The Sox bit the big one again in today's televised battle against the Kansas City Royals. Paul Konerko's solo home run was just about the only good thing about today's game.
And I can't help but wonder if Ozzie is to blame. Jim from the Sox machine talked about Ozzie's choice to leave starters in long past what has come to be a typical pitch count. Edwin Jackson's last outing, for example, consisted of 128 pitches. I assume this would take its toll on the pitcher who has been almost unstopable otherwise since joining the White Sox. Then again, perhaps he has just run out of the steam that came with the excitement of leaving the sinking ship known to the baseball world as the D-Backs.
Is it praise-worthy that Ozzie defied the new norms and stuck with a good thing? Or does it show that he is careless with the health of his pitchers and thinks little of consequences?
That last question confuses me because often times, Ozzie throws games away by making stupid choices like putting in Tony Pena and other times he'll do anything to win this one game (Well, to be honest, other than the Edwin Jackson incident, I can't think of another time he's done this...)
Ground was lost against the Twins once again today, with a series coming up where the two face off. It seems improbable that the Sox will gain any ground by then, and even more improbable that the Sox will overtake the Twins in the standings. But one can hope.
A sweep of the Twins could do wonders. Another spectacular winning streak would also be nice. But what will really happen? We'll have to adopt the Cubs' slogan. There's always next year. How odious it sounds. Can't Obama do something about this?
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Plenty of Baseball To Be Played
I would be a moron if I believed that. The Sox are on their last leg in every way possible. Nothing short of a miracle will repair the 6-game deficit that the Sox find themselves in. Perhaps a loss-less stretch until the very end of the season will be enough. But is that possible with the state of the Sox at present?
Gordon Beckham’s hand is injured, Paul Konerko’s back is giving him a hard time, and now Bobby Jenks was diagnosed with “ulnar neuritis.” In case you’re not a doctor, that basically means discomfort in the nerve known as your “funny bone”, meaning pain in your little and ring fingers and possible weakness. Good thing you don’t need fingers as a pitcher.
And now, on to the starting pitchers. Gavin Floyd seemed to have reached the end of his rope. He gave up 6 runs on 13 singles today. Freddy Garcia had to get an epidural and may start on Sunday, but in his last outing he didn’t even make it 3 innings.
The only way I can describe this situation is by comparing it to the 70-year-old pregnant woman. It’s just wrong. While the Sox have the ability, they can’t pull it together. (On the flip side, the 70-year-old pregnant woman doesn’t have the natural ability, but somehow she did it.)
BUT instead of tying a boulder necktie on and jumping into the river, let’s look at what we have to live for.
The first reason is Chris Sale. Sure, his success is probably due in part to the fact that he’s faced batters only once. But, there’s also the fact that his fastball has reached 99 mph, that he has a complete repertoire of successful pitches at just 21 years old, only a few months after being drafted, after only a limited time with Coop.
The second is that after this painful month is over, Jake Peavy will be back and we have as much of a chance as we did this year to not be screw-ups. And if that’s not enough, we have two more years of Mark Teahen. Oh, wait. Reasons NOT to jump off a bridge… Scratch that last one.
No, let’s not! Let’s look at this terrific deal. Mark Teahen had a 3-year, $14 million contract with the White Sox. That’s infinity times higher than Joe Crede’s salary (Because there’s nothing you can multiply $0 by to get to FOURTEEN MILLION.), and he’s making about 10 times more this year than Josh Fields (who made about $422,000 this year). The only net gain or loss from that fortunate trade was Chris Getz. God, we’re lucky…
Sorry about the sporadic posts. Night school isn't the best way to keep up with baseball. Thankfully, there's not much more baseball to be analyzed this year.
Gordon Beckham’s hand is injured, Paul Konerko’s back is giving him a hard time, and now Bobby Jenks was diagnosed with “ulnar neuritis.” In case you’re not a doctor, that basically means discomfort in the nerve known as your “funny bone”, meaning pain in your little and ring fingers and possible weakness. Good thing you don’t need fingers as a pitcher.
And now, on to the starting pitchers. Gavin Floyd seemed to have reached the end of his rope. He gave up 6 runs on 13 singles today. Freddy Garcia had to get an epidural and may start on Sunday, but in his last outing he didn’t even make it 3 innings.
The only way I can describe this situation is by comparing it to the 70-year-old pregnant woman. It’s just wrong. While the Sox have the ability, they can’t pull it together. (On the flip side, the 70-year-old pregnant woman doesn’t have the natural ability, but somehow she did it.)
BUT instead of tying a boulder necktie on and jumping into the river, let’s look at what we have to live for.
The first reason is Chris Sale. Sure, his success is probably due in part to the fact that he’s faced batters only once. But, there’s also the fact that his fastball has reached 99 mph, that he has a complete repertoire of successful pitches at just 21 years old, only a few months after being drafted, after only a limited time with Coop.
The second is that after this painful month is over, Jake Peavy will be back and we have as much of a chance as we did this year to not be screw-ups. And if that’s not enough, we have two more years of Mark Teahen. Oh, wait. Reasons NOT to jump off a bridge… Scratch that last one.
No, let’s not! Let’s look at this terrific deal. Mark Teahen had a 3-year, $14 million contract with the White Sox. That’s infinity times higher than Joe Crede’s salary (Because there’s nothing you can multiply $0 by to get to FOURTEEN MILLION.), and he’s making about 10 times more this year than Josh Fields (who made about $422,000 this year). The only net gain or loss from that fortunate trade was Chris Getz. God, we’re lucky…
Sorry about the sporadic posts. Night school isn't the best way to keep up with baseball. Thankfully, there's not much more baseball to be analyzed this year.
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