After an abysmal one-year break, the White Sox resumed a winning tradition as
Ozzie Guillen dubbed Mark Buehrle opening day starter.
It's the sixth time in seven years Buehrle has taken the mound for the first game of the season, and his third against the Cleveland Indians. The Sox have won the previous two Opening Days against the Indians when Buehrle has taken the mound, although he didn't get credit for the victory in the rain-delayed 2006 opener.
Fun fact: Buehrle owns a 2.27 ERA on Opening Day over the last seven years -- other Sox starters on Opening Day have an ERA of 63.00. You can look it up!
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Because it's spring training, let's not look at
Mike MacDougal injuring Joe Crede's hand with a fastball as a bad thing.
As you may recall, Crede's magical transformation into a major-league hitter began with a pitch to the hand, breaking his finger during a bunt attempt in late August 2005. He figured out what was wrong with his approach during his time off, then became an offense force for roughly the next calendar year.
So MacDougal isn't carrying his control problems into a new season -- he's merely helping a teammate back to glory.
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Spring training round-up:*Ozzie Guillen didn't take long to begin busting Alexei Ramirez's balls.
Joe Cowley reports on an early contender for a top spring training quote:
"[Ramirez] should be doing a commercial already,’’ Guillen said today,
pointing to his new infielder. ‘‘He should have a man with his arm
around him, saying, ‘Hello, if you send $2 to the number below, you can
help feed this kid from Ethiopia.’’
*We've gone over the Sox's
on-base issues at the top of the order before, but Mark Gonzalez begins sorting out
how Nick Swisher and Orlando Cabrera could change things.
*Juan Uribe is
ready to win the second base job, and Ozzie is happy with his attitude thus far.
Oddly enough, I haven't found anything about Uribe's conditioning, good or bad. There are two ways to look at that:
Glass half empty: Since most spring training profiles say the subject is in great shape -- or "phenomenal," in Jim Thome's base -- the absence of that note could indicate Uribe is still above playing weight.
Glass half full: Since there's no word of any Sox coach or official being displeased with Uribe's carriage, we're to assume he's fit enough.