Sox Machine: Chicago White Sox blog

Help Wanted

I will be leaving the country this weekend, and missing tonight's, Saturday's and Sunday's game in the process.  If anybody would like to pitch in by offering their version of a recap, or at least some observations of the game, please send an email to jim@soxmachine.com, and I will compile them and give all the credit where credit is due. 

Regular posting will return Monday.  Enjoy the weekend.

-Jim

It's a wash

Mark Buehrle and Jarrod Washburn not only share the same uniform number and throw from the same side of the mound, but they've shared the mound an inordinate amount of times in their careers. 

Counting tonight's start, Buehrle's faced Washburn's teams (Seattle and Anaheim) 10 times over the course of his career.  Washburn has started eight of those games, which seems to be an abnormally high percentage. 

Tonight's win gives Washburn a record of 3-3 against Buehrle.  Buehrle is 4-3 in these starts, as he picked up a decision in Game 2 of the ALCS -- the A.J. Pierzynski game.  He went the distance while Washburn exited before five, and had A.J. not run it out, Buehrle would've come out to pitch the 10th as well.  Good times, good times. 

In these eight matchups, Buehrle has an ERA a full run lower -- 3.03 to 4.02.  Much of that is due to the first time they faced each other, which did not at all foreshadow the type of game that would define later matchups.  In that contest on August 8, 2001, the Sox offense knocked Washburn and the rest of the pitching staff around while Buehrle went the distance.  Chicago won 15-1.

Take that game out of the equation, and Buehrle actually trails Washburn in ERA with a 3.38 average compared to Washburn's 3.07, albeit in nine-plus more innings.

Brian brings his A-game

Entering the season, reviews of Brian Anderson's defense were mixed.  I'd heard him called everything from below-average to capable of replacing Aaron Rowand without skipping a beat.  Some called him underrated because Chris Young came up and looked to be the equivalent of Mike Cameron with the glove, some called him overrated because he played a small outfield in Charlotte next to a right-fielder with no range. 

We all know his bat needs work, but unless my eyes are lying to me, his mitt is making him worth having him in the lineup.  He's made a couple nice diving catches, and had a nice shoestring catch on a line drive yesterday to thwart a Mariners first-inning hit-and-run.  On the other side of the spectrum, I can only remember one true misread -- the jamshot off Bobby Jenks against Detroit. 

I'm most encouraged by the fact that he's made a lot of catches look unspectacular -- I don't see many dead sprints or desparate flops like Scott Podsednik is prone to do, but easy, "gazelle-like strides" as Ed Farmer says three or four times a game instead. 

Meanwhile, Rowand's been off to a shaky start in Philly, with two errors in his first 16 games.  He only had three all of last year.  There was another game on TBS in which I saw Rowand overrun a ball to the warning track, and made a strange, across-the-body, over-the-shoulder stab at it when he could've turned his body around last year.  It's been a rough start, though he's hitting a lot better than Anderson at this juncture.

I'm guessing Rowand just has a lot of new outfields to get used to, and he'd be outproducing Anderson easily if he were in Chicago.  It's just a relief to see Anderson holding his own with the glove, because the tradeoff between Jim Thome and Carl Everett is making more of a difference than the impressive numbers can show. 

A Thing of Beauty II: Beauty Rears Its Ugly Head

To be fair to Juan Uribe, at least his method is somewhat effective.  Pablo's defense, on the other hand...


To his credit, his hitting the cutoff man in the seventh inning after Ichiro's RBI single helped to kill the momentum the Mariners had going.  But it'd still be nice to see Ozzie brush the cobwebs off Ross Gload and give him a shot.

Speed does slump

Entering tonight's game against the Mariners, the Sox as a team are 1-for-6 in stolen base attempts in the last five games.  Opposing catchers have gunned down Scott Podsednik three times and Pablo Ozuna and Tadahito Iguchi once apiece.  Only Alex Cintron has been successful in this stretch, and he's been the only one of the four to not crack double-digits in steals.

More troubling is that four of these unsuccessful attempts have not only ended innings, but they ended innings with credible major-league hitters at the plate.  Pods' and Ozuna's miscues have come with Iguchi at the plate, and the Emperor failed with Jermaine Dye batting. 

This trend just might give me a coronary if Ozzie keeps it up, especially since last night's thwarted attempt in the top of the ninth came at the hands of Rene Rivera, who had proved to be inept behind the plate up until that point.  He entered Monday's game 0-for-4 in throwing runners out.  In the previous game against Detroit, he had a throwing error and two passed balls, and earlier against the Sox he allowed Rob Mackowiak to score when he got lazy and didn't get his mitt to a low, outside pitch in time. 

Yet even he could throw out Pablo Ozuna by the end of the evening. 

I'd rather see the steals come with one out, or with somebody like Juan Uribe or A.J. Pierzysnki at the plate -- even though A.J. is swinging a hot bat, he's a double play waiting to happen.  Otherwise, I don't see what the reward is for the risk involved, considering Sox hitters have been pushing each other around the bases just fine so far.

Nine Ozzie pieces

The bench Kenny Williams reshaped this offseason has helped Ozzie to avoid too ugly of lineups this year -- but the one he's employing tonight is downright fugly.

LF Pablo Ozuna
2B Tadahito Iguchi
DH Jim Thome
1B Paul Konerko
C A.J. Pierzynski
SS Juan Uribe
RF Rob Mackowiak
3B Alex Cintron
CF Brian Anderson

Four out of nine spots make sense.  He's got two guys at a platoon disadvantage (Pierzynski, Mackowiak), two guys out of their better defensive position (Ozuna, Cintron), and three guys out of order (Ozuna, Pierzynski and Uribe).  I thought we were past the days in which Pieryznski would sniff the top five spots in the lineup.

Obviously it's good to rest the regulars, but it wasn't a day game after a night game.  The Sox had an extended break in between games plus two hours due to the time zone difference.  Also, Joel Pineiro is making the start tomorrow -- that would help to get Mackowiak and Cintron into the ballgame without losing any advantageous matchups. 

Either this lineup means Ozzie was bored or somebody's banged up, and either reason sucks.

A thing of beauty

Since I was working overtime today, I only heard Juan Uribe's two homers today and didn't get a chance to see them until later tonight. 

They reminded me of another thing I'd like to ask Greg Walker if I could talk to him.  After asking him, "How is Joe Crede able to spoil pitches?" I'd follow up with, "How does Juan Uribe generate any power?"

There aren't any AP photos of Juan making contact today, but here's the video clip of both of them, which is better because it shows it in slow motion.  His butt is pulling him towards the home dugout, his left foot is nearly off the ground when he makes contact, his weight is not shifting into the ball, but rather down and away  -- his knee nearly touches the ground each time.

All his power appears to be generated by his arms, which aren't McGwiresque by any means.  It's the ugliest swing in the majors, ever since Randy Johnson moved back to the American League. It's also why he's one of my favorite players -- I tend to relate better to guys who look overmatched at the plate.

Jilted Joe Borchard

The Mariners designated Joe Borchard for assignment today, meaning Seattle has 10 days to either trade him, release him or put him on waivers.  Because he has a ton of power and plays a decent defensive outfield, there's room for him somewhere (the Marlins are one team that could use live bodies) even if his swing has more holes than the plot of Into the Blue.

*golf swing*

Given that the two players Kenny Williams dealt during Spring Training can't stick on a major-league roster, I think it's safe to say he's won both his deals -- perhaps in a major way.  Let's chart 'em.

Kenny traded for:	Kenny traded away:
Matt Thornton	Joe Borchard
Don Cooper has helped the hard-throwing lefty to throw strikes, but he still lacks movement on his fastball and guile around the zone.  Should be a decent LOOGY if nothing else.	Only saw nine at-bats in Seattle, an organization that has a ton of questionable-hitting outfielders already.
Alex Cintron	Jeff Bajenaru
He's batting .324, showing some power and playing errorless defense.  Switch-hitting infielder has a definite role on this club, and limits Pablo Ozuna's role at the same time.	Couldn't stick with the Sox when they had two bullpen openings; couldn't stick in a D-Backs bullpen that was awful last year.  Has walked eight batters in 9+ innings in Triple-A.

Royal doormats

With an 11-5 victory over former Royal Paul Byrd and the Indians Saturday, Kansas City broke an 11-game losing streak and notched its first win against a non-White Sox opponent.  The Royals also helped the Sox extend their AL Central lead to 1 1/2 games over the Tigers, and 2 1/2 games over the Tribe.

With three tough teams in division, every game against Kansas City is a must-win for the Sox, Indians and Tigers, because the Royals flat-out stink.  Before Saturday's victory, they ranked last in runs scored (51), last in ERA (6.71), and 27th in the league in defensive efficiency (.683), meaning they take dumps in all facets of the game.  That's why they were 2-13 before stealing a win against Cleveland.  Their pythagorean record was even 2-13, and that eliminates bad breaks from the equation!

As Joe Posnanski writes, there's nothing they do well, and their best minor leaguers aren't going to help much this year, if at all.  Given the way Kansas City gives away games, the Sox might not be able to lose any more than the two games they've already dropped to the Royals.

It's not hard to look at the Royals and think back to the 2003 Detroit Tigers team that lost 119 games.  That year, the Sox's disappointing efforts against those lousy Tigers probably cost them the division.  Chicago finished 11-8 on the season against Detroit, while the Twins went 15-4.  Not coincidentally, Minnesota won the pennant by four games.

Here's what the vs. KC standings look like so far:

Tigers	3-0
White Sox	4-2
Indians	1-1

Thome, sweet Thome

Today marked the first time I've ever seen a batter walked -- with two outs -- to face somebody who's batting .359 instead.  Maybe this has happened with Barry Bonds, but I can't remember anybody on the Sox scaring pitchers this much since Frank Thomas in 1993-94. 

Yet they still couldn't stop Jim Thome, who walked and hit his ninth homer of the year in tonight's victory against the Twins.  Here are some fun Thome facts:

*He has scored a run in all 17 games.  Thome now holds the record for consecutive games with a run scored to start the season, and is one short of tying Red Rolfe and Kenny Lofton for the major-league record.  

*He is tied for the league lead in homers with Future Sox Killer Chris Shelton, and is second in slugging as of Saturday morning.  Thome's pulled closer in that department as well, with Shelton going 0-for-3 against Seattle.  Also, those nine homers tie Frank Thomas' April record -- and there are still eight days left in the month.

*He leads the league in walks.  Last year, Paul Konerko led the Sox with 81 walks; Scott Podsednik and Tadahito Iguchi finished second with 47.  Thome is on pace for 200. 

*He just started taking showers this year.  He also enjoys ice cream cones and thought Brokeback Mountain was "A TRIUMPH OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT."

Jurassic eulogized

The goal of this section is to remember those World Champion White Sox who have moved on to different teams fondly.  At the same time, it’s hard to maintain a fondness for Carl Everett, which is why I had forgotten all about him until a reader reminded me that I hadn’t written his eulogy yet.  

I guess what I can say about Carl is that I never could really root for him; I suppose I more or less just really, really, really hoped he wouldn’t embarrass the team.  After all, Kenny Williams gave up a half-dozen prospects or so to acquire him twice, so the team had invested a lot in him.  Not humiliating his employers would be the least he could offer.

Read the rest

Clean cuts

Joe Crede is a different hitter. 

It's not the hair, it's not a hot streak, it's not good luck, it's not his great defense masking his flaws -- he's transformed himself into an above-average American League hitter. 

I know we've said it before, whether it was after his sterling debut, or the numerous great months he's had that have been followed by catastrophic ones.  But after seeing him hit Friday night (and this is only the fourth game I've seen all year, thanks to Extra Innings sharing the NHL's channels), I'd be shocked if he returned to being a .240, five strikeouts-per-walk hitter he once was.

It's not just his stats, which have been outstanding thus far -- it's his approach.  And if I were to single out the key to Crede's success, it would have to be that he's learned to spoil pitches.  Take his first two at-bats from tonight's game:

First at-bat:  Falls behind in the count 1-2 to Santana, he got enough bat on a few tough pitches and worked the count full.  Santana then put a fastball over the plate, and Crede got good wood on it, flying out to deep center.

Second at-bat:  Falls behind in the count 1-2, yet draws a walk after watching three balls and depositing a high heater in the stands behind him.

He did swing at the first pitch in his third at-bat, but it wasn't a bad pitch to swing at, just getting under it on a flyout to left.

In those situations last year, Crede would've been a dead duck.  He had such a long swing that he had to get it started too soon, and would overcompensate for pitches out of his happy space by throwing the bat at it at the last moment.  With that hitting style, there wasn't a ball he couldn't pop up.  It kept him from grounding into a lot of double plays, but it hurt him in the productive out department.  Well, the productive hitting department in general.

Now, he's fending off pitches he can't use and waiting for one that he can pounce on to come along.  It's probably equal parts mechanics and confidence -- Crede's shorter swing allows him more time to decide, and he knows that he doesn't have to try at any ball he can touch.  It's quite the metamorphosis. 

Since he went on the DL stint in late August last year, his bat has been quicker, and his swing more even.  I don't know how this equates into spoiling more pitches; I can't quite explain the physics of the process, but that's what's happening.  It'd be a neat topic to discuss with Greg Walker.  Too bad he's probably not reading this.

I don't know -- third base!

Bush: So, when I introduce you to my cabinet, I say, "I'd like to introduce President Hu?"
Hu: Naturally.
Bush: "Introduce President Hu?"
Hu: Naturally.
Bush: So, when I introduce you to my cabinet, I say, "I'd like to introduce President Naturally."
Hu: No, you say "I'd like to introduce President Hu."
Bush: Naturally.
Hu: Naturally.
Bush: "I'd like to introduce President Hu?"
Hu: Now that's the first thing you've said right all day.
Bush: I don't even know what I'm talking about!

Yep, it's an off day.

Turn, turn, turn

Javier Vazquez's outstanding effort against the Royals cemented the first 5-0 week for the Sox rotation this year. 

After a rocky start during which Hawk Harrelson proclaimed the ball is juiced, it looks like everybody is on track.  Jon Garland and Freddy Garcia could look steadier, and we'll know more when they aren't playing the Royals, but you can't complain about the last five starts on the whole.

Anyway, I don't know if this is of any practical utility, but I've been charting the turns through the rotation just to see how dominant rotation could be.  Here's what the first three weeks have looked like.

	W-L	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	ERA
Turn 1	0-2	26.1	34	23	23	8	19	7.86
Turn 2	4-1	33	39	18	18	6	14	4.91
Turn 3	5-0	34.1	18	7	6	10	23	1.57

The most encouraging thing about this, even with the terrible first week and mediocre second is that through 15 starts, Sox starters have only allowed one unearned run.  There may have been a few uncounted for (like the Pablo Ozuna debacle against KC), but that sort of thing will even out.

A/V club

*Kenny Williams appeared on Baseball Tonight's phone call segment.  Karl Ravech asked him about Crede's haircut and Buehrle's tarp-slide ban and insisted that Sox management laughs more than any other team's front office, but they're trying to maintain a successful organization that wins in a dignified manner. 

He's the second Sox I've seen appear in that segment -- Jim Thome was on before, and Thome prefaced all his answers with "Well..." and spoke with a drawn-out Midwestern accent.  It's supposed to be a quick segment, but like his at-bats, Thome extended it.

*Ed Farmer needs to lay off Barry Bonds.  Not that Bonds deserves it; I just hate when he's brought up in a game that has nothing to do with him.  We had to deal with it with the Sunday Night Baseball crew, but since The Score doesn't have "Bonds on Bonds" to promote there's really no point in it.  Seemingly whenever the Giants are brought up, Farmer rails on the perjury-defendant-to-be, mainly calling him the worst teammate ever in various forms. 

He tries to drag Chris Singleton into the equation by asking him how his reading of "Game of Shadows" is coming along; Singleton said that his progress has stalled the last couple of days.  I think I deserve to not have to know that fact.  People who make a conscious decision to avoid Bonds whenever possible shouldn't be hit with it when they're listening to the White Sox.  This would never have happened if John Rooney were still alive.

*Singleton needs to speed it up.  It's frustrating to know what happens before Singleton says it -- you can basically go by the reaction of the crowd.  Not only does he call it late, but he leaves the most essential piece of information for the very end.  It's tough to describe textually, but it's something like:

[crack of the bat]
[crowd cheers]
And Jermaine Dye...
[crowd continues to cheer]
hits a liner...
[more cheering]
that drops in for a single.

Sometimes it takes a good five seconds for him to get out what we must know, and it's even tougher to get a mental picture on developing plays.

I realize that he's not going to be a good broadcaster for a long time, but I'd rather him focus on getting the thing we need to know out first, even if it comes at the expense of complete sentences.  "Single, Dye," would be preferable at this point. 

The power of Samson compels him

First Kenny Williams nearly fined Mark Buehrle for doing his tarp slides during Sunday's rain delay, which was understandable.

Now, Jerry Reinsdorf says he wants Joe Crede and A.J. Pierzynski to cut their hair -- and now he's gone too far.

Sure, Crede's flowing, flaxen locks and patchy sideburns don't exactly cover his redneck past, but his comeliness is not what's at stake here.  It's his hitting that's on the line.

Since Joe came back from the DL last September spotting a shaggier 'do, he hasn't remembered that he's supposed to pop everything up, especially when runners are in scoring position.  Instead, he's hitting line drive after line drive and tearing the cover off the ball.  Here are his lines from the last three baseball months:

September:  .359/.419/.759
Playoffs:  .289/.319/.622
April:  .325/.375/.600

You don't want to mess with that kind of production, especially when Crede has a history of losing whatever he found at the plate for weeks at a time.  You cut his hair, you cut his strength.

A.J., on the other hand, doesn't really matter so much.  Looking at his picture, he should probably be more concerned about growing a jaw.

The Joe Mays Haze has lifted

Before tonight's victory, there was still a part of me that hesitated to bring up the fact that the Sox had hit Joe Mays fairly well over the last few years.  I say this because Mays caused more agony than any other pitcher to face the Sox that I can remember.

It was nothing like watching Johan Santana carve through the Sox lineup -- at least I knew going in that the Sox would be lucky to score anything off Santana, and that I'd consider it a victory if they struck out less than 10 times. 

Mays, on the other hand, had nothing.  He walked a lot of batters, gave up a lot of hits, didn't intimidate batters, and wasn't even a lefty.  He couldn't be considered a junkballer because his breaking stuff wasn't particularly baffling.  All he possessed was a mediocre, AAAA arm. 

Here's what he did against the Sox from 1999-2001 against the Sox:

6-0, 67.1 IP, 2.67 ERA, 24 BB, 41 K

And here's what he did against the rest of the league on the whole during that period:

24-39, 4.41 ERA, 174 BB, 299 K

But now with today's start, I think it's safe to say we can put Joe Mays: Sox Killer to rest.  He can lie right next to John Olerud, who spared us by retiring in the offseason.  Olerud pestered the Sox until the very end, but compiling the numbers from 2002-2006, Mays doesn't seem to be much of a threat from here on out:

2-6, 52.2 IP, 7.87 ERA, 10 BB, 19 K.

Unfortunately, the difference can't be chalked up to fine Sox hitting as much as it is to major arm surgery, but given the alternative (1999-2001), I suppose we'll have to take it.

Haves and have nots

Reading this morning's paper, I was poring over the Sunday stat page and was surprised to see the Sox only ranking 10th in the league in batting.  I didn't see how that was possible, given the hot starts by the No. 2-7 hitters in the lineup.

Checking the stats after today's game, I imagine there's somewhat of a unique statistical phenomenon going on with the Sox right now. 

Namely, there isn't a single Sox player batting .2anything.  That's not just counting qualified players -- that's everybody, from Paul Konerko (53 plate appearances) to Ross Gload (three).  A.J. Pierzynski is hitting .308, and then Juan Uribe is next on the Sox leaderboard batting .167.

And it is unique, as I went through all the other teams' stats just to make sure. 

It doesn't mean much, except that there's one nasty undercurrent in the Sox offense.  Here's a quick and dirty calculation of what the No. 2-7 hitters have done combined compared to the rest of the team:


Keep in mind, "the rest" includes solid bench performances by Alex Cintron and Pablo Ozuna (14-for-36 combined) so far.

I'm guessing this occurrence won't last through Monday.  All it needs is an 0-fer from Iguchi or Pierzynski to bring somebody back to the .200 range, so enjoy it while you can.  Looks like we're going to be in for quite a regression (and inflation) to the mean.

Slip slidin' away

On the same topic of White Sox tradition being phased out, Kenny Williams has fined Mark Buehrle for his traditional rain delay theatrics.  Folks who stuck around during the second delay today got to see the lefty turn the tarp into a Slip 'n' Slide for the last time.

It's perfectly understandable why Kenny wasn't amused, especially given that Buehrle nearly broke his foot doing something as innocuous as shagging flies next spring. I just hope Kenny has more of a sense of humor about it than the fine and his terse one-sentence response indicates.  It's rare to see a ballplayer obviously having fun, and it does something to engage the fans during an otherwise agonizing wait.
Hopefully this policy doesn't extend to Man Soo Lee, because somebody will have to pick up the slack.

A (Nancy) Faustian bargain

So, if I'm doing my math right, Nancy Faust will only be playing 28 dates this year, as the new contract she negotiated has her playing zero night games.

 That's just wrong; not just because she's a White Sox institution, or because I love me some organ music, but because all reports regarding Faust treat it as the beginning of the end of organ music at Comiskey.

Personally, I'm not a fan of any between at-bat music, or between-inning music, but if it's going to be there, I'd rather it be played by an actual human instead of a CD changer with Jock Jamz Vols. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 on "shuffle."  At least Nancy shows some creativity, and I'd rather hear Brubeck and Aliotah, Haynes and Jeremiah instead of "Cottoneye Joe."

The funny thing is, I've never heard of a person who would rather have it the other way around, with fake music pumped in whenever the ball isn't in play, and pizza/frog/car races on the Jumbotron in between innings.  It's nice to know that Brooks Boyer wants to keep actual organ music around the stadium for as long as he can, but I wish he'd take it one step further and limit the amount of "special effects" in the stadium all together.

Obviously, stuff like the pizza races is advertising, but the between-innings selection of "music" usually just showcases a corporation's ill-fitting idea of what draws in those damn young people.

Would anybody be against this?  Do the higher-ups actually think the 25-and-under crowd go to a baseball game because the guys in the PA booth are spinning some mad tracks (yo)?  I'd venture to guess they go because 1) baseball is fun, 2) there's alcohol, and 3) because there are lots of other people around.  That list is not necessarily in order of importance. 

The only people who enjoy the selection of songs are the people making asses of themselves dancing on the jumbotron.  And chances are they'd be dancing with no music, anyway. 

I think the Sox had the right idea with the "Nothing but Nancy Day" last year.  It'd be nice to see more of that line of thinking and less of the keeping up with the Joneses that leads management to believe "YMCA" blasted to 30,000 people is a great idea.

Hawk squawk

Doing a quick lap around Google News, I haven't been able to find any story about "juiced ball" speculation that doesn't lead to a person not named Hawk Harrelson.  In other words, it really shouldn't be talked about. 

If any Sox player hits the same homer Reggie Sanders hit last Sunday, Hawk would've said "You can put it on the booooooooooooard, yes!"  But instead, we have this BS theory that the Trib's Rick Morrissey did a pretty good job of tearing apart in his most recent column.

For those that didn't get a chance to hear the home run call, it was classic Hawk, for better or for worse.  I don't remember it verbatim, but it went something like:

Hawk:  Sanders hits a high fly ball to right, Jermaine is tracing it back....
[silence]
[ball plops down on grass behind right-center wall]
DJ:  Wha-HUH?!?!
Hawk:  Oh, now, the ball is juiced.

Sanders has almost 300 homers to his credit; he's made a career out of being a strong hitter who guesses pretty well, and that's about all there is to say.

Meanwhile, I thought this clip from a Detroit Free Press notebook was pretty funny:

It didn't take long, but White Sox announcer Hawk Harrelson has gone on record as saying he thinks the ball is juiced this season.

Let me just say that Hawk has also gone on record saying that J.P. Howell has the stuff of a quality pitcher when the Sox couldn't do anything against him last year. 

Another man's treasure

Every season, Kenny Williams makes a much-ballyhooed megadeal where people speculate he gave up too much.  And just the same, each year he makes an under-the-radar move where he gets something for nothing.  The latter talent (or maybe Jerry Reinsdorf's insane amount of loyalty) is what kept him from getting fired when the Todd Ritchie and Billy Koch swaps backfired.

Two years ago, he acquired Juan Uribe for Aaron Miles.  Last year, he claimed Bobby Jenks off waivers.  Early this season, it's looking like Alex Cintron is his Bargain of the Year.  Sometimes it has seemed as though other GMs have taken advantage of Kenny for being so outright and upfront about who he wants to deal.  This time around it worked in his favor. 

Following with a breakout (and likely a fluke) 2003 season in which he bat .317 and posted an .848 OPS, he fell flat on his face with an ugly 2004.  His 2005 season was closest to his true talent level, but he spent the season stuck behind veterans acquired by a chemistry-hungry Joe Garagiola Jr.  So at his two primary positions (2B and SS), he spent a lot of time stuck behind Craig Counsell (who played very well, actually), and Royce Clayton (who didn't).  We Sox fans know that nobody should ever be stuck behind Royce Clayton.

So Arizona management was in the same position that Kenny Williams was with Keith Foulke.  Foulke had a rough start to the 2002 season, lost his closer role, and then Jerry Manuel spent the rest of the year yanking him around and devaluing him all the while.  Manuel forced Kenny's hand, and he lost.  Cintron suffered the same fate, and rather than pay him with hotshot prospect Stephen Drew coming up, the D-Backs front office traded him for Jeff Bajenaru. 

Maybe the Diamondbacks should've taken the hint when Bajenaru couldn't make a wide-open Sox bullpen in which a Class-A arm jumped to the 25-man roster.  The Sox were happy to deal him, and they somehow managed to get something of value in return.  Bajenaru didn't even end up making the Diamondbacks bullpen, and now the Sox have a switch-hitting utility infielder who, as we saw today, can show some pop once in awhile.

Other Spring Training Acquistion Update:  Perhaps Don Cooper has solved Matt Thornton's control problems, but his effectiveness problems still need some work.  Thornton threw 19 of 22 pitches for strikes, but he allowed three hits and brought the tying run to the plate when he entered with a four-run lead.  He still throws hard and straight, so I've yet to believe he'll be anything more than Alan Embree.

It's in the bag ... isn't it?

Watching Jon Garland blow gigantic early leads in his first two starts takes me back to last May, when he had a similar game against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Sox gave him a 10-2 lead, and he let the Blue Jays get back in it, chipping away at the margin with an array of hits.  He did come away with the win, but he didn't do it in a pretty fashion, giving up six runs and getting pulled before he could complete six innings.  It was frustrating to watch, because it seemed like one of the few times where I could settle in and watch a rout and he still ended up making me nervous by leaving way too many balls over the plate.

The only difference between that game and today was Scott Podsednik.  In that game, he scored each time he reached base (three) and stole four bases.  Today, he played like a turd. 

I figured I'd find more examples of this since Garland did alright in the run support department (35th in the majors last year), but he ended up being the pitcher of record in the game where the Sox put up a 10-spot in the sixth inning against Russ Ortiz and the Diamondbacks, and another game in which the Sox put up six runs in an inning late against the Red Sox.  Both games skewed the numbers slightly. 

On the other hand, he pitched extremely well in a lot of close games, even ones that he lost.  So maybe he just has trouble bearing down when there's not a lot of pressure on him.  Toronto, Kansas City, and now Detroit -- three's a trend, right?  It'd certainly make sense, with him being so laid-back and all.

Confidence booster

Last year, the Sox ranked 25th in Major League Baseball when it came to drawing walks.  So far this season, the Sox rank fourth. 

Considering the other change in the lineup (Aaron Rowand to Brian Anderson) really isn't going to make much of a difference in that category, could Jim Thome be responsible for such a drastic change in approach?

It's possible.  From raw numbers alone, let's suppose Thome draws 100 walks this year -- that'd be 42 more than Carl Everett and Frank Thomas combined to rack up last year.  But adding 42 to last year's total only bumps the Sox up four spaces to 21st place.

But there's been a noticeable improvement in their approaches at the plate across the board -- so far, everybody except Joe Crede and A.J. Pierzynski is at or above their walk rates last season.  As mentioned before, Tadahito Iguchi's eye improvement has been the most noticeable.  He drew another walk today, and scored on Jim Thome's fifth blast of the year.

It's too small of a sample size to know if any of this will stick, but it's been refreshing to see the Sox not help pitchers out so much, whether it's swinging at first pitches or running into outs.  Last year, there seemed to be a hint of desperation to the White Sox attack, saying to take a run wherever one can get it because there may not be many of them.  Sometimes it worked to get them an early lead; other times, their impatience ensured the pitcher they struggled against would never leave the game.

So far this season, there seems to be a lineup-wide recognition that the heart of the order is looking really, really good, and outs need to be preserved in order to get them back to the plate.  Even Joey Cora has made some nice decisions on when to send and hold runners.  It's not so much "waiting for the big inning" as it is getting the feeling that any inning could be a big inning. 

It's important to play a good smallball game when the situation calls for it, and if Scott Podsednik gets on track they won't lose much ground in that department.  As aforementioned, Rowand is the only one gone from last year's lineup and he was a terrible bunter (as Phillies fans are finding out with Rowand in the No. 2 hole there).  At the same time, their chief mode of run scoring -- the home run -- has been bolstered with the Thome acquisition, and the rest of the team is following suit. 

Now I'm a farmer

If there's one way Kenny Williams has made an impact on me as a baseball fan -- aside from building a team that won a World Series for the first time in 88 years, of course -- it's that he's made me a lot more aware of the farm system. 

It's somewhat counterintuitive when I think about it now, but I suppose I took prospects for granted during Ron Schueler's term.  He wasn't going to part with them, so I was going to see them at some point.  And they were likely going to suck, starting with Scott Ruffcorn, ending with Kris Honel and all the players acquired in the White Flag Trade except Keith Foulke in between.  So they didn't warrant my monitoring, I thought.

But Kenny's so proactive with dealing his prospects that you really have to understand the farm system in order to evaluate the job he's doing.  Take the Jim Thome and Javier Vazquez trades for example.  The centerpieces of the Sox packages weren't Aaron Rowand or El Duque/Luis Vizcaino, respectively -- they were Gio Gonzalez/Daniel Haigwood and Chris Young.  Without that knowledge, you might think Kenny was on the winning end of two salary dumps; with it, you'll have to wait and see and hope that Young doesn't turn into some Super Mike Cameron, and Gonzalez into a lesser Billy Wagner.

At any rate, I've been paying more attention to the Sox minor league system now than I have at any other point, looking to see if there's any relief help on the way when we find out that Boone Logan officially can't retire big league hitters, or if any of the outfielders are ready when Pods goes on the DL at some point. 

Right now, the player I'm paying the most attention to at this point isn't anywhere close to making the big leagues; he's currently playing High-A ball for the Winston-Salem Warthogs.  Lucas Harrell is his name, and he picked up a win in his first start of the season today.

Harrell, the fourth-round pick of the Sox in the 2004 draft, is only on my radar screen because I covered his high school (Ozark) during the Missouri state baseball championships.  I didn't see him pitch that day (he pitched the game prior), but he played shortstop and reached base on all four plate appearances. 

Yet his name probably wouldn't have stuck with me if it weren't for the fact that he had some of the strangest on-field mannerisms since Turk Wendell.  He led off for Ozark, so it didn't take long to notice that he took long to get into the batter's box.  And right before stepping in, he'd take off his batting helmet and smell the inside of it -- if he wasn't yelling at himself into it. 

He also left the bill of his highly salt-stained cap as straight as the day it was born, enjoyed making his uniform far dirtier than it had to be when he slid, and he walked with a limp that seemed to come and go.  A writer who was more familiar with him said that wasn't due to injury; it just showed up whenever he felt like it.

He was a showboat through and through, but you couldn't knock him for it because he played a perfect ballgame that day.  And he was one of the top pitchers in the state, with a sub-1.00 ERA and over 100 strikeouts in only 71 innings.  A month later, the Sox drafted him.

In the Sox system, he looks like typical low-minors material, with inconsistent control and stuff that might be overpowering if he can harness it.  But he's still worth following just for the remote chance that we'll get to see if his high school antics carry over into the big leagues.  Confidence didn't seem to be a problem, so you never know.

Ask a smart question, get a stupid answer

Help us Mark Gonzalez, you’re our only hope.

In his mailbag last week, Gonzalez said that he’ll try to answer reader questions on a weekly basis after doing so only sporadically last year.  Here’s hoping he makes good on that statement, 1) because his mailbag was fairly solid, and 2) because damn, Scott Merkin’s mailbag is downright brutal.

And not just because of the questions, which had such gems as:

Hey, is Jim Thome going to take Frank Thomas' place at designated hitter, and will the White Sox make the playoffs!?!

And:

Hey, Scott. We enjoy reading your work and will be coming to a game at U.S. Cellular Field during the series against Toronto. We were wondering if you could join us for a beer during the game.

While there is such thing as a stupid question, there’s also such thing as poor discretion as to which questions one should include in a mailbag. 

But maybe the White Sox Apologist gets such mindnumbing questions because he fosters ignorance with his responses to smart and important inquiries.  I won’t/can’t C&P entire responses here, but in short, nobody’s ever had a problem with Pablo Ozuna playing left field before, he’d do Boone Logan vs. Travis Hafner again in a heartbeat, and there’s “nothing to see here” in regards to Scott Podsednik’s miserable start.     

I get the same feeling reading Merkin’s mailbags as I do watching a Dick Cheney interview.  I laugh until realizing how many people believe what he’s saying.

So, getting back to Gonzalez, there’s a pressing void in the White Sox mailbag world, at least by people with regular access to the team.  I’d be happy to do a mailbag, except I maybe get about one piece of mail a week, not counting the notices of all the Nigerian lotteries I’ve won.  And people hate it when you brag about money.

Here’s hoping Gonzalez will step up, because Sox fans who aren’t inclined to seek out blogs need a better source of information.  And at the same time, the Trib would be introducing a non-time-consuming form of niche media that doesn’t need a new platform to run it. 

And while we’re at it, here’s hoping that the Sun-Times will pick up on it, too.  I’m a bigger fan of the Sun-Times sports section on the whole, but their website doesn’t feel nearly as alive as the Trib's.   Something as simple as a Joe Cowley mailbag would go a long way to making their online arm more of a destination.

Iguchi hits ichi

Sandwiched in between the nothingness that is Scott Podsednik and the thunderous roar that is Jim Thome has been the steady, unassuming play of Tadahito Iguchi.  

The Emperor, who is pretty much the de facto leadoff man considering Pablo Ozuna and Pods have hit in front of him so far this season, is second on the team in hitting and OBP.  In fact, he’s only failed to reach base in one of his six starts this year (and he had a bit of a tiff with Ozzie because of the one game he’s sat).  

The one redeeming part about Pods’ struggles is that we’re getting to see what Iguchi could do if he were hitting lower in the lineup, and the early returns are encouraging.  He’s already walked more times than he did last April (five to four), and has only struck out three times in 24 plate appearances.  He looks patient, and he’s hitting plenty of line drives.  

Hopefully Ozzie’s noticing Iguchi’s output, because if Pods has to go on the DL soon (and given his sickly output, it seems imminent), he’s going to have to reshape his lineup.  And having Pablo Ozuna leading off regularly is not my idea of sound lineup construction, so he’ll have to do something he has yet to do:

Bat Iguchi leadoff.

Here’s my thought on lineups – ultimately, you want your best players getting the most at-bats.  Having the typical leadoff hitter only means something at the start of each game, because who knows if he’ll start off an inning for the rest of it.  On the other hand, you can’t have your best slugger bat leadoff because you want to maximize his homers by having some decent on-base guys in front of him.  

Right now, with the way Iguchi is swinging the bat, he’d have no problem leading off.  Nobody mentions his speed, but he did steal 15 bases last year just above the break-even rate (75 percent).  So there’s really no reason why he couldn’t handle No. 1 duties day after day considering that’s what he‘s doing right now with a gimpy Pods wasting the first at-bat of the game.   

The only problem is if you move Iguchi, then you’re going to have to replace him in the No. 2 spot – and there aren’t a lot of good candidates outside of Jermaine Dye, because you need a guy that 1) can get on base and 2) stay out of the double play.

But if he was against pushing Jermaine up ahead of Thome and Paul Konerko, then it’d be a bit of a sticky situation.  Brian Anderson needs to be buried in the order, Mackowiak doesn’t handle the bat well, Pierzynski grounds into too many double-plays, Crede has been a low on-base guy his entire career.  Maybe Juan Uribe could handle it, but Ozzie’s already passed on the opportunity to bat him second.

And it wouldn’t be better, necessarily, to push Thome up to the No. 2 spot because he’d still be hitting with one or two (relatively) automatic outs in front of him, and then Iguchi…

…unless Ross Gload starts hitting.  

In the one year Gload played consistently, he hit .321, walked about once every 10 times, didn’t strike out all that often and showed a little bit of pop.  While I’m not too familiar with the career of Rob Mackowiak, I’ve seen enough of his splits to know that neither he nor any other outfielder in the Sox system has had a comparable 230 at-bats in any stretch.  And while Gload may be an atrocious outfielder, the others aren’t much better to nullify his bat.

If/when Pods hits the DL, Gload could make a lineup in which Thome hits in the No. 2 spot work – if he hits anywhere close to what he did in 2004.  Gload’s OBP was .375, so even a drop in production would make him league average, which Crede and Juan Uribe can’t claim.  

Here’s what a lineup would look like with Gload in it:

1. R Tadahito Iguchi
2. L Jim Thome
3. R Paul Konerko
4. R Jermaine Dye
5. L A.J. Pierzynski
6. R Joe Crede
7. R Juan Uribe
8. R Brian Anderson
9. L Ross Gload
   

(And if you’re playing Mackowiak in center, bat switch his spot and Uribe’s to have better righty-lefty balance)

Here’s why that works:

1.    You have two above-average OBPs in front of your best hitters.
2.    You’re preserving the heart of the order – it’s just pushed up a slot so they come up one spot sooner.
3.    Brian Anderson is still buried.
4.    Solid righty-lefty balance
5.    No big packs of plodding guys.

Meanwhile with Ozuna playing everyday in a possible Pods absence, Ozzie’s options are far more limited.  Ozuna would have to bat seventh in order to 1) make Anderson’s at-bats of the least consequence and 2) get some quality hitters in front of Thome.  And even so, a lineup in which a guy like Ozuna is hitting seventh or higher is considerably less threatening.  He should be seeing the fewest at-bats per game if it can be helped. 

The jury's still out on Mackowiak, who historically is a pure streak hitter.

The chances are most likely slimmer to see Gload starting everyday in Pods’ absence rather than Thome hitting second, but that’s what I would do if I were a manager.  Sure, Thome may not seem like a “No. 2 hitter,” but that matters only during the first inning.  After that, the only difference between hitting second and hitting third is getting up to the plate one man sooner.  Considering Thome is the guy everybody wants to see at the plate, I’d rather the lineup be dependent on him rather than the other way around.

Chris Shelton doesn't sleep. He waits.

Don’t let his pasty complexion fool you – Chris Shelton is lining up to join Travis Hafner and Mike Sweeney as the next Sox Killer.  He may look like an ogre, but he’s an ogre who can hit.
 
Granted, he’s been hammering the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers (Chuck Norris notwithstanding), but his numbers are still eye-popping.  An 0-for-4 day today knocked him down to 14-for-24 on the season, and he has five homers in his first five games.  Two days ago, he had two triples in the same game.  

And to think – the Tigers got him for nothing.  The Pittsburgh Pirates left him unprotected in the 2003 Rule 5 draft, and Detroit snapped him up with the first pick.  At least that 119-loss season didn’t amount to nothing.  

For the year he had last year, his OPS against the Sox was lower than his season avg – .785 to .880 – but I remember him hitting some extremely hard outs.  I may have also caught him on his good days, such as his four-hit day on June 21 (the one where Frank Thomas hit the game-winner in the 13th), where he was a double short of the cycle.  Or his three-hit game on July 20.  Take those two games out of the equation, and his numbers against the Sox aren’t that impressive (.181, three XBH in 44 ABs).

The scary thing is that he’s actually a better hitter in cavernous Comerica Park than on the road so far in his young career – he slugged .541 at home versus .475 on the road.  Also, he has reverse platoon splits, posting a .901 OPS against righties and only a .778 OPS against lefties.  

The only thing Shelton has working against him is his plate patience – he’s only walked once in 54 at-bats against the Sox, and while he’s not exactly a hacker, he does swing the bat, and strikes out his fair share.  In that regard, he’s between Hafner, who can take pitches until he sees one he can crush, and Mike Sweeney who doesn’t walk much but can cover the plate.  

However, Shelton’s only 25, and only played 66 games at the Triple-A level before joining the big leagues, so he’s got some room to grow.  And it won’t be fun watching him grow against the Sox.  

(By the way, if you don’t realize this is an attempt at a reverse jinx, I don’t know how to help you.)

Common knowledge

Which was uglier Friday -- Jon Garland's start, or Joe Cowley's lede in his story about Garland in the morning Sun-Times:

Eighteen wins pulls a lot of weight these days.

In the laid-back,"Dude, Where's My Car?'' world of White Sox pitcher Jon Garland, however, coming off an 18-win season is no different than the previous three underachieving 12-win seasons posted by the right-hander from Southern California.

Dude, Where's My Car?  I think Daylight Savings Time confused him and he accidentally set his clock back to 2000.  Garland's start wasn't that bad -- he just didn't seem to be fooling the Royals speed-wise.  It seemed like he was mixing in more curves than usual, and most of his success last year was based off his improved changeup.  I'm not Don Cooper, but that's what it looked like to me.

Maybe the most important moment of Garland's start was when he slammed the rosin bag in the dugout after that fourth inning.  It wasn't a Phil Garner-quality stool throw, but anything that will help him shake the "laid-back" label is fine with me.

The "Garland's from California!" storyline has been played out since Jerry Manuel didn't know what to do with Garland.  The media jumped on the Californitis as the reason why he wasn't meeting inflated expections, not that he was young and still figuring out how to pitch. 

And I don't mean to single out Cowley, because all the other beat writers do it.  And the TV guys.  Ed Farmer scouted Garland, so the radio's saturated with stories from Jon's days at Kennedy High School, where he was teammates with Terrmel Sledge!  No word on whether Sledge is laid-back, but I'm guessing he is.

Every year, I hope Garland gets some kind of hobby that gives people something else to say about him.  Jack McDowell wore the whole Californian thing, too, but at least he had Stickfigure on the side.  The softball-playing girlfriend angle seemed like a promising alternative, but I don't think that's surfaced since the playoffs. 

The rosin bag won't change things, but at least it was the right idea. I wouldn't suggest going to extremes (arson, e.g.), but maybe he can do a couple of impressions or something.  He just needs to give the media something else to say about him.

Unless, of course, he doesn't care.  That would be just like him, evidently.

Kansas City here they come

During what was an otherwise disasterous game against the Royals and one of RSTN's trademark crappy broadcasts, it was neat to see footage of the White Sox's visit to the Negro Leagues Hall of Fame in Kansas City.

They showed the legendary Buck O'Neil having a talk with Ozzie after he was awarded the C.I. Taylor Manger of the Year Award.  Now that'd be a conversation I'd have loved to listen to, considering Buck is one of the nicest guys in the world and Ozzie doesn't mind being a jerk. 

The NLBM, Arthur Bryant's and Kauffman Stadium are three of the four things I miss about Missouri, and you could package those three into one game.  Checking out the museum, getting the world's best barbecue four blocks away, and then driving 10 minutes to see a ballgame for cheap was worth the two-hour drive every time. 

If you haven't done that already, I'd highly recommend it, especially if they start tearing Kauffman apart.  It's a great place to watch a game, and I can't understand why they want to mess with it.

He ain't heavy, he's my closer

While randomly searching for Sox photos, I came across one of Bobby Jenks celebrating his first save.  As much as they kidded Bobby about being a round mound on the mound last year, with Ozzie's bullpen sign for "Bring me the fat man," and all, he wasn't really that fat.

Now?  Well....let's just say he might've misunderstood Blake from "Glengarry Glen Ross" this offseason and thought bacon grease was for closers.



I was thinking of what Jenks' closer theme might be, considering they seem to be de rigueur these days.  Not only is Billy Wagner accused of stealing Mariano Rivera's "Enter Sandman," but Brian Fuentes was miffed by entering the game to the sound of the Village People instead of Staind.

Perhaps picking one that fits his current situation might get him back on the (indoor) track -- and Weird Al is too obvious:

• "Three Hundred Pounds of Joy" -- Howlin' Wolf
• "Tryin' to Grow a Chin" -- Frank Zappa
• "All U Can Eat" -- Ben Folds
• "Fat Man" -- Jethro Tull

and, of course,

• "Baby Got Back" -- Sir Mixalot

Frank eulogized -- and prologue

I wanted to wait until I saw Frank play this season before writing if eulogy, if his health would allow.  I hadn't seen him play in almost half a year, and his memories weren't as fresh in my head as those that played in the postseason. 

Watching him in the series against the Yankees the past few days brought it all back.  The way he studies pitchers from the dugout, the way he taps his bat and glares at the mound like he knows what's coming before the pitcher does.  The way he knows if a pitch is an inch off the corner or right on the black.  The way a Frank Thomas hit sounds and looks off the bat.  He may be wearing green now, but the rest of it is the same.

It's unsettling to watch the Big Hurt stretching out another team's uniform, but I couldn't be happier to see him back in action.  He's still frustating pitchers with his eye and launching every ball he can get around on, and I'll watch that no matter who he's playing for. 

Read the eulogy.

Reality check

Two signs that we've made it:

No. 1:  Reading the New York Times this morning and coming across a profile of Jim Thome by Jack Curry.

On Sunday night, Jon Miller and Joe Morgan were talking about how Jim Thome has returned home, when Peoria may as well be Iowa as far as us Chicagoland area folk are concerned.  Hell, Joliet's even cutting it close. 

But after reading this, it seems that even a three-hour drive gets the job done for Thome.  And if it's good enough for Thome, it's good enough for me.  And that long, boring drive is talked about in the Times.  How 'bout it. 

No. 2:  The numbers are in, and the Trib notes that the Sox have officially the fourth-biggest payroll in the majors. 

Yep.  Fourth.  $102.9 million.  Ahead of the big-spending Mets, ahead of the Cubs, ahead of the Dodgers and everybody else except the Yankees, Red Sox and Angels. 

The 33 percent increase catapults them from the 13th spot, and it also eradicates any claim anybody can make about the Sox organization being mid-market.  They're now a major-market team, no doubt about it.  (See this Crosstown Crossfire entry for more fun with Sox salary numbers).

The good news is that it doesn't quite feel like the Sox are spending that much money.  They've spread it out enough, and they've also mainly rewarded their own players.  Even importing Thome didn't cost that much -- less than $8 million a year.  Javier Vazquez is the only starter brought in from the outside in the last two years, and if he gets it into gear, his salary will be a relative bargain. 

Paul Konerko's five-year, $60 million deal has been the only one to feel like a punch to the gut, and maybe that's more because he has yet to meet a double play he hasn't liked this season.

Class(y) ring

I don't know about you guys, but when I first saw what the White Sox's rings looked like, one thought entered my mind:

This is an authentic Hullabalooza ticket. For authentic refreshment, eat Clark bars. And for totally outrageous class rings, it's Jostens. Goooo Jostens!

Upon further review, I actually think they're well done.  During a visit to Cooperstown last week, I took a look at the other championship rings on display and thought it was unfortunate that wearing them would be the equivalent of strapping a cinder block to your finger (or two, since the ring actually overlapped fingers).  It doesn't seem to be that way this time around.  Here's what it looks like close-up:



Here's what it looks like on Kenny's hand (click to enlarge):



And to compare, here's the Red Sox's World Series ring from last year:

E-SPN

It's not often that Jon Miller, Joe Morgan, Peter Gammons and the rest of the Sunday Night Baseball crew visit the South Side, and it showed on Opening Night.  Let's just say it'll be nice to have Extra Innings this year instead of relying on national broadcasts. 

After a goosebump-inducing video montage that was a decent replacement for those who missed Comcast Chicago's broadcast (check out some pre-game festivities at South Side Sox), the broadcast quality careened downhill.

Most upsetting was the emphasis the crew placed on steroids, spending nearly the entire third inning cramming in brief game descriptions so they could go on and on about steroids.  Since it's Opening Day (and not to mention some show ESPN is producing about Barry Bonds), the network felt the need to set the tone about the controversy coming this year. 

During a duel between two of the top lefties in the non-Santana division of the American League, Miller, Morgan and Gammons talked about steroids -- who's under the microscope, whether or not the investigation is a good idea, lots and lots about Bonds' record-breaking quest.  Yes, steroids is a big issue, but it had little to do with what was happening on the field.  And considering that they used one of four innings before the three-hour rain delay for their roundtable, they effectively used a quarter of the airtime seen by the original audience. 

As noted by westcoastsox in the State of the Sox game recap, the inclusion of Gammons into the Sunday Night broadcasts needs work.  Here you have a Hall of Fame wr