I've spent most of the evening doing work on the front page (see the links and page devoted to White Sox Outsider 2009), but here are a couple of questions I'll toss out there before getting some sleep.
No. 1: Why didn't Ozzie Guillen pinch-hit for Jermaine Dye?
Here are words you haven't seen often: I was disappointed when Alexei Ramirez drew a walk.
Joakim Soria walked him on five pitches, bringing Jermaine Dye to the plate with the bases loaded. We know what happened -- Dye hit a lazy fly to right field into the mitt of Willie Bloomquist, and the Royals went on to win 2-1.
My dad, who was at the game, wondered why Guillen didn't give Mark Kotsay a shot instead.
It's a great thought. Since joining the Sox at the trade deadline, Kotsay has eight extra-base hits. That's as many as Dye has since the All-Star break, and Dye's had twice as many at-bats as Kotsay in a White Sox uniform.
This is when it's no fun to be a manager. Pinch-hitting Kotsay for Dye is probably the best answer for the very near future, but a move like that could have implications throughout the clubhouse. Of course, you could counter that implications would be welcome, since benching Dye, Carlos Quentin and Alex Rios all at the same time resulted Luke Hochevar throwing a three-hit shutout. Actually winning without the services of the alleged "best" players would be a real shot across the bow.
Creating a rift between Dye and Guillen wouldn't be too costly, considering Dye's second-half OPS is a Timoriffic .542. But there's a risk in creating a rift between Guillen and one of the more popular figures in the Sox clubhouse. As an outsider, I can only hope the thought crossed Guillen's mind, and that he, too, isn't on auto-pilot.
No. 2: How do you think Daniel Hudson will fare?
D.J. Carrasco was Guillen's first idea in replacing Gavin Floyd, but he smartly avoided that plan. As good as Carrasco's been, he still have problems with lefties (.311/.387/.460), and the Twins have three of them (formerly four) who routinely give the Sox fits.
Hudson held minor-league lefties to a .160 average, but watching him pitch in the majors, it's hard to see how. He has good movement away from left-handed hitters on his fastball, but he doesn't appear to have anything to crowd lefties with inside, and his changeup still needs work.
I think he might be able to get by with Jake Peavy's output -- five innings, three runs -- but I'm skeptical that he could go further, and to greater effect. Minor-league hitters can be overpowered by a fastball; major-league hitters, not so much.
General
Monday morning quarterback
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