Trying to perfect tanking: 2018 Chicago White Sox

thread title courtesy of https://www.theringer.com/mlb/2018/4/2/17187594/chicago-white-sox-redefining-tanking-cubs-astros

a pretty fun team? six home runs in their first game of the season, including three from matt davidson and two from tim anderson

The other good news is that this is the last Hawk year and Jason Benetti is awesome.

i think that title (which rany j presumably did not choose) is unreasonable

rebuilding is a long-standing practice -- they traded their dudes for high-ceiling prospects, not to deliberately be terrible and get high draft picks, like the sixers or whomever

i'd be more inclined to call whatever the marlins are doing 'tanking' except that i don't know if they are trying or even care about ultimately improving

Danny Farquhar suffered a brain hemorrhage last night and is in critical condition.

“He’s a fighter, and he’s in the fight of his life right now,’’ Chicago White Sox vice president Ken Williams said. “They had to do another surgery, cracking his skull open, and putting a clamp on it. My God.

“This certainly shows the fragility of life and how we take every day for granted. And it can change in a heartbeat. Literally.

“His wife and mother were at the game that night, and by the time they got to the clubhouse, he was already in an ambulance heading to the hospital. Can you imagine what they went through, and are still going through?’’

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2018/04/22/danny-farquhar-brain-aneurysm/540455002

First career HR:

LaMarre: "I’m not sure which uncle. I have a lot of them. But one of them caught the ball, which is crazy."

— Scott Merkin (@scottmerkin) August 15, 2018

kopech up tomorrow. not sure why, but his command has dramatically improved in the last six weeks -- should be intersting

maybe tim anderson is good after all

the Mets telecast just featured the phrase "White Sox legend Paul Konerko"

hate to say it, but maybe TLR wasn't the biggest problem?

they are pretty depressing. the pitching is bad all-around, their best players are constantly injured, there's still a lot of rando chaff guys in the lineup. robert started the season off hot but cooled off quickly. they made no moves at all in the offseason aside from losing abreu and signing benintendi. mostly there just doesn't seem to be any energy or motivation among the players, they should probably just go into rebuild mode at this point.

Tim Anderson is a free agent in 2024 as well.

i think they are cursed for continuing to employ mike clevinger

though the braves seem to get away with continuing to employ marcell ozuna, so who knows

xp oh yeah forgot that

Absolutely cursed 2 of those 7 wins are his starts 😑

Are we *sure* the #whitesox fired La Russa?

— Joe Sheehan (@joe_sheehan) April 26, 2023

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-white-sox-are-utterly-terrible/

took a no-hitter into the 7th inning and ended up losing 12-3 (to the rays, to be fair)

also pedro grifol pulled luis robert from the game for not hustling out a ground ball