The White Sox Blog: "I'm Not Even Mad, I'm Impressed!"

I haven’t seen a complete Sox game in what feels like three weeks. Luckily, the first one I sat down to watch was what in the 6^th inning already looked like a slaughter of the Florida Marlins. The Marlins were shut out for the first time all year. It was a great day to be a Sox fan once again. The Sox seem to be making small improvements, even if it is against national leaguers and the likes of the Indians. Unfortunately, I had to sit in person through the 13-0 slaughter of the White Sox on Sunday. 13-0. The only way I can think of describing this feat on the part of the Sox is by comparing it to getting a score of 0 on the ACTs. You have to purposely be that bad. You have to purposely know all the answers to answer the questions wrong. And spell your name wrong. Or to quote Anchor Man, “I’m not even mad. I’m impressed.” Most of the fans had had enough of the 90 degree weather and left by the 6^th inning. Some around me had chosen to leave by the third inning, declaring that there was no coming back from a 7-run deficit. I agreed, thinking that any game where Scott Linebrink was the highlight was not a game I wanted to see.

However, I will say that I am optimistic. The Sox are 5-5 in their last games. And they have taken 3 out of the last 4. Sure, they lost big to the Mariners, but if they keep taking 2 out of 3 from every series, they will be in good shape in the long run. At the very least, I am optimistic to see John Danks’s impressive season progress. His ERA is a petite 2.37. Third lowest on the team, behind only Santos and Thornton.

A mystery I hope to figure out is the case of Gavin Floyd. His curveball is, unfortunately, on and off. It gets him in trouble more often than not, but it’s also gotten him an impressive 43 strikeouts over 51.1 innings. I say impressive because I am amazed at how a fella with a team-worst 6.31 ERA (worse than even Freddy) is striking out so many. I’ll blame his wife and move on.

So, while I catch up on a few weeks of baseball disappointments, let’s revisit the rivalry and see if the balance of things has been achieved. As the table shows, Juan Pierre is doing a lot less striking out (but a whole lot more grounding into double plays, which should subtract from his RBI), and slightly more base stealing. Here’s to hoping he’ll adjust to the AL and bring that average up.