Sox Machine: Chicago White Sox blog

Nick Swisher and the transitive properties of Toby Hall's pants

Assuming Ozzie Guillen and Co.'s awful, awful game Tuesday night was merely an aberration and not the beginning of a trend, it feels pretty good to be a White Sox fan these days.  Reasons 1A and 1B for me?

Nick Swisher and Alexei Ramirez.

Swisher is in the midst of a nine-game hit streak, during which he has racked up seven extra-base hits.  Before that, he'd only collected eleven in his first 55 games.  It was only a matter of time before the hits would start falling, and since he began his run, he's increased his line by 28 points of batting average, 19 points of on-base percentage and 80 points of slugging.

(He also may own the quote of the season: "Also, I've started wearing Toby Hall's pants."  Perhaps not by coincidence, while Swisher owns a 1.256 OPS in the month of June, Hall is hitless in seven at-bats after going 11-for-24 in May.  If Hall can continue to throw out the Carlos Gomezes of baseball without his hittin' trousers, it's more than a fair trade-off.)

And then you have Ramirez, who has made Juan Uribe such an afterthought that ¡Profundo! has not appeared in one game this month, which is the longest string Uribe has gone without an appearance in his White Sox career (previous high: seven games in 2006 due to back stiffness).

It's simultaneously a thrilling and baffling experience watching Ramirez's game come together on the fly.  After a 2-for-3, one-walk day Tuesday, Ramirez owns a .300 average, and he's walked four times the past week after earning only two free passes in his first 108 plate appearances.

Of course, it's the league's turn to adapt to Alexei again, since they figured him out during spring training and he adjusted accordingly.  But don't hestitate to enjoy this while it lasts, because the Sox haven't had a hitter to come out swinging this well over his first 150 plate appearances since Carlos Lee in 1999.  It probably speaks volumes that Ramirez wasn't developed by the Sox farm system, but that's another complaint for another time.

If these improvements are for real (feel free to scale Ramirez's back a bit), Swisher and Ramirez give Kenny Williams an incredible amount of flexibility going into next season.  Swisher's ability in center field has been a revelation -- The Fielding Bible rates Swisher an even zero in the plus-minus ratings at the position, which is more than satisfactory considering U.S. Cellular Field's small dimensions.

Ramirez, meanwhile, is improving at second and supposedly better at shortstop, so Williams can choose which middle-infield position to upgrade.  Between them, Swisher and Ramirez cover six positions adequately for a combined cost of $6 million in 2009, which is looking like a bargain at this time.

(One thing about Ramirez defensively -- watch him the next time you go to a game.  He stands with his hands on his knees, flat-footed while the pitcher is going through his signs, and doesn't ready himself any more while the pitch is being thrown.  Everybody else on the diamond moves but him.)

Ultimately, what's cool about this situation is that I have every bit of confidence that Swisher's improvement is for real, while having no clue whether or not Ramirez will come close to sustaining his performance, and it's equally enjoyable to watch both of them.

It's debatable whether the Sox can consider themselves a playoff-caliber team yet, but I'm pretty sure there's no debate that Williams achieved what he set out to do this past offseason -- to make 2007 as distant a memory as possible.  When Carlos Quentin is in a slump and still second in the league in RBI, and Octavio Dotel strikes out four of the five batters he retired on only 17 pitches (14 for strikes), it makes it plenty easy to forget the misery.

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Three belated notes:

• I've added a photo gallery of Champions Plaza.  I agree that it's well-done, although it's weird seeing Joe Borchard and Jon Adkins basically receive equal billing with Bobby Jenks and Paul Konerko on the roster part.
• The broken-bat log is up to date, and Alexei Ramirez holds a 5-4 lead over Jim Thome thus far.
  
• Week in a Box for last week is complete, but backdated as to not interfere with this week of games.

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Minor league roundup:

• Charlotte 5, Norfolk 2
• Charlie Haeger won his third straight decision by working out of trouble.  He allowed two runs on seven hits and three walks over five innings.
• Jerry Owens went 3-for-5 with a pair of RBI and his 15th stolen base.
• Josh Fields went 1-for-3 with a walk, sac fly and strikeout.
• Paul Phillips had two hits and a walk; Danny Richar went 1-for-5.
• Adam Russell pitched two perfect innings, and Jason Childers earned a two-inning save.
• Winston-Salem 0, Potomac 0 (Susp. 3rd inning)
• Anthony Carter got off to a fine start with three scoreless innings, allowing two hits and striking out two.
  
• West Virginia 7, Kannapolis 6
• Adam Bowling struck out five over 3 2/3 innings of perfect relief.
• Charlie Shirek continued his struggles, allowing four runs on six hits and two walks over 3 1/3 innings.  He has allowed 13 runs over his last 11 2/3 innings.
• Dale Mollenhauer, Jim Gallagher and Matt Inouye enjoyed two-hit days; Sergio Morales drove in two.
• Birmingham OFF