Tag / Jose Abreu

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MVPito

On Thursday night, White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu took home MVP honors. becoming the fourth White Sox player to receive the award.  He received 21 first-place votes after leading the American League in hits, RBI, total bases, slugging percentage, and extra base hits.  The 2014 Rookie of the Year, he became just the 28th player to nab both awards.

Abreu follows Nellie Fox, Dick Allen, and Frank Thomas in winning the award for the White Sox and Zolio Versalles and Jose Canseco as Cuban-born winners.

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2020 BBWAA Award Predictions

The Baseball Writers of America have announced the finalists for their awards for the just completed shortened baseball season, which will be announced next week.  It is a good bet that few of my original predictions for the winners will be accurate.  Hopefully, these new predictions will be slightly better, especially since I’ll have a 33% chance of being right.

American League

Most Valuable Player: Jose Abreu, D.J. LeMahieu, Jose Ramirez

Well, my pre-season selection to win the award this year, Yoan Moncada, got taken down by the corona virus, but I’m expecting (and hoping) that it stays in the same clubhouse and that Jose Abreu wins.

Cy Young Award: Shane Bieber, Kenta Maeda, Hyun-Jin Ryu

My initial guess was that Blake Snell would take home the prize, but this has Shane Bieber written all over it.

Manager of the Year: Kevin Cash, Charlie Montoyo, Rick Renteria

Once again, I didn’t make any predictions for this award prior to the season.  Kevin Cash is the likely winner, though wouldn’t it be funny to see Renteria bring home this award a month after losing the job he was being recognized for?.

Rookie of the Year: Christian Javier, Kyle Lewis, Luis Robert

Another award I didn’t predict prior to the season.  Had you held the election at the end of August, Robert would have been the odds-on favorite.  However, a month long slump in September probably puts Kyle Lewis in the driver’s seat.

National League

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2020 Predictions Revisited

The shortened 60 game 2020 baseball season wraps up today.  2 months ago, I made my annual predictions as to who would win what, not really knowing what a shortened season during a global pandemic would entail.  Now that the season has come to an end, it is time revisit those predictions and see what, if anything, I got right.

American League

East: Yankees

Well, that’s one down.  The Yankees looked to be on cruise control, until a plague of injuries knocked them off course.  The Rays, meanwhile, took home their first division crown since 2010.

Central: Twins

The Twins take their second consecutive division title, thanks in part to the White Sox crapping down their pants leg over the last week of the season.

West: Astros

The A’s came through in a big way, dethroning the Astros after their 3 year reign atop the division.

Wild Cards: White Sox, Rays

Well, these predictions were made before the current playoff structure was put in place.  The three second place teams are guaranteed a post-season slot, with the next two best records earning a wild card spot.

AL Champion: Yankees

While they didn’t win the division, the Yankees do seem primed to make a strong run.

Cy Young: Blake Snell

Indians ace Shane Bieber pretty much has this wrapped up.

MVP: Yoan Moncada

Moncada has struggled after contracting COVID-19 back during summer camp, but I think I was in the right ballpark.  Jose Abreu looks to be the clubhouse leader for this award.

National League

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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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White Sox All Time Leaders – Through 2019

cws_logoWith baseball now officially on its way back after the corona virus, I thought it would be an interesting time to look back 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.

I’ve seen the White Sox play 592 times at 13 different stadiums in 9 different cities, including every home playoff appearance in 2000, 2005, and 2008 except for Game 1 of the 2005 World Series.

Home Runs

Name Total
Paul Konerko 93
Jermaine Dye 39
Jose Abreu 36

Hits

Name Total
Paul Konerko 366
Alexei Ramirez 299
A.J. Pierzynski 231

Runs

Name Total
Paul Konerko 200
Alexei Ramirez 133
A.J. Pierzynski 104

RBI

Name Total
Paul Konerko 235
Alexei Ramirez 138
Jermaine Dye 107

Doubles

Name Total
Paul Konerko 57
Alexei Ramirez 49
A.J. Pierzynski 41

Triples Continue reading →

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Active Batting Leaders – Through 2019

baseballs2Way back in February, we looked at the overall leaders on both sides of the ball from all of the games I’ve attended between 1984 and 2019.  After a months long pandemic due to the corona virus and weeks spent fighting between the powers that be and the MLBA, Opening Day is finally right around the corner.  Let’s take another look at those numbers, limiting it to players that are still active heading in to the delayed 2020 season.  A few notable retirements will be hardly noticeable on these lists from last year.

Home Runs

Name Total
Jose Abreu 36
Tim Anderson 16
Avisail Garcia 15
Gordon Beckham 15
Melky Cabrera 14

Hits

Name Total
Jose Abreu 193
Gordon Beckham 146
Melky Cabrera 132
Tim Anderson 113
Adam Eaton 105

Runs

Name Total
Jose Abreu 89
Gordon Beckham 85
Tim Anderson 62
Avisail Garcia 58
Adam Eaton 52

RBI

Name Total
Jose Abreu 106
Gordon Beckham 71
Melky Cabrera Continue reading →
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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.

by jim

The Decade In Baseball – Batting Leaders

The 2010s have drawn to a close and its time to take a look back at the previous decade.  Today, we are continuing with baseball, specifically the offensive leaders in the 385 games I attended between 2010 and 2019.

There is not a huge diversity of names on this list.  Nearly all played for the White Sox in the early part of the decade, when they were supposedly trying to win.

Home Runs

Name Total
Jose Abreu 36
Paul Konerko 35
Alex Rios 24
Alexei Ramirez 20
Tim Anderson 16

Hits

Name Total
Alexei Ramirez 227
Jose Abreu 193
Paul Konerko 153
Alex Rios 142
Melky Cabrera 121

Runs

Name Total
Alexei Ramirez 93
Jose Abreu 89
Continue reading →
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All Season Batting Leaders – Through 2019

It’s been five years since we last took a look at the offensive stat leaders per season for the all the games I’ve attended since 1984. While there hasn’t been a whole lot of movement for most of the categories in the last 5 seasons, I figured the time was right to take another look. So, without further ado, here’s the updated list. We start, as always, with everyone’s favorite offensive stat:

Home Runs

Year Name Total
2010 Paul Konerko 17
2004 Mosies Alou 15
2004 Corey Patterson 13
2004 Sammy Sosa 13
2003 Moises Alou 12
2008 Carlos Quentin 12

Hits

Year Name Total
2003 Mark Grudzielanek 67
2004 Moises Alou 57
2003 Moises Alou 57
2007 Derrek Lee 57
2006 Orlando Cabrera 56

Runs

Year Name Total
2004 Moises Alou 44
2003 Sammy Sosa 34
2010 Paul Konerko 31
2003 Moises Alou 30
2008 Jermaine Dye 30
2006 Tadahito Iguchi 30
2008 Nick Swisher 30

RBI

Year Name Total
2010 Paul Konerko 35
Continue reading →
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2019 Final Batting Leaders

MLB: Cincinnati Reds at Los Angeles DodgersAnother baseball season has come to an end, with the Cubs shocking late season collapse leaving them out of the post-season and without a manager and year three of the rebuild for the White Sox finally showing some signs of life.  Let’s take a look back at the offensive leaders for the 37 games that I attended this season:

Home Runs

Name Total
Jose Abreu 7
Eloy Jimenez 5
Welington Castillo 4
Kyle Schwarber 4
Tim Anderson 4

Hits

Name Total
Jose Abreu 33
Tim Anderson 33
Yoan Moncada 31
Leury Garcia 26
Eloy Jimenez 23

Runs

Name Total
Tim Anderson 17
Yoan Moncada 14
Continue reading →