The biggest ‘bust’ of Chicago baseball; and no, we don’t need Morgana jokes

We’re at the passing of the Memorial Day holiday weekend, and it means that baseball fans can now seriously study the standings and figure out if 2018 is a season with a serious chance at a championship.

Would Cub fans prefer Yu in Texas?

Or a year that will amount to little more than a stinkeroo!

MORE THAN ONE-quarter of the season has passed. It’s blatantly obvious that 2018 will be the painful part of the experience in watching the Chicago White Sox do a thorough rebuild of their ball club into something resembling championship quality.

And as for the Chicago Cubs? Their fans are delusional enough to think they’re in the midst of a New York Yankees-style dynasty, although it shouldn’t be a surprise if the Wrigley faithful get a season with barely a winning record, but one that falls short of a playoff appearance.

The year 2016 is as over-and-done with as is 2005. Chicago’s two seasons of World Series-winning ball clubs in this century are a thing of the past.

And as for who’s the sorriest excuse of a ballplayer toiling away in Chicago? I say it’s a split.

THE 80-GAME SUSPENSION that White Sox catcher Welington Castillo got for use of performance-enhancing drugs regarded as steroids brings some shame to the Sox – particularly since he’s the first Chicago ballplayer to get caught in a steroids-related scandal and wind up suspended.

A fact I don’t doubt is giving Cubs fans something to snicker about – particularly since talk about steroids and Chicago baseball usually becomes a rant about the fraudulent ways of one Samuel Peralta Sosa and those '90s-era home runs he hit in Cubbie blue.

But let’s be honest. For all the digs one might want to take at Castillo, no one expected him to be capable of doing much. Castillo was the nine-year baseball veteran whom the White Sox acquired because somebody has to catch the ballgames this season – and the baseball prospects whom the team thinks will be the catcher come the better days of 2020 (they hope) is still lingering in the minor leagues.

Would Castillo's suspension look better in Arizona?

Whereas Yu Darvish of the Cubs was the big-name pitching acquisition the team obtained to bolster the ball club. He was supposed to be the piece that would ensure the Cubs would be a legitimate National League pennant contender once again this year.

INSTEAD, DARVISH HAS become a disappointment who can’t last long into ballgames (and certainly doesn’t win them).

He’s also in the midst of his second stint on the disabled list. It’s only been 50 games into a 152-game season, and Darvish has been taken down by the flu and tendinitis.

Certainly not the durable “ace” of old who can be counted on to “take to the mound” every five games and keep his ball club competitive.

Moreso than anything or anyone else, Darvish is having the season that will be most memorable for 2018 being an utter disappointment.

IT’S NO LONGER possible to say that it’s early and things will turn around in coming games. Yet only the most delusional of Cubs fans think that Yu won’t turn out to be the bust of Chicago baseball, if not all of Major League Baseball for the year.

So big a bust that it’s a wonder we’re not getting more jokes about Morgana – the one-time busty “kissing bandit” of baseball who used to charge onto playing fields in mid-game to give a smooch to some unsuspecting ballplayer (and whom some players used to say had extremely greasy lips).

Can anyone top the memory of Morgana?

We’re getting close to the point where many of the local sports fans will be focusing more on the Chicago Bears, and the “story” on the South Side will be the brawl with the Baltimore Orioles and the Kansas City Royals to see which team will finish season ’18 with the American League’s worst record.

And the Second City’s baseball fandom will focus on the possibility of the Cubs holding on to competitiveness long enough to match up with the White Sox’ potential for future greatness that we might actually get a “City Series”-type World Series some time around 2020 or ’21 -- which would be a "first" in about 115 years.

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EXTRA: Castillo first Chicago ballplayer suspended for steroid usage

The Baltimore Orioles being in Chicago this week to play a series against the White Sox was supposed to be significant for the fact it would give local fans a chance to see Orioles star Manny Machado. He's the infielder who supposedly wants to be traded, and whom Cubs fans are convinced is eager to play on the North Side.

Apologetic for his 'steroid' usage

Yet these four games may be most significant (Machado only got one hit in 11 at-bats the first three games) because of the White Sox' catcher -- Welington Castillo. He's a Dominican ballplayer who on Thursday got hit with an 80-game suspension (that's half the 2018 season) for drug use.

SPECIFICALLY, FOR USE of Erythropoletin, a substance considered to be performance-enhancing, and thereby banned by Major League Baseball.

So for all the jokes about Sammy Sosa and his 600-plus home runs being tainted by steroids, Castillo will go in the books as the first ballplayer for a Chicago team who got a suspension for steroid use. Although I believe he's the fourth ballplayer overall to get hit with such a suspension during 2018 -- most prominently Robinson Cano, the one-time New York Yankee star who now is lost to the Seattle Mariners for half the season.

Castillo actually was signed just this year by the White Sox to be the catcher. The guys on minor league affiliates who are thought to be the long-term answer to the catching position aren't considered quite ready yet.

So Welington, who last year was a catcher for the Dominican Republic national team that partook in the World Baseball Classic, was not a long-term solution. His contract runs through 2019, with an option for 2020 that I seriously doubt will be picked up.

AND WHILE THE White Sox catching needs for this season will be uncertain, I doubt they will be any worse than they were with Castillo on hand. Six home runs so far this season, along with a .267 batting average, isn't the markings of a future champion.

Steroid suspect, even though never suspended

If anything, they're part of the reason why the White Sox have such an awful record -- even though they play in a weak division (the American League central).

Before any Cubs fans start gloating too loudly, keep in mind that Castillo originally was signed into professional baseball by those baby blue bears. Overall, he's just as much a Cub as any other team.

And now, his half-season suspension will likely be what his nine-year career in Major League baseball will be remembered for.

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Chicago, particularly Cubs organization, will be a part of the Caribbean Series

Round about the time that many of us in Chicago were coping with 20-plus inches of snow that fell overnight by watching bad day-time television, there was evidence of more civilized activity.

I’m referring, of course, to the Caribbean Series – the annual early-February tournament played by the champions of the professional baseball leagues in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the Pacific League that plays during the winter months in Mexico.

IT BEGAN WEDNESDAY at 2 p.m. our time when the Dominican and Mexican champions played each other, and will come to an end on Monday with one of those four countries being proclaimed the champions of Latin American beisbol for the year 2011.

Part of the reason I get a kick out of following the tournament each year is that it is a sign that winter’s end is approaching – a more reliable one than the fact that Punxsutawney Phil on Wednesday proclaimed that winter is at an end.

That must sound like a sick joke to those of us who are shoveling our way through thick, well-packed snow (personally, I had to help my brother Wednesday morning when his car got stuck in the snow about a half-block from where we live).

But the sight of championship baseball being played in the Caribbean (this year’s tournament is being held in Mayaguez, P.R.) means that spring training for U.S. professional baseball is only a couple of weeks away (at least for the pitchers and catchers who report early). Springtime is on the way.

BUT THE PROFESSIONAL baseball leagues in Latin America that take advantage of equator weather to play ball during our winter months also give the various youthful ballplayers who are trying to make it with major league teams in this country a chance to gain some more experience.

So yes, there will be a Chicago presence on the rosters of all four teams partaking in the tourney – although it won’t be the big stars.

The Chicago White Sox will have an outfielder, Alejandro de Aza, who played in 19 games for the Sox (a .300 batting average, but only 2 runs batted in), in addition to the bulk of 2010 for the Charlotte Knights, on the roster for the Toros del Este, who were the Dominican League champions and who will represent their home country.

The Chicago Cubs, meanwhile, will NOT have a chance to create any kind of curse on any one ballclub playing in the Caribbean Series, since they have four members of their organization playing – one on each of the four teams.

EVERY CARIBBEAN CHAMPION will have a touch of “Cub-ness” going against them when they play ball in coming days.

The Dominican champions also have Welington Castillo, a catcher, who played the bulk of 2010 for the Iowa Cubs, but actually got into 7 ballgames for the Chicago Cubs – with 1 home run in 20 at bats.

Among the other teams, each has a member of the Cubs organization, although not a ballplayer who has ever worn an actual Cubs uniform at the major league levbel.

In Mexico, the champion Obregon Yaquis will carry pitcher Marco Carillo – who during 2010 played for Cubs affiliates in Daytona Beach, Fla., Knoxville, Tenn., and Des Moines, Iowa – on their roster, while the Venezuela League champion Anzoategui Caribes will have pitcher Eduardo Figueroa.

NOT TO BE confused with the Ed Figueroa who pitched for the New York Yankees during the 1970s (and was the first Puerto Rican native to win 20 games in a single season), this Eduardo accumulated a won/loss record of 2-3 with a 3.63 earned run average while playing in 2010 for Cubs affiliates in the Arizona League and the Boise Hawks of the Northwest League.

Then, there is the Puerto Rican champion Caguas Criollos (considered by some to be the favorites to win this year’s tourney because of the home-field advantage). Luis “Lou” Montanez was originally signed by the Cubs in 2000, but played in 2010 for Baltimore Orioles affiliates in Bowie, Md., and Norfolk, Va. (and also played in 26 games for the Orioles themselves, hitting .140 with 3 runs batted in).

He was released by Baltimore in November, and the Cubs have signed him – making it likely he will play the 2011 season for a Cubs minor league affiliate.

So for those of you who feel the need to have a “local” angle in order to watch a ballgame (personally, I’ll find the Caribbean Series action on Sunday to be more interesting than the Super Bowl), enjoy one.

CHECK OUT SOME of those more obscure cable television channels you don’t usually watch; the games are televised.

Because, let’s face it, a little taste of beisbol and the sight of sunshine and people enjoying themselves will be a nice diversion from the not-quite-record-setting winter slop we got hit with this week.

It’s either that, or we ponder the fact that Farrah Fawcett’s iconic red bathing suit will now be on display at the Smithsonian Institute as an authentic cultural artifact.

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