The State of the Sox address

May 19, 2010

WHITE SOX BLOG

It’s May 19 and many White Sox fans may be in shock at the awful start by their south siders. six and a half weeks into the season and little promise on the horizon. The big problem is the teams lack of hitting. I think I can count on one had how many times the Sox have had 3 hits in a row. When General Manager Kenny Williams passed over signing Johnny Damon to a two year contract and not pursing Scott Podsednik not many fans blinked an eye. They figured the Sox were secured in the outfield with Alex Rios, Andruw Jones and Carlos Quentin. Plus having Juan Pierre as a DH/OF made it easier that Damon went to Detroit. Also many fans were excited about Jordan Danks thinking he could come up and contribute. Plus in Chicago a name like Jordan gives fans some excitement. Even names that rhyme with Jordan. (See Gordon Beckham).

So basically is hard for me to sit here on May 19 and second the moves by Williams. The pitching looked solid. My only concerns were Mark Buehhrle’s shoulder and John Danks finger tips. So far so good for them. Jake Peavy struggles a little bit here and there. But I think he gets too pumped up out on the mound. He needs to control his emotions. Or as in Bull Durham breathe through his eyelids. To me Peavy, Buehrle, Gavin Floyd and John Danks seemed like a strong front four. Anything you got out of Freddy Garcia was frosting on the cupcake.

What kills me 38 games into the season is the bad base running. We have ran ourselves our of some potential big innings. I don’t see why they feel the need to take a chance going first to third on a single to CF after 3 solid hits against the pitcher. Like I wrote earlier we don’t get 3 hits in the same inning very much. So I hate to see a rally killed by giving the struggling pitcher an out.

But this blog isn’t about bitching and second guessing. This blog is going to be about exchanging ideas before this or that happens. Anyone can second guess and have 20/20 vision after the fact. Its what you do and say before that matters. Ozzie and Kenny don’t get second chances. So why should I when I blog about something.

So I say this hoping it never happens but it frightens me to death when I see Beckham turning a double play at second. He seems to not know how to get out of the way of a sliding base runner. Please I hope Joey Cora and Ozzie are working


with him. If not then there will be hell to pay from us White Sox fans. Plus lets give shout outs to the players that we love. Paul Konerko. His defensive play has been outstanding the last two years. Which brings me to this tough question. Do we sign Paulie to a 3 year contract? Or trade him now and get something for him? If we fall out by 10 games in July I say its time to trade and cut. My favorite player is Mark Buehrle. But if the Sox our out of it in July its time to trade him. He has thrown so many innings its only a matter of time before that shoulder is deader then a ASIAN carp in the Cal-Sac.

If we let Konerko go then we have to see what is on the farm. That means bringing Dayan Viciedo up and giving him a shot at first base. Lets see if this kid can hit in the bigs.

Well lets not jump ahead of ourselves. We have 5 home games coming up against LAA and FLA so lets sweep the Angles and get two of three from the Marlins and take it hard to Cleveland. While we are in Cleveland lets sign Lebron James too!
Go White Sox.