As the 2023 baseball season nears the midpoint, here’s what we know and don’t know about the Chicago Cubs and White Sox.
— Tim Anderson is too good a hitter to continue at his current pace. That’s what we keep saying anyway. Anderson, the 2019 American League batting champion, was hitting .358 on June 22, 2022, before going on the injured list with a groin injury. He since has suffered finger, knee and shoulder injuries and is hitting .244 with one home run and 11 RBIs in 93 games. Anderson’s last home run was on July 15, 2022, in Minnesota.
Despite winning this weekend’s series against the Boston Red Sox, the White Sox have given no reason to believe they can be even a .500 team. Giving Anderson playing time at second base should increase his trade value. The Los Angeles Dodgers could be a good fit.
— NBC Sports Chicago’s Chuck Garfien and Ozzie Guillén might be the Sox’s toughest critics. Both criticized Anderson during Friday’s postgame show for not showing any emotion in the high-five line in the dugout after hitting a sacrifice fly. It was a particularly harsh analysis of a player by a TV outlet tied to the team it covers, reminding us of the olden days when Jimmy Piersall did likewise for years on SportsVision.
Piersall, who was fired from SportsVision on Day 2 of the 1983 season after ripping manager Tony La Russa on the radio, was not a favorite of Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf. “My biggest mistake was not firing Harry Caray and Jimmy Piersall before the first day of the 1981 season,” he once said. “There was an atmosphere of negativism that made it hard to win and difficult to attract good ballplayers.”
At least Reinsdorf has left Ozzie and Chuck alone.
— The Cubs announced on flagship station WSCR-AM 670 they plan in July to offer a direct-to-consumer streaming option for Marquee Sports Network, aimed at cord-cutters who don’t subscribe to DirecTV or Fubo. President of business operations Crane Kenney did not disclose a price estimate, but you probably can expect it to be much closer to the Red Sox ($29.99 per month) or New York Yankees ($24.99 per month) than the San Diego Padres ($19.99 per month). The late rollout means Cubs fans would get only two months of games before canceling the service until the 2024 season.
— What was self-described White Sox fan Lori Lightfoot, the former mayor of Chicago, doing in London sitting next to Bill Murray at Saturday’s Cubs-Cardinals game? And why didn’t the Fox broadcasters recognize her?
— You have to feel a little sorry for NASCAR driver Ty Dillon, whose No. 77 Chevrolet will be sponsored by the White Sox in Sunday’s Chicago street race. The Sox logo and colors will be displayed on the car and Dillon’s fire suit. If Dillon crashes early, look for general manager Rick Hahn to get slammed on Sox Twitter.
— ESPN’s Michael Kay mispronounced the name of Cubs closer Adbert Alzolay multiple times during Sunday’s broadcast of the London Series. You’d think a director would whisper in Kay’s ear that he was saying it wrong.
— We also learned from ESPN analyst Alex Rodriguez that Cubs slugger Christopher Morel has the “it factor,” suggesting he’s a star in waiting. Cubs manager David Ross last week compared Morel’s power with that of Ross’ former teammate Josh Hamilton.
All good, but let’s not forget Morel hit four home runs and had a .910 OPS in the Cactus League this spring and was demoted to Triple-A Iowa. President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said they couldn’t find a way to get him at-bats in the majors, and Ross said they would be “doing him a disservice by bringing him off the bench at times.”
— Lance Lynn is too good a pitcher to have a 6.40 ERA, second-worst among qualified pitchers. But Lynn showed in his 16-strikeout game against the Seattle Mariners he still can dominate hitters, which should make him tradable, especially if the Sox eat a chunk of what’s remaining on his contract.
Lynn is owed about $10 million, including a $1 million buyout, and will be 37 entering 2024. There’s no good reason for him to remain on the roster after Aug. 1, no matter how close the Sox are in the AL Central.
— Cubs catcher Tucker Barnhart, who has become Marcus Stroman’s personal catcher, said Stroman never shakes off any pitch calls, giving him more freedom. “He makes my job so easy, allows me to be creative, to see the game and play the game like you’re in high school in terms of pitch calling, kind of (like playing) a video game,” Barnhart said. Stroman said Barnhart “kind of knows what I’m thinking to where I don’t have to think about ptiching, I can just execute.”
Kyle Hendricks, meanwhile, called his own game using PitchCom with rookie catcher Miguel Amaya when he took a no-hitter into the eighth inning against the San Francisco Giants on June 10. But Hendricks let Amaya call pitches in Wednesday’s win in Pittsburgh. “I still had (PitchCom) and we worked through it together, but we had such a good game plan going in and he had a great feel, so it was mostly on him, to be honest,” Hendricks said.
— White Sox setup man Joe Kelly is too good a reliever to have a 5.31 ERA in 1 1/2 seasons in Chicago. He posted a 2.67 ERA in 2020 and ‘21 with the Dodgers, and with Liam Hendriks out, it’s well past time to let Kelly close games and increase his trade value. Kelly is making $9 million this year and has a $9.5 million club option for 2024 that’s unlikely to be picked up. He’s also a goner if Hahn can find a taker.
— What are the chances of the Sox playing in the Paris Series games in 2025? Their appearance in the original Field of Dreams game turned into a classic. The reboot of the rebuild should be in full swing by ‘25. Will anyone be left besides Luis Robert and Pedro Grifol?
