It’s been a busy couple of days in the Chicago baseball universe. After nearly three months of futility at the hot corner, the White Sox shipped Zach Stewart and Brent Lillibridge to the Red Sox for the services of Kevin Youkilis on Sunday afternoon. Less than 24 hours later, the Cubs finally decided to call up their latest superstar-of-the-future Anthony Rizzo, now that they have successfully manipulated his free agent status.
Youkilis, whose time in Boston was brought to a premature end thanks to the emergence of Will Middlebrooks, has been fighting injuries and the suggestions that he’s not the player he once was. Even if that is true, he should be an improvement over the incumbents, who have managed to put together numbers that, to this point, have been surpassed by, among others, the Washington Nationals pitching staff. Even a broken down Youkilis should be an upgrade as the White Sox try to make a run at the AL Central crown. Orlando Hudson moves to the bench, but I would be surprised if he finishes the season with the Sox.
Meanwhile, the performance of the Chicago Cubs this season makes the White Sox third basemen look like all-stars. However, the one person putting up numbers has been buried in Des Moines, with the new leadership of Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer tanking the 2012 season in the hopes of securing the 2019 season. At the end of the day, it may end up having been the correct decision, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it now for the people who have plunked down their hard earned money to watch (or not, if the empty seats and StubHub listings are to be believed) the mess that is the 2012 Cubs, who may end up with the worst record in franchise history. Now the pressure is on Rizzo to save the season and prove that he was worth the wait.
With the return of Chicago baseball right around the corner, I thought it would be interesting to look at the all time leaders in both offensive and defensive categories for all 30 teams. We finish things off today with the hometown Chicago White Sox.
