasn’t hitting.241 with an on base percentage of .282. His plate
discipline is terrible. Three breaking balls in the dirt and he can
grab some bench. As for the catching, Omar Navaraez hitting was a great surprise,
but he is a disaster behind the plate, minus 22 in runs saved. I didn’t forget about the sorry bullpen
but that would go on forever. Suffice to
say you can’t win without a good one.
Some of the best moments of the 2018 season were provided by
rookie Danny Palka who hit 27 home runs in only 388 at bats. He had a flair for
the dramatic, hitting multiple home runs to tie or win games in the ninth
inning. Hopefully they can make some strides and show promise for the future in
2019. I can’t wait until 2020 when we should really know if this rebuild is
working.
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