Category / Baseball

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Breaking New Ground

Earlier this week, Major League Baseball became the first major professional sports league to sign a sponsorship agreement with a CBD brand.  The multi-year deal makes Charlotte’s Web the “Official CBD of Major League Baseball,” with the goal, according to a press release, to increase brand visibility among MLB athletes and fans.  The sponsorship deal coincides with the launch of the new WebTM SPORT – Daily Edge, a hemp-derived, broad-spectrum tincture that supposedly meets MLB’s standards for acceptable substances among players.  The MLB logo will appear on the bottle and Daily Edge will be available in gummies, topicals, and oral sprays.

MLB continues to push the envelope when it comes to sponsors that, should their players participate, would end in a suspension.  It will be interesting to see if any player who gets popped for a failed drug test in the future claims that this is all they were taking.

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2022 Final Pitching Leaders

Yesterday, we looked at the leaders in the 33 games I attended this year on the offensive side of the ball.  With the newly expanded Wild Card round in full swing today, it’s time to wrap up our look back at the 2022 season with the pitching leaders, starting with everyone’s favorite pitching statistic:

Wins

Name Total
Reynaldo Lopez 3
Liam Hendriks 2
Lucas Giolito 2
Dylan Cease 2
24 tied with  1

Losses

Name Total
Michael Kopech 2
Johnny Cueto 2
Davis Martin 2
26 tied with  1

ERA (> 6 IP)

Name Total
Clayton Kershaw 0.00
Reynaldo Lopez 0.59
Marcus Stroman 0.79
Dylan Cease 1.00
Jimmy Lambert 1.13
Nestor Cortes Jr. 1.13

Strikeouts

Name Total
Lucas Giolito 32
Michael Kopech 26
Liam Hendriks 22
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2022 Final Batting Leaders

Another baseball season is in the books, with the White Sox disappointing their fans by not just failing to return to the now-expanded postseason, but also failing to post a winning record.  The Cubs, meanwhile, struggled as expected in the first half of the season but managed to put together a decent enough second half, leading some to believe that a big offseason of free agent signings will put them right back in contention.  Let’s take a look back at the offensive leaders for the 33 games that I attended this season.

Home Runs

Name Total
Gavin Sheets 6
Jose Abreu 4
Luis Robert 4
A.J. Pollock 3
Eloy Jimenez 3

Hits

Name Total
Jose Abreu 31
Tim Anderson 26
Gavin Sheets 23
A,J. Pollock 20
Luis Robert 19

Runs

Name Total
Luis Robert 15
Jose Abreu 13
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2022 Final Standings

After a delayed start to the season thanks to the long lockout last winter, we’ve managed to get through a 162-game schedule just a couple of days later than initially planned.  The new, expanded postseason is set and will go on without either Chicago team for the first time since 2019.   I ended up attending just 33 games, tied with 2012 for my 16th highest total of all time.  I only managed to add one new stadium, bringing my total up to 28.  All told, I managed to see 20 of the 30 teams.

2022 Team Records

Team Name Won Loss Winning Pctg
Los Angeles Dodgers 2 0 1.000
Texas Rangers 1 0 1.000
Baltimore Orioles 1 0 1.000
New York Mets 1 0 1.000
Arizona Diamondbacks 1 0 1.000
New York Yankees 2 1 0.667
Cleveland Guardians 2 1 0.667
Chicago White Sox 16 14 0.533
Minnesota Twins 2 2 0.500
Houston Astros 1 1 0.500
Detroit Tigers 1 1 0.500
Colorado Rockies 1 1 0.500
Chicago Cubs 2 5 0.286
Atlanta Braves 0 1 0.000
Los Angeles Angels 0 1 0.000
Toronto Blue Jays 0 1 0.000
Oakland Athletics 0 1 0.000
Seattle Mariners 0 1 0.000
Tampa Bay Rays 0 1 0.000
Kansas City Royals 0 1 0.000
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2022 Predictions Revisited

Six months ago, at the dawn of the lockout-delayed 2022 baseball season, I made my annual predictions as to who would win what.  With the regular season coming to an end today, it is time revisit those predictions and see what, if anything, I got right.

American League

East: Blue Jays

Well, that’s one down.  The Yankees have owned the division pretty much from day one.

Central: White Sox

After running away with the Central Division in 2021, the White Sox were a consensus pick to repeat.  Unfortunately, the baseball gods had other ideas.  While the White Sox struggled all year to put things together, the Guardians hung around long enough to get really hot in September and run away with the division.

West: Astros

Hey, here’s one I got right.  The Astros once again find themselves at the top of the division, winning their fifth title in six years.

Wild Cards: Yankees, Angels, Red Sox

The AL East was particularly strong this year, as both the Blue Jays and the Rays make it to the expanded Wild Card round.  Rounding things out are the Mariners, who make the postseason for the first time since 2001 after missing out on the final day of the season last year.

AL Champion: Yankees

The Yankees have struggled in the second half, so they aren’t the locks they looked like early in the year.  At this point, you have to assume the Astros are the team to beat.

Cy Young: Lucas Giolito

That seems very unlikely.  Justin Verlander seems like the popular choice, with Dylan Cease and Shohei Ohtani likely to also get support.

MVP: Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Aaron Judge already has his name engraved on this award.

National League

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The Tony LaRussa Era Has, Once Again, Come To An End

White Sox manager Tony LaRussa, who has been out with a health issue since August 29th, announced his retirement today, ending two years of controversy and underachievement.  In a written statement, LaRussa admitted to a second health problem, one he had been putting off until this offseason. and the necessary recovery time as to why he would not be returning.  His two-year stint, following a ten-year retirement, ends with one division title, one playoff victory, and a possibly one of the most disappointing seasons in the history of the franchise.  LaRussa, who turns 78 tomorrow, leaves the game for a second time as the second winningest manager in Major League history.

The announcement officially starts a new search for GM Rick Hahn, who had his plans for a new manager kiboshed two years ago when owner Jerry Reinsdorf insisted on LaRussa, who the team had fired in 1986 and which Reinsdorf considered one of his biggest regrets.  Among the likely candidates to be considered are current bench coach Miguel Cairo, who has been the acting manager in LaRussa’s absence, former big league managers Bruce Bochy, Joe Girardi, or Joe Maddon, the hot bench coaches of the moment, and, based on past history, former White Sox players with no professional coaching experience like A.J. Pierzynski, Jim Thome, or Paul Konerko.

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What Went Wrong

After winning a Wild Card slot in 2020 and running away with the Central Division title in 2021, the White Sox looked like an easy lock to make a third straight post-season appearance this October.  Unfortunately, something (or somethings) went wrong along the way and after a long season where nothing ever seemed to click, the team was officially eliminated on Sunday after dropping six straight against the Guardians and the Tigers.  So where did things fall apart?  Let’s take a deeper look.

Injuries

After injuries rocked the White Sox in 2021, they revamped their strength and conditioning staff, hoping a new program would help stem the tide.  Unfortunately, the lockout prevented the new staff from working with the players, leaving them to their own devices.  GM Rick Hahn said in June that, between the lockout and the shortened spring training, the new program “got stymied a little bit this offseason” and that it would “be difficult in-season to perhaps change the results over the next few weeks and months in terms of health.”  Boy, was he not kidding.

Things started at the end of spring training, when lefty reliever Garrett Crochet went down for the year with an elbow injury requiring Tommy John surgery.  Two days later, starter Lance Lynn left his final spring tune-up with a bum knee, putting him on the shelf until the middle of June.  Finally, before the White Sox arrived in Detroit for their season opener, Yoan Moncada suffered an oblique strain that knocked him out for a month and may have sunk his entire season.  Relief pitcher Joe Kelly, signed during the offseason, also started the season on the IL rehabbing an injury from the year before and wasn’t activated until May.

Outfielder AJ Pollock left the second game of the year with a hamstring injury, missing over three weeks.  The same day, Lucas Giolito was placed on the IL with an abdominal strain, keeping him out for nearly two weeks.  The day he was activated, Eloy Jimenez was placed on the IL with a strained hamstring suffered that day against the Twins.  It would be two and a half months before he returned.  This was all before the calendar turned to May!

Things never let up.  Andrew Vaughn missed time in May after getting hit in the hand by a pitch.  Aaron Bummer suffered a right knee strain that kept him out for two weeks.  Lucas Giolito and Luis Robert both missed time in May thanks to bouts with COVID.  Joe Kelly went back on the IL with a hamstring strain.  Tim Anderson missed three weeks with a groin strain, the same injury that kept Vince Velasquez for two weeks.

Aaron Bummer suffered another injury in mid-June which kept him out until September.  Yasmani Grandal was felled with lower back spasms for six weeks.  A right forearm strain put Liam Hendriks on the shelf for nearly three weeks.  A strained hamstring took down Yoan Moncada for nearly three weeks.  Adam Engel fell victim to the same injury for two weeks.  On July 6th, Jake Burger went down with a bruised hand following a hit by pitch, Vince Velasquez was felled by a blister on his right index finger, and Danny Mendick was lost for the year with a torn ACL.  We just now are getting to the All-Star break.  Shall I keep going?

Luis Robert was shut down with blurred vision.  A lower back strain put Reynaldo Lopez on the shelf.  A torn finger ligament knocked out Tim Anderson for the remainder of the year on August 9th.  Another lower back strain took down Leury Garcia.  A bum knee sent Michael Kopech to the IL, while another hamstring strain stopped Yoan Moncada for the third time this year.  Kopech was felled again with a shoulder strain on September 7th.  Finally, after suffering with a wrist injury for nearly a month and a half, Luis Robert was shut down and placed on the IL on Saturday with the 2022 title all but wrapped up for the Guardians.

Aside from the sheer number of injuries, this meant that the White Sox were very rarely at anything approaching full strength.  Some piece of the puzzle was always missing, and usually two or three pieces.  The bullpen injuries led to some early overwork for guys like Kendall Graveman, which impacted his performance in the second half.  Because of this, the White Sox never seemed to gel or to be able to string wins together to pull ahead.

Lack of Power

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It’s Over

While last night’s loss to the Guardians did not officially eliminate the White Sox from postseason contention, it effectively did.  They are now four games behind the Guardians with fourteen games to play, and the Guardians now hold the tiebreaker since they have clinched the season series against the White Sox.  Assuming the Guardians split their remaining games, the White Sox would need to win thirteen of their remaining fourteen games.  After a five-game losing streak at the beginning of the month, the Guardians have gone 13-3, so even splitting those remaining games looks like a pipe dream.

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15 To Go

With only fifteen games left in the 2022 season, the White Sox find themselves in second place in the AL Central, 3.5 games behind the surprising Guardians.  While they start a pivotal three game series with the Guardians tomorrow, the White Sox face an uphill battle to make their third straight postseason appearance.  If the Guardians go .500 over their remaining games, the White Sox would have to win a minimum of twelve of their fifteen games to win the division.  And, based on what we’ve seen in the prior 147 games, the odds of the White Sox ripping off a 12-3 record over the next two weeks is very unlikely.

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Playoffs?

On Friday, with the White Sox sitting in third place, the team sent out post-season invoices to their season ticket holders.  For the low, low price of $2549, I will receive two tickets to all three potential Wild Card games, three potential Division Series games, one League Championship Series game, and one World Series game, along with parking for all games.  My seats are on the opposite side of the field and 15 rows closer than my normal seats, but I’m not sure how aligned they are to my needs.

I assume only electronic tickets will be issued.  I would hope commemorative tickets will be sent out should a good run occur late into October.