2006 State of the Sox

Week in a Box: April 9-15

It’d be harder for a great week of baseball to look much uglier than it did in the past seven days.  The Sox went 5-1 including a sweep of Detroit, but the bullpen has yet to come together and Jon Garland and Javy Vazquez were shelled in victory and in defeat.  At least a steady offensive presence and solid defense should help them to weather the storm until all the pitchers are on track.

Here are the winners and losers of the week that was:

Player of the Week:  Paul Konerko.  He started the week 0-for-4; he finished the week with five straight multi-hit games, four homers and nine RBI.  He’s made the opposition pay for pitching around Jim Thome, and his turnaround from a slow start gives the Sox one of the most dangerous 1-2 punches in the game.  Nobody will talk about his gigantic contract as long as he keeps hitting like this.

Player of the Weak:  Brian Anderson.  After winning the Gold Glove last week, his defense continues to be acceptable.  And that’s the best you can say about him.  He’s been horrendous with the bat, and killed several rallies inside the same game against Toronto on Friday, earning the worst single-game performance in recent history according to Black Betsy.  He enters the coming week hitless in his last 16 at-bats.

Pitcher of the Week:  Mark Buehrle.  The lefty rebounded from a so-so abbreviated performance in the opener to post two wins, going eight innings each time and lowering his ERA from 6.75 to 2.25 in the process.  He’s also picked off a runner each time, and his defense has been excellent.  

Pitcher of the Weak:  Jon Garland.  Allowing nine runs to the Tigers won’t help out the ol’ ERA.  Only San Diego’s Dewon Brazelton has allowed more earned runs after two starts, and that’s not good company to have.  Brazelton has a career 6.42 ERA.  One theory is that he can’t pitch with a big lead.  The other is that last year might not happen again.

Fireman of the Week:  Brandon McCarthy.  The first two-time winner in site history!  Only because nobody else has stepped up.  Not that he had a bad week, but it wasn’t anything special.  Two earned runs in five innings is okay, but it’s sad that it’s the best we have.  Bobby Jenks is looking better than he has been, thankfully.

Gas Can of the Week:  Cliff Politte.  After being spared this dubious distinction last week, Politte comes away with the prize this time around.  He’s allowed earned runs in three of his four outings this year, and got torched for four runs after Boone Logan got the first batter of the inning out.  He did follow up with a scoreless second inning of work, but something doesn’t look right.

Super sub:  Alex Cintron.  As Juan Uribe gets over a sore muscle in his left side, Cintron has looked great filling in.  He hit two triples in the slugfest against Detroit, and in four starts this week he went 7-for-17.  He’s not Uribe with the glove, but he hasn’t made any mistakes, either.  Pablo Ozuna bounced back this week after a rough start to his season as well.

Super scrub:  Rob Mackowiak.  With Brian Anderson having a rough go of it during his rookie season, Mackowiak’s the only one who can fill in.  Let’s hope his recent 0-for-11 skid (with six strikeouts) will come to an end soon.

Gold Glove:  Joe Crede.  As much as I want to give it to The Emperor for his amazing diving throw Saturday, Crede has been a difference maker with the glove.  He started the week preserved the Sox’s victory in Kansas City singlehandedly with two diving stabs, and has made a few more along the way.  

Hands of Stone:  A.J. Pierzynski.  I know the Sox have a lot of pitchers who are prone to throwing balls in the dirt, but there are a few where he could’ve tried harder to block ‘em.  By and large, the Sox’s defense has looked great, though.

Get your head out of your ass:  Neal Cotts and Cliff Politte.  Nobody’s expecting them to have last year’s success, but Cotts has already surrendered more homers this year than he did in 2005, and Politte’s ERA is 15.75 at this point.  Matt Thornton is outperforming both of them right now – handily.