The White Sox season is a quarter of the way through. So I wanted to take a look back at the things that have been good, bad, and well, ugly. The offseason brought in some names that were familiar, Liam Hendriks, Lance Lynn, Adam Eaton, and Tony La Russa to be the manager. Fans were torn to see what these players brought in, how they were paid, and if the manager who had been out of the game for 10 years still had it. There have been some injuries, some letdowns, some big positives, and some meh things that have been endured since Opening Day. So without further adieu, let’s get into it.

THE GOOD:
The good things about this season have been there. Tim Anderson is still destroying BABIP, Abreu is heating up and showing his MVP caliber is still there. Lance Lynn has been an incredibly stable force in the rotation, as well as Carlos Rodon and Dylan Cease stepping up at the backend of the rotation. *Even though Rodon is technically in the two spot because of rain outs and stuff.* Not to mention the White Sox are 25-16 and have the 2nd best record in baseball behind only San Fransisco.

Let’s talk about CARLOS RODON, who I had written about before the season as being the “key” to the White Sox season. I wasn’t kidding, but I didn’t see this progress coming. Ethan Katz has Rodon looking like the pitcher he was supposed to be coming out of college. Rodon is posting a ridiculous stat line right now. He is currently 5-1 with a 1.47 ERA, .87 WHIP, and 49 SO. The K/BB ratio is 4.08 the best of his career so far, and hitters have a .479 OPS against him. That’s insanely good, those are elite pitching numbers. Do I think he will level off a bit, of course, but this start to his season has been magical. Not to mention, oh yeah, HE THREW A NO HITTER this year. He arguably could’ve been named AL Pitcher of the Month for April, but was beat out by Gerrit Cole, who did rightfully deserve it. Think about the beginning of the year when he was brought back to compete with Reynaldo Lopez for the 5th spot in the rotation, nobody was convinced either guy had it. Rodon beat out Reynaldo, pretty easily, for that spot, and then some. Its been so fun to watch his stuff work, even when he doesn’t have his best stuff, he is grinding and getting through starts. I am all aboard the Rodon train to the Cy Young and have been, since he was re-signed.

Let’s talk about the run differential the White Sox have. It is the best in baseball at a +72 through 41 games. The next closest are the LA Dodgers at +59, that is incredible. It shows the pitching staff is getting run support, but also not allowing much, currently. With Abreu driving in runs like he always has, Tim Anderson getting all over the bases and scoring runs, and Yermin Mercedes leading MLB in batting average, this team is hitting. Oh yeah, they have Moncada getting back into his groove as well. Yasmani Grandal is mocking the batting average stat by posting a .139 BA for the season, but oh a .397 OBP. He is taking his walks to get on base, and walks are sexy dammit. The White Sox are getting assistance from Adam Eaton in the RBI department, though he has started to struggle, especially against LHP. However, Danny Mendick, Billy Hamilton, Zack Collins, and yes even Leury Garcia are pitching in offensively in the games the White Sox are putting up big offensive numbers. The Jake Lamb experiment has people on edge, but he has hit 2 HR’s in his last 2 games…..but other than that has been less than average.

Now onto the rookies that are doing excellent things. You have Nick Madrigal who hit his first HR of his career the other night, you have Andrew Vaughn who is demolishing baseballs, but unfortunately right at people. Then you have Yermin Mercedes breaking baseball. Andrew Vaughn was thrust into the season playing LF, a position he has never played before, and is showing he can do it fairly well. He has also played a few outs in RF, which he again, seemed comfortable. He has played a few games at first now with an injury to Abreu, which hopefully is done by the weekend against New York. Andrew Vaughn has hit .232 with 2 HR’s, and driven in 9. He has a .701 OPS, in 99 AB’s. That’s pretty darn good for a guy who never played above high-A ball. Nick Madrigal is hitting .276, has 1 HR (crazy I know), 13 RBI’s, and an OPS of .693. That’s not bad for a contact hitting 2B still in his rookie year. He is getting better defensively, after some early struggles there, it is nice to see him improving. Yermin Mercedes, there is a lot surrounding the White Sox rookie DH right now, but we aren’t there……yet. Let’s focus on the good of Yermin. He is currently leading MLB in BA with a .368 BA, has 6 HR, and 25 RBI. His OPS is .988, for a rookie, that is insanely good. Yes he has been around baseball a long time in several different levels, but to do it in the MLB is other worldly. He is mashing the baseball, not always for power, and his plate approach is very good. Between the 3 rookies, the averages are a slash line of .292/.354/.794 (BA/OBP/OPS) with 9 HR, 47 RBI. Through 41 games that is an all-star caliber player.

The bullpen has had some ups and downs so far, but lets talk about one of the best things to happen. Michael Kopech being healthy, and absolutely dealing out of the pen. Currently 2-0, 1.65 ERA, .91 WHIP in 27.1 IP. The fastball is still lively at 98, the breaking stuff is confusing everyone, and the confidence and swagger are back. To deploy a weapon like Kopech out of the pen and bring what he is, has been incredible. It allows the coaching staff to go from a soft tossing lefty like Keuchel, to a flamethrower with insane breaking stuff to totally throw hitters off balance. Kopech has made three spot starts in double header games as well. The versatility of Kopech is a huge boost to the pitching staff and to Kopech himself after the injuries he endured.

Another good bullpen surprise has been Jose Ruiz coming back, but looking efficient out of the bullpen. He has appeared in 16 games, with a 2.70 ERA, and a .90 WHIP in 16.2 IP. That’s pretty good for a guy with career numbers of a 4.50 ERA and a 1.61 WHIP in 66 IP. Ruiz was given the chance in a high leverage situation, and didn’t look great, but was still afforded the opportunity, something has hasn’t had in his career. I hope to see him stay there and help the pen until Jace Fry is healthy.

THE BAD:

Ok, now it is time to talk about the bad things that have gone on during the White Sox first 41 games. Where to start? Injuries? Giolito not in form? Bummer and Hendriks being underwhelming? The defense? There is plenty you can nitpick and tear down, but you don’t really want to. There has been some bad to the season, but that happens to every team out there. I am a generally positive person, but I, like anyone else, know when something is bad. How you cope with it, is not my business. So let’s get into some bad.

Injuries have plagued the White Sox since Spring Training, the big one obviously being Eloy Jimenez needing shoulder surgery on the attempted home run robbery that was no where close to him. Then there was Luis Robert, who has a severe hip flexor strain keeping him out for 4 months, at the least, on a simple run to first base. Crochet was on the 10 day IL, Tim Anderson early in the year was on a 10 day stint, Lance Lynn, Billy Hamilton to join. Jace Fry has been out all season thus far recovering from a Microdisectomy (I don’t know what that means). Dylan Cease was put on the Covid list for a spell, as was Luis Robert before his major injury. Also Adam Engel having a hamstring injury that has kept him out all season, has hurt the OF depth with the injuries that have been sustained. There are going to be injuries no matter what, but the amount of them is alarming. Especially the leg injuries that are piling up. It has to be asked if its a stretching issue, training program issue, or just freak things that keep happening. Yes the depth has been tested, a great lengths, but so far, the White Sox have powered through. For now.

Lucas Giolito has had a “bad” year, by the standards of a pitcher with Cy Young aspirations. He has been mostly unlucky. His K/9 is at 10.8, which is similar to 2019, however the OPS is at .720, which is not great, obviously. Although, a pitcher of his caliber does need to adjust. His last start showed definite improvement throwing 6 innings, allowing 5 ER, but that was two unlucky fly ball HR’s in a loss to Kansas City on 5/14. To this point Giolito is 2-4 with a 4.97 ERA and a 1.30 WHIP in 41.2 IP. Those aren’t terrible for being this early on in the year, especially with the one Boston start that ballooned the ERA. Coming into the season, being a betting favorite for the Cy Young and Ethan Katz coming in, it should look better. People are trying to say he’s reverting to 2018, and that isn’t even close. He is flattening out as everyone is sitting Changeup on him, and he has had some fastball command issues. However, he isn’t losing control of everything and giving up on himself. I think Giolito will get back in his groove soon, and start bringing those numbers back to a place he expects them to be.

Aaron Bummer was off to an abysmal start to this season, had a huge lack of control, and was looking much like he did in 2020. Looked like he may be fighting a nagging injury, or just didn’t have the feel yet. Colder weather effects pitchers as much as hitters, so we can chalk it up to that. Bummer has been pretty good over his last few outings heading into today, 5/19. A poor outing giving up a game tying HR to Miguel Sano last night, didn’t help. Bummer has made 17 appearances on the year, throwing 16.1 innings, has a 2.76 ERA and a 1.29 WHIP. He dazzled against KC, but struggled in his only appearance in Minnesota. Still only a .572 OPS against him this season isn’t terrible. He is finding his form but it didn’t start great.

Liam Hendriks was the big offseason acquisition of a 3 year, 54 million dollar closer. Has he looked worth the money? At times no, and at times yes. He is currently in the bad category, well because he hasn’t been used correctly, and if he has, its been a struggle. He gave up the game winning hit last night to Polanco, and it had people questioning his skill. He has pitched in 18 games, with 18 innings and a 2.50 ERA. The WHIP is at .98 and he has 28 strikeouts. Those….aren’t bad numbers, but they aren’t elite closer numbers either. Yes it is still very early on in the season, but the steady diet of fastballs is not working for him to this point. He needs to mix in his off-speed pitches to keep these numbers down. I have faith he will be the elite closer that he is paid to be.

The team defense has been atrocious. Missed pop-ups, fielding errors on routine grounders, passed balls, etc. The White Sox currently rank 27th in MLB in Fielding Percentage at .979. Even when they do make plays, it doesn’t come without panic. Abreu and Moncada have been very good fielding this year. The problems have lied with both catchers, Collins and Grandal, Jake Lamb playing first base, and Nick Madrigal early in the season. Has the defense improved from very early on? Yes. Does it still need a lot of work? Absolutely. The outfield has been decent given two infielders, Andrew Vaughn and Danny Mendick, have seen some playing time out there. Obviously losing Luis Robert hurt there, and the passed balls definitely need to be cut down.

THE UGLY:

Let’s get to the ugly of this White Sox season. It really reared its ugly head after a 3-0 home run from Yermin Mercedes. The ugly is, Tony La Russa and his obsession with unwritten rules. Obviously we know Tony La Russa was a Jerry Reinsdorf hire, and nothing other than that. I will never believe Rick Hahn and Kenny Williams were ok with this hire. Tony La Russa is out of touch with how baseball is these days, and not how it was in the 80’s or even back in 2011, his last year managing, before his re-emergence. Yermin Mercedes, a 28 year old rookie making his way into the big leagues anyway he can, was facing Willians Astudillo, a position player, in Monday night’s White Sox/Twins game. Astudillo was throwing lollipops as any position player would, and Mercedes on a 3-0 count, swung away and hit a big HR to center field. I thought it was incredible and hilarious. Tony La Russa can be seen standing on the stairs of the dugout yelling at Mercedes. He was yelling at him for missing the take sign on 3-0 in an 11 run game. When asked if it was 3-1 and he swung away, would that matter, Tony La Russa, stated “that’s correct, it would’ve been fine, he missed the sign”. You have to be kidding me with this. If you are still using signs up 11 runs, that is a deeper issue. Why on earth would you care to walk when up 11 runs, wouldn’t that be worse than hitting a lollipop out of the park? You are scared of hurting a DIVISION RIVAL’S FEELINGS?! Get out of here with that nonsense. To drag your own player under the bus for having fun? Ridiculous.

Fast forward to Tuesday, Yermin Mercedes gets through 2 AB’s without any retaliation from Twins pitching, good its over with now. However, in his 3rd AB of the game, Twins pitcher Tyler Duffey intentionally threw behind Mercedes as a message. Where was Tony La Russa? Sitting in his chair, no uproar, no emotion, nothing. Duffey was ejected, and his manager Rocco Baldelli came to his aid and argued it with the umpire also receiving an ejection. That is how you have your players back. Even when you know you’re going to get thrown out, you get out there and protect them. Then after the game, asked about the retaliation, Tony La Russa “had no problem with the way Minnesota handled it”. YOU DON’T CARE THAT THEY INTENTIONALLY THREW AT YOUR BEST HITTER RIGHT NOW?! HOW?! That is a blasphemous thing to say out loud. Knowing what just happened, after you “apologized” for his actions and he still gets thrown at, and you simply don’t care.

This is a layer upon another layer of an out of touch manager, who also blatantly didn’t know a rule a few weeks ago. To be fair, nobody on the staff mentioned to correct or help, so its on all of them. Not allowing your team to be who they are, and enjoy the game, is going to hurt. I understand there is “tough love” but this isn’t the old days. The slogan of the team you manage is “Change the Game” not “Uphold old bullshit and out of date secret standards”. This hire was dumb in October 2020, and is still dumb to this day. He is protected by his buddy Jerry Reinsdorf, who is the worst owner in sports, and will continue to not care. I know beating a dead horse is cliche, but my god I needed to vent on this abomination.

SUMMARY:

In conclusion the White Sox are still a first place team, with plenty of talent. There are going to be ups and downs, anger and happiness, all throughout the year. I will be back to summarize the halfway point. Boy do I hope there isn’t still an ugly.