South Side Sox Summary: Week 23

Welcome to the SSS Summary — a little review of what happened this past week in Chicago White Sox baseball, including on-the-field play, the front office jibber-jabber, and everything in between. Even if you don’t want to remember what happened, sorry, we will tell you anyway.

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Chicago went 1-4 on the week, but honestly, no one cares. Seriously, no one. It doesn’t seem like the players, coaches, management, or ownership give a crap, especially with the front office just shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Of course, the big news last week was Jerry Reinsdorf announcing the promotion of Chris Getz to vice president/general manager. We had a lot of thoughts about that here at South Side Sox, and needless to say, none of them were positive. The Sox held a press conference so Reinsdorf could tell the fans how disgusted he is with this season in one breath — and then announce the insular hire of an unqualified yes-man to fix it in another.

In the press conference and several circuit interviews, Getz found a way to give non-answers to most questions. He put forth no real plan on how fans can expect things to improve. It’s tough to believe this franchise will be capable of competing when it appears there’s no strategy other than a bunch of buzzwords being tossed around.

Hang in there, Sox fans. We might not have winning baseball, but at least we have each other.

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The Recaps Worth Revisiting

Wednesday, August 30: White Sox 10, O’s 5

Home runs powered the only game the Pale Hose managed to win this week. Every once in a while, we see a faint ghost of what this offense could and should have been. Five of the 10 runs scored by the Sox were off of dingers. Andrew Vaughn kicked things off with a two-run blast in the top of the second, and one out later, Oscar Colás hit a two-run dinger of his own. The bombs tied the game at 4-4. The Good Guys manufactured three more runs in the top of the third, giving them a 7-4 advantage. That would be plenty to win the game, but they tacked on three more in the top of the sixth. Everyone but Lenyn Sosa contributed to the 15-hit slaughter, and overall, the team was 4-for-11 with RISP.

Dylan Cease got the start and wasn’t good. He has fallen off the table this year like no one expected. He surrendered five runs off six hits, three walks, and seven strikeouts over six innings. The bullpen of Jimmy Lambert and Gregory Santos held the O’s scoreless.

August was Cease’s worst month of the season. He went 2-3 with a 8.07 ERA over his six starts.

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The Defensive Disport of the Week

Trayce Thompson, Center Field Magician

I’ve highlighted Luis Robert Jr. here so many times this season, and I easily could have chosen him again as he had a great play to rob Adley Ruschman of a double in Monday night’s game, but I’m going to give another player all the glory this week. Trayce Thompson actually made two All-Star plays this week. The first one was on Saturday when he threw Kerry Carpenter out a third in the top of the eighth inning. The game was a blowout, but it was still a great play.

Then, on Sunday, he made a diving grab to save a run in the top of the sixth inning.

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The Week’s Top Three Biggest BLASTS

Oscar Colás, 421 feet, Wednesday, August 30

The rookie mashed his fourth bomb, a two-run dinger to right field, tying the game, 4-4.

Luis Robert Jr., 405 feet, Wednesday, August 30

La Pantera crushed an oppo taco to right-center field, pushing the Sox ahead, 5-4.

Lenyn Sosa, 397 feet, Tuesday, August 29

Sosa’s fifth round-tripper of the season briefly gave the Sox a 1-0 lead.

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Prospect Peek

The White Sox signed pitcher Matt Thompson with pick No. 45 in Round 2 of the 2019 MLB Draft. Thompson was a high school talent out of Cypress Ranch in Texas, where he was part of a rotation that included J.J. Goss and Ty Madden, who are both also in the minor leagues. MLB recently ranked Thompson as the No. 23 prospect in the Sox system.

The 23-year-old has spent all of 2023 with Double-A Birmingham. In 24 starts, he owns a 4.76 ERA and a 1.58 WHIP in 109 2⁄3 innings. He has an impressive 9.27 K/9 and a solid .235 opponent batting average. Thompson utilizes mostly a three-pitch mix, including a quality curveball that sits 78-82 mph, a 92-95 mph fastball with riding action, and a low-80s slider/slurve. Unfortunately, control issues have often plagued the righty, and his 6.07 BB/9 has led to way too many free passes. The righthander needs to continue working on his command and lowering those walks if he hopes to turn into a big-league starter.

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Other Tasty Tidbits

Tim Anderson smacked his 1,000th hit on Sunday when he led off the game with a double. He is the 19th player in White Sox history to get his first 1,000 hits with the franchise.

On Sept. 1, the team recalled pitcher Luis Patiño, whom they acquired from Tampa Bay on Aug. 1, from Triple-A. On Sept. 2, he made his debut for Chicago, pitching four innings out of the pen, giving up five hits, one earned run, three walks, and striking out four.

In a head-scratching move, the Sox also called infielder José Rodríguez up from Double-A on Sept. 1, only to option him to Triple-A the following day when they recalled Zach Remillard from Charlotte. Per MLB Pipeline, Rodríguez is the team’s No. 8 prospect. The 22-year-old was having a solid season with the Barons, slashing .264/.297/.450 with 18 home runs in 87 games.

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Running Down the Rehabbers

There’s nothing much to report this week on the injury front, one of the only elements of good news surrounding this team. The Sox scratched Robert from Saturday’s lineup about 30 minutes before the first pitch with reported right quad cramps. Then, he was originally in the lineup on Sunday and was again before game time.

Additionally, since July, we haven’t received any updates on Garrett Crochet, who went on the IL in mid-June with left shoulder inflammation. Seby Zavala, who has a strained left oblique, was activated from his rehab assignment in Charlotte but then designated for assignment, off of the 40-man roster and free for anyone to pick up on waivers.

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What’s next?

It’s going to be a week full of really bad AL Central baseball. The South Siders head out on a six-game road trip, first to Kansas City and then off to Detroit. The Royals are on pace to have their worst record by win-loss percentage in franchise history. They are currently in last place in the AL Central and the second-worst record in all of baseball. The Sox hold a slight edge in the season series, with four wins against three losses.

The 2023 Tigers are better than last season, but that’s not saying much. They sit in third place in the Central with a 62-74 record and are nine games back of the first-place Minnesota Twins. Detroit is 5-4 against the Sox this year, with this weekend’s three-game set wrapping up the season series for the squads.

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