Garrett Crochet (Creative Commons: Photo by Baumology)
For just a brief moment, the Chicago White Sox displayed a spasm of mediocrity. Then it was gone. It was back to the dismalism and ineptitude that is White Sox baseball. In describing the Sox, I believe I have created a new word, “dismalism. It means the state of being dismal. Sometimes you’re confronted with a situation that seems to defy words. The magnitude of the Sox dysfunction is one of those situations. Shakespeare is credited with making up/creating over 1700 words. That number would have doubled if he had been subjected to White Sox baseball. And all of them would have been synonymous with “putrid.” Here are a few obvious issues.
Pedro Grifol is may be the worst manager in baseball, but it doesn’t matter
The Sox limp into the All-Star break with a record of 27-71. Statistics indicate that the Sox are unperforming. In listening to WSCR, the Score, one of their personalities said the numbers indicate the Sox should be sitting at 35-63. Baseball Reference cites their Pythagorean record is 30-68. Basically, Pedro has taken a bad team and helped make them worse. It’s like that old Sammy Davis Jr. pop hit, “The Candyman,” only in reverse. Here’s a quick sample to show what I mean:
Who can take a bad team,
Make them even worse,
The Pedro man can the Pedro man can
Cause he mismanages the pen and makes me want to curse
The Pedro man makes every lineup he makes weak for Chicago
Look, he’s playing Maldanado
The Pedro man ignores the Sox fans’ wishes.
You should really hear the disses
You get the idea. So why is Grifol still managing the White Sox? That leads us to the biggest problem plaguing the White Sox.
Jerry Reinsdorf is the team’s owner/hostage negotiator
The White Sox are not ready to win. But why would a team look to trade two stars like Garrett Crochet and Luis Robert Jr. when the team has them under control for a few more years? Because Jerry Reinsdorf won’t pay big salaries. Even though Crochet and Robert Jr. are under team control for a while, the team might trade them off for prospects to build up the farm system. Again.
I’m not sure how many times the team will do this and sell their fans the snake oil of false hope that is a highly rated farm system gives. I suspect it will continue as long as the 88-year-old Jerry Reinsdorf owns the team.
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