Black Sox Blog

It sounds like the question isn’t whether Mark Buehrle will be trades, it’s to who and then what will the White Sox get.  I’ve heard the Mets, Red Sox and Brewers as all potential suitors so hopefully the Sox brass is working on the best possible deal that they can for the left hander.  He’s set to start on Wednesday, but we’ll see if that happens.  The good news is, he’s been our best pitcher this year (not saying much) so between and with him being left handed, the White Sox should be able to get something solid out of this.

Of course Buehrle is probably the lucky one because the Sox look like a sinking ship.  A sweep at the hands of the Cubs extended the Sox losing streak to five and the Royals have more wins then we do.  Baseball Prospectus took some heat for projecting the White Sox at 72 wins and once again they looked correct.  It they’re wrong, it could be because they were too optimistic.

The offense is still pathetic as well.  The team is hitting .234 and they only racked up two runs in three games against the Cubs.  Joe Crede is on the DL and Jermaine Dye still has an OPS near .700 and you’re talking about two mashers from last year.  It’s just so hard to believe that there’d be this steep of a slide after winning the World Series just two years ago.

This week will tell a lot because the White Sox play four aganst the Devil Rays, another poor team.  If we drop three of four, then it’s pretty clear the White Sox are smoke this year.  If the Sox can win three of four or even sweep, maybe it’s something to build on.  Even the Wild Card is a long way off though and it sounds like Ken Williams is already throwing in the towel.

It was another rough week and just to put things in perspective, the White Sox have as many wins as the Royals do.  There’s some good news in all this but I’ll get to that near the end but the White Sox have lost ten of their last twelve and twelve out of their last fifteen games.  The net effect has been a truly horrible month of June where the White Sox have gone 4-12.

What’s been wrong?  John Perrotto gives us the low down in this interesting Baseball Prospectus column.   While I know the Sox have been doing bad, I’ve stayed away from a lot of the numbers just because I’d get pissed but it was interesting to read that outside of Jim Thome’s 18.7 VORP, no other White Sox hitter has more then a 4.0 VORP.  My favorite, Joe Crede, has been the worst at a -9.9 VORP and last year’s MVP candidate, Jermaine Dye, comes out right at replacement with a -0.8 VORP.  That’s not good.  He also touches on the White Sox pen woes.

Now, let’s get to the good news.  In looking at the standings, the 10 1/2 game deficit looks pretty rough until you break things down and just look at the losses.  Because the White Sox have played fewer games then their division rivals, they sit “just” eight games back of the Tigers for the Wild Card.  Now eight games is tough to make up when your team has a hard time scoring more then three runs in a game but it’s not insurmountable if the Sox can turn things around.

And there’s no better time then the present with a mediocre Marlins team rolling into town.  Josh Johnson makes his season debut for the Marlins and Jose Contreras and his 4-7 record throws for the White Sox.  There’s no better way to get your hitters going then to beat up a guy who’s only faced minor league pitching so far this year.

One game below .500 is hardly an accomplishment, but the White Sox, after taking care of the Yankees yesterday, are still well within reach of even the Indians.  You have to hope the Sox can build on last night when they dismantled what was basically a Triple A pitcher.  The Yankees are vulnerable and they’re also going to be a factor in the Wild Card so while these wins don’t seem to mean much, when September rolls around they could be huge.

Of course the hitting has been the problem.  A .233 batting average isn’t going to cut it and the fact that they’re right at .500 is a testament to their pitching.  Jim Thome is doing what he’s supposed to do but just about everyone else has laid an egg.

And Ozzie Guillen of course is doing whatever he can to deflect the blame towards him.  I’ve never been a huge fan of Ozzie and I thought that extenstion they gave him back in 2005 was a mistake but the guy is starting to grow on me.  At least you know where you stand.

What’s also disappointing is it looks like Joe Crede will be gone soon.  First Brandon McCarthy and then probably Crede, my two favorite players.  I’ll have to pick a new poster child soon.  Maybe Gio Gonzalez.

Anyway, life has prevent me from posting too much and I’ve now fallen way behind on the 1917 diary, which may have to go up later then I wanted.  But I’m back, hopefully for good and I’ll be sure to give you my best from here on out.