Signs of Life in Chicago

 

"Alright, let's try that again, this time good." - David Lynch, on set of Twin Peaks: The Return circa 2016.

There's a couple of possibilities as to what led to the outcome of the White Sox annihilating the Angels 8 to 1 on Opening Day. One possibility is that, after a miserable year last year, the White Sox may in fact have learned something, and are improving slightly. Another possibility is that the Angels are just that terrible. Or, it could be completely incongruent to the rest of the season, a mirage of hope in a desert. 

But here's what was clear from that game: this is a team that has people that can give you an eight run game, people like Andrew Benintendi, Lenyn Sosa, Austin Slater and Miguel Vargas, even if they might not all be 100 RBI guys. This is a team that has young starters that can go six innings without giving up earned runs, even if they have like only a month's MLB service time to their name like Sean Burke. This is a team that, despite being gutted entirely, still has Luis Robert Jr., who's looking to rebound from his upsetting 2024. And this is a team where the bullpen can hold a team down to just 1 run. These are steps forward from last year. I don't think this makes the White Sox a GOOD team, but they're definitely not as awful as before. 

And again, having a more confident, surging season from Luis Robert will help this team even more. He's 27, coming off a spring where he hit 4 homers and 8 RBIs, he's fully healthy and he's fully ready to attack. I'm sensing we get another classic season from this guy. The depressing part of that is, seeing as this is the last year of his contract, it is very likely that he'll be pawned off to the highest bidder in July, but considering that similar trades last year brought them Miguel Vargas, Drew Thorpe and eventually Braden Montgomery and Kyle Teel, there's a high possibility that this would be better for them in the long run. Remember, trading Chris Sale brought them Yoan Moncada, and trading Jose Quintana brought them Dylan Cease and Eloy Jimenez. There's a chance that even if Luis Robert gets dealt it still helps this team. 

As for Robert himself, I think he's firmly in the Randy Arozarena category of 'excellent producer, not the most consistent'. He's good to have on your team, has some amazing months, but he's not as reliable as some of the elite guys. Maybe he turns over a new leaf this year, but there's limits to his excellence. 

The White Sox have a chance to reclaim the narrative slightly and finally come off as a somewhat competent, fairly unspectacular team this year. There will be embarrassing losses, of course, but hopefully there will be far less of them. And Thursday's win was a good start to that.

Coming Tonight[?]: I saw him pitch 3 times at Yankee Stadium last year. Today he's pitching there again, against a guy I also saw pitch there last year. The uniforms are a little different.