ChicagoSportsBlogs : Non Compete

The White Sox were swept yesterday by the Twins. I hate losing to the Twins. I hate it even more when it drops us to 4th place in the division. I really don't know what to say so I'll let Ozzie do all the talking:

"I'm going to get fired? Good. Is this team going to get better having me out of there? I'd be too happy with it. But as long as I'm here, we've got to play better. As long as I'm here, we have to play better," -- Guillen

This sounds like a beaten man. His will to win hasn't waned, but he is clearly tired of the mediocrity the team has displayed these past few weeks. I really don't know what more Ozzie can do?! It isn't as if the team isn't trying. They most likely are trying too hard. (whatever that means) Kenny Williams can't be happy to hear his manager fire himself. That job is best left to the GM. By taking that away all we have left is his ability to scout and bring on talent. That leads me to a point about Kenny. He has spent the last week checking out the farm system. Another way to put it is that Williams is trolling the backroads of Charlotte to find some much needed help for the big league team. I don't know what he expects to find down there; Brian Anderson? Geo Gonzalez? Maybe Josh Fields gets the call? Is there anything in the minors that could help this team wake up?

Maybe we should take a page out of the Yankees book and bring back a 50 year old veteran pitcher to spark the team back into contention. What do you think? Is Bobby Thigpen still around?

My brother came to visit this past holiday weekend from the Cleve. It was cool to hear about everything going on in Ohio. It was also great to catch up in person about the usual sports complaints we share: the mediocre baseball being played in Chicago, what the hell are the Bears doing, and hockey. Yes, hockey. I can hear both my readers crying, "Not another hockey article!" Stay with me fellas, this one will be short.

Both my brother and I have done a pretty good job of getting the message from the NHL. Go away. I don't have to be asked twice. Casein point, I didn't see the Blackhawks play a single time this year. I technically didn't see a full period on TV either! It is amazing to see how the mighty have fallen. If you think about it, the NHL was always the 4th major sport in America. Everyone knows the order, right? Football, Baseball, Basketball, and finally Hockey. Does 4th place really constitute mighty?

I bring this up every year, and specifically now because today is a special day to the dozen or so fans who still look upon hockey with warm and loving gazes. Today is the first game of the Stanley Cup. Once considered the most coveted, if not the most difficult to attain of all sports championships the Stanley Cup is now merely an elaborately etched candy dish. Hockey is irrelevant on the American sports landscape. Does anyone even know that the Ottawa Senators and the Anaheim Ducks are the two teams competeing for Lord Stanley's cup? Does anyone even know where to turn on the TV dial to even catch a glimpse of the game? I sure don't. My brother was getting tired of watching the NBA pre-game show on ESPN and he mentioned that his "hockey sense was tingling". He asked me if I could find the Versus network. The Versus network. Do I really need to spell it out for you? Isn't this the definition of being buried low on the dial?

This isn't how it was supposed to be. Hockey was supposed to take advantage of both baseball's steriod problem and the NBA's thug-image. High-Def TV broadcasting was supposed to dissolve the old adage that hockey was toughest sport to follow on TV. There wasn't a need for glow pucks this time around. Carefully positioned cameras were going to be able to capture the game in beautiful high definition. It was going to be easier to watch the puck movement. The ballet on ice, the one without the dresses and glitter was supposed to take off like a rocket. Instead, you tune to ESPN and find yourself waiting for 20 minutes to see a 30 second highlight of a goal or two during the Stanley Cup. (the link is actually a good preview of the Cup). And before all you die-hard baseball and basketball fans start writing in to tell me I am off my rocker, let me be clear: I'm not saying hockey would have been vaulted to number 2 status. I'm just saying that I could have seen them take advantage of the inevitable debacle that will ensue when Barry Bonds breaks the home run record, and when the ratings come in for a Utah v. Cleveland NBA final.

All it would have taken was a proper television contract, contraction, and a real effort to get the fans in the seats. (at least in Chicago) I'm prepared to see a ton more articles about how either horse racing, or even the Miss Universe Pageant got better ratings than game 1.

All I can say is what a shame. Glad to see I'm not alone.

Happy Memorial Day! Technically, there is nothing happy about Memorial Day. I'll spare you the history lesson and the lecture discussing my political views on war and will instead begin a rant on how the White Sox are mediocre at best. (so far)

The ballclub is not hitting well. Sure, we had to start the season without Pods, and Jim Thome suffered an early injury that kept him out of the line up, but that isn't it. Does anyone really believe that Pods is the key to Konerko's batting average? The White Sox as a team are not hitting. I'm struggling to remember a White Sox team that has been so consistently bad at the plate. When I say consistently bad, I mean from the top of the order to the bottom of the order as well as their general inability to get guys on base.

I know that Thome has come back to the lineup and everyone is very excited because he seems to be our catalyst but I'm not buying it. It is as if the curse of the bad bats has been cured by his mammoth presence! But this isn't Hollywood and I doubt anyone is sacrificing a chicken to get our batting averages up. I'd settle for a team dinner consisting of chicken wings.

 

 

 

So the Sox visit the Twins earlier this afternoon and it was a doozy of a pitching matchup. We sent out Contreras to face Santana. The team site has a nice wrap up of what happened here. I will have to say I am surprised about a few things coming out of this game:

1. Pauly seems to be coming out of it. He hit a homer off of Santana and followed it up with a single in the 6th to give us a lead! A hit with men in scoring position? Wow! Way to go Paul! I'm hoping you're seeing the ball better and that you get out of your funk. .225 is not a good indication of what you are capable of.
2. AJ didn't incite a riot. I didn't think AJ stepped on Morneau's foot on purpose, but it seems I am biased. The fact that AJ was back in his old ballpark, and he dared to make a mistake by touching their precious Justin's golden feet without any punches being thrown is astonishing!
3. We didn't win. That's right. We should have won this game. If you went to read the game recap on WhiteSox.com you'd have seen the amazing state that it has been 3 years since the Sox have scored 4 runs on Santana. If I told you we would have scored 4 runs on Santana, would you have guessed it wasn't good enough to get the W?

I can hear some of you out there screaming YES!!! The damn bullpen is crappy and 4 runs can disappear like ice cream on a hot day. Speaking of the bullpen, Cisco was sent down and the Sox brought up Dewon Day. I don't know much about Dewon, but Coop seems to think he can do a good job. He also seems to think MacDougal has enough "good stuff" to snap out of it. God knows we need him to, because at this point there isn't a single arm in the bullpen that I think we can rely on...except for Jenks. Maybe even Masset.

I'm wondering if it is worse to have bullpen problems, or to continue to have problems as a team at the plate. At this point in the season, I'd say let's get the bats hot again and bash our ways to wins. I'd classify bullpen problems as rich-man's problems for a team sitting in third place.

My second game to the Cell was an interesting one. Evil Contreras was on the mound and he did a nice job overall tonight. I did notice that as soon as his pitch count hit about 90 pitches, he started to labor but overall I was pleased with his ability to keep the ball down in the zone. It was a windy evening on the Southside and I was expecting the worst from Contreras. Such is our luck as of late.

While Jose pitched pretty well for most of the game, I could tell that his arm was dropping a few slots and as a result his pitches were flat and easy to hit. In a matter of no time, the A's started to hit him pretty hard. Pitching coach Don Cooper went out for a quick visit early in the 5th inning (I believe it was the fifth inning) and reminded him to start throwing the ball from "over the top". No more side arm slinging! It worked, and Contreras got out of the inning.

The White Sox bats are starting to come alive too. Jim Thome was back in the lineup for the first time in weeks and he I have to say, he was unimpressive. Erstad continues to lead the team with some great hitting. He went 3 for 4 tonight. The surprise of the evening was Jermaine Dye's early exit from the game for arguing balls and strikes. I was sitting close enough on that 3rd strike call and I tend to agree with JD, that ball was just a bit lower than his knees. Speaking of his knees, I'm wondering if JD is playing hurt because he isn't really running that well in the field. He has looked a but sluggish chasing balls down in both the Cubs series and now this first game against the A's. We can't afford to lose JD in the outfield because we really don't have anyone that can be trusted out there in his absence. Plus, he seems to be coming out of his recent slump. Getting ejected from tonight's game meant that the Sox were going to need a bench player to step up.

I've got to say, I was a bit surprised to see Mackowiak, Cintron, and even Terrero (he replaced JD), actually come through tonight. Mackowiak had a rough start to the game when we lost a shallow pop up in the lights to allow a double. The folks around me in the stands where super pissed. The guy is a local kid and typically this is good enough for most people to look past players transgressions at the Cell , but this isn't the first time Mack has done something stupid. It was just the other day that someone was telling me he was a decent outfielder, when playing at the corners. I doubted it then, and I doubt it now. Mack is a shell of his former Pittsburgh self. For some reason, Ozzie is in love with him so I expect to see him in the lineup a ton.

My train ride is about to come to an end, but I wanted to leave you with some comments on tonight's bullpen performance. It seems that the 'pen is going to get lit up in the papers again after MacDougal and Boone Logan came into the game struggling. I have very little confidence in MacDougal after tonight. I saw him start with an 0-2 count against the first batter he faced only to run the count to 4-2 and walk the guy. You aren't going to win many ballgames by walking guys in the late innings. At this point of the season I am hoping that our pitchers can go 7 innings deep, hand the ball to Thorton for the hold, and then call Bobby in for the save. Anything that deviates from that setup is a risk.

I love it when the Yankees come to town. What more do you want in a baseball team? They have tradition, the Big Stein, and a $300 million dollar payroll that has succeeded in bringing them nothing but ridicule. Case in point, Sox fans really don't have a beef with the Yankees so it came as a surprise when the loudmouth cantankerous Yankee fan started to claim we didn't start winning until we spent "big money". I believe his point was that we're no different than his beloved Yankees when it comes to the payroll department. I beg to differ. The Sox won the series in '05 with a payroll that came in a hair under $100 million. Ok, so maybe $300 million was an exaggeration. (2007 payrolls here)

I actually had tickets for the first game in the White Sox/Yankees series this week. It was going to be my first game of the season. The rain out changed all that. Instead of a ball game, it turned out to be the largest outdoor Bulls' playoff game party in the history of Chicago. That's right, we sat in the rain (for the most part) and waited for the MLB to give the Sox the green light to start the game. All in all, it was a 2 hour waste of time and money. But wait - there is more.

The game was postponed until Wed afternoon - a 1:05pm start. This meant the wife and I were going to have a Ferris Bueller day off from work to avoid eating the $100 cost of these tickets. Why not, right? The wife wanted to see A-Rod and the Yanks, and I was getting tired of being a desk jockey.

3 beautiful hours later we realized we witnessed something special. John Danks pitched a hell of a game against a very good Yankees lineup. Don't be fooled by the Yankees record. Bobby Abreu, A-Rod, Jeter, Damon, the list goes on and on with guys who can hit for power! I am happy to say that I feel better about losing Freddy Garcia after seeing Danks up close. He throws a great fastball that moves, plus he can hit his spots. I could tell he got a bit frustrated when the strikezone started shrinking to the size of tea cup but that can be expected. I can safely say that I never expected to be singing the praises of our 5th starter this year instead of powerhouse lineup. Powerhouse? Meh. They're still swinging the stick as if it someone spun them around blindfolded and sent them off to wack a piniata. Here's to hoping that turns around against the Cubbies...

Oh that's right - the Crosstown Classic is this weekend. I wonder what MJ thinks about his team's chances....

GO WHITE SOX

It is the top of the ninth inning in Minnesota and the White Sox are about to lose this game as quickly as they blew their 4-1 lead. The 8th inning was disasterous for the Pale Hose. The bullpen imploded as MacDougal, Thorton and Aardsma all had a hand in a the collapse. I stepped away from the TV long enough to eat a tasty dinner, only to return to a game of ups and downs. What sucks is that the ups are coming from the weirdest of the weird. You know it is a rough season when you're cheering for AJ to do something at the plate. Let the record show, he did get a clutch hit to score a run in the top of the 6th.

I'm stuck watching Cintron with an 0-2 count in the top of the ninth after Joe Crede's strikeout. Damn you Torii, with two I's Hunter. Your blasted clutch single in the 8th tied this game up and ruined my night. Wait for it...Cintron just grounded out to the 2nd baseman. Great.

The winning run is on second after Aardsma bobbled the bunt attempt by Jeff Cirillo. Bobby is warming up and I have a feeling he is just wasting his time. OH MY FREAKING GOD.

Aardsma just airmailed a fucking ball on an intential walk. Wild pitch!
The runner advanced to 3rd. I'm starting to wonder if the Sox are trying to enact that old baseball riddle; How many different ways can a batter get to first base? I thought there were 6 unique ways but the White Sox are trying to invent another two.

He just did it again...Oh my freakin God. I just realized something. I must be watching the Cubs!

I would have liked to take a poll at the start of the season to see how many White Sox fans would have predicted these numbers:

    Iguchi             .239
    Uribe             .224
    Pierzynski      .216
    Crede             .215
    Dye                .214
    Konerko         .202

This is BRUTAL. The White sox have the worst team batting average in the MLB: .221.
We've lost the last four in a row and it is starting to get worrisome on the South Side.
The Sox had a decent month of April, even with the anemic hitting. We finished +1 on the month. I figured the early snow and cold weather was going to be a shortlived exercise in futility for the offense, but here we are now in May with the weather finally warming up and our bats are still frozen.

The biggest fear I had coming into this season was that our pitching wasn't going to keep up with the other teams in the division. We have a team ERA of 4.02. That has us sitting in 5th place in the American League. Only the Twins have a better ERA in our division. It turns out that the pitching is ok. The cold bats have been so cold that Ozzie is starting to call it "White Sox disease". Once again, BRUTAL.

With Jim Thome and Pods sidelined for a few more weeks (I don't think Thome comes back next week...call me crazy) the men I've listed earlier in this post have to start doing things differently at the plate. Here is my basic baseball 101 advice for each of them:

1.     What happened to being patient at the plate? Take a pitch!
2.      Work the count. Seriously, start fighting off the inside pitches more. I've seen more guys taking strike 3 inside than I have ever seen.
3. Stop it already with the infield pop ups! Get some good wood on the ball. Smack a line drive. Do something more than just try to crush the ball only to pop it straight up.
4. Don't even think about blaming our hitting coach. I think Ozzie has this covered already.

I don't think anyone believe the Sox are going to be the worst hitting team for much longer. Eventually the hitters will find their groove. I just hope they don't take until the All-Star Break to find it.