Series Preview in Blog: Chicago White Sox (Round 3)

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Minnesota Twins (43-41) @ Chicago White Sox (37-45)

The Twins head into the All-Star break with four games in three games in Chicago. This series wraps up the current road trip, on which the Twins dropped to 3-4 when they lost 3 of 4 to the Yankees in New York. After an over .500 June (15-12), the Twins have stumbled out of the gate in July, starting off 1-4. The White Sox finish their seven game homestand with this weekend’s series. The previous series the Sox split 4 games with Baltimore after a successful 6-1 road trip through Tampa and Kansas City. The Sox remain in fourth place in the AL Central, 12.5 games back of the first place Indians, and 5 games behind the third place Twins. The Sox have struggled more at home than on the road, posting a 17-23 record in The Cell where they haven’t won a series since May 23 (they have split two series in that span). Meanwhile the Twins remain right around .500 on the road, with a record of 21-21.

While the Sox have certainly fallen short of their expectations this season, if they just had a little more grit they would probably be just fine, right? Grit or no grit, at least their manager still knows how to keep loose as they flail away. Still, when your team struggles like the White Sox have, it seems like every game is the same old story.

I thought it was interesting that Kenny Williams, the White Sox GM, will often consult with players before making roster moves. Not quite as surprising is that sometimes he wishes Ozzie would just shut up.

On Friday, the series kicks off with a double header which is a makeup game for the cancelled game in April. Since the other two games of the series were split betwixt the two teams, the Twins have a chance to win two series in one weekend (in a manner of speaking). Toward that goal, Scott Baker, fresh off two quality starts, will face Jon Garland (6-5, 3.15 ERA, 1.16 WHIP), who has posted a 1.91 ERA since June 1 in 6 starts. In the nightcap, Twins fans get their first look at a Matt Garza as a starting pitcher when he will start against Gavin Floyd, who was recently recalled from the minors and will also be making his first major league start this season. He made 15 minor league starts this season with a 7-3 record, a 3.10 ERA, 0.67 HR/9, 3.0 BB/9, and 7.7 K/9. For more, here's a review of one of those 15 starts.

Saturday afternoon will pit Boof Bonser against Mark Buehrle (5-4, 3.26 ERA, 1.11 WHIP) who's future has been the subject of intense speculation for quite a while now. This could be the last time the Twins have to face Buehrle in a White Sox uniform (picture from South Side Sox). As always, Mark has been an innings eater for the Sox. He has thrown more than seven innings in each of his last five starts (1.91 ERA in that span).

The Buehrle saga began with the Sox trying to negotiate a contract extension, but as the Sox struggled, and the deal didn't get done, people began to speculate as to the possibility of a trade. The deal has been on and off a few times. The hang-up on the extension was apparently a no-trade clause, which Buehrle wanted, but the Sox were unwilling to give.

It's always been a tough franchise to embrace, and even in the afterglow of immense success, the stone face always seems to make itself evident. … It often seems like the Sox organization is businesslike on good days, cold on bad days, and vengeful in the ugliest of times. And that's why fans get so worked up when a guy like Buehrle is on the cusp of leaving, because he's none of those things. Aaron Rowand's presence is demanded on every message board, mailbag and call-in show for the exact same reasons.

-Sox Machine

Going into the All-Star break the Twins will send Carlos Silva to the mound to face Javier Vazquez (5-5, 3.70 ERA, 1.08 WHIP), who has been, in a word, inconsistent this season. But when he has been on, he has been very good. He has 6 starts this year where he has allowed 1 run or less (including two starts against the Twins).

The attentive reader has probably noticed that starting pitching is not the reason the Sox are currently under .500. The bullpen has been pretty shaky, which has given Sox fans a whole new way to interpret Win Expectancy.

Finally, if you have read either of the first two White Sox previews, you know I'm a fan of Palehose 7. Recently, it has been trying times over there as Ozzie Captain Hand has had to deal with the legend of Aaron Rowand.

Series Preview in Blog: Chicago White Sox (Round 2)

This post is also published at Stick and Ball Guy's site. Stop by and check out what SBG Nation has to say.

Minnesota Twins (16-15) v. Chicago White Sox (14-14)

The Twins in the last week have struggled, losing two consecutive series, first in Tampa, then at home to the Red Sox. The White Sox lost five in a row before winning their last two games in Anaheim. Currently, the Twins and White Sox sit third and fourth in the AL Central, 4 and 4.5 games back of Cleveland respectively. The Twins are 8-9 at home so far this year, while the Sox are 9-7 on the road.

words to live by

I came across this roundtable discussion of what the Twins should do with Torii Hunter that involved everybody from a Twins fan to a Sox fan to a bunch of AL bloggers. Check it out to get some others perspectives on our perennial Gold Glove winner.

On to the South Siders:

This is not for the weak of heart, I'm not even sure I should even passing this along, but Hawk Harrelson has a blog. Does this qualify as a sign of the apocalypse?

We'll start off by revisiting one of the stories from last time. In April, people weren't exactly sold on the Darin Erstad signing. Palehose 7 still hasn't let up, lots of skewering going on there.

The White Sox may have had one too many outfielders to begin the season, and Brian Anderson found himself to be the odd man out as he was sent to AAA Charlotte. His demotion didn't catch too many people by surprise. Considering Anderson's struggles last year to get comfortable, some people in the blogosphere feel like he's not getting a fair chance to prove himself in the major leagues. Here's a roundup of his past and future with the White Sox.



The Sox haven't had a successful season thus far, mostly due to their lack of offense. The hitting coach is starting to take some heat. In fact, nearly every Sox blog I visited had at least one entry about the hitting coach and the offensive struggles.

The Twins beat John Danks in his debut back in April. He's had some quality outings but fans are wondering whether their looking at a youngster finding his groove, or an overrated prospect. Other pitching notes include the struggles of Matt Thornton, and one bloggers plea for John Garland's consideration for a Gold Glove.

This has been pointed out before, but Palehose 7 hits the nail on the head with this strip.

And, finally, if you ever needed proof that AJ loves to get booed, he spells it out for you.

Twins 3, Sox 1

The family was in town, so we spent our Easter down at US Cellular Field watching Johan Santana deal to the Sox.

First of all, the weather wasn't half bad. I spent all week fretting that we'd be freezing our tails off, but then it turned out to be cold, but not unbearable. We sat in the left field bleachers in the sun and it was actually pretty nice.

The fans ran the gamut, some of those who sat around us were great, willing to chat about the Twins' bullpen, Jim Thome, or whatever. Unfortunately, directly to our right in the bleachers was an extremely vocal group of Sox fans. I have no problem with enthusiastic cheering, I've even partaken in my fair share. But, that refers to support of your team or a little bit of jeering of the opposing players. One guy in particular in this group regaled us with chants that ranged from the standard "Twins suck" nearly every inning, to instructing Twins' fans to "drown in Lake Huron" (I don't know why that particular non-Minnesota/non-Chicago lake). I don't want to devolve into a rant here, but this, unfortunately, became a significant part of the experience today. We even had the aforementioned "good" fans turn around and apologize for some of the ruder comments. Making all this considerably more tolerable was the fact that the Twins were winning the baseball game.

Ah yes, the game. In the middle of the game 24 batters, from Bartlett's second K in the fourth to Punto's flyout in the eighth were all retired in order. Twins or White Sox batter, it didn't matter, they all went down. Which was nice for a cold day, once we had the lead, clearly the goal was to just get out of there.

A couple of thoughts:

- Santana with the win, Nathan with the save, 2 for 2 so far. Santana settled down after walking 3 in the first 1.1 IP, retiring the last 17 batters he faced. Nathan also settled down after giving up two hits, retiring the last batter he faced for the save.

- Cuddyer went 3 for 6 in the abbreviated series, which was good, but the baserunning blunder Saturday still kills me.

- Mauer + Cuddyer + Morneau (5 for 11, HR, BB, 3 R, 3 RBI). Everyone else (1 for 22, BB, 6 K). Thanks Justin!

- Morneau has hit both of his homeruns off of lefties this season. Also he's hit both while I was wearing the Jersey of Fortune.

Speaking of which:

Twins record with jersey of fortune: 2-0
Torii Hunter with the Jersey of Fortune: 2 for 8, .250/.250/.750, 1 HR 2 RBI

Series Preview in Blog: Chicago White Sox

This post is also published at Stick and Ball Guy's site. Stop by and check out what SBG Nation has to say.

Minnesota Twins (3-0) @ Chicago White Sox (1-2)

Starting off the AL Central season with three games against the White Sox. I've got tickets for Sunday's game, so I'll provide anyone who stops by with a review of that game early next week. For now I've got to try to control my natural reflex to bash the Sox.

The White Sox started off the season with a series loss at home against Cleveland. Meanwhile the Twins began with a sweep of the Orioles at home. This series will give us our first real glimpse of Sidney Ponson and hopefully we'll be all the better for it. Unfortunately, as I live in Chicago, I'll have to listen to Hawk Harrelson announce his start, so Sir Sidney is going to have to start with that ignominious distinction hanging over him.

On to the South Siders:

I have to start this off with the AL Central Trail from Sox Machine. I thought this was hilarious, these are the kinds of posts I was hoping to find by doing these previews.

If [chairman] Jerry Reinsdorf or Kenny Williams believes that I didn't do what I was supposed to do at the end of this year, they should fire me ... We have high expectations this season. If we fall short, I deserve to be fired. And I'm not just saying it because it's Ozzie talking again.
-Ozzie Guillen, maybe getting a little ahead of himself after an 0-2 start

Ozzie may be a little sensitive since Sox fans are somewhat notorious for being pessimistic, but here are some examples of positive thoughts from this spring.

You may have heard that the White Sox signed Darin Erstad and are giving him the starting centerfield job. Apparently everybody loves his grit. Well, maybe not everybody. In fact some people seem to think playing him every day would be a mistake. All right, who am I kidding? Nearly everybody is beginning to hate this guy.

Besides Erstad the outfield is rounded out by Podsednik and Dye, with Brian Anderson, Mackowiak, and Ozuna in reserve. The infield is pretty much unchanged with Crede, Uribe, Iguchi, Konerko, and A.J. Unfortunately Jim Thome has returned for another year as the Sox DH.

Not many free agent signings this offseason, but the ones that were made have been drama-filled. Case in point, Toby Hall was brought in as a backup catcher for A.J. Then he tore his labrum playing first base in the spring and the Sox had to scramble to find someone to fill in. They settled on Gustavo Molina (and his .084 spring training batting average) over Wiki Gonzalez. Hall has opted against surgery, so instead of missing the season, they are hoping that, with rehab, he'll be ready to go in a couple months, which sounds awfully optimistic.

You kind of get the feeling that the Sox didn't make any good moves this offseason.

The rotation features quite a few familiar faces, J. Contreras (got roughed up opening day by Cleveland. But there is still a silver lining to that cloud.) J. Garland, M. Buerhle, and J. Vazquez.

Last, and probably most interesting is John Danks, acquired in a trade with Texas for Brandon McCarthy, Danks (and his 5.91 spring ERA) won the starting spot in a spring competition with Gavin Floyd (9.00) and Charlie Haeger (8.10). There were other options considered, but the Sox went with the guy would give sportswriters the easiest time with headlines. Some say Danks gives up too many homers and walks too many batters, which, if true, may indicate rough times ahead. Keep in mind that with Contreras' disaster on Monday and Buerhle getting drilled with a line drive on Thursday, the Sox have only got 7.2 IP from their starters in the first three games. So the bullpen has already been stretched a little thin.

The bullpen starts with Bobby Jenks as a solid closer but also includes lefties Matt Thornton and Andrew Sisco. Mike MacDougal, along with David Aardsma and Nick Masset (who played savior with 4.2 IP, 1 R in relief of Buerhle) round out the pen.

Remember the rookie pitcher who failed to bean Hank Blalock when Ozzie directed him to? The incident lead to an Ozzie tirade and the pitcher, Sean Tracey, fighting back tears. Anyway, Tracey got cut this spring. Somehow I'm not surprised. He was picked up by Baltimore and is starting the season with their AAA club.

One of the common themes that kept coming up was the Sox struggles last season against left handed pitching, and how they haven't done anything to address the issue. (Note: The Sox faced lefty C. C. Sabathia on opening day and managed three runs in six innings on two homeruns. Ironically, Erstad hit one of them)

Finally, there's some funny stuff over at Palehose 7. There are a couple links from this site interspersed above, but another mention is deserved. Everything is worth a look, but I especially recommend "Out of the Picture"

OTHER WHITE SOX BLOGS:
http://www.blacksoxblog.com/
http://whitesoxpride.mlblogs.com/