Sullivan: Has PCA’s popularity slipped? Who will the White Sox draft? 8 baseball thoughts
The Cubs and White Sox enter the final week before the All-Star break in strong position for a playoff run, though both are in dire need of pitching like almost every team.
The trade deadline is Aug. 3, and it’s anyone’s guess as to how aggressive Sox general manager Chris Getz and Cubs President Jed Hoyer will be in the next month. The Sox get slugger Munetaka Murakami back soon, while the Cubs should get Jameson Taillon and Edward Cabrera back in the rotation.
Getz is playing with house money with the surprising success of the Sox, while Hoyer’s Cubs could go in either direction, based on their wildly streaky first half.
“It has been a really up-and-down season,” Hoyer conceded. “I guess that may continue, but there’s no reason to think that’s the way the rest of the season is going to go. It could proceed to level out.
“I hope we do, but, yeah, this is a really important stretch. Our play is going to dictate our aggressiveness and our needs as well. … We’ve got about a month to go and it’ll be interesting to see how we play during that time, and that will determine a lot of what we do before Aug. 3.”
Here are eight baseball thoughts before the Cubs open a road trip to Baltimore and Cincinnati on Tuesday and the Sox begin a homestand against the Red Sox and Athletics.
1. Mune Time
MLB should do the right thing and invite Murakami to participate in Monday’s Home Run Derby in Philadelphia, even if he declines. If Murakami is OK to begin a minor-league rehab stint for his hamstring injury, he should be OK to hit a few dingers that don’t involve any running whatsoever.
It would be good for baseball to showcase another Japanese star and especially good for the Sox, who have only one All-Star representative: Miguel Vargas.
2. PCA Watch
Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong finished with the most outfield votes (610) in player voting for the NL All-Star team, far ahead of runner-up Corbin Carroll (501). That says a lot about the respect he has from his major-league peers.
Conversely, Crow-Armstrong finished well out of the running in fan balloting after winning a starting spot in 2025, which suggests he lost a lot of votes over the last year for reasons that can only be speculated upon. His profane reaction to the harassing White Sox fan, which went viral, and his magazine interview needlessly ripping Dodgers fans are likely suspects in the voting regression.
Crow-Armstrong likely will be an All-Star for years, so maybe he can learn from his unforced errors in judgment and become as beloved nationally as he is on the North Side.
3. Roch chalk — or no Roch?
For months the experts seemed to believe the White Sox would select UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky with the top pick in the 2026 draft. But with the draft approaching Saturday, no one is certain if it’s “The Roch,” Texas high school shortstop Grady Emerson or Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey.
Keith Law, the prospects guru for The Athletic, wrote in his latest mock draft that the Sox are “leaning towards Emerson, with Vahn Lackey second and Roch Cholowsky a somewhat distant third.” Law said Sox scouts “seem to favor Emerson,” while the front office favors Lackey.
At least there will be some mystery involving the Sox pick after Cholowsky was seen as the obvious choice entering the season.
4. Finally seeing red
Sox starter Davis Martin was snubbed by his fellow players in All-Star voting, and with only one Sox rep, manager Will Venable said, “I’m like pissed about it, honestly.”
Well, there’s a first for everything. We always knew Venable was capable of getting upset.
Martin still can make the team if a pitcher pulls out, which seems to happen more frequently these days. Hopefully he’ll get the nod for a strong first half marred only by a couple of recent starts.
5. Trump card
If President Donald Trump can get a red-card suspension suspended by his FIFA pals to aid the U.S. World Cup team, can he get his high-ranking MLB friends such as Commissioner Rob Manfred to give back Armando Galarraga the 2010 perfect game he lost when umpire Jim Joyce made a blatantly erroneous call at first base?
How about awarding the New York Yankees the 2017 ALCS over the sign-stealing Houston Astros, who went on to win the World Series? Or maybe reversing umpire Don Denkinger’s famously bad call that helped give the Kansas City Royals the 1985 World Series over the St. Louis Cardinals?
The door is open now that Trump has kicked it in.
6. Revisiting ‘The Trade’
Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet remains out with a left lat strain for the series against the White Sox that begins Tuesday on the South Side. Meanwhile, the three key players the White Sox received in the Crochet deal that kick-started the rebuild will play together against their former organization for the first time.
How is “The Trade” faring? So far it has been good for both teams, though the White Sox are having a much better 2026 season with their haul than the Red Sox are having with an injured Crochet. While Crochet was second in AL Cy Young voting last year, he had a minus-0.6 WAR this season before the lat injury.
Chase Meidroth has a 3.0 WAR in 209 career games with the White Sox, Kyle Teel has a 2.0 WAR in 89 games and recent call-up Braden Montgomery has an 0.1 WAR in 24 games. If the White Sox make the playoffs, the Crochet deal will be remembered as a big success, no matter how dominant Crochet is down the road.
7. Almost Stars
Chase Burns, Eduardo Rodriguez, Max Meyer, Drew Rasmussen and Parker Messick are all fine pitchers and might be deserving of their All-Star berths, but we’re obviously a long, long way from 1968, the so-called Year of the Pitcher.
The list of pitchers in the 1968 All-Star Game at the Astrodome, a 1-0 NL win, is amazing to look at. The starters were Don Drysdale (NL) and Luis Tiant (AL). Juan Marichal, Steve Carlton, Tom Seaver, Ron Reed and Jerry Koosman followed Drysdale, and Blue Moon Odom, Denny McLain, Sam McDowell, Mel Stottlemyre and Tommy John followed Tiant.
Bob Gibson, the best pitcher of them all that season with a 1.12 ERA, didn’t even pitch in the game.
Don’t let anyone tell you pitchers today are better than ever, no matter how high the velocity.
8. Joe’s back
Former Cubs manager Joe Maddon will return to Chicago for Anthony Rizzo’s and David Ross’ “Lovable Reunion” live podcast July 16 at the Chicago Theatre, and he’ll also host a charity dinner July 19 for his foundation, Two Burnt Feet.
The “Thanksmas” dinner will be held at the Adalina Italian restaurant from 6-8:30 p.m., with proceeds helping the homeless through the Care for Friends organization. Tickets are available at twoburntfeet.org/thanksmas.