Grady Sizemore (42), a best friend of Choo Shin-soo (42, SSG Landers) during his time with the Cleveland Guardians, became the head coach of the Chicago White Sox, the lowest-ranked team in the Major League.
MLB.com , the official website of the U.S. Major League Baseball, said on the 9th (Korea time), “The Chicago White Sox fired coach Pedro Grifol (55), bench coach Charlie Montoyo (59), third base coach Eddie Rodriguez, and batting assistant coach Mike Tosar. Sizemore, who was also a coach, will take charge of the remaining 2024 season. The White Sox are looking for a new manager, and will appoint a successor after the end of this season.”
This is a foregone conclusion. This year, the Chicago White Sox were one of the worst teams in the Major League. At the end of the game on Saturday, they recorded the lowest winning percentage (0.239) in the Major League with 28 wins and 89 losses. In the process, they tied the record of the most consecutive losses in the American League that the Baltimore Orioles held in 1988. Starting with the loss in the second game of a double header against the Minnesota Twins on June 11, the White Sox lost 21 games down. It was only after the team won 5-1 against the Oakland Athletics on July 7 that its losing streak finally came to an end.
Coach Grifol was the first manager of the White Sox last year, but he suffered the disgrace of stepping down as he marked a total of 89-190 (winning rate of 0.319) with 61 wins and 101 losses in his first year and 28 wins and 89 losses in his second year. “As we all know, our team’s performance this season has been disappointing in many ways,” White Sox senior vice president and general manager Chris Gaetz said in a statement. “We needed changes to develop new energy around our future and team.”
The position will be filled by Sizemore, who has been familiar to Korean baseball fans for a long time. Sizemore was called a promising prospect in the early days of his career, with 20 homers and 20 steals for four consecutive years, but ended his career lonely in 2015 due to injuries. His overall big league performance is .265 with 150 homers and 518 RBIs and 660 runs and 143 steals in 1,101 games, and OPS (on-base plus slugging) 0.806.
After his retirement, he served as an advisor for developing players with Cleveland starting in 2017, and started his career as a running coach for the White Sox for the first time this season. Due to his poor performance, he was lucky to reach the managerial position in his first year as a coach.
Sizemore made a name for himself in Korea while playing with Choo Shin-soo at the Cleveland Indians from 2006 to 2011. Notably, he had a clean-up game with Choo in 2009 and 2010, which gave hope to Cleveland Indians, which had poor performance. He was named an All-Star three times, received a Gold Glove award twice, and a Silver Slugger award once.
Choo, who also played with him, is wrapping up his 25-year-long professional career. He announced his retirement from playing baseball before the start of this season. Choo, who joined the Seattle Mariners through an international contract in 2000 after graduating from Busan High School, made his big league debut in 2005. Since then, he has played for the Cleveland Indians, the Cincinnati Reds, and the Texas Rangers with a batting average of 0.275 in 1,652 games, 218 homers, 782 RBIs, 961 runs and 157 steals, and an OPS of 0.824.토토사이트 추천
In 2021, he returned to Korea and led SSG to win the wire-to-wire title and win the Korean Series in the 2022 regular season. This year, he has not been able to play defense well due to a shoulder injury, but he has been showing off his strength with a batting average of 0.291 (55 hits in 189 at-bats), five homers, 29 RBIs, 33 runs and four steals in 60 games, and an on-base percentage of 0.387 slugging percentage of 0.423 OPS of 0.810.
Meanwhile, the White Sox appointed Dukeson as bench coach, Justin Zircel as third base coach, and Mike Zellinger as batting assistant coach.