Pedro Grifol has already had enough of Us!!
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. I hope you had one as good as I did. Maybe Pedro Grifol wishes he could’ve just spent his with his family instead of with the White Sox and more directly answering questions about his lineup. From Daryl Van Schouwen’s twitter account…
The White Sox lineup in question for Sunday’s rubber match in Seattle vs the Mariners.
Jake Burger’s West Coast road trip has been highly volatile. In 5 games entering today, he’s hit .143 / .217 / .571 with 3 Home Runs and 4 RBI, but also a 52.2% K-Rate for a 107 wRC+ (7% above league average). Zooming out further, his season long stats entering today were .237 / .287 / .578 with 16 Home Runs and 36 RBI, with a 34.0% K-Rate a wRC+ of 131 (which is 31% above league average and the best on the White Sox with at least 150 plate appearances).
Pedro, Hahn and the crew chose not to promote Jake to the big league club to start the year despite the desperate clamors from the fanbase. Then once he arrived he’s shown them both how smart and stupid they are simultaneously. On the one hand, he’s swinging wildly at nearly everything thrown to the plate and making some head scratching plays on defense at third base. On the other hand, he’s the White Sox most valuable hitter, won some games damn near single handedly and he’s top 10 in Slugging in the entire MLB for players with at least 150 plate appearances.
On a team with an elite offense that’s crushing the competition, him hitting 8th wouldn’t be a thing. A big fat who cares. But on a White Sox team that is bottom 6 in wRC+87 in MLB, a team who’s pitching has turned it around since the calendar flipped over to May, it is actually kind of a big deal.
What is Pedro Thinking?
I struggle to understand what exactly he’s thinking. I know my boy Chorizy-E was shocked by his comments, as he rarely comes for anyone’s head, but in this case, I guess he felt he had to.
WOO BOY! I wasn’t that upset about this, but it did bring me back to something I wrote back in November. While my contemporaries were clinking glasses over won press conferences and MO’s of better communication, a data driven manager and superior preparation, I was pretty skeptical over what I felt was the blandest introduction to a new manager I could remember. The presser back then made me feel like we weren’t getting the real Pedro. It seemed too polished, too rehearsed and it didn’t say anything. It certainly didn’t tip me off to the “modern manager” we were supposedly getting.
Fast forward to how Pedro actually runs a lineup in real time and watching him bat the White Sox best hitter 8th, while putting Zach Remillard (freshly called up from Charlotte where he had a .698 OPS for the season, while his home hitting park is the best this side of the Mississippi River) had me pretty skeptical, even after Zach’s heroic effort in his major league debut the day before.
Okay, BeefLoaf, You Fuck! What would a good answer to this question have been?
When I think about it….
The most clear type of answer could’ve been something to the effect of “Jake’s one of our best hitters, but today’s matchup is specifically tougher on him because of the pitcher’s repertoire and favors some of our more contact based hitters and left handed hitters“. Simple and effectively.
A less encouraging answer, but one that would’ve sufficed as well would be something like “Jake’s one of our best hitters, but on this road trip, he’s struggled a bit with his pitch selection and on a team with a slider heavy throwing bullpen, we want to take a little of the pressure off of him, while still having his thunder in the lineup“. Less pleasant, but still realistic.
Instead we got “how dare you”, curmudgeony style answer that we’d expect from the last regime. The only difference is that Pedro has no skins on the wall and Tony had lots of them. Tony answering with a an air of, how could you challenge my authority?, while equally unsatisfying, was understandable. Pedro’s answer though, to me marks a high level of frustration, which I am sympathetic to, but his lack of articulation also denotes ineptitude or at least a lack of faith in his ability to communicate his decision. I hate to say this, but if Pedro doesn’t either A) get this club winning or B) start treating the observing public like grown ups, I think the immortal James Dalton said it best…
And for the record, Jake only came to the plate 3 times in this afternoon’s 5-1 loss to Seattle.
-BeefLoaf
About The Author
beefloaf108
Low information White Sox Fan. Big Feet Energy ORIGINAL 108er Like Whore 2019 Opening Day #SoxMath WINNAR Mediocrity Personified
Well said – I also think Pedro is becoming a “company” man and Sox fans aren’t stupid.
Pedro is a lousy manager . He fits in well with the lousy GM. Hahn wanted to hire a manager that’s just as incompetent as he is. Congratulations Rick, you’ve finally succeeded at something
Go get em Meteor.
The team has a very poor vibe, that comes , yes, from losing in an embarrassing fashion, but also from a lack of motivation and a manager who seemingly fails to hold players and coaches accountable. Good fundamentals were promised but the opposite has been the case.The fact that the Royals passed on him is extremely telling.
One and done? Yes please and take Bummer with ya!
I literally thought Pedro was going to start spring training a little hard nosed meaning – no flash until we have proven something. There were certain players who don’t abide by the hard-nosed grind em out baseball and continue to wear the bling when they ain’t got no swing.
Sleepy Pedro is not the answer. He is no disciplinarian, and has no clue how to manage his pitching staff. As a 59 year fan, this is the most disgusting team to watch I’ve seen. Guys should be ashamed to accept those huge paychecks.