Sox no Secretariat - Just a Prize Thoroughbread Built to Last

By Tim Froehlig

 

When I flipped on last Sunday's White Sox game and saw they were trailing, 6-0, headed to their half of the 9th at home against the Anaheim Angels, I caught myself letting out an audible half-sigh, half-groan while I stood in my bedroom staring at the TV screen in disbelief.

 

It was the 12th time in the last 15 games they headed to the ninth inning with three runs or fewer on the scoreboard, to open the 2022 season.

 

And during that three-week living hell as an avid baseball fan, and former player, I'd about had my fill of watching this team forget how to play baseball. 

 

I briefly pondered switching my TV off. Instead, a few moments later, I plopped my behind lazily down in a $14 blue fold-up chair they sell at WalMart, complete with mesh drink holder, and forced myself to watch the beginning of the Bottom of the 9th.

I listened to Sox announcer Jason Benetti go off on his usual tangent about some old memory - he's a nostalgic sort of fella - while his sidekick, Steve Stone, sounded like a man who wanted to go home.

Even he's seen enough baseball to know a down-streak like this doesn't come but maybe once a season in a true, bonafied, contending team.

Heck, all we need to do is travel to last season to understand what a fickle, cruel monster Old Lady Baseball can be. 

 

Just last fall, the eventual World Champion Atlanta Braves played .500 ball for three-quarters of the season, then became nuclear red-hot the rest of the way, like the legendary horse Secretariat taunting his opponents to win the Triple Crown.

 

 

 

Secretariat's nickname was "Big Red," a fitting metaphor for the White Sox's collective glowing embarrassment for coming out of the gate so slowly in 2022.

 

But unlike these Pale Hose, there was no such thing as disappointment, or embarrassment, with that once in a lifetime animal.

While I am not comparing the Sox to Secretariat, which would have been the 2005 White Sox, let's remind ourselves that we do have a damn fine specimen of thoroughbred on our hands at the moment on the South Side. 

Don't let their 9-13 record deceive you.

This team's mission remains simple: World Series or bust, and they just endured about as bad a start out of the gate as any perennial contender can or should.

It had us all frightened. Had we oversold and overhyped this group?

 

Anyway, where was I? Let's regroup. Horse metaphors, slow starts ... oh yeah, the bottom of the 9th. Sox down six runs.

 

Shutout looming.

 

And then, it wasn't. And then the winning run was on base, with two outs, the Sox had batted around, and it was 6-5 Angels.

 

Holy crap. Are they gonna really pull this off?

 

I wanted to walk away, because I knew what was coming next. But I couldn't. 

 

Force yourself to keep watching, I told myself.

 

Still, I just knew, every one of those runs was about to be rendered meaningless.

 

When Gavin Sheets tapped a slow roller to the first baseman for the final out, ending any hopes of finishing off a miraculous comeback, Sheets turned to his left, tilted his head, and let out one of the most deflating sighs of disappointment I've ever seen.

 

The Sox were still mired in a Shit Happens world, neck deep. And despite this, here we are, starting May, with LaRussa's boys only 4.5 game out of first place. Not 8 games. Not 10. Not 15.

 

4.5

 

That's without your staff ace, Lance Lynn, out with an injury. 

 

 

 

That's without your 30 to 40 HR capable slugging LF, Eloy Jimenez, injured yet again, and so frequently, he may wish to borrow Frank Thomas's nickname, the Big Hurt.

 

Sorry Frank.

 

It's also 4.5 games back without mega star in the making Louis Robert for 7 of their first 22 games, who may yet be a generational five-tool player, ala Ken Griffey Jr. 

 

Anyone miss Yoan Moncada yet? He's missed the first month of the season, and was on base a career-best 37.5 percent of the time in 2021.

The Sox' hardest throwing lefty reliever hasn't been at their disposal, either, in Garrett Crochet.

 

And the best closer in the AL, Liam Hendriks, has allowed 19 baseruners in 9.1 innings.

 

If I may speak frankly, if there was dog poop on the ground in April, the Chicago White Sox found a new way to step in it every chance possible.

 

Yet here they are, just 4.5 games out, as if they pulled of some sort of magic trick or illusion you just cannot figure out.

 

The thing you all fail to realize is this.

 

All the times you had to see Leury Garcia out there, or Adam Engel, or Reese McGuire, or Jake Burger, or whatever platoon combo suited the Sox that day - well, that's the whole point.

 

You see, General Manager Rick Hahn was prepared for this. With role player after role player who all have one special skill that helps keep a sinking ship, well ... afloat, when necessary.

Which is all you can ask for in a time of crisis, which is what the first month of this season became.

 

As much as we rant about having to use the aforementioned players on a regular basis, it's why we added guys like A.J. Pollock to the roster, to bolster outfield depth. Or Kendall Graveman, who has been outstanding thus far as a setup guy. Or McGuire, who has proven already to be a stellar defensive catcher, which was sorely needed, given the fact Yasmani Grandal is an offense-first kind of dude, and this team was in the bottom third of the league in fielding percentage last year.

 

These role players all kept the Sox Battleship away from a titanic-sized April iceberg.

Only Tim Anderson is batting over .300 for this club. Just one player, Andrew Vaughn, had more than 8 RBIs in April. 

4.5 games.

In spite of all that downright clown car, insane adversity. 

 

And remember, there was only half of Spring Training, which certainly accounts for some of the Sox unfortunate injuries.

The day after the Sox lost that 6-5 miserable ending to the Angels, they shut the Angels out, 3-0.

They did so with the now lethal fastball-slider combo from Dylan Cease, who has the makings of a Cy Young candidate. And whose signature mustache now has me calling him "Officer Cease," but not only is he tough on hitters and first time offenders, he may yet lay down the law in the Cy Young race one day.

 

 

I say that with a straight face, too.

 

The Sox also have a healthy Lucas Giolito again, whom I neglected to mention missed several starts due to injury as well.

Robert is back in the lineup. Moncada returns this week. Sheets is heating up, getting on base. Lynn will pitch again this season, and right now, Cease, Giolito, Kopech looks as good as any three starters there are in the league.

 

How about that bullpen?

Matt Foster? 0.90 ERA in 10 games.

Tanner Banks? Oh, you haven't heard of him. Lefty. 14 innings. 1.29 ERA. Rick Hahn knew who he was.

Graveman, 1.46 ERA. Jose Ruiz, 2.35 ERA in nine outings.

Like I said before, the 2022 White Sox aren't Secretariat. They aren't going to wire to wire anyone.

But they are built to last, and every statistical model Hahn and his staff study tells them the White Sox horse is a power-packed thoroughbred that will wear you out over 162 games.

Every bit of my money's on the White Sox Pony to win, as it keeps a steady pace, closes in on you when it's ready, and blows past you down the stretch.

See you all in the Winner's Circle this Fall. Mark my words.