Tag / Jake Burger

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2023 Final Batting Leaders

Another season of baseball season is in the books, with the White Sox disappointing their fans with their worst record since 1970 while the Cubs teased their fanbase with expectations of the postseason before their September swoon.  Let’s take a look back at the offensive leaders for the 43 games that I attended this season.

Home Runs

Name Total
Luis Robert 10
Jake Burger 6
Andrew Vaughn 6
Christopher Morel 4
Dansby Sawnson 4

Hits

Name Total
Andrew Benintendi 39
Eloy Jimenez 29
Luis Robert 28
Andrew Vaughn 28
Elvis Andrus 27

Runs

Name Total
Andrew Benintendi 21
Luis Robert 19
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One Burger To Go

With a little more than an hour left before the trade deadline, word came down that the White Sox had traded Jake Burger to the Marlins for Jake Eder, the team’s fourth-ranked prospect.  Burger, selected by the White Sox in the first round of the 2018 draft, missed three minor league seasons between 2018 and 2020 due to two torn Achilles tendons and the pandemic before making his major league debut in 2021.  He has broken out as an offensive force this season, hitting 25 home runs, which puts him in a tie for third place in the American League.  Defensively, he is probably fated to be a designated hitter unless he makes major improvements.

Eder, a 24-year-old left-handed starter, had Tommy John surgery in 2021 and missed all of the 2022 season.  In nine starts across two levels this year, he has a 4.12 ERA.  If he can cut down on his walks, he should compete for a spot in the big league rotation in 2024.

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2023 All Star Break Batting Leaders

With the All-Star Game in the books and a few days of rest before the second half kicks off, let’s take a look at the first half offensive leaders for the 24 games I attended at three different stadiums, starting with:

Home Runs

Name Total
Luis Robert 8
Jake Burger 5
Andrew Vaughn 4
7 tied with 2

Hits

Name Total
Andrew Benintendi 26
Luis Robert 18
Jake Burger 15
Elvis Andrus 14
Andrew Vaughn 14

Runs

Name Total
Luis Robert 13
Andrew Benintendi 12
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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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2022 All Star Break Batting Leaders

The All-Star Game is on tap for tonight in Los Angeles, with four total representatives from the Cubs and White Sox.  As we get ready for the stars to come out, let’s take a look at the first half offensive leaders for the 21 games I attended, starting with:

Home Runs

Name Total
Luis Robert 4
Gavin Sheets 3
Jose Abreu 3
Jake Burger 2
Joey Gallo 2
Tim Anderson 2
Jorge Polanco 2
Josh Naylor 2
Andrew Vaughn 2

Hits

Name Total
Luis Robert 19
Jose Abreu 16
Tim Anderson 16
Gavin Sheets 15
Andrew Vaughn 11
Adam Engel 11
A.J. Pollock 11

Runs

Name Total
Luis Robert 15
Tim Anderson 9
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It’s Eloy Time

Eloy Jimenez, who tore his pectoral muscle during the last week of spring training and was feared to be lost for the entire season, has been activated prior to tonight’s game against the Royals and is expected to be in the starting lineup.  To make room on the active roster, Jake Burger has been optioned back to Charlotte.

Jimenez, who won a Silver Slugger award for 2020, should bring some much needed pop for an offense that has run hot and cold over the past month, with cold being the current temperature following this weekend’s series in Milwaukee.  He’s likely to spend the majority of his time at DH, with Andrew Vaughn continuing in left field.

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Judgment Day

A strange day yesterday as Yermin Mercedes seemingly announced his retirement from baseball on Instagram, scrubbing his feed of any White Sox related content in the process.  Mercedes posted an Instagram story earlier in the day, suggesting he was mulling over retirement, and then followed that up with a post last night, after being lifted for a pinch hitter in the sixth inning of Triple A Charlotte’s game, saying “it’s over” with a caption saying that he is walking away from baseball for a while.

The White Sox followed up with a statement saying they were aware of the post but had heard nothing from Mercedes directly and that he was still a part of the active roster in Charlotte.  In his post-game interview following last night’s loss to the Twins, manager Tony LaRussa said he had just heard about the drama and planned to reach out to Mercedes, who, he believes, still has a future in the big leagues.

After starting the season with eight consecutive hits and finishing April with a .415 average and a 1.113 OPS, Mercedes fell off considerably in May and June, posting a .196 average and a .536 OPS, prompting his demotion back to Charlotte.  With the emergence of Gavin Sheets and Jake Burger and the upcoming return of Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert from the injured list, there does not appear to be a path back to the major leagues, at lest in Chicago, for Mercedes.  That frustration may have lead to this seemingly rash decision.  I expect we will hear more over the days and weeks to come.