Who Cares?

Bobby Jenks hurt his calf and is out for the season. He pulled his muscle during some pre-game workout. Wait a second! Bobby Jenks doesn’t work out! CONSPIRACY! Jerry Reinsdorf wants to move the Sox to Florida so he’s assembled the worst team possible! Who cares?

Jake Peavy made his debut on the South Side and picked up his first win. It wasn’t what I would call the strongest of outings, but, really, Who cares?

Gavin Floyd is out for the year (I think) with a hip injury. This puts the Sox out another starter, but… Who cares?

Daniel Hudson made his first official debut with the Sox. He didn’t fare too badly, and the Sox Machine has full coverage of that. With a little more work, he could be the answer the Sox are searching for. But, at this point in the season, who cares?

Jermaine Dye is batting .135 in September. After batting .189 in August. What in the world is keeping his batting average at a prominent .248? Well, a very strong .329 in June. With Jermaine reaching the end of the last year of his contract, it seems like he’s not making a very strong case for his return. I blame him for not making things more interesting for me. At this point, I should be pacing, wondering what the Sox outfield will look like next year, who will take over the DH hole that Thome left, will Alex Rios be a permanent fixture, will Kenny have the $1 to spent next year. And instead, I’m thinking… Who Cares?

I’m trying to care. I really am. I’m even holding out hope for Gordon Beckham to claim the Rookie of the Year Award. And for the return of Scotty Pods. Who is still batting .303 despite the rest of the Sox having scored something like 2 runs over the last 6 months. That seems like a completely accurate statistic, right? So, I stopped doing research. Do you care? Did someone say, “Yes!”? Who? WHO cares!?

DEAR GOD! THESE WHITE SOX HAVE TURNED ME INTO JOE COWLEY! … Who cares?

And here's a question for the public: What's the opposite of "clinching"?

Frailty, Thy Name is Pena!

Oh, Tony Pena. If I had one word to describe you, it would be “bad.” If I had two words, they would be, “incredibly bad.”

Ask me why the Sox acquired Tony Pena. I have no clue! His ERA this year, coming to the Sox was a splendid 4.24. In 34 innings, he had allowed 53 base runners of 153 batters faced. For a reliever, this number seems terrible.

With the Sox, things worsened. His ERA climbed to 4.71. In just 21 innings, he allowed 31 of 95 batters faced to reach base.

He might have single handedly broken the record for most inherited runners scored ever with something like a 300% rate. Okay, this stat I made up myself, but it seems my research has left me confused about where to find this information. I thought baseball-reference.com was the end-all-be-all of baseball, but this one stat I’m going to have to figure out myself. One day.
I guess for every D.J. Carrasco, there is a Boone Logan. He’s improved his ERA to a mere 5.17 with the Braves.

And for every Matt Thornton, there’s a Tony Pena. Just a guy that Coop can’t fix. A young Scotch Linebrink protege, if you will.

Well, the season is in shambles, and even today’s display of power by Bacon or Alexei, or even Carl’s almost bomb (Getz hit a ball foul by a couple of feet that could’ve been a monster of a home run- for him, at least.) and overall presence on the field after an absence, what more can you do but bring in the young guys and let them have some fun?

There was a report that Daniel Hudson was called up. Furthermore, Thursday’s started against the Cubs is said to be Carlos Torres. I say turn this into spring training, bring up Jordan Danks, Dayan Viciedo, and have a good old-fashioned circus. Might as well give the die-hard fans something interesting to look at (however disastrous it may be) than give us the false hope that we may be watching a real game.

Alright, that’s all I got. Other than how sad I am after reading Garfien's latest blog post. To be honest, I’ll really miss Thome, despite his on and off hot streaks at the plate. Game 163. Need I say more?

Thome to Dodgers, Contreras to Rockies in Salary Dump

I was writing the newest addition to the blog when this happened on twitter via Joe Cowley: Breaking News: Thome went to the Dodgers, while Jose Contreras was sent to the Rockies.
As much as I hate relying on that guy, wow! That’s something. So, what does this mean?

Well, Thome was traded for infielder Justin Fuller and Contreras was traded for RHP Brandon Hynick.

In case you didn’t follow my twitter updates: Hynick: 10-9, 3.83 ERA in AAA, 1.297 WHIP, 1.92 SO/BB He also threw a perfect game this year. He was AA pitcher of the year at some point, and he has some random “Pitcher of the Week” awards. Fuller batting .254 with .340 OBP, 4 HR and 17 RBI and played mostly short stop and 2B in single A. I was expecting a bit more for Thome, but a salary dump is a salary dump.

I don’t expect Fuller to see much major league time, but Hynick might be forced to fill the gap in our rotation for now. That’s all I got for now in terms of that.

In terms of Thome and Contreras, it was no secret that I’ve lost faith in Contreras after 2005, but he seemed like a class act, just like Thome. And now… the era of Josh Fields as DH! Great… He and Wise, as well as Getz and Flores will be up tomorrow for the roster expansions.

At least Scott Linebrink will stick around long enough for me to perpetuate the nickname I gave him last week via twitter: Scotch Linebrink. Both because he gets into stick situations and because he’ll make anyone watching him pitch want to be an alcoholic.

Speaking of Scotty Linebrink, here’s what I was originally writing when the news started to trickle in:

There’s [a picture] that Sox bloggers have adopted of late that sums up the games better than any blog post could.


I was in the middle of using Photoshop for similar purposes using an image of Jose Contreras down on all fours, but I realized that description alone could do the job and I could keep the ratings PG.

Honestly, I agree with Ozzie on his decision for Saturday’s game: who else are you going to start on Saturday? Peavy is too precious to be wasted on a game we would have lost anyway. Sure, there were 10 runs given up, but none scored by the White Sox. Might as well throw Grandpa out there and make him earn his salary.

And speaking of “throwing out,” there is a rumored memo that KW passed out to… everyone, which supposedly states that Dye, Thome, and especially Linebrink are up for trade. Thome has a full no-trade clause, Dye has some restrictions, and Scotch is likely to turn any manager into an alcoholic.

So, the Sox are on a 4-game skid, and not even the magic of Floyd could keep the Twins at bay. The Sox are now in third place, and quickly catching up to the Cubs as the biggest disappointment in Chicago. It’s hard to keep an upbeat attitude, and I don’t blame anyone that temporarily becomes a Dodgers fan or something to keep the depression at bay.