White Sox Week That Was - 5/23-5/29: Stupid shortcomings! Stop revealing yourselves! Published by adming - On 01.30 - This post haved 0 komentar

Crud. // Fred Thornhill, Reuters

Well, this is well-worn ground.

It's the end of May, the White Sox are stuck on 24 wins, Mark Teahen is hurt, the DH is a sinkhole, and Ozzie is...well...he's acting like a manager who has a great deal of his security tied to making a division title push on the strength of the biggest organizational investment in three years.


  If it wasn't apparent that the Sox were skidding during a run-starved 2-5 week, Ozzie Guillen's mood was a pretty good indicator:

"I'm drained now," Guillen said. "I feel like I'm in September right now. You can ask my coaches. We feel the same way.

"And we're not even in (bleeping) June."

And Guillen was in no mood for excuses from his players.

"They can say, 'Hey we played 14 innings. Wow, we battled our asses off.' It's a bunch of (bleep). Fight back, yes we did, for nine innings.

"I've been watching the same (bleep) a lot of times with men in scoring position."

This came in the wake of the Sox dropping a 14-inning, 9-8 heartbreaker to the Jays on Saturday that featured Bad Edwin, Juan Pierre turning a difficult catch into an impossible one to turn the game in a disastrous 7th, and the Sox wasting a superb offensive effort, a miracle game-tying bloop single with two outs in the 9th by Konerko, and the latest stop of the Brent Lillibridge - Time of Your Life Tour.

If there's a guy who could say something about fans peeing on a World Series statue in a way that lends itself to being taken out of context, it's Ozzie. // Tom Szczerbowski, US PRESSWIRE

So yeah, I get the frustration.  If there's a lesson that 7 years and change of Ozzie has taught, it's that the noise is mostly noise, and doesn't result in the start of some crazy and unreliable managing tendencies.  Ozzie's tirade didn't seem to matter to the player that spoke up:

"He feels exactly like we do when we lose," said Dunn, who hit an RBI single during a three-run fifth. "I don't have a problem with it at all. If he doesn't feel frustrated, he needs to be doing something else because this is awful."

And that was Adam Dunn; the easy-going new guy who might have trouble adjusting to Guillen's bluster.

The real thing for Ozzie and the Sox to worry about is that they've dug a massive hole for themselves the second year in a row, and at a time when they need to rally to catch Cleveland, they're treading water; if that can even be said after consecutive series losses to Texas and Toronto where they averaged 3.7 runs a game. 

If the White Sox don't make the playoffs, and someone asks me at what point did I start to think the comeback wasn't inevitable, I'd point to this week of countless high-leverage hitting opportunities spurned.

There was a second rambling anti-fan rant that hit the presses, but Ozzie has since vehemently refuted it.  Nothing's coming to fruition these days.

It doesn't matter anymore if Cleveland is for real, they're too far ahead

It seems pretty darn clear that the Indians are not the doomed-to-90-losses squad we giggled about all winter.  Justin Masterson really is ready to be an ace of a staff, Asdrubal Cabrera's potential wasn't exhausted, and Matt LaPorta might have a career after all.  Yes, yes, we get it now.

Even though the Tribe has played .500 ball for the last 10 games, they're sitting at 31-19.  Even if they were the 90 loss team I hoped they'd be from here on out, they would finish with 81 wins.  Thoroughly unimpressive, but more than the South Siders are on pace for at the moment.  If Cleveland is a .500 club from here on out, they'll finish at 87-75.  Divisions have been won with marks like that, especially crap divisions where every other team is below-average.  The White Sox would need to go 63-44 to match that (.589).

The work is cut out for them.

Thanks to the Sox, Corey Patterson is a viable offensive player again. Start drafting thank you letters // Fred Thornhill, Reuters

This pitching situation would be easier to figure out if there was less suckitude

So Phil Humber was a spot-starter whom we all dreaded the sight of, but his results (60 IP, 2.85 ERA) made it foolish to ditch him, even if he is riding on a wave of hopes and dreams (4.13 xFIP with a Buehrlian 4.95 K/9 rate).

On such premises began the 6-man rotation experiment when Jake Peavy returned; which was new and fun, avoided jettisoning a productive starter, and offered the neato prospect of using starters as relievers on their bullpen throw days (which resulted in Gavin Floyd throwing a walk-off HR to Corey Patterson, which was lacking in the neato-factor).

Of course there were critiques of the idea, both measured and frothing, with the general idea that a clear straggler would emerge, and the bullpen would need their aid anyhow.

However, Guillen claimed that the 6-man would be more sustainable if Tony Pena was the guy they traded their top 1st basemen prospect for.  With Santos very clearly serving as the de-facto closer, that leaves Guillen uncomfortably short for right-handers for high-leverage situations.  And while Sale looked splendid in three shutout innings on Saturday, the absence of he and Thornton for all-purpose dominance hasn't helped.  To make things thinner, Pena is on the DL with tendinitis, prompting the promotion of Lucas Harrell, who hosted 4 innings of batting practice Sunday.

This week, Guillen had two straggling starters emerge, unfortunately for his decision process, neither of them were Phil Humber.

John Danks finally has the troubles to justify his 0-8 records, as he's allowed 5 HRs in his last two outings and pushed his ERA over 5.00.  He's also the most consistent performer of the last three seasons, and there's supposed to be at least a nominal effort to re-sign him after 2012 and not piss him off.

So instead, I'll have to side with Stone and suggest that Edwin Jackson should be considered for the relief role after another outing where his command came and went for stretches.  As Will Ohman noted in Spring Training, bullpens are composed of failed starters; hurlers too inconsistent to be staked to multiple go-rounds to the batting order.  Subjugating Jackson--who varies between dominance and hittability based on whether he has his control or his slider, and who has featured intense platoon splits this season--could allow him to dial up his heat to the high-90s in short action, and remove the Sox from the situation of having to tough it out through his rough patches.

But he probably would hate it, as would his agent, and it would remove any chance of him being a Type A free agent at the close of the year.  Sooo, let's just say it's a maybe.

Your backups are making you look bad

Adam Dunn went 2-22 on the week and struck out in half of his at-bats.  If he were a hot prospect, he would just register as someone badly in need of a trip to Charlotte.  Instead he sounds like a 31 year-old man having a very expensive existential crisis.  Also, he's still rocking that .143 OPS against lefties.

Brent, why don't you just tell us if it's for real or not? // Fred Thornhill, Reuters

Dayan Viciedo has an .875 OPS on the year in Charlotte, and if there's one thing he's a sure bet to do in the major leagues, it's hit lefties.

Alex Rios went 6-29 on the week with three doubles.  He walked once, he struck out only twice.  He hits a lot of balls, and none of his balls become hits.  That has resulted in a .213 BABIP, but that can't explain everything that's wrong.

Thanks to a weekend where he homered, tripled, and doubled (and crushed a ball to center that Rajai Davis made a fantastic catch on), Brent Lillibridge still has an OPS over 1.000 on the year.  He's striking out less (under 30%!) and is a consistent defensive highlight--even when he's not supposed to be (I'm referring to when he misjudged a fly ball to right, then recovered in time to make a diving catch...playfully.  Bridge has been awesome).

Viciedo needs a real role with consistent at-bats when he arrives, Brent Lillibridge has a track record so bad it's a minor miracle he even got this opportunity, and both Rios and Dunn are proven veterans that the club is heavily invested in for several years, but time is drawing short on when the Sox can pretend they're not too desperate to keep both of these hot bats out of the lineup.  Especially when Lillibridge has shown the ability to be thrown anywhere.

Looking ahead

This week brings the Boston series everyone was dreading so hard, an actual off day, and a visit from the Tigers to begin a 10-game homestand.  Boston will throw out Jon Lester and two guys they had hoped to not resort to (Alfredo Aceves and Tim Wakefield), while Detroit has Andrew Oliver's second career start, the perennially terrifying Justin Verlander, and Brad Penny, who last start against the Sox might have been the best reason yet to eschew worldly things and wander the Earth in contemplation.


Fun fact: Carlos Quentin had only five hits this week, one of them wasn't a home run.



Follow White Sox Observer on Twitter @ JRFegan and on Facebook

30 May, 2011

--
Source: http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/white-sox-observer/2011/05/white-sox-week-that-was---523-529-stupid-shortcomings-stop-revealing-yourselves.html
~
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com