South Side Sox Player of the Week (June 6-12): Jake Burger

It’s easy to be pessimistic. It’s easy to blame the skipper. It’s easy to eat too much at Ricobene’s.

What’s not so easy?

Overlooking the baseball smarts and hard work of Jake Burger.

Burger has slid easily into the DH role for the White Sox, batting a sizzling .385 and tagging three homers over the last seven games. There’s plenty of success to go around, too, as AJ Pollock and Reese McGuire seem to be honing their at-bats after a sluggish spring.

In Monday’s outing against the Tigers, Burger emphasized his major-league drive. After taking a pitched ball to the hand, he pushed through the pain to finish the at-bat, channeling his adrenaline into a blistering ground out.

With X-rays of his hand coming back negative, the 26-year-old slugger shrugged off the injury in a postgame interview. This is Jake’s second Player of the Week honors this season here at South Side Sox (and the first two-time winner this season), and with a little luck, it won’t be his last.

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2022 South Side Sox Players of the Week

Tim Anderson (April 8-17)
Tanner Banks (April 18-23)
Lucas Giolito (April 24-May 1)
Dylan Cease (May 2-8)
Michael Kopech (May 9-14)
Davis Martin (May 15-21)
Jake Burger (May 22-29)
Andrew Vaughn (May 30-June 5)
Jake Burger (June 6-12)

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MVP Standings

Michael Kopech (46.6)
Dylan Cease (43.3)
Andrew Vaughn (31.5)
Lucas Giolito (28.5)
Tim Anderson (26.2)
Johnny Cueto (25.7)
Jake Burger (24.6)
Luis Robert (18.2)
Tanner Banks (15.4)
Matt Foster (12.5)

Cold Cat Standings

Tony La Russa (-51.9)
Leury García (-45.5)
Josh Harrison (-28.4)
Liam Hendriks (-21.9)
Joe Kelly (-21.9)
Kendall Graveman (-19.8)
Gavin Sheets (-18.6)
Aaron Bummer (-18.5)
Yoán Moncada (-18.1)
Yasmani Grandal (-14.0)

A week ago, Jake Burger stood at 6.9 points, but after an almost-impossible stretch of games and MVP votes he now sits at No. 7. Meanwhile, Michael Kopech and Dylan Cease continue jockeying at the top of the MVP list.

On the other hand, Tony La Russa — who by strict definition is not a player and was first included in our polls earlier this year as a goof — used his uniquely horrible managing week to take a commanding lead atop the Cold Cats.

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Writer Standings

Yes, you are reading this correctly, the season has been so disastrous that Darren Black, having recapped one game so far this season in the majors, is now on top of our writer leaderboard. And the classic Darren Black & Darrin Brown combo ranks 1-2. And the grouping is getting tighter, with just 2 ¹⁄₂ games separating first place and 15th.

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If you’re interested in seeing more of Mitch’s work, or if you’d like to purchase original drawings or prints, contact him via Twitter (@soxsketcher), Instagram (@southsidesharpie), or by e-mail at southsidesharpie@gmail.com. Thanks for supporting local artists!