Game 50: I don't wanna work, I just wanna bang on the Tribe all day (33-17)

White Sox 11, Cleveland 0. Take a moment on Memorial Day to remember the many fallen.

In my house, today, not much went right on a holiday. I'm laid up with a bad cold, woozy, and barely coherent (translation: even less so than normal). On the baseball diamond, just about everything that could go right, went right, at least for the White Sox. Javier Vazquez brought his best stuff, Cliff Lee didn't, Jim Thome slammed two home runs, and the Indians managed two singles in the entire game.

Game 48: You take the biscuit

Toronto 3, White Sox 2, 11 innings. The White Sox stranded 13 baserunners in a game they should have won.

After the game, Ozzie made noises about maybe sending Anderson to the minors and bringing up another pitcher. I will say it once, I will say it a thousand times: no major league team needs 12 pitchers. EVER. Carrying 7 men in the bullpen just encourages overmanaging, excessive pitching changes, and ensures that half your bullpen is bad. Note to Ozzie: stop using pitchers for one batter, go back to the way you managed the team before, it worked fine. I don't care if you're facing Cleveland or whomever. Do not cripple the offensive bench so you can carry worthless 1-batter pitchers.

Game 47: Take it Easy

Toronto 8, White Sox 2. Toronto beat up on Freddy Garcia in a rout. The only White Sox highlight would be the wasted two-homer game by Paul Konerko. The White Sox continue to struggle with lefthanded starting pitchers. Fortunately, Casey Janssen and Ty Taubenheim were born as northpaws.

The Tigers continue to win, beating the rosin out of the Cleveland Indians last night. But, please remember it's a long season. Scoreboard-watching in May is pretty much pointless, unless somebody is running away and hiding. The Tigers have done their best to do this, but they have managed to hide only from the Twins, Indians, and Royals; the White Sox hang in with their .660 record. Until late July or so rolls around, we simply don't really know what constitutes "help". At this point a year ago, the Indians were just about where they are now, and so were the White Sox (within a couple of games). The Tigers could suffer crippling misfortune and the Indians get hot at any point, in which case the Tiger rout last night would turn out to be welcome. Despite the wrist-slitting depression that accompanies any Sox loss, they are still 5-2 over the last 7 games and 15 games over .500, playing .660 baseball overall.

Notes:

• MLB announced their suspensions for the melee, with Barrett getting 10 games, Anderson 5, White Sox third base coach Joey Cora 2, and A. J. Pierzynski a $2,000 fine. Now, for Pierzynski, who makes $4M a year, this fine amounts to about as much as a night at the movies for the rest of us. Effectively, MLB has decided that the Cubs are 59% responsible for the brawl and the White Sox 41%, or, if you count the ejections, the White Sox lose about 7-person-games and the Cubs 12-person-games, or63-47. This is, of course, ridiculous and insulting, but it continues the long tradition of screwing the White Sox when other teams incite fights, most notably the five game suspension given to Jack McDowell for being assaulted by Mark Whiten, in contrast to the walk granted Nolan Ryan v. Robin Ventura in pretty much exactly the same circumstances.
  

• Speaking of Pierzynski, I know he's widely disliked for being mouthy, but the number of comments on the Internet suggesting that punching him, hitting him with pitched balls, crashing into him, or otherwise generally advocating violence is either in extremely poor taste or disgusting. Angels fans in particular: all the man did was run to first on a dropped third strike, and keep running on a tag by a fielder who neglected to put the ball in his glove. How that warrants Kelvim Escobar's intentional HBP is beyond me. Do NOT tell me it wasn't intentional; Pierzynski is the only batter Escobar has hit in 55 innings this year. The odds that out of 233 plate apperances, he would accidentally hit the one man he has a history against, and on the third pitch he threw him, are ridiculously long. How Escobar avoided an ejection or suspension is beyond me. To all who advocate plunking him or punching him: shame on you. If you don't like him, hell, heckle him. He simply is not Osama bin Laden.
  

• Much has been made of the weak schedules faced by the White Sox and Tigers, but this ignores the technical problem that this is in part because the White Sox and Tigers have played and beaten those teams. The White Sox opponents are actually 2 games over .500 in games not involving the White Sox so far. The team's weighted pace (that is, projecting their current win/loss rates against the balance of the schedule) is still 104 wins. They won't meet this (because they won't go 19-0 against the Tigers).

• The White Sox have apparently decided to move 3B prospect Josh Fields to the outfield. Fields has been the core of the offense of a team playing runaway baseball (albeit now on a 3-game losing streak) and sports a .323/.408/.568 line in his third pro season. Beware of him, I say: he strikes out a LOT. The 9 stolen bases say he's decently fast, and while they've talked about this OF thing, he's still playing 3B.
  

The trouble with the maples (and they're quite convinced they're right)

Jay Jaffe at Baseball Prospectus, in his recent chat, showed what happens to analysts who look at numbers but not the reasons for them. Two excerpts:

Joe (35th and Lowe): White Sox: Legitimate 100-105 win team, or have they just gotten pretty lucky over the past 14 months? Jay Jaffe: Once again, the WHite Sox are playing above their heads; they're +4.7 in the third-order Wins department according to our Adjusted standings. They've been more than a bit lucky over the course of that span, sure, but I do see them as about a 90-95 win team, particularly so long as Contreras and Thome remains healthy.

As I understand third-order wins, they are extrapolating from basic statistics and adjusting for quality of opponents. In other words, if all else is equal, what do the hits, walks, homers, etc., project as for wins. I suppose they have studies showing that their methodology is a sound prediction method, but as far as the White Sox are concerned, they've been basically, insistently wrong for over 200 games now. Further, having followed all of those games, I just can't see where the "luck events" occurred. Jaffe and crew should consider the possibility that their methodology is all approximate, that the real game of baseball is not played by APBA cards, and that when their prediction models can't account for performance, there is a 50% chance that the problem lies in the prediction model.

Nick from WH (SF): What do you make of Jhonny Peralta's slow start? Is he still the real deal? Jay Jaffe: I'm a huge Peralta fan; in fact I think I picked him as my AL MVP in the staff preseason picks. Which is probably the problem right there.

Where to start. Peralta's 20 homers last season should have come with an asterisk: (* Almost all hit off poor pitching). A look at Peralta's pitchers-faced profile showed that a disproportionate number of Misplaced H's home runs came off mop-up pitchers in massacres. Now, there's nothing wrong with this, but expecting that sort of performance to translate to the 3-hole in competitive games was naive, and showed that "one of the five best GMs in the game", whose superior team is now struggling with .500, didn't have deep insight into the true nature of his shortstop.

Game 46: Washing machine (31-15)

Chicago 3, Oakland 2. The White Sox completed their first three-game home sweep of the A's in almost twenty years when Bobby Jenks struck out three, getting the last four in a row, to close out a solid Mark Buerhle outing backed by great defensive plays by Joe Crede and Jermaine Dye. (Dye later dropped a fly ball to take the luster off his game.)

The big story for the series was supposed to be Frank Thomas' return to the scene of virtually all of his career. Thomas was really, really good, the best he's been all year, with 4 hits in 9 at bats, including a couple of homers, four walks, and a HBP. It didn't matter. He was upstaged by a squeeze bunt, a home-run derby, and Buehrle&Jenks.

Notes:

• Bobby Jenks is one nasty so-and-so. Jason Kendall is very difficult to strike out, but he nailed him in the 8th with the tying and go-ahead runners in scoring position. That gives him 17 strikeouts in May in less than 11 innings. He's been walking a batter almost every game, but not today.
  

• The White Sox now have had six consecutive sellouts. That has never happened before.
  

• After an off-day tomorrow comes a visit back on the plastic, to the so-called "Rogers Centre" in Toronto. The Tigers draw the Indians, who desperately need to kill them. Should be fun.
  

• Oh, and when is Michael Barrett getting suspended?

What a drag it is...

ESPN has spent the entire night blathering about "what's wrong with Randy Johnson". It's his mechanics. It's his mental approach. It's a slump.

The man turns 43 on September 10th. He's old, that's all. Old.

Get a little action in

Observations:

1. A. J. Pierzynski did nothing wrong on the second inning collision. Michael Barrett was blocking the plate, set up for a tag, and the conventional play in professional baseball is a collision in that situation.
2. The Cub pitcher's assertion that Pierzynski should have known that the ball was ten feet from Barrett assumes that Pierzynski has eyes in the back of his head. If Pierzynski had shied from the collision, Barrett would not have granted some kind of courtesy on the tag.
3. Pierzynski did nothing wrong after the collision. The umpire had not yet signalled safe (even thought Pierzynski had already touched the plate twice). The exagerrated thump was just an exclamation mark, one that Cub fans should be familiar with after ten years of Sammy's "hop".
4. Pierzynski did nothing wrong in attempting to go after his helmet. Some Cubpologists asserted on the internet that the helmet was not in the direction he said it was, but in fact, the replay clearly shows it did.
5. Pierzynski's action when struck in the face was to back away. There is no evidence he did anything confrontational from that point forward.
6. Pierzynski did show considerable emotion on his way to the clubhouse after his ejection.
7. Apparently Pierzynski was ejected immediately and Barrett only after long discussion.

This raises four serious questions about major league baseball:

1. Why did the home plate umpire wait for the thump before signalling safe when Pierzynski had clearly touched the plate more than once before?
2. Why did the umpires eject Pierzynski at all? He did nothing wrong. He has been remarkably sportsmanlike about the starkly wrongful ejection by umpires whose handling of the situation looked incompetent.
   
3. Why did the umpires try to avoid ejecting another player who had punched a player in the mouth in full view of the home plate umpire?
   
4. Will MLB have the guts to admit (1-7) and that the umpires' ejection of Pierzynski was a mistake?
   

It also raises two serious questions about ESPN and the Chicago media:

1. Why were Pierzynski's actions discussed at all? He didn't do anything wrong?
2. Why, after defending Pierzynski at length, did ESPN yapper Jeff Brantley say, if he were pitching tomorrow, he would hit Pierzynski? WTF?
   

Crush 'em like so many paper beer cups

While the supremacy of the free world is being decided at 35th and the Dan Ryan, FOX is broadcasting to most of the nation a game between two obscure teams called, I think, the "Mitts" and the "Yank-mes". Now, from what I hear, the "Yank-mes" have an outfield populated by rookies, and an infield populated by, shall we say, players with reputations for sullenness.

I will probably have to surrender my White Sox fan party card for this, but I have to confess, I just don't hate the Chicago Cubs. I don't like them, either; they exist in that vast nebula of baseball teams about which I have no opinion. That's the way it is. Right now, they are The Team Playing The White Sox, though, which always moves them to Honorary #30 on my top-to-bottom list.

And:

• Based on a seven-game road trip where he hit .238/.217/.429, some people are already writing The New Joe Crede's obituary. I say, check the splits. Joe doesn't hit well in Minny, Tampa, or on plastic in general. I won't speculate on why this is true -- there may not be a bigger BS dump in baseball than theories on offense on Astroturf (or its relatives) other than to say that the turf probably favors fast slap hitters, which is the opposite of what Joe Crede is.

• The poster children for methodological blindness are still at it.

• Peter Gammons called the Tiger pitching the best in baseball yesterday in his ESPN blog (pay site). Now, this is an defensible point; but it seems when Peter Gammons says something, it's jumping the shark. Cincinnati slaughtered the Tiger pitching staff. Coincidence?

• Outgoing Sewanee economics professor J. C. Bradbury has web-published a study suggesting that pitching dilution, not steroids, is responsible for the home run epidemic of the last 20 years. He extrapolates a Stephen Jay Gould argument that decreased variance in statistics implies increase in overall quality when you are operating at the extreme end of the normal curve. Since the hit batter rate tracks the home run rate reasonably, it's logical to presume that pitching quality dilution is the primary motivator. All this sounds correct, but as the comments to Bradbury's blog say, there is a problem here. Technically, I think the best way to put it is, nobody knows if the performance distribution curve is wide sense stationary or egodic. Practically, this means that the observation that the strike zone is smaller than it was 20 years ago and the prevalence today of Chet-Lemon-style plate crowders could be affecting both home run rates and HBP rates. Further, one could argue that smaller parks not only increase the home run rate, they encourage teams to flirt with wild power pitchers. Personally, I don't buy the steroids-as-cause argument alone, because power hitting in baseball is not purely a function of strength, and because pitchers were also users too.
  

Game 41: While you see a chance take it (27-14)

White Sox 6, Cubs 1. Greg Maddux was an unhappy as Michael Finley at a crotch-punching contest today over the home plate umpire's strike zone, Konerko drove in a bunch of runs, Thome hit an opposite-field dinger, and Mark Buehrle two-hit the Cubs for a White Sox team returned from a 3-4 seven-game trip to outer space. A good start to the three-game insipid fiasco that is "interleague play".

Three notes for right now:

• Randy Johnson struggles again for the Yankees. Media wonders what's wrong with him. What's wrong with Randy is he's older than I am.
  

• Is the Cub bench so bad the best they can do for DH is Michael Barrett?

• Shane Victorino took over for Aaron Rowand when Rowand broke his nose. Victorino is hitting .373. What are the odds Kenny Williams tries to get Aaron back?
  

Come inside, come inside

Whoever scheduled back-to-back series for the White Sox has a cruel sense of humor, with the four games in the HHHDome being following by three games in the Tropi-Can.

Tropicana is another bizarre building, but it has one interesting feature, a real, full dirt infield. I never have liked the sliding-pit ballparks, and have never understood why this is even legal.

Game 37: There I was with my back to the wall... (25-12)

White Sox 7, Twins 3. Chris Widger actually hit the baseball, as did Joe Crede and Scott Podsednik. They all had three hits, and all actually hit the ball out of the park. Freddy Garcia threw 6 2/3 decent innings, giving up 3 runs, and Cotts and Politte closed out the Twins. Podsednik, virtually given up for dead a couple of weeks ago, is now a .300 hitter. The White Sox win the final game and earn a split on Monday afternoon.

It must be agonizing to be a Twins fan right now. Just about 24 hours ago, they were 6 1/2 games out, and had just tagged Mark Buerhle for 7 runs in the first inning to take a 7-3 lead. A sweep would put them back into the thick of the fight. But the Twin pitching betrayed them, as it has all year when Santana wasn't on the mound, while Buehrle found the root of his problem. The White Sox outscored the Twins 13-3 over the next 17 innings and left Minneapolis with perhaps the most satisfying Twin split in years. In 24 hours, the Twins are 8 1/2 back again, right where they were Thursday night, with 4 games off the schedule.

I suppose, if the Twins fans had been told they'd be neck and neck with the Indians on May 15, and 7 1/2 games from the Tigers and 8 1/2 games away from the White Sox, they would naturally have assumed they'd be the ones on first, with the White Sox having fulfilled Joe Sheehan's expectations and vanished off the face of the pennant race. How strange this season has been for everybody but the White Sox, who are the only team in the division living up to preseason expectations. (That ignores the Tigers, who are more than living up, they're blowing their expectations away.)

I suppose winning three straight division titles (2002-2004) has its consolations, and this Liriano kid looks like a real monster, but the thought that the Twins' micro-dynasty has probably ended has to eat at a true Twin believer. You can't just expect the team to just rise again, not for a while at least; especially not if the GM keeps signing made-to-be-Royals players like Batista and White.

Game 36: I can read your mind (24-12)

White Sox 9, Minnesota 7. First inning: Hunter robs Thome of 3-run jack, Dye follows one out later with 3-run jack. Then the White Sox play Keystone Kops afield, Buehrle battered for 7 runs (8 unearned) in the first. The White Sox scratched and clawed out six more runs over the next few innings, and the Twins got nothing. White Sox turn triple play. Jenks strikes out the side in the ninth. Just another day at the office.

During the Twin merry-go-round in the first, I was convinced either they were stealing signs or Buehrle was tipping pitches. The ESPN K-Zone system was showing the Twins bashing pitches on the inside corner, outside corner, four inches outside... on the first pitch. It was like they knew what was coming. As it turns out, they did. Post-game reports were that Buehrle was tipping his pitches with his glove position.

This could explain Buehrle's mini-slump over the last few games. If so, the Twins got a little over-eager and let the secret out. If so, let's all give a nice, big hand to them for getting greedy.

The White Sox have to get used to the fact that they'll be microscopically examined by everybody as long as they are on top.

You can tell everyone I'm a damn disgrace

There is a parallel here between Ozzie and Mark Cuban. Cuban has been fined something close to a million dollars for bitching about the quality (or lack thereof) of NBA officiating. Cuban has been treated like an out-of-control lunatic by the national media, frothing at the mouth every time the refs do something negative to his Mavericks. This ignores the simple fact that, in my opinion, Cuban has been absolutely spot-on right about everything he says. He has made specific recommendations on how to improve officiating, including not rotating everybody, including the bad officials, through key playoff games. Cuban doesn't go along with the pro-wrestling mentality (manage the TV ratings through game officiating), and the major media, instead of exposing the NBA for the hypocritical sham it is, just pretend Cuban is just a lunatic and the NBA is on the up-and-up. (Note: I am *not* a Maverick fan.)

The same thing happens with Ozzie. And it snowballs. Because Ozzie's mouth is great copy, the fact that what Ozzie says is right is getting lost. Ozzie (and Cooper!) got tossed on a seemingly disingenuous basis (arguing balls and strikes -- A checked swing argument with the 1B umpire is not what was meant by "arguing balls and strikes"). The national media story is Ozzie Goes Ballistic, which is typical BS coverage, like the Cuban coverage.

Umpiring errors are rarely mentioned in game stories from the AP, and if they are, it's couched in "objective" language about "controversial" calls and words like "replays appeared to show". If Mark Cuban or Ozzie Guillen can't draw attention to patterns of error, then nothing will ever change -- because the sportswriters are lapdogs everywhere outside New York and Boston -- and we'll have to put up this ever-declining quality of game officiating.

The truth is, baseball, like basketball, is a commercialized amusement. It is run mostly to entertain people. It is theater. We who take it too seriously forget this, and want the better team to prevail, not the better story. Cuban is so rich he'll just go on speaking his mind (or running his mouth). Ozzie's fine will get paid by Jerry Reinsdorf. And so it goes.

Game 35: Deep rotation mutilation

Tonight is an example of why I get totally blue in the face angry when people tell me how great MLB umpires are. The home plate ump clearly gave Radke an expanded strike zone tonight, pitch after pitch, keeping him in a game, pitches Vazquez didn't get. Then the Twins get four gift runs because the umpires either weren't paying attention or just stunk up the place. First, the first base umpire misses a close call on a chopper to the pitcher, neglecting to notice Castillo running inside the baseline and claiming Konerko came off the bag on the tag and tagged him late. It was a close call, but it was probably wrong, and it leads to a run.

Then both the home plate umpire and first base umpire miss a strikeout when Cuddyer is hit by a pitch he swung at. Ozzie and Don Cooper get tossed, Vazquez gets charged with a bunch of runs, and just to put the icing on the cake, Radke trots out with a 5-4 lead and immediately gets multiple gift calls on pitches off the plate to put an exclamation point on the game, telling me they don't have a clue how bad they screwed up. Unbelievable.

Now, somebody somewhere will say there's a parallel with the ALCS last year. Maybe. But the umpires didn't just toss Scioscia and his pitching coach.

Game 34: Knock me down, it’s [probably] all in vain (23-11)

So the Twins built up a four-game series in the Hump as their do-or-die. This is probably true for them, mired (until yesterday) 8 1/2 games down in mid-May. They sent Johan Santana to the mound against Jon Garland, and it turned out to be a 10-1 mismatch. Garland got hammered for the fourth time in seven starts and, as the Tribune points out, since his 8-0 start, he's been back to being Average Jon. Sadly, this makes the off-season long-term contract look pretty unfortunate; of course, with what Kris Benson types are making, and given it's a long season, things could get better. Consider, ultimately, that what matters is the White Sox record in games he's started (3-4). Add to this the fact that yesterday was the "get-used-to" game of 2006 for the extraterrestial Metrodome, and the fact that no team was going to get to Johan Santana the way he was dealing, and this one just goes in the "sure loss" category. I don't care how good you are, games where you spot start for your de facto #1 starter (Wednesday) against a defending division champion, and games where you face the real AL Cy Young award winner (Colon's selection last season was bizarre) are not games you'll win without extraordinary effort.

After the skunking, Minnesota has gained a game and now stands 7 1/2 back. The real story here is that the Twins have almost caught the suddenly flailing Indians, who dropped a game to the Tigers last night. It's still too early to start rooting against the Tigers in these intradivisional games, just a bit -- the Indians are still far more dangerous in the long run.

With Contreras on the mend, the White Sox facing three somewhat more favorable matchups (any matchup with a Minny pitcher not named "Johan Santana" is more favorable), and bullpen geezer Jeff Nelson making a return to live games in Charlotte, these last two games still feel like aberrations.

In the air tonight

Random notes on a rainout day:

• The White Sox are supposedly calling up Augie Montero. Take a look at his splits. You have to give this guy a chance. It probably won't work, but he's holding batters to a .143/.241/.186 line, so I don't know he's got anything to prove in Charlotte.
  

• Aaron Rowand broke his nose, Hideki Matsui injured his arm, Frank Thomas injured his leg. An ugly, nasty day.
  

• Speaking of Frank, the Oakland A's website has a story saying Frank Thomas was starting to find his stroke before injuring his quad today running the bases. This is ridiculous. For a quick comparison, look at Frank Thomas' last 50 ab before today and Brian Anderson's last 50 ab. Anderson is a fine-fielding centerfielder, and on Monday night half the ESPN Baseball Tonight yappers wanted to send him to the minors. Thomas is a gimpy late-30s DH. (Admittedly, Thomas drew 3 walks today in a loss before getting hurt, but still, he's got to significantly out-hit a scuffling Brian Anderson to be "finding his stroke".)

• I know ESPN has to love it, but the Boston-New York rubber match is now well over three hours and they are in the bottom of the 7th. This is what I hate about Red Sox-Yankee baseball, looooooong, tedious ballgames. The key problem I have with Baseball Prospectus brand of baseball is it is boring. The game needs risk to be exciting, the kind of risk you get from steals and triples. The work-the-pitcher, slow-pitch softball wannabe games that stretch toward 11pm EDT just bore me to tears. The good news is it saves us from the inanity of more Baseball Tonight, which would consist of, well, half an hour of analysis of the Yankee-Red Sox tilt and Barry Bonds' bases on balls.

• Joe Morgan, discussing the heirs to Barry Bonds' home run chase, tiptoed around the question of why people don't like A-Rod either last night. Joe, we don't like him because from what we know, he seems to be a selfish, surly jerk. Steinbrenners' jabs are just gravy to us in the flyovers.

Now, the Twins. Thank god 8 1/2 games is a long way back.

Game 33: Always look on the bright side (23-10)

Game 33 was a train wreck, with cup-of-java rookie knuckleballer Charles Haeger walking everybody (including the Angel batboy) in a short 4 1/3 inning, 6-run (5 earned) stint that led to his relief and his demotion. Brian Anderson hit a three-run bomb as the White Sox clawed and scratched back to 6-5, only to lose 12-5 after a six-run Angel ninth. The Angels put a major league lineup on the field for Haeger, their first in at least a week.

Vince Galloro jumps all over my pet peeve of bullpen thrashing this morning. I agree. McCarthy is pulled for Cotts after a double in the ninth and the White Sox having indulged in the current intentional walk fetish to put Guerrero on. Cotts smokes Garret Anderson. Now Ozzie goes and gets Jenks, who doesn't have it. The main reason he went to get Jenks was Salmon is righthanded, and he's playing match-up. When Jenks gives up a couple of runs, Ozzie goes and gets lefthander Matt Thornton to pitch to Robb Quinlan and Jose Molina, righthanders. This leads (predictably) to four extra runs, because Thornton is a true LOOGY, and shouldn't be allowed to pitch to righthanders with large platoon splits like Quinlan. Cotts, on the other hand, is not a LOOGY, and should be allowed to face righthanders as needed. ("Where have you gone, Jeff Nelson? Bridgeport turns its lonely eyes to you." Nah, doesn't work.)

There are some good things about this little fiasco. First, the White Sox made the Angels work to win a game where they were fortunate enough to face a jittery rookie with a wild knuckleball. Second, BA got two hits and generally has looked competent at the plate lately. Third, Haeger was apparently an emergency option while McCarthy was being "stretched". Maybe -- just maybe -- Ozzie will figure out that Jenks is best used to start innings, too! Getting back to 6-5 against Ervin Santana and Brendan Donnelly is an accomplishment, and the game situation forced Scioscia to use Shields and Rodriguez, which may (or may not) pay dividends in the future.

Tonight, Kelvim The Vengeful goes against Jon Garland. One presumes that if Kelvim hits AJ again, he'll get tossed, but MLB has been remarkably lax with appropriate warnings in the past. If they do give a warning, naturally they'll play kindergarten teacher and warn everybody, regardless of history.

Game 32: Killing me softly (23-9)

The good news was the White Sox 9-1 trouncing of the Angels. The bad news was Jose Contreras going on the DL with a pinched sciatic nerve in his lower back. Contreras, named the "best pitcher in the American League" by two of the three ballplayer-turned-yappers on Baseball Tonight on Monday, will miss a couple of weeks. The White Sox called up 22-year-old knuckleball prodigy Charles Haeger to take his place, at least for now.

I am not optimistic. The odds are just kind of long for a knuckleball pitcher. Since Haeger's never been in the majors before, we don't have any matchup data, but we can check the matchups for Tim Wakefield, Steve Sparks, and Dennis Springer. They aren't encouraging, Guerrero and Anderson have mashed these kinds of guys.

But, if he does work out decently, his trade value will skyrocket.

Game 31: The doorway before them is barred (22-9)

The White Sox bullpen was almost perfect for three innings against the Royals to back up an uncharacteristic Mark Buehrle start, and Pablo Ozuna and Joe Crede provided the offense in a 3-2 White Sox win against the lowly Royals.

• Buehrle just wasn't sharp at all, but until back-to-back home runs of a tiring Buehle in the sixth, the Royals couldn't take advantage. It took Buehrle 114 pitches to get through 6 innings. The White Sox couldn't do much with Mark Redman.

• The only excitement in the first five innings was supplied when Mark Grudzielanek was called out on strikes in the fifth. (The plate umpire today was lenient with high and low pitches but wouldn't give either side the corners.) Grudz clearly said "bullshit" to the umpire as he stalked back to the dugout. Buddy Bell obviously said something worse, because Eric Cooper ejected him.

• Pablo Ozuna hit a shocking one-out triple to deep left center field to drive in Widger and Anderson (who had singled) to tie the game. Ozuna was promptly erased on a blown suicide squeeze when Iguchi popped up to the pitcher. I am sure this decision will be second-guessed, given that Iguchi is hitting .331. The White Sox had three straight hits off Redman, and he seemed to be weakening, but ill-fated small ball gave him new life.

• Cliff Politte sailed through the seventh and got one out in the eighth, but then what Ozuna giveth, he almost taketh back. Angel Berroa drove a fly ball to the warning track, but Ozuna got turned around and misplayed the ball into a double. Matt Thornton came on, popped up Aaron Guiel, and then Brandon McCarthy struck out Buck with a nasty curve over the inside corner. Who says the White Sox don't have a bullpen?

• With two out in the bottom of the ninth, Thome doubled to left center. It was a fairly ordinary fly ball, but the Royals were playing that silly Ted Williams shift, and Thome poked two hits to that region. (This could be important if enough advance scouts saw it to reduce the shifting a bit.) The Royals mysteriously decided to walk Konerko to get to Crede. Now, with one out, this would be a defensible move. With two out, and Crede hitting .335 over the last 49 games, it's bizarre. Crede battled Elmet Dessens for what seemed like forever, fouling off multiple low-and-away offerings, then savagely ripped an inside fastball into left field to drive in the go-ahead run.
  

• That set the stage for Bobby Jenks, on the hill for the first time since being charged with a blown save on Friday. Jenks struck out Matt Stairs with a knee-high fastball for the first out. He caught what appeared to be a break on a chopper to Uribe, whose throw the umpires said nipped Robinson at first. He blew Esteban German away for the last strike and the game was over.
  

Notes from the division race:

• The Tigers were unlucky enough to draw Johan Santana today and he beat them 4-2. Ordonez hit a two-run shot to make the game semi-interesting. The White Sox now lead by 2 1/2 games.
  

• Travis Hafner is playing for the Indians today. The Cleveland announcers say he has the flu. Eric Wedge drives his players like oarmen in a Roman galley. This will come back to haunt him.

• The 2005 White Sox were even better, 24-7 after 31 games.
  

One other note: Vince Galloro wants Boone Logan gone. He joins the huge chorus of naysayers. I almost bought his reasoning until he went off on McCarthy a little. McCarthy had some rotten luck in a couple of games -- allowing opposite field singles is not a character defect. The reason McCarthy doesn't go back down is he has nothing left to learn in AAA. His last stint there ended in utter domination.

Hey, Joe, where you going with that bat in your hand?

It's been commented on a lot, but I don't think we've quite realized the depth in the change in Joe Crede since he came off the DL last season after he broke his finger. His slam the other night was a definite hint he's now an impact player... but how much of one?

Crede's played in 48 regular season games since then, just shy of one third of a season. Using the incredible Baseball Musings day-by-day database, we can see:

• He's hit .335 since that day. (56-for-167) with an on-base average of .379.
  
• He's hit a dozen homers and 11 doubles and is slugging .617.
• That gives him an OPS of 996.
  
• He's walked 11 times, but struck out only 14 times. Effectively he's cut his strikeouts in half.

So, how good is that? Over the same window (9/10/2005 to today):

• Eric Chavez is at .276/.354/.568. Crede has out-hit Chavez.
• A-Rod is at .280/.398/.538. Crede has actually out-hit A-Rod.

Actually, he's pretty much out-hit everybody. I won't suggest that this will continue, but the small sample size is starting to get big enough to discount, and anyone who has seen him play knows there is a huge change in his approach and his confidence. It's pretty obvious Crede stopped trying to yank low and away curveballs. I don't know how many other things Crede changed during his down-time. Whatever he changed, he's the best third baseman in the league right now, including that self-important egotistical transplant we all know about.

So what does this mean for Josh Fields, last night's MiLB "star of the day" for the suddenly invicible 23-6 Charlotte Knights? Fields is hitting .307/.374/.511, which is pretty damned good. He is nowhere near as polished a defender as Crede and probably never will be. He may be benefitting from the close fences in Charlotte. But, regardless, you can't say he isn't adjusting to AAA, and a decision will have to be made soon because he's showing signs of being "ready".

It means, in the short term, the serious luxury here allows the White Sox to think over their relationship with Scott Boras. Crede's a home-grown player, a key cog in a high profile championship team, who seems to show signs of blossoming into the star we all hoped he would be.

I expect Fields will be harvested for middle relief if Crede is still hitting .3-something at the All-Star break.

---

It's been commented that the White Sox have an awful record when playing three or more substitutes. The Cheat first brought this to my attention back on May 2nd. That begs the question of "why"? Here are some observations:

• The White Sox are 0-5 when Ozuna starts a game
  
• The White Sox are 2-4 when Widger starts
• They are 8-2 when Mackowiak starts in center field, 1-3 when he starts in right

What I think this shows is that Widger to a certain extent and Ozuna to a much larger extent have value off the bench, but perhaps together they sabotage the offense and defense to the point where the team is compromised.

Chris Widger is probably the one player who is "on notice" in my book. He's hitting a weak .211, isn't a developmental prospect, and has seen pitchers roll up a 7.66 ERA in his 47 innings. I know, catcher ERA is not deeply meaningful, or so say all the studies... but if Pierzynski were to get hurt, the White Sox would probably have to reach into Charlotte and get Chris Stewart as the interim regular.

Game 30: Got no time to slow (21-9)

The White Sox bounced back from their Friday night fiasco with a 9-2 extermination of the Royals. Javier Vazquez once again flirted with a no-hitter for five plus and ended up giving up a couple of runs against his favorite punching bag. The White Sox pounded Runelvys Hernandez, with Brian Anderson hitting a home run, Tad Iguchi collecting four hits, and Jim Thome bashing a three-run bomb. Today they send Buehrle out against Mark Redman.

It was a perfect night for the White Sox elsewhere. Detroit's bullpen blew up against the Twins, as Todd Jones couldn't hold a one run lead, and Cleveland was shut down by Joel Piniero out in Microsoftland.

The Cheat quibbles with Black Betsy this weekend and has a comment about Podsednik's loss of speed. I differ, though; speed doesn't slump, per se, it erodes over time. Podsednik's 30 years old, and it is possible that he's lost the half a step that makes him more than a fourth outfielder. This is probably a good thing, though, not a bad thing, in that it is happening before the White Sox do something extremely stupid with him (contractually speaking). Podsednik's value to the White Sox is something that mostly eludes the numbers. If he loses that "something", he's a backup outfielder.

[He] said it, and now [he'll] regret it

Way back in January, Frank Thomas said that Jim Thome had more injuries than he did last season and is not a better hitter. As a public service, this year the Razor will track their respective statistics and let you be the judge.

	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG
Jim Thome	28	94	29	28	4	0	12	29	26	26	.298	.460	.723
Frank Thomas	26	92	11	17	2	0	5	14	11	16	.185	.276	.370

There is a difference between playing in USCF and Oakland. Thomas is hitting .209/.346/.302 on the road, and Thome .300/.417/.660 on the road.

This is the healthy Frank Thomas this year. He's not getting better, either, 2-for-13 in May so far.

There's a growing feeling of hysteria

Lose a tough one to the KC and the hysteria starts to come out. This was Jenks' first blown save, and the closer getting squeezed a little and giving up some doiky little singles can lead to big trouble.

Some of the many observers:

• The Cheat goes over the top a little with his analysis, and continues his trend of Boone Logan lamentations. Looking at the highlight clip on MLB.com it was pretty evident that the two-run single off Logan that supplied the eventual winning runs was a lucky poke off a pretty good pitch. He also frets about not using Neil Cotts (the answer to the implied question of where was Neal is "getting over being used a lot lately.") Cheat's also on the warpath about the White Sox overusing the bench (and going 1-5 in games with large numbers of substitutions), here he's spot on.

• Several non-media sources have commented on a questionably tight strike zone by the home plate umpire contributing to the lengthy Royal rally. Over at the predictable White Sox Interactive website, "PeteWard" observed that "Sox would have won if the bullpen threw strikes. Period. You can't hang this one on the ump." No, but you have to consider it when you evaluate your players. Failure to call out a batter on strikes when he takes a clear strike gives the batter an additional life (ask Angels fans about this one) and once that happens, anything can happen. The pitcher has a responsibility to shake it off and do his best, but when the serendipitous batter flips a single off the end of the bat to left, the non-call becomes significant and needs to be evaluated. I wouldn't be surprised if the Royals did get some benefit of the doubt out of pity from Gerry Davis. Frankly, they need it.

• Black Betsy as always points out that playing approximately .700 baseball is nothing to sneeze at even if some games don't go the way you want. SuperNoVa's lobbying for bullpen help. It didn't make his post, but in the email he mentions he threw out the names of several Marlin retreats (Franklyn German, Randy Messenger, Todd Wellemeyer). That's the hysterical part (and I mean it in the crazy sense not the funny sense) -- these guys have all proved they aren't part of any solution. Messenger has issued almost 6 walks per 9 innings in his brief major league career; German 102 walks in 135 innings; and Wellemeyer 69 walks in 97 innings. Just because these three have kept the consequences of their extensive histories down for five whole weeks doesn't mean anything. In hindsight, the three more-or-less lucky singles last night in the Royals loss were not the scary part, the four walks were. Walks kill. A few flares here and there don't tell you anything about your pitchers. Smart teams don't panic and start trading valuable talent for flashes in the pan retreads who will more than likely be worse than what they already have.

• Sox Machine correctly observes that Elarton's excellent starting pitching effort might have had something to do with the Royals' being in the game. Elarton's pitched three really nice games against the White Sox already.

Here's my two cents worth on the bullpen: it's too early to panic because the "indicators" of basic badness just aren't there. The pen's ERA is 4.70, but this is somewhat the result of overmanaging, not performance. Ozzie's issued 8 intentional walks, and has been drawn to the presence of three lefthanders in the bullpen like some kind of manager-crack, frequently changing pitchers for temporary matchups and generally thrashing the bullpen in a way that is reminscent of the worst case scenario for Tony LaRussa. (Ozzie's not alone here; check out , for example, Scioscia's loogy jones now that he's got a notionally reliable lefthanded short guy, and the somewhat predictable catastrophic results of Romero's appearances.)

Politte has not been right and McCarthy has struggled a little, but in McCarthy's case there's a bunch of bad luck involved. McCarthy's given up, what, 15 singles already to go with 2 doubles and a home run. This is not the profile of a pitcher who is getting hammered, it's the profile of a pitcher who is not getting much luck with batted balls.

Jenks issued his second and third walks of the season so far, and pitched for a third consecutive day for only the third time in his career. Each previous time has resulted in a poor outing. He blew his first save in ten chances. Let's keep this in perspective, shall we?

---

Oh, yeah... lost in all this was Jon Garland's good performance. He gave up only one run, that the result of a double just out of reach of Ross Gload's dive and a single, in seven workmanlike innings. I worry far more about Garland's lack of strikeouts and his penchant for the long ball than I do about Boone Logan.

By the way, this blog is now one year old.

Like the sun going down on me (20-9)

This is baseball's revenge for stealing that Wednesday game against the Mariners. Blowing a 2-1 game in the ninth to the Royals and losing 5-4. Panic!

This was the first time Ozzie tried to use Jenks on three straight days this season. He's only done this twice before, 9/18-20 last year and 9/28-10/1 last year. Both previous times they tried this, Jenks has struggled, giving up runs. It is quite likely he just can't pitch that much. Cotts wasn't available (I assume) because of two straight appearances. Therefore, it looks like the pitching staff is still kind of winded from the 11 inning game the other night and Ozzie's newfound matchup tinkering.

The great thing about the White Sox is they send Vazquez and Buehrle out the next two games.They face Runelvys Hernandez, who most of the White Sox lineup absolutely own.

Because of the wonderful things he does (19-8)

Pablo Ozuna didn't stop tying a game in the bottom of the ninth with a shocking 2-out solo shot. In extras he hustled a two-out groundball single up the middle into a double (essentially stealing second on Jeremy Reed) and scoring on Uribe's flare to win the game 6-5 over the Mariners. The White Sox had taken a 4-1 lead on Crede's slam, then given all four runs back in one of those painful innings the White Sox didn't have much last season. Ozuna saved the day.

Ozuna is now hitting .524 (11-for-21). Here's hoping Ozzie has the sense to realize that this won't persist over 250 at bats.

---

There's a lot of whining this week about booing. The fans in Cleveland got a scolding or two for booing Jim Thome. I don't have a problem with it. Fans have a right to boo anybody they want to. They have the moral high ground if:

• The player left their team for more money plain and simple, or
• The player said or did something really, really obnoxious

Cleveland fans have every right to boo Thome. He left for money. White Sox fans would be within their rights to boo Bartolo Colon as well. White Sox fans wouldn't boo Aaron Rowand because he didn't leave for money, he left because he had to. Now, the booing of Pierzynski in Anaheim (and hitting him with a pitch) was beyond the pale; Pierzynski's sin was being a red-ass baseball player.

Believe it or not, I'm swinging at air (18-8)

Mark Buehrle versus C. C. Sabathia turned out out to be a stinker as Ozzie sent out a lineup chock full o' subs and Mark Buehrle sent out his evil twin in a 7-1 Indians win. The White Sox kept putting runners on -- 15, for a .357 on base percentage -- but they left 14 on base. Travis Hafner, a.k.a the Project Donkey, slammed a first inning three-run shot and the Indians later fattened their lead, partly courtesy of home plate umpire Jerry Meals blowing a play at the plate. Still, with their low-wattage lineup and Buehrle having an off-day, it wasn't going to happen anyway. The Cheat points out that the White Sox record strongly correlates to how many regulars are subbed for. Basically, with 3+ subs, they play .200 ball (1-4). After Jermaine Dye left to nurse his nagging calf, only five regulars were left in the game (and two of those being the slumping Juan Uribe and Brian Anderson). This one wasn't meant to be.

Now, some might argue that given that this is the Indians, the White Sox should try to win at all costs. Eric Wedge started his regular versus-lefties lineup. I don't know about that. I know Victor Martinez is a durable catcher, but his playing time so far this year has been absolutely brutal. He's caught 220 innings so far, of a possible 238. Given that the Indians pitching so far has been (5.54) pretty bad, that's a lot of pitches to catch, and a lot of wear and tear. The Indians' backup catcher is Kelly Shoppach, who isn't a bad player at all, so it makes very little sense at this point to just ride the regulars into the dirt.

I wish I hadn't ripped Jhonny boy a bit back; he must have read my gibes because he hit the heck out of the ball the last two days. He's still not a #3 hitter.

As for the title line, it refers of course to Brian Anderson. Patience is a good thing, but he's now 10-for-71 with 4 extra base hits, 9 walks, and 25 strikeouts. That's pretty horrible. Mackowiak isn't a solution even part time, which leaves the White Sox either nibbling at some washed up geriatric or bringing up Jerry Owens if Anderson doesn't break out of this funk soon. I've just about had it. [[Question: How many of the White Sox starting pitchers have higher lifetime major league batting averages than center fielder Brian Anderson? Answer: Three. Javier Vazquez (.214), Freddy Garcia (.194), and Jon Garland (.167). ]]

Speaking of washed up geriatrics, the White Sox signed Jeff Nelson to a minor-league contract today. This probably means that the Sox have officially given up on Dustin Hermanson. I'm not wild at all about this, as Nelson's struggled for several years. A slider pitcher, Nelson's developed into a nibbler as his fastball vanished. They didn't sign this guy to shore up the Charlotte pen. The best likely outcome is probably the Yankees desperately trying to trade for Nelson in July and Williams picking up a prospect on the cheap.

With my heart in my mouth (18-7)

The White Sox held off the charging Indians, nursing a 7-0 lead to a heart-stopping 8-6 victory at the Jake. Paul Konerko's three-run shot in the first, a bunch of Podsednik steals, and a solid Javier Vazquez left the White Sox with a 7-1 lead after 6. Brandon McCarthy, however, continued his road woes, loading the bases on a couple of singles and a walk and then watching Travis Hafner his a towering slam just inside the RF foul pole to make it 7-5. Jim Thome drove in Scott Podsednik for an insurance run, but then the Indians rallied to put a couple of men on, drive in a run, and then watch Bobby Jenks blow away the last two hitters (both of whom could have won the game in dramatic fashion with taters) to seal a victory.

From the post-game quotes, it's clear the near-miss left the Indians with a very bad taste in their mouths. Turning a blowout into a close loss envigorates young, on-the-rise teams. It doesn't envigorate contenders, it makes them frustrated. The Indians have a tired bullpen, a catcher who desperately needs a game off, and a rehabbing pitcher starting a noon game against the hottest team in the league. The White Sox are actually favored this morning.

It says something, I think, about Joe Crede's shocking change in performance that he was 1-for-4 with a walk in a game where he was invisible. At .310/.362/.529, he's playing as well or better than we hoped when he was tearing up Winston-Salem almost a decade ago.

Cheat follows the time-honored White Sox fan tradition of picking apart the way the Indians came back to make it "interesting". I've got no quibbles with his observations, but he missed the two critical (as it turned out) outs Boone Logan got in the seventh. After Hafner's slam, Logan came in and shut down the Indian rally in short order, despite facing Martinez and the sickeningly hot Ben Broussard.

It's just hard to say anything negative about a team that's won 17 out of their last 20 games. Since the shocking Saturday, April 8 4-3 loss to the Royals to drop the team to 1-4 (just before I left on an airplane for a quick trip to England), the White Sox have lost once to the Blue Jays and twice to the Mariners. That's it. It would be nice if Brian Anderson and Juan Uribe would start hitting, and if Garcia and Garland would start pitching the way we'd like. But it hasn't really hurt yet.