When the Spring Training Adam LaRoche fiasco led to his unexpected retirement, a White Sox roster that was being held together by pins and needles lost, if my math is correct, two pins and four needles. LaRoche’s departure didn’t cripple the White Sox by any means — any team that was a LaRoche away from contention […]
Tag: Justin Morneau
White Sox 7, Rays 1: This Team Is Clearly Unstoppable
The White Sox kept tacking on incrementally throughout the game, such that a close pitcher’s duel gradually morphed into a laugher. James Shields of all people pitched six innings allowing only one run while striking out six and only walking two. Shields entered the game leading the majors in HR/9 allowed, surrendering over two per […]
White Sox 9, Phillies 1: Total dominance
The Phillies are not a good baseball team. They’re in the middle of a genuine rebuild, their hot start to the season was mostly helium, they have a moribund offense and no parts of their promising young pitching were on display Tuesday night with Jake Thompson on the hill. A Sox blowout shouldn’t have been […]
White Sox 4, Athletics 2: A rare, easy day for Quintana
Baseball often gets–Praised? Bemoaned? Slandered?–for its lack of predictability, but back-to-back games of Chris Sale and Jose Quintana facing fill-in rotation options for the A’s have gone about as predictably as could have been hoped. 1. Quintana himself was far from dominant, not that immolating his opponents is often his path to success. He needed […]
Indians 3, White Sox 1: Well, Quintana did his job
Perhaps, with an off day to shake off the sting of Sunday’s last-second loss, the reader was able to drum up more optimism than the author for the White Sox matchup against Corey Kluber–a true AL Cy Young candidate–and the division-leading Indians, who had taken their last six contests against the South siders. From this […]
South Side Morning 5: Sale forced into a change
1. As nice as it was to see Chris Sale stabilize himself by leaning a bit more on his mid-80s changeup in the later innings, it was more of a forced adjustment than an intentional shift in approach. His slider was hanging and getting appropriately hammered early, and the approach he used last week in Detroit […]
White Sox 6, Twins 5: Sox climb back from bullpen meltdown
Despite slumping through 12 lifeless innings Friday, and resting a gimpy Adam Eaton Saturday night, the White Sox offense pounded out 15 hits and staged multiple late-inning rallies to rescue the team from a bullpen meltdown in Minnesota. Who knew? 1. Facing a 5-4 deficit in the ninth with two outs, Melky Cabrera drilled his third […]
Angels 7, White Sox 0: A listless performance against an old friend
Shiny new toys Justin Morneau and Carson Fulmer joined the White Sox as they began the unofficial second half of the season Friday against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. And the new Sox got front row seats to watch an old Sox, Hector Santiago, completely shut down his former team in a 7-0 Angels’ […]
The reinforcements are here
Looking for a rare strong second half push, the White Sox are throwing all of their internal options into the fire. Justin Morneau was activated from the disabled list and Carson Fulmer was called up from Double-A, all in one aggressive swoop. Jason Coats was also optioned, while Avisail Garcia remains. More on that later. […]
When Reality Won’t Cooperate With Your Plans
The 2016 White Sox have an incomplete roster. They left winter with an incomplete roster, with Austin Jackson as their big free agent acquisition. With more than half the season in the books, almost all of the problems they have now were foreseeable during the offseason. Unfortunately, they punted solving them, and as is often the case […]