As the 2023 baseball season nears the midpoint, right here’s what we all know and don’t know in regards to the Chicago Cubs and White Sox.
Tim Anderson is simply too good a hitter to proceed at his present tempo. That’s what we maintain saying anyway. Anderson, the 2019 American League batting champion, was hitting .358 on June 22, 2022, earlier than happening the injured checklist with a groin damage. He since has suffered finger, knee and shoulder accidents and is hitting .244 with one residence run and 11 RBIs in 93 video games. Anderson’s final residence run was on July 15, 2022, in Minnesota.
Despite profitable this weekend’s collection in opposition to the Boston Red Sox, the White Sox have given no cause to consider they are often even a .500 workforce. Giving Anderson enjoying time at second base ought to enhance his commerce worth. The Los Angeles Dodgers may very well be a great match.
NBC Sports Chicago’s Chuck Garfien and Ozzie Guillén could be the Sox’s hardest critics. Both criticized Anderson throughout Friday’s postgame present for not displaying any emotion within the high-five line within the dugout after hitting a sacrifice fly. It was a very harsh evaluation of a participant by a TV outlet tied to the workforce it covers, reminding us of the olden days when Jimmy Piersall did likewise for years on SportsImaginative and prescient.
Piersall, who was fired from SportsImaginative and prescient on Day 2 of the 1983 season after ripping supervisor Tony La Russa on the radio, was not a favourite of Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf. “My biggest mistake was not firing Harry Caray and Jimmy Piersall before the first day of the 1981 season,” he as soon as stated. “There was an atmosphere of negativism that made it hard to win and difficult to attract good ballplayers.”
At least Reinsdorf has left Ozzie and Chuck alone.
The Cubs introduced on flagship station WSCR-AM 670 they plan in July to supply a direct-to-consumer streaming possibility for Marquee Sports Network, geared toward cord-cutters who don’t subscribe to DirecTV or Fubo. President of enterprise operations Crane Kenney didn’t disclose a value estimate, however you in all probability can anticipate it to be a lot nearer to the Red Sox ($29.99 per 30 days) or New York Yankees ($24.99 per 30 days) than the San Diego Padres ($19.99 per 30 days). The late rollout means Cubs followers would get solely two months of video games earlier than canceling the service till the 2024 season.
What was self-described White Sox fan Lori Lightfoot, the previous mayor of Chicago, doing in London sitting subsequent to Bill Murray at Saturday’s Cubs-Cardinals recreation? And why didn’t the Fox broadcasters acknowledge her?
You must really feel a bit of sorry for NASCAR driver Ty Dillon, whose No. 77 Chevrolet shall be sponsored by the White Sox in Sunday’s Chicago avenue race. The Sox brand and colours shall be displayed on the automobile and Dillon’s hearth go well with. If Dillon crashes early, search for common supervisor Rick Hahn to get slammed on Sox Twitter.
ESPN’s Michael Kay mispronounced the title of Cubs nearer Adbert Alzolay a number of instances throughout Sunday’s broadcast of the London Series. You’d assume a director would whisper in Kay’s ear that he was saying it mistaken.
We additionally discovered from ESPN analyst Alex Rodriguez that Cubs slugger Christopher Morel has the “it factor,” suggesting he’s a star in ready. Cubs supervisor David Ross final week in contrast Morel’s energy with that of Ross’ former teammate Josh Hamilton.
All good, however let’s not neglect Morel hit 4 residence runs and had a .910 OPS within the Cactus League this spring and was demoted to Triple-A Iowa. President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer stated they couldn’t discover a approach to get him at-bats within the majors, and Ross stated they’d be “doing him a disservice by bringing him off the bench at times.”
Lance Lynn is simply too good a pitcher to have a 6.40 ERA, second-worst amongst certified pitchers. But Lynn confirmed in his 16-strikeout recreation in opposition to the Seattle Mariners he nonetheless can dominate hitters, which ought to make him tradable, particularly if the Sox eat a piece of what’s remaining on his contract.
Lynn is owed about $10 million, together with a $1 million buyout, and shall be 37 coming into 2024. There’s no good cause for him to stay on the roster after Aug. 1, regardless of how shut the Sox are within the AL Central.
Cubs catcher Tucker Barnhart, who has grow to be Marcus Stroman’s private catcher, stated Stroman by no means shakes off any pitch calls, giving him extra freedom. “He makes my job so easy, allows me to be creative, to see the game and play the game like you’re in high school in terms of pitch calling, kind of (like playing) a video game,” Barnhart stated. Stroman stated Barnhart “kind of knows what I’m thinking to where I don’t have to think about ptiching, I can just execute.”
Kyle Hendricks, in the meantime, known as his personal recreation utilizing PitchCom with rookie catcher Miguel Amaya when he took a no-hitter into the eighth inning in opposition to the San Francisco Giants on June 10. But Hendricks let Amaya name pitches in Wednesday’s win in Pittsburgh. “I still had (PitchCom) and we worked through it together, but we had such a good game plan going in and he had a great feel, so it was mostly on him, to be honest,” Hendricks stated.
White Sox setup man Joe Kelly is simply too good a reliever to have a 5.31 ERA in 1 1/2 seasons in Chicago. He posted a 2.67 ERA in 2020 and ‘21 with the Dodgers, and with Liam Hendriks out, it’s nicely previous time to let Kelly shut video games and enhance his commerce worth. Kelly is making $9 million this yr and has a $9.5 million membership possibility for 2024 that’s unlikely to be picked up. He’s additionally a goner if Hahn can discover a taker.
What are the probabilities of the Sox enjoying within the Paris Series video games in 2025? Their look within the unique Field of Dreams recreation was a basic. The reboot of the rebuild ought to be in full swing by ‘25. Will anybody be left apart from Luis Robert and Pedro Grifol?
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Source: www.bostonherald.com