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Showing results for tags 'confronting reality'.
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Jake Lamb was an all star for a season. He also was a mediocre player for the White Sox. A.J. Pollack once won a gold glove. He misplayed a ball at the wall against the Tigers in game one earlier this season and overran a catchable ball near the fence during a recent game against the Angels. The point is that many players have a single great season but fail to produce stellar performances over a career. Anyone is capable of having a big or outlier year. Few have the careers of Frank Thomas, Nellie Fox, or Luis Aparicio. In 2019 and 2020 I genuinely believed that the White Sox roster was packed with perennial All Star quality players --- Anderson, Abreu, Eloy, Grandal, Yoan, Luis, and Nicky Two Strikes. Now I believe that I was mistaken, except for Anderson and maybe Jose. Eloy, Yoan, and Luis are above average but unreliable performers on the field. Each may experience one, perhaps two great seasons, but not sustain excellence over the course of a lenghty career. Won't happen. Too many soft tissue injuries, poor command of the strike zone, lapses of concentration and effort in the field. The fear is that if Eloy, Yoan, or Luis is/are traded then soon thereafter the player will suddenly fulfill the great expectations we have had for him. But, that is unlikely to happen for any of those players. More likely, each will have a career liken to Avi Garcia or Jorge Soler rather than Aaron Judge or Mike Trout. Wishing and hoping doesn't make it happen. As to Nicky Two Strikes, he is injury prone and unreliable but in a trade with the Cubs the White Sox got a zero return, anyway. As to Gandal, he is mediocre at best behind the plate and only a streak hitter approaching old age in the life expectancy of a major league player. Besides, Grandal is injury prone, too. Lynn, Gio, Cease, are Kopech are single A quality players compared, for example, to Verlander in today's game. They have no resemblance whatsoever to Jemkins, Gibson, Spahn, Ford, and Robin Roberts who posted wonderful careers without extensive injury and had the capacity to pitch beyond the sixth inning. The White Sox are an average team without the roster that would justify the great expectations we had prior to this disappointing season.