It's all over but the math
I just got done working Primary Night, so I’m just going to sum up tonight’s transgressions with a couple of quotes.
Paul Konerko:
Konerko on #WhiteSox backs against the wall: “We’re THROUGH the wall right now.”
Brett Ballantini
CSNChi_Beatnik
The Chicago White Sox (Palehose, Good Guys) passed on September 14th at U.S. Cellular Field with 29,223 of their fans and, of course, the Minnesota Twins at their bedside.
They are survived by their architects, Kenny Williams and Ozzie Guillen, and were preceded in death by the Designated Hitter and Logic.
It was a fun ride. Remember when we could have had Adam Dunn for Carlos Quentin but couldn’t because he wasn’t Ryan Howard? Good times.
Like mentioned above. It was a fun ride, but the road is over. I wouldn’t blame the DH by committee strategy. The selection of players to perform such task was awful (Jones, Kotsay, etc). The two stupidest things occurring to the WhiteSox: 1) Not signing Jim Thome, then signing a right-hander “Jim Thome” (Many Ramirez) for double the salary, to play 1 month, when everything was difficult. 2) Losing Daniel Hudson (I never like the trade even despite the fact Jackson has been fantastic). 3) Not being able to have a 3rd baseman of decent quality since….since….pfffft…since Robin Ventura? Mark Teahen is absolutely awful. We cannot do worse with Morel. So we should trade Teahen at the end of the season for a bag of peanuts and two bats.
I said two things, and I ended mentioning three…I will add a fourth: the bunting frenzy Guillen seem to love….Guillen cannot see a player on first with no outs because he immediately bunts….I dislike bunting a lot. It can be good at times….but I cannot stop thinking of bunting as a gift of 1 out to the opposing team. Let hitters hit more often I would say. Hopefully, Guillen will decrease his bunting-mania a little bit. Last night, man on 2nd and 1st, and Guillen ordered a bunt…why???? The tying run was already in scoring position!!! The pitcher was not doing well….why give him an out??? We are in a position that we needed to take risks…we are not comfy on first place, we were 6 games behind!!! Stop bunting for God sake… we gave an out, pitching gets confidence….results? We didn’t score a single run.
Guillen’s “mania”, as you call it, goes beyond bunting. It’s become baserunning altogether. Consider, the Sox caught-stealing ratio (1:2, 70 outs) is league outlier-high, and when put together with sacrifice bunts, where they are 2nd in the league, it comes to more outs made than any other al team by about about 26%. This is what we “gave up” the standard dh to get.
I hated the station-to-station baserunning, too, but this result looks like evidence of over-reaction.
That’s a staggering percentage. Really draws into sharp relief the error of Ozzie-ball, especially with the contributions Thome has made for and what he meant to the Twins. I’m sure the fans revere him up there. He’s like their baseball equivalent of Favre. OK, maybe that’s stretching it a bit.
As a fan of Joe Crede, I have to take exception to your dig at the quality of the Sox third basemen since Ventura.
“then signing a right-hander”
Not that I disagree with about the not-signing-Thome thing, but as Jim noted at the time, Manny has had a reverse platoon split in recent years.
No team is going to trade for Mark Teahen right now and the Sox gain nothing by releasing him.
Teahen has no trade value your right about that but releasing him is starting to look like addition by subtraction no matter the salary. Your talking about a complete and utterly useless defensive player who doesnt run much and can barely hit. If the sox are forced to have him on the 2011 25 man roster then it should be in the capacity that Kotsay should have been used in, occassion spot starts in LF, RF, 1b and a pinch hitter. If he plays more then once or twice a week its a disaster.
Addition by subtraction would make more sense to me if the Sox had prospects stuck in AAA who needed space on the roster.
Teahen has graded as a pretty average defensive player in the corners and at 1B. Maybe somewhat below average but nothing like the horror show at 3B. Offensively, he’s below average, but not drastically, so he has some value.
And we’re in agreement how he should be used – he’s a slightly better version of Kotsay.
The Linebrink situation is similar. He’s bad, his replacements aren’t any better, and nobody would trade for him without the Sox picking up way too much of the cash. Ozzie has pretty much locked him in the attic until it’s safe to come out.
Teahen’s not the worst player on the roster, and he’s not blocking anybody from coming up. Give him lots of reps at right and first, make him an emergency third baseman, and that’s making the best of a bad situation.
It might be cathartic to say “THROW THE BUM OUT!!!!” but it’s not at all constructive or helpful.
Yeah, exactly. Although Linebrink will become much more DFA’able next year.
Is it sad that one of the first 2011 storylines I’m envisioning is how long of a noose Linebrink will get on the Mike McDougal Final Contract Year Death Watch?
Yeah, I guess that’s pretty sad.
I like your trade offer. Every team has already turned down my offer of Teahen for a bag of balls.
Being a baseball team is like being a husband, no matter what you do or how hard you try you are always going to disappoint your wife (the fans).
This was certainly a missed opportunity year. You have to give credit to the Twins though, they are playing this good (almost tops in the majors) without their second best hitter and their lights out closer.
Bring on the offseason rumors!
Who is everyone going to cheer for in the playoffs? I’m rooting for Cincy and Texas. Fox isn’t.
I will hold my nose and root for the Twins for one reason and one reason only: Jim Thome.
Otherwise, I’d like to see the Twins get swept by someone…
In the NL, either San Diego or Cincinnati would be cool to see in the WS.
In the AL:
Depends on matchups, the way it’s looking right now, though, I’m seeing MIN with home-field through the ALCS, but the wild-card looks like a coin flip. A MIN-NYY matchup would be fun, the Twins’ NY-phobia (analogous to the Sox’s Minnie-phobia) and all. I’m inclined toward the AL team unless NY gets into the WS again. Then I’m just spectating game-by-game.
In the NL, a Dusty Baker return to the WS would be fun, considering how miserably he was treated at the end of his tenure here. SD, given their story-line including Richard and Garland.
Should be fun to watch all-around.
Im sure we have plenty of time to come up with offseason predictions but one of mine will remain the same, the whitesox are going to shop Carlos Quentin hard, he doesnt fit the team since he is a DH that wont want to DH, he is injury prone, and of the guys that are expensive or about to get their he is one of the few we can afford to give up and another team would want.
I’m rooting for the Rays and Reds to meet in the World Series.
I’d like to say it was a fun ride but it was more a frustrating ride than anything else. This was a very gettable division but the Sox played like scared little bitches against their division rivals and not much better against the Tigers, Indians and Royals.
Williams seems to operate on this theory that unless the team wins the fans won’t come. But look Kenny, Sox attendance was pretty poor this year, even with their winning record. Maybe it has something to do with the Yankeee-level ticket prices for a non-Yankee level team? I have good outfield seats to see the Sox in Anaheim for $16. Too bad the game means nothing.
One final note that I hope sinks in at some point. Ozzie and Kenny did NOT win the Series in ’05. It was career years from just about everyone in the starting rotation that did it. Ozzie didn’t even need to change pitchers in the playoffs!
Allowing these very mediocre baseball “talents” to muck up a $100m+ payroll for five years since is a travesty. Though I don’t see it happening anytime soon, I hope the Sox correct this problem so they can truly compete again.
Enjoy football, b-ball and hockey season my brothers.
I’m with you on the more frustrating than fun ride. Even the spectacular run was tainted with the underachievement from the previous two months.
On the bright side, if one were to be writing a book on this season the material would be endless…seems like writing it in they style of Quixote would be appropriate…
If I recall correctly, Smells Like Mascot has employed that analogy in the past.
Yup. That would be like Carl doing an entire “Oregon Trail” theme. (If you’re reading this, Skanberg, BACK OFF.)
Having had to sit every day and think of not-annoying ways to complain about the ’07 team, I can’t really call this team frustrating.
I still plan on ripping my copy of White Sox Outsider ’11 in two. Both as a sign of frustration and to impress any spectators with my manly machismo. Hopefully some of those spectators will be sexy chicks. I am eagerly anticipating my copy of White Sox Outsider 2011.
Yes, I’ll take two copies, please. One to read, and one to…
“I’m STRONG… like the HULK! RRRRRRRRRRRRR!”
My shoes hurt, too, Jim. My shoes hurt, too.
It was a lovely middle-third of a season. We’ll always have first place at the All-Star break.
The team being virtually eliminated is the most soul-crushing part of the season. The manager has to keep trotting out the starters in the vain attempt to appear competitive. Player interviews read the exact same, day after monotonous day. There’s hope; but there’s no hope. This must be what Opening Day feels like in Kansas City.
Personally I’d favor the “let the kids play” strategy for the remainder of the season but then I remember that there aren’t any kids worth playing save for Morel and Flowers.
To me it makes no sense for Morel to not start every remaining game at 3rd. Though i’d like to see what we have in this Vizquel kid over at the hot corner. Heard he can throw some leather.
Personally I’d favor the “let the kids play” strategy for the remainder of the season but then I remember that there aren’t any kids worth playing save for Morel and Flowers.
To me it makes no sense for Morel to not start every remaining game at 3rd. Though i’d like to see what we have in this Vizquel kid over at the hot corner. Heard he can throw some leather. Maybe we can buy out his arbitration years.