Ten Thoughts on Chicago Baseball

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I have the feeling the White Sox are going to go into their annual death spiral.  I still hold out hope for the Cubs, though their offense still seems dysfunctional.  Anyway, here are ten thoughts about Chicago's baseball teams.

10:  Jon Jay doesn’t add anything to the White Sox.  He doesn’t have the arm to play right field, the speed to play center or the bat to play left.  At least Adam Engel gave the Sox quality defense in center field as well as speed.  Even Dan Palka has power.  Jay is a reminder of the cheap approach the White Sox took in trying to sign Manny Machado.

9:  Tim Anderson is a nice offensive player but I’m not sure he’s a championship caliber shortstop. Last night Anderson had a play at third but went to first on Marco Hernandez’s game winning hit.  That play wasn’t well thought out.  He also just makes too many errors at short to play on a championship caliber team.  Anderson gets to use the “I’m young” card only so long.  Tim seems to want to be a leader.  To do that he needs to work on his defense.

8:  James McCann has been a really nice signing by the White Sox.  James is hitting in the .320s and playing strong defense.  I hope the Sox extend him.

7:  Right now I’d rather have Yu Darvish than Jake Arrieta.  Despite Darish’s horrid start he’s been getting better as of late.  Check Twitter sometime and see what Phillies fans think about Jake. I know Jake is a legend in Chicago but looking back too much can hurt you going forward.

6:  I really wish the Cubs had Tommy LaStella instead of Daniel Descalso.  Tommy his hitting .297 with 16 home runs while Descalso is hitting .185 with two homers.  I don’t know if the Cubs were uncertain if they were going to resign Addison Russell and thought they needed Descalso to backup Baez at short, but it looks like a bad move now.  LaStella was a huge threat as a pinch hitter.  Descalso is also a theat as a pinch hitter, but he’s a threat to the Cubs.

5:  The good news is Jason Heyward is swinging the bat better.  The bad news is his defense has dropped off.  Jason is hitting nearly .270 with 11 homers and an OPS of nearly .800.  Sadly, his defensive WAR is -0.3.  Frankly his defense doesn’t look as good to the eye either.

4:  There’s a good chance Kyle Schwarber just isn’t that good.  Maybe what we see is what we get.  Kyle has some power and an OPS of around .800.  He’s an average player.  It’s just that he looked like he would be so much more.

3:  Yoan Moncada is turning into a monster.  Moncada is even starting to hit some from the right side.  In a couple of year he could go from star to superstar.

2:  Nick Madrigal and Luis Robert are tearing it up in AA.  In 15 games Madrigal is hitting .404 and has struck out one time in 57 at bats.  Robert is hitting with power while checking in with an average of.317.  When they get to Chicago maybe the Sox will have some decent starting pitching.

1.  The Cubs are somehow less than the sum of their parts.  On paper the Cubs seem like they should be better than their record.  I know their bullpen has been porous but it also seems like their offense underperforms.  Maybe they need an outfielder who can get on base.