Tony La Russa submitted his worst Chicago White Sox lineup
April 20th, 2022 was not a good day for Chicago White Sox baseball. They were swept in a doubleheader against their rivals in the Cleveland Guardians. The two losses moved the White Sox to 6-5, now in a tie with the Guardians for first place.
Meanwhile, former members of the White Sox are performing well for other teams like Carlos Rodon, Zack Collins, and Nick Madrigal. All those players were former 1st round draft picks for the Sox that they couldn’t hold onto.
In the first game of the doubleheader, the White Sox fell apart defensively with some of the worst defense imaginable, perhaps more adept for a little league team. Shortstop Tim Anderson made 3 errors in the first couple of innings just by himself. They lost 11-1.
The Second game was somehow worse because manager Tony La Russa put together what looks like one of the worst lineups in the history of major league baseball.
The White Sox offense has been a monstrosity this season as they have seemingly haven forgotten how to hit home runs but Tony La Russa’s lineups aren’t helping. The lineup looked like something out of a baseball horror film.
- Josh Harrison 3B
- Adam Haseley CF
- Leury Garcia 2B
- Yasmani Grandal DH
- Gavin Sheets 1B
- Andrew Vaughn LF
- Reese McGuire C
- Adam Engel RF
- Danny Mendick SS
The only surprise was that the White Sox somehow managed to score a run in the game, losing 2-1. Yes, it was the second game of a doubleheader but there’s no excuse for a Major League Baseball lineup to be this bad.
Tony La Russa is not doing a good job with the Chicago White Sox batting order.
First off you have Josh Harrison batting leadoff, who is hitting .107 on the season, and hasn’t been good in years. He’s also playing third base when that’s not his natural position. Then we have Adam Haseley making his season debut batting second.
Many analysts say that the number 2 spot is where you should bat your best hitter, yet the Sox gave that role to a guy with a career .692 OPS who hadn’t played all year. Batting third is Leury Garcia, hitting .077 on the season with zero homers.
No Major league team lineup should ever have Leury Garcia batting third, yet Tony La Russa already did it last year before batting him there on April 20th and April 21st this season. When that’s happening, you can tell this isn’t a serious baseball team.
It’s amazing that with a lineup like that, there are still some fans who think the team was “smart” to not sign Bryce Harper or Manny Machado or that it doesn’t matter that they traded Nick Madrigal.
Looking at this lineup, it’s pretty obvious we could use one of those guys. But even with their weak personnel, there’s no excuse for Tony La Russa to put out a lineup this terrible.
So, what should the White Sox batting order be going forward? They’ll probably have A.J. Pollock back soon and I’d slot him at second in the lineup. The only hitter doing decently well on the Chicago White Sox so far is Tim Anderson and Pollock can’t possibly do worse than the other 8 guys on the team.
When Yoan Moncada comes back from the injured list I’d bat him third so he can get good pitches to hit in front of Jose Abreu. This would leave them with a lineup like this:
- Tim Anderson SS
- A.J. Pollock RF
- Yoan Moncada 3B
- Jose Abreu 1B
- Eloy Jimenez LF
- Luis Robert CF
- Yasmani Grandal C
- Andrew Vaughn DH
- Danny Mendick 2B
Hopefully, Tony La Russa and the White Sox get it together soon because if they don’t start clicking they could find themselves finishing below Cleveland for the season and possibly not making the playoffs. There are no guarantees in baseball even if you play in a weak division.
A baseball season is a cumulative process and the games in April count just as much as the ones in September do. At the end of the season, every game ends up counting so there’s no excuse for not giving your all to win every game. Cleveland is doing it.
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