Through 14 games, the White Sox have been bad. The timing is never right with the pitching and the hitting. When the Sox score runs, the pitching blows the game. When the pitching is good, the hitters can’t string anything together. This is a recipe for disaster. To make matters worse, the White Sox bullpen is the worst in the league and has blown a number of games, including yesterday against the Orioles.
Wasting Quality Starts
In yesterday’s game, Mike Clevinger left the game after six innings of scoreless ball. The Sox were winning 3-0. Immediately following his departure, the bullpen blew the game and the Sox lost 6-3. This has been the blueprint for many of the games in the season so far.
To date, the White Sox have been credited with three blown saves, and their bullpen pitchers have been credited with five losses. That does not include the 22+ ERA that Jose Ruiz had for us before he was cut. To make matters worse, they have the worst ERA in baseball by over a run, and it is the most expensive bullpen in the league. Jay Cuda broke down the spending, showing how much of the payroll is spent on this bullpen.
The fact that the bullpen is over a quarter of the payroll is insane. If you are spending the most money on something, then it better not rank dead last in the league. This is malpractice by Rick Hahn. To make matters worse, Pedro Grifol has not been able to effectively manage this bullpen, making it significantly worse.
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Living And Dying By Jake Diekman
The biggest bullpen mystery has been the extreme use of Jake Diekman in high-leverage situations. Pedro Grifol has explained that he loves to use the lefty-lefty matchup for certain situations, but there comes a time when it does not matter if you can’t get anyone out. This was exemplified in yesterday’s game.
Currently, Diekman ranks as one of the worst in the league in walk percentage and chase rate. This is not a great recipe for a “high-leverage arm.” He does rank high in terms of expected batting percentage and average exit velocity of batted balls, but that is irrelevant if you keep walking people.
To make matters worse, his lefty-lefty matchup is actually not an advantage for Diekman. Against lefty hitters this year, Jake Diekman has a 12.27 ERA, a 49% strike rate, and has walked a quarter of the lefties he faced. All of the runs batted in he’s given up have been to lefties as well. So for Grifol to say that he is using Diekman for the lefty-lefty advantage is just poor management because he has not gotten lefties out. Grifol needs to look at the stats soon because we cannot keep losing like this. Here is his explanation of his decisions yesterday:
Looking at the stats, this line of decision-making is poor. I understand he is a new manager, but he should err on the side of caution. If he cannot realize that Diekman cannot get anyone out, especially lefties, someone should be telling him that. If this trend continues, it will sink the White Sox before the all-star break.
Grifol had Jimmy Lambert warming up before Diekman yesterday. Yet he opted to put in Diekman for the “matchup”. Lambert eventually gave up two runs later in the game, but he has been much better this season and people would not have blamed him for that move. Also, only giving up two runs still keeps up the Sox 3-2. This has been the kryptonite to Pedro Grifol’s tenure so far.
Reinforcements Should Be Coming Soon
While there is no timetable for Liam Hendriks or Garrett Crochet, their arrival in Chicago will help tremendously. Most of the White Sox’s pen has been bad, so getting two good arms back will help significantly.
While it is difficult to manage a bullpen, it doesn’t help when most of the arms are struggling. That is the excuse that Grifol can use for now, but even so, his management has been very poor in this facet of the game. Hopefully, once he realizes what people can and cannot do, it will improve. But, he should know that by now.
Grifol cannot help if his pen arms can’t get outs, but he can put the best man in for the job. That is what he has been doing and it has been costing the Sox games. Grifol and the bullpen need to figure it out soon or the Sox will be out of this season soon.
