The White Sox and their star-deprived lineup come to town.
The Phillies’ 2024 schedule – on paper, at least – appeared to be easier on the front end than the back end. Not only would they have a lot of home games in April, but many of those games would be against some of Major League Baseball’s lesser lights.
The Phillies just completed a sweep of one of those lesser lights in the Colorado Rockies. This weekend, they’ll be visited by a team that somehow might be even worse, so this is a prime opportunity to put a few more wins on the ledger.
Chicago White Sox
Record: 3-15, Fifth place in American League Central (9.5 games back)
The manager
Pedro Grifol made his managerial debut with the Sox in 2023, and like most rookie managers on talent deprived teams, he didn’t have a successful debut. With the team off to a horrific start to 2024, many fans are already out of patience with him.
Pedro Grifol has ZERO business being the manager of the Chicago White Sox
Just listen to this (if you feel like it)#WhiteSox pic.twitter.com/CRcBQOnpGb
— (@StonecoldSxnick) April 16, 2024
Get those Pedro Grifol bingo cards out. I have a feeling someone’s winning tonight pic.twitter.com/R5ZSyCflBF
— Noah Phalen (@Noahp245) April 13, 2024
The last time they met
The Phillies visited the South Side of the CHI in April 2023. Due to a rainout, they first played a doubleheader, which they split, and then the Phillies prevailed in the finale behind a quality start by Taijuan Walker and Trea Turner’s first home run as a Phillie.
Trea Turner’s first home run as a Phillie may be the first notable thing to ever happen in a Phillies-White Sox game. pic.twitter.com/8Vv8KBsS3M
— Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) April 19, 2023
What’s the deal with the Sox?
This is not a good roster. There are no Frank Thomases or Paul Konerkos to be found in the lineup. At the moment, there isn’t even a Luis Robert, with the All-Star centerfielder on the Injured List. They rank last in the American League in on-base percentage and slugging percentage, and not coincidentally, have the fewest runs scored in the league. Their most productive player on offense is shortstop Paul DeJong. You may remember DeJong as a former All-Star who hit 30 home runs in a season, but that was six years ago. Basically, if DeJong is your best offensive player, you do not have a good offense.
The Sox did recently come to an agreement with Tommy Pham, and he should be joining the major league roster soon. He won’t be a savior by any means, but he is at least a competent Major League hitter. But I have to wonder: If Pham was going to wait until the season began to sign an underwhelming deal, why not choose a contender (Like maybe the Phillies)?
Tommy Pham finally has a job: Agrees to one-year, $3 million contract with the Chicago White Sox including $1.5 million in incentives. The White Sox outbid the San Diego Padres, who also made offer for Pham. The deal was pending MLB approval. @juanctoribio on the salary.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) April 16, 2024
The pitching appears to be in slightly better shape – it would be difficult to be worse – but they aren’t going to overwhelm anyone either. The days of the Sox rotation containing names like Dylan Cease and Carlos Rodon are over, and they’ve been replaced with (mostly) younger players. The starting pitchers scheduled for the series are Garrett Crochet, Mike Soroka (Yes, it’s that Mike Soroka), and Nick Nastrini (Wasn’t that the name of Voldemort’s snake?) Both Crochet and Nastrini were highly rated prospects, so at least there’s some upside there.
I’m not even mad, that’s amazing
Second baseman Nicky Lopez has been caught stealing four times already in 2024. That’s impressive considering that he’s carrying an on-base percentage of .255. I realize that on-base percentage doesn’t accurately reflect the number of opportunities to be caught stealing since you can be on first after errors or a fielder’s choice. But I checked and found that every caught stealing came after he reached via hit or walk. That means, he has been caught stealing one out of every four times he’s reached base!
How many times does Nicky Lopez have to be caught stealing 2nd before the Sox quit sending him?
— danimal (@rosiedmr) April 7, 2024
The Mark Brendanawicz Award
James Shields
You probably remember “Big Game” James Shields for his exploits with the Rays. Shields is an example of how early postseason success will cement a legacy as a strong playoff performer, even if he repeatedly fails for the rest of his career. (I call this Brett Favre Syndrome). Shields pitched well during the Rays’ run to the 2008 World Series, and even shut the Phillies out for six innings in game two of the Series. And so, he got the “Big Game” nickname, even though he mostly sucked after that, and finished with a career postseason ERA of 5.46.
The White Sox traded for Shields in June 2016, and he went on to have two and a half awful years for them. His combined ERA for those seasons was 5.31, and in 2018, he finished his career by leading the AL in losses. And all the Sox gave up in exchange for Shields was a young prospect named (gulp) Fernando Tatis, Jr.
7 years ago today, The San Diego Padres acquired RHP Erik Johnson & INF Fernando Tatis Jr. from the Chicago White Sox in exchange for RHP James Shields and cash.pic.twitter.com/zFcmjj8xWL
— Baseball King (@BasebaIlKing) June 4, 2023
Smarty’s Most 90’s Thing Ever Tournament
The #3 seeded dial-up sounds cruised past Windows 95 and into the next round.
Here’s our next first round matchup:
#6 – Seinfeld
A show about nothing somehow became the biggest hit on television.
I think of the Jerk Store plot from Seinfeld at least once a week. Absolutely perfect pic.twitter.com/k4d9xXbyQv
— Three Year Letterman (@3YearLetterman) April 12, 2024
#11 – Game Boy
Nintendo was great, but what if you could take it out of your house? Thanks to Game Boy, you could!
Nintendo Game Boy SEARS 1990 pic.twitter.com/JacLfQcztN
— Battle Armor Dad (@BattleArmorDad) July 11, 2021
Which should advance? You decide!
Another White Sox memory
The Phillies and White Sox don’t have much of a rivalry, and there haven’t been many memorable games played between them. But the last time the Sox came to town, we did get this highlight:
8.3.2019
Roman Quinn on the mound and Vince Velasquez in left field pic.twitter.com/PC4vLK5aGB
— John Foley (@2008Philz) August 3, 2022
Sigh…I miss Vinny. Just kidding, he’s probably my least favorite Phillie ever.
Non-Phillies thought
There was a lot of uproar this week about how little Caitlin Clark will be paid this season, in comparison to her male counterparts. And… yeah; When one league brings in that much more money than another, it stands to reason that the pay scales will reflect that. If you don’t like it, do something to fix it!
If you are a fan of a league, and want that league’s players to be paid more, you should be:
– Buying tickets
– Buying merchandise
– Regularly watching games on TV
– Patronizing the leagues advertisersIf you’re not doing that, you just answered why the players are underpaid
— Smarty: In the play-in round (@TheSmartyJones) April 16, 2024
Closing thought
Even the worst teams find ways to win games here and there, so even though the White Sox are bad, it doesn’t mean a sweep is guaranteed. That said, the Phillies need to bank as many wins as they can during this lighter stretch of the schedule, so anything less than winning two out of three is unacceptable.