The Dog Days of Summer

Over the last six weeks the once seemingly invincible White Sox have begun too look vulnerable. Since July 8th, the weekend before the All-Star Break, the Sox have gone just 17-18 and are 6-11 at the Cell. In the past week they lost their tag of "The best team in baseball" when the St. Louis Cardinals passed them in the standings. This week the Sox were swept by Minnesota, just their second time being swept all season, and are now on a season-high 5 game losing streak. All this and yet the Sox are 74-44, 30 games over .500 and are still holding a 10.5 game lead over Cleveland in the Central Division and a 5.5 game lead over LAAAAA for the best record in the AL.
The recent struggles have caused many around town to lobby for the acquisition of Jr. Griffey and his $12 million a year contract to put the Sox "over the top". I know I am in the minority when I say this, but am I the only one who thinks that $50 million over the next 4 years might be a bit too much to commit to a guy who has played in just 83, 53, and 70 games during the past 3 seasons due to injuries? I realize that this guy is most likely a first-ballot HOF'er and is having a solid season for the Reds, hitting .290 with 29 homers and 85 RBI in 113 games. My question is... How much financial flexibility will the Sox be left with to improve the club during this off-season and in years to come with Griffey Jr.'s bloated contract on our books? Not only that, but how many of the few promising prospects the Sox have in their farm system will have to be sent to Cincy? They say desperate times call for desperate measures, and I don't think that the Sox are that desperate....yet. I'm not denying the fact that something needs to happen with our offense. Over the past few weeks the Sox collectively, except Konerko, have looked lost at the plate. You just have to keep in mind that these same guys who are struggling right now have each helped this team earn a record of 74-44.
The point that is being made by many is that the Sox lack another power bat in the heart of the order since the loss of The Big Hurt. Without Frank in the line-up the Sox are a respectable 54-36. With Franks bat in the 3-hole, the Sox went 20-8. Although the loss of Frank hurt, it didn't sting as much as the loss of another, less obvious players bat. (And legs)
One of the main contributing factors to the Sox offensive struggles of late is the loss of Scott Podsednik. Without Pods leading off, the offense seems to struggle to find any kind of rhythm. The past few games Ozzie has resorted to batting Timo at the top of the order. Forgive me if the go-ahead 2 RBI double he hit the other night doesn't impress me. I'm still trying to forget about the game in Baltimore a couple of weeks ago when the Sox batted around in the 1st inning only to have Timo make 2 of the 3 outs in the inning hitting in the lead-off spot. The guy is hitting .223 with an OBP of .277, and he's leading off.
Enough about Ozzie's bright idea to bat Timo in the leadoff spot, let alone at all, and lets take a look at the Sox record with and without Scotty in the lineup:
With Podsednik in lineup: 62-33 or .729
Without Podsednik: 12-11 or .522
Amazing what a lead-off guy with above average speed who can actually hit will do for your team.

Sox Take Series From Yanks

The White Sox sent out their no. 3, 4 and 5 starters to the mound for their series vs. The Bronx Bombers and took 2 of the 3 games in the series. They very well could have pulled off the sweep, having lost 3-2 in Monday evenings contest. On the other side of the coin, the Sox could very easily have been swept also. In the three games in the series the Sox offense scored just 6 runs.
The reason the Sox left NY with 2 more wins under their belt is because their starting pitching surrendered only 4 runs in the series and Sox relievers surrendered just one. Sox pitching doesn't deserve all the credit though, they were supplied with some outstanding defense, particularly from Aaron Rowand who put on a defensive clinic in the spacious pastures of center field in Yankee Stadium. I doubt there were very many, if any at all, Yankee fan's wondering if Rowand was available to be bought this off-season after watching him play the field in this series.
In my eyes, aside from Rowand and his defense, Jose Contreras' performance Tuesday night was the highlight of the series. In a high pressure game that you would expect him to crumble in, Jose pitched one of if not the best game of his career since coming to the Majors. He pitched 7+ innings of shut-out ball, surrendering just 3 hits in front of the sold out Yankee Stadium crowd.
By winning the final two games vs. The Yankee's, the Sox won for the first time on a Tuesday or Wednesday since July 5th and 6th, a span of 5 weeks. (They actually lost on Tues. and Wed. for only 3 weeks in a row because of the All-Star break.) Now the Sox can focus all their attention on continuing to win games on Sunday with Ozzie's scrub lineup that he makes up every single week.
To end on a high note, I have to say that I've been on cloud 9 since beating the Yankee's and their $200M+ payroll. They finally get some solid starting pitching, only to face better pitching and lose 2 of 3. Two thirds of the Yankee lineup consists of current or former All-Stars, yet they were held to 3, 1, and 1 run(s) respectively.

Tomorrows matchup features a duel of Southpaws with the Sox sending Mark Buehrle (13-4 2.79) out to the bump to face the Other Sox' Boomer Wells (9-5 4.45).

Sox Ride Garland, Buehrle to Victory

The Sox have not fared well at home of late, but they managed to win the final two games of their series vs. Seattle on Saturday and Sunday to salvage a three game split on their latest 6 game homestand. During the homestand Paul Konerko produced 47% of the Sox runs, hitting .350 with 9 RBI.
With Sunday's victory the Sox notched their 72nd W of the season, and it just so happened that the Sox unveiled Pudge Fisk's statue in the outfield concourse. (For those not in the know, Fisk wore no. 72 when he was on the Sox.)
I happened to notice this evening that the Sox are only 11 wins shy of their win total from all of last season, and they still have 50 some odd games left to play.
Tomorrow the Sox will be in the Bronx and El Duque will be going up against the Yankees Mike "Hunchback" Mussina.

In other baseball related news: The Scrubs have lost 5 straight, falling to 3 games BELOW .500. Even the low budget Brewers are looking down at them. They now trail 6 teams in the NL Wild Card race and are 6 games behind Houston.
The streaking A's have fought their way into a first place tie with the Angels in the AL West. After being as many as 15 games below .500 in May, they currently sit at 17 games over. I hope they either keep winning and leave LAAAA to fight for the wild card, or they start losing and let someone else grab the last playoff spot.

In other non-baseball related news: Peter Jennings passed away from lung cancer this evening at age 67. He was the last of the Big Three network news anchors to go off the air. (He was preceded by Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw in the past year.)
A quick follow up to my comments in the previous post regarding the Bears practice scrimmage at Soilder Field drawing 23K people; The Packers had a scrimmage game at Lambeau against Buffalo recently and they sold out the joint. 60,000 people were there to watch a practice game, not even a pre-season game. Now that is crazy.

Sox Survive Being Marted and Avoid Sweep

The Sox defeated Toronto 5-4 Thursday afternoon thanks to a 8th inning solo homer by The Gooch. Contreras pitched pretty well, but was hurt by some shoddy defense in the 4th which allowed 3 runs to score, trimming the Sox lead to one run.

Damaso Marte once again showed that he's just not the same pitcher that he had been before last season. He pitched 2/3 of an inning, allowing one run on 2 hits and 2 walks. That one run he allowed just so happened to be the tying run. As far as I'm concerned, Marte should be below Cotts in the LH pecking order out of the pen, at least until he shows more consistent command.

On an off baseball note, I went to the Bears scrimmage at Soldier Field tonight....they had 23,000 people there to watch a PRACTICE. This is a team coming off of a 5-11 season in which they had no quarterback. On top of that, those 23,000 paid $5 to see it. Talk about a cash cow....they cleared over $100,000 at the gate, not to mention what they made from concessions, for a practice. It is unbelievable how football has taken over this country. 23K is more than the Sox averaged per game the past few years, and the Bears drew that for a PRACTICE. Now, I love the Bears, but not as much as I love the Sox. If I had already been in Soldier Field since the renovations, I doubt that I would have bothered to go. I once heard someone say "They could turn the seats in Wrigley around backwards, and they'd still sell out every game". I'd bet the same would hold true at Soldier Field.

Pale Hose Sweep O's

The Sox swept the Orioles for the first time in about 50 years with their 6-3 victory in Baltimore Monday afternoon. The one downside coming out of the game was that Mark Buehrle's streak of pitching at least 6 innings in 49 straight starts was snapped thanks to a bogus call from the home plate umpire Brian Gorman.
Baltimore pitching had hit two Sox players in as many days; the Gooch in the hip in Sunday nights contest and then AJ on the elbow on Monday. After no warning was issued to protect the Sox hitters, Buehrle took matters in his own hands and nearly threw one behind the left handed B.J. Surhoff, hitting him in the back. Gorman wasted no time in ejecting Buehrle without any warning whatsoever, effectively ending his unbelievable streak. Now, there were 2 outs in the inning when Surhoff was hit, but it was a 1 run ballgame with Sosa on 1st and the Sox holding the lead. Although Surhoff had been 2-2 in the game off Buehrle, that does not seem like the prime situation to go after a guy. I'm not saying that it wasn't intentional, I'm just saying it didn't seem to be an obvious purpose pitch considering the situation.

The Shingo Takatsu era on the SouthSide officially came to an end Monday as the Sox granted him his unconditional release. If there is any guy you should pull for to be picked up by another team and succeed, its Shingo. Without him last year the Sox might not have contended the entire season, considering the only other option to close was a washed up Billy Koch. Though he didn't speak english, you never heard anything about him being unhappy about losing his spot as the Sox closer early on this season.

Elsewhere in baseball; The Twins have fallen so far that their 54-51 record is only one game better than the Scrubs(53-52). Minnesota is now in 3rd place in the Central, a half game behind Cleveland and 15.5 behind the Sox. The scribes in Bristol that picked them to win it all must be crying a river.

Rafael Palmeiro was suspended 10 days by MLB for violating the leagues substance abuse policy. This is the same Raffy Palmeiro that testified under oath before Congress on St. Patty's Day that he had never in his life ingested a performance enhancing drug of any kind. It's funny how some people used to say that the difference in his body size the last few years compared to when he played for the Scrubs could be contributed completely to maturation.
A situation like this makes one appreciate the career of Frank Thomas that much more. Here is a guy who was huge to begin with; he played college football at Auburn, and in his career has amassed 448 HR's, 447 doubles, 1465 RBI, and a .307 career avg, all without the benefit of steroids. It kills me that he isn't going to be able to be a larger part of this magical season. He deserves to be. Without a doubt he sould be a first ballot HOF'er more so than Palmeiro should be. Be damned with the minor squabbles he's had during his career. It's too commonplace among today's professional athletes to hold against one player. Hey, I never remember Frank holding out 1 year into a 7-year contract! (I'm not sure that a holdout is even possible in MLB, I'm just making a point)