A few years ago, I covered a team that was 8-40 at the halfway mark, which gave me some invaluable lessons in having to write the same story dozens of different ways.
Needless to say, I've just about exhausted my resources trying to do the same damn thing with the White Sox, who are playing some of the worst baseball I can remember. I'm guessing
1988 was the last time the Sox were that bad, but I was only six at the time. What I can tell you is that I liked watching the Oakland A's a heckuva lot more. The Sox didn't have anybody like Jose Canseco, or Dave Stewart, or Rickey Henderson, and so I ended up following them more over the next four years.
So that's the standard of bad we're dealing with. And if you look at
the Baseball Musings team splits from the start of the Twins series, that about says it all.
There's only one thing that stands out to me, and that's the production out of the No. 2 spot -- .354/.404/.438 -- which is incidentally the same production out of the second baseman. Yes, Tadahito Iguchi is once again producing in the second slot, and we may as well enjoy it now. Considering Scott Podsednik is holding up well in rehab and
Darin Erstad's making progress, it's realistic to assume that the only guy who can hit will receive fewer chances to do so shortly.
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If Freddy Garcia happens to see his old teammates in Philadelphia, he won't be in uniform. The
Phillies placed him on the 15-day DL due to a shoulder strain, and Charlie Manuel isn't too happy with Garcia for hiding the injury.
Taking his place? Jose Mesa. Now it's probably stupid for a White Sox fan to scoff at any available reliever, but Joe Table is one guy who could out-suck anybody else the Sox have trotted out there.
(By the way, I'll be at the Phillies-Sox game on Monday. The Sox have scored 18 runs in the two games I attended this year, and have averaged 3.7 runs over all the others. Let's see if three's a trend.)
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Curbside pick-up watch:- Bret Prinz: 1.1 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 1 HR, 2 BB, 1 K.
- Ryan Bukvich: 1.1 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 HR, 2 BB, 2 K
- Craig Wilson: 11 hits, 23 strikeouts in 53 at-bats.
Thanks for playing, gents.
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Minor league round-up:- Indianapolis 8, Charlotte 7 (11 innings)
- Tomas Perez homered and drove in five runs.
- Ryan Sweeney went 2-for-4 with two walks and an RBI; Brian Anderson went 3-for-5 and an RBI; Jason Bourgeois went 3-for-6 and is now hitting .366.
- Scott Podsednik went 0-for-3 with two walks and a run scored; no steals were attempted.
- Considering he gave up eight hits, four walks and two homers in six innings, Heath Phillips could've done worse. Mike MacDougal pitched a perfect inning of relief, throwing 10 of 17 pitches for strikes.
- Birmingham 3, Mississippi 2
- Gio Gonzalez pitched seven strong innings, allowing two hits and a run, walking three while striking out five; Oneli Perez vultured the win by blowing the save.
- Victor Mercedes hit a two-run homer, one of the Barons' six hits on the night.
- Winston-Salem 3, Wilmington 0
- Kyle McCulloch had an outing worthy of a first-round pick -- seven shutout innings, six hits, no walks and eight strikeouts.
- John Lujan pitched two scoreless innings for the save.
- Aaron Cunningham went 1-for-3 with a double and a walk; Dave Cook fell a homer short of the cycle.
- Greensboro 18, Kannapolis 6
- Jose Zazueta had an outing worth forgetting -- 10 runs over two innings thanks to seven hits, a walk, two hit batters and three errors.
- John Shelby Jr. has five straight multi-hit games, including a 2-for-4 performance today that raised his average to .300. Unfortunately, he committed two errors at second, bringing his season total to 16.
- Michael Grace had three hits; Chris Carter went 1-for-5 with two RBI and three strikeouts.