Like most die hard and dedicated Sox fans I have been anticipating this Spring training for years now. As I’ve outlined in my prior posts…I have lots of great White Sox memories. We’ve watch the Sox rebuild begin with the Chris Sale trade, and have watched the young players start to develop. In the past years I even found myself watching the minor league teams to see how the kids were doing. As we begin this year, I’m not sure which player I’m most excited to see. We should put up tons of runs, and be lethal from 1-9 in the order…with the power guys, the speed guys, and the put the ball in play guys…we will be solid. The starting rotation is clearly solid with the big three of Giolito, Keuchel, and Lynn. If Cease has finally learned the strike zone…then we are good 1-4. Every team is weak at the 5 in the rotation…that’s why guys are a 5th starter. How good is this team…my opinion on the team below. I’ll start reviewing players until we get to Opening Day.
White Sox Starting Lineup
Tim Anderson – Here is a guy who years ago I would watch, and I so wanted him to be good. When he came up in 2016, and hit .283, I thought to myself…ok…he’ll be a .300 hitter in a year or so, once he adapts to big league pitching on a full time basis. He followed up that performance with a .257 average in 2017, again…ok…sophomore slump…he’ll be fine. The he hits .240 in 2018, and my thoughts are is he not going to make it, we can find defensive shortstops that hit .240, what happened to the guy we drafted in 2013 with our number 1 pick? Then TA7 appears…I’m not sure what happened to this guy between 2018, and 2019, but 2019 gave us a new Tim Anderson, bolder, a leader, an individual, a guy who looked like he was having fun, and guy who hit .335 and won the batting title. 2020 confirmed that this guy is the real deal…he’s one of the leaders on this team. When he slumped at the end of the year, I had a saying…and I think it’s very true…as TA7 goes…so do the White Sox. This is now the guy I think we always wanted him to be…and the Sox are and will be better off for it. Tim Anderson will be the White Sox shortstop for a long time.
Yoan Moncada – As I mentioned earlier…here is a guy who was the start of the rebuild. On that day in December of 2016, we acquired Yoan, and he subsequently changed his color sox from red to white. Here is another guy I have enjoyed watching get better. I don’t think he is close to reaching his potential yet. He had a rough first year and a half with the Sox…with an average just above .230, and then leading the league in strikeouts with 217, yes…217, that is not a misprint. His strikeout average was .375…yikes, with only 17 home runs. 2019 brought us what I hope is the real Yoyo…a .315 hitter, 25 homers, and down to 154 strikeouts. If he truly was affected by COVID last year, then we should see a bounce back to 2019 form. If we could get .300/25/100 out of him that would be great. He should clearly have more RBI chances with the stacked lineup. I also think that moving him around in the infield messed him up a bit as well. He has learned to play a solid third base…so I am excited to see what this season brings.
To Be continued…
Please leave your thoughts or comments in the comments section. Would like to hear your thoughts fellow White So fans.