Just too much bad pitching on the White Sox

Odrisamer Despaigne

One more thought before I take a break from this for a couple of days -- I'm actually going to the White Sox game on Thursday when they play the New York Yankees, so I won't have time to blog.

It wasn't Odrisamer Despaigne's fault that the Sox got beat, 12-1, by the Washington Nationals on Monday night. The 32-year-old journeyman was making his first start for the South Siders, and he did a credible job.

He went six innings, allowing three earned runs on seven hits. He struck out two and walked two. It was a quality start, and that's good enough to win sometimes.

The front end of the bullpen -- Jose Ruiz, Josh Osich, Thyago Vieira and Juan Minaya -- gave up nine runs over the last three innings and caused the Sox to get humiliated.

That being said, it's frustrating that Despaigne is on this team in Year 3 of the rebuild. This is the sort of pitcher who makes starts for you in the first year of a rebuild -- see Derek Holland and Mike Pelfrey in 2017. These are all pitchers of similar quality.

And the relief pitchers listed above, with the possible exception of Ruiz, also are nothing more than roster filler, to put it charitably. Less charitably, they are cannon fodder. Minaya has had plenty of chances. Vieira can't find the plate. Osich has tried and failed with other organizations.

By now, wouldn't you like to think more interesting pitchers would be around in the organization and available to take these innings? Alas, it isn't to be. Manny Banuelos is starting Tuesday against the Nationals, and he's another guy who you'd expect to see in a first-year rebuild.

Year 3, and there are still mornings when I wake up and say, "The Sox are in trouble today." It's so frustrating to watch this bad pitching, especially when there are position players who are decent and making progress on this team.

White Sox place Jace Fry on the injured list, release Nicky Delmonico

White Sox relief pitcher Jace Fry has been placed on the injured list with a swollen ERA, errr ... left shoulder soreness.

The move is retroactive to Saturday, and I can only hope that Fry has been struggling because he is hurt. He's been one of the most disappointing players on the Sox this season, compiling a 1-2 record and a 5.97 ERA in 28 appearances.

Fry has given up 21 hits and walked 17 batters in 23.1 innings pitched. That's a lot of base runners, and Aaron Bummer clearly has passed him as the most reliable left-handed relief option on the team.

The move makes room on the 25-man roster for Odrisamer Despaigne, who had his contract purchased from Triple-A Charlotte. Despaigne is taking the starting rotation spot of Dylan Covey, who also is on the injured list with the dreaded shoulder soreness.

In the tradition of Mike Pelfrey and Chris Volstad, Despaigne stands to take a beating every fifth day, because the Sox are too timid to call up a legitimate prospect such as Dylan Cease. (Yes, I'm aware that Cease had a bad outing Sunday at Charlotte, but you will never convince me that Despaigne is a better option than Cease.)

Despaigne, 32, is a veteran of 106 major league games, including 47 starts. He has previously pitched for the Padres, Orioles, Marlins and Angels, going 13-24 with a 4.94 ERA. He's not good, and I will assume the Sox will lose every time he takes the mound.

Of course, Despaigne also had to be added to the 40-man roster. To make room, Nicky Delmonico was granted his release. The outfielder is out for the season after having surgery on his left shoulder for a torn labrum.

Delmonico, 26, is a career .227 hitter and may not see the major leagues again. 

A 'good weekend' for the White Sox rebuild in series win vs. Royals

Yoan Moncada

The Kansas City Royals have won only two series all season. They swept a three-game series against the Cleveland Indians from April 12-14, but they haven't won one since.

So, it would have been disappointing for the White Sox to not take at least two out of three over the weekend in Kansas City. The Sox did, in fact, take two out of three games, rallying to win the series after losing Friday night.

You might say it was a "good weekend" for the rebuild, as Yoan Moncada recorded seven hits in the series, Eloy Jimenez homered twice, and Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez both captured wins on the mound. The victories were accomplished with key contributions from players who project to be a part of the long-term picture.

Here's a look back at the weekend that was:

Friday, June 7
Royals 6, White Sox 4: This loss was characterized by sloppy play and questionable managing by Rick Renteria. The Sox scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning to tie the score at 4, capped by a two-out RBI double by Moncada, and you would have thought momentum was with the South Siders.

Nah. Renteria brought in the struggling Jace Fry (1-2) to pitch in the high-leverage bottom of the seventh, and Fry walked Billy Hamilton on four pitches. This is the same Hamilton with a .282 slugging percentage -- he is not a particularly dangerous hitter in the No. 9 spot in the Kansas City batting order.

Of course, that walk started the wheels in motion for a two-run inning for the Royals. Fry threw 13 pitches, only five for strikes, was charged with two runs and took the loss. At one point in time this season, Fry and Kelvin Herrera were the top choices for high-leverage relief in the seventh and eighth innings. But now, Sox fans would prefer to see those guys only in mop-up duty.

Moncada went 2 for 5 in the loss. James McCann had two hits, including a two-run double.

Saturday, June 8
White Sox 2, Royals 0: Giolito (9-1) served as the stopper, ending the Sox's three-game losing streak with 7.2 innings of three-hit, shutout ball. He set a career high with 11 strikeouts and walked only two batters.

In his previous start against the Royals on May 29, Giolito prominently featured his changeup. Kansas City batters might have been looking for it this time, so Giolito didn't throw a single change the first time through the batting order. He was strictly fastball/slider early, and the Royals couldn't touch him.

In his past seven starts, Giolito is 7-0 with a 0.88 ERA. I don't have to think to hard to wonder which Sox player is the top candidate to be chosen for the All-Star Game this season.

The two runs? Jimenez hit his seventh home run of the season after Jose Rondon had singled in the second. That was about the only mistake Kansas City starter Brad Keller (3-8) made, but against Giolito, it cost him the game.

Alex Colome converted his 13th save in as many tries with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

Sunday, June 9
White Sox 5, Royals 2: Jimenez added his eighth home run of the season in the finale, again in the second inning, and this time a solo shot off Glenn Sparkman (1-2). This blast will be on all the highlight reels, as the Sox's left fielder hit a hanging breaking ball 471 feet to dead center field. Jimenez later doubled and scored to complete a productive day.

Finally, Reynaldo Lopez (4-6) looked like a big-league pitcher. He threw all three of his pitches for strikes, and he worked six innings of one-run ball with eight strikeouts and only one walk. He allowed four hits, including a home run by Jorge Soler, but we can live with one solo homer during a six-inning outing. It was a step forward for Lopez, albeit against one of the worst clubs in the league.

Moncada went 4 for 5 with a two-out RBI single, and Tim Anderson had a two-out RBI double that scored Jimenez as part of his two-hit day. Again, a good weekend for the younger members of the Sox roster.

The Sox (31-33) are about to hit a much rougher patch of schedule. They come home for a six-game homestand -- two against the Washington Nationals and four against the New York Yankees. After that, they embark on a eight-game road trip -- two against the Cubs, three against the Texas Rangers and three against the Boston Red Sox. When they come off that road trip, the last weekend of the month will feature a home series against the first-place Minnesota Twins.

Indeed, tougher tests than the Royals await during the second half of June.

Of course, the White Sox got swept by the Nationals

Reynaldo Lopez

We should have known the White Sox weren't actually going to get back to .500, right? After a 6-1 homestand, the South Siders briefly sustained the momentum by jumping out to a 5-0 lead against Washington Nationals ace Stephen Strasburg on Tuesday night.

Alas, they had the wrong guy pitching. Reynaldo Lopez blew the whole thing, the Sox lost, and the Nationals went on to sweep the two-game series.

In Lopez's past three starts, he has been handed 4-1, 7-1 and 5-0 leads. He has won none of those games, and the Sox (29-32) as a team are only 1-2 in those three contests. That's not how it's supposed to work as a starting pitcher.

Lopez is 3-6 with a 6.62 ERA after he posted a respectable 3.91 ERA in 32 starts in 2018. He's the opposite of Lucas Giolito, who stunk last season and is pitching well in 2019. If the Sox had any rotation depth whatsoever, Lopez would be a candidate for demotion to Triple-A Charlotte.

Here's a look back at this brief, disastrous series in Washington:

Tuesday, June 4
Nationals 9, White Sox 5: Lopez walked two men to start the third inning and both of them scored. He gave up a solo home run to Howie Kendrick in the fourth and a three-run homer to Anthony Rendon in the fifth. The homer by Rendon was Lopez's last pitch of the night, a hanging, get-me-over slider, and he left the mound trailing, 6-5.

Josh Osich provided little relief, giving up three more runs before the fifth inning was over. Lopez's final line: 4+ innings, 6 runs, all earned, five hits, four strikeouts, four walks and two home runs allowed. Fifty-four of his 92 pitches were strikes, but it felt much worse than that. His fastball command was terrible, and he could not throw an offspeed pitch for a strike -- except for that hanger to Rendon.

It's too bad, too, because the Sox cuffed Strasburg around for four runs in the first inning, capped by a two-out, two-run single by Yolmer Sanchez. Yoan Moncada added a long solo home run in the second inning to make it 5-0, and the Sox were in position to get back to .500.

Alas, it was not to be.

Wednesday, June 5
Nationals 6, White Sox 4: This was a more conventional Sox loss, characterized by three errors, leadoff walks that came back to bite them in the ass, and of course, a failed bunt in the ninth inning that killed a potential winning rally.

The Sox never lead, and they played poorly, so we can't really say they should have won. However, they had their chances. Alex Colome (2-1) had his worst outing of the season, his first failure in a high-leverage spot. He entered with the score tied at 4 in the bottom of the ninth inning. He walked Brian Dozier on four pitches and gave up a game-ending homer to Trea Turner on a 3-2 fastball.

The Sox had battled back from a 4-1 deficit with three runs in the eighth. Jose Abreu's two-run homer made it 4-3, and Welington Castillo's solo shot tied it.

Alas, it was not to be.

Hey, at least Dylan Covey wasn't terrible. He pitched five innings and allowed two runs. And Moncada homered for the second straight game, which is nice.

The winning on the last homestand was exciting, but I'll go back to my usual combination of apathy and cynicism now.

Lucas Giolito named AL Player of the Week, AL Pitcher of the Month

White Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito has earned league-wide honors for his recent dominant stretch.

Giolito was named American League Player of the Week after winning both his starts on the Sox's most recent homestand. The right-hander defeated both the Kansas City Royals and the Cleveland Indians, allowing only three earned runs over 15.1 innings. He struck out 19 and walked one in those two outings.

Giolito also was named AL Pitcher of the Month for May. He went 5-0 with a 1.74 ERA over six starts in the month, including a four-hit shutout against the AL West-leading Houston Astros.

For the season, Giolito is 8-1 with a 2.54 ERA. He has struck out 78, walked 20 and allowed only 44 hits in 67.1 innings pitched.

It's been quite a turnaround for Giolito, who had a league-worst 6.13 ERA in 2018. The Sox have needed it, too, as no other starting pitcher on the 25-man roster has an ERA lower than 4.73 this season. Three of the Sox's five starters have ERAs over 6 entering Tuesday's play.

White Sox first-round draft pick: California 1B Andrew Vaughn

I've never seen Andrew Vaughn play a baseball game in my life, so I won't pretend to have a great scouting report on the guy the White Sox picked Monday with the No. 3 overall pick in the MLB draft.

I will say this pick represents a continuation of the Sox's philosophy to take polished collegiate hitters -- past first-round picks Zack Collins, Jake Burger and Nick Madrigal also fit that mode. As we're all aware, the Sox have had mixed results with those three players, and none of them has made the major leagues yet.

Will Vaughn be the guy? We can hope, and there's plenty to like with his college statistics. He won the Golden Spikes Award last season as a sophomore, when he hit 23 homers, and he's a candidate to win the award again this year as a junior. His slash line is .381/.544/.716 with 14 doubles and 15 home runs in 52 games. Teams are obviously pitching around him -- he has 59 walks and only 33 strikeouts this season.

His on-base percentage has never dipped below .530 in either of the past two seasons at Cal, so he's basically turned the odds of the game on their ear. Usually, it's the pitcher who has a much better chance of success in any pitcher-batter confrontation. Vaughn? He reaches base more than 50 percent of the time consistently.

In case you were wondering if his power will transfer to wood bats, he had five home runs in 14 games in the Cape Cod League last summer, so, yeah, there are reasons to believe this guy is going to hit.

What's not to like? Well, he's a right-handed hitting first baseman. He's not that big -- 6 feet tall and 214 pounds. He'll provide no defensive utility and little baserunning prowess, so he has to hit and hit a lot to be a successful player.

The other thing is, the Sox system already is loaded with guys who might need to move to first base, including incumbent left fielder Eloy Jimenez. Some believe Collins needs to move from catcher to first base, and some believe the oft-injured Burger needs to move from third base to first base. And, the Sox invested a second-round pick a couple years back in Gavin Sheets, who is playing first base at Double-A Birmingham.

How many first base candidates do you need? The Sox have plenty, but the hope has to be that Vaughn will be on a fast track to emerge as the cream of the crop at that position.

White Sox finish 6-1 on homestand vs. Royals, Indians

Jose Abreu

The White Sox finished 6-1 on their just-completed seven-game homestand against the Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Indians. They haven't had a homestand this successful since 2010.

After sweeping Kansas City, the Sox (29-30) took three out of four games from the Indians (29-30) to move into a second-place tie. In doing so, they overcame a couple of pitching matchups that didn't look too promising coming into the series.

Here's a look back at the weekend that was:

Thursday, May 30
White Sox 10, Indians 4: Cleveland right-hander Carlos Carrasco had made two previous starts against the Sox this season, and he won them both. In fact, he was unscored upon in 12 innings. So, it didn't look too good for the Sox with Carrasco starting against left-hander Manny Banuelos.

Surprise! The Sox cuffed Carrasco around for six runs on 10 hits over 6.1 innings, then blew the game open with four more runs off reliever Dan Otero.

Jose Abreu and Yonder Alonso both homered, and Leury Garcia and Eloy Jimenez each had three-hit games. Jimenez's two-run double in the second inning started the Sox's scoring. Alonso's two-run homer in the third put them ahead to stay.

Banuelos (3-4) was good enough. He allowed three runs on five hits over 5.1 innings. For a guy with a 7.36 ERA, you take that.

Friday, May 31
White Sox 6, Indians 1: Once again, the starting pitching matchup didn't look favorable. The Indians were throwing their best healthy pitcher in Trevor Bauer, while the Sox were countering with the winless Dylan Covey.

Surprise! Covey (1-4) isn't winless anymore. He gave up a leadoff homer to Francisco Lindor in the first inning, but no other runs over six innings pitched. He allowed eight hits, but managed to pitch around them.

Meanwhile, Cleveland committed four errors, causing Bauer to give up four unearned runs (and two additional earned runs) over seven innings.

Charlie Tilson paced the Sox offense with two hits, including a two-run double in the bottom of the third that put the South Siders ahead to stay.

Saturday, June 1
Indians 5, White Sox 2: There has to be a rotten apple in every bunch, right? Sox starter Ivan Nova (3-5) wasn't terrible, but a couple home runs by left-handed hitters hurt him. Carlos Santana broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning with a solo home run, and Leonys Martin added a two-run shot in the seventh for a 4-1 Indians lead.

The Sox could not overcome that deficit as they managed only four hits against a hodgepodge of six Cleveland pitchers. Reliever Oliver Perez (1-0) retired all five batters he faced in the fifth inning and at the start of the sixth inning to get the win for the Tribe. Brad Hand worked an easy ninth for his 16th save.

Jimenez had two hits for the Sox, including a double, but not much else was going on.

Sunday, June 2
White Sox 2, Indians 0: Lucas Giolito (8-1) did it again, improving to 6-0 with a 1.03 ERA over his past six starts. He went 7.1 innings, allowing only five hits and no walks. He struck out nine. Aaron Bummer got a double play ball to end the eighth inning, and Alex Colome worked around a leadoff double by Lindor in the ninth to earn his 12th save of the season.

It wasn't easy for Giolito, as he pitched with no margin for error thanks to a strong start by Cleveland rookie Zach Plesac (0-1), who tossed seven innings of one-run ball.

That one run was a 429-foot homer by Tim Anderson, his ninth of the season, in the bottom of the fourth inning. The Sox added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth on Anderson's two-out RBI double, which scored Yolmer Sanchez.

The satisfying win should make for a pleasant off day Monday for the Sox, who just completed a busy stretch of 36 games in 37 days. They have a brief two-game series in Washington against the Nationals on Tuesday and Wednesday, before another off day on Thursday.

Weird schedule this season, huh?