Lip Man 1

I think mentally he has one foot out the door already.

After the All-Star break Hoyt, Dotson and Bannister went 42-5. That's right...42-5. Not only were those guys unbeatable, they didn't miss starts or have inning limitations. Those were the days.

You are correct.

The Sox have scored three runs or less in 25 of the 45 games played. 55% of all games. That's what happens when you have a few automatic outs in the lineup to go along with a bunch of undisciplined free swingers.

I did a detailed story on the 25th anniversary of the White Flag Trade. The impact both locally and nationally was catastrophic to the Sox and it reflected in attendance for a few years afterwards including 2000. As far as the impact the players acquired made, here you go: There’s a Hole in the Toe of My White Sox. The “White Flag Trade” Revisited…25 Years…and Counting Mike Caruso: Had a brilliant 1998 finishing third in the Rookie of the Year voting. He hit .306 with 22 stolen bases and 55 RBI’s. He legged out numerous infield hits. Defensively he made 35 errors which led the league and raised some questions about his ability to do small things correctly on the field. 1999 was a mixed year. Caruso’s batting average dropped to .250 but he recorded 35 infield hits and was the hardest player to strike out in the league. His errors dropped to 24 and he hit a game winning two run home run to beat the Cubs on June 13 but his attitude was becoming an issue. Manager Jerry Manuel felt he was out of shape and even questioned his thinking ability in the field. By 2000 Caruso was out of the starting line up in favor of Jose Valentin. The Sox tried trading him to Seattle, a deal which was overturned because Caruso was injured at the time, before releasing him. Lorenzo Barcelo: Suffered extensive injuries to his pitching arm which caused him to miss most of both the 1998 and 1999 minor league seasons. He was called up to the Sox in July 2000, going 4-2 with a 3.69 ERA in 22 games. In 2001 Barcelo tore his rotator cuff and again missed most of the season. He started 2002 with the Sox but was soon sent back to triple A where he suffered yet another arm injury which finished his career. Bob Howry: In 1998 Howry led all A.L. rookies with nine saves along with a 3.15 ERA in 44 games. In 1999 he appeared in 69 games saving 28, winning five and posting a 3.59 ERA. 2000 saw his role change to a set up man and he was effective again with seven saves, two wins and a 3.17 ERA. 2001 though saw a drop in velocity and his ERA shot up to 4.69. In 2002 he was hammered in spring training and was traded to Boston at the deadline. He pitched for another nine years with four other teams. As the years went by Howry was often a vocal critic of the Sox organization and their fan base. Keith Foulke: Foulke turned out to be the savior of the deal after the collapse of Caruso and the injuries to Barcelo. He had 34 saves in 2000 and 42 in 2001. He possessed a change up that was almost unhittable when he was going well. In 2002 however, manager Jerry Manuel seemed to lose faith in him after a series of blown save chances and because he would become a free agent after the 2003 season G.M. Kenny Williams traded him to Oakland in the ill fated Billy Koch deal. Foulke immediately regained his old form leading the A.L. with 43 saves and a 2.03 ERA. Signed by the Red Sox as a free agent he led them to a World Series title in 2004. Ken Vining got into eight games for the Sox in 2001 pitching a little over six innings with an ERA of almost 18 while Brian Manning never appeared in the Major Leagues. Overall the players the Sox got back had some impact particularly in the 2000 season when they won the Central Division but none of them reached the ceiling that Reinsdorf talked about, at least not when they were in the organization. For various reasons, injuries, bad luck, bad attitudes, none of the players acquired in the deal ever even made the All-Star team while in a Sox uniform.

May 18, 1957 – Historically if it was Baltimore, it usually meant strange things for the White Sox. Case in point, on this night the Sox had to catch a train to Boston and the Orioles agreed to end the game at 10:20 their time regardless of the outcome. The Sox trailed 3-0 going into the seventh inning when they scored four runs. That half inning was strange in itself because the Sox used five pinch hitters and two pinch runners in it! The Sox were still leading 4-3 in the ninth inning. Paul LaPalme was brought in to protect the lead. With 30 seconds remaining until curfew, he elected to pitch to Dick Williams. League rules did not allow for a suspended game under these circumstances so the Sox could have legally stalled the final seconds away. Unfortunately, they didn’t. LaPalme threw...Williams swung...home run. Tie game... make that a suspended tie game which had to be replayed from the start later in the season. May 18, 1983 - Still another bizarre moment in Baltimore. On this night Sox pitcher Rich Dotson tossed a complete game one-hitter. Only he lost it 1-0! His only mistake came when “Disco” Danny Ford lofted a pitch down the right field line at Memorial Stadium that fell into the first row of seats. The ‘blast’ went about 312 feet, an out in most other parks. The hit came in the eighth inning. Dotson wasn’t sharp overall, allowing seven walks but he kept getting out of trouble until Ford connected.

From the MLB.com web site: American League Central: White Sox-Tigers Current: Tigers up 4 1/2 games Projected Standings: White Sox up 1 First off, yes, we know: These are hardly the top two teams in this division. But we’re focusing on them for two reasons. First, the projections are incredibly high on the Twins, giving them an eight-game cushion on the Guardians and a double-digit-game cushion on both of these teams. The real reason, though, is how different the expectations were for both the Tigers and the White Sox coming into this season. The White Sox were thought, with a new manager, to be legitimate AL Central contenders; the Tigers were just considered fortunate to have 2022 finally be over. But the Tigers have been plucky in the early going, spending most of the season in second place. The White Sox? The White Sox have not been plucky, let’s say that. If the Tigers are in a position to finish higher than the White Sox -- a team that is farther along its hypothetical “contention window” than their Michigan counterparts -- that would say something very clear and fascinating about where this division is standing moving forward. But the tell here is that even with the White Sox’s supposed “surge” to catch up with the Tigers, they’re still projected for 74 wins. If the White Sox are running at that pace come the Trade Deadline, it’s fair to presume that they will look a lot different after Aug. 1 than they would before -- a lot worse. The Tigers probably aren’t a .463 team. But they sure look like the third-place team in this division. That is progress, anyway. Believe the projections? No They also have another story with 10 players generating real trade interest. The White Sox have four of the 10, Anderson, Cease, Grandal and Giolito.

Criminal they way they handled this much like Dunning, Rodon in the past. Basically they have NO depth now at starting pitching. Only Rick Hahn. Honest question, can he really be that dense and stupid as a GM?

I just saw the comments, well there you go. He had that forearm soreness in October and that set off warning signs. Since there was no surgery I'm guessing the Sox felt it would be OK.

I haven't seen that, did they announce that recently?

May 17, 1969 – It was one of the few highlights in a dismal season. Sox pitcher Jerry Nyman one-hit the Senators, winning in Chicago 6-0. Nyman allowed only a one out single in the second inning to Brant Alyea…a comebacker right through the box that Nyman could not get a glove on. Nyman also helped himself with the bat in that game hitting a bases loaded double knocking in three runs. May 17, 2021 – Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal was the lone starter not to get a hit in a 16-4 beating of the Twins up in Minnesota. But he still landed on base four times via walks, scored three times and drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. Grandal, became the first player in White Sox history to have three games where he walked four or more times in a season. May 17, 2021 – In the Sox blowout win over the Twins in Minnesota, national controversy erupted centering around the ‘unwritten’ rules of baseball. With the Sox leading 15-4 the Twins used a position player, Willians Astudillo to pitch the ninth inning. He lobbed up a 47 miles per hour pitch to Yermin Mercedes who blasted it over the center field fence. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli took exception to it as well as many baseball traditionalists. White Sox manager Tony LaRussa wasn’t happy with it either saying what Mercedes did disrespected the game as well as he missed the take sign on that pitch. Some of Mercedes teammates and many Sox fans disagreed saying that using a position player instead of a regular pitcher also disrespected the game and that until the game is over players are expected to do their best regardless of the score. The next day, after the Twins threw at Mercedes, LaRussa ignited another controversy when he said that he didn’t think Twins pitcher Tyler Duffey deliberately did that, that it may have been a pitch that got away from him. Some Sox fans feel this was the moment when LaRussa began to lose the clubhouse and the Sox started sliding back towards mediocrity for the rest of the season and into the 2022 campaign.

Garfein and McGuffy released their latest podcast tonight. Just watched it on You Tube. The theme was “what will the next Sox rebuild look like?” They went over a lot of ground in 45 minutes but both guys thought at least SOME sort of rebuild is coming. They differed on how big of a rebuild though. McGuffy (who towards the end of the podcast really let everyone know how frustrated and tired he was of the Sox failure in the rebuild) felt it has to be torn down to the studs again BUT it had to start with the selling of the team. He said the organization “half assed” (direct quote) the rebuild because they wouldn’t go out and get the superstar, the game changer, the guy who could make other talented players want to come to the Sox. He blamed JR for handcuffing his front office. Garfein wouldn’t go that far but he did say something interesting in that he commented that “We don’t know who’ll be doing the next rebuild. Will it be Rick, Kenny and Chris Getz or someone else?” (Does he know something?) He figured 80 million will be paired from the payroll after trades this July and then when the season ended so he thought especially in this division a smart retooling could put things on the right course again. He also said at his age, JR is not interested in another complete rebuild. He said the money will be there if the organization wants to spend it from the purging of this year's team/payroll. He also talked about how he wants a team that will reflect the fan base. A team that plays the game hard, runs everything out, plays defense and can do the little things. (Sounds like he just got through watching The Last Comiskey documentary!) Both guys talked about getting real leaders into the clubhouse moving forward, guys who have enough respect that they can tell the other players what they are doing wrong and hold them accountable. McGuffy said those guys don’t necessarily have nine figure contracts either. (A lot of what they were talking about was told to me by sources in my State of the Sox story that was published in November. That the clubhouse is fractured, guys doing their own thing, not a lot of chemistry, guys got their money so they just don’t care et al) They also talked about how bad the farm system is with three of the top prospects Montgomery, Schultz and Ramos haven't played at all this year. Both thought TA would be shopped either at the deadline or next off season. Garfein hoped the Dodgers and Braves would get into a bidding war for him. Garfein hoped that the Sox could get something for Eloy and said he was “perfectly fine” with Burger being the DH moving forward. He also said pretty strongly that Moncada will only be on the club through the 24 season. Both thought Giolito is gone come July…maybe Lynn, Kelly and Clevinger. Cease’s name was brought up as well since he could offer a decent return. Robert could also be traded according to McGuffy because he’s the only guy that would really bring back a big haul. Garfein wants to keep him and rebuild (retool) around him. Both opened the podcast by talking about how unbelievable it was that they had to be talking about this in the first place after so much was promised. Pretty frank assessment in my opinion. I recommend listening to it. (or watching it on You Tube)

Gonzo has taken a full time position in the media department at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix. He starts on May 22. He'll be missed, excellent baseball writer for a long time.

That's all Merkin writes

Once Giolito leaves he very well may be fired.

May 16, 1953 - White Sox pitcher Tommy Byrne, who was knocked out of the game in an eventual win against the Yankees two days earlier, was sent up to pinch hit for Vern Stephens in the ninth inning with the bases loaded and the Sox trailing 3-1. Byrne then slammed a 2-2 pitch from relief pitcher/sidewinder Ewell “The Whip” Blackwell into the lower deck in right field at Yankee Stadium for the only pinch-hit grand slam by a pitcher in team history! The Sox would win the game 5-3, scoring all their runs in the ninth inning. That was the only home run Byrne hit that year for the White Sox although he’d had 14 of them in his big-league career. May 16, 1978 - With the Sox record a dismal 9-20 and knowing that there was no way he was going to be able to re-sign him, Sox owner Bill Veeck traded slugger Bobby Bonds to the Rangers for Claudell Washington and Rosendo “Rusty” Torres. Bonds would only play in 26 games for the Sox, with two home runs and eight RBI’s. Making matters worse was that to get Bonds the previous December, Veeck traded three players including future All-Star Brian Downing to get him. Washington would become the target of fan displeasure because of his tendency to take it easy on the field while with the team. One fan made up a banner, hung over the right field wall, which expressed that sentiment “Washington slept here.” Torres’s claim to fame (and this is a great trivia question) was that he was on the field for all of the forfeited games in baseball during the 1970’s. Torres was with the Yankees when the final game in Washington was forfeited when fans rushed the field in 1971; he was in Cleveland for the nickel beer night fiasco in 1974 and was with the Sox during the “Disco Demolition” forfeit in 1979. May 16, 1984 - Carlton Fisk had one of his finest games as he became the third player in franchise history to hit for the cycle in a game. It came against the Royals at Comiskey Park. Despite Fisk’s efforts the Sox would lose it 7-6. Carlton went 4 for 5 with two runs and two RBI’s in the game. The triple, by the way, was the only one he’d hit that season.

That three day event is one of the highlights of my professional life. Dick was gracious, genuinely touched by the reception and the crowd who came out for the dinner...he even asked for the mic to sing along with Nancy Faust when she played "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" for the seventh inning stretch as part of the program. When everything was done we were all back at the Drake Hotel having a last get together/drink at the bar. I was in the corner talking pitching with Gossage and Bradley (I pitched myself growing up) when someone came up behind me and gave me a bear hug. Almost crushed my ribs...it was Dick with a big smile on his face thanking me for my help in the event. Just a very special moment.

With a second "forearm soreness" issue for Martin since October (he hasn't pitched this year since April 11) you can't count on him for anything next year.

Well he was working at second taking ground balls in practice last year. Don't know who's idea it was.

In 2012 Richard Roeper and I co-hosted the 40th anniversary celebration for Dick and the 1972 White Sox. I can tell you having spoken with Dick's teammates ("Goose" Gossage, Bart Johnson, Hank Allen, Bill Melton, Carlos May, Ed Spiezio, Tom Bradley) for three days and interviewed a number of others NOT ONE MAN said anything negative about Dick. All praised his ability, his drive, his will to win. Like Chuck Tanner told me before he died (paraphrasing) 'You tell anybody who says that Dick wasn't a leader is full of s%*#.' Here is my obit story when Dick passed quoting his teammates: https://www.southsidesox.com/2020/12/9/22164784/white-sox-dick-allen-remembered

You are probably correct as long as it is a combination of underperformance from said player and current ownership remaining.

Keeping this group together and expecting a different result also makes no sense. I'm not saying anything would really change either...what I am saying is since you are going to lose these guys anyway for various reasons, you get what you can for them and ":hope" for a different result with a different group. Yes...that is all that's left for this organization (at least until new ownership arrives) 'hope' things get better and hope really isn't a strategy.

Grifol has already said this hasn't been discussed and by his quotes it sounds like it won't be a consideration.

Given the injury history for many of them, the poor performances, the seemingly lack of "baseball-smarts" by and large...that may not be a bad idea. Granted that won't solve the issues of ownership and the front office but keeping the status quo on the field makes little sense. There is enough of a track record to show this group simply can't be successful.

May 15, 1929 - Sox outfielder Art “The Great” Shires (Shires by the way gave himself that nickname) and manager Lena Blackburne got into a fistfight during a game at Comiskey Park won by the Sox 8-4 over Boston. Before the game Blackburne had suspended and fined Shires for wearing a red felt hat during batting practice and for not taking the game seriously. Shires left the park but later returned and confronted Blackburne where the two men exchanged blows. The two men would get into another fist fight later that season in September in a Philadelphia hotel room. May 15, 1941 - In a game in New York, Sox pitcher Edgar Smith allowed a hit to Yankee great Joe DiMaggio in the first inning. It would be the first hit in his record setting 56 game hitting streak. The Sox won the game though 13-1 with outfielder Taft “Taffy” Wright driving in four runs. That year he’d hit .322 and knock in 97 RBI’s. May 15, 1951 – It was a testament to the managerial genius of Sox skipper Paul Richards. It had been 30 years since the league saw a move like this. In the ninth inning of a game in Boston where the White Sox were winning 7-6, relief pitcher Harry Dorish was removed in favor of Billy Pierce to face the left-handed hitting Ted Williams, only Dorish wasn’t removed from the game, he was moved to third base! Pierce retired Williams on a pop up, then was taken out of the game and Dorish put back on the mound. Boston eventually tied the game but the White Sox would have the last laugh, winning 9-7 in 11 innings. The victory marked the start of a 14-game win streak, with 11 of the wins on the road. On May 30 after sweeping the St. Louis Browns, the Sox record stood at 26-9. May 15, 1954 – With a 7-6 come from behind win over the Philadelphia Athletics at Comiskey Park, the White Sox secured the franchises 4,000th win. It was catcher Carl Sawatski’s single with two out in the ninth inning that won the game. That year the Sox went 94-60-1…and still finished 17 games back of the pennant winning Indians! May 15, 1988 – It is an obscure record and one that probably will never be broken. Outfielder Dave Gallagher was picked up over the winter by the Sox after he was released by the Mariners and was called up to the club the day before. Playing in only his second game in a White Sox uniform he hit a walk-off home run in the 11th inning to beat the Blue Jays 6-5 at Comiskey Park. The hit came off Toronto’s sidewinder Mark Eichhorn. It is the team record for fewest games played before hitting a walk-off home run. May 15, 1990 - Bobby Thigpen became the White Sox all-time saves leader in a 3-2 win over Baltimore at Comiskey Park. Thigpen pitched a scoreless ninth inning in nailing down his 100th career save, surpassing Hall of Famer Hoyt Wilhelm on the White Sox all-time list. The save was Thigpen’s ninth of the year… before the remarkable season was over Bobby would nail down 57 saves which set the Major League record and be named Relief Pitcher of the Year. May 15, 1996 - The Sox scored 20 runs in a game. They easily handled the Brewers in Milwaukee 20-8. The Sox scored 20, yet only hit two home runs. Frank Thomas had one of them and knocked in six runs on the night. Harold Baines and Robin Ventura had three RBI’s each as well.