Tag / Red Sox

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2024 BBWAA Award Predictions

The Baseball Writers of America have announced the finalists for their awards for the recently completed 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: Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Bobby Witt Jr.

While Witt led the league in hitting while posting a 30-30 season and leading the surprising Royals back to the post-season, Judge’s 58 home runs and 1.159 OPS, the highest number since Barry Bonds in 2004, should take this with no problem.

Cy Young Award: Emmanuel Clase, Seth Lugo, Tarik Skubal

In his breakout season, Skubal looks like the logical choice, winning the AL triple crown by leading the league in wins, ERA, and strikeouts.

Manager of the Year: A.J. Hinch, Matt Quatraro, Stephen Vogt

As usual, I didn’t make any predictions for this award prior to the season.  Three teams from the AL Central made the post-season and all three of their skippers show up here.  I’m guessing that A.J. Hinch, whose Tigers were left for dead before going on a tremendous stretch run to get into the playoffs, will get the award.

Rookie of the Year: Colton Cowser, Luis Gil, Austin Wells

Another award I didn’t predict prior to the season.  The two Yankees both had impressive stretches throughout the season but also faced significant struggles at times.  Cowser, meanwhile, tied for the rookie lead with 24 home runs and led AL rookies with a 123 OPS+, which should earn him the nod.

National League

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The Window Slammed Shut

The White Sox closed the door on the Yoan Moncada era last week, declining the $25 million option for 2025 and making the embattled infielder a free agent.  Moncada, who was part of the haul received from the Red Sox in the Chris Sale deal that kicked off the previous rebuild, was ranked as the #1 prospect in all of baseball, but was never able to convert that promise into long-term success at the big-league level.  He only appeared in twelve games for the White Sox in 2024, spending the majority of the year on the IL with a left abductor strain.

Overall, the 2024 season was not a great one for the core of the team that was supposed to lead to long-term, sustained success.  Jose Abreu and Tim Anderson both found themselves looking for work after being DFA’d by their most recent employers.  Eloy Jimenez, traded to the Orioles at the deadline, saw himself demoted to Triple A before the end of the season and did not have his $18 million option picked up.  It would be surprising if any of the four find themselves with a major league deal heading into 2025.

 

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The Will Venable Era Has Begun

The White Sox have hired Will Venable to be the 44th manager in franchise history, and the sixth since 2020.  Venable, who was the associate manager under Bruce Bochy for the Rangers these past two seasons, had previously been part of the coaching staffs for the Red Sox and Cubs and was a special assistant to Theo Epstein with the Cubs.  Prior to that, Venable spent nine years as an outfielder, mostly with the Padres.  When former manager Pedro Grifol was fired back in August, general manager Chris Getz said, “I think it’s important to bring in a new voice, a fresh voice, perhaps that’s been exposed to areas of this game that we don’t currently have in our organization.”  Venable does seem to check those boxes.

Venable takes over a team that set the modern major league record this season with 121 losses and is not expected to spend much money to improve the on-the-field product in 2025.  Given that the White Sox appear to be in a slow-moving, long term rebuild of the entire organization, Venable looks to be the manager for today and also for the future, when the team should be competitive once more.

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Ballpark Tour: Red Sox

With the offseason underway, we continue our tour of all of the different baseball stadiums I’ve been to over the years. This week, we look at the Boston Red Sox, owners of the oldest stadium in Major League Baseball. So, without further ado, let’s take a deeper look at my one game history with Fenway Park.

Stadium Name: Fenway Park

Years in Service: 1912 – Present

Visits: 1

In 1911, Red Sox owner John I. Taylor purchased the land bordered by Brookline Avenue, Jersey Street, Van Ness Street and Lansdowne Street and developed it into a larger baseball stadium, which he named after the Fenway neighborhood where it was located.  The first game was played April 20, 1912, as the Red Sox defeated the New York Highlanders, who would become the Yankees the following year, 7-6 in 11 innings.

I attended my first (and, so far, only) game at Fenway Park in August of 2017, cashing in my birthday gift from the year before.  The hope was that Angelina would be moving into Boston University around that time, but her gap year put a kibosh on that.  The ballpark was… a little underwhelming.  From the outside, you could barely tell that it was a stadium.  Michael even asked where it was as we were standing outside it.

The game went about as you would expect.  With James Shields on the mound, the White Sox did not put up much of a fight.  We were sitting down the left field line, with a good view of the Green Monster.  The seats, which may or may not date back to the stadium’s opening in 1912, were not really designed for people well over 6 feet tall, so there was a lot of uncomfortable shifting as Danny and my knees were smooshed into the seats in front of us.

I would have added an additional game or two in 2020, as the plan was to take Michael to Boston for his birthday and enjoy the monster seats, but a little global pandemic got in that way of that.  Now that Angelina is done with school and working full time in Boston, there is still an opportunity to increase my number of visits in the years to come.

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2024 Final Standings

A hugely disappointing season came to an end this weekend, once again leaving both Chicago teams home for October.  The Cubs planned on being a playoff contender this year after poaching manager Craig Counsell from the Brewers but failed to put it all together.  The White Sox, on the other hand, put together an absolutely horrific performance, setting the modern MLB record for most losses in a season and notching the sixth time in franchise history that they’ve lost 100 or more games.  Because of this, I ended up attending just 27 games, my lowest total since becoming a season ticket holder in 2002.  All told, I managed to see 20 of the 30 teams.

2024 Team Records

Team Name Won Loss Winning Pctg
Detroit Tigers 4 0 1.000
Baltimore Orioles 1 0 1.000
Cincinnati Reds 1 0 1.000
Cleveland Guardians 1 0 1.000
Houston Astros 1 0 1.000
Toronto Blue Jays 1 0 1.000
Los Angeles Dodgers 1 0 1.000
New York Mets 1 0 1.000
Pittsburgh Pirates 1 0 1.000
San Diego Padres 1 0 1.000
Seattle Mariners 1 0 1.000
Boston Red Sox 2 1 0.667
Chicago Cubs 3 2 0.600
Oakland Athletics 1 1 0.500
Kansas City Royals 1 1 0.500
Chicago White Sox 6 18 0.250
Los Angeles Angels 0 1 0.000
Atlanta Braves 0 1 0.000
Colorado Rockies 0 1 0.000
Tampa Bay Rays 0 1 0.000
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T Minus 9

Following last night’s loss to the Red Sox, the White Sox now have 111 loses. just nine away from the modern record set by the expansion Mets in 1962.  They would have to go 11-8 over their remaining 19 games to avoid tying the record.  They have won eleven games since June 22.

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Looking Ahead To 2025

Last week, on the extra off day in the All-Star break, Major League Baseball released their tentative 2025 schedule while I was away in Amsterdam.  For the third year in a row, MLB is keeping with a balanced schedule, playing 52 games against division opponents, 64 games against non-division opponents in the same league, and 46 interleague games, with series against every team in the opposite league.  With the White Sox about to cement the worst season in franchise history and the Cubs trying to figure out what went wrong on their way back to contention, the 2025 season looks like it could be a long one for the city of Chicago.  So, for one day, at least, let’s turn our attention to next summer for both teams.

The White Sox celebrate the 125th anniversary of the franchise, opening their season on March 27 at home against the Angels, kicking off a six-game homestand that also features the Twins.  They will make their first visit to Sacramento, the new home of the A’s, in the last weekend of April.

The interleague schedule sees the Phillies, Marlins, Cardinals, Brewers, Diamondbacks, and Padres coming to Guaranteed Rate Field, while the White Sox will go on the road to face the Pirates, Reds, Dodgers, Braves, Mets, Rockies, and Nationals.  The rivalry with their north side foes continues with a three-game weekend series at Wrigley Field in mid-May followed by another weekend at Guaranteed Rate Field the last weekend in July.

After wrapping up the home portion of the schedule in mid-September against the Orioles and Padres, the White Sox wrap up the 2025 season on the east coast, battling the Yankees and the Nationals to finish up the year.

On the north side, the Cubs head to Japan to open their season on March 18 with a two-game tilt against the Dodgers in Tokyo.  They return to the US to face the Diamondbacks on March 27 before heading to Sacramento for the first time to face the A’s.  They open up the home portion of the 2025 season on April 4 against the Padres.

Aside from the A’s, the Cubs will head out on the road to face the Twins, Angels, Yankees, Blue Jays, and Tigers, while the Mariners, Orioles, Guardians, Red Sox, and Royals will be coming to Wrigley Field.

Only ten of their 25 games in September are against their NL Central rivals, which could make a difference should the Cubs find themselves in contention.  They end the year with a six-game homestand, facing the Mets and the Cardinals.

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2024 All Star Break Standings

For just the second time, the Midsummer Classic lands in Arlington, Texas.  As the stars of the baseball world gather at Globe Life Field for tonight’s showdown, it’s time to take a look at the team records for the 18 games, featuring 60% of the teams in the league, that I attended in the first half of the baseball season, a disappointing one on both sides of town.

2024 Team Records

Team Name Won Loss Winning Pctg
Detroit Tigers 1 0 1.000
Baltimore Orioles 1 0 1.000
Cincinnati Reds 1 0 1.000
Cleveland Guardians 1 0 1.000
Toronto Blue Jays 1 0 1.000
Houston Astros 1 0 1.000
Los Angeles Dodgers 1 0 1.000
Pittsburgh Pirates 1 0 1.000
San Diego Padres 1 0 1.000
Chicago Cubs 2 1 0.667
Boston Red Sox 2 1 0.667
Kansas City Royals 1 1 0.500
Chicago White Sox 4 12 0.250
Atlanta Braves 0 1 0.000
Tampa Bay Rays 0 1 0.000
Colorado Rockies 0 1 0.000
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FB10: Week 21

A warm and expensive week saw things fall off a little bit.  Things got off to a good start on Sunday thanks to a trip to see the White Sox battle the Red Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field, which gave me 5100 steps.  Things went down a bit on Monday, falling to 3500 steps.  A small increase on Tuesday left me 23 steps away from 3800.  A broken air conditioner and 90-degree temps on Wednesday put me a single step shy of 5000.  31 additional steps on Thursday would have given me 4800, as I monitored the goings on of the new AC install.  A break in the weather, and another day of AC installation, led to needing 30 more steps to get to 4200.  Things went sideways on Saturday, ending the week on a down note with exactly 2900 steps.

Total steps: 29,419

Daily average: 4202.7

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It’s Over

With 2005 World Series champion Mark Buehrle in attendance, the White Sox snapped their franchise-record losing streak last night at fourteen games, defeating the Red Sox 7-2.  Of course, they couldn’t do it easily and ran into some interesting moments along the way.

Garrett Crochet had little problems with the Red Sox, save for the third inning.  Two botched throws to first, one on a comebacker and the second on an appeal, gave the Red Sox the lead.

With the White Sox at bat in the bottom of the fourth, play was paused after a number of mini liquor bottles were thrown onto field.  The Sox were able to handle their liquor issues and plate three runs to take a two-run lead.

Finally, with two outs in the top of the ninth inning, the streak looked as it was about to fall.  A lazy flyball to left field seemed poised to end the game.  Unfortunately for everyone, rookie Duke Ellis, called up earlier in the week for his first taste of major league experience, booted it, extending the festivities.  The next batter, though, grounded out and the losing streak had finally, mercifully, come to an end.