Hi Rick. It's your old buddy SouthSide larry. I saw you optioned Deunte Heath last night. Good work. I've never figured out the organization's fascination with him, so good riddance.
Today, to replace him, you called up Brian Omogrosso. Again. I think it's time you and I had a chat about the current state of the White Sox.
It's over, Rick. You gave it the old Michigan-Northwestern-Harvard try. With some big money committed to this season, it made sense to essentially stand pat and hope for the best.
But the best hasn't happened. In fact, it's probably beyond the worst case scenario anyone could have envisioned for the offense. It's like a classic Black Swan theory event.
Regardless, it's happened. It's almost the end of June and the team is 29-41 and 10.5 games behind the Tigers. We all are invested in the team in some way - financially, emotionally, whatever - and we all need to accept that this just isn't the year for the White Sox.
Of course, there's more than half a season left and MLB doesn't let teams just take their ball and go home. So why don't we use it for something other than playing out the string.
Omogrosso seems like a nice enough fellow. He overcame some serious arm troubles and made it to the majors. His Twitter account is friendly. But he's bullpen filler. Like Heath. Like Ramon Troncoso. Like Donnie Veal. None of them are going to play a role of any consequence on a future, contending White Sox team. Having them on the team is playing out the string.
Rickeroo, give your fans something new to watch. Something we can get interested in and, yes, invested in. It's time to bring up the prospects that pass as legitimate ones in the organization's upper minors. Guys like Simon Castro. Andre Rienzo. Charlie Leesman. Josh Phegley. Erik Johnson. Maybe later on Trayce Thompson, Andy Wilkins, Daniel Webb, Marcus Semien. Maybe others.
Kenny left you a pretty poor hand to play and you did the best you could with it. The above names may not be impact players - they may be filler like the other guys we've seen called up already - but let's use the remaining time to find out who can help this club in the future and who can't. We've already seen Omogrosso and he can't. Send in the new blood, not the clowns.
Best regards,
larry