Carson Fulmer continues to struggle in White Sox rotation

The White Sox are wish-casting with Carson Fulmer.

There is plenty of evidence that the 2015 first-round draft pick is not ready to be a major league starting pitcher, but the Sox continue to push forward with the idea that everything will be OK with Fulmer if we just remain patient.

I don't buy it.

Fulmer was handed a golden opportunity to get his first victory of the season Wednesday against the Oakland Athletics. Yoan Moncada's first career grand slam highlighted a five-run second inning that staked Fulmer and the Sox to an early 6-1 lead.

Alas, the right-hander never recorded an out in the bottom half of the inning. The Sox ended up using a franchise-record 10 pitchers in a 12-11, 14-inning loss.

Fulmer's final line: 1 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BBs, 0 Ks.

His season ERA has swelled to 7.59. His WHIP is a hideous 2.156. He has walked nine batters and struck out nine in 10.2 innings pitched over three starts. This is not a recipe for success, friends, and we shouldn't be surprised.

Yes, I know. Fulmer had three good starts in September of last season. But let's remember, those three outings came against the last-place San Francisco Giants, the last-place Detroit Tigers and a Cleveland Indians team that already had secured its playoff positioning and had nothing to play for.

Before that, Fulmer had a struggling season at Triple-A Charlotte. He went 7-9 with a 5.79 ERA in 25 starts. We would expect numbers such as those from veteran journeymen such as Chris Volstad. You'd like to see better from Fulmer, but it's just not there.

Spring training didn't go well for Fulmer either. He didn't throw strikes, walking 13 men over 10.2 IP in the Cactus League. The end result was an 11.81 ERA, 17 runs allowed, 14 of them earned.

The Sox, for some reason, seem to be ignoring the rough season Fulmer had overall in 2017. They also seem to be ignoring the terrible spring he had, instead choosing to believe that good results in three 2017 games against uninterested opponents are going to translate into success this season.

I just don't see it. Fulmer doesn't belong in a major league rotation now. Maybe someday he will, but that day isn't today. For the good of his development, send him back to Triple-A to work on his control. Only bring him back when he's demonstrated that he can throw strikes on a consistent basis.

The Sox seem to be forcing Fulmer into the rotation, hoping and praying that all that has been invested in him now will start to pay off. It isn't working.

Talk about Yoan Moncada masks slow starts by other White Sox players

Avisail Garcia

White Sox second baseman Yoan Moncada has put together two good games in a row this week against the Oakland Athletics.

The Sox have been outscored, 18-3, in the first two games of the three-game set, but Moncada has been a bright spot. He has gone
3 for 7 with a double, a home run, a walk, a sacrifice bunt, two RBIs and two stolen bases.

There's no denying the fact that Moncada is off to a slow start this season. He's struck out a lot -- 28 times in 66 plate appearances -- and his .214/.323/.393 slash line is well below par.

However, I think all the Moncada talk has deflected some criticism away from a couple other Sox hitters who deserve more blame for the team's 4-10 start.

Let's take a look at what happened in the first inning each of the past two nights in Oakland.

On Monday night, Moncada hit the first pitch of the game for a base hit to right field. He stole second base to put himself in scoring position with nobody out.

Did he end up scoring a run to give the Sox an early lead? Of course not.

Avisail Garcia grounded out to move Moncada to third. But Jose Abreu struck out swinging at a bad pitch, and after Matt Davidson walked, Nick Delmonico popped out to the catcher.

Missed opportunity. The Sox lost, 8-1.

On Tuesday night, Moncada saw six pitches and opened the game by drawing a walk. Once again, he stole second base to put himself in scoring position with nobody out.

Did he end up scoring a run to give the Sox an early lead? Of course not.

Garcia struck out, while Abreu and Davidson grounded out.

Missed opportunity. The Sox lost, 10-2.

Moncada set the table. The alleged RBI men are not doing their jobs.

Abreu is hitting .200/.250/.600 with runners in scoring position. Granted, two of the three hits he's had in those situations are home runs, but he's also grounded into two double plays and failed to pick up the easy RBI with a man at third and less than two outs, such as the first-inning situation in Monday's game.

That said, Abreu's clutch numbers make him look like Babe Ruth when compared to Garcia.

Thus far, Garcia is 1 for 15 with runners in scoring position this season. His slash line is .067/.118/.067 in those situations.

Small sample sizes, yes, but let's not point too many fingers at the young Sox second baseman at this stage. If you want to know why the offense is struggling, look no further than the slow starts by the Sox's two most established run producers -- Abreu and Garcia.

Sad offensive numbers for the White Sox in recent games

The only photo I could find of Daniel Mengden ...

So, the White Sox have gone 2-9 with four postponements since the calendar turned to April. And, like most losing streaks, the problem has been of combination of different things.

We've seen bad bullpen work, poor starting pitching and inept defense (three errors in one inning in Monday's 8-1 loss to Oakland!), but most of all, we've seen a teamwide outage in hitting with runners in scoring position.

The Sox went 5 for 10 with runners in scoring position in their season-opening win over the Kansas City Royals. Since that game, they have gone for 12 for 100. You don't need a calculator to know that pencils out to a .120 batting average.

This offense is 3 for 52 with runners in scoring position over the past seven games. I did get out the calculator for that, and it's an .058 batting average. Wouldn't you think a group of major league hitters could do better than that just on accident?

The Sox will never be a good team this year, but the law of averages says they have to be a little better than their 4-9 record indicates, right?

It's one thing to have your bats stuffed up your rear end by Jose Berrios, the talented right-hander of the Minnesota Twins. It's quite another when you're getting owned by Daniel Mengden.

Coming into Monday's game, Mengden was 0-10 with a 6.45 ERA in 13 career starts at the Oakland Coliseum.

He is now 1-10 with a 5.88 ERA in 14 career starts after limiting the Sox to a run on six hits over eight-plus innings. Jose Abreu broke up Mengden's shutout with a solo home run leading off the ninth inning.

Mengden had not made it out of the sixth inning in any of his first three starts of the season, so forgive me if I'm not interested in hearing about how good his stuff was Monday night.

At some point, you stop "tipping your cap" to the opposing pitcher and just say, "This is bad offense."

White Sox home opener a brutal one

Pregame ceremonies for Opening Day 2018 at Guaranteed Rate Field

It's hard to say what the worst thing about the White Sox home opener was: the weather or the outcome of the game.

It was 41 degrees for first pitch, and temperatures were in the upper-30s for most of the game, accompanied by snowfall. Actually, the Sox played well while it was snowing -- they led the game, 7-3, after seven innings.

But a combination of terrible relief pitching and horrible defense allowed the Detroit Tigers to rally for a 9-7 victory in 10 innings. Detroit scored one run in the eighth off Nate Jones, three in the ninth off Joakim Soria to tie the game and two off the combination of Greg Infante and Aaron Bummer in the 10th inning to secure the win.

Most galling, with the Sox still ahead 7-4, Soria had two outs and two strikes on some guy named Niko Goodrum, but the veteran reliever could not put the game away. Goodrum smacked a two-run homer to make the score 7-6.

Soria also had two strikes on the next hitter, Nicholas Castellanos, but Castellanos managed a single to keep the game alive. That brought up Victor Martinez, whose RBI "double" tied the game at 7.

We put double in quotes, because this is where the Sox's lack of competent play in left field and weird roster construction finally cost them.

Martinez hit what I thought should have been a routine single to left field. But Leury Garcia tried to be a hero and make a catch on a ball he had no chance to reach. He took a bad route, and the ball skipped past him and rattled around in the left field corner, allowing the slow-footed Castellanos to score the tying run all the way from first base.

This cannot happen at the MLB level. Garcia needs to pull up, concede the single, keep Castellanos at second base and give Soria one more chance to retire the next hitter with a 7-6 lead. Soria did retire James McCann to end the inning, but the damage had been done.

We can't put all the blame on Garcia because he's an infielder being asked to play the outfield. In fact, the Sox have only two true outfielders on their roster -- Avisail Garcia and Adam Engel. They are trying to plug left field with two converted infielders -- Leury Garcia and Nick Delmonico -- and it's just not a very good idea.

I understand the desire to carry eight relievers. We are six games into the season, and the Sox have yet to have a starting pitcher go deeper than six innings. That's going to be the norm, not the exception, with this group, so all those arms in the bullpen are going to be needed and used.

That gives the Sox just a three-man bench, which is tough, but I think one of those three bench players needs to be an outfielder. As it stands now, the bench consists of catcher Omar Narvaez, infielder Tyler Saladino and whoever doesn't start in left field between Delmonico and Leury Garcia.

For me, Saladino and Leury Garcia are redundant on the roster. Both are utility infielders, and Leury Garcia is being miscast as "defensive replacement" in the outfield. Leury Garcia has a better bat than Saladino -- he had two hits and two RBIs in Thursday's game, but Saladino can play every position on the infield competently, while Garcia is a question mark with the glove no matter where you put him.

Let's not forget that while Yolmer Sanchez is the starting third baseman at this point, he is another player who can provide competent-to-good defense at any position on the infield.

Right now, the Sox have too many utility infielders on the roster and not enough outfielders. The two biggest warts on a limited Sox roster -- a shallow bullpen and a lack of competency in left field -- led to a brutal loss before a big crowd in the home opener.

Maybe the White Sox should pitch around Josh Donaldson ...

Josh Donaldson

Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson has homered in each of his past five games against the White Sox.

For his career against Chicago, Donaldson has posted a .344/.407/.725 slash line with 14 home runs, eight doubles and 34 RBIs in 35 games.

That's enough production in enough of a sample size to get my attention, and it should get the attention of the Sox coaching staff.

Donaldson continued his mastery of the Sox on Tuesday night, going 2 for 4 with a home run, three RBIs, two runs scored and a walk in Toronto's 14-5 victory.

The score is a little bit misleading -- the Blue Jays broke open a 7-5 game with seven runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. Toronto was ahead for most of the night, although the Sox remained within striking distance until the last two innings.

It was frustrating that the Sox allowed Donaldson to hurt them twice while the outcome still was in doubt. On two occasions, Donaldson came to the plate with two outs, first base open and a man in scoring position. Both times, the Sox opted to pitch to Donaldson. Both times they paid.

The Jays' third baseman hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning off Miguel Gonzalez to increase a 4-2 Toronto lead to 6-2. In the seventh inning against Hector Santiago, Donaldson hit an RBI single off the top of the left field fence to move the Jays' lead from 6-4 to 7-4. Another foot higher and it would have been Donaldson's second two-run homer of the game.

There probably isn't any circumstance in which the Sox would have won Tuesday anyway. Gonzalez was poor, allowing six runs (five earned) over five innings. Santiago, Greg Infante and Juan Minaya combined on a preposterous bullpen meltdown in the eighth inning that erased any hope of a Sox comeback.

However, if the Sox happen to be in a close game in Wednesday's series finale against Toronto, I have a word to the wise: Make somebody other than Donaldson beat you.

Reynaldo Lopez good, White Sox bullpen bad

Reynaldo Lopez

The White Sox lost for the first time this season Monday night, 4-2 to the Toronto Blue Jays, although it was not Reynaldo Lopez's fault.

The right-hander's 2018 debut was an impressive one. He went six innings, allowing only one run on two hits. One of those hits was a solo home run by Josh Donaldson, the other an infield single by Curtis Granderson that could have just as easily been an error on shortstop Tim Anderson.

Lopez struck out six and walked two, and the Sox led, 2-1, in the seventh inning when he left the game.

Alas, relievers Luis Avilan and Danny Farquhar could not hold the lead. We're told that Avilan is a lefty specialist, but the early returns have not been impressive in a small sample size.

In the season opener, Avilan gave up a ringing double to Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas. On Monday, he walked Granderson, allowing the tying run to reach base. Farquhar entered the game and served up a two-strike meatball to Russell Martin, who hit a two-run homer to put Toronto ahead, 3-2.

I don't like the home run at all, but I like the walk in a one-run game even less. Avilan has to get left-handed batters out -- that's his one purpose on the roster.

Farquhar (1-1) gave up another home run in the eighth inning, this one to Aledmys Diaz, that made it 4-2. I don't think this will be the last time the Sox struggle to get outs in the seventh and eighth innings of close games -- the bullpen is the biggest weakness of the team.

The Sox showed an ability to come from behind in each of their first two games, which is a good habit to get into. However, you can't come back every day, and the Toronto bullpen was up to the task the last two innings of Monday's game.

It's unfortunate, because a two-homer game from Welington Castillo went to waste, not to mention the strong outing from Lopez, whose performance would oftentimes be good enough to earn a win.

Kansas City's bullpen -- it's not what it used to be

Brandon Maurer

Remember the time when it was a six-inning game against the Kansas City Royals? It wasn't that long ago that they had Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland at the back end of their bullpen.

If you were trailing in the late innings against the Royals, you were done. Plain and simple. Kansas City used that dominant bullpen to win back-to-back American League pennants in 2014 and 2015, and it won it all in 2015.

Those days now are gone. Only Herrera remains from that juggernaut bullpen, and he's pitching the ninth inning these days -- not the sixth or the seventh as he did during the Royals' heyday.

And right now, it looks as though Kansas City is going to struggle to get through the seventh and eighth innings and get save opportunities for Herrera.

The White Sox on Saturday victimized Kansas City's setup-man-for-now, Brandon Maurer, scoring three runs in the top of the eighth inning to rally for a 4-3 victory.

Sunday's game was snowed out, so the Sox left Kansas City with a 2-0 record.

With the Sox trailing 3-1, Yoan Moncada started Saturday's rally with a 433-foot home run off Maurer. Two outs, a single and a walk later, Welington Castillo took a 3-0 fastball from Maurer off the right-center field wall for a two-run double to give the Sox a 4-3 lead they would not relinquish.

Give manager Rick Renteria credit for green-lighting Castillo on a 3-0 pitch. It wasn't an obvious call because Castillo was 0 for 8 on the season to that point, while the on-deck hitter in that situation, Tim Anderson, already has two home runs this year.

Bullpen management was the other storyline in this game. Nate Jones worked a scoreless eighth, while Joakim Soria held off Kansas City in the ninth to earn his first save in a Sox uniform.

Is that the way Renteria is going to handle late-inning, high-leverage situations moving forward? Possibly, but not necessarily.

Jones likely is the Sox's best reliever when healthy, and he was summoned to face the heart of the Kansas City order in the bottom of the eighth. He struck out Mike Moustakas and Lucas Duda, before a single and flyout concluded the inning.

That left Soria to face the bottom of the order in the ninth, and he worked around a broken-bat single by Alex Gordon and a walk to Jon Jay to get the save.

But what if the bottom of the order had been due up in the bottom of the eighth? Would Renteria still have used Jones, and then gone to Soria to face the top of the Kansas City order in the ninth? We don't know, but I will say I like the idea of using Jones to pitch in the most high-leverage situation.

In this particular game, that situation was the eighth inning, with powerful left-handed hitters Moustakas and Duda coming up for the Royals. Renteria went with Jones, and the move worked out for the Sox in this case.