The dark shadow hanging over Jose Abreu's first in-depth interview with Chicago Magazine before the 2015 season, was the revelation that he had been unable to bring his two-year-old son with him from Cuba when he defected
Read MoreWell, shoot, that didn't work.
Frankie Montas got his big, compromised chance to start a big league game Wednesday afternoon and for the most part got blow'd up over three disastrous, defensively challenged innings. He had absolutely no favors done for him by management or defense, but ultimately he's the only one who got tuned up for 3 IP, 6 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, HR in a 7-4 loss.
Read MoreIf the Sox win: They're turning it around!
If they lose: Thank goodness they didn't buy at the deadline! They're dreadful!
This weekend has provided a lot of validation for the Sox staying out of the bidding for Yoenis Cespedes, Justin Upton and the like, as the starting pitching that propped up their torrid sprint back into the Wild Card field mostly took the weekend off against the Yankee offense, unfrozen 2010 John Danks aside.
Read MoreMake that 36 runs over five wins to start this road trip. It's been said about past iterations, but the ruin of the Sox did not come due to their inability or unwillingness to slay the bums of the league. Just as they revitalized themselves in May with a six-game win streak largely on the backs of the Brewers and the A's, they have launched a five-game streak off the backs of the sloppy Indians and now a hapless Red Sox team. The Sox offense has it struggles, but let it be known, after this 10-8 slugfest, the Sox can score runs against teams that are hopeless at run prevention.
Read MoreOf all the getaway day games that are scheduled at unwatchable hours on Wednesday afternoons, this is the primetime matchup that had to pursued, and with the Sox not scheduled to return to St. Louis anytime soon and already planning a loaded second half of makeup dates, MLB was willing to sweat out something like, oh, a start delayed by two hours, two early stints that barely made it through entire half innings before new delays kicked off, and ending time well after midnight local time.
Read MoreWith the Sox hitting as it is, their pitching staff only needed to throw for 2.17 ERA over 29 innings to eke out two victories out of three one-run games with the likely overachieving Texas Rangers. Pretty reasonable standard going forward!
Read MoreNot to be even momentarily outshined in the rotation by Jeff Samardzija, Chris Sale overcame a dreadful history against the Baltimore Orioles (who came in the game hitting .352/.436/.614 off Sale for his career) for his finest outing of the year, striking out 12 O's over 7.2 shutout innings. His now 3.66 ERA is only barely better than average (108 ERA+) which reiterates what we addressed with Samardzija yesterday: even if the putrid White Sox offense is possibly an overwhelming yoke for this team to bear, they should start getting more of their fair share of extremely low-difficulty games handed to them by the top-half of their rotation.
Read MoreThe selling point for bringing Melky Cabrera on board over the off-season was simply that he was a left fielder with a pulse, but a fringe benefit was that his switch-hitting abilities provided the Sox with a reliable everyday solution. Instead, they have gotten this rarefied craziness (Through Thursday).
Vs. RHP: 127 PA, .307/.362/.351
Vs. LHP: 40 PA, .081/.103/.081
That's uh, a little skewed. Is this sort of thing normal?
CAREER Vs. RHP: 3549 PA, .291/.341/.416
CAREER vs. LHP: 1475 PA, .271/.329/.398
No, it's not normal. If a switch-hitter regularly OPS'd under .200 from one side of the plate, you would take it upon yourself to calmly and courteously inform him that he is not, in fact, a switch-hitter. And it's a measure that isn't out place even this early in the season, if someone is coming this close to literally giving at-bats away.
The problem with this, as with Adam LaRoche's intense platoon struggles, is that the White Sox roster is ill-prepared to make this sort of adjustment or accommodation for Melky. We don't know how good he would be hitting left-handed all the time, and the bench is almost entirely composed of guys just trusted to field the position well. J.B. Shuck, a lefty, had reverse splits that one moment in time he was a decent regular, which is looking particularly far off at the moment. Trayce Thompson is the presumptive next outfielder up in the farm system, and is right-handed, but is also Trayce Thompson, and might never actually be ready to produce in any way against MLB pitching. There is no lefty-killer waiting in the wings.
And all this is coming without any real understanding of the why. Again, as with LaRoche, while Cabrera is still a worthy starter with the platoon advantage due to on-base ability, but he's been struck with the same baffling power outage affecting the entire roster. This is a guy who hit 18 home runs while playing Kauffman Stadium four years ago, who is now currently sitting on three extra-base hits on the season. Dodgy batted-ball data that I don't trust and certainly don't have enough familiarity enough to determine what is a fluke, has 10% of Cabrera's hard hit balls becoming medium hit. What this means for his long-term prospects, is a more hard to pin down concept.
Injury would be a fun all-encompassing explanation--he played like a ghost of himself in 2013 too before a tumor was discovered--but there's been no hint of rumor on something like that. Age is likely why LaRoche can't hit lefties anymore, and it would make sense that Cabrera's non-dominant hand is what would slip as he begins to decline in his 30's, but "decline" typically does not equate to "instantly disappears."
Bad luck has been a specter on all of the Sox early-season offensive struggles and there's a risk to overreacting to everything that's going in, but a problem so specific and extreme can be a test case for how Robin Ventura, Todd Steverson and Co. are addressing and responding to things they have a power to change. With a veteran with a baseline for performance is wildly failing to meet expectations, is he replaced or aided in recovery, or does he languish as a lesser value than what the Sox front office paid for? The question has a lot of applications beyond this one.
After an absolute nightmare 0-5 week, the White Sox entered this week's Detroit series staring down the possibility of a crippling early deficit in the AL Central. They managed to look much more professional and competent in taking 2/3 from one of their recent nemeses. One victory was just a solid, standard win, backing a strong Samardzija start with a credible amount of runs, while another was a glorious comeback-walkoff variety. Very heartening. Here's a few thoughts based on the series - obvious caveat that we are only talking about three games here:
Read MoreThe fun thing about being a good team--and this is theory from me, since I've been blogging Sox stuff since 2010 and never covered a playoff game--is that you have enough potential for impactful play up and down the roster that you can survive a disappointing performance from a reliable contributor. As bad as White Sox starting pitching has been, with shaky starts from presumed headliners Jeff Samardzija, Jose Quintana, and once more again Wednesday night, Chris Sale, is that the offense has provided no hope of picking them up.
Read MoreThe White Sox won two series this past week, but are still dead-last in the American League in runs scored thanks to several black holes (I just watched INTERSTELLAR on a plane and just one seems like a kick in the pants) in their lineups. The people--might--demand solutions! Are there any?
Read MoreLast night's game was really, really ugly until the bottom of the 9th. But the fact that the Indians couldn't come out in victory formation and kneel out the clock is one of the many reasons why baseball is the best.
Read MoreThat's more like it.
A day after breaking their season opening four-game skid, the White Sox welcomed Chris Sale back with open arms and he pitched them to a 6-2 win over the Minnesota Twins, the Sox's second in a row against the presumptive AL Central bottom feeders.
Read MoreBaseball season is finally here.
After months of speculating, the White Sox's 25-man roster is set and the starting nine will take the field this afternoon against the defending American League champion Kansas City Royals.
Now that all the roster-building questions have been answered, what can we expect out of these guys?
Let's take our best guess.
Read MoreOne of the most exciting things about the buildup to a season is anticipating the debut of your favorite team's new acquisitions. This year, White Sox fans can look forward to seeing Jeff Samardzija and Melky Cabrera, among others, in a White Sox uniform for the first time (well, at least in meaningful games).
Read MoreSpring Training is finally here. What this means is we can all get excited about the sight of actual major league baseball players on an actual baseball field, and then cry over the realization that we're still six weeks away from meaningful games being played.
Still, the season of optimism is upon us, so let's take a look at some of the important things to monitor during the White Sox's time in Arizona.
Read MoreWhen the San Diego Padres agreed to terms with James Shields earlier this week, the 2015 MLB Draft order was finalized — finally.
Read MoreSo, this happened Wednesday:
Read MoreRick Hahn is an ever-present character in all White Sox dealings. He's looming not far from the foreground in every offseason story; it feels unnecessary to dedicate our entire focus to him above the actual players coming in. To do so, would be a furthering of the ever-present cult of the executive, where our fascination and praise has diverted from world-class athletes and their craft. Instead of admiring the works of art, or even the artists, we ogle the work of the curator and then take some bizarre fascination in the operating budget they had to secure the priceless. No thoughts of watching Melky Cabrera popping singles all over the yard, just contemplation of 2 WAR for three years for $42 million. Is it worth the investment for a famous tycoon?
Read MoreAt this point, picking at the explained logic of some of the White Sox moves in this beloved and lauded off-season is akin to pull the best man aside during the reception to give him "notes" on his speech, but the White Sox continue to support my theory that I would be much less critical of the mythology behind their finances if they just never discussed them at all.
Read MoreThe Catbird Seat is a White Sox blog by White Sox fans that focuses on intelligent and humorous baseball commentary. Brought to you by ESPN's SweetSpot Network.
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