August, 2009

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Guillen far from blameless, but not to blame

Monday, August 31st, 2009

In the top of the eighth inning during the White Sox’s 8-3 loss to the Yankees, the YES Network broadcast showed Bobby Jenks warming up in the bullpen.

Ozzie Guillen didn’t think Jenks was a viable option in the 10-inning game two days before, instead using Scott Linebrink and Randy Williams while preserving Jenks for a save situation that never materialized — even though Joe Girardi used Mariano Rivera for game-preservation purposes right in front of his eyes.

Now, with a six-run deficit in the second of two disheartening blowouts, Guillen decided Jenks needed some work.

“Oh you (expletive)!” I said to Guillen. From my apartment. With nobody else around.

As most of you know by now, I’m not prone to anger or frustration when watching the Sox. It’d be pointless to spend that much time watching the Sox if it raised the blood pressure. Usually I roll my eyes and move on — or, in the case of the three-run homer served up by Scott Linebrink, laugh rather hard.

This particular move put a bee in my bonnet, however, and I think it’s because bullpen management has been Guillen’s only real weakness this season. And one day after he ripped everybody in the clubhouse (himself included), he went on and made the same brain farts that have plagued his players.

Brain Fart No. 1: Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaandy!

Entering the weekend, Randy Williams had roughly 40 innings of major-league baseball under his belt. That wouldn’t be particularly noteworthy if his professional career hadn’t started in 1998.

He’s a journeyman for a reason, yet it’s almost like Guillen considers him to be some sort of relief ace — at least based on the way Guillen handled him this series.

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Turns out it gets worse

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

That’s the headline from the most recent Comics Curmudgeon post, which I happened to read shortly before the White Sox took a big ol’ dog dump against the Yankees on Saturday. It works here, too.

Anyway, I’m just going to do a few quick hits and save the breakdown of the Mount St. Guillen eruption for Monday (there’s the audio).

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Joe Posnanski wrote a magnum opus on the Royals that’s worth reading — but this part hit a little too close to home:

But that is what it’s like watching the Royals … even when they score runs it’s painful. They don’t go first to third. They don’t go second to home. They need two hits and a sac fly to get their leadoff man home from first. The Royals lost the game 4-2 and there was so little energy in their effort that, as a football coach used to tell me, “If you could harness all that energy you wouldn’t have enough to start a flea motorcycle.”

If you replaced “Royals” with “White Sox,” it still would work. Good teams — hell, parts of teams like good offenses or good bullpens — make things look easy. Nothing ever looks easy for the Sox.

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Forget it, Jake - it's Chitown.

Forget it, Jake. It's Chitown.

Jake Peavy knows that first-hand.

He left his rehab start in Norfolk after 3 1/3 innings with elbow tightness. He threw 68 pitches — well short of his desired 100 — and ended up allowing two runs on four hits, with one walk and three strikeouts.

There’s a whole lot of cacaphony surrounding his rehab. Apparently Ozzie Guillen and Kenny Williams even have different philosophies, so it’s hard to blame people for getting impatient.

My philosophy — make 2010 the priority. It doesn’t matter how well Peavy pitches if the Sox can only muster one hit off the likes of Sergio Mitre.

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Jared Mitchell could also be done for 2009 thanks to a leg injury that has caused him to miss three of the last four games, according to Larry.

When it rains, it snows.

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No rest for the rookie

Friday, August 28th, 2009

Gordon Beckham was the only guy in the White Sox lineup without a hit on Thursday, going 0-for-5 with a pair of strikeouts during a 14-hit attack.

I don’t know if he ever looked worse than he did in the second inning. Scott Podsednik stole second on a 1-0 pitch, then took third because Victor Martinez thinks baserunners are trying to swipe center. Beckham then proceeded to swing through the one pitch Junichi Tazawa had working for strikes two and three.

To my untrained eye, it looks like Beckham is chasing the high fastball, and he’s pulling off pitches when they throw him strikes. Including Thursday, Beckham has just five hits over his last 40 at-bats.

It might help if the guy could get a day off. Beckham has played in 72 straight games, and has started 71 of them, including the last 56.

Trivia question time: Do you know was the last guy not named “Gordon Beckham” to play third?

Answer: Josh Fields, who started on June 25. Beckham has played every defensive inning at the hot corner since.

It’s understandable why Beckham hasn’t seen any time off — Jayson Nix is the closest thing to a third baseman on the Sox roster, and I don’t know if Ozzie Guillen wants to trot out a lineup with Nix and Brent Lillibridge in the same lineup.

In fact, I think he’s afraid to play Lillibridge under any circumstances. He has only started one game in the two weeks he’s been with the club. There’s good reason for that, of course, but it really speaks to your suckitude if you’re a bench player Guillen can’t find time for.

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Abandon hope when he enters

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

One of the great nicknames in baseball history belonged to Hugh Mulcahy, who pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies from 1935-1940, and then rejoined them for brief stints after the war. He went 45-89 over that first six-year stretch, including a four-year period in which he averaged 19 defeats a season. Twice, he led the league in that ignonimous category.

Hugh Mulcahy could still smile, unenviable nickname and all.

Hugh Mulcahy could still smile, unenviable nickname and all.

His nickname: “Losing Pitcher.”

Mulcahy was a below-average starter, but not noticeably so. He just happened to be durable enough to rack up plenty of innings for a team with so little offense, it lost 100 games in six of seven seasons during that period.

The nickname was just rooted in brutal honesty, is all. Check the box score, and it was twice as likely that he’d have an “L” next to his name instead of a “W.” Sad as it may be, Hugh “Losing Pitcher” Mulcahy works.

Tony Pena needs a similar nickname after serving up David Ortiz’s walk-off homer in a 3-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox. After Wednesday, the White Sox are 5-15 in games Pena has entered in his brief South Side career. Moreover, they have dropped the last nine.

That record isn’t noteworthy in and of itself. D.J. Carrasco had a similar stretch, when the Sox lost 15 of 17 games with his name in the box score.

There are a few differences, though:

  1. In all 15 losses, Carrasco entered with the Sox trailing.
  2. When Carrasco entered a tie game, he picked up the win. Pena has picked up the loss twice in such occasions.
  3. Pena’s still working on his first impression.

Pena was on his way to becoming a reliable option after stringing together eight scoreless appearances early on, and stranding a respectable six of eight runners over that stretch. Three losses rest in his hands over the last fortnight:

  • Aug. 10 vs. Seattle: Sealed Gavin Floyd’s collapse with the game-deciding homer in the sixth inning. Floyd’s runner was on base, so Pena avoided the “L.”
  • Aug. 12 vs. Seattle: Took the loss in the 14-inning shutout.
  • Wednesday vs. Boston: Big Papi.

This… this is not a good start. And it’s not helping to justify a trade that took a lot of work to justify after not passing the initial smell test.

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White Sox waste, want

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

One Hawk Harrelson saying that actually makes sense to me is, “You’re never as bad as you look when you’re losing, and you’re never as good as you look when you’re winning.”

There’s just one problem with this White Sox team: It’s never looked nearly as good at its best as it does bad at its worst. Granted, it can always get worse — take a look at the New York Mets — but I don’t think you can find sloppier back-to-back days anywhere else in Major League Baseball this season.

Two things have become clear after another egrocious loss to the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night.

No. 1: Nobody can complain about attendance through the end of the year.

Sox fans have heard that they haven’t shown up a couple times this season. The Sox front office experienced a rude awakening during the Dodgers series, and Kenny Williams also said lack of support would prevent him from making moves any bigger than a trade for Tony Pena.

I’m not saying people shouldn’t go, but it’s not an easy sell. They drew more than 100,000 for a weekend series against the Baltimore Orioles, and dropped two of three to the worst road team in the league. Then they start a road trip with two agonizing losses, although I’ve resorted to laughing at every miscue. It’s probably not healthy.

The Sox have made a habit of giving gifts to their opponents, but as they showed on Tuesday night, they’re not particularly keen on receiving them. That doesn’t put them in a position to beg for charity from their fans.

Next year is shaping up to be far more promising, and if they can avoid alienating the fan base further with their play, they’ll have more room for requests.

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Jose Contreras: Fall guy

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

Barack Obama took the week off from the health care debate to vacation with the First Family on Martha’s Vineyard, so it’s entirely possible that he got to watch Ozzie Guillen pull the plug on grandpa.

Guillen, the one-man death panel, sent Jose Contreras to the bullpen after his catastrophic outing on Monday night.  Words can’t adequately describe the horror of witnessing that error unfold. It was like watching a baby crawl towards a cliff.  There was no immediate sense of danger, but it developed so slowly that you still had time to fully realize that, hey, maybe that infant doesn’t have the ability to judge depth.

Is this what we'll remember Jose Contreras by? (AP)

Is this what we'll remember Jose Contreras by? (AP)

Now, replace “that infant” with “Jose Contreras ” and “judge depth” with “field his position, even to the level of Clayton Richard,” and there you go.

It’s a new take on an old Mitch Hedberg joke: “I want to see a pitcher flop during a flop. It would be so damn literal!”

So Contreras heads to the bullpen, which is a vanity assignment for all intents and purposes. He won’t be available until Aug. 29, and rosters expand three days later, so Guillen is basically saying, “We hope we’ll never need you.”

That leaves the door open for Jake Peavy, who pitched well enough in his third rehab start but took a liner to his pitching elbow in the process. He was fine enough to finish, but he has to see how it feels in the coming days.

It also closes the door on the chance of Contreras returning for 2010, in all likelihood. That is, if you hadn’t already ruled it out by now.

When piecing together the 2010 roster in my head, I had the Count penciled in (very, very lightly) as the fifth starter at Bartolo Colon’s salary. They would receive all the benefits of Contreras, Cuban Idol at a fraction of the price, there were reasons to expect mild improvement, and since he couldn’t be counted upon to pitch a full season, he wouldn’t interfere with the progress of Daniel Hudson or anybody else who might be ready to make The Leap.

But it’s hard to treat Monday’s debacle like anything besides a watershed moment in his White Sox career. It feels too much like it did last year, when Javier Vazquez followed up a Guillen challenge (“I don’t have an ace here”) by immediately surrendering a lead in the September Metrodome series. Maybe it was 100 percent certain Vazquez would be dealt, but it was impossible to imagine how anybody — Vazquez, Guillen, fans, the media — would’ve dealt with it after Guillen branded him with the scarlet “U.”

If Guillen removed Contreras from the rotation after a run-of-the-mill shelling, I don’t think that would’ve cemented his fate in the same way. But now when I think of Contreras, I’ll picture him diving in desperation for the ball like an alcoholic trying to suck spilled beer out of carpet fibers. That image is burned in the collective memory, and it’s hard to see anybody overlooking it.

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Bloody Sundays

Monday, August 24th, 2009

If the Sox have been consistent at anything this year, they’ve been great at keeping the Sabbath Day holy.

The rubber match loss to Baltimore (the worst team in the league) and Jason Berken (the guy with the 2-11 record) means the Sox have now lost on seven of the last eight Sundays.

The annual Mark Buehrle "It's August and I stink" photo. (AP)

The annual Mark Buehrle "It's August and I stink" photo. (AP)

Although it feels like Ozzie Guillen has always held that day of the week in lower (or higher) esteem, that may be more of a lingering sentiment from the Jerry Manuel era.  Here are the Sunday records for each season since Guillen took over:

  • 2009: 7-13
  • 2008: 17-10
  • 2007: 8-18
  • 2006: 14-13
  • 2005: 14-11
  • 2004: 16-10

It’s funny that 2007 is the only other Guillen season in which the Sox have sported a losing record on Sundays, because even though the Sox are still two games over .500, this year feels a whole lot closer to that wreck than any kind of championship campaign.

It makes sense. Sunday has been the day things get thwarted. Sweep? Thwart. Series win? Thwart. A winning streak? Thwart. Add in the day off afterward (there have been three Mondays off in July and August), and that’s just another 24 hours to stew about those particular missed opportunities.

Maybe Guillen should plan his week like newspapers do.  The biggest circulation days for newspapers are Thursday and Sunday. Those are the most advertiser-friendly days of the week, and so it also becomes the biggest day for a newsroom.  They want to save their best work for when the most people will see it.

Likewise, Sundays and Thursday might be best regarded as All Starters’ Day. Guillen shalt not play backup catchers, fifth outfielders or utility infielders when there’s anything resembling momentum on the line. Maybe it might not make a difference in the standings, playing the bench players on Mondays or Fridays, but it would certainly make an impact on the emotional aspect.

Then again, the Sox are 16-4 on Saturdays this season. If momentum were that reliable, you’d think that would spill over to the following day more often than it does.

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History repeating with Podsednik

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

Since Saturday night’s game was on WGN, Extra Innings treated me with the Baltimore Orioles’ feed on MASN.

On one hand, it was immensely satisfying to hear Jim Palmer say, “Do you think Hawk is talking about Pierzynski being the smartest guy in the American League now?” after Pierzynski’s run-removing baserunning error.  From what I understand, the answer was “Yes,” because Pierzynski is somehow not responsible for responding to the play happening in front of him.

On the other hand, I apparently missed a bizarre rant in the early innings — railing on long-term contracts, and perhaps insinuating that pitchers fake injuries.

Which brings us to Alex Rios.

Despite having four off days over the last week and a half, Rios got another day of rest on Saturday due to the White Sox being too righty-heavy. Even though the Sox could’ve started Rios and had three lefties in the lineup.

Scott Podsednik, who has started in every game but one this August, evidently did not need rest.

This is potentially dangerous.

In 2006, the Sox offense sputtered in the second half due to a complete lack of production at the top of the order. Podsednik played a big part in that, as he posted a .296 OBP after the All-Star break that year.

Over the last month, Podsednik’s OBP is .293.

That number surprised me. It certainly doesn’t feel like he’s been that bad, and for a couple of reasons.

No. 1: He’s hitting .269, as opposed to .241.  And he’s slugging .378, as opposed to .297. He’s hitting more, and they’re counting for more.

No. 2: He hasn’t had any droughts.  He went 1-for-17 at one point toward the end of July, but in August, he’s usually been good for one hit a game.

The problem is that he’s stopped walking.  In fact, he’s been picked off as many times as he’s walked (three in 126 plate appearances), and he’s been caught stealing twice on top of that. Colossally stupid baserunning — and that’s being kind to the last two game-killing pickoffs — paired with an inability to get on base is, simply put, box score poison.

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Pierzynski providing quantity *and* quality

Friday, August 21st, 2009

Back in March, The Hardball Times asked five questions about the White Sox.  Question No. 3:

3. Does A. J. Pierzynski go bowling with Dorian Gray or something?

Chris Jaffe noted that Pierzynski was one of the most consistent players in baseball, saying, “It’s like he’s a cyborg sent from the future to draw 22 walks a season.”

The piece goes on to guess that Pierzynski is “a really good bet to decline,” although the author makes sure to qualify his statement plenty.

It’s a good thing he did, because Pierzynski is on the cusp of having his greatest season in many major offensive categories (followed by rank and career best total):

  • .311 BA (2nd, .312)
  • .342 OBP (2nd, .360)
  • .462 SLG (2nd, .464)
  • 18 HR (t-1st)
  • 66 R (t-1st)
  • 25 BB (t-1st)
  • 49 K (2nd, 27)

One more remarkable stat: Pierzynski is on pace to play in 144 games, and that would also be a career high.

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Right team, right time, so what?

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

What was Jose Contreras’ secret in defeating a leading AL Cy Young Candidate on Wednesday afternoon? His pants.

Upon counsel from Orlando Hernandez, Contreras showed off his socks and rode the throwback look to seven strong innings in a 4-2 win over the Kansas City Royals.

Usually, there would be a reason to suggest Contreras has turned the tides, but the White Sox are a team that followed up a perfect game by losing six of the next seven. The only way to determine their chances is by licking a finger and sticking it into the wind.

On the other hand, look who’s coming for dinner.  The Sox host the plummeting Baltimore Orioles, who are sliding into town on a five-game losing streak.

What’s more! The Orioles are 4-15 over their last 19 games.

What’s more! The Orioles own the league’s worst road record (18-41).

What’s more! The Orioles traded Aubrey Huff, who racked up five extra base hits (three doubles, two homers) in six games against the Sox this year.

What’s more! The Sox are throwing their best three starters out there.

What’s more! The Sox won’t face Baltimore’s best pitcher, Brad “Turd” Bergesen (Gordon Beckham laughs).

Instead, they get Jeremy Guthrie (whom they usually handle well), David Hernandez (the dreaded rookie pitcher) and Jason Berken (the rare pitcher whom they hammered the first time around).

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