Catching up: White Sox moving back to ESPN 1000

Catching up on one bit of news from last week: White Sox radio broadcasts are moving back to WMVP 1000-AM, the local ESPN sports talk station. A multiyear agreement was announced Nov. 12. 

Terms were not disclosed, but the deal includes all regular season and postseason games, plus some spring training games.

The Sox were last on the ESPN radio station from 1999 to 2005, the year they won the World Series. The team has since made the rounds, going from WSCR 670-AM to WLS 890-AM to WGN 720-AM. 

You need a scorecard to keep up with all of this, because 1000-AM will be the fourth station the Sox have aired on since 2015.

As part of the deal, ESPN 1000 will air “White Sox Weekly,” as well as pregame and postgame shows. Reports indicate "White Sox Weekly" will be a two-hour program during the season, and a one-hour program during the offseason.

Darrin Jackson will be back as the color analyst on the radio broadcast. Andy Masur's future as the play-by-play man is up in the air. He was working on a one-year contract at WGN last season. He reportedly is a candidate to keep the job, but nothing is cast in stone. 

ESPN also will hire a pregame and postgame show host at some point.

Ethan Katz expected to be named White Sox pitching coach

The White Sox are expected to announce new manager Tony La Russa's full coaching staff sometime this week, but sources are saying Ethan Katz will be the new pitching coach.

Katz, who will replace Don Cooper, was most recently the assistant pitching coach for the San Francisco Giants. However, most Sox fans will recognize the 37-year-old as Lucas Giolito's high school coach.

Three major leaguers -- Giolito, Max Fried and Jack Flaherty -- played for Katz at Harvard-Westlake High School in Los Angeles. 

That said, Katz has a lot more experience than just coaching star high school pitchers. The Los Angeles Angels hired him in 2013 to coach pitchers in rookie ball, and Katz was moved up to be the pitching coach at the Angels' Midwest League affiliate in Low-A the next season. 

Later, Katz worked in the Seattle Mariners organization, where he won 2016 Coach of the Year in the California League. He made the jump to coaching big leaguers last year, when the Giants promoted him to the aforementioned position of assistant pitching coach.

When Giolito struggled in 2018 -- going 10-13 with a 6.13 ERA -- he turned to Katz in the offseason to help him refine his mechanics. We're all familiar with the story from there. Giolito is now the undisputed ace of the Sox's pitching staff. He's finished in the top 10 of the Cy Young voting in the American League in each of the past two seasons. He was a 2019 American League All-Star, and assuredly would have been an All-Star in 2020, as well, had an All-Star Game been played.

But this is more than just a hire to cater to Giolito. Katz obviously has a track record of success. He keeps getting promoted everywhere he coaches. And as a 37-year-old, the hope is he will be a better communicator when working with young pitchers than Cooper, whose best success stories are now several years in the past. 

Can Katz unlock the talent of Dylan Cease, Reynaldo Lopez, Dane Dunning, Michael Kopech and Jonathan Stiever? That's what he's being brought in to do.

Both Cease and Lopez have regressed over the past year, much to the frustration of everyone associated with the Sox, and that regression is one reason the Sox are in the market for more starting pitching this offseason.

If the Sox can do a better job of developing their own pitchers, owner Jerry Reinsdorf's unwillingness to spend and cries of poverty become less of an issue. 

Katz obviously helped Giolito secure his spot in the Sox's rotation for both the short and long term. Now we'll find out whether he can do the same for some of the other young pitchers listed above.

White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu wins American League MVP

Jose Abreu

For only the fifth time in franchise history, a White Sox player has won the American League Most Valuable Player award.

First baseman Jose Abreu received the 2020 MVP honor Thursday night, joining a short list in team history that includes Nellie Fox (1959), Dick Allen (1972) and Frank Thomas (1993-94).

Abreu has been a pillar of excellence his entire career. In five of his first six seasons with the Sox, he hit 25 or more home runs and had 100 or more RBIs. Those contributions went mostly unnoticed, as Abreu toiled for some truly terrible Sox teams.

But in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, the Sox turned things around. Abreu was part of a winning team for the first time, and the Sox qualified for the playoffs for the first time in his career -- that no doubt made MVP voters more likely to cast their ballot for him.

During the 60-game season, Abreu led the American League in hits (76), RBIs (60), slugging percentage (.617), total bases (148) and bWAR among position players (2.8). 

Abreu is only the fourth player in American League history to lead the league in BOTH hits and RBIs. His .317/.370/.617 slash line features career bests in all three categories. He finished with a team-best 19 home runs.

And I should add that Abreu appeared in all 60 White Sox games this season -- not a small consideration considering the injuries and illnesses that hit teams hard around the league in 2020.

For his efforts, Abreu was first on 21 of the 30 MVP ballots. Jose Ramirez of the Cleveland Indians got eight first-place votes and finished second. DJ LeMahieu of the New York Yankees got one first-place vote and finished third.

Among other Sox players, Tim Anderson finished seventh. He got one third-place vote. Pitcher Dallas Keuchel received one 10th-place vote.

Will Jose Abreu have to take bullets for White Sox on Tony La Russa mess?

The Most Valuable Player awards for 2020 will be announced Thursday. White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu is a finalist in the American League, along with Jose Ramirez of the Cleveland Indians and DJ LeMahieu of the New York Yankees.

All three of these men had excellent seasons and played for teams that qualified for the playoffs. The race for this honor is too close to call, frankly, and whichever one of these players wins will be deserving. I have no prediction.

But what if Abreu wins and needs to hold a press conference Thursday?

It's worth noting that no high-profile member of the Sox organization has spoken to the media since manager Tony La Russa was charged with DUI in Arizona earlier this week.

Jerry Reinsdorf, the man who created this mess by hiring La Russa, has remained silent. Nothing from general manager Rick Hahn, either, and certainly nothing from La Russa himself.

It's unfortunate that circumstances are set up to where Abreu -- who has been nothing but a good player and has represented the organization with class and pride during his seven years with the Sox -- might have to be the one who faces the media firing squad first to answer questions about the La Russa debacle.

If Abreu wins this award, he would be only the fourth Sox player in team history to achieve the honor -- and the first since Frank Thomas in 1994.

It would be one of his career highlights, and a historic moment in the history of the franchise. But it would be soiled because of this La Russa mess, and because the cowardly 85-year-old billionaire who owns the Sox doesn't feel he needs to answer for his decision-making.

This whole thing just stinks.

Tony La Russa charged with DUI, and the White Sox knew this was coming when they hired him

Tony La Russa

New (old) White Sox manager Tony La Russa was charged with DUI on Oct. 28 by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office in Arizona.

According to an ESPN report, La Russa allegedly ran his car into a curb in February, leaving it smoking on the side of the road in the Phoenix area.

The arresting officer reportedly said La Russa was incoherent during the incident, and the veteran manager repeatedly referenced his credentials as a baseball Hall of Famer in an attempt to escape the trouble. 

This is the second drunken driving arrest for LaRussa. He pleaded guilty in 2007 to misdemeanor DUI in Jupiter, Fla.

I think the timeline of this arrest is a little strange. This incident occurred in February, and the charges weren't filed until eight months later. 

Definitely odd, but here's what is known: The charges were filed Oct. 28, but the Sox hired La Russa to be manager one day later anyway. 

Yuck. The Sox are taking a beating in the national media right now, and rightfully so. First off, at least one prominent free agent says he won't play for La Russa for any amount of money.

Secondly, one drunken driving arrest is one thing -- people make mistakes -- but two such incidents is a trend, and that's not somebody you want running your baseball team. That's somebody who has a problem.

And third, this again highlights what a flawed process the Sox used to hire La Russa. It wasn't a legitimate search, with interviews of multiple qualified candidates, with the best man earning an offer.

No, it was a crony hire by one man, owner Jerry Reinsdorf. He regrets firing La Russa 34 years ago, and he's trying to make amends for it, even if he has to undercut his baseball operations department to do it, and even if he brings shame and national disgrace to a proud fan base and every other person who works for the Sox.

Of course, there's still time to do the right thing. La Russa hasn't even hired a coaching staff yet. (What is he waiting for?) So cut ties with La Russa, start over and conduct a search the right way. Allow Ken Williams and Rick Hahn to hire a manager, not Reinsdorf. 

Will that actually happen? Don't bet on it. Oh, and Rick Renteria finished second in the AL Manager of the Year voting today. He has to be among the chorus of people laughing at the Sox right now.

White Sox center fielder Luis Robert 2nd in AL Rookie of the Year voting

Luis Robert

As expected, White Sox center fielder Luis Robert finished second in the 2020 American League Rookie of the Year voting.

Seattle outfielder Kyle Lewis won the award -- he was first on all 30 ballots. Robert received 27 second-place votes, and his name appeared on 29 of the 30 ballots.

Here is the side-by-side comparison of the two players:

Lewis: .262/.364/.437, 11 HRs, 3 2Bs, 28 RBIs, 5 SBs 

Robert: .233/.302/.436, 11 HRs, 12 2Bs, 31 RBIs, 9 SBs 

Lewis had the advantage in batting average and on-base percentage, and that clearly put him over the top in this race. If Robert had a case, it was his superior defense.

Robert was the AL Gold Glove award winner in center field and finished the season with a 3.4 defensive WAR, according to Fangraphs. By way of comparison, Lewis had a minus-0.9 defensive WAR, according to Fangraphs.

What hurt Robert most was his September slump, during which he went 11 for 81 with 32 strikeouts. The White Sox slid from first place down to third the last 10 days of the regular season, so that didn't help Robert's cause.

Worth noting -- and I didn't realize this until today -- but Lewis went 11 for 75 with 33 strikeouts in the September for the also-ran Mariners, so maybe Robert's late-season slide shouldn't have mattered so much. 

However, Lewis was batting .328 with a .945 OPS going into September, and that torrid first 35 games or so ultimately carried him to the award.

Tim Anderson, Eloy Jimenez speak about Tony La Russa being named White Sox manager

Tony La Russa

One of the big question marks about the White Sox's decision to hire 76-year-old Tony La Russa as manager is whether he'll be able to relate to players who are 45 or 50 years younger than he is.

Here's the first article I've seen with player quotes, written by MLB.com's Scott Merkin.

Tim Anderson and Eloy Jimenez are both quoted. I think it's fair to say Anderson is the face of the team at this point. With all due respect to Jose Abreu and everything he's accomplished in his career, the Sox will go as Anderson goes.

It sounds as though Anderson is waiting on a call from La Russa.

“I’m still waiting on him to, you know, reach out to me,” Anderson said in Merkin's article. “I’m excited to talk to him. I’m going to ask him if he’s been reading. … A lot of people have been saying we’re not going to get along, so I’m going to ask him why you think that.

“We’ll see. I’m excited about it. Hopefully, we can turn this negative around into a positive and keep moving, keep enjoying the game and keep having fun with it. You can’t get sidetracked from what the ultimate goal is.”

Both Anderson and Jimenez seemed well aware of what La Russa has accomplished in the game as a manager -- three World Series championships and 2,728 career victories, third-best in the history of baseball.

“He's still been watching the game, so he pretty much does know what's going on. It's not like he's got to get out there and play,” Anderson said. “All he has to do is just manage us, and I'm pretty sure he's going to know how to do that. He's in the Hall of Fame for a reason. I'm just excited to see the Tony that everybody's talking about. Learn from him and see which way this thing's going to go.”

“What can I say? Tony is one of the greatest managers in the history of the game,” Jiménez said through an interpreter. “When I saw the news, I was excited to be managed by a guy like him. At the same time, it was kind of bittersweet news because I love Ricky [Renteria], too.” 

Whatever personality differences exist -- or generation gaps, as the case may be -- I'm going to try to stay optimistic that these guys will work this stuff out. There's a lot at stake here. 

La Russa is going to be motivated to win one more championship for his buddy, Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf. And Sox players have never been shy about saying their goal is to bring a World Series title to the South Side of Chicago. 

I think the potential exists for these guys to get on the same page. Let's hope they do.