I'd say Jose Abreu's resurgence could've come at a better time, but an upswing before the All-Star Game would've made the whole "first player voted to start in decades" storyline a little more of a celebration.
August isn't a bad runner-up, because it's usually the toughest month to watch for a bad team -- after MLB talent was traded away, before prospects and/or fringe players can join the fray. I'm guessing it'll be the latter at this point.
At any rate, Abreu is hitting .359/.408/.765 with seven homers, five doubles and six walks over his last 16 games. He reached 20 homers for the fifth time in as many chances, and while he's got a long way to keep a 100 percent success rate on 100-RBI seasons, 34 in 49 games can be done.
It turns out that the problem was with his hands -- not physically, but technically. As James Fegan describes, they weren't getting where they needed to be.
First of all, Abreu credits his physical adjustment to longtime mentor and former hitting coach Marcos Hernandez, who more or less called him up and made a suggestion about his hand placement. When someone as famous as Abreu gets into a career-worst slump, he gets a lot of outside suggestions, but when Hernandez called, it took priority.
“That was the key for me to overcome the struggles that I was passing through,” Abreu said through team interpreter Billy Russo. “My hands weren’t ending where they’re supposed to end when I’m in a good moment with my offense, with my swing. I just made a little adjustment, that little adjustment, and things started going well for me again.”
Abreu’s hitting coach Todd Steverson explained the adjustment as focusing on separating his hands from his body, not just in the setup but through the swing. Obviously they have to be synced up through the swinging motion, but having some freedom allows Abreu to make the ad-hoc adjustments to pitches that have helped produced a .296 career batting average. When his hands are rotating along with his body every time, he doesn’t have that.
Spare Parts
Speaking of welcome sights, it's nice to see Adam Engel show why the White Sox have started him as often as they have over the last two years. He continued the rich tradition established by Aaron Rowand and Brent Lillibridge by robbing the Yankees multiple times in a series.
Reynaldo Lopez's face said it all, but in case you're worse than terrible at poker, he said what he was showing after the game:
"I just wanted to take off my glove and go out there and kiss him," said a smiling Lopez through interpreter Billy Russo, with a postgame assessment making Thyago Vieira laugh in the locker next to Lopez.
Rick Renteria called the idea of Matt Davidson taking on a greater relief role "premature," which is probably the right call given Davidson's limitations in terms of endurance.
The full answer was "It would be premature for me to say that would be the case, to be honest," and the latter is a bit of a verbal tic for the Sox manager. For instance, in his response to a four-strikeout game by Yoan Moncada:
In that answer, it sounds like "I'm not mad, I'm actually laughing," but it's not that consistent.
As much as I agree with him, I doubt Fegan will have much luck with this article, and that kinda shows why tanking is so popular around the league. Front offices get criticized if they spend on a team that is chasing .500, and then they're not expected to pony up at the end of a window, either. Basically, they're not really held accountable to contribute a certain amount to success. Money without responsibility? Sign me up.
Anyway, when that's the fear fans labor under, then it becomes vital to not pay Eloy Jimenez or Michael Kopech for as long as possible. I get the baseball argument, but I don't get why fans are running interference for Rick Hahn, as they're sacrificing short-term enjoyment with no guarantee of a long-term payoff.
At least make Hahn and others squirm with BS rationales for as long as he's going to do this. Otherwise, it feels like we're all in "The Contest," but the front office gets the cash prize no matter what.
