I have not been a big James Shields believer on his “return to form.” He’s clearly been better than he was during his disastrous start to his White Sox tenure, but the stuff didn’t look quite there, and the strikeouts not being there either (16 in 34.1 innings) backed up the doubt. His work was […]
Tag: Chicago White Sox
The Case Against Selling
The non-waiver trade deadline is still a few days off, but the White Sox have already publicly acknowledged that this season is dead. And even after a bizarre three-game winning streak at the expense of the Tigers and Cubs, their playoff odds still sit somewhere around five percent. Perhaps it was a mercy that they got crushed […]
Chris Sale and the Battle of Who Can Look Worse
Chris Sale‘s flirtation with the sartorial industry has without a doubt been one of the strangest subplots in this White Sox season, a sentence that should not have been possible four months after learning that a 14-year-old boy was a clubhouse leader. But the fact that the Drake LaRoche saga was even capable of occurring […]
White Sox 5, Cubs 4: Sox waste Gonzalez gem, then walk off for the third time in a row
When the No. 5 starter gets lined up against the opposing team’s ace, it’s typically good work to just to keep it competitive. When the No. 5 starter is a preseason waiver wire grab and the opposing ace is the reigning NL Cy Young, well then… And yet, Miguel Gonzalez was up to the task, […]
The Notion of Being Mired in Mediocrity
When White Sox General Manager Rick Hahn met with the media on Thursday, the words he would speak felt long overdue to most, but somehow still so unexpected. “Mired in mediocrity.” The words were perfect, and made me feel both heartbroken and as though someone understood what I’d been seeing for years. Coming from White […]
South Side Morning 5: Do the White Sox care about winning?
1. Sometimes, stripping every message to their core principles and leaving out revealing details provides misconceptions. For example, Chris Sale‘s inexcusable and bizarre outburst is being couched by his agent as a dispute over whether the White Sox “cared about winning”. Jayson Stark: “‘The only thing that matters to Chris Sale is winning,’ [Sale’s agent] […]
White Sox 5, Tigers 4: Quintana and Eaton lead Sox despite unhinged ninth inning
The White Sox have…had a weekend. Sunday saw them attempt to return to normalcy by carving out a respectable result in a four-game series with the Tigers, and have someone actually making their scheduled turn in the rotation for once, but still featured a bullpen that had covered 14.2 innings in the last two games. […]
Tigers 7, White Sox 5: Sox make a game out of ridiculous mismatch
Between Chris Sale trade rumors, a cadre of injuries that included Brett Lawrie, and a Jacob Turner-Michael Fulmer pitching matchup, Friday night took on a very post-contention feel. It offered a glimpse of how the Sox will be playing out the string the rest of 2016: more entertaining than expected but still kind of a […]
Revisiting the trades of Rick Hahn
Since being promoted to general manager in October of 2012, Rick Hahn has 20 trades to his credit. During his four years on the job, Hahn has been considered a savvy trader, someone who has been able to craft out good deals despite being limited by the budget constraints of his owner. But just how […]
Mired in mediocrity
Thursday afternoon, Rick Hahn got through with the business of drumming out any vestige of hope for the 2016 season early. Alex Avila‘ hamstring is re-aggravated and he’s a month away, leaving the Sox with the worst half of their failed catching platoon, the Austin Jackson knee injury that seemed worthy of a move in response […]