Lip Man 1

What did you expect, they are taking on the "big boys" now. Fry by the way has been awful this season. And I'm beginning to wonder a bit about Eloy. For all the build up, the 'second coming" talk I expected a little more than a .229 batting average with three home runs, granted he's missed 21 games but even before that he looked over matched a lot at the plate and his defensive shortcomings speak for themselves. Given the White Sox "development history" over the last decade or so you always have that question in the back of your mind.

Kenny always gets his man!

I hope you're right but I'll have to see it to believe it that the Sox will eat nine million bucks.

Gary appeared in a few games for the Sox in 1959, 1960 and 1961. He was in the minor leagues (along with Joel Horlen) for six years before getting his real chance. That was back when players actually learned how to play the game and weren't rushed up to the bigs after a year or so in the minor leagues. And Gary almost didn't even get his shot in 1963 but for an illness to Juan Pizarro as he told me when I interviewed him: ML: You finally got your first major league win on May 6, 1963 when you beat the Kansas City A’s 5-1.Not only did you get the win but you hit your first career home run. What do you remember about that game? GP: "I remember it was a few days before cut down day. In those days teams had until early May to keep some extra guys on the roster, then they had to keep them or let them go. I hadn’t been pitching much and thought the Sox were going to cut me. We were on the plane headed to Kansas City when Ray Berres walked back to where I was at. At first I thought he was coming to tell me the Sox decided to let me go, instead he tells me that Juan Pizarro who was supposed to pitch, had the flu and that I had the ball. I was happy to get the chance! I know I pitched pretty well and that Jim Brosnan finished it up for me. It was the first of 11 straight wins for me. Ewing Kauffman, who later owned the Kansas City Royals, told me that if the Sox did let me go, the A’s were going to pick me up." (Author’s Note: Most baseball fans know that Jim Bouton wrote "Ball Four" detailing his 1969 season with the Seattle Pilots but many fans don’t realize that Brosnan was actually the first baseball author. His book "The Long Season" detailed his time with the Cincinnati Reds in 1959. It was the first time a book had actually taken the average fan inside a baseball clubhouse and talked about what really happened in a game and a season. It’s a great read if you can find the book which is now out of print. He then followed it up with “Pennant Race” looking at the Reds 1961 National League championship year.) "I also remember hitting the home run off of Ted Bowsfield. He hung a curve to me. I was serious about my hitting and always took batting practice whenever I could." ML: It was a sign of things to come for you. You talk about making an impact! In 63’ you won the Rookie of the Year award with 19 wins, an outstanding ERA of 2.33 and with 189 strike outs. How did you get so much success so early? GP: "It was because of the years that I spent in the minor leagues. I worked hard, played a lot of winter ball. It all came together when my mechanics were correct. It became ingrained in me so I didn’t have to think about it, I could just pitch. My ball was sinking; my slider was fast and had a hard break now."

To be fair to Bill he honestly felt that without more power the Sox would not be able to repeat. He originally targeted young sluggers like Orlando Cepeda and Bill White. When San Francisco and St. Louis wouldn't trade with him he fell back on acquiring players like "Minnie" Minoso, Roy Sievers and Gene Freese. Ironically those guys all had terrific seasons for the Sox, what hurt them was the established guys like Aparicio, Fox, Landis, Wynn and Lollar who had off years compared to the previous seasons. And even with the regression they still won 87 games and were 20 over .500. But yes, having any combination of Cash, Romano, Callison (who the Sox tried to reacquire before the 1962 season), Mincher or Battey and the Sox probably win pennants in 1964 and 1967.

DeBusschere wasn't part of that situation. April 8, 1963 – On this date, one of the biggest ‘what if’s’ in franchise history took place. As per the rules at the time, the White Sox had to choose between two pitchers signed to ‘bonus baby’ contracts. The rules stated that only one player signed to a deal for over a certain amount of money could remain in the organization. The other would have to be waived. With that in mind rookies Bruce Howard and Denny McLain squared off in an intra-squad game to see who would be released and who got promoted to Double A Lynchburg. Howard won 2-1. McLain got his walking papers and was claimed by Detroit the following week. He’d go on to win 131 big league games including 31 in 1968. And here is from my interview with Sox announcer Milo Hamilton: ML: One of the oddities about that season took place in spring training on April 8 when two youngsters, Bruce Howard and Denny McLain had a ‘pitch-off’ to determine who would stay in the organization and get promoted to Double-A. Do you remember anything about that game or about McLain in general when he was with the White Sox. (Author’s Note: Howard would win the game 2-1 and get promoted to Lynchburg, Virginia. Because of baseball rules at the time concerning bonus babies, McLain had to be released. He was claimed by the Tigers a week later.) MH: “Well the pitch-off was only part of the reason the Sox let him go. He was a cocky kid. His high school used to get tickets to Sox games and I can still remember him sitting by the dugout yelling “I can beat those guys.” He was hard to handle and his attitude was something that Al Lopez (Author’s Note: White Sox manager) and the organization just wasn’t going to put up with. In spring training he ran up a 700 hundred dollar phone bill talking to his girlfriend and he refused to pay it.” “Howard was a clean cut kid. Never gave anyone any trouble. Unfortunately he didn’t turn out to be much of a pitcher and in that respect you have to give McLain his due, he turned into a great pitcher. I mean he won 30 games one season.”

Again the White Sox "philosophy" stemming from JR is they will not pay someone to not work...even if they are terrible at it. They just don't seem to grasp that fundamental issue that you brought up about "sunk costs." The reason they dropped Santana was because they weren't on the hook for the 4.3 million based on the deal he signed.

Guy threw hard. Unfortunately another one of the stacked minor league system that the Sox traded away before the 1960 season in an effort to repeat after the Yankees stole Roger Maris from Kansas City.

One...is the loneliest number.

Good question. Another guy with a negative WAR rating and a losing record. Guess he fits right in. To say nothing of the fact that he's 32. I guess this is Hahn's idea of "getting pitching help." Although in his defense I'd assume pitching isn't available for another month / six weeks as teams sort themselves out.

So Eloy (assuming he is in the lineup Monday) will have missed 21 games and around three and a half weeks. Not as bad as it could have been I guess but still a blow to his development and the team. He's got to get better defensively or be moved to 1B or DH.

I saw a story a day or so ago where Ricky said going with a bullpen "opener" could be in play for the Houston series.

Unfortunately you are probably going to be waiting a long time given their salaries.

It may be best to cover your eyes.

Alonso and Castillo combine to go 0-8 yet Rick insists on keeping them in the middle of the lineup. Can he be that baseball-stupid or is he simply bull headed? And I'm getting close to putting Herrera into the "Rick Hahn failure" off-season to go with the other duds he's acquired.

They waited three hours and it was still raining. You take the rain shortened win and don't even give the Jays a chance in the final four innings. Works perfectly fine for me.

Good pitchers aren't falling out of the sky right now. I suspect teams won't even begin to put guys on the market until mid-June.

Nice start again by Gio, I'm sure glad he went to his high school pitching coach over the off season and reworked his delivery. The kid looks like a different pitcher. Nice crowd too on another crap day weather wise and hey Alonso got two hits! My goodness!

Don't play golf. And the deal with Tony was when I was interviewing him and asked what went into making trades...I mentioned trying to have both sides come out a "winner" so you work from that assumption.

At which time he'll probably get hurt again on some other part of his body.

A lefty who throws the knuckleball. This should be interesting.

Minnesota and Detroit both talented teams went out of their minds in the second half and had a win percentage well over 60% as I recall. That happens as often as the Bears win the Super Bowl. The Sox have nowhere near the talent those teams had to make that kind of run. I don't like "giving up" on the season either but I'm getting used to it since the Sox haven't played any meaningful games since September 2012. It's actually not that bad living and dying with every game, every night for six months. (I don't know what that says about me or about the state of the Sox franchise)

I totally agree with your last sentence, but as Tony LaRussa told me one time his issue with me was that I was thinking to "logically". He said there's very little "logic" in the game of baseball.

Sorry...not even close.

As I said earlier to someone who said basically the same thing, JR does not like to pay people not to work even if they suck at what they are doing. I would be shocked if he's let go before say July.