Royals manager impressed with early stages of White Sox rebuild
Ned Yost knows all about rebuilds.
When he took over as Kansas City manager in May of 2010, the Royals were in the process of adding young players like Eric Hosmer, Salvador Perez, Lorenzo Cain and Mike Moustakas to the major-league roster.
There were some expected growing pains, but it all came together in 2014 when Kansas City took San Francisco to Game 7 of the World Series.
The next season, the Royals won the World Series.
Yost isn't predicting the same type of rise for the rebuilding White Sox, but he is impressed with all of the promising prospects acquired by general manager Rick Hahn.
"They're going about it absolutely the right way," Yost said before the Royals beat the Sox 14-6 Sunday afternoon at Guaranteed Rate Field. "They've amassed some incredibly talented players. It's going to take them some time to develop, but they've put themselves in a real position for success in the future.
"It's going to probably take them two to three years before they start really putting it together. But once they put it together, they're going to be a real, real tough team in this division."
Heading into Sunday's game, the White Sox won four of five and manager Rick Renteria was impressed with their "clean" style of play.
The Sox didn't fit that description in a lopsided loss to the Royals.
White Sox starter Derek Holland seemed to be rattled by third baseman Tyler Saladino's error in the first inning and left fielder Leury Garcia's miscue in the second.
Holland lasted just 2 innings and allowed 7 earned runs on 7 hits and 3 walks as his ERA swelled to 5.68.
"I don't even know where to begin," Holland said. "Today was just, in my eyes, embarrassing. Not being able to find the strike zone and then when I did, catching too much plate. It's frustrating. We've been working our (butts) off to do everything right on the field."
Offensively, Tim Anderson hit a 2-run homer for the second time in three games, and rookie Nicky Delmonico reached base safely for the 12 straight game to start his career, extending his franchise record.
Delmonico was hit by a pitch in the second inning and he added an RBI double in the seventh.
In the ninth inning, Delmonico appeared to hit his second home run for the White Sox, but center Alex Gordon robbed him with a leaping catch to end the game.
Davidson doings:
Still out with a sore right wrist after being hit by a Marcus Stroman pitch on Aug. 1, third baseman Matt Davidson said he'll need a rehab assignment with Class AAA Charlotte before coming off the disabled list.
"As soon as it (pain) goes away, rehab a little bit in Charlotte and be back here," Davidson said. "The good thing is, the doctors say that one day you'll just kind of wake up and it'll be gone. We're kind of waiting for that and then we'll go from there."