Following up: Eloy Jiménez meets Minute Maid Park

Baseball Savant

When Eloy JimĂ©nez returned to the White Sox from the sprained ankle he suffered on the left-field wall in Chicago, I’d hoped that Rick Renteria would give him a couple of games at designated hitter to help him get reacquainted with MLB action, and maybe get his bat on track once freed of defensive responsibilities.

Instead, Renteria threw him into one of the most unusual left fields in the game at Minute Maid Park. Thanks to the night game, the White Sox coaching staff had time to put Jiménez through some pregame paces:

JimĂ©nez had a quieter night compared to his previous four games in the field, including an arduous series in Comerica Park. But after handling just one chance — and a routine one — over the first seven innings, Michael Brantley made him scramble for a deep drive in the eighth. Here’s an uncharitable screen shot documenting the result of JimĂ©nez’s effort:

The whole effort looks similarly ungraceful …

… but I’m more inclined to blame this on the Crawford Boxes than anything JimĂ©nez did specifically. Sure, it features the conservative arc that was the trademark of his play in Detroit, and his right arm is still trying to find the light switch in a hotel room at 4 a.m., but the harsh lines of Minute Maid Field’s outfield boundary would have compromised even a good left fielder. JimĂ©nez maintained his angle while giving the the short porch a wide berth when the slice of Brantley’s liner begged him to either get turned around or embark on a literal crash course with the corner.

JimĂ©nez handled the tough part probably as well as you could expect. Houston’s broadcast sympathized with the rookie’s first game in Houston, and Geoff Blum telestrated the required route:

Alas, after Jiménez improbably charted a course that put him in position to make the catch, he mistimed the jump:

JimĂ©nez has now been taken into a wall in four of his last five games, which is the kind of thing baseball does to somebody who’s hanging by a thread with a particular facet (see: Adam Engel with two outs and runners in scoring position). After watching JimĂ©nez’s first encounter with the Crawford Boxes, I still wouldn’t mind seeing him take or turn or two at DH until the Sox move to Target Field’s more conventional dimensions later in the week.

* * * * * * * * *

Stretching the statute of limitations on “following up,” we head to Citi Field. During Monday night’s tilt between the Mets and Nationals, old “friends” Adam Eaton and Todd Frazier showed that L’affaire LaRoche remains a frozen conflict at best.

Eaton and Frazier have been at odds ever since they landed on opposing sides of Adam LaRoche’s retirement. Bruce Levine said they had to be separated in the clubhouse at some point over the 2016 season, and they exchanged words on the field last season as well.

Frazier offered the media nothing after the game:

Eaton indulged:

“Yeah, I don’t know,” Eaton said. “Gosh, who knows what goes through that guy’s mind? He’s chirping all the way across the infield. He must really like me, [because] he wants to get my attention it seems like every time we come into town, he really cares what I think about him. I don’t know what his deal is, if he wants to talk to me in person or have a visit or what it is. But he’s always yelling across the infield at me, making a habit of it.

“He’s one of those guys who always says it loud enough that you hear it but can’t understand it. So, he’s making a habit of it. I ignored him a couple times chirping coming across, but I had it to the point where I’m not going to say the saying I want to say but you got to be a man at some point. So, I turned around, had a few choice words with him. It’s funny, I was walking towards him, he didn’t really want to walk towards me but as soon as someone held him back then he was all of a sudden he was really impatient, like trying to get towards me. Just being Todd Frazier. What’s new?”

Both of these guys are weirdos, but as long as they’re fighting each other on two different disastrous sub-.500 teams, and neither of them are the White Sox, I’m all for them continuing it as long as they can.

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MrStealYoBase

Glad Eaton is busy running his mouth to the press for another team. I buy the speculation that his trade was motivated less by the rebuild (he had 5 season on his contract) than by the desire to rid the clubhouse of that poison.

Lo-and-behold, he’s on another team playing well below their talent level.

dwjm3

Eaton is a rube

fundman

Chalk up two more success stories to the Sox pro scouting department

Lurker Laura

I don’t think that’s fair in the Eaton case. He played very well in Chicago. And you never know how personalities are going to mesh; sometimes previously difficult people work out (see: Pierzynski, AJ), sometimes they don’t.

CarolinaSoxFan

Very well said; Adam Eaton did play great in Chicago.

However, that whole thing about referring to Drake as a “clubhouse leader” – that sure didn’t go over well here, and I can imagine that sentiment was even less popular in the clubhouse.

fundman

I’m not arguing that Eaton wasn’t a good player, but let’s review how they got there. They started fighting over LaRoche who of course was supposed to replace Adam Dunn. Neither of those two acquisitions cover the Sox FO in glory. Frazier had some drop off with us but he wasn’t horrible so there’s that. I am not saying Eaton was a mistake because they got a good player who was blocked in AZ, but the rest of this story shows again how their MLB scouting is really substandard.

Lurker Laura

I’m not sure how their scouting could have foreseen (a) Eaton’s stance on the LaRoche mess, or (b) Eaton and Frazier hating each other.

asinwreck

To be fair, Miguel Montero called Eaton out as a lousy teammate when they were both in Arizona, so there was public knowledge that Eaton was not the most universally-loved player in the game. His on-base and defensive skills still made him a worthwhile acquisition.

karkovice squad

Kind of ironic that Montero got cut for being a bad teammate.

joewho112

A player who publicly calls out teammates getting cut for being a bad teammate is the opposite of ironic

fundman

Well the LaRoche mess doesn’t happen of their department of pro scouting doesn’t green light getting him or trading for Dunn previously.

Lurker Laura

@fundman, Which is different than your original argument that Eaton was a failure of the pro scouting.

Look, the Sox’s pro scouting has earned itself few, if any, benefits of the doubt in the last decade. Lots of failures. Eaton wasn’t one of them. That’s all I’m saying.

As Cirensica

Look, the Sox’s pro scouting has earned itself few, if any, benefits of the doubt in the last decade.

Hmmmm nope. No benefit of the doubt. Zilch. Nothing. They suck. I have no doubts about it. I have data to back it up. White Sox has the worst fWAR among all the major league teams in the last 10 years for position players.

Having some hits amidst several misses is just throwing a lot of darts to a wall…eventually, one will hit something of value. That’s not being good at darting (sp?)

Papa Giorgio

2019 White Sox: At least we’re not bad AND embarrassing?

yinkadoubledare

Likeably Bad.

ParisSox

Losing beautifully?

karkovice squad

A Beautiful Mediocrity

As Cirensica

All these oxymoron are depressing.

gibby32

Eaton is a good player and annoying. Frazier is a lousy player and annoying. So long as I don’t have to be in a clubhouse with Eaton, I enjoy watching him play; not Frazier, however.

Trooper Galactus

Eaton’s playing at replacement level so far this year per bWAR. They’re both lousy, and Frazier at least has the excuse of being 3 years older.

As Cirensica

Putting Eloy at DH AND stealing PAs to Yonder Alonso. That’s a Win-Win situation!

Quite honestly, I can’t see Eloy as a long term outfielder, and that is a bit of a let down for a hyped prospect.

lil jimmy

With that odd outfield, I’d say it’s best they DH him.

Right Size Wrong Shape

I hate that park.

NDSox12

The Sox could lose every game there for the rest of eternity and it would still hold a special place in my heart.

CarolinaSoxFan

I believe it was September 26, 2005, that the White Sox won two games there in 24 hours.

asinwreck

October 26. I was halfway across the world, in a place where the end of Game 3 was around dinnertime. That meal was washed down with a very good bottle of wine, and then Game 4 was over the next day in time for a celebratory lunch. Happy memories of that building once named for Enron.

CarolinaSoxFan

D’oh. Of course, October 26. It’s a bitch getting old. 🙂

Lurker Laura

His right arm is still trying to find the light switch in a hotel room at 4 a.m.

It’s funny because it’s true. It’s sad because it’s true.

itaita

Eloy’s outfield paths remind me of those family circus comics with the dotted line.

GoGoSoxFan

Is this the game thread?

tommytwonines

I saw the Statue of Limitations once while vacationing back East. Not quite the Statue of Liberty, but nice!

jorgefabregas

Eloy looked like he was running in knee-deep water on that Bregman flyout just now.

PopeDonnPall

I could really use a fix of his bat looking near as dangerous as Vlad’s did. Even when Jr wasn’t homering, he looked like he was about to. I watch Eloy thinking please don’t chase breaking balls away and can he even reach those pitches? Given what we’re watching on D, kinda need the bat. Can he drink whatever Vlad Jr or Chavis or Alonso are drinking?