caulfield12

Seems he just barely brushed the side of the jersey. Hard to overturn that one without a different angle.

Now the Sox are even having trouble stealing bases...the ONE area they have excelled in this year.

How dare a rookie call off Correa! That stat about Sox pitchers throwing the fourth most pitches in 1st innings is quite telling. Because it inexorably/inevitably leads to shorter outings from all of the starters but Cueto.

It's not helping that Sox innings on offense last about 5-6 minutes.

28 pitches in one inning is going to mean the bullpen gets exposed once again...

Hello! Welcome to the White Sox Beat newsletter. Scott Merkin has covered the White Sox for MLB.com since 2003. Follow him on Twitter @scottmerkin and Facebook and listen to his podcast. CHICAGO -- There are times after White Sox losses this season, and there were 39 of them entering Monday’s series opener at home against the Twins, where Tony La Russa looked downright distraught. It’s an offshoot of his mantra focused upon do all you can to win each day and then worry about tomorrow when tomorrow comes. But ask La Russa if he’s still having fun managing despite those down moments, as I did during a recent one-on-one interview, and his answer comes in milliseconds. “Oh, hell yeah,” said a smiling La Russa. “I know the season is a long way from being written.” This brief question-and-answer session took place before Shohei Ohtani and the Angels beat the White Sox last Wednesday night in Anaheim. Imagine how much fun La Russa had this past weekend, as his team swept the Giants in San Francisco. La Russa, who turns 78 on Oct. 4, is in his 35th season as a Major League manager and his second in his second run with the White Sox. He’s seen the good, the bad and the ugly over the course of his three World Series championships and six pennants, but aside from a few special squads, he’s rarely seen a comfortable run from start to finish over the true test that is a 162-game regular season. In terms of when the game is played, two main factors come into play in La Russa’s mind, in a theory La Russa said was espoused by Gene Mauch. No. 1 is being ready to compete, and La Russa said, aside from an 11-1, Game 1 loss during a doubleheader in Cleveland on April 20, the White Sox have fulfilled that goal without issue. “But the second point is, if that’s all you do, the decision is about who plays the best baseball,” La Russa said. “You can have the most talented team and they are taking bad at-bats, missing cutoff men, not running. And you can have another team that is fundamentally correct, making plays and making pitches and you can win. “That’s the magic of this game. That’s what we preach. Already this year, the worst part is the best part, and that is there are legitimate expectations here. That’s the best part, and the worst part is when we struggle like we’ve struggled, you are not going to ask fans to look for everything that goes on. They look at what the score is.” Losing results, especially at home, have led to "Fire Tony" chants from the crowd. But nobody takes these losses as hard as La Russa, who is his own worst critic. “I’ve been through it a lot. I’m very accountable to me,” La Russa said. “Nobody is ever going to tell me you screwed up. I’ll know things I screwed up that nobody else noticed. “Jack Buck, when we were together, said the best compliment I can give you, you are as big of a fan as any of our fans, and that’s the truth. I suffer like they do, and I don’t like them suffering. It’s not fun. But I have no problem being held accountable, because down deep I’m here to make things better. When they are not better, I’ll take the heat.” Had this in my email inbox in its entirety but couldn’t find it posted yet anywhere online…

https://www.mlb.com/news/trayce-thompson-hits-3-run-homer-in-dodgers-50th-win?partnerId=zh-20220705-642663-mlb-1-A&qid=1026&utm_id=zh-20220705-642663-mlb-1-A&bt_ee=vfdFsaK4GnqX7mJ3bJ6UyoWQeZ%2FICVEON8dGphsKNz2TnI6h%2F6%2Fa5%2BC5SutEZVmO&bt_ts=1657029258568

Good at clapping and encouraging players after timely base hits or walks?

If Kepler wasn’t being a good teammate and communicating effectively over the crowd noise about Buxton rapidly nearing the fence…then it wouldn’t have been possible. It would have been one out, runners on second and third after he crashed full force into the wall and doubled over in pain. Engel even potentially scores if it was the past more reckless fence-hunting version of Buxton. How many stories have been written about Sox players helping each other out defensively this season? 2? 3? Less than 5 for sure.

We haven’t even won ONE against them this season. Last year it was 13-6 Sox.

Arrested Development.

They need to have Beckham do a full game announcing like this…would be a massive improvement. Tried to find Most Embarrassing Sox Moments and got this instead. https://www.mlb.com/news/white-sox-funniest-moments So far we have Ventura/Nolan Ryan hogtie/noogie, Jerry Dybzynski’s 1983 baserunning blunder, the Gordon Beckham Keystone Kops missed popup in front of the mound, Torii Hunter running over Jamie Burke…Psycho Lyons taking off his pants back in the 1980’s has to be up there somewhere.

But Moncada intimidated him off the bag…I wonder if that same play has ever even happened in NCAA Division 1 history? Louisville Cardinals baseball fans around the country are hanging their head in shame.

Watch them bring in the big name catcher in Willson Contreras and try to imagine him not flopping. They're going to have to do something besides running it back out there again. (See Twins' off season or Guardians investing $124 million in Jose Ramirez.)

See Anderson, Tim. Just substitute Mississippi for IN. Add one year of JUCO baseball. Good enough to walk on at Indiana. Of course the White Sox have notoriously drafted hundreds of multisport stars since the KW regime.

According to Official Baseball Rule 7.08 (h), any runner is out if he passes a preceding runner before that runner is out. This is not an appeal play but is called immediately by the umpire. There have been many cases of a runner passing a preceding runner through the years. Engel would have been out only if he got caught (after that) between second and third.

One way or the other, the Twins would have to get through the Yankees (no chance, conviction or belief with a run of 18 consecutive postseason losses) or the Astros. The Blue Jays are almost impossible to predict right now. But the Twins might be able to beat Boston, Tampa, Cleveland, LAA or Seattle.

The argument is the likelihood of scoring from second is much higher…negating or mitigating the value of Sheets’ value the next time up to bat over whatever Engel would likely produce. There is a logic there, but it turned into a debacle obviously. But the focus should have been scoring as quickly as possible with only two relievers after Foster, assuming Lopez was unavailable. Or TLR simply trusts Kelly over Lopez this past month, which is pretty crazy. But perhaps not so shocking.

https://twitter.com/JasonHirsch16/status/1544141404884041728/photo/1 New banner picture… To be fair to the White Sox, Statcast had Pollock's fly ball as a 389-foot knock with an .820 xBA, basically an 82 percent chance of being a hit. Then again, that still leaves an 18 percent chance of a very embarrassing mistake, a historic one at that. https://sports.yahoo.com/byron-buxton-highlight-catch-twins-8-5-triple-play-mlb-history-024907426.html If nothing else, that play probably guaranteed Buxton’s first-ever ASG appearance…

Rodon probably will blame bad start on letdown of not being able to face White Sox on Sunday…and umpiring. His wife at least will go that route. At least she’s consistent in her complaining.

4th of July fireworks and captured profits for minor league teams

As Buxton and right fielder Max Kepler converged in the gap, Kepler kept yelling “wall” – and crucially, Buxton briefly took his eye off the ball to gauge his proximity to the wall before looking back up to track the ball into his glove. That’s something that might not have happened earlier in Buxton’s career. In the past, Buxton would often go full-speed into the wall on those plays, sacrificing his body as part of those game-changing efforts. But recently, in part due to the influence of Carlos Correa and other teammates, Buxton has often made sure to look for the wall on such plays, emphasizing self-preservation. Remember where we mentioned that Buxton had briefly taken his eye off the ball to look for the wall? This is where that becomes critical. Engel assumed Buxton’s glance at the wall meant the center fielder had missed the ball and that it was landing for a hit. That’s when he took off for third base. Moncada had already been running behind him, apparently having made a similar judgment. “When he looked toward the wall, I thought he was looking for the ball to go down,” Engel said. “I just made a bad play. Made a mistake on it. Unfortunate. It cost us some runs right there, most likely, and probably would have gone on to win the game.” “Yoán was really aggressive, which is not the worst thing you can do when you play this game,” White Sox manager Tony La Russa said. “Judgment was wrong and costly.” https://www.mlb.com/news/byron-buxton-starts-first-8-5-triple-play-in-al-nl-history To complete the first 8-5 triple play on record in AL/NL history, according to the SABR database that tracks every triple play dating back to 1876. “I don’t know how much more stuff can be a first in MLB history, so at least it was something left for us in the middle age to kind of grab, I guess,” Buxton said with a smile. “It’s cool. Ain’t too much thought into it other than the triple play got us out of the inning and it kind of got us a little momentum going.” The feat also marked the 16th triple play in Twins history, and the second involving only two players, joining a 2-6 triple play that occurred back on July 25, 1976 -- also against the White Sox. (Glenn Borgmann, Luis Gomez). What went wrong for the White Sox baserunners? It appears that Moncada got a bad read. He never hesitated while running from first to second, and that caused Engel to take off after he initially held up to tag and advance. https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/twins-triple-play-white-sox/dc3funnbng0lnwgmipbc64ph

4/9 But Giants in a really bad slump right now…

Can we please "involuntarily relocate" Hahn, TLR, his coaches and the entire training/strength & conditioning staff?