LaRoche’s departure didn’t cripple the White Sox by any means — any team that was a LaRoche away from contention wasn’t a contender to begin with — but it did highlight a weakness in the way the 2016 team was constructed.

The White Sox were lacking in left-handed bats, and more specifically in left-handed power. The hope that they were going to get it from LaRoche was likely misguided, even if he had stuck around. A LaRoche-Avisail Garcia platoon didn’t inspire much confidence, but for a team that was reluctant to spend any significant money on a robust free agent market, it wasapparently the best they had decided they could do.

So when LaRoche bailed, the White Sox were left with Garcia and not much in the form of hope. There weren’t that many fallback options — and some were more appealing than others — but the White Sox opted for Justin Morneau, who signed with the team June 9 and made his debut with the team a little more than a month later on July 15.

Morneau hit .261/.303/.429 in 218 plate appearances, which is more or less what you could expect out of an injury-prone 35 year old. He walked less frequently (5.5 percent, lowest of his career), struck out more often (23.9 percent, highest of his career), and failed to generate the kind of power the White Sox were desperately lacking (.167 ISO compared to his career average of .199, although that number had already been trending downward for a number of years).

I don’t believe the White Sox were foolish enough to believe Morneau was going to be the offensive savior this team so desperately needed, but his being the only backup plan to LaRoche’s departure was just another example of inadequate response to problems that emerged with the roster.

It would be impossible to envision a scenario where a team’s designated hitter abruptly retires three weeks before the start of the season, but it wouldn’t be impossible to have envisioned LaRoche missing time for another reason or simply being unplayable. Depending on a 36-year-old, lumbering, injury-prone DH for left-handed power was likely to be a problem. Having a 35-year-old, lumbering, injury-prone DH as his replacement was unlikely to be a solution.

The White Sox problems were aplenty in 2016. Morneau wasn’t one of them, but he certainly wasn’t part of the solution.

Lead photo credit: Jordan Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

• Shields entered the game leading the majors in HR/9 allowed, surrendering over two per nine.  The Rays as a team had somehow hit 213 on the year, or about the rate the 2000 White Sox did.  The top four players in the Rays’ order tonight all have more than 20 homers on the year, two of which are over 30.  So naturally, Shields pitched six innings and didn’t allow a single one.
• It was an emotional evening.  The Rays hung a Jose Fernandez jersey in the dugout in his honor.  In much less tragic news, Alexei Ramirez made his return to U.S. Cellular field and received a warm ovation.  He acknowledged the cheers, doffing his batting helmet, in a lovely moment–a fan even had a “Miss U Alexei” sign prominently in the frame.  I do miss Alexei, even if it seems as though he is rapidly nearing the end of his playing days.
• The White Sox grabbed an early lead when Jose Abreu followed Melky Cabrera‘s 40th double of the season with a single.  Cabrera would come around to score on a sac fly by Justin Morneau.  They added another run when Todd Frazier doubled, a shocking rarity for him this year, stole third, and came around on yet another sac fly, this one by Omar Narvaez.  Leury Garcia scored after a leadoff single, when he came around on another single after advancing on ground outs.  It was a night of run manufacturing.  I prefer dingers…
• …which came in the 7th and 8th from Morneau and Carlos Sanchez, who has randomly started swinging for the fences with a modicum of success.  I mean, by his standards, anyway.
• With an 0-for-5 night, Tim Anderson‘s OPS has dropped beneath .700.  He hasn’t hit for power in some time, and one hopes this is simply the result of him running out of gas a bit at the end of the longest season he’s ever played in his life.  And frankly, he has erased a lot of doubts about his ability to stick at shortstop–doubts which were well-founded–which eases the pressure on his bat tremendously.
• Speaking of which, the White Sox turned four double plays on the night, and Abreu cut down another would-be run at home.  That goes a way toward explaining how the Rays only managed one run on nine hits and four walks.
• The White Sox only need to win six games in a row to make it to .500 at the end of the season for the first time since 2012.

Team Record: 75-81

Accepting the fact that the Sox have actually been able to win games again after that effort, it’s still been a quick path back to dominating another major league team.

1. Thompson’s fourth pitch of the night was blasted by Adam Eaton off the top of the left-center of the wall for a leadoff triple, and he was quickly home on a Tim Anderson groundout to stake Carlos Rodon to an early 1-0 lead. Thompson tiptoed around two walks, but escaped the first and got to the third inning before the top of the order did another number on him.

Eaton bunted for a leadoff single, and raced home when Anderson lofted a triple of his own just over Peter Bourjos‘ head in right. After walking Melky Cabrera for the second time on the night already, Thompson was lucky his hanger to Jose Abreu only resulted in a bouncer up the middle to push the lead to 3-0.

2. Despite allowing a Todd Frazier sacrifice fly to end the third inning down 4-0, Thompson pitched a perfect fourth, only to face the top of the order again. After issuing his third walk to Cabrera of the night, Abreu found a fastball he liked enough to drill his third home run in as many night out to left. Switching to a change didn’t help, since Justin Morneau strode up and swatted his own solo blast out to right to go back-to-back with Abreu.

7-0 wound up being a bigger deficit than the Phillies could manage, especially since it went to 9-0 the next inning.

3. Rodon, showing shades of his 2015 season-ending flourish, ripped off his fourth-straight quality start. He powered up for 98 mph to blow away Tommy Joseph and Cameron Rupp to pitch over two singles in the first. While typically, if Rodon is the zone at all he’s racking up strikeouts, he found the joy of easy outs Tuesday. After sneaking a high slider past Carlos Ruiz to lead off the second, he allowed one more baserunner–a walk to Tyler Goeddel, his only free pass of the night–through the fifth, without recording another whiff.

As promising as Rodon has been through August, he’s maxed out at six innings each time. All the quick outs allowed him to make it through…6.2 innings. After the scoreless outing, he’s lowered his ERA from 4.67 to 4.02 in August.

4. The big offensive night for the Sox allowed a rare night off for Nate Jones and David Robertson. Chris Beck came in with two outs in the seventh and immediately allowed a massive home run to sprightly infielder Freddie Galvis, but took the Sox through the eighth without further damage before Jacob Turner struck out two in a scoreless ninth. He’s got a 2.16 ERA in 8.1 innings of relief.

5. Avisail Garcia banged a double and scored in his first game back from injury but also struck out twice. Anderson’s OBP is up to .301 after a two-hit night, and Abreu is up .285/.341/.455 on the year. That he now has the highest OPS of any offensive regular is either a happy return to his rightful throne, or a really sad total to be the highest OPS on the team. Or both.

Team Record: 60-64

Next game is Wednesday at 7:10pm CT vs. Philadelphia on CSN.

Lead Image Credit: Mike Dinovo // USA Today Sports Images 

1. Quintana himself was far from dominant, not that immolating his opponents is often his path to success. He needed a leaping over-the-shoulder catch from J.B. Shuck in center on a bullet from Ryon Healy to save him from two runs in the first inning. Lacking his best curveball, Quintana breezed through the next two frames, before Khris Davis burned him for a massive opposite-field two-run shot in the top of the fourth, and he needed another Shuck diving gem to steal extra bases from Brett Eibner.

A mini-jam cropped up in the fifth, when back-to-back two-out singles from Coco Crisp and Jake Smolinski brought up Marcus Semien, fresh off doubles in his first two at-bats, but the former Sox infielder’s liner to left easily found Melky Cabrera‘s glove.

2. From there on out, Quintana mostly cruised, gliding through the seventh with just the two runs allowed six strikeouts, and to that point, no walks. He maintained his elite fastball command even without his curve, and then by the end of the day he was nicking the bottom of the zone with his curve anyway.

With just 93 pitches heading into the eighth, Quintana came out for more, but lost his control against Smolinski and walked him after starting 0-2 and was pulled for Nate Jones.

3. The offense gave Quintana an early, if small cushion with some help from the A’s defense in the first. A grounder up the middle from Tim Anderson tipped off Semien’s glove on its way to center, allowing leadoff man Adam Eaton to sprint to third on the slow-developing play. After Eaton was thrown out at home by Yonder Alonso on a fielder’s choice, a seemingly easy inning-ending double play ball from Jose Abreu kept the inning going when Alonso couldn’t glove a low throw from Chad Pinder.

Gifted two extra outs, the Sox got to Zach Neal, a 27-year-old rookie making his fourth start of the year after working mostly in relief. Justin Morneau lined an RBI double to the left-center gap to put the Sox up 1-0. With two outs, Abreu would have normally scored on the play, but seemingly limped into third. It was immaterial, since Todd Frazier flipped a two-run single past Semien immediately afterward, and drew the throw to second to make sure the slow-footed Morneau could score.

4. Abreu went back to the dugout for…something, possibly treatment, and came back out a bit delayed for the top of the second. He was well enough to rip his 16th home run of the year to put the Sox up 4-2 in the fourth.

He was not well enough to not otherwise go 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position, and weakly hit into outs to end rallies in the fifth and seventh. Frazier, who snapped out of his slump enough to collect a three-hit day, was stranded at second in the fourth and sixth for his efforts.

5. Inheriting a leadoff walk, Jones’ scoreless eighth inning was not removed of tension. Semien fouled off six full-count pitches before finally whiffing on a fastball on his hands, and Healy reached with two outs when Jones couldn’t find a comebacker that clipped off his foot. A routine flyout from Eibner ended a tough performance that was tougher than a line of IP, H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K looks in the box score.

David Robertson allowed a leadoff single to Alonso in the ninth, and got two flyouts to the warning track on his way to his 32nd save. Maybe it was just the suspicion that unseen forces would never allow Quintana to get his 10th win that made this all seem tense.

Team Record: 59-64

Next game is Tuesday vs. Philadelphia at 7:10pm CT on WPWR

Lead Image Credit: David Banks // USA Today Sports Images

From this side of fence, however, it looks like everyone got just about what they should have expected.

1. Kluber has killed before, and with more malice, but his six one-run innings Tuesday night were more about pulling out just what he needed, when he needed it. When Melky Cabrera ripped a two-out double down the right field line in the first inning, Kluber got Jose Abreu to pop up a slider to end the threat. When Tim Anderson pushed Justin Morneau to third with a two-out double, Kluber shut the door by whipping a vicious running fastball over the inside corner of the plate to freeze Omar Narvaez to end another. And when a two-out walk to Abreu put runners on the corners for Morneau in the third, Kluber pulled out the same trick to end it once more.

2. Three-straight innings of scoring opportunities against Kluber is more than could have been expected, and beyond a Morneau solo shot on a hanging slider in the sixth, that was all the Sox were provided. Backstroking in a luxurious pool of elite relief options these days, the Indians smoothly transitioned into three perfect innings from Andrew Miller and Cody Allen, and called it a night.

3. Jose Quintana is even less typically in fire-breathing mode than Kluber, and certainly stuck to form as unglamorous tragic hero Tuesday. He logged six innings, striking out only three while walking two, but the two runs he allowed summed up his whole simultaneously blessed but snakebit existence.

Jason Kipnis and Francisco Lindor rapped back-to-back doubles in the first to put the Sox in a permanent deficit, but Lindor’s hit was a dying flare to right-center gap that just barely eluded the diving grasp of capable-fourth-outfielder-turned-miscast-center-fielder J.B. Shuck.

Two innings later, Quintana issued the dreaded leadoff walk to the wrong man, Rajai Davis, but quickly corrected his mistake by sniffing out Davis’ move to steal second and picking him off. Only Abreu threw the ball high and wide of Anderson at short in the subsequent rundown, and Davis slid in safe under his delayed tag. Despite Quintana striking out Kipnis on a curve and retiring Lindor without incident, he was still punished by Mike Napoli roping a single down the left field line to knock in the runner that should not have been there.

Quintana did not have a 1-2-3 inning all night, but somehow held the Indians scoreless from that dispiriting point on.

4. In the seventh, with the game newly in doubt, the Sox turned to the verifiably poor Matt Albers; a struggling veteran who neither seems fit for high-leverage work, nor is a promising talent who needs an opportunity to gain experience, nor seems to have a future with the club beyond Oct. 2. He immediately gave up a leadoff double to catcher Roberto Perez, got a groundout from Davis, and gave way to Dan Jennings, who to his credit only fulfills two of the three of the clauses that apply to Albers. Jennings allowed hits to both the men he faced, pushing the game to 3-1, and gave way to Chris Beck, who–hey now–is actually a prospect and was kinda interesting as he struck out two over 1.2 scoreless innings.

5. Morneau upped his season line to .301/.344/.518 with his two-hit night, and has shown himself to still be competent while providing the Sox the service of a brief respite from DH aggravation. Anderson collected another walk, and now his .292 OBP is closing in on Todd Frazier‘s, who struck out in all four of his plate appearances.

After getting struck out with runners on in the second, Narvaez made two outs on two pitches for the rest of the game, so he refuses to be pigeonholed at least.

Team Record: 56-62

Next game is Wednesday at Cleveland on WPWR on 6:10pm CT

Lead Image Credit: David Richard // USA Today Sports Images

In fact, Sale’s changeup percentage didn’t even rise Tuesday night, he just became more fastball-heavy, and his change-up took a larger percentage of his off-speed options. Sale acknowledged the roughness of the first few innings forced some adjustments to Scott Merkin:

“First couple of innings, I didn’t really feel like I was finishing well with my offspeed pitches, especially. But got that figured out and fastball command got better as the game went on.”

But in general the whole approach remains inscrutable this year. He’s still sitting 92-93 mph with his average velocity for the season, which hardly seems like a problem from a lefty who puts as much two-seamer action on his heat as Sale does, but it’s down 1-2 mph from some other years, so it could be a place to look when we do all the post-mortem on why his peripherals went from God-like to merely very, very, very good.

2. The last thing that should be interesting in a team playing out the string should be the work of a 35-year-old DH who will be a free agent in October, but Justin Morneau hitting .300/.351/.500 in 77 plate appearances after the never-ending wave of injuries and nightmarish concussion symptoms he’s been dealt this decade is heartwarming stuff.

With eight of his 21 hits going for extra bases, despite his not really being able to run, Morneau is looking at his highest ISO since concussions interrupted a would-be MVP season in 2010. It’s too early to think about making room for another aging bat when the Sox have larger goals to sort out, but if they are competing in 2017, they always lack for credible hitters and Morneau should be affordable.

Or, he’s the exactly the type of low-cost professional who could be traded in August for something definitely worth the tiny prorated $1 million investment they made in his recovery.

3. Look at this maniac

He’s running with the pitch, it’s a uniquely deep single, but he scored from first on a single. How many times is that seen in a season? His OBP is terrible right now and he was not going to maintain plus power production all year, but once those things even become average Tim Anderson has so much secondary skill to flaunt.

4. Obviously it’s still rather astounding that Avisail Garcia managed to injure his knee in the on-deck circle, but even more astounding that he might find a way to tease potential that might not be able to be confirmed until more playing time next season.

Playing him two more months is already a grueling idea to most given how prolonged his failures have been, but at least producing for two months would be a significant test of his abilities to maintain his power stroke. But if this injury puts him aside for any length of time, it will call on the Sox to cut the cord right after a stretch where he showed he could bash tape measure home runs in bursts.

The thing is, he’ll always be able to do that, and he’ll always still have massive untapped potential, the Sox just can’t be the team that can only cuts the cord when all traces of a major league player are gone.

5. After being tormented by the absence of his youngest son since the beginning of his MLB career, Jose Abreu‘s separation from now five-year-old Dariel looks to be at an end, as he has secured a five-year visa that will allow him to visit more frequently. Abreu plans to introduce his son to the media this weekend in Miami, which should be a tearjerker affair.

It’s hard to miss the note that Dariel turns six soon.  Dariel was two-years-old when when they were first separated, meaning that his father’s absence has encompassed most of his life.

Lead Image Credit: Denny Medley // USA Today Sports Images

1. Facing a 5-4 deficit in the ninth with two outs, Melky Cabrera drilled his third hit and his third RBI of the night to left to score the incredibly fleet-footed Tim Anderson (who collected three hits himself) from second to square things, and eventually send the game into extras.

One inning later in the 10th, an even more unusual pairing brought in the go-ahead run. Avisail Garcia drilled his second booming double to right, and came around much more easily than Anderson when Dioner Navarro banged his third hit of the night down the left field line. The Sox trotted a lineup that was half sub-.300 OBP or sub-.400 SLG, but still managed to beat up on familiar tormentor Tommy Milone (5.1 IP, 9 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 3K, HR) and tear the heart out of the Twins bullpen.

2. Of course, the offense only needed late rallies when the Sox blew a 4-1 lead in the eighth.

Matt Albers had a great April. He came into the season on scoreless streak, and did not cede an earned run until May 5, from which time the jig has been very much up. Coming into Saturday night, since May 1, Albers had allowed opposing hitters to post a .339/.400/.574 line and collected a 7.00 ERA.

That’s really bad. And it hasn’t been trending in a positive direction. July began with Robin Ventura almost completely abandoning confidence in him, and while pulling him at the first sign of trouble had brought his ERA down a bit, hitters still were posting a .367/.412/.500 against him for the month.

As such, there’s only so much surprise that can be reserved for  when Albers is brought on for high-leverage, he responds by walking the tying run onto first, then giving up a backbreaking three-run home run to Eduardo Escobar to spoil a Miguel Gonzalez gem in the eighth.

3. David Robertson minimized the chaos for his part, and nailed up a very easy 10th inning save, but only after the Sox sweated through a harrowing ninth in the name of giving their bullpen rest. Michael Ynoa was lucky to have only allowed a leadoff double to the scuffling Danny Santana, then got more lucky when Byron Buxton popped up a bunt to Jose Abreu. He then got to the brink of escape when he suddenly found his command for a random great encounter against Robbie Grossman, finishing him off with a well-spotted fastball.

Grossman struck out looking three times, and walked, and in general was oddly devoted to exploring the merits of not swinging.

After being called to intentionally walk Joe Mauer to bring one Max Kepler, Ynoa lost his release point and walked Kepler on four pitches as well, and after starting out behind on Brian Dozier, was rewarded with a pop out to third for challenging him with a fastball over the heart of the plate. So yeah, obviously he should have pitched the eighth over Albers.

4. Gonzalez has had the type of July that challenges our conception of him as a pitcher, and his value coming forward. When he snaked a fastball over the outside corner to freeze Grossman and close out the seventh while leaving a runner on second, he capped off a month that saw him log 39.2 innings, post a 2.50 ERA, and strike out 31 over nine walks.

Saturday night was no exception, as he retained the stretch of near-perfect command, breezed through six innings save for Buxton exploiting a rickety White Sox defense for a glorified little league home run to put the Twins up 1-0 in the third. Buxton grounded out to plate another as Gonzalez finally started to tire in the seventh, but Miguel held the Sox advantage at 4-1 with that strikeout of Grossman. He would be the story of the day if not for all the late craziness.

5. Also drowned out by the craziness of later innings was a banner night for Justin Morneau in his old stomping grounds. He doubled in Garcia in the fourth inning and hammered his second home run of the year in the sixth. In limited action, he’s at .263/.333/.474 for the season.

Team Record: 51-53

Next game is Sunday at Minnesota at 1:10pm CT on WGN

Lead Image Credit: Bruce Kluckhorn // USA Today Sports Images

Santiago rarely found himself in trouble in seven shutout innings, scattering five hits, walking zero and striking out seven — five of which came in the first two innings. The Sox thrice got a runner to second base and once to third but were otherwise unthreatening against the lefty the Sox shipped out in the trade that netted them Adam Eaton.

Speaking of Eaton, he was the only member of the starting lineup to find any measure of success offensively against the man for whom he was traded, doubling and singling in his first two at-bats, only to be stranded on each occasion.

The offensive ineptitude again cost the Sox in what wound up being Miguel Gonzalez‘s third consecutive impressive outing. Six innings of two earned run ball means he’s now allowed just four earned runs in his last 20 innings across three starts. He struck out six and walked just one, and the only blips through the first six innings came in the third, when Yunel Escobar blooped a single over the head of Tim Anderson to score Ji-Man Choi and Kole Calhoun followed with an RBI double.

His low pitch count, however, meant a long leash and his third time through the order was predictably shaky; he was replaced after giving up a leadoff double to Daniel Nava in the seventh inning and Johnny Giavotella reached on an error by Anderson — one of two he committed in the inning. Both came around to score in what wound up unearned runs on the tally.

That inning proved to be the beginning of the end to the Sox chances of winning the game, however, as Zach Duke and Matt Albers combined to face four batters and register zero outs, and the Angels put up a five-spot that ended what little hope there was of victory.

The aforementioned new toys were barely unwrapped Friday. Morneau was not in the starting lineup for his first game after being activated from the disabled list, presumably because of the left-handed starter (although one could optimistically predict a rusty Morneau could be at least as effective against a lefty as Garcia). He pinch-hit for Garcia in the eighth inning and grounded out in his first at-bat with the team.

Fulmer’s debut will have to wait at least one more day.

Team record: 45-44

Next game: 8:05 p.m. Saturday against the Angels on CSN.

Lead Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Jason Coats was also optioned, while Avisail Garcia remains. More on that later.

Morneau, 35, has put up the numbers I would expect from a 35-year-old Alex Avila during his very short rehab/late Spring Training stint: .174/.321/.261 in a mere eight games of action. He speculated earlier that he might need as few as 30 plate appearances to get ready, he got 28.

Perhaps during some junctures of my time writing on the Sox, I have earned a reputation for being critical, or at least skeptical of every single thing they do. Perhaps. But, I am strangely unconcerned with any of this.

Unsurprisingly, much of Morneau’s first game action in several months found him without his feet fully underneath facing guys in mid-season form. He might similarly struggle in his first week or so with the big club, but he’s a professional bat who has hit .276/.334/.433 since 2011, when his post-concussion issues emerged, and that’s including his awful first season back. He’s not a franchise-saver, or even an offense-revitalizer, but he’s an upgrade over the completely untenable Avisail situation, and if he’s physically ready to play, then it’s time for him to play.

In entirely different circumstances, top prospect — if Tim Anderson is no longer a prospect (he is) — Carson Fulmer is coming up to help a bullpen that has been using Michael Ynoa, Chris Beck, and the worst stretch of Matt Albers‘ career with regularity. Fulmer’s promotion despite a very rocky season in Double-A overall is being supported with a lot of pointing at his 54 strikeouts over 17 walks (and just one home run allowed) over his last 41 innings; a stretch that encompassed seven starts.

His Futures Game appearance showed Fulmer showing off some of the rougher mechanics of his college days and without the usual ‘stand tall’ focus typical of Sox pitchers, and it’s an open question to how much of that was intentionally allowed, or was done in anticipation of major league bullpen work, or was simply Fulmer not being comfortable with the adjustments. He made mention to reporters of feeling that his delivery had been slowed down too much, but there’s also a question of whether Fulmer’s current delivery allows for a long, healthy career.

All of which is besides the point of him getting called up. The Sox need someone who can miss bats in their bullpen, and there’s not really any worry about Fulmer’s development being stunted or bad habits being allowed to fester under Don Cooper, not that working out of the bullpen to transition to the majors is a particularly worrisome path in general.

There’s danger in looking at these moves as major. Fulmer has a not-insignificant chance of being very wild early on and needing a while before he settles in comfortably to bullpen work, but could just as easily remove the immediate need for Zach Putnam‘s return. These are not additions on the level of Carlos Gonzalez, Jay Bruce or even Charlie Blackmon, and don’t do a ton to mitigate concern that the Sox don’t have the horses to undo significant gaps between them and seemingly superior clubs like the Indians, Blue Jays, Red Sox, or even the Astros. But these are moves that do make the team immediately better on their own, so they don’t necessarily need to be weighed down by larger existential concerns.

Coats being sent down makes sense, as he didn’t show anything in very scant playing time, and if the Sox aren’t going to place any confidence in giving him a real shot, he can go ahead and resume mashing in Charlotte.

On the other hand, Garcia, virtually unplayable on defense and in the depths of his worst offensive stretch of an already underwhelming career, is not a very useful bench option. He’s been so bad this year that his one pliable skill — solid numbers against lefties — has been dragged below-average for his career because he’s hit .175/.275/.267 against them this year. Single-year platoon splits are mostly noise, but Garcia struggling at the plate is usually a constant. He’s not someone who can come in and do anything specifically well. He’s basically the fourth outfielder behind J.B. Shuck with Austin Jackson‘s return becoming indefinite, but his only appeal is to play him consistently and hope he can realize his larger potential, and if the Sox have given up on that, they should give up on him in general. But then again, any hope for 2016 has to be rooted in the idea that the Sox are not done.

There’s also no word yet on how the Sox are handling Sunday’s spot starter situation if Fulmer is exclusively in the bullpen. Anthony Ranaudo has been “successful,” but also struck out only 46 in 71.2 innings in Charlotte, and just pitched Thursday. The rest of the current Charlotte Knights pitching staff is even more disheartening than 2016 Anthony Ranaudo.

Lead Image Credit: Joe Camporeale // USA Today Sports Images

The White Sox haven’t had to venture out into the insane world of free agent starting pitching acquisition. Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, and Carlos Rodon were acquired for two first round picks and in minor league free agency.  Sure, they’ve had to scramble to fix the fourth and fifth slots in the rotation, and even now those slots don’t inspire a ton of confidence, but that’s pretty normal.  There are plenty of teams who have spent literally hundreds of millions of dollars and/or massive amounts of trade resources trying to replicate what the White Sox have in the rotation and failed — e.g. Boston, Arizona, or even the bizarre failures of the Minnesota Twins, murdering themselves with $50-80 million mediocrities.

When you only need to fill a fifth starter spot, you can do perfectly fine just digging through the bargain bin aggressively. Mat Latos was a worthwhile flyer for the cost, they got a good/lucky April out of him, and then abandoned him once he stopped being effective. Miguel Gonzalez was scooped up even while Latos was thriving, just as a hedge, and that’s actually worked out quite well. Indeed, in terms of the rotation, the White Sox front office should hold their heads high. They have struck gold at the top end and have gone on the attack to give them reinforcements.

Then you look on the other side of the ball and you wonder if it’s a completely different front office in charge.

Well, first let’s start with the good news:

Tim Anderson has been really, really fun. It doesn’t really matter how you look at it. From a results standpoint, he is hitting .304/.310/.488 at shortstop, which is good for a .278 TAv and roughly in the top half of the league in that category, even in this sudden Golden Age of Shortstops. Aesthetically it has been even better, with his much-hyped athleticism playing as advertised. It’s very early yet, but so far Anderson has represented a non-pitching draft and development success that has been virtually extinct on the South Side since George W. Bush took office.

The shortstop situation is an example of how you can cure a flaw in the roster in a very healthy way, and for White Sox fans who don’t really pay attention to other teams, this is how most teams plug a hole–from within. Moreover, even though it was risky, the White Sox’ offseason approach here was very defensible, albeit risky. The position was a liability, but they did have their top prospect racing through the system and potentially on the horizon. They had a competent understudy in the form of Tyler Saladino on hand, and so they threw a minor league deal out to a veteran who would theoretically complement Saladino’s virtues and hope that would tide them over until Anderson was ready.

The risk was a calculated one in the sense that you were throwing two mediocrities at the problem, each hedging against the other, and because shortstop has such a low bar for production. Granted, Anderson may have needed all of 2016 and even some of 2017 in the minors, but I don’t think it was crazy to do this instead of gambling on, say, Ian Desmond. Desmond has had a renaissance in Texas, but his peripherals had been collapsing for years, and there was real reason to believe he wasn’t worth forfeiting a draft pick.*

*This is notwithstanding the fact that I think Zack Burdi is a disappointing result for said pick. I doubt Burdi was Plan A for the pick, and I’m frustrated that this is how it turned out, sacking the pick for someone as volatile as Desmond would mean surrendering the ability to exploit draft opportunities. That they didn’t necessarily materialize is not the flaw in this strategy.

Similarly, Melky Cabrera, Todd Frazier, and Brett Lawrie have more or less been what you’d realistically expect from them.  The troika of modest trade and free agency adds have been somewhere between average to above average while representing one third of the lineup.  That’s great! Good job, everybody.

That’s the good news.

Since the 23-10 start, the White Sox have been–to put it charitably–limping along with less talent than they need, and what’s infuriating is that none of the problems they’ve had are a surprise. Avisail Garcia has been one of the worst players in the majors. Again. Alex Avila got hurt, and if that startles you, I would suggest you don’t have much interest in baseball.  Austin Jackson was a glove-only option, but really, that the role he was cast to play.

Remember, as soon as Adam LaRoche retired, Avisail Garcia was Plan A at DH. In Spring it looked like the organization was willing to take the same aggressive bargain bin dumpster diving that they have applied to the back of the rotation. Scooping up guys who have succeeded in the majors in the past, targeting contracts that cellar dwellers want to get rid of, etc. Travis Ishikawa and Jerry Sands are pretty poor options, even by those standards, but they were bodies from outside the organization that were brought in to see if they could get any sort of boost at all. Sands wound up with a K% above 40, and Ishikawa never even played in the majors.

Then the White Sox…stopped trying to solve the problem. Justin Morneau is the first and only major league player they have added on the offensive side of the ball of any consequence, and he has yet to actually play for the team.  Meanwhile, James Loney became available on waivers and was untouched. Even though the Padres added him on a minor league deal, he was clearly still freely available, as the Mets acquired him for “future considerations.”

Loney has hit .277/.336/.438 for the Mets, which is only slightly better than his 2014 numbers, and is basically a photocopy of his career averages.  So, even if the White Sox say, “Well, we were counting on LaRoche and we were blindsided by his retirement,” there is little excuse as to why they didn’t pounce on someone like Loney–who was definitely available–after LaRoche quit.

Similarly, Minnesota signed Robbie Grossman to a minor league deal on May 17th of this year, months after LaRoche had retired. He has a .421 OBP.

Now, there are reasons to argue against acquiring both of these guys. Before their short spurts good performance this year, you could argue that Loney was washed up based on his 2015* and Grossman was a failed prospect, although it is worth pointing out that the Astros kept him instead of J.D. Martinez and he was a BP Top 100 prospect once upon a time.

*Note: The White Sox were evidently counting on Adam LaRoche, who is both older than Loney, and was worse in 2015, so I’m confused as to why LaRoche would be acceptable but Loney wasn’t an option.

So the White Sox missed on these guys, not necessarily because they should have known they’d each be plus bats, but rather because they sat on their hands.  They didn’t do anything.  The same organization that added Jacob Turner, James Shields, Mat Latos, Anthony Ranaudo, and Miguel Gonzalez when it was clear that John Danks couldn’t hack it anymore did absolutely nothing to help the disastrous DH situation for three months.

And it all circles back to this offseason, when the White Sox did not add any free agents of consequence for the outfield or DH.  The defense I saw from many on social media was that the White Sox could always add at the trade deadline instead.

Even ignoring how an organization like the White Sox cannot afford to keep acquiring talent in trades–how useful would Marcus Semien or Trayce Thompson be for this roster right now, even if one or both of them did bring something potentially helpful?–and even ignoring the fact that if you wait till the end of July you punt more than half the season without needed upgrades: The market does not always match what you need if you bank on this strategy.

As of Saturday, July 9th, Sandy Alderson explicitly said that there just aren’t that many sellers out there period.  The only team he would cite as a seller as of now is Atlanta. Even if there are more–I bet Tampa or Cincinnati would listen to offers–they can afford to wait until July 31, or the end of August or even until this winter to sell players unless they get an offer that suits them. And, what if the players who are a good fit get hurt, like Josh Reddick did?

The White Sox decided they’d like to roll the dice on the remote chance that Avisail Garcia could be adequate, or that the market would provide them exactly what they needed and when they needed it.  In the meantime, they sat on their hands, refusing to make any additions that could have helped bridge the gap until a more permanent solution was found. If the excuse for inaction is that they didn’t have any targets they could pry away for a reasonable price, the organization still only has themselves to blame. This was an extremely obvious and likely risk to their “strategy” of doing nothing all winter, and doing nothing once Adam LaRoche quit.

If they had aggressively rifled through the bargain bin, I’m pretty sure they could have found someone–anyone–who could beat Avisail Garcia’s .234 TAv.  Maybe it would have been a Robbie Grossman, who would be the best hitter on the team right now.  Maybe it would have been James Loney, who, by TAv, would also be the best hitter on the team right now. And this is an organization that realized that there was a problem at the back of the rotation and did exactly what they needed to do to make their offseason strategy make any sense at all, but wouldn’t for DH.

I can’t think of an explanation, other than the fact that maybe they really thought Avisail Garcia could hack it?  If that is the explanation, then this team needs to take a hard look in the mirror as to why they seem to be the last ones to figure out that a position player isn’t a major leaguer time and time again. Or why their Plan As are so frequently underwhelming and paired with no credible Plan B.

There are problems that can’t be fixed. Catchers are really hard to find, for example, at any time, and if your catching situation is poor you’re not at much of a competitive disadvantage, because most teams have a bad catching situation. But if you can’t find a DH who can post a TAv better than .234 then…I suppose I have nothing else to say.

It was a risky strategy, based far more on hope than calculation, and what they were gambling with was yet another of the peak years of Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, and Adam Eaton. It doesn’t look like this gamble paired with baffling passivity is going to pay off.  And maybe they pay a trade deadline premium for a bat–impact or not–at the end of July, but I suspect the damage has already been done.

Lead Image Credit: Matt Marton // USA Today Sports Images