Nice Lil Glimpse Of The Chisox Future Last Night

Dylan Cease has been kinda bad since he’s been called up.  We all wanted him in Chicago because why the fuck not, but it is clear as day he wasn’t quite “ready”.  The command hasn’t been there yet, which should be expected for a 23 year old pitcher with only 15 career AAA starts under his belt.  For reference, Michael Kopech had 27 career AAA starts and Lucas Giolito had 31.  A lot more seasoning.

But you know what has been there?  The flashes.  I said it last year with Moncada, Lopez, Giolito and others – we needed to look for the flashes of what they potentially could be while also expecting growing pains and inconsistency.  And holy shit did Cease flash last night.

He was regularly working backwards with hooks like this:

and paired his breaking pitches with sliders in hitters counts.  Oh… and he was sitting 97MPH.  Dotting I’s and crossing T’s.  Painting corners.  It was artistry.  I can’t find any video of it, but on either his 10th or 11th strikeout he finished that at bat with a 3-2 changeup to a lefty and it was absolutely fucking beautiful.  We’ve seen it with Gio, if a pitcher can work off a well commanded changeup, he will be successful.  Last night Cease showed glimpses of being able to do so.

Shout out to him for bouncing back from his shit start last week as well.  Kid has a “fuck you” attitude and once the command of his 4 pitch mix is consistent, he’s going to be a great top of the rotation arm, because he can really spin it:

His shit is undeniable.  Just needs reps on reps on reps.

Oh, and Eloy dominated last night too.  The haters are FURIOUS.  3-4, 2 dingers and a double.  It was a LONG time coming for Eloy, as he’s only had an extra base hit or two so in the last few weeks.  Now I truly didn’t expect to see Eloy struggle like he has this year; I thought his hit/power combo was so polished as a 21 year old that we could expect him to walk in and put up huge numbers.  Now he hasn’t been BAD offensively, just kinda “eh” with respect to the rest of baseball.  Not good enough, but again, he’s flashed awesomeness all summer and especially last night with a double and a dinger off a stud in Mike Clevinger:

and a game tying 3 run shot off Carlos Carrasco:

Eloy REALLY needed last night, as did the Sox.  100% of Eloy’s value is tied to him as a hitter because he’s just about the worst OF in the history of baseball.  That’s fine, just rake.  The peripherals are though.  Above average exit velos and hard hit rates.

Ignore that disgusting outs above average stat

But like Cease on the mound, Eloy just needs more reps.  Like Moncada did this year, I fully expect Eloy to take off in 2020.  He’s going to hit around 30 bombs this year in about 120 games.  Not too shabby for a 22 year old, though it wasn’t quite the ROY caliber season we hoped for out of him.

Everything is coming together swimmingly for the future.  Every goddamn day that passes the White Sox are one step closer to sustained success.  Last night was such a breath of fresh air.