Category / Baseball

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The End?

A year and a half ago, Jose Abreu signed as a free agent with the Astros after nine seasons with the White Sox.  At the time, I wrote about the decline he showed during that last season on the south side:

For the Astros sake, you hope that was a blip and not an indication of decline as Abreu plays through his mid-30s.

A blip it was not.  Abreu struggled from the start in Houston, before managing to turn things around in September and October, providing some key home runs during the Astros run in the post-season.  He has not been so lucky this year.  After starting the season with just seven hits in 71 at bats, he agreed to be optioned to the minor leagues to reset and rework his swing.  He worked with Astros legend Jeff Bagwell to regain the timing and the swing that led him to the 2020 MVP award.  Once he returned to the Astros roster, however, the results, while improved, were still well below expectations.  Yesterday, the Astros pulled the plug, releasing the 37-year-old first baseman and eating more than $30 million.

Where does Abreu go from here?  Some team may be willing to take a flyer on him at league minimum, but, barring injuries, there doesn’t appear to be a clear favorite.  It may be that this is the end of the road for the Cuban-born slugger.  If so, he has left behind a lifetime of memories in Chicago and a year and a half worth of regrets in Houston.

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It’s Over

With 2005 World Series champion Mark Buehrle in attendance, the White Sox snapped their franchise-record losing streak last night at fourteen games, defeating the Red Sox 7-2.  Of course, they couldn’t do it easily and ran into some interesting moments along the way.

Garrett Crochet had little problems with the Red Sox, save for the third inning.  Two botched throws to first, one on a comebacker and the second on an appeal, gave the Red Sox the lead.

With the White Sox at bat in the bottom of the fourth, play was paused after a number of mini liquor bottles were thrown onto field.  The Sox were able to handle their liquor issues and plate three runs to take a two-run lead.

Finally, with two outs in the top of the ninth inning, the streak looked as it was about to fall.  A lazy flyball to left field seemed poised to end the game.  Unfortunately for everyone, rookie Duke Ellis, called up earlier in the week for his first taste of major league experience, booted it, extending the festivities.  The next batter, though, grounded out and the losing streak had finally, mercifully, come to an end.

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Call Your Sons, Call Your Daughters

Embattled rookie play-by-play man John Schriffen kicked off last night’s broadcast with a prediction.  “I feel good,” he said during the open.  “Tonight is the night the losing streak comes to an end.”  Two pitches into the game, the White Sox were trailing 1-0.  It did not get better from there.

When the damage was done, the White Sox fell to the Red Sox 14-2, setting a single-season franchise record with their fourteenth consecutive loss.  The overall team record is fifteen straight losses, which happened with five losses to end of the 1967 season followed by another ten straight to start the 1968 season.  The 2024 incarnation will attempt to avoid tying this mark tonight.

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Tragic Number 13

After blowing a 5-1 lead for the second consecutive night against their crosstown rivals, the White Sox tied a single season franchise record last night with their thirteenth consecutive loss.  The previous thirteen-game losing streak occurred in August of 1924, a season in which they finished 66-87.

This year’s version of the White Sox have lost 17 of their last 18 games en route to their worst start in franchise history.  They will try to stop the bleeding tonight at home against the Red Sox.

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Your Latest Crosstown Batting Leaders

The battle for the 2024 Crosstown Cup kicks off tonight at Wrigley Field, with the Cubs looking to take retain possession of the cup after winning it back last year.  The White Sox currently hold a slight edge in the overall series, going 74-68 over the past 27 years.  Let’s take a look at the offensive leaders for the now 89 (out of 142) crosstown games I have attended since the start of interleague play in 1997:

Home Runs

Name Total
Paul Konerko 15
Carlos Lee 9
Aramis Ramirez 8
Sammy Sosa 8
Jermaine Dye 7

Hits

Name Total
Paul Konerko 50
Carlos Lee 41
Jose Abreu 36
Sammy Sosa 29
Derrek Lee 28

Runs

Name Total
Paul Konerko 26
Magglio Ordonez 19
Continue reading →
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Setting A New Standard

Don’t download that Stadium app just yet.  A little over two weeks ago, news broke that the White Sox, Bulls, and Blackhawks were expected to announce they were moving their game broadcasts from NBC Sports Chicago to Stadium, a multi-platform sports network controlled by Jerry Reinsdorf. Turns out that was a bit premature.  Yesterday, news broke again that the three teams would instead partner with Standard Media Group to create the new television broadcast home for all three teams, starting in October.  The currently unnamed network is expected to be available across multiple platforms, including over-the-air and carriage agreements with cable and streaming providers.

Based in Nashville, Standard Media Group is a local broadcast and digital media company that, according to its website which looks to have not been updated since 2022, operates television stations in Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska and Rhode Island.  Compared to them, Stadium, owned by a digital and media investment subsidiary of the White Sox with offices and studios at the United Center, looks like a major player.

Why the change?  Maybe Reinsdorf is looking to start greasing the wheels in Nashville ahead of a potential move.  Maybe the thought of spending money, even if the majority of it was coming back to him, offends the chairman to his core. Maybe the White Sox, Bulls, and Blackhawks draw better in Rhode Island than anybody realizes.  We may never know the truth.

by admin

Free Fallin’

With a little more than 15% of the 2024 baseball season in the books. the new look White Sox, the first squad put together by new GM Chris Getz, have a 3-22 record.  They are currently on-pace to surpass the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, who went 20-134, for a .130 winning percentage, before the team disbanded in the offseason.

Through their first 24 games, they have put up the sixth worse offensive production in the history of organized baseball.  They have already been shut out eight times in just 25 games.  The highest total in the Wild Card era is 22.  The all-time record, set by the 1908 Cardinals, is 33.  The White Sox are currently on pace to be shut out 56 times.

I guess if you are going to be bad, being historically bad does give the fanbase something to follow and talk about.  And at least all this losing will lead to a high draft pick next year.  Oh wait, no it won’t, thanks to the new anti-tanking rules.  This franchise is screwed.

 

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Building A New TV Home

The White Sox, Bulls, and Blackhawks are expected to announce this week that they are moving their game broadcasts from NBC Sports Chicago to Stadium, a multi-platform sports network controlled by Jerry Reinsdorf.  Stadium, which already has a streaming platform n place that could potentially offer a direct-to-consumer product through its app, would then convert into a regional sports network and attempt to find distribution with cable and satellite providers, in an era where viewership is declining.  The teams, specifically the White Sox and Bulls, are also looking for traditional over-the-air broadcasters to carry some, if not all, of the games locally.

Presumably, most, if not all, of the on-air staff would move to the new channel, as this would seemingly spell the end of the road for NBC Sports Chicago.  Some of the behind-the-scenes staff will likely need to move over as well to enable Stadium to make the transition.

Stadium, of course, is owned by Silver Chalice, a digital and media investment subsidiary of the White Sox with White Sox VP Brooks Boyer listed as CEO.  Their offices and studios are currently located at the United Center.

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End Of The Road?

Five years ago, expectations were high as the fruits of the White Sox rebuild were starting to pay dividends and the team, looking to contend for years to come, inked third baseman Yoan Moncada to a five-year extension.  Through an interpreter, Moncada said, “With all this happening, I can say I’m going to play alongside (left fielder) Eloy (Jimenez) and (center fielder) Luis Robert for a very long time, and that’s going to be a key for the success of this team.”  Since that time, the White Sox have played 557 games.  Jimenez, Robert, and Moncada have played together in just 161 of them.

Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert were already on the IL with leg injuries when Yoan Moncada came up lame while running to first base during the second inning of Tuesday’s contest against the Guardians.  He was diagnosed with a left abductor strain, which is expected to keep him on the shelf for 3-6 months, likely ending his White Sox career.  That contract extension, signed days before the global pandemic shut down spring training in 2020, is up after this season and the White Sox seem unlikely to exercise the $25 million option for 2025.

Moncada, who was part of the haul received from the Red Sox in the Chris Sale deal that kicked off the last rebuild, was ranked as the #1 prospect in all of baseball.  After some initial struggles, he seemed to turn the corner in 2019, hitting .315 with 25 home runs and 79 RBIs, but that has been the high point of his career.  A bout with COVID knocked his 2020 season off course, and injuries have been a constant concern ever since.  Will he ever take the field in a White Sox uniform again?  If he does, it will be to play out the string in what was going to be a long, arduous season even if everything went right.

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Heading To Vegas… Via Sacramento

Last November, MLB owners approved the relocation of the A’s from Oakland to Las Vegas, where the team hopes to have a stadium built by the 2028 season.  A fine plan all around, except that the team’s current lease in Oakland expires after this season, leaving them in a bit of a bind for the 2025-2027 seasons.  After failing to reach a deal with Oakland for an extension, the Sacramento Kings announced today that the A’s will play the next three seasons in Sacramento.

Sutter Health Park, the current home of the Sacramento River Cats of the Pacific Coast League, will house the A’s for through the 2027 season, with an option for 2028.  The River Cats are expected to continue to use the stadium as well, which I’m sure will cause no scheduling issues whatsoever.

The move will end the team’s stay in Oakland at 57 seasons, after previously calling Philadelphia and Kansas City home.  Assuming they ever make it to Vegas, and that seems less likely now than it did in November, the A’s will become the first franchise to have played in five different municipalities while using the same name.  On a personal note, removing Oakland Coliseum from my active stadium count means I would now have eleven parks to get to in order to finish off the set.  I’ve made two trips to the stadium once known as Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum, first in 1999 and again in 2008, seeing the Tigers and Orioles respectively.