Tag / Yasmani Grandal

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Lighting It Up

A high scoring affair on the south side last night as the White Sox battled their crosstown rivals led me to think: what was the highest scoring game I’ve ever attended?  Some quick calculations have produced these top 9 scoring games that I have seen in person, starting with last night’s tilt.

30 runs

8/27/2021

After putting up 6 runs in the top half of the first, the Cubs, for the second time this season, coughed up the lead.  Yasmani Grandal, in his first game action since a knee injury on July 5th, hit two home runs and drove in 8 runs as the White Sox won 17-13.  The 17 runs are the 4th largest output I’ve seen in person, while the 13 runs put up by the Cubs was the largest I’ve seen in a losing effort.

26 runs

7/2/2006

Another high scoring crosstown tilt, as Michael Barrett and Carlos Zambrano both homered off of Mark Buehrle in a 7 run first inning.  Despite home runs from Juan Uribe, Jim Thome, Joe Crede, and Tadahito Iguchi, the Cubs held on to win 15-11 while avoiding a three game sweep.

9/2/2017

Powered by backup catcher Rene Rivera’s first career grand slam, the Cubs built an 11-4 lead heading to the 7th inning against the Braves.  The Cubs bullpen then managed to give up 8 runs over the final three innings, which would have given the Braves the victory, but they also managed to tack on 3 insurance runs, giving the Cubs a 14-12 win.

24 runs

4/30/2008

Two three-run homers from Geovany Soto led the Cubs to a 19-5 victory over the Brewers, their highest single game output since 2001.

23 runs

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2021 All Star Break Batting Leaders

The All Star Game is in the books, as the American League extended its winning streak to 8 straight and White Sox closer Liam Hendriks earned the save, only the second White Sox player to do so.  As baseball takes the day off to prepare for the second half, let’s take a look at the first half offensive leaders for the 32 games I attended, starting with:

Home Runs

Name Total
Jose Abreu 5
Javier Baez 4
Adam Eaton 3
Patrick Wisdom 3
Yasmani Grandal 3
Carlos Santana 3
Brad Miller 3

Hits

Name Total
Tim Anderson 28
Yoan Moncada 26
Jose Abreu 24
Nick Madrigal 21
Yermin Mercedes 14

Runs

Name Total
Tim Anderson 17
Jose Abreu 14
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Homer History

The White Sox have been on a historic home run streak over the past few days.  Sunday, versus the Cardinals, they notched the 10th occurrence in MLB history of 4 consecutive home runs when Yoan Moncada, Yasmani Grandal, Jose Abreu, and Eloy Jimenez went deep back to back to back to back in the 5th inning.  The first three home runs also became the first time a team had 3 Cuban-born players go back to back to back.

This was the second time the White Sox have accomplished this rare feat, joining the Nationals as the only franchise to do it more than once.  Jim Thome, Paul Konerko, Alexei Ramírez, and Juan Uribe did the same on August 14, 2008 against the Royals.

The White Sox followed up on that with a little more history on Monday night.  Last week, in Detroit, Tim Anderson and Eloy Jimenez led off the game against starter Matthew Boyd with back to back home runs.  Boyd was back on the bump against the White Sox Monday night in Chicago, and again served up two home run balls to start the game, to Anderson again and Yoan Moncada.  This made the White Sox the first team to ever lead off a game with back to back home runs against the same pitcher twice.  They also halved the previous record of time between games with back to back home runs to start a game, down to 5.  The Dodgers held the previous record, at 10 games.

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Keeping The Core Together

The White Sox announced today that they had signed Yoan Moncada to a 5 year, $70 million extension, with a team option that could keep him on the south side through 2025.  “I wanted to be with this team,” Moncada said through an interpreter.  “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.”

Moncada will receive a $4 million signing bonus, $1 million in 2020, $6 million in 2021, $13 million in 2022, $17 million in 2023 and $24 million in 2024. The Sox hold an option for $25 million in 2025, with a $5 million buyout.  If the option gets executed, it will make this the largest contract in White Sox history.

With Moncada locked up, the White Sox have most of the core of their rebuild under team control through the early part of this decade.  Newly acquired right fielder Nomar Mazara and oft-injured pitcher Carlos Rodon are under control through the 2021 season.  First baseman Jose Abreu is signed through 2022.  Yasmani Grandal and pitchers Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez should be here through 2023.  Tim Anderson and Michael Kopech are locked up through 2024.  Moncada and Dylan Cease are under team control through 2025.  Eloy Jimenez and Aaron Bummer are signed through 2026, and Luis Robert is on board through 2027.  This doesn’t even include Nick Madrigal and Andrew Vaughn, the team’s last two top draft picks, who have yet to make their debut and start their clocks.

After quite a few years of bad baseball, the future looks very bright on the south side of Chicago.  Rick Hahn has put the pieces in place to turn the team into contenders.  It’s time to see if the plan comes together and winning baseball can return to Guaranteed Rate Field.

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The White Sox Strike

The hot stove warmed up a bit this past week as the White Sox signed former Brewers catcher Yasmani Grandal to a four-year, $73 million contract, the largest deal in franchise history.  Grandal improves the White Sox both behind the plate, where he ranked second in framing metrics according to FanGraphs, and at the plate, where his 2019 OPS would have ranked third on the White Sox, behind Yoan Moncada and Tim Anderson.

Grandal also adds some much needed patience in the batter’s box, finishing second in the major leagues with a 17.2% walk rate.  His total of 109 bases on balls was 25 more than the top 2 White Sox leaders in the category, Moncada and Yolmer Sanchez, who combined for 84 walks.  As a switch hitter, Grandal also gives the south siders some much needed pop from the left hand side.

For the time being, Grandal, James McCann, and Zack Collins look to be splitting time between catcher and DH, with some backup work at first base thrown in for good measure.  The addition of a 26th man to the active roster makes keeping 3 catchers feasible.  But. the offseason is still young and, one would hope, there are plenty of additional moves to make before the White Sox report to spring training.

To make room for Grandal on the roster, the White Sox designated Daniel Palka for assignment.  After a surprising rookie year in 2018, Palka crashed spectacularly last year.  He’s likely to catch on with another rebuilding team in the hopes of regaining some of his mojo.