Monday, August 22, 2005

Forfeit?

This can't be right. An item in the NY Daily News (via the Trib)stated the White Sox voted to forfeit their rained out game against the Red Sox instead of traveling to Boston on Labor Day to make it up.

If true, I can only assume the players voted on it before their 7 game losing streak. While they still have a healthy division lead, they are in no position to be giving games away.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

A Much Needed Day Off

After posting a 57-29 record at the All- Star break, the Sox have started the second half at 17-15. Of course before the recent five game skid they were at a not too shabby 17-10. I decided to look at some pre and post break numbers to see if anything stands out.

Runs per game pre: 4.81
Runs per game post: 4.63

ave/obp/slug pre: 262/323/420
ave/obp/slug post: 258/318/433

ERA pre: 3.62
ERA post: 3.81

unearned runs per game pre: .31
unearned runs per game post: .41

Runs allowed per game pre: 3.95
Runs allowed per game post: 4.32

As you can see, the Sox have begun to slip a little bit in every category. Runs scored decreased by .18/game while runs allowed increased by .37/game, narrowing their advantage from .86/game down to .31/game. Getting Podsednik back should help a little. However, their batting stats suggest they are not getting the clutch hits they were at the beginning of the year as their OPS is about the same. I'm not sure how much we can hope the offense to improve without making a trade.

Pitching and fielding have slipped a little, as both earned and unearned have increased in the second half. Buehrle is responsible for most of this drop as his post break ERA is 4.53 after finishing the first half at 2.58.

Hopefully Buehrle isn't injured and will be effective the remainder of the year. But maybe these poor outings are a blessing in disguise if he falls out of the Cy Young race and he can skip a few starts before the playoffs.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

No Need To Panic

A lot of Sox fans are in full panic mode with the Sox losing 4 in a row and playing 500 ball since the All-Star break. And yes, it has been depressing losing 2 straight to the Twins, and quite horrifyng watching Timo play every day(and bat lead-off!). I'm sure last night's 2-run double will keep him in the line-up until Pods get back.

The offense has been pathetic. But, when the playoffs come, Timo will be watching them from the bench (and Jon Adkins will be watching from home). And I have no doubt Kenny will pick up someone who can DH from the left side.

Actually, we already have someone who can DH from the left side and his name is Ross Gload. But for some reason he's playing in Charlotte. So while we wait to see if Ken Griffey Jr. makes his way to the Southside, maybe Kenny can send down Adkins and bring up Gload?

The offense has been mediocre most of the year and the Sox have been winning anyways. With Pods going down, we now have three sub-standard offensive positions at left, 3b and SS. Once we get a left fielder back things should be back to normal and the Sox should be set for the playoffs.

While we wait for pods to return, I think the best move would be for Jurassic to get some time in left while bringing up Gload to DH.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Sounds Like A Well Played Game

This game jumped out at me while I was checking scores. Through 4 innings of the KC/Boston game 14 runs have scored on only 6 hits. Yikes.