Age is just good numbers

One of the sweet ironies of this season is that while the Sox are supposed to be getting younger, the most the most enjoyable aspect to me has been watching two old pros go to work.
I could be making this up entirely based on some old-and-slow hip bumps and lucky timing, but Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye seem to be motivating the hell out of each other.  And well before a couple of big nights against the Cleveland Indians.
In April, Konerko beat Dye to the 300-homer mark — by a matter of pitches. Dye beat Konerko to 1,000 RBI by a far greater margin — about two months.
Recently, they’ve been engaged in a back-and-forth battle for the season RBI lead.
Dye held a 51-50 edge entering the Cleveland series. Konerko went and blasted three homers, tying a career high by driving in seven while Dye went a piddly 1-for-4.
On Wednesday night, Dye responded with three hits and three RBI; Konerko “only” managed two and one, respectively.
Konerko is up to 58 RBI, good for seventh in the American League. He’s been traded for some combination of Chone Figgins, Ervin Santana and Casey Kotchman umpteen times. Dye stands at 20 homers, the fourth-highest total in the American League, and he was dealt midseason 2007, and before this year as well.
Get younger. That’s the cry Kenny Williams has heard in the papers, on the radio, at SoxFest and on the Internet (I’ve been guilty of it, though in muted tones).  With Konerko, Dye, Jim Thome (OPSing 20 points higher this year) and Jose Contreras (more on him later), we have a handful of examples of why lowering the mean age for age’s sake is pointless. Production is production is production.
One more note about Dye: He may have been an All-Star snub, but for somebody his age, I’m glad he didn’t make the midsummer classic.
Last Sunday, MLB Network replayed the 2002 Home Run Derby, when Paul Konerko lost a tiebreaker to Jason Giambi in the semifinals.  He looked just as good during the Derby as he looked entering the All-Star break, as he carried a .328/.379/.571 line into the midsummer classic.
Over the next calendar year, Konerko hit .235/.301/.352. After hitting 20 homers in the first three months of that season, he hit just 12 over his next six baseball months, and as far as I can tell, he may have set the trend for the Home Run Derby hangover.
Dye can’t afford any rude interruption.  He’s a beautiful ballplayer to watch at 100 percent. At 90 percent, he’s barely average.  Considering that an All-Star berth isn’t going to change his legacy or contract negotiations any, I think he’s better rewarded with four days to rest those too-old bones.
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Speaking of too-old bones, Jose Contreras’ recovery makes Lazarus look like a chump.
And you laughed when I said Contreras could provide a big boost. O, the hateful scorn! O, the derision!
Not that I expected him to be this good.  In fact, he’s on the verge of blowing my prediction out of the water. I said he could have one more good month in the bag, like he had last season.  Well, let’s update the big board:

IP H HR BB K ERA
May 2008 43 28 1 8 31 2.09
June-July 2009 43.2 30 4 6 38 2.06

And if the mere presence of Ramon Castro is what’s guiding him to this renaissance, then maybe we’re looking at more than just one outstanding six-start stretch. Contreras said of his personal catcher:

“It was a great pickup,” Contreras said of the acquisition of Castro from the New York Mets on May 29. “No disrespect to A.J. [Pierzynski]. I won 17 in a row with A.J. But having Ramon on the team is like a fresh start with the team, as a whole.
“I’ve shook off Ramon twice, and both times they hit home runs. So I’m not going to shake him off often anymore.”

It’s a little bit funny.  Castro joined the Sox with the reputation of being a lazy game-caller with a decent bat, and so far, the opposite has been true. Somehow, he might be responsible for turning the fifth starter into the ace.
Remember how we talked about Jayson Nix, with many of us agreeing that he looks like the soundest .220 hitter ever?
Well, I’m getting the same feeling about Castro. He’s hitting just .115 with the Sox after going 0-for-3 on Wednesday, but I had an unusually strong feeling that he was going to make Aaron Laffey pay with two on and two out in the fourth.
The gut almost won. Castro’s flyout fell into Grady Sizemore’s mitt right against the wall.
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This and that:

*If you didn’t see it on the South Side Sox gamethread, Steve Stone evidently did a photo shoot for Playgirl in 1985.  I’ll just link to my Twitter post linking to it, giving you two chances to decide whether you want to see something you can’t un-see. NSFW, obviously, but the Stone Pony isn’t visible, thankfully.
*Bartolo Colon rolled into Charlotte, ending the open-ended speculation that he went AWOL, which is what he did with Boston last year.  Unlike his situation with the Red Sox, he does have something to play for if Clayton Richard has another short-lived start today.
*Thank you, Brooks Boyer. In response to Kenny Williams’ comments about lackluster attendance — singling out the Dodgers series in particular — he said:

“We overpriced it. That was the major thing,” Boyer told MLB.com. “We set the prices in October. We looked at the series and said that it’s a quality-quality opponent in town and one that is not in town all that often. They also have a drawing superstar.
“But we set those in October. The economy has worsened since then, when we priced it. You get to this series, and where are people going to spend money? They are going to spend it (the following) weekend, for the Crosstown series (with the Cubs). We simply overpriced the tickets. We made a mistake in October of last year.” […] “Granted, the Dodgers are a first-place team, with the best record in baseball, and they were very competitive games,” Boyer said. “We just missed on the pricing.”

That’s all I wanted to hear.  Now, about those spring training prices
*Jared Mitchell signed with the White Sox, with the signing bonus coming in at $1.2 million. He’ll make his debut in Kannapolis today.
*Read up on Tyler Flowers, who draws plenty of praise from the White Sox’s roving catching instructor.

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