Cease Offering

 

I'm gonna be honest here, I really thought that putting Pedro Grifol in Tony LaRussa's place would solve a lot of the White Sox' problems.

As it turns out, even the people who were playing well last year have gotten off to miserable starts. Dylan Cease was doing alright and now his ERA is more like 4.15 as more people have figured him out, not really elevating himself from Giolito, Kopech or Lynn, who are both still struggling. Mike Clevinger seems to be at least doing alright, but he's being a lot more selective with how hard he's throwing and, similar to Noah Syndergaard, is much less lethal than he was. So already, with a duller rotation, a lot of the White Sox' former appeal has dissolved a bit. Cease will probably rebound and have something of a strong year, but the idea of having a consistent rotation of these guys is even further than it was when Keuchel was still there.

Even stranger is that with all this talent signed to the bullpen, it's not doing much better. Kendall Graveman came off a career year and signed with the Sox, this season he's struggled. Joe Kelly is struggling, Jake Diekman is struggling, Jimmy Lambert is struggling. They have Reynaldo Lopez working the 9th and it's not going well. It's not a bad sign when you're waiting for a cancer patient to come back in order for your bullpen to work again. 

And then, and I never thought I'd say this seeing as how the Sox have developed their young hitters in the last few years, but this lineup really is missing Jose Abreu. I know, he's not doing that well in Houston so far, but Andrew Vaughn was a bit more accurate as a DH than a 1st baseman, and without a strong lineup anchor, everybody's sort of scrambling around trying to fill holes. Jake Burger's trying to be a lot of things at once right now, and it's only working so much. Moncada and Anderson are hurt, as per usual this part of the decade. Jimenez WAS hurt, now he's back and not hitting. Colas, Sosa and Romy Gonzalez haven't cracked it yet. Grandal has at least improved but now he's 34 and around replacement level. And even Luis Robert, who IS playing well, is now at the mercy of Grifol because he wasn't hustling last night! Even with all the herculean effort to build this team up, it really hasn't worked, and they're still here, circling fourth and disappointing people.

This team could come together somewhat, like it did last August, and it could completely turn things around in the coming months. But, a lot like the Padres, this is a pretty dire start for a team that made definite improvements over the offseason, and I really hope they have something to show for it at the end.

Coming Tonight: SPEAKING OF TEAMS THAT ARE DISAPPOINTING PEOPLE RIGHT NOW...