Nelson Cruz is out of the AL Central ... but it won't help the White Sox

Nelson Cruz

The Minnesota Twins have officially given up on the 2021 season. The White Sox won only two of four games against Minnesota this week at Guaranteed Rate Field, but nevertheless, the South Siders are 12-4 against the Twins this season.

And the Sox (58-38) are 17 games ahead of Minnesota (41-55), which is mired in fourth place in the AL Central.

The Twins' front office obviously recognizes its over for them, and on Thursday, Minnesota traded well-respected designated hitter Nelson Cruz to the Tampa Bay Rays for pitching prospects Joe Ryan, Drew Strotman and Calvin Faucher.

Cruz, 41, continues to defy Father Time. He appeared in his seventh All-Star game earlier this month, and in 85 games with Minnesota this season, he batted .294/.370/.537 with 19 homers and 50 RBIs.

He also has tormented the Sox throughout his three years with the Twins. This season has been no exception. In 15 games against Chicago, Cruz has posted a .907 OPS with four home runs.

So, good riddance, right? Get him out of the AL Central, no?

Well, not so fast. The Sox only have three games left with the Twins, and they also have three games remaining with the Rays. So, either way, they will see Cruz three more times in the regular season.

Not to mention, Tampa Bay is a likely playoff team. The Rays entered Thursday's play with a 57-39 record, one game back of the Boston Red Sox in the AL East. The Red Sox were tied with the White Sox for the best record in the AL, in fact.

There are a lot of different ways in which the Sox could end up facing the Rays in the ALDS, or the ALCS, if both teams are fortunate enough to win a playoff round. Thus, I can't celebrate Cruz's departure from the AL Central too much. 

It will be a happy day for Sox fans when Cruz retires from baseball.

Here are the White Sox's draft picks in Rounds 1 to 10

I'm not much of a draft guru, so I won't pretend to know a lot about the guys the White Sox selected in the first 10 rounds of the MLB draft.

But, of note, the Sox selected high school position players in each of the first two rounds, followed by eight consecutive pitchers -- seven from the college ranks.

I agree with the philosophy of taking a couple of prep guys early. The Sox's farm system, frankly, is barren. It was ranked dead last among the 30 MLB teams by FanGraphs. Nearly all of the top prospects have graduated to the majors now. There isn't much coming in the next couple of years, which might be OK, given that the current core is locked up long term.

However, you'd like to see a second wave of prospects that become ready for the majors in, say, 2024 or 2025, so you don't have to undergo another long, painful rebuilding process. If these prep guys pan out, maybe they help form that second wave when it's time for the current group to be phased out.

Without further nonsense from me, here's the list of the guys the Sox have selected:

Round 1: Colson Montgomery, SS, Southridge HS, Huntingburg, Ind.

Round 2: Wes Kath, 3B, Desert Mountain HS, Scottsdale, Ariz.

Round 3: Sean Burke, RHP, Maryland

Round 4: Brooks Gosswein, LHP, Bradley

Round 5: Tanner McDougal, RHP, Silverado HS, Nevada

Round 6: Taylor Broadway, RHP, Mississippi

Round 7: Theo Denlinger, RHP, Bradley

Round 8: Fraser Ellard, LHP, Liberty

Round 9: Gil Luna Jr., LHP, Arizona

Round 10: Tommy Sommer, LHP, Indiana

Adam Engel has as many home runs as Yoan Moncada

Adam Engel

White Sox outfielder Adam Engel has played in 13 games in 2021. Hamstring injuries have limited him to only 42 at-bats through the first 89 games of the season. 

Nevertheless, Engel has homered five times in those 42 at-bats. That's the same number of home runs third baseman Yoan Moncada has in 272 at-bats. Doubt anyone expected that.

But Engel's fifth home run came at an opportune time Sunday. It was a 3-run shot in the top of the 10th inning that lifted the Sox to a 7-5 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

With the victory, the Sox are 7-0 this season against the AL-worst Orioles. They will go into the All-Star break with a five-game winning streak, a 54-35 record and an eight-game lead over the Cleveland Indians in the AL Central.

Sunday's game should have been a tidy 4-2 win. Closer Liam Hendriks got two easy outs in the bottom of the ninth inning and appeared poised to secure a victory for Sox starter Dylan Cease. Instead, Hendriks got sloppy. He gave up a single to Ryan McKenna on a first-pitch, get-me-over slider, which is about the only pitch the .185-hitting McKenna can sting. 

Then the Orioles used Trey Mancini, their best player, to pinch hit. Mancini drove a 1-1 fastball, which was middle-middle, over the short porch in right field to tie the game at 4.

Hendriks struck out Pedro Severino easily to force the game to the 10th inning. Frankly, there was nothing wrong with Hendriks' stuff. All three of his outs came by strikeouts -- he just appeared to lose focus after getting the first two batters out so easily.

The Sox were in jeopardy of not scoring in the top of the 10th. Tim Anderson was placed on second as the ghost runner, and Moncada walked to set up a RBI opportunity for Jose Abreu. Alas, Abreu struck out, and Brian Goodwin flew out deep to center, advancing Anderson to third.

Baltimore reliever Tyler Wells (2-1) had a chance to get out of the inning with no damage, but he fell behind 3-1 to Engel, then served up a center-cut fastball that Engel hit out for a 7-4 Sox lead.

Jose Ruiz had problems in the bottom of the 10th. After a single, a sacrifice fly that scored the ghost runner and a walk, Baltimore pulled within 7-5 and had two men on with one out.

Matt Foster relieved and got the last two outs for his first career save. The last out was a 408-foot fly off the bat of DJ Stewart, but hey, it's 410 feet to center field at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

Engel caught the ball just in front of the wall to secure the win for the Sox. They don't ask how; they just ask how many.

On vacation this week ...

 Heading to Michigan for the week ... Blogging will resume Monday, July 12.

Happy Fourth of July from The Baseball Kid

 

White Sox sweep Twins; Yoan Moncada injures hand

Yoan Moncada

The White Sox this week began a stretch of games during which they will play the Minnesota Twins 10 times before the July 31 trading deadline.

The Twins came into town 11.5 games behind in the AL Central, so my thinking was, if the Sox could win five out of the 10, that would probably cause the Minnesota front office to throw in the towel and sell off parts at the deadline.

Well, the Sox have won the first three of those 10 games. They torched the Minnesota pitching staff for 28 runs in the series, capped off by an 8-5 victory Thursday. The Twins leave Chicago in fourth place, 14.5 games out of first.

The Sox, meanwhile, are back to a .600 winning percentage at 48-32. Their division lead has swelled to five games, because the Cleveland Indians have lost three games in a row.

The series featured the big league debut of Gavin Sheets, who played right field in all three games for the Sox. He went 5 for 11 with a home run and five RBIs.

It was also a big series for Andrew Vaughn, who went 6 for 9 with a home run and five RBIs.

Michael Kopech made his return for the disabled list and earned the win Thursday by pitching a scoreless sixth inning.

But, of course, all Sox good news must be balanced out by bad news. Third baseman Yoan Moncada went 2 for 2 with a run scored Thursday, but he exited the game in the third inning with a bruised hand. Moncada suffered the injury on an awkward slide into third base.

The team hopes he will only miss the weekend series in Detroit, and return Monday when the Sox rematch with the Twins in Minnesota.

Either way, third base prospect Jake Burger is not in the lineup at Triple-A Charlotte on Thursday evening. Expect him to be called up. It's just a matter of whether Moncada goes on the injured list, or whether one of the nine relievers on the Sox roster will be sent down to make room for another position player -- presumably Burger.

Zack Collins delivers for White Sox ... and is it time to send Garrett Crochet to the minors?

The White Sox salvaged only one win from a three-game weekend series against the Seattle Mariners. 

Saturday's game was suspended with no score in the bottom of the third inning, and when the two teams picked it back up Sunday, the Mariners won, 3-2. 

The regularly scheduled game Sunday was reduced to seven innings, and the Sox won 7-5.

It's been a rocky road for the Sox of late, as they have lost seven of their past nine games. But, they are still 2.5 games ahead of the Cleveland Indians in the AL Central. Their record is 45-32.

Five points from Sunday's action:

1. Zack Collins delivers offensively. Collins was touted as a good-hitting catcher when the Sox drafted him No. 10 overall in 2016, but sadly, we've seen little of that during his time in the organization. He entered Sunday's action with a .212/.316/.343 slash line -- and only nine extra-base hits in 115 plate appearances. But Collins delivered in Sunday's second game, going 2 for 4 with two doubles and four RBIs. His bases-loaded double with two outs in the fourth inning took a 4-1 Sox lead up to 7-1. Good thing, because they needed that cushion.

2. Garrett Crochet is in crisis. The rookie left-hander is struggling for the first time in his professional career. In his past three outings, Crochet has faced 11 batters. He's retired only two of them, and he's given up six runs. His ERA has jumped from 0.81 to 3.13. Worse, in Game 2, he walked the bases loaded. Two of those free passes came to left-handed batters, whom Crochet should be dominating. I don't know if Crochet is injured, or simply suffering a crisis of confidence, but I wouldn't be opposed if the Sox decided to send him to Charlotte to work out his command issues. Jace Fry can fill in as the second lefty in the bullpen for the time being.

3. Enough with the injuries already. Jose Abreu exited the first game after getting drilled in the kneecap by a 96 mph fastball from Seattle reliever JT Chargois. Abreu was in obvious pain and had to be helped off the field. Thankfully, initial X-rays were negative for any fractures, but it's once again hold-your-breath time for Sox fans. The injured list is already full for the Sox -- Eloy Jimenez, Luis Robert, Nick Madrigal, Adam Eaton, Adam Engel, Billy Hamilton. At some point, all these games lost to injury are going to affect a team's record, and I think that's a big reason the Sox have been reeling as of late.

4. Can someone take the pressure off Liam Hendriks? The closer was used in both ends of the doubleheader. He took the loss in Game 1, surrendering a home run to Taylor Trammell in the top of the ninth. It would have been nice if he could have taken Game 2 off, and the Sox were in position to give him a break. They led 7-1 after five innings of the seven-inning game. But Jimmy Lambert, on recall as the 27th man, surrendered four runs over 1.1 innings. Hendriks was summoned to get the final two outs which he did, to record his league-best 20th save in 23 opportunities. Hendriks has now appeared in 35 of the first 77 games. Aaron Bummer is second on the club in appearances with 32. 

5. Hey! Yermin Mercedes! The erstwhile designated hitter had a two-run double and an RBI infield single in the second game. Just getting something, anything out of Mercedes these days is helpful, especially if Abreu is destined for the injured list.