High temperatures on Sunday in Chicago never made it out of the teens. Wind chills were in the single digits all day. Amid this miserable March weather, I thought it would be nice to think spring and listen to some baseball on the radio.
I made it to the bottom of the third inning before I remembered that White Sox baseball is intolerable.
I turned off my radio with the Sox trailing 9-0, on their way to a 13-4 loss to the Cubs. The Sox had no hits through the first three innings. Their pitchers had walked six men and hit a batter through 2.1 innings, and at one point, eight consecutive Cubs batters had hits.
Feel free to insert jokes here about the Sox being a laughingstock, but after six consecutive losing seasons, I'm tired of my favorite team being the butt of every joke.
Remember SoxFest, when general manager Rick Hahn touted Manny Banuelos as a candidate for the starting rotation? That seems ridiculous after Banuelos faced nine batters Sunday and five of them reached base -- four on walks and one on a hit batsmen.
This is the pitcher Sox talent evaluators identified as someone who could help the big-league team right now? No wonder I don't believe in the rebuild.
Banuelos gifted the Cubs a run in the first inning with four walks, then hit the second batter of the second inning before thankfully being removed.
Too bad Juan Minaya was even worse. He walked his first hitter, then gave up five consecutive hits. Included was a three-run homer by the Cubs' Kris Bryant, and the rout was on. Aaron Bummer relieved Minaya, and at least he managed to get three outs.
He did, however, give up two runs on four hits with one walk.
Minaya's spring ERA is 21.00. Bummer's is 17.18. These are pitchers who are supposed to be candidates for the 25-man roster. Hell, Minaya is almost certain to be on the club.
Maybe that's why it is hard not to feel as though the Sox are destined for a third-straight 90-plus loss season.
The loss drops the Sox to 3-6-1 on the spring, and granted, none of this counts. But after the misery of the past several seasons, you'd like to see some signs of hope this March.
But through the first 10 games of spring training, this appears to be more of the same.
100% agree with you about Banuelos. Anybody with 10 minor league seasons with a BB/9 of 3.9 isn't a candidate for any major league roster spot. They're doing him a huge favor even giving him a 40-man spot but I can't see him being anything other than Charlotte's roster fodder.
ReplyDeleteThe most damning thing about Banuelos though is they traded Justin Yurchak to get him. One could argue that Yurchak doesn't project well, but he at least showed that he can walk as much as he strikes out. The point is Yurchak may not have much upside but he's only 21 - Banuelos has been around long enough now to know that he is what he is and there is NO upside. THAT is the kind of dumb stuff that should get a front office fired - a guy like Banuelos could be picked up for nothing.
I'm not bothered by the trade of Yurchak, but your point is still well-taken in the sense that Banuelos was likely to designated for assignment if he hadn't been traded, and he could have just been claimed on waivers or signed as a minor-league contract. Then you still have Yurchak in the organization, and well, you never know.
ReplyDeleteI do think Banuelos is another example of the Sox believing their own propaganda about Don Cooper being the "the best pitching coach in baseball." For me, Cooper is neither the best nor the worst pitching coach in the game. And he's just a pitching coach, not a miracle worker. He's not going to turn every single reclamation project into something useful. And that's all Banuelos is, a reclamation project. Could not and still do not understand the front office's optimism surrounding him.