Diamondbacks 3, White Sox 0: Lineup lives down to billing
On a non-getaway day, Pedro Grifol rolled out a White Sox lineup featuring just two hitters clearing a .700 OPS, and four of them coming up short of .600.
Unsurprisingly, the Diamondbacks shut them out. The White Sox did produce a fair amount of decent scoring opportunities with eight hits, but they didn’t reach base any other way, they went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position, and in such a fashion that not a single runner reached third base.
That wasted a surprisingly stout effort from a bullpen game headed by Luis Patiño. Six White Sox pitchers combined to hold Arizona to four hits and four walks over nine innings, but the D-backs managed to bunch enough of them together in a three-run third that accounted for all the game’s scoring.
The rally started innocuously enough, with Jace Peterson dropping a bloop one-out single just beyond the reach of Elvis Andrus in shallow center field for the game’s first baserunner. Pitching from the stretch for the first time, Patiño walked Geraldo Perdomo on four pitches to turn over the lineup, and Corbin Carroll made him pay with a scorched two-run double to right center.
Carroll advanced to third on a wild pitch as part of an eventual Ketel Marte walk, and then Tommy Pham pulled a single through the left side to make it 3-0.
Deivi García entered and promptly got Christian Walker, Tuesday’s hero, to ground into a 5-4-3 double play, and nobody scored for the rest of the afternoon.
García retired all seven batters he faced and recorded eight outs for his trouble, and Yohan Ramirez pitched a perfect sixth to make it 10 in a row. Tanner Banks, Garrett Crochet and Bryan Shaw all allowed a baserunner on a single, walk and walk, but the Sox erased two of them with double plays and stranded the other.
Bullet points:
*Zach Remillard perfectly timed a leaping grab at second base to steal a single on the second batter of the game.
*Eloy Jiménez, Trayce Thompson and Lenyn Sosa each had two hits. The rest of the lineup went 2-for-24.
*Tyler Naquin made his White Sox debut as a pinch-hitter in the ninth for Remillard and struck out.
Record: 60-98 | Box score | Statcast
This game was one example of why it pays to have more than one above average hitter on your roster.
I wonder if Getz understands that.
Futility!
Hard to see how this team even wins 50 games next year….we all
Know that the only” deep dives” Getz will be doing come the off-season will be into the bargain bin free agent dumpster. That, coupled with the lack of MLB-ready prospects in this organization is gonna make for another bad and boring 2024z
I’d rather they lose 112 games next year than have them rush a bunch of prospects while spending on more third tier free agents only to wind up at 73 wins and talking about the strides they made.
100 percent. They’ve thrown an astounding amount of money away on turd tier free agents. I’d rather see inadequate prospects than any money spent on the likes of Harrison/Eaton/Kelly, etc.
I agree with both these takes — only free agents they should target would be a shortstop and right fielder who can provide plus or at least “almost plus” defense at those positions… to at least help get outs for
young developing pitchers…all the continued talk—from Getz and now Barfield about how there is so much talent here is nauseating
Luis Robert is the only hitter on the roster with a WAR over 1. Other than him, only Vaughn and Elvis are above .5. Yoan and Beni have the same WAR as Hanser Alberto.
There is so much talent on this team, LOL!
Oh, there’s plenty of talent, just no production.
Maybe! I guess some good questions are these: when we are talking about talent, is that determined at a fixed point in time? Or does it change as we get more information? Is talent purely physical or is it partly mental? Is staying healthy/being reliably available to play at close to 100% a skill that is part of talent, or is it separate from talent (like luck)? Is being able to play a position defensively part of what we talk about when we talk about talent?
My take is that we had some guys with pedigree, but it turns out that they weren’t as talented as we thought. We could use the team’s underperformance for 2.5 years as evidence of that. The team is not performing well because these guys aren’t very good.
Part of that is the head cases, and part of it is the guys who can’t stay healthy. And part of it is that the team painted itself into a corner by drafting multiple 1st basemen, traded for a LF/DH, acquired an aging catcher who probably needed to shift to 1B to save his knees, extended their franchise 1B, refused to pay for outfield defense, and then executed the team’s largest ever FA contract for a LF…all of which meant that we’ve spent the last 3 years with very little defensive talent on the roster.
In the end, part of it is that guys like Yoan and Eloy and Andrew Vaughn and Kopech just simply aren’t among the best players in baseball. We thought they might be, but they are not. And the rest of the team was built on the cheap and many of them don’t belong in the majors at all.
Spending on turd free agents and rushing prospects are both terrible ideas, which means Getz will probably do a combination of both. How about actually spending on quality free agents? The only position player worth spending big on is probably Bellinger. And there are plenty of good starting pitchers available. So spend like a big market team and get Bellinger and 2 starters. Let TA walk- he will never rebound here. Let him try some place else. Sign Andrus and let him play until Montgomery is ready. Get a decent 4th outfielder and maybe one veteran reliever. Of course that puts the payroll around $200M. But Jerry plans on competing next year. Even with all this they may be short- but at least try.
The lineup could be:
Benintendi lf
Yoan 3b
Robert cf
Bellinger rf
Eloy DH
Vaughn 1b
Sosa/Rodriguez/Ramos 2b
Andrus ss
Lee/Lopez/Hackenburg c
A rotation of Cease, 2 quality FA starters, Kopech/Touki/Nastrini and a bullpen headed by Crochet, Santos, Bummer and another vet along with 4 that impress most in ST. At least that would be competitive. And Jerry’s great-great-great-great-great-great grandkids might have to suffer a little, but that’s the price to pay.
Benintendi should realistically be in the bottom 3rd of that lineup, and if that’s the case you’re looking at another season where the bottom half of your order are likely automatic outs.
This team could have a $500 mil. Payroll and they still wouldn’t get to the World Series.
On the other hand, this team could have a 20 million payroll and be exactly as good as this one.
I guess you never know when two guys batting below .200 are each going to get two hits in a meaningless September afternoon game. But one thing you definitely know is that you won’t regret having not seen the game.
Thanks for the recap. Obviously didnt watch this so can’t comment on the game itself but overall the score looks pretty White Soxy. Any who, Josh Barfield at least sounded tolerable so far, but I hope he doesn’t fall victim to Reinsdorfian culture. Kills the good and somehow brings the worst of out people in terms of results.
I mean buckle the hell up for 2024 cause wow whoa we wa wa, this lineup and staff is a dumpster fire of bad. No amount of whitesox free agent type signings is getting this team anywhere near 75 wins let alone contention.
The worst course of action would be to spend on middle tier and olderish free agents. In some half ass reload that actually sets you back long term. No benintendi, no grandal type signings. On the flip side I also dont want to see players like Quero or Montgomery rushed to the majors.
Getz better walk a fine line in free agency, dont commit to much passed 2024, find some plug in guys you can flip at the deadline or let walk after 2024 in an effort to buy time for the younger players in the system.
The positional players all need another year, and other then Nastrini I dont think any of the arms have that good of a shot to break camp with the team, so you need to protect a bunch of those guys and let them develop in AAA.
Tyler Naquin? This is the first time I’ve heard this name.
He’s one of the Sox’ top prospects.
ever?
Naquin at least had a somewhat decent career. I would rather see him than Sheets
I believe the Rockies’ magic number for clinching the final spot for best draft odds is now 1 (not sure how the tiebreakers work, but probably a moot point anyway). What a season.
Rockies got 1 more vs the Dodgers and then 3 vs the Twins so yea It’s ova!
We need luck now which of course we have none, oh well it’s probably a shit draft class anyhow.
The 4th pick in the draft has yielded Schwarber, Floyd, Ryan Zimmerman, Gausman, Larkin, Winfield, Munson, and Kevin Brown. And Nick Madrigal.
We will of course get the next Riley Pint.
There have been a lot of busts there, but it’s a real chance to add talent.