South Side Hit Men

No twitter access, hopefully it's just temporary, as I have no social media accounts besides here and a beer site at this stage. Only highlights in game will be the MLB Gameday clips unless others post twitter clips in the game thread. Much obliged for those who can and will do so.

Sad that the only minor league catcher on the roster is likely worse defensively then Grandal, who really shouldn't be catching at this point beyond Lynn / fastball only starts. I hope the Sox trade Grandal at the deadline, get a low end veteran reserve who can actually catch and manage baseball games, so whatever remaining pitchers have a decent catcher to throw to the rest of the season.

Would say Tim is OK #2 vs. LHS. Bigger problem is the Sox only have four good to very good hitters (Robert Jr., Vaughn, Eloy and Benintendi). Remillard has an unsustainable .500 BABIP. Also has a lower isolated slugging than Tim (.033 vs. .038), so also should be at the bottom of the order. Jake needs rest, has been a part time platoon DH prior to this year, now is an everyday 3B, possibly until the end of the season. He's having trouble with all aspects of the game except running at this stage.

The Giants blocked their move to San Jose several years ago. Their package offered in Oakland is far better than what Las Vegas passed. This owner is beyond greedy. I was a fan of the A's growing up even though they were a rival of the Sox, primarily because of the color of their uniforms and Ricky Henderson. I will despise them if they move to Vegas, a town I've been visiting for 30 + years, visit annually with family there and love the Golden Knights. A few two team cities broke up in the 1950s, and then you had O'Malley's greed stealing the Dodgers, but the Bud Selig destroyed Montreal Expos have been the one relocation over the past 50 years. Owners threaten to move all the time in taxpayer shakedown schemes, but it rarely happens in recent memory. Montreal is the lone city without one or two current MLB teams among the cities that lost one or two franchises over the years. MLB relocation: 1903 - New York Yankees: Baltimore Orioles (1901-1902) 1954 - Baltimore Orioles: Milwaukee Brewers (1901); Saint Louis Browns (1902-1953) 1958 - San Francisco Giants: New York (1883-1957) 1958 - Los Angeles Dodgers: Brooklyn (1884-1957) 1961 - Minnesota Twins: Washington Senators (1901-1960) 1966 - Atlanta MLB Team: Boston (1876-1952); Milwaukee (1953-1965) 1968 - Oakland Athletics: Philadelphia (1901-1954); Kansas City (1955-1967) 1970 - Milwaukee Brewers: Seattle Pilots (1969) 1972 - Texas Rangers: Washington Senators II (1961-1971) 2005 - Washington Nationals: Montreal Expos (1969-2004)

Billionaire Jerry was given far more than $150M over the years with all of the free remodeling that has taken place, not to mention rent free and real estate tax free for approaching a half century.

Just like the 2020 playoffs. Seems like old times. Games 2 + 3 = 2 Starters, 4 Total Innings, 5 Runs, 2 HRs, 1 Loss. "That's what I love about being Jerry's GM, man. I get older, but the roster stays the same."

I'm cheering for the Cubs this weekend, then returning to regularly scheduled programing.

Hail storm earlier in the day. Game had a delayed start.

Did Tony take over the Cubs?

I don't recall the specifics of each injury last year, but he hit .896 through May before being down for a month, and wasn't the same the several weeks he returned before being shut down for the season. Was it the wrist injury in May and then finger in early Aug (it wasn't September unless he was hurt rehabbing). In my mind, he was likely rushed back like Robert, Grandal and others in desperation due to Hahn's perpetual lack of quality depth. Hand, wrist and finger injuries take a long time to recover from in terms of regaining full power. Benintendi will likely not be at full strength until late this year or next season. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=anderti01&t=b&year=2022

I give players the benefit of the doubt when it comes to performance and what they are dealing with in terms of injuries. Tony also set back the development of key younger players (primarily Vaughn, Burger, Kopech, Crochet) for short term considerations, while also prioritizing weaker veterans over players under 30 beyond the four hyped guys (Yoan, Tim, Luis and Eloy). For Michael, it seemed as though they sacrificed his long term success as a starter to fill one of Tony's cookie cutter bullpen slots in 2021. He was primarily used as a 1 inning guy after shutting him down in May until his final two games of the season (July 1 through Sept 26; 28 appearances, 32 innings). He would have been better starting the season in June or July as a starter (either here or Charlotte), targeting 90-100 innings under his belt so he could have expanded to 130-150 last year, and 160-180 this year. Crochet has been even more mismanaged, both in usage and his injuries. Hahn also missed an opportunity to claim Plesac, giving them much needed depth and taking away depth from Cleveland in the process. Glad they claimed Touki, but would have been great to have claimed both.

This is still the highest TWTW score (+60) on the current roster among hitters, and even higher when you stretch it over his entire career. What would have been informative in that article is what exactly is Tim working on? What is he "buying into" per Johnson's words? Making contact, hitting with more power, going the other way, pitch recognition, all of the above? Also, is he still dealing with lingering pain or limitations after his 2022 wrist injury and his 2023 Hanser Alberto induced left knee injury? Tim had an OK start to the season before this second injury (.298 BA, .323 OBP, .404 SLG, .731 OPS). Still thinking the wrist injury is impacting his power, and not sure his knee is also still screwed up denying him strength in his legs.

Possible monkey wrench thrown into the Sunday game with Kopech's normal slot listed as TBD. Wonder if they are shutting him down until after the ASB, with possibly a start next week in Chicago. Don't want him out too long to through off location and timing. Perhaps the Sox will go Banks on Friday and Toussaint on Sunday. I'd prefer the Sox IL Kopech and bring up someone who can give a few innings here if they are shutting Michael down until after the ASB.

Hope you surpass the longest winning streak of the season @ChiSox59! The A's are not Vegas yet, and I (and many owners) hope it falls through (the latter to keep open Vegas as an expansion market). The Monday loss requires the Sox to sweep to finish the road trip 5-2. Oakland is a AAA team with two good hitters. The Sox will need to get through possibly two bullpen games (Kopech's normal slot is listed as TBD as of now) and three RH starters. The Sox need the Cubs, Orioles and White Sox to sweep to be 1 1/2 behind Cleveland and Minnesota before returning to Chicago. Chicago White Sox at Oakland 8:40 PM Friday: Banks/Scholtens vs. RHP Funky Cold Medina 1-7 6.84 3:07 PM Saturday: RHP Cease 3-3 4.04 vs. RHP Kaprielian 2-6 6.34 3:07 PM Sunday; TBD vs. RHP Blackburn 1-0 3.77 Cleveland at Chicago Cubs 1:20 PM Friday: RHP Quantrill 2-4 5.61 vs. LHP Steele 8-2 2.62 6:15 PM Saturday: RHP Bibee 4-2 3.79 vs. RHP Stroman 9-5 2.47 1:20 PM Sunday: RHP Civale 2-2 3.18 vs. RHP Taillon 2-6 6.90 Minnesota at Baltimore 6:05 PM Friday: RHP Lopez 3-5 4.41 vs. RHP Kremer 8-3 4.50 3:05 PM Saturday: RHP Ober 4-4 2.97 vs. RHP Bradish 4-3 3.75 11:05 AM Sunday: RHP Gray 4-2 2.67 vs. LHP Irvin 1-3 7.18

I listen to 95% of games, watch video in game and recaps postgame on MLB.com and twitter, but was fortunate to watch today at a bar. He was totally pissed, glanced back with a mean look. I don't agree with his old school reasoning, but if that's what it takes to get him motivated, I'll cheer for more bunts against Lance.

Lance Lynn settles down after a rough two innings to give a much needed six innings and only one more over the final four. Bullpen buckled down as they have the past two month. Sox bats explode again, less surprising given they faced a LH starter. Sox Win! They are awesome! 3rd Inning Fireworks! Remillard and Tim with two hits each at the top of the order! Very nice.

What Meghan wants, Meghan gets.

Vaughn showcasing the wheels. He is a five tool player. ?

He hit well in April covering for Yoan. I believe what is different this time are two factors: 1. He covered a short stint and knew it was ST, this could be season ending. 2. He only played a half season total in his career before playing everyday starting in mid-May. With his hot start this year, teams have focused / prioritized attacking him, and will continue to be successful until he is able to successfully implement counter adjustments. PS - Andrew Vaughn is awesome. That is all.

He needs to eat the innings while still here. He was crafty getting Trout and Ohtani. Was hoping he could put together a few good starts to be flipped for nothing next month. Could still move him with Giolito, Dodgers will eat money for the right players added in.

They are teeing up like batting practice.

Mike Fucking Moustakus.

Nice to give Andrew a day off, will be hard to give Luis a day off in Oakland so hopefully he gets one next week before heading out to the ASB. This defense today is atrocious, hopefully Lance can find another double digit strikeout game, and Sox bats can stay alive with a LHS. White Sox are slight underdogs today. Angels Lineup currently on Gameday: LAA Batters AVG HR RBI SB 1MoniakLF .314 7 20 2 2TroutCF .254 17 42 2 3OhtaniDH .309 28 64 11 4Drury2B .278 14 45 0 5Moustakas1B .270 4 17 0 6ThaissC .269 4 21 1 7RenfroeRF .254 13 38 0 8Escobar, Edu3B .236 4 16 2 9Velazquez, ASS .217 0 0 6

Yes, Zach's BABIP is .455, so his meager current numbers are not sustainable. Whether the team wants to keep Tim one more year or try to trade next month or offseason, the only logical step is to continue playing him if he is fully healthy, or IL him until he is. Benching him while healthy makes zero sense, and in terms of where he bats, it's irrelevant for the rest of the year in terms of the White Sox competitive chances since they will likely be 10-15 + games under .500 at the All Star Break, and sellers a few weeks later.

Will be cheering for the Cubs and Orioles this weekend, unless the Sox drop over 7 games back. Then I'll just be rooting for the Orioles, rather have the Guardians win the Central than Rocco's Twins. Hope Tito returns soon. https://www.si.com/mlb/guardians/news/health-update-on-guardians-manager-terry-francona