Cubs Road Woes! White Sox .500 Season?

June 23, 2019

I know it’s only the latter part of June and there are tons of games left.  Even so, the Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros and Minnesota Twins can set up their post season rotations. The American League East is without question the best division in baseball. Both wild card teams will come from there. It looks as if Atlanta is the cream of the crop in the National League East. The National Central division…

The Chicago Cubs had just finished a 2-5 road trip. They came back home and split a two game series with the White Sox, handing Lucas Giolito his first loss since April 6. Despite going 3-6, they somehow remained in first place. The Cubs are the only division leader with a losing record on the road, a pitiful 15-21. The usual formula to winning is playing .500, which is about 40 road wins. Winning 50 at home gets you in the playoffs; 55 wins the division. If they don’t attain 40 road wins they’ll need to win at least 55 games at Wrigley to make the playoffs. The Cubs do have the third best home record. With home games being critical, the Cubs have proceeded to lose 2 of 3 to an inferior New York Mets team.

For the Cubs to win the division a couple of things need to occur. First, they are near the bottom of the league in batting average with runners in scoring position. Home runs are nice but good teams need to learn how to manufacture runs. Secondly, they need to avoid injuries. Brandan Morrow is never coming back and their best reliever Pedro Strop got hurt. With the addition of Craig Kimbrel, a healthy Strop can return to the set-up role. Kyle Hendricks injury is worrisome. Hopefully he returns to form when he comes back. Not all is doom and gloom.  Top pitching prospect, Adbert Alzolay looked excellent in his major league debut. Right now he’s in the bullpen but I believe he will eventually become a starter. Yu Darvish is at last looking like the player they envisioned when they signed him.

I didn’t expect Lucas Giolito would go 20-1. In his last start he gave up six runs, including three home runs, in 4.1 innings. Most pitchers, especially young ones, will have games like this. The key will be to see how he bounces back. It won’t be easy as he faces the Boston Red Sox.

The White Sox are playing pretty good baseball as they try to hit the magic .500 record. They did after beating the Yankees in the first 2 games of a four game series June 13 and 14. In the following game Reynaldo Lopez had another bad outing, giving up 5 runs in 6 innings. He was trending upward at the end of last year and it seems like he has regressed. Injuries then forced them to start 31-year old journeyman, Odrisamer Despagne. He has been more than awful. With the Sox being one game under .500, he coughed up a four run lead in three innings. They lost 6-5 to the Texas Rangers.

 The core of the future is taking shape. Yoan Mancada is having a real good year and should only get better. Tim Anderson remains among the top hitters and base stealers in the league. Despite having a subpar year average wise, Jose Abreu is among the leaders in RBI and doubles with 17 home runs. The bullpen is one their best in years. Set-up man Aaron Bummer is one of the best left relievers in the game. Right hand set-up man Evan Marshall has been excellent. Closer Alex Colome is 15 for 15 in save opportunities.

Best of all is budding superstar, Eloy Jimenez. After a slow start he is getting the hang of things. He is hitting clutch and gargantuan home runs. The average is going up and I think he is going to get better as the year progresses. He should be the face of the future for years to come. Another positive is minor league centerfielder Luis Robert. Some think will be as good as Jimenez. Hopefully he’ll ready by next year. Thinking of 2020 gets me really excited.

Baseball's Ups & Downs

June 8, 2019

The baseball season is a long grind. Most teams are going to have their ups and downs. The Chicago teams are a perfect example of this.

The Chicago Cubs started the season poorly. They became the hottest team in baseball and soon were in first place. Before they opened up a home stand Monday, they had gone 2-8 in their previous ten games and were a shade out of first place

The Cubs returned home and Wrigley Field lived up to its billing as the “friendly confines”. They have won four of five with no starter giving up more than three runs. Lester found his form, Cole Hamels has been superb, Kyle Hendricks and Jose Quintana steady. Even Yu Darvish has had a couple of good games. However, in a victory over the Rockies, the bullpen almost coughed up a five run lead in a 9-8 Cubs victory.  President Theo Epstein finally thought it was time to make a move and signed free agent closer Craig Kimbrel. Before you anoint Kimbrel as the savior of the bullpen, consider he was getting battered as of late, losing the closer role in Boston.

 I think it’s time to admit that Kyle Schwarber is not the player he was supposed to be. His low on base percentage wouldn’t be as much of a problem if he were hitting home runs and not striking out. Without Ben Zobrist, left field becomes a problem. I don’t think the resurrection of Carlos Gonzales is the answer to this problem.  You know Cub Manager Joe Maddon is concerned when you see Anthony Rizzo leading off. People will argue that he only leads off once a game. However, the players in the bottom of the lineup don’t get on base, decreasing his RBI opportunities. When is Joe going to stop playing Daniel Descalso?

The White Sox got clobbered and were swept in a 3 game series on the road versus the Minnesota Twins.  The Sox came home to Guaranteed Rate Field and won 6 of 7 games. This team is capable of winning if it plays clean. Even Dylan Covey and Manny Banuelos starts were victories. Lucas Giolito, May’s pitcher of the month, had two victories. The only loss occurred in a game where they had two runners on with no outs and they both got picked off. This set the tone for the loss. This streak pulled them only one game away from the elusive .500 record. However, the Sox lost their next three games. This losing streak ended with Giolito throwing 7.2 shutout innings with a career high 11 strikeouts. He currently is the best pitcher in the American League.

The Sox have vastly improved. They have 30 wins. Last year they didn’t win their 30^tth game until July 3. Finishing .500 would exceed expectations.  To help reach this goal, it would be nice if Yonder Alonso started to hit.  Jose Abreu leads the league in RBI. Think of how much better this would be if he hadn’t struck out 65 times in 244 at-bats. Reynaldo Lopez, who seemed to have the biggest upside of the young pitchers, needs to get better.

 Manager Ricky Renteria handles his pitching staff like a surgeon wearing oven mitts. He has made numerous mistakes when it comes to bullpen maneuvers.  Last year he kept putting in Nate Jones, who always lost games. It took him until September to stop bringing him in to relieve.  This year, he keeps calling on Jace Fry in tight situations.  He has not performed well.  I don’t understand why he doesn’t use better options when games are close.

Renteria will be the biggest impediment to the White Sox being good in the future. We need a manager who knows what he is doing, not one that was hired out of convenience.