It’s been 2 days since the White Sox were eliminated in the ALDS by the Houston Astros in 4 games, and I know it still stings for some. This team failed, top to bottom. That’s a bold statement made about a team that won 93 games and won their divison, right? As a White Sox fan who has seen this team be bad for upwards of 16 years, before 2020 and 2021, this should be a celebration! However, nobody found themselves celebrating a mediocre exit from the ALDS. The reason the season is a failure, is because they didn’t reach their goal set for 2021, a World Series Championship. Now that’s a bold statement to make, especially given the track record. What do you expect the front office to say? “This year we hope to finish 2nd, and look for a good 2022.” No. I mean Jerry Reinsdorf thinks 2nd place keeps fans happy, without asking for much more, but this was not the way the fans were lead into 2021. The free agent signing of Liam Hendriks, the trade for Lance Lynn, a 3rd year of Eloy Jimenez, Tim Anderson being a face of baseball, Yoan Moncada looking to bounce back, 2020 AL MVP Jose Abreu, and a soon to be best player on the planet, Luis Robert. That is a reason to get excited, and to have high expectations. You had a major injury to Eloy Jimenez in Spring Training, in came Andrew Vaughn. The Yermin Mercedes juggernaut to start the season, was a huge story. It gave fans hope that this season might be different. So what happened? Fans remembered that Adam Eaton was in RF, Tim Anderson was injured early on, Lance Lynn fought an injury, Yermin Mercedes was no longer a viable option, Dallas Keuchel heavily regressed, Nick Madrigal suffered a season ending injury, Luis Robert suffered a major injury, Adam Engel was never fully healthy, and Yasmani Grandal suffered a major injury. However, all through that, the White Sox found a way to beat the bad teams and keep themselves ahead in the AL Central.

There were times the White Sox looked like a complete mess, there were times they looked on top of the world. The issue is, there was never a constant in between, to be a good team. They either dominated a game, or looked clueless playing a game. That is a terrible sign for a baseball team. They couldn’t sustain anything for a long period of time. People often asked what I thought of the White Sox heading into August/September, and I would tell them “They’re good, just not good enough, yet.” I wasn’t wrong, obviously. This team was hit or miss, for a gigantic part of the season. You could hope and pray you got lightning in a bottle heading into October, but it was never going to happen. The issue with looking at this team, on paper, is that you don’t see all the flaws. Numbers don’t show you the little things. The little things, in the grand scheme, shouldn’t mean anything, but when you are in a short series, those little things, are magnified. Missing cutoff men, allowing stolen bases, passed balls, swinging at first pitches out of the zone, not taking good AB’s. It all looks horrible in a short span. Which is what happened in the ALDS. Mistakes from the coaching staff (I.E. Defensive alignments, mistimed bullpen moves, pitch sequencing, self scouting, opposing scouting) were all very evident. You could see there was a team that knew what they were doing, in the Houston Astros, and then there were the White Sox. Even the game they won, game 3, was a poorly played game. Its easy to poke holes in a team once they’ve lost and their season is over. That’s the point, a team that wins the World Series, has holes, and issues, but they are masked enough to play good baseball and win 11 times.

The failure starts at the top, the owner Jerry Reinsdorf, interfered with the manager search from the start. They fired Rick Renteria quickly after the 2020 loss in the Wild Card round, after he failed to win a series with a minimal roster. The search began, and ended abruptly with Reinsdorf’s decision to bring back his friend and former manager, Tony La Russa. He swept the rug out from underneath GM Rick Hahn’s feet. There was no search, there never was. AJ Hinch, was never interviewed, a man that should have been their first choice. Granted he was not accepted by some for being the manager of the 2017 Houston Astros and their cheating scandal. However, he is still a new age manager who believes in data and analytics. The way the game is moving, and how quickly its moving that way, was why this move was so baffling when it happened. Then you break it down, Tony La Russa, a hall of fame manager, has 3 World Series rings. He was hired to get the White Sox another World Series victory. That was the selling point from ownership and the front office. He was brought in for his winning expertise, to lead this team to a championship. Well guess what, he didn’t. Everything that was said to the fans, to trust in him, and trust the team, was a complete and utter farce. There were times you felt this team was a team of destiny, I sure did. Then there were times you knew this team had a chance of being swept out of the playoffs, which they almost were.

The start of the failure was a graphic released of the White Sox hiring announcement of Tony La Russa with AJ Hinch’s signature.

This just shows even their social media team wasn’t ready for this, and they shouldn’t have been. Tony La Russa?! Who last managed 10 years ago? Hired by the White Sox? Like, why? Who made that call? Not the people you hire to make that call. That is why this team is not going to be as successful as they should be. You have an owner that is too involved in the decisions. He doesn’t want or trust his front office to do the job they were hired to do, and that is a failure of leadership. The uncertainty of a 2022 season, due to the CBA agreements upcoming, makes this even more frustrating. This could be a 1994 situation all over again.

We can get into this all day, but the other failures lie with the starting pitching staff in the playoffs. Lance Lynn, Lucas Giolito, Dylan Cease, and Carlos Rodon; started the 4 games for the White Sox. Collectively they posted a 3.57 ERA in the regular season as a starting staff (with Dallas Keuchel). However, between the 4 pitcher in the postseason their ERA was a whopping 10.22 ERA in 12.1 IP. The only pitcher to make it to the 5th inning was Lucas Giolito going 4.1 IP, 3 H, 5 BB, and 4 ER. Walks were the killer for the entire pitching staff against a very disciplined and smart Astros team. The Sox issued 41 BB in 34 IP. That is absolutely awful from what was the 2nd best pitching staff in baseball in the regular season. The staff posted a 1.706 WHIP in 4 games and compare that to a 1.204 WHIP through 162 games, when not at full strength during the regular season. Dylan Cease had the worst ERA in the ALDS after pitching 1.2 innings and giving up 3 ER, with 3 BB. The Astros made the White Sox pay for every pitching mistake imaginable.

The White Sox also didn’t hit very well, outside of a 12 run burst in the Game 3. They scored 18 runs in 4 games, hitting .291 with a .376 slugging percentage. That is incredibly low, and terrifying. They had a .737 OPS to the Astros .803 (Both aren’t great, but its telling anyway). The White Sox first XBH came in game 3 on a Yasmani Grandal 2 run HR, that put them within 2 runs. Before then they had 20 conescutive singles for hits. That tells you they were not barreling balls, and weren’t scouting the pitchers of the Astros very well. That falls on the hitting coaches and players for not game planning and executing. Many have put a lot of fault on Frank Menechino for his abnormal approach of “F*ck the home run, let’s hit .300” making it much more difficult to win games in today’s MLB. It wasn’t just the postseason that the White Sox seemed to not show their power, we saw dips from Eloy (coming back from injury), Jose Abreu, Yoan Moncada, and Luis Robert. They all seemed to not be trying to lift the ball. The team collectively had a 45.9% GB rate, which meant a lot of double plays and easy outs. Having a BABIP of .310 as a team, also isn’t great. They did have injuries, but that can’t be excused when you are full strength (outside of Brian Goodwin) in the postseason. The hitters failed to execute, and again this has a lot to do with approach and mindset given by their coaching staffs.

I don’t like nit picking on a lot of issues, but when your team has World Series aspirations, and falls well short, it hurts. We have a long offseason, needs to address, and I may be a pessimist about this topic, but I don’t expect it to be any better. The owner doesn’t believe in improving a team that needs it. They trust what they have, and that itself, is another failure. I really hope I am wrong, but I never have hopes for this team to do something good. I was surprised at the beginning of the season, and the trade deadline. Though some things didn’t work out, but at least they went for it. You get burned, it doesn’t mean you stop trying, you look at how you can improve again. They need SP, bullpen depth, a 2B, and RF, seemingly for the 3rd year in a row now. Let’s see what they do, the news today is that Tony La Russa will be managing in 2022. Players supported him in the media, as if they wouldn’t. He wants to manage, and Jerry will let him manage as long as he wants. I do expect personnel changes, but again, I won’t get my hopes up.

For the first time in my short blogging career I offered up a Q&A on Twitter, so I will now take the time to answer those questions. First up, from @PGDChiSox:

1. It was probably in Toronto when it rained, and they didn’t close the roof for a good amount of time.
2. I mean the team is young, but given the business you don’t expect them to be here forever. I do think we see the young core blossom into great big leaguers, whether here or elsewhere.
3. Off the radar is probably a guy like a Mark Canha or Jake Diekman.

The next question comes from the witty twitter budding superstar @C_Spaghett1:

I think she misunderstood the assignment, but Celeste, for your sake, I hope it is.

Next question comes from @flemdawg97 who asked a trade question:

I answered him on Twitter stating that Leury Garcia can do more than Ohtani, so my answer was no. You can’t trade a great player like Leury for a one-off like Ohtani.

Next set of questions came from @Roxy_Virginia who wants to see #MoreKissingInBaseball, as do I:

1. Offseason acquisitions I would like to see are: Carlos Rodon, Mark Canha, and Chris Taylor.
2. Best coach to replace TLR (even though he is staying) is Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro
3. I think Bo Bichette and Yoan Moncada should kiss because it would be really hot.

I had @SoxMic ask a personal and attacking question:

How dare you. He is a beautiful man, with a Claymation face.

I had a personal Twitter account question from @A_C_Green88:

I haven’t decided if I’m going full truther on the Blackhawks, Bulls, or Bears yet. TBD.

Next up is @Chicagofan76 who asked a couple of burning questions:

Sox should not pick up the option on Cesar Hernandez. Pick up the option on Kimbrel and trade him in a package with Keuchel. Stretch out Kopech in the offseason to get ready to start. Sign good players, and not sign bad players as @SouthsideZo would say.

The last question comes from @sox_oz who wants to know specifically about pitching:

The largest leap in the off-season in my personal opinion will be, and should be, Michael Kopech. He needs to learn to make his fastball move, and tick down the velocity. He also needs to learn another pitch, or even two, to become an effective starter. This was really his rookie season, and I am confident Ethan Katz will work with him, tirelessly.

As always, I appreciate anyone who takes time to read my writing, I love writing, and I am trying to improve on it. If you have constructive criticisms, please let me know. I try to focus on what I can, I am by no means an expert in baseball, but I enjoy it very much. This is where I go to escape for a little while, and let my mind wander. Thank you to those who asked questions, it shows that you care enough to even ask a question. I hope this off-season is positive for the White Sox, and I am sure as more things come through, I will have more to write. I hope to join all of you at Guaranteed Rate Field (ugh) in 2022, granted we have a baseball season.