We're about a month and a half away from the end of the season, and already we've hit 'oh, what's the point?' levels of play on the South Side of Chicago.
It's a bit maddening, because back in like May, the Sox actually had a tiny chance. They'd won enough games to separate themselves from the pack, and were actually a figure in the race for the AL Central. And then July happened, they lost a ton of big games following the ASG, and they mellowed into what we have now: a completely inconsequential team that's not going to finish in last, but who's not going to impact the season at all going forward.
They're the single greatest meh-achievers in the game right now.
Why them and not the Diamondbacks? Because the Diamondbacks still sort of have a chance. Same with the Giants. They have enough of a stake in the wild card race that we could still be talking about them in a month. Not so with the White Sox. The AL Central is a two-horse race, the AL Wild Card race's admission involves being less than 10 wins behind the Red Sox, and even the Padres have a better record than them.
The only thing the White Sox can do is to just keep winning games and try and end the season on a slightly positive note, which is tricky when you're forced to start Hector Santiago, and have a 25-home-run hitter with 116 strikeouts, and not in a fun Mike Trout way.
Like...the pitching is at least slightly less dire than it previously was. Ivan Nova and Reynaldo Lopez have stepped up and started actually pitching well, with Lopez notching 130 strikeouts, and Nova having two complete games this year. Both are sadly at the mercy of their lineup, which results in them getting tagged with the loss more times than not. Dylan Cease is trying to prove his worth, but he's got a 5.53 ERA through 7 starts, and 5 losses. It may be a Giolito kind of thing, where it takes some seasons failing in order to become truly great, and...Giolito might finally be for real, which is nice. But I can't see a lot of this year's rotation translating well into a positive 2020 run.
And as cool as the lineup might be next year...Jose Abreu's a free agent in 2020. The Sox may be working with their last month or so with their marquee star, and he may fly the coop and sign with someplace who needs a first baseman (Minnesota? Arlington?). So as...alright as the Sox have been this year, they need to figure out how much they want to keep working with, and if they want to try and compete next year. Because it could happen...with a lot of work.
Coming Tonight: I've prolonged it enough: one of the most interesting free agent signings of 2019...and how it hasn't exactly worked out quite yet.
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