Two Week's Worth of White Sox

As my internet woes of summer continue, I must accept that once again, I have to update once a week or so. (It’s actually been 2 whole weeks since my last update. Yikes!) Well, there is lots to catch up on, so let’s begin, shall we? First of all, I’d like to gripe about the fact that yesterday’s game wasn’t televised. In no way, shape, or form, not even just in the Chicagoland area. Was WCIU too busy with some King of Queens rerun? It’s things like these that make me really dislike the team from the North.

But aside from that, let’s talk about the last week in Sox history. Chris Getz (CARL!) went on the DL with a pulled oblique and called up Brent Lillibridge. That’s unfortunate, and something like his 3rd injury of the year. Kid must walk under ladders for a living. It’s also unfortunate for Sox pitchers (like Jose Contreras) because of Jayson Nix’s unfortunate defensive blunders. (Not that he’s the only one to make errors. Scott Podsednik has looked a bit like Ken Griffey Jr. in the outfield lately.) He has 9 errors on the year, which is kind of a lot considering he hasn’t been a full time player.

Jayson Nix is an interesting guy. He’s not the greatest hitter or fielder, but, overall, he’s a good asset to the team. He can play pretty much every infield position, he can play the outfield, and he has some power.

Along those lines, Mark Kotsay is pretty awesome. I like him. He’s not doing anything too spectacular, but as far as bench players go, he’ll do just fine.

Speaking of assets, we acquired Alex Rios. He’s pretty good overall, but he’s been getting himself in all kinds of unfortunate outfield entanglements lately. Maybe it’ll take some adjusting, but I am, once again, skeptical about Kenny Williams’s late season outfield acquisitions [See the trade for Griffey].

And speaking of acquisitions: Jake Peavy/Freddy Garcia. Garcia will be starting on Tuesday after his stint in Charlotte. That should be a nail-biter. He went 0-3 over 17 innings and had a very discouraging 6.25 ERA. Yikes. Peavy threw 3 shut-out innings last Thursday and should be up with the club by the end of August. That is, indeed, good news.

Alexei Ramirez (sorry, I couldn’t think of a clever, or even grammatically relevant transition) seems to be back in shape. Maybe there’s something about the end of the season that makes Alexei a home run machine, but he’s had 2 late-inning heroic longballs in just one week. Maybe that’ll help divert attention from his on and off lazy fielding.

Gordon Beckham update: still awesome!

Chuck Garfein had a post-game poll during today’s game, asking which of Kenny Williams’s moves was the best. The options were bringing up Gordon Beckham, signing Scotty Pods, trading for Jake Peavy, or claiming Rios. I think it depends on his definition of best. Is “best” the most successful move or the smartest? Peavy, so far, has made no impact on the game (aside, perhaps, from what Clayton Richard could have done in a start or something along those lines), so that is to be visited later. Trading for Scotty was terrific. He brought new energy to the club, he was the leadoff guy who filled a gap vacated by… well, himself, and he has my vote. Bringing up Beckham was a successful, but not smart move on Williams’s part. It was because he trusted Josh Fields. It was because, in the offseason, he didn’t insure himself against any failures Josh Fields would bring. It could have been a disastrous move for Gordon if it was too early. Think of what the odds were of a first-year, just-drafted rookie to hit over .300 and play defense successfully out of position. Congratulations to Williams, but it was kind of a shot in the dark. (In case you were wondering, an 53% majority agreed with me and voted for the Scotty move. How do you feel about the situation?)

In an ironic twist, Mark Buehrle was named the Pepsi Clutch Player of July. He sure wasn’t the clutch player of August. Or late July. Buehrle has been having real trouble since his perfect game, and I can’t tell you why.

In a big link dump, [Smells Like Mascot] wonders why no team in the AL Central wants to win the crown. Sox Machine takes a look at the future of the White Sox. If you don’t feel like doing the digging yourself, here are two links to his preview of [Jake Peavy] and [Dayan Viciedo].