Why is Yoan Moncada still in Charlotte? Zack Collins? Luis Robert?

White Sox third baseman Yoan Moncada started a rehab assignment with Triple-A Charlotte at the end of last week. Through three games with the Knights, he was 4 for 12 with a home run.

Then, he didn't play Sunday night, so I figured he was flying to Minnesota to join the team for its three-game series with the Twins starting Monday night.

After all, the Sox lost three out of four over the weekend to the Los Angeles Angels. They could use the help.

But no, Moncada is playing for Charlotte (again) on Monday night. Why? Who knows?

In other news from the farm, Zack Collins was named International League Batter of the Week. The left-handed slugger hit .538 (14 for 26) with eight runs scored, three doubles, four home runs and nine RBIs over seven games this week.

This is terrific news, as Collins has been swinging a hot bat since his demotion to Charlotte. Whatever adjustments he is making are working, and I'm in favor of his return to Chicago. Alas, it hasn't happened yet.

Given the Sox's struggles against even mediocre right-handed pitching of late, perhaps the lineup would look better with Moncada and Collins in it. Manager Rick Renteria continues to resort to Jon Jay batting cleanup against right-handed pitchers. This cannot continue.

And then there's Luis Robert, who homered twice Sunday night and homered again in Monday's game for Charlotte. Robert was batting .306 and slugging .639 in 33 games coming into Monday night, and this latest home run is his 12th since his promotion from Double-A Birmingham.

I just don't see what Robert has left to prove in Triple-A. I hope we see him -- and Collins -- in Chicago sooner rather than later. It's time to get ready for 2020, and those two men need to be part of it. 

Sox brass, unfortunately, seems more content to kill time with Jay, Ryan Cordell and Adam Engel all on the big league roster, not to mention Matt Skole, Welington Castillo and Ryan Goins. Well, I guess Goins is making a case to be around in 2020, but the rest of these guys are just filler.

At what point does this rebuild move on from roster filler?

Harold Baines Day at Guaranteed Rate Field

In the American League, a team needs good production from its designated hitter. The 2019 White Sox don't get anything from their DHs, who have combined to post a .178/.264/.301 slash line this season.

That makes you appreciate the career of Harold Baines a little more, doesn't it? Baines was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame this year, and the Sox honored him for his achievement this past Sunday before a game against the Oakland A's.

Baines prepares to speak at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Humble as always, Baines spoke softly, for four minutes and 43 seconds, thanking his family, former teammates, the Sox organization and its fans.

The ceremony also featured speeches by Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa and two of Baines' closest friends and former teammates, Ron Kittle and Ozzie Guillen.

Other Sox Hall of Famers were on hand, including Frank Thomas, Tim Raines, Jim Thome and Carlton Fisk.

Among the other former Sox players present were Robin Ventura, Dan Pasqua, Ron Karkovice and John Cangelosi.

I was pleased to have the opportunity to attend this game, because the highlights of Baines' career shown on the scoreboard took me back to my childhood in the 1980s. Baines' best years with the Sox were from 1982-89, when he made four All-Star teams. Sure, the Sox weren't very good in those years -- except for 1983 -- but Baines was the best player on the team during the days when I was becoming a Sox fan and learning about baseball.

Baines' election to the Hall has been shrouded in controversy. Some people don't think he belongs, and to be honest, if I had a vote, I'm not sure I would have voted for him. That said, as a Sox fan, I refuse to apologize for being happy for Baines and his family. He was an outstanding player, and he's well-respected by any person he has ever been around.

And when I went to the Hall of Fame this summer, I enjoyed some of the Baines memorabilia on display. Take this locker of stuff:

Here's the bat Baines used to hit that famous home run in the 25th inning on May 9, 1984, against the Milwaukee Brewers:

Check out this old-school edition of Baseball Digest. I subscribe to this magazine, and did so when I was a kid, as well. I'm pretty sure I received this edition in the mail as a youngster:

Here's the poster next to the Baines' locker, detailing his career highlights:

And, of course, here's the plaque that will hang in Cooperstown, N.Y., forever. Not a replica, folks:

Congrats, Harold, and thanks for the memories!

James McCann's grand slam gives White Sox series win over Houston Astros

James McCann

James McCann hit a two-out, two-strike grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning Wednesday afternoon at Guaranteed Rate Field, lifting the White Sox to a 13-9 win in a wild slugfest against the Houston Astros.

With the victory, the Sox took two out of three in the series and won the season series from the American League West-leading Astros, 4 games to 3.

So much for my concern about the Sox pitching staff needing to cover 27 innings in about 24 hours against a powerful Houston offense.

The Sox caught a break in the second game of Tuesday's doubleheader, when Houston pitcher and Cy Young candidate Gerrit Cole could not make his start after straining his hamstring warming up in the bullpen.

To the Sox's credit, they took advantage and won that game, with their own starting pitcher (Ivan Nova) tossing a complete game. It is always a boost for a team when a pitcher steps up and throws all nine innings of a game on a day where you're playing a doubleheader. Bullpen saved.

Here's a look back at the Sox's surprising and satisfying series win:

Tuesday, Aug. 13
Astros 6, White Sox 2 (Game 1): It was a mixed bag for Sox starter Dylan Cease, who threw a quality start. He worked six innings, allowing four runs (only two earned) against a good team, and when he left the mound after facing one hitter in the seventh inning, the Sox were only down 3-2. He absolutely gave his team a chance to win.

And the third and fourth (unearned) runs on his tab were both the fault of catcher Welington Castillo, who had three passed balls, two of which allowed runs to score.

On the down side, Cease (2-5) walked five and struck out two, and you can only pitch around walks for so long until the opposition scores runs. I don't think Cease had the fairest strike zone from the home plate umpire, and he got no help from his catcher, but he can pitch better.

The Sox managed only two runs off Houston's Zack Greinke (12-4), who pitched six innings to earn the win.

Tuesday, Aug. 13
White Sox 4, Astros 1 (Game 2): Nova was the story. He needed only 104 pitches to complete the game. He allowed four hits, all singles, and did not walk a batter. He retired 17 of the last 18 men he faced in a game that took two hours, 21 minutes to play.

Over his past four starts, Nova (8-9) is 4-0 with a 0.49 ERA. Obviously, regression is coming, but in the meantime, I'll enjoy this Nova hot streak while it lasts and pray management doesn't reward him with a multiyear contract extension. This was his best start in a Sox uniform, bar none.

As mentioned, Cole was unable to make his start, and the Sox victimized emergency Houston starter Chris Devenski (1-2) for three runs in the bottom of the second inning. All the runs came with two outs, one on a single by Adam Engel and two more on a single by Ryan Goins.

The Sox added a fourth run in the fourth on a two-out RBI double by Ryan Cordell. Nova took it from there, and it was nice to see the Sox come through with some two-out hitting.

Wednesday, Aug. 14
White Sox 13, Astros 9: Speaking of two-out hitting, McCann was down 0-2 in the count when he drove a slider from Ryan Pressly into the right-field bullpen for a grand slam that broke a 9-9 tie in the eighth inning.

Pressly (2-3) is one of the Astros' better relievers. He entered the day with a 1.94 ERA, but he gave up singles to Yolmer Sanchez and Tim Anderson, and walked Jose Abreu, ahead of the big hit by McCann.

It is good to see the Sox catcher using right field again, something he wasn't doing throughout a monthlong slump in July.

This was a wild, back-and-forth game. Houston was up 2-0. The Sox went ahead 4-2. Houston tied it at 4. The Sox went ahead 7-4, and then 8-5. The Astros made it 8-7. Then Eloy Jimenez homered for the Sox to make it 9-7. Jose Altuve answered with a two-run blast to tie it for the Astros.

But the last big hit of the day went to McCann. For a change, the Sox hitters picked up the relief pitchers, who struggled in this game. Jimmy Cordero, Aaron Bummer and Evan Marshall combined to give up five runs over 2.2 innings.

But Alex Colome (4-2) got five outs for the win. He extricated the Sox from a bases-loaded situation in the eighth, and then worked a 1-2-3 ninth with two strikeouts to close it out.

Expect the White Sox to get off to a cold start in 2020 (literally)

So, here's the White Sox's 2020 schedule.

You know what stands out the most? The first nine games are all in cold-weather cities -- between March 26 and April 5.

The Sox have their earliest home opener ever, March 26 against the Kansas City Royals. After that three-game home series, they go on a six-game road trip. They will face the Cleveland Indians from March 30 to April 1, and the Boston Red Sox from April 2 to 5.

Brrrrrr.

How many of those nine games do you suppose will get rained out, snowed out or colded out? Hopefully, the Sox get those three home games in against Kansas City. They may win two out of three in that series, but it shapes up as a tough start to the year with Cleveland and Boston on the first trip -- both in terms of weather and strength of opponent.

But here's some good news about the schedule: The crosstown home games are on weeknights (July 7 and 8), so hopefully they won't be part of my 20-game ticket plan next season! Unfortunately, the Sox are playing the Cubs on my birthday for the second straight year (July 7), so that means I won't be watching the game. Now that I don't work for a newspaper any longer, and don't have to care about the Cubs, I generally ignore them -- even when they play the Sox.

Other interleague games are against the National League West. And, of course, the Field of Dreams game against the New York Yankees on Aug. 13 is intriguing. 

It begs the question, will Sox fans drive all the way to Iowa to watch their team get overmatched by New York?

Three games against the Houston Astros in about 24 hours ... hmmm ...

It's a rainy Monday night in Chicago. The game between the White Sox and the Houston Astros has been postponed, and it is the correct decision.

The rain is falling outside my window in Wheeling as I type, and the forecast for the rest of the evening is abysmal -- especially south of here, where Guaranteed Rate Field is located.

The game will be made up at 3:40 p.m. Tuesday as part of a straight doubleheader. Game 2 will start 30 to 40 minutes after the conclusion of Game 1, but not before 7:10 p.m.

Monday's pitching matchup -- Dylan Cease vs. Zack Greinke -- carries over to the opener of the doubleheader. Game 2 will feature Ivan Nova vs. Gerrit Cole.

There's nothing that can be done about this poor weather, but it's a bad break for the Sox (52-64), who will have to play three games against the league-best Astros (77-41) in about a 24-hour span. Remember, the conclusion of this three-game series is a 1:10 p.m. start Wednesday.

The Sox pitching staff would be challenged no matter the configuration of this series, but having to cover 27 innings in a condensed time period against a powerful Houston offense is a lot to ask.

This series could be a painful one for the Sox and their fans. I realize that I might have said that, too, before the Sox played at Houston in June. Despite my negativity, the Sox managed to split that four-game set. But remember, George Springer and Jose Altuve were on the injured list at that time, and the Astros had not yet called up Yordan Alvarez, who has quickly moved to the front of the line in the race for American League Rookie of the Year.

This is an explosive Houston team. The Sox will be facing the odds-on favorite to win the 2019 World Series in these three games, in my humble opinion.

Reason to celebrate: White Sox don't play Oakland again this season

Mike Fiers

The White Sox played six games against the Oakland Athletics this season, and they were outscored 32-8. Yes, that's right: The Sox scored only eight runs in six games against Oakland pitching. In that context, it's a miracle they won one -- and that came Saturday night.

Here's a look back at the weekend series at Guaranteed Rate Field, during which the A's won two out of three games.

Friday, Aug. 9
A's 7, White Sox 0: Friday was one of those days when I looked at the pitching matchup and said, "The Sox have no chance today." They've never hit Mike Fiers well, and I never have high expectations for any Ross Detwiler start.

In fairness to Detwiler (1-3), there's was nothing wrong with his outing -- even though he took the loss. He went 5.2 innings and allowed two earned runs (both on solo home runs) on four hits. Matt Chapman homered in the first inning. Stephen Piscotty homered in the second.

That was plenty for Fiers (11-3), who struck out eight, walked nobody and allowed only three hits over seven shutout innings. The Sox finished the game with four hits, all singles.

The game got out of hand in the eighth inning, when the A's scored five runs off the combination of Jace Fry and Josh Osich. Fry failed to retire a hitter and was charged with four runs after he allowed two walks and two hits, including a home run by Chad Pinder.

Good job, good effort.

Saturday, Aug. 10
White Sox 3, A's 2: It was Eloy Jimenez bobblehead night, and the rookie left fielder marked the occasion by hitting his 19th home run of the season. The Sox scored their other two runs with speed. Leury Garcia stole third base and scored a run when the throw by Oakland catcher Chris Herrmann squirted away into shallow left field. Tim Anderson, while running on a 3-2 pitch, scored from first base on a single by Welington Castillo.

That backed a nice effort from Reynaldo Lopez (7-9), who navigated around six hits allowed and three walks to toss 6.1 shutout innings. Lopez did not have swing-and-miss stuff -- he struck out only three, but he benefited from three double plays.

The Sox bullpen was shaky, as Oakland stranded eight runners over the last three innings. The A's loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh, when Jon Jay made a nice running catch in right field to save a potential bases-clearing double off Pinder's bat.

Oakland placed runners on first and second with two out in the eighth, and Anderson made a nice play to his left to throw out Piscotty for the third out.

The Sox led, 3-0, going into the ninth, but the A's scored two unearned runs against Alex Colome, who struck out Khris Davis with two outs and the bases loaded to earn his 23rd save of the season.

Sunday, Aug. 11
A's 2, White Sox 0: The Sox honored newly inducted Hall of Famer Harold Baines with a ceremony before the game (more on that later), and frankly, the team might as well have allowed the 60-year-old Baines to take an at-bat -- he couldn't have done any worse than the current Sox hitters did against Chris Bassitt (8-5) and three Oakland relievers.

The South Siders managed only five hits (four of them singles) and didn't have a man reach third base after the second inning.

Too bad because Lucas Giolito (12-6) struck out a career high 13 and walked only one in six innings pitched. Unfortunately, he had one bad inning where he allowed a two-run homer to Oakland's Matt Olson, and given the way Sox hitters handle Oakland pitching, that was enough to get him beat on this day.

In Giolito's previous outing, he wasn't sharp at all in allowing three runs over six innings to the lowly Detroit Tigers. But, he won that start. On Sunday, I thought he was impressive, but he lost. That's baseball for you; it's a funny game.

And we can only speculate why Oakland has seemingly owned the Sox for decades.

A Hall of Fame shout-out to Yaz

If you've ever been to Cooperstown, N.Y., perhaps you're aware that Yastrzemski Sports is located on Main Street, one block away from the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

For years in Chicago, we joked about Ken "Hawk" Harrelson's frequent references to Carl Yastrzemski, or YAZ!, on White Sox TV broadcasts.

I could retire if I had a dollar for every time Harrelson reminded us that Yaz was "the American League's last Triple Crown winner." That occurred in 1967, in case you weren't aware.

Then Miguel Cabrera had to go and win the Triple Crown in the American League in 2012, sending Yaz's accomplishment to the background and spoiling the joke.

In any case, any reference to Yaz is enjoyable for me, so I had to take a few pictures when I saw his name attached to what is essentially a baseball card shop.

Here's the picture of Yaz that hangs on the window:

Besides the numerous baseball cards, the shop is filled with baseballs signed by all sorts of players, including quite a few Hall of Famers. There are a few other rare finds, too, and I had to laugh at this one:

After all, who doesn't want a nice, Albert Belle White Sox pennant? For the record, no, I did not buy it.