At the end of May, we were asking the question, "
When do we start worrying about Nick Swisher?"
Well, after watching Swisher close out his June with two homers, including a grand slam, in
the White Sox's 9-7 victory over the Cleveland Indians Monday night, we have our answer:
Forget about it.
Swisher finished this past month with a line of .315/.402/.630, and nearly doubled his RBI (23) and homer (7) totals in June alone. Basically this confirms our most optimistic set of hopes, that:
No. 1: This kind of thing happens to him once in a while. In the prior post, I had mentioned
his two-month slump of 2006. He's rebounded better this time around, posting a 1.000-plus OPS one month after instead of two.
No. 2: He had to have one of the worst runs of luck imaginable. He's
maintaining a career-best line drive rate, but only lately has
his batting average on balls in play began to rise at a commensurate level.
Swisher has also reminded Sox fans what it looks like to have a first baseman with some semblance of range. He showed creativity Monday night, diving and knocking down a ball near the coaching box, then recovering in time to flip the ball to Gavin Floyd. Paul Konerko and his one-topple range wouldn't have even touched the grounder to begin with.
Meanwhile, the other offseason outfield possibilities have all fallen back to earth to varying degrees after hot starts. Kosuke Fukudome is the best of them, having settled comfortably at an .800 OPS over the last two months after a blazing April. Meanwhile, Aaron Rowand finished the month with a .618 OPS and Torii Hunter has seen his OPS tumble from .878 in April to .762 in May to .672 in June.
And Ryan Sweeney? Even
Phil Rogers is calling his .293 average "soft."It took a couple months, but Kenny Williams' biggest move of the offseason is finally shaping up to be what everybody expected, as the other candidates are shaping up to be what I had expected. With any buyer's remorse quickly diminishing, it's safe to say the Nick Swisher Era is finally under way.
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Going from a guy who's on fire to a guy who's not playing at all, Joe Cowley says
Juan Uribe could be on the trading block:
But Williams is running out of time to finalize a deal for Uribe. Paul Konerko is still on the 15-day disabled list, and all indications from Williams are he wants to keep DeWayne Wise on the roster. By the time Konerko is ready to return, the hope is moving Uribe would clear the roster spot.
While it's unlikely that Uribe would bring much back in a trade, the Sox would rather not just cut him.
''If Juan said he was happy to be here right now, I would be disappointed because that means he's not a gamer,'' Guillen said. ''Obviously, it's up to Kenny. We have to do what's best for the ballclub and the best for Juan.''
Let's hope they put the ballclub first, because unless there's a Brian Anderson-level personality clash kept under wraps, it's hard for me to fathom why Uribe hasn't gotten a shot to play third this year.
Joe Crede committed his 16th error in the ninth today, one inning after he triple-pumped before finally getting rid of the ball, and bringing additional meaning to Joe Clutch in the process. The Sox are officially in the second half of the season, and his throws and his inability to hit left-handed pitching (he's now 6-for-63) are legitimate concerns.
Uribe has no significant splits, and has experience playing a good third base. For the first time this season, he has shown the ability to play cold. Why the Sox wouldn't use that to their advantage is beyond me. Pablo Ozuna's the Secret Weapon and all, but they have another scrappy career minor-league utilityman with better speed in Jason Bourgeois down in Charlotte.
Dealing Uribe itself seems like a poor use of resources. Trading him while keeping Ozuna and Dewayne Wise (whose defense is nowhere near Andersonian in center) makes no sense to me whatsoever.
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By the way: Adam Russell hasn't pitched since June 21. And he didn't pitch in a five-run ballgame Monday night.
Just sayin'.
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Minor league roundup:- Charlotte 10, Norfolk 6
- Talk about a balanced effort -- each Knight had one hit and one hit only.
- Dave Cook had a walk, two RBI and two runs scored; Javier Castillo also drove in two.
- Wes Whisler allowed five runs (four earned) over five innings for the win.
- Derek Rodriguez struck out three over two perfect innings of relief.
- Birmingham 4, Mobile 3
- This is why Dewon Day is still around -- three perfect innings, four strikeouts.
- Ricardo Nanita had two hits and an RBI.
- Winston-Salem 11, Salem 8
- John Shelby went 3-for-3 with a double and three RBI, two of them on sac flies.
- Estee Harris and Salvador Sanchez each drove in two.
- Matt Long gave up seven runs on 11 hits over 5 1/3 innings, including two homers.
- Kannapolis 3, Lexington 2 (10 innings)
- Santo Luis and Leroy Hunt combined for five hitless, scoreless innings of relief, with Luis striking out five over three.
- Jim Gallagher went 2-for-5 with a double and an RBI.
- Eduardo Escobar and Logan Johnson each drove in two.
- Bristol 6, Pulaski 4
- Justin Greene had two hits, two runs and stole his sixth base from the leadoff spot.
- Jordan Kendall doubled and drove in two.
- John Doyle picked up the win with three scoreless innings of relief, striking out four.
- Billings 8, Great Falls 3
- Brent Morel added three more singles, and has 12 singles in his last four games.
- Danny Jordan and Lee Fischer each had a double and an RBI.