Say It Ain’t So: White Sox Not Laboring on Labor Day

September 1, 2014 @ admin → No Comments

Monday meanderings: Once upon a time (OK, maybe merely a few decades ago), Labor Day doubleheaders were the norm. Nowadays doubleheaders in general are the rarity with most being day/night encounters that allow bean counters to have separate gates for each game. OK, I get it. What I do not get is teams not playing on Labor Day. And that means you, Chicago White Sox (among others).

Video below of bikini champ Theresa Orsini.

* Speaking of Labor Day, is it me or does anyone else confuse that with Mother’s Day? Yeah, that’s what I thought. I’m the only one.

* To make their series in St. Louis with the Cardinals competitive, the Chicago Cubs did not play Anthony Rizzo the entire four-game series. And Jorge Soler played only the first two games (both Cubs victories). So even though the Cards won Sunday’s game 9-6 after the Cubs took an early 5-0 lead and a later 6-4 lead, think of it as the Cubs winning at least 2.5 of the four games (even if it doesn’t show that in the standings).

* Speaking of the Cubs, they showed they have talent but lack that certain something that separates this current crop of hopefuls from the predecessors. What Arismendy Alcantara is doing in center field certainly qualifies as on-the-job training. And far from an unqualified success. On the bright (?) side, he doesn’t cost the team much — in terms of dollars at least.

* Speaking of splitting a series (as we were a couple of paragraphs ago), that’s what Detroit and the White Sox did at U.S. Cellular Field, as the Sox prevailed 6-2. Jose Abreu had his major-league-leading 99th run batted in. Which means he has to wait until Tuesday to reach triple digits. No game on Labor Day? Really? Really dumb, if you ask me (which, of course, no one did).

* Speaking of the Sox, despite being traded Sunday to the Oakland A’s, Adam Dunn still leads the Sox in walks with 65. Chances are he will retain that distinction. Second to Dunn among Sox hitters is Abreu with 40.

* Speaking of Dunn, his power replacement in the Sox lineup, Andy Wilkins, made his big-league debut in Sunday’s victory vs. visiting Detroit. He was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. Did he come up through the Cubs farm system or something?

If it’s any consolation to Cubs fans (and it possibly might be to the most delusional in the crowd), Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton has struck out 160 times in 500 at-bats. After hours of computation, the statistical-analysis department around here says he whiffs 32 percent of the time. Of course, he also leads the NL in runs batted in (98), home runs (33) and walks (88). By going 0-for-5 with two strikeouts, Cubs second baseman Javy Baez lowered his batting average to .188. He also actually lowered his strikeout percentage. He has struck out 49 times in 112 at-bats. So his percentage is all the way down to .438. Stanton is averaging a homer every 15.2 at-bats. Baez, who has seven homers, is averaging one every 16 at-bats. So there’s that. No? No.

* Speaking of Baez, at what point does Cubs manager Rick Renteria realize Baez won’t see better pitches batting No. 2 in the lineup? Pitchers do not give fastballs down the middle because Anthony Rizzo or Starlin Castro is behind him.

* September for the Cubs and Sox will be an opportunity to give young players more experience. No guarantee that will make the players any better or the teams any better. But it does offer marketing opportunities for next season. Ah, yes, next season. Or the season after that. Or … or not.

* And, yes, the unofficial theme song for the rest off the Chicago baseball season should be Green Day’s “Wake Me Up When September Ends.”

* Cardinals left fielder Matt Holliday had 10 RBI in the series vs. the Cubs. Meaning (small sample size alert) at that rate he would drive in 100 runs if he could play 40 games against the Cubs. And, yes, some of us can understand why Renteria walked the bases loaded in the eighth inning (which meant unless the batter before Holliday hit into a double play, Holliday would bat). And, yes, Matt Carpenter (the batter intentionally walked to load the bases) is a tough out. But do you really want to face the opposing team’s hottest hitter in that situation? Guess Renteria is learning on the job, too.

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