White Sox Overreactions After One Series
After four games in Houston against the defending World Series champions, the White Sox leave 2-2. Considering the White Sox track record against the Astros, that is a big improvement from last year. Some costly mistakes in games two and three prevented the Sox from a sweep, but right off the bat, the team looks a lot better. But, with the White Sox fandom comes overreaction, so here are the biggest overreactions after the first series…
The Bullpen May Be A Problem
Perhaps the biggest storyline from this series was the performance of the bullpen. After an off-season with minimal movement in the bullpen, the White Sox hoped a couple of the key guys in the ‘pen would have bounce-back years. This should be the hope, as the White Sox are one of the teams with the most money invested in the bullpen.
Unfortunately, this series was not a strong start for the bullpen. In the four games, the bullpen has pitched 12 innings, yielding 16 hits, 11 earned runs, ten walks, and 11 strikeouts. For a bullpen on a supposed contending team, that is not going to cut it.
After taking the lead back in the first game, the Sox ended up winning, but not without a little comeback from the Astros in the 9th. Reynaldo Lopez did end up getting the save but gave us a little bit of a scare.
The next two games started off well with Lance Lynn and Lucas Giolito giving us every opportunity to win the game, but the games were later blown by the bullpen. On the bright side, the starting rotation seems to be in good shape and will keep us in a lot of games.
In the last game, the Sox controlled the whole game but again, there were theatrics in the ninth that saw the tying run come up to the plate. The Sox would pull it out, but this is not a good sign.
As the title says, these are overreactions, but if this trend continues, it will be a real problem. Once manager Pedro Grifol understands what everyone’s role in the pen is, the Sox should be able to lock the games down. Some arms are better suited for just one single inning, while others can handle multiple. The sooner that is figured out the better.
Hopefully, the woes were due to playing the defending World Series champions. Otherwise, the bullpen could be a big disappointment this season.
Clutch Hitting (or lack thereof)
One of the problems that plagued the Sox last year was being able to execute simple baseball when there are runners in scoring position. So far, that doesn’t seem to have changed.
In the series, the White Sox left an astonishing number of men on base. It seems almost every inning the White Sox were threatening, but they would come away with nothing. Whether it is partially due to the talent of the Astros or early season struggles, it’s not a good sign.
With the bases loaded, the White Sox did not record a single hit. With runners in scoring position, it was just as bad. Every single game the White Sox had the opportunity to score 6+ runs but came up short. Hopefully, this is just an early-season problem, but the lack of situational awareness of our hitters is frightening.
Again, it’s early. The bats are still cold. But, if the Sox continue to strand runners at this rate it will be a long season. The good thing is that they were able to get a lot of runners on base, so naturally, they will eventually be able to score a lot more.
White Sox Have MVP Caliber Bats
After a hot start in the World Baseball Classic, Tim Anderson picked up right where he left off. In the series, Anderson has hit .389, and more importantly has drawn a couple of walks. If his plate discipline continues throughout the year, he is walking away with the battle title and it won’t be close.
Similar to Tim, Yoan Moncada carried over his hot WBC start to Houston. He hit .444 with two home runs and 4 RBIs. He looks like he could be getting some MVP votes if he keeps this up. You can read more about Yoan’s hot start here.
Unsurprisingly with good health has come good results. This has been the case for Yasamani Grandal, as he absolutely rakes this series. With no shift, his average will be much higher than in previous years. He had about 2-3 hits that would have been easy outs to the fielder in short right. Regardless, his swing looked good and he made a lot of hard contact, including a home run. If he keeps this up, he’ll run away with the comeback player of the year.
All in all, the White Sox leaving Houston 2-2 is a good start. There is plenty that needs to be done if they want to compete, but it’s still early. They showed a lot of promise and played hard. It barely looks like the team from last year, and that’s a start. While these are overreactions, if the bullpen and situational hitting continue to struggle, it will prevent them from contending.