The Eye: Follow all Saturday's MLB action live
Baseball’s longest active losing streak belongs to the Chicago White Sox, who lost a heartbreaker on Friday night (TEX 2, CWS 1). Chris Sale tossed a gem but closer David Robertson blew the save and took the loss in the ninth. The ChiSox have now lost eight straight.
Chicago was not a consensus contender coming into the season but they were generally viewed as a possible wild-card threat. In addition to Robertson, who has been pretty excellent overall even with Friday’s blown save, the team also brought in Jeff Samardzija, Melky Cabrera and others over the winter.
It hasn’t worked. Samardzija has a 4.67 ERA, Melky has been one of the worst hitters in baseball (.238/.272/.276), and the team is 28-38 with a minus-70 run differential overall. They’re 11 games back in the AL Central and 8.5 games back of a wild-card spot.
Earlier this week, GM Rich Hahn tacitly admitted time is running out for the White Sox to turn their season around. He seemed to admit the team will sell at the trade deadline if they don’t improve and fast. From Colleen Kane of the Chicago Tribune:
“Until a player is traded or there has been a change on the staff or in the front office or with an advanced scout or whatever, we are all in this 100 percent together,” Hahn said when asked about manager Robin Ventura’s job security. “We are all accountable together, and we are all doing everything in our energy and efforts to put ourselves in the best position to win. Should we get to the point where any of that changes, you’ll know and we’ll explain why.”
The White Sox do have some nice trade chips, starting with Samardzija, an impending free agent with great stuff but not necessarily the results to match. Emilio Bonifacio and Alexei Ramirez are both in the final guaranteed years of their contracts but are having poor seasons. There could be a market for Adam LaRoche, Gordon Beckham and Geovany Soto.
Should Hahn take the plunge and decide to sell, my guess is his only three untouchables would be Sale, Jose Abreu and Carlos Rodon. Maybe Adam Eaton as well, but the other three are obvious “not trading him!” guys. They’re cornerstone players the White Sox can built around going forward.
For now, the ChiSox will look to stop their losing streak on Saturday afternoon with Rodon on the mound against the Rangers.
Things keep going from bad to worse for the White Sox. (USATSI)
Welcome to Saturday’s edition of Eye on MLB. This is your one-stop shop for everything going on the world in baseball. Here you’ll find game recaps, milestone updates, important highlights, quirky highlights, news, notes, rumors and lots more. Check back for updates throughout the day or come back Sunday morning for the finished product. Your call.
Today’s MLB action (all times ET) (Full scoreboard)
Milestone Watch
Longest active hit streak: Jason Kipnis of the Indians owns the current longest active hit streak at a mere 14 games. He’s just one-quarter of the way to Joe DiMaggio’s record coming into Saturday.
A-Rod watch: Now that his 3,000th hit is out of the way, the next milestone up for Alex Rodriguez is 2,000 career runs scored. He’s at 1,957 coming into Saturday, the ninth most all-time.
Possibly more to come later.
Daily Awards
Coming throughout the day.
Injuries, News & Rumors
Report: Blue Jays looking at Brewers’ Francisco Rodriguez
Cubs Joe Maddon confirms that Kyle Schwarber headed back to minors
Shane Victorino to do baserunning drills for Red Sox
Braves release pitcher Trevor Cahill
Click here for more MLB player news
Looking Ahead to Tomorrow’s MLB action (all times ET)
We’ve got a full slate of games on Sunday, as usual. The Dodgers-Giants rivalry will be on national television.
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