Will 2018 be a “might’a been” version of a World Series for Chicago?

It’s one of the quirks of professional baseball these days that its championship event has so many rounds of playoffs and interest declines as teams get knocked out of play.

One-time White Sox ace now Game 1 starter

Which is why there were many people who were delirious this weekend when the Los Angeles Dodgers managed to prevail as National League championships over the Milwaukee Brewers. Having media market No. 2 (as in L.A.) works much better than media market 35 (the land of Laverne and Shirley).

SO WE’RE GOING to get to see a Boston Red Sox/Los Angeles Dodgers World Series – which some are trying to spin as a replay of 1916. Even though the Dodgers themselves were Brooklyn’s ballclub back then.

But I can’t help but perceive this year’s World Series (played one century after that series that used to be Boston’s last victory ever, when they beat the Chicago Cubs) in Chicago terms.

In which it’s the “What might’s been” World Series. We in Chicago can watch the event and speculate what might have happened for our city’s ballclubs – if only certain factors had played out different.

The obvious Chicago connection to this year’s World Series is in the form of the Red Sox’ ace pitcher – Chris Sale. Who actually is set to be the starting game pitcher for Game One, to be played Tuesday night.

WHO ALSO ACTUALLY was once Chicago White Sox property – from 2010 until the trade that sent him off to Boston prior to the 2017 season. The one that got the White Sox several minor league prospects – including Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech; whom some still say could develop into stars who could make the deal seem quite balanced.

Others who will only view Moncada’s mediocre hitting this season and the injury sustained by Kopech that will cause him to miss the entirety of the 2019 season are ready to write off the deal as a rip-off for the White Sox, and wish they could have Sale back in Chicago.

Cubs ace now Dodgers coach

They’re bound to be the ones watching the World Series this year, trying to fantasize how good life could have been in Chicago IF ONLY Sale were still wearing the black-colored hose of the White Sox. Ignoring the fact that Sale most likely would be the malcontent (I haven’t forgotten his jersey-ripping incident) ace pitcher of a third place ballclub.

But some fans are bound to want to find ways to be miserable. Which at times may be the real truth characterizing what Chicago sports fans are all about.

BUT IF CHICAGO fans will be following Sale and the Red Sox, I also don’t doubt that the Dodgers will stir up some interested. Particularly in the form of the team’s bullpen coach – the guy whose job is to make sure relief pitchers are properly warmed up and NOT being distracted by the blonde in the too-tight halter top sitting in the stands.

For the Dodgers’ coach this season was Mark Prior. Remember him?

Prior is the guy whom Cubs fans were convinced was going to be one of their all-time great pitchers, and whose teams of the decade of the Aughts (the 2000s) had the pitching pair of Prior and Kerry Wood. Whom Cubs fans back then were delusional enough to think were the elite of the National League.

One-time White Sox player and coach will see … 

Even though neither one wound up living up to their baseball potential.

PRIOR WAS SUPPOSED to be that elite pitcher who would lead the Cubs to a mid-2000s World Series victory (it didn’t happen). He’s the guy whom injuries would up cutting his playing career short.

But after leaving the Cubs, he filled several roles in the San Diego Padres organization, then this year was offered a coaching job with the Dodgers. Which put him in a position where he’s FINALLY with a team appearing in the World Series.

… if his younger brother can win World Series

As is Sale. One of them is going to get that World Series “ring” that supposedly is what a real ballplayer strives to get his entire athletic career – and that is supposedly the crowning achievement missing from Chicago players such as Luke Appling or Ernie Banks.

Of course, the other potential local angle is in the form of Red Sox manager Alex Cora, whom some are emphasizing is the first Puerto Rico native to manage a championship ballclub. He’s the brother of Joey Cora – who was the Chicago White Sox’ bench coach under manager Ozzie Guillen when the latter became the first Latin America-born (Venezuela) to win a World Series.

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EXTRA: A ‘Cuban connection?’ Or Sox' answer to Sutter/Maddux moves!

Baseball is a crapshoot. All those deals and maneuvers ballclubs make to try to improve themselves always come with a definite lack of guarantee. You don’t know what will work until it’s done.
 

Changing color of his socks

That is my attitude toward the deal announced Tuesday that the Chicago White Sox traded away their top pitcher to the Boston Red Sox – who now have fantasies of having the best starting rotation of pitchers in all of baseball.

IN EXCHANGE, THE White Sox got four ballplayers – including two who are supposedly the best prospects in the Boston minor league system.

One of whom is Yoan Moncada – a second baseman who two seasons ago got big money from the Red Sox when he defected from Cuba. Some $63 million in all, out of the belief that he would be one of the Red Sox stars for years to come (since he’s only 21).

But now, he’s a property of the Sout’ Side’s ball club, and will be a heavy factor in the White Sox dreams of again contending for a league championship and World Series appearance in the near future.

When combined with first baseman Jose Abreu also of Cuba, he creates a potential Cuban connection for the White Sox that could wind up making them legitimate contenders. Considering that one of the White Sox’ biggest names ever was t he Cuban Comet himself, Minnie Miñoso, perhaps it’s appropriate.

IF IT WORKS out, that is.

 

Pairing up with Abreu...

Because there always are those ballplayers who turn out to be incapable of making the jump to the “big” club. Minor league stats don’t always mean much.

I remember when Karl Pagel was supposed to be the BIG NAME who would someday lead the Chicago Cubs to the promised land, while Ron Kittle was the guy who hit more than 50 home runs in a season in the Pacific Coast League.

Pagel barely lasted with the Cubs, while Kittle was little more than a journeyman ballplayer during his major league service time. We’ll have to wait and see just how real the “Cuban connection” becomes in Chicago.

 

... to create new Cuban connection?

BECAUSE TRADING AWAY an established ballplayer like Sale always runs the risk of backfiring. The White Sox may well have enriched the chances of the Charlotte Knights (their top minor league affiliate) having a good year in 2017 without anything ever resulting to benefit Chicago proper.

There’s also the chance that the Sale deal could wind up giving the White Sox an answer in incompetence to the front office actions of past years that saw Bruce Sutter and Greg Maddux (both now in the Baseball Hall of Fame) go to other teams in exchange for nothing of significance.

A slew of 'stars' who never amounted to much

I’m not saying for sure that will happen. I don’t know how this deal will turn out for either team.

Because I’m the first to admit I think Sale’s temperament is just a bit too whiny for him to continue to be a part of the White Sox. Perhaps a change of scenery is what he needed.

Twice traded for star Sox shortstops

BECAUSE AROUND HERE, he’ll always now be remembered as the guy who had a hissy fit because of the jersey he was asked to wear and wound up shredding a team’s worth of uniforms. Even though that particular jersey was part of a team promotion that actually worked out to be popular with many fans!

It’s always possible the deal could work out to be good all the way around – similar to how the Chicago Cubs back in 1984 traded away future star Joe Carter, but wound up getting Rick Sutcliffe. As in one of their best pitchers ever. Or the 1977 trade that sent star shortstop Bucky Dent from the White Sox to the New York Yankees in exchange for Oscar Gamble, cash and four minor leaguers -- one of whom went on to become 1983 Cy Young Award winner LaMarr Hoyt (who himself was then later traded to the San Diego Padres for long-time star shortstop Ozzie Guillen).

Best left unspoken

Which is proof that in order to gain something of significance, you have to be prepared to give up something of equal value. That's true whether in baseball or business.

Because the number of times you can give up an aging pitcher like Ernie Broglio and gain a future Hall of Famer like Lou Brock are truly rare – and usually wind up with your team on the losing end of the deal.

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End of season really end of Sale?

I recall going to the final home game of the Chicago White Sox’ 2002 season largely because not only did I want to see a final ball game that year, I fell into the hype concerning Frank Thomas.
 

Was it really 'the end' for Sale?

Now, he’s the White Sox’ latest contribution to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. But in 2002, he was in the final year of his contract – and the speculation was that the Sox would let Thomas leave.

ACTUALLY, THAT THEY’D slam the door behind him and be sure to catch his behind on the way out.

That final game against the Boston Red Sox was supposed to be the final chance to see Thomas in a White Sox uniform. Sure enough, his contract did expire and Thomas was briefly a free agent.

Only to see the White Sox make him a contract offer that had him rejoining the team in 2003, and for another two seasons beyond that.

I couldn’t help but think this when Sunday’s 2016 finale came up and was being billed as the final chance to see current ace pitcher Chris Sale start a game for the White Sox.

FOR THE SPECULATION is that the White Sox are fed up with his oft-juvenile behavior. His earned run average (3.21 going into Sunday’s game, 2.97 for the seven seasons he has pitched for the Sox) is no longer good enough to overcome his ego.

 
Or is it?

The end for "the Big Hurt" came 6 years later

I don’t know if Sale is really gone. I suspect it’s really more up to him if he wants to return to Chicago, rather than the team dumping on their top pitcher.

Although I couldn’t help but flinch when Sale let the Minnesota Twins start off Sunday’s ball game with an inside-the-park home run by Byron Buxton, then allowed four more runs to pile on during the five innings he pitched – ensuring that even if the White Sox had been able to win the game, he would not have been the “winning” pitcher.

IT’S THE END of another regular season of baseball, and I know fans of a certain other ball club will act as though “history” is being made. Even though to those of us of the “South Side” mentality (even if we have moved and now live elsewhere), we know all it will mean is that the other team will finally have matched the White Sox in championship achievements this century.

We’ll now enter the winter dormant period (unless we care enough to follow beisbol activity in the winter leagues of assorted Latin American nations), eagerly awaiting both spring training of 2017 AND the coming of the World Baseball Classic.

Will Rick Renteria (right) be the new White Sox manager?

For which Sale could also be a significant story. For Sale has hinted he is interested in being among the pitchers carried by the U.S. national team as they take on national teams of 15 other nations in an effort to show true international baseball superiority.

If Sale does wind up pitching in competitive ballgames come March, the real question will be which ball club will get bragging rights for his international achievements – the White Sox? Or the highest bidder amongst other teams?

WE ALSO GET to see, probably in the near future, whether White Sox bench coach Rick Renteria will be the new White Sox field manager. Intriguing for those of us who remember not only the year he was the Chicago Cubs manager, but also that he managed team Mexico back in the World Baseball Classic held in 2013.

I'm sure Renteria would love the chance to show that his release by the Cubs two years ago wasn't really a sign of managerial incompetence -- particularly if he could achieve it while wearing the Old English script of the "Sox" logo on his chest while doing it.

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Is 'City Series' shifting to off-field issues; is Sale or Chapman Chicago's biggest baseball off-field flake?

The Chicago White Sox take on the Chicago Cubs this week for their annual head-to-head competition that is more about bragging rights than anything else.

 

Will he challenge for flakiest Chicago ballplayer?

But this year, it seems we’re going to be in a competition more to see which team has the flakiest ballplayer bearing a Chicago uniform.

WILL WHITE SOX pitcher Chris Sale’s recent outburst over a throwback uniform, when combined with his defense of former would-be slugger Adam LaRoche for wanting to have his son hang around the clubhouse all the time, give him top billing?

Or did the Chicago Cubs manage to give themselves the bigger baseball head case with their acquisition of top-notch relief pitcher Aroldis Chapman on Monday from the New York Yankees?

There are those who think Sale is the best American League pitcher these days, while there are those who think Chapman is the key to ensuring that 2016 will go into the books as the first season in 71 years that the Cubs won anything of significance!

While others wonder if the flakier natures of these particular ballplayers is what will keep their teams out of contention.

FIGURE THAT IT was just earlier this season that the Yankees acquired Chapman knowing that he was facing a suspension that would cause him to miss the first month of the ’16 baseball season.

He supposedly was so good that his problems were worth having him around.

Except that the Yankees have been so mediocre this season – playing at about the same level as the White Sox are – that the Yankees were more than willing to give him up in exchange for several ballplayers who could have been the future of the Chicago Cubs franchise.

 

Will Sale retain his 'title/"

The Cubs, after all, believe they can win something now, and were willing to take the chance on giving up the 2018 World Series victory in exchange for a chance at winning something this year.

AND CHAPMAN, ALONG with Sale, is proof of that old baseball adage, “You’re Only As Smart As Your Batting Average.”

A ballplayer who can produce on the playing field will be tolerated no matter how ridiculous or absurd his quirks are. A ballplayer who is merely a nice guy will find himself traded away or released in an instant.

It is those 14 (league-leading) wins and respectable 3.18 earned run average that have Sale being tolerated even though he was the guy who threw a hissy fit over being asked to wear a throwback uniform jersey that would have made him look like Ken Kravec.

It is those 20 saves in 21 chances with an outstanding 2.01 earned run average this season that have the Cubs all too eager to have Chapman – he the guy who got a suspension for an incident involving domestic violence against his girlfriend.

WHICH WAS THE reason his former team, the Cincinnati Reds, were willing to give up on him and ship him off to the Yankees – who let him go when he did not immediately become the on-field salvation of the ’16 season. He lasted so little in New York there are very few baseball cards depicting him in Yankee pinstripes.

 

How many reading this wondered "Who's Ken Kravec?"

Which makes me wonder what the mood will be on Thursday at Wrigley Field – which is the day the White Sox and Cubs play the last of their games against each other this season. It also is the day that Sale’s suspension for jersey vandalism is up and he can play ball again.

Could Thursday be the day we get a Sale start for the Sox, and a chance to see a blown save by Chapman for the Cubs?

While the fans in the stands speculate about which guy is flakier and also engage in their usual city series silliness of trying to out-shout each other in their chants over which team sucks the most!

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No sale for Sale, even though many Sox fans liked the jersey giveaway

I find it ironic that the Chicago White Sox got themselves into a funk concerning their promotional giveaway from Saturday night.

 

The 'controversial' jersey

The ballclub had as its ballpark giveaway meant to attract fans to the game replica jerseys such as the team wore in the late 1970s. The ones of dark blue and white with the funky collars that were a ‘70’s take on what the team wore back when they were first created in the early 20^th Century.

I WAS AMONG the people who went to the ballgame (although I didn’t put up with the heavy rain that caused the game to be halted three times before ultimately being postponed until Sunday).

I saw for myself how there were several fans who were there specifically for the jersey giveaway (although to tell you the truth the jerseys being given away were cheap knockoffs of what the team actually wore in those days some four decades ago).

There were many people who, upon being handed the package containing the jersey couldn’t wait to open it and wear it – stripping themselves as quickly as possible of whatever shirt they were really wearing so they could change into their new freebie giveaway jersey.

 

This uniform has some interesting detail,...

For a team that perennially faces attendance issues (although the reality is that no team has a right to think they’re entitled to capacity crowds for every ballgame), the mood was a plus.

DESPITE THE HEAVY rains that came off and on, and the presence of Detroit Tigers fans who made sure to wear their own gear while working their own way around the ballpark.

 

...unlike this garish predecessor...

There just seems to be one person who couldn’t get with the program, so to speak. And that was White Sox starting pitcher Chris Sale – who probably was the other big reason that some fans chose the Saturday night game to show up at U.S. Cellular Field.

For he is arguably the best pitcher in the American League these days, and is one of the few assets the White Sox can claim as their own, and a reason to not totally count out their chances of competing for something resembling a championship this season.

 

...or this truly tacky successor

The plan was that the White Sox were going to wear the late ‘70s uniforms as well during the Saturday game – bringing to memory for those of us old enough to have see it such ballplayers as Francisco Barrios, Bill Nahorodny and Harry Chappas.

BUT DEPENDING ON whose report one reads, Sale either didn’t like the look or the feel of the uniform. He didn’t want to wear it.

And when team officials responded to his tantrum by telling him to just take the ball and pitch, he sliced up the special promotion uniforms with a knife. Meaning nobody was able to wear them.

The White Sox wound up wearing their uniforms they usually use for Sunday ballgames – the ones copied from the 1980s with the big red-white-and-blue stripe across the chest reading “SOX” that some have sarcastically dubbed as the “license plate” uniforms.

 

Maybe he didn't want to pitch in rain?

Now I know some White Sox fans don’t think much of the uniforms from the second coming of Bill Veeck (his wife, Mary Frances, designed them). They may well be willing to brand Sale as a hero for preventing the ball club from making a horrendous fashion statement.

WHILE OTHERS ARE quick to denounce him as a whiny baby – yet another ballplayer who thinks that what he does has some inherent value to society, rather than just serving as entertainment for the masses.

Personally, I always thought the lettering across the jerseys had some interest. The fact that the uniform has the White Sox wearing white socks also is a plus.

It will be interesting to see what kind of fan reaction he gets when he returns to play. Suspended for five days, he won’t be available to pitch again until Thursday which is the final game to be played in this week’s “city series” against the Chicago Cubs.

It could be more intriguing than the actual games – what with the way the Sox are struggling for that .500 winning percentage and would consider it a plus if they could be the team that knocked the Cubs off-stride in their own drive for a first National League pennant in 71 years.

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Remembering the Redlegs of ’57 – are the ’16 Chicago Cubs a redux?

It was all over the newspapers across the nation – rosters for the baseball All Star Game to be played next week in San Diego is going to look a lot like the American League vs. the Chicago Cubs.

 

Should Ernie have been a '57 all star?

For it seems that seven Cubs players were picked to be on the National League all star team – including the entire starting infield. That is a first; although I have to admit I had to question that fact.

BECAUSE PEOPLE WHO know their baseball history know of the 1957 all star game when fan voting inspired by a Cincinnati Enquirer initiative resulted in the bulk of the Cincinnati Reds lineup being picked as the National League’s best.

Quite an accomplishment for a team that barely won more games than it lost and wound up finishing that season in fourth place.

But it seems not even that year resulted in a ball club’s entire infield being chosen. For the one non-Red who managed to get picked by the fans to start the game was the St. Louis Cardinals’ Stan Musial – who by that point in his career was aged enough that he had been moved from the outfield to first base.

So ’57 was the year that gave us a National League best of Johnny Temple at second base, Roy McMillan at shortstop and Gus Bell at third base. With eventual National League most valuable player Ernie Banks as an infield reserve and the lone Cub representative that season.

IT’S NO WONDER the National League, weakened with an infield like that, managed to lose to the American League 6-5 in the game played at St. Louis’ Busch Stadium.

 

Should Carpenter be all-star starter in '16?

Which makes me wonder if having such a Chicago Cub presence on the National League all star team this year will have some sort of equal negative effect? Is there something similar to the ex-Cub factor in the World Series that applies to the All Star Game?

I know some people are already convinced the Chicago Cubs of the 2000-teens are a baseball dynasty – one meant to win championships galore. Even though I’d argue such boasting is way ridiculously premature.

They haven’t won a thing yet. Even for those Cubs fans who want to think that 2015 was something mighty special, keep in mind that the record books indicate the New York Mets wound up being the National League champions.

 

The non-Reds starter of  '57 as chosen by "voters"

THE CUBS WOUND up being just one of several ball clubs that came close, but wound up winning nothing.

Besides, the point of the All Star Game is that it is meant to be an exhibition – some mid-season fun to break the monotony of the 162-game marathon that is professional baseball.

I can’t help but think the National League could have done better than to load up the infield from Clark and Addison to represent them come next week.

Besides, while I’m sure that Cubs fans are feeling over-bloated with joy at having their team’s players in such prominent roles, it could wind up being that the most prominent Chicago story that comes out of the All Star Game will wind up focusing on Chris Sale.

HE’S THE WHITE Sox pitcher who currently has more wins than anybody else this season in baseball, and could wind up being the American League’s starting pitcher for the game.

 

Will Sale be the ultimate Chicago all star?

What happens if Sale winds up being the guy who shuts down all those Chicago Cubs during the few innings he pitches, and winds up being the winning pitcher for the American League?

It could mean that the eventual World Series that Cubs fans already are convinced will be theirs come October 2016 will wind up being played with the challengers getting home field advantage.

That is, presuming that both Chicago ball clubs don’t wind up sitting in front of television sets at home come October while other ball clubs play for the championship of ’16.

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Do we get all-Chi World Series in ’16?

Perhaps I’m just too much of a cynic, or most definitely not the idealist dreamer that comprises Chicago Cubs fans. But I’m certainly not amongst the ranks of people already making late October plans for a World Series to be played entirely within the city limits of the nation’s greatest city.

Who'd have won if Chicago had got ...

Yes, I already hear some people speculating about the notion of the American and National league champions being the two Chicago ball clubs, which would make for the first all-Chicago World Series in 110 years.

AFTER ALL, THE two teams currently with the best records in their respective leagues are the Chicago White Sox and those ragamuffins who typically stink out the joint at Clark and Addison – but this season haven’t been quite as awful as they usually are.

I just can’t get into the baseball fantasies yet, because there’s still plenty more time. We haven’t even hit the Memorial Day holiday, which is the one-third point of the baseball season.

That’s usually the point at which we can look at the standings and decide if a team or two got off to a good start. Any sooner is just ridiculously premature.

Of course, two first place teams on the day we pay tribute to those who gave their lives to fight for this nation’s principles (including the idea that baseball itself is the national pastime) isn’t any guarantee. There’d still be time for a collapse.

IT’S JUST THAT I can see all the ways in which this could fall short and plenty of time to do so. I read a recent commentary figuring out the many millions of seconds during which Donald Trump could right his campaign fortunes and wind up the winner.

That would also mean nearly as many millions of seconds in which either, if not both, of our city’s ball clubs could figure out a way to blow it big time!

 

... an all-Chicago World Series some 39 years ago?

Heck, I still remember 1977 (the summer I was 12, which is an age many figure is when most baseball fans get their permanent mindset established about the game).

I remember the Independence Day celebrations including talk of an all-Chicago World Series. I remember the month of July ending with both Chicago teams in first place.

TWO-THIRDS OF the way into the season, and both teams were World Series-bound, in our dreams. Yet by mid-August, both of them were out of it. In fact, I recall the Cubs collapsed badly enough that it took an end-of-season win streak just for the team to finish the season at 81-81.

As for those “South Side Hit Men” White Sox, they’re probably the best third place team ever that only hard-core fans have any memory of; and even then mostly because their two big bats of Richie Zisk and Oscar Gamble both fled the team after a single season.

There also were those years of 2003 and 2008 when both Chicago teams were in first place in September, and the Cubs actually won division titles (for what that’s worth) both seasons. But the Sox fell apart in the final weeks of ’03.

And as for ’08, both teams may have went to the playoffs. But both of them getting knocked out in the first round means that Tampa Bay and Philadelphia got the bragging rights of a World Series appearance that season.

IT’S WAY TOO early to dream with any seriousness of a City Series becoming the World Series. No matter how much people in this city would crave such an act.

Having the Chicago Cubs win their first National League championship since 1945 would be something that team’s fans would crave.

And the resulting World Series defeat at the hands of the White Sox  (with pitcher Chris Sale getting the victory in the final game against Jake Arrieta) would only add to that team’s loser aura – while also creating a South Side victory parade that would put the ’05 celebration to shame.

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EXTRA: Barry Bonds w/ White Sox; while Robin Ventura became Cubs star?

Major League Baseball will have its annual summer draft in a few days, by which teams divide up all the college and high school ball players to see who gets to play for which professional team.

You can go ahead and give all the analysis to try to figure out who the best amateur ballplayer is out there – one who could actually be good enough to make the Chicago Cubs worthwhile someday.

BUT THE REALITY of the draft process is that it is a crapshoot. An educated guess. Some ballplayers with all the tools and credentials never make it through the minor leagues.

Would Cubs fans have forgetten Santo?

Which is why I found amusing a recent Sporting News story that gave the biggest draft-day screw-up for each major league team. As in a case where a team picked one player who never amounted to much, while a future star got picked later by somebody else.

Such as 1985 when the Chicago White Sox could have had a chance at Barry Bonds, the son of 1970s-era outfielder Bobby Bonds who went on to hit all those home runs – and tick off so many people with his surly personality.

Instead, the White Sox went with Kurt Brown, a catcher, who never made it beyond the minor leagues.

I FIND THE Cubs’ draft gaffe to be more amusing. It was 1989, and the Cubs actually won a division title that season while picking Ty Griffin, an infielder from Georgia Tech who also had played for the U.S. Olympic Baseball Team just the year before.

Griffin was supposed to be the guy who could have kept the Cubs competitive for years to come. Except that he never made it to the major leagues.

While the White Sox was able to get Robin Ventura, an Oklahoma State University star who became a White Sox star and is now their manager, because the Cubs took a pass on him.

Although the Sporting News’ study found that other teams’ worst picks wound up to the benefit of the Chicago baseball scene.

FOR BOTH THE Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals, their gaffe was in 1989 when they could have had Frank Thomas – but took Jeff Jackson and Paul Coleman respectively.

10-1 w/ Toronto this season

Then, there was 2010 when the Arizona Diamondbacks could have had pitcher Chris Sale, but instead picked pitcher Barret Loux.

Sale, of course, has become the White Sox’ top pitcher, and had quite a game last week in his comeback from injury.

As for Loux? He never signed with Arizona, but has played some minor league ball, and is now on the roster of the Iowa Cubs – albeit on their disabled list.

THEN AGAIN, THE reality of the draft is that some of the most interesting picks can come in the lower rounds from players who are presumed to be roster-filler, but wind up amounting to something significant.

Take the 1998 draft when the White Sox used the 38th round pick to take a pitcher from a junior college in Missouri. A year-and-a-half later, he was in Chicago to stay, and this year has a 10-1 record with a 2.10 earned run average.

Who'd have thought then that Mark Buehrle would amount to anything lasting in baseball?

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