It's the Best of Times and the Worst of Times

 

August 30 2021

With one month left in the regular season, the White Sox (76-56) still have a stranglehold on the Central Division. They lead the Indians by 10 games.  Now is the time to gain some momentum heading into the playoffs. They also still have chance to catch Houston for home field advantage.

The knock on the Sox is they can’t beat good teams. They just finished a stretch of 14 games against teams with winning records and went 7-7. Four of the losses were games when Tim Anderson was not in the line-up. Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert are back and are tearing the cover off the ball. Yasmani Grandal came back and continued the hot streak he was on before he went on the IL. These additions have also made Jose Abreu better. He got extremely hot in August. He has 27 homers and once again leads the majors with 101 RBI. The Sox now have one of the best offenses in the game. Also on a positive note, Dylan Cease, is learning how to pitch and should only get better.

The moves at the trading deadline are a mixed bag. Ryan Tepera was a good pick up. He throws strikes and has an unhittable slider, especially against right handed batters. New second baseman, Caesar Hernandez has won a gold glove. The problem is he is a weak link in the line-up. He has developed a lot of power with over 20 homers. This coincides with striking out, which he is doing at an alarming rate. Craig Kimbrel was acquired to solidify the bullpen, which is a key to post season success. He has been a mitigating disaster. Dallas Keuchel has also been awful. He has gone from being a number two starter to number five. I am sure he will get more starts to try to turn things around but I feel this is highly unlikely. As of now, Reynaldo Lopez is a better option. Tony LaRussa will probably make the wrong move, letting Keuchel start.

If you are tuning into the Cubs (57-75) to see if they win or lose, you are watching for the wrong reason.   Right now the focus should be on who you want to see on next year’s team. I would think the Cubs will have some September call ups. However, the Cubs farm system ranks in the lower half of baseball and I don’t hear any names of players in the system.

Looking ahead, there are a few things we know. Willson Contreras will be catching. Nico Hoerner and Nick Madrigal will be at shortstop and second base. Due to an albatross contract, Jason Hayward will be in right field. I think you can pencil in Patrick Wisdom at third. He has massive power and should be able to hit 40 homers per year. Right now he has 25 in 254 at bats but also has 111 strikeouts. Since he is only a rookie, maybe he can improve in this area. Wisdom is also exceptionally good defensively. Frank Schwindel at first base is hitting .344, though he has little power, unlike most first basemen. You might have Rafael Ortega in center as he has shown flashes of what he can do. Let there be no mistake, these are all stop gap moves. Schwindel is 29 years old and Wisdom and Ortega are 30 years old.

It’s remarkable that Kyle Hendricks is 14-6 for a team 18 games under .500. He is most likely coming back. It may behoove the Cubs to explore a trade in the off season. You can get some really good prospects for Hendricks. Starters Adbert Alzolay. Jason Steele and Keegan Thompson all need some seasoning. Zach Davies and Alec Mills are other options to round out the rotation.

To placate fans, Jed Hoyer refuses to admit this a rebuild. They do have the money to sign free agents, but next year is not the time. There are too many holes to fill. Therefore, a couple of free agents aren’t going to make you a contender. Judging by recent moves, I don’t think the Cubs will jump into the free agent market this year. Remember, patience is a virtue.