Who in your house monitors the contents of the refrigerator? Work place lunchrooms are more problematic, because kitchen duties are usually assigned, fairly and randomly. Having worked with an all-male faculty and in a more female dominated school, I can safely state neither sex has a firm grip on expiration dates. Guys have dairy issues whereas females have no clue about storing proteins.

Such is the case with professional sports teams. In sports like football or basketball, figuring out when a player has outlived his usefulness-but because of the scarcity of quality talent, guessing the expiration date of a random player is far more difficult.

During the course of a typical season, every team will cycle through 45-60 players regardless of where they finish in the standings. As such, a number of players don’t make the team photo. In fact, it seems there are more players today that suit up for 3+ teams in the course of a single season. Editor’s note: I don’t recall as many players in the 70’s and early 80’s pkaying for three teams.

Generally speaking, there are three categories of players on a roster at any given time. There are those that the team drafted (and hopefully developed), those that were signed in free agency for big bucks or acquired in a trade involving big bucks (see Kyle Tucker for the latter and Alex Bregman for the former) and random free agents signed out of camp or during the season who were other teams’ discards.

The players from the first group will always be given long leashes to succeed or live up to the do re mi and hype. If they have any success at the ML level that leash will be extended to include a second contract. Depending on the money or resources spent, that second group will get a fair look, but with a shorter leash. Nobody wants to have to eat a contract and possibly get burned when a new team takes a chance. I’ve often referred to this last group when I talk about relief pitchers and short shelf lives. Every team thinks they have the key to random, marginal relievers’ problems and is willing to take a gamble on them in the short run. This thinking extends to position players as well. However, the demand for fresh arms is greater.

Fans around the league can easily name a couple of guys on their team’s 26-man rosters who have outlived their usefulness. Some weren’t even useful at this stop at all. Since the financial commitment is minimal and the emotional connection weak, the move should be swift.

Without picking on him because he’s a former Met, Michael Conforto has been going bad for awhile. I’m going ,to stick to my guns even if he snaps out of his funk tonight in San Francisco. During April, he was wonderful especially in the win over the Mets at Wrigley. In his last fifteen games, he’s gone 3-34 with one homer and two runs batted in. He’s not even giving the team good at-bats any longer and his fielding is suspect at best. They got the most of him early and considering how crappy he was for the Dodgers last season, they should cut and run.

I’ve started seeing the same complaints about Luis Rengifo of the Brewers. He was a low risk, low-cost infield option that hasn’t really produced the way a corner infielder should (0HR, 19RBI and a .204 avg and .565 OPS) in 55 games. Other than a coupe random hits, he hasn’t really had a positive impact on the team, and he’s blocking a couple young prospects. Conversely, the surprising White Sox have had no difficulty severing ties with temporary employees.

While teams are always looking for organizations to trade with, both teams in town might have found the same answer. Find a top-notch team who has a strong farm system with multiple prospects blocked from rising. The Dodgers have gifted the Cubs Michael Busch and the White Sox, Miguel Vargas. Neither was going to be playing regularly in Los Angeles anytime soon. I can think of several promising young outfielders that would look good in other ML uniforms.

I understand why most Cubs fans aren’t excited or aware of the White Sox recent success. Generally speaking, we don’t worry about the Sox unless they are pantsing us in the Crosstown Classic or whatever it’s called. Neither team’s success has any bearing on the other team’s place in the standings. I’ll never be accused of being a Sox fan, but that doesn’t mean I’m not impressed by what they’re accomplishing right now. It’s both a great story and a wonderful surprise.

Yesterday at work I overheard a Cubs fan colleague giving a visiting Sox fan heck for enjoying the team’s current success (37-31 and 1st place) while completely dismissing the Cubs record (36-34 and 3rd place) and how poorly they have played in the last thirty games. He keeps on pointing out that the season’s not over and it’s about how you finish, completely forgetting how the Cubs didn’t finish last year. I’m sorry that he’s missing out on the other team in town, but am not surprised. Like many sports fans his only connection to the teams is through one local sports talk station in town. Sports talk radio is a great forum for fans to air their grievances without driving family members bonkers. However, if one doesn’t realize the real intent of the medium is to agitate the listeners than you’re missing the aim. Call screeners carefully choose who’s going to air their opinions and the more absurd, the better.

I have no idea how long the Sox success will last, but I’m happy for my friends and family members who’ve had to endure the past few miserable years. Nobody predicted they would reach first place in June, yet they are here. Who cares for how long, as it appears to be a step in the right direction. Incidentally, it wouldn’t be against the law for both teams to be successful in the same season.

No matter how much it hurts, it’s time to give the Sox a smidge of respect.