South Side Sox Player of the Week (May 3-8): Garrett Crochet
After a dip that even seemed to threaten a trip to the bullpen, the southpaw is back, stronger than ever
You can look at Garrett Crochet’s nine starts this season as an Oreo — if you’re in the habit of throwing away the mystery creme in the middle and just eating the cookies.
The southpaw spun a masterful Opening Day start every bit as special as Mark Buehrle or Chris Sale, chased that with another couple of gems to keep his ERA at 2.00 ... and then chaos ensued.
Three straight outings of at least five earned. There were still strikeouts, but any pitch close to zoned was getting clubbed, more than tripling the phenom’s ERA. Smack in the middle was a three-homer clubbing in Philadelphia, and after another short start and loss, a fourth straight for the starter, there were whispers of a return to the pen and an even louder drumbeat of “load management.”
Well, our most likely 2024 All-Star took offense to those notions, bristling up and throwing three straight gems, all 61+ game scores and efforts yielding no more than two earned runs.
While Crochet is likely to get extended rest and/or more slump time here in his first bum-rush year of starting in the majors, he’s proven that every time out, he’s capable of magic.
2024 South Side Sox Players of the Week
Eloy Jiménez (February 23-March 2)
Eloy Jiménez (March 3-11)
Chuckie Robinson (March 12-19)
Michael Soroka (March 20-27)
Garrett Crochet (March 28-April 3)
Gavin Sheets (April 4-11)
The Fans (April 12-18)
Korey Lee (April 19-24)
Tommy Pham (April 25-May 2)
Garrett Crochet (May 3-8)
Top 10 MVP Standings
Garrett Crochet (41.8)
Korey Lee (37.8)
Chris Flexen (33.1)
Erick Fedde (31.5)
Gavin Sheets (20.1)
Fans for keeping the noise up/getting bored and waving/who stayed/who froze/who had the strength to suffer through this (19.8)
Michael Kopech (18.5, 190 votes)
Michael Soroka (18.5, 150 votes)
Tommy Pham (15.3)
Danny Mendick (15.1)
Top 10 Cold Cat Standings
Pedro Grifol (-47.8)
The Entire Roster (-24.7)
Andrew Benintendi (-24.4)
Andrew Vaughn (-22.7)
Martín Maldonaldo (-20.4)
Dominic Fletcher (-19.9)
Luis Robert Jr. (-16.7)
Touki Toussaint (-14.7)
Yoán Moncada (-14.2)
Chris Getz (-12.6)
Having fallen to a season-low third place in the team MVP race, Garrett Crochet rallied with POTW honors and a return to the top of the charts. Tommy Pham made a move onto the MVP Top 10, to ninth — a placement especially impressive given he’s played upwards of 40 fewer games in a White Sox uniform than some of the others listed.
Among the Cold Cats, Martín Maldonado made an aggressive move up the charts, ranking outside of the Top 10 a week ago and now sitting fifth.
Writer Standings
I mean, what else can you say at this point but a writer with just one game and one loss, Joe Resis, tops our coverage standings? Collectively, and counting spring training, our staff is 18-49 covering the White Sox this year.
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!