Not gonna lie frents, it’s been a tough start to this year. I’m generally not willing to do much in the way of “analysis” in the first month of the season most years. You gotta wait for things to start to settle to see if your eyeballs are matching up with what the data is telling you. Fortunately for us White Sox fans, bad team has a bunch of bad stats. Ugh.

However, tomorrow (ALLEGEDLY) the White Sox are supposed to get Tim Anderson and Hanser Alberto waltzing in on with their best fits head to toe back to Chicago to help this ball club out of it’s misery. That sounds good, well at least the Tim part, but I have one thought for Rick Hahn.

Don’t Demote Lenyn Sosa!

It’s not common for me to spend my free time ruminating about the team I love and plunge all my support behind a guy that’s not even slugging my weight, but I think I have to do that for Sosa. Fwiw, his slash line is .151 / .167 / .245 at time of post. Knowing what you know now, I bet yous think Steve Stone would suggest I need a salad.

Regardless, despite the inauspicious start at the plate I think Lenyn offers up some of the best upside at the back of this roster. Let’s first focus away from his hitting and then get back to it when I can carve out the other things he does well.

He Catches the Baseball

Sosa is tied for the team lead in Outs Above Average with 3 in this early season. Mind you, he has played a little more than half of the White Sox games, while the guy he is tied with has played in nearly all of them and is clearly one of the better centerfield gloves in the game. That’s a ton of value in a very limited amount of time. YES, he fucked up on that pop up on Friday night vs the Rays, but besides that, he’s been incredibly slick at second. Damn near everyone I have come across in 108 has mentioned something about his good defense.

We knew Elvis Andrus would be a decent defender at the keystone being a shortstop, but he’s not on par with Lenyn. Elvis is however hitting similarly, making this long-time observer prefer Lenyn getting the nod everyday at second.

His Hitting Stinks (So Far), but not like the Others

You know how we are always complaining that the White Sox don’t hit the ball in the air enough, well guess what, Sosa does tend to hit the ball in the air (too many are currently Infield Fly Balls). His break out in the minors also featured him not being an extreme ground-baller like many of his contemporaries on this roster. If there is a guy in this middle infield that one day could start banging a bunch of home runs, it’s likely to be Sosa. In fact, I’m pretty confident saying he’s our only chance in the middle infield (for now).

Lastly, he seems to get better after a laborious learning period.

Lenyn Sosa
First 100 AB in Low-A .170/.200/.220
Next 100 AB .277/.302/.465

First 100 AB in High-A .228/.248/.337
Next 100 AB .355/.396/.538

First 100 AB in AA .218/.248./.297
Next 100 AB .354/.435/.546

First 100 AB in AAA .272/.311/.424
Next 100 .296/.361/.449

— Daniel Victor (@slydanno70) April 30, 2023

I don’t know if his major league adjustments will be as starkly positive, but what exactly the fuck do we have to lose by seeing. He already seems to control the zone okay and unlike his immediate competition on this roster isn’t running strike out rates like Craig Hodges’ career 3 point percentage.

Don’t demote Sosa. And better yet, start him EVERY. DAMN. DAY. Ahead of Elvis Andrus.

-BeefLoaf

FromThe108 Giveaway Central