39-47. Even if the White Sox put together an eight game winning streak out of the box, they’d still only be sitting at .500. And with a twelve game deficit for just the Wild Card, the White Sox are going to have to come out of the box in these last few weeks in July to show whether they’ll be cleaning house at the trading deadline or whether they’ll be looking to add a piece or two down the stretch.
The Mark Buehrle signing was a start. We locked up one of the White Sox better home grown arms and they did it at what was probably a discount at least based on market value. It’s a weird market these days and four years, $56 million may be a bit much for even a pitcher of Buehrle’s talents, it’s just the way things have become.
Three guys names have popped up in the trade rumors. Jermaine Dye, Juan Uribe and Jose Contreras have all been mentioned in different rumors and you know Joe Crede is also on the block. There’s also the rumor that Scott Podsednik is gone once the season’s over with.
You hate to carve out one four game series and call it critical but in a way, the White Sox four game set against the Orioles that starts tomorrow could be a potentially big one. After salvaging a split against the Twins prior to the break, a nice start to the second half against a mediocre team would go a long way towards the White Sox making one last push in 2007. Jon Garland will get the start tomorrow and the hope is that he finds himself in the second half. In the meantime, the White Sox hitters will go up against Jeremy Guthrie.
