This will likely be my last ever post on this website, so I just want to make one last plea. The White Sox have been utterly pathetic this year. Injuries have torn through the organization like a disease. The power hitting has been non-existent. To an extent, I blame the front office, and to an extent I blame Tony La Russa. But most of all I blame Hitting Coach Frank Menechino. He is the most pathetic individual on the White Sox and I believe that he is mostly responsible for their issues with scoring runs this year.
Even though this article seems generally positive about the White Sox’s successes last year, it exposes a huge problem in Frank Menechino’s philosophy: his lack of belief in the home run. In 2021, NINE of the top ten home run hitting teams finished with winning records. This is just a surface level observation, but it goes deeper than that. Also in 2021, nine of the top ten teams in slugging percentage finished with winning records.
This quote from Frank Menechino reigns supreme to me:
“I’ve told Andrew (Vaughn) to hit .300,” Menechino said. “‘I don’t care if you don’t hit one home run. Hit .300, work on hitting .300.”
-Frank Menechino
This is a backwards philosophy. I thought we proved this wrong 20 years ago, when Moneyball came out. Hitting for average is not how runs score, especially considering the fact that the White Sox are built as a slow, power hitting team. Menechino’s philosophy has wrecked the White Sox’s core, and the only way to undo the disgusting, vile effects that Menechino has had on the Sox is to fire him.
This year, the White Sox have hit the third fewest home runs and are eleventh worst in slugging percentage. The effects of that have meant that the White Sox are the twelfth worst in the league at scoring runs. That sounds bearable until you realize that 1) The White Sox’s core was built around scoring runs and 2) only 2 of the 11 teams worse in scoring runs have winning records. The lack of power would be fine if one of two things were true: 1) The White Sox were scoring runs or 2) Their roster was built around contact. Neither of those things are true. Frank Menechino has single-handedly ruined the White Sox’s power bats by inserting his own crappy philosophy as the way of doing things. And it failed! Look at the results! They are DISASTEROUS. The White Sox sit at 4 games back in the division, and they probably won’t end up making the playoffs.
Of all of the monumental failures that the White Sox have endured, the failure to score runs has rained supreme. In part, that’s on management. But mainly, I think the blame falls on Frank Menechino.
Please, for the love of God, fire Frank Menechino.