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How concerned were the White Sox with Brian Anderson's 0-for-3 performance in Game 1 of Tuesday's doubleheader? Apparently not much. He was in the leadoff spot for Game 2 for the first time in his career. ''I felt good about Brian for a couple years now,'' hitting coach Greg Walker said. ''We've seen pregame work now for two years that we think equates into game performance. We've challenged him a little bit where, 'Hey, it's time to step it up and start taking this pregame work into games.' We've seen that the last week, but now it's time to take this to the next level, which is consistency.'' That has been the Achilles' heel for the former first-round pick. Before stumbling against the Mariners -- he went 0-for-4 in the nightcap -- Anderson was hitting .462 over his last seven games. Sustaining a hot streak is what makes Anderson a work in progress. ''This kid is a superior athlete that is learning to hit in the big leagues, and sometimes it takes guys longer than others,'' Walker said. ''His problem is not the basic knowledge of how to hit because he's got it. It's about taking it to between the white lines. The last week was a nice showing, but now it has to keep up.'' The question facing the Sox -- which now sounds as if it will come up in late May rather than June -- is what happens when Dewayne Wise returns from a separated shoulder to try to reclaim the center-field job from Anderson? Manager Ozzie Guillen has indicated it wouldn't be fair for Wise to lose his spot because of an injury, and frankly, Anderson feels almost the same way. ''No idea. Zero. Not a single idea,'' Anderson said when asked what he has been told about the situation. ''I wish [Wise] a speedy recovery. You want to play every day, but you don't want to play because someone got hurt. I know he's working his butt off, and hopefully he gets back sooner than later.'' www.suntimes.com/sports

Which raised the question of whether the Sox would consider re-signing Freddy Garcia, whom the New York Mets released after he had posted an 0-2 record and an 8.18 ERA in two starts at Triple-A Buffalo. "He'll find a job and hopefully he'll pitch better for the next team," Guillen said of Garcia, who pitched for the Sox from 2004-06 and is married to the niece of Guillen's wife, Ibis. "I'm not going to say for us yet because I don't know anything about it. But he will find a job. "I don't think he should retire. There are a lot of worse guys out there. A lot are very bad. And there are a lot better than him. But Freddy can still help. If Freddy's healthy ... Freddy knows how to pitch. And right now, that's my view." www.chicagotribune.com/sports

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 28, 2009 -> 11:49 PM) Our depth at nearly every position is pathetic this season. That's what happens when you don't spend any money during the offseason. It's funny that the Sox really thought Viciedo would contribute at the MLB level this season. Our "depth" in terms of players who can sit on the bench is not good, that's true, with the exception of Betemit, who's not being utilized properly. You will get your wish soon if Fields continues to struggle. He's kind of getting lost in the shuffle because of all the focus on Owens, Getz, Lillibridge, the leadoff spot and Anderson. Viciedo, I think, will be fine. His hitless streak got a lot of attention, but he's already back up to .235 in the span of just a couple of games. From everything I've heard on the Net and listened to on the broadcasts, he has been much better than expected at 3B, and has a cannon for an arm. At any, he's come a long way in a couple of days from being on the cusp of a demotion to Winston-Salem (that was more an imagined one). Our AAA team is horrible...our AA team is one of the best in the minor leagues. But none of those guys are going to come up and play part-time, as Ozzie has said repeatedly. Despite our offense, the real concerns are always going to be, first and foremost, pitching. Broadway's pathetic performance wasn't unexpected by anyone.

It seems Konerko has saved Dye's butt 2-3 times already this season by picking him up with two outs and RISP. AJ has, what, 2 RBI's? How is that even possible with the OBP from the middle of our line-up? At that rate, he'll have 16 all season. You just have the feeling that Getz will have lost all the momentum from his hitting streak and we'll get nothing from the leadoff spot the next 3-5 games, and we're going to really need to manufacture some runs with so many upcoming games against the Rangers. Thankfully, the infield hasn't had a chance to bake to a golden Ore-Ida brown yet or we'd really be in trouble. Our "fast" players like Lillibridge and Owens can't get on base, so they're basically useless now. Well, Owens has always been since his hot streak in 2007, and 98% of the board hard doubts about Lillibridge's offensive ability coming off of last year.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Apr 28, 2009 -> 07:41 PM) And people still think he has a future... There's a future for every pitcher in the organization from Winston-Salem up based on the way Egbert and Broadway have performed. All they have to do is seize the opportunity and run with it.

In 6 of the last 8 games, we've been shut out once and were almost shut out twice. We were almost on pace to be shut out 32 times this season. In those six games, the only victory the miracle this afternoon where all our baserunners (in the entire game) and hits were salvaged by Konerko's clutch GW double with two outs, our offense has put up 35 hits in 190 at-bats for a .184 average. If you add the two routs (25 for 74), it only raises the average to .227 over that time span, but still pretty horrible. Is anyone concerned? Is Thome just not going to be the same hitter we're used to? Is Chris Getz going to get the "fragile" label? Will Owens and Lillibridge ever contribute offensively as starting players? Will Betemit be used enough where he can even give you quality at-bats as a PH at some point this season? Yes, there's the weather. Yes, there's Felix Hernandez. But we've also been shut down by the likes of Bergesen, Tallet, Eaton and Jakabauskas, a former infielder not too far removed from Florence and the Frontier League. Two of those guys had 7+ ERA's and Bergesen was making his major league debut. Has the Greg Walker lift-and-pull school ruined some of our hitters? If you've watched most of the games, the only hitters who are consistently taking pitches where they are pitched and NOT rolling their wrists are Konerko and Getz. Fields, who you'd like to see use his power and turn on some balls (like he did in ST), is now primarily an opposite field hitter, but he needs to hit for power to make up for his defensive lapses. Fields, Anderson and Lillibridge still have huge swings, as does Ramirez. Quentin is trying to jack every single pitch out of the park, ala Thome. AJ looks horrific these days. I just wonder (and I know Ozzie won't make an in-season change) if it wouldn't be the best thing for the White Sox and our future young prospects (Beckham, Allen, Flowers, Viciedo, Shelby, Danks, etc.) if we brought in a new hitting coach for 2010. Beckham and Allen are definitely not pull hitters, and Tyler Flowers has power to all fields, as does Viciedo. I just hope that we see a different "era" of White Sox hitting start to emerge (no, not the Miller/Lillibridge/Owens one) in the next couple of years, one that's not completely reliant on waiting for warm weather and kind winds from May through September. Yes, they won the 2-1 game earlier today, but that was an anomaly, because the defense really tried to give that game back to the M's. Thoughts?

On the bench. Oh, my God. Anderson is leading off. Never thought this day would happen.

Nope...if they activated Wise and BA was sent to Charlotte with Owens still on the roster...along with Lillibridge...that would be the "nuclear meltdown/3 Mile Island/Chernobyl/Bhopal" precipitating incident for this website.

If Colon did that, he would still be 60 pounds overweight. Ha!

QUOTE (fathom @ Apr 28, 2009 -> 06:33 PM) Very nice to win first game of DH. Not sure how we won with the one inning of getting a runner and Bettancourt/Balentien's near 3 run homers. Look at it this way. Our defense was horrible down the stretch and we had Jerry Owens and Brent Lillibridge starting, no Jim Thome, and we still won against a 12-7 team. Not bad.

Bartolo Descending (ERA) Colon. Or a : Not to be confused with a ; Bart is hardly a semi-colon, he's a FULL Colon.

I'm guessing Jerry Owens, and Nix takes his place. Although actually I would prefer an Owens unconditional release, Nix to take Lillibridge's spot and we signed a veteran like Edmonds, Geoff Jenkins, Luis Gonzalez or Jay Payton. Heck, Frank Catalanotto wouldn't be the worst either, except they would all take non-existent AB's away from Wilson Betemit. I would even rather have Frank Thomas on the bench than Owens on the roster. Bring up Pods. Anything but Owens. ABO. Ozzie, if Getz isn't going tonight and we're playing Jerry Owens, try Betemit at SS or 2B (hopefully putting Lillibridge on the pine). Lillibridge doesn't have much of a chance to put in anything over 90 MPH and up into the field of play with any authority.

Bartolo Colon, 3-1 with a 2.91 ERA if not for one pitch by Matt Thornton to Ben Zobrist. Thaaaat's a niiiice.

That ball was gone from May through September with normal temperatures. You could see from Jenks' reaction he thought it might go out.

Don't throw him a first-pitch FB.

Viciedo.

QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Apr 28, 2009 -> 06:13 PM) I think you're right, both with hitting and pitching. Either the White Sox don't provide quality ones or the players ignore them Well, we are 2nd/3rd/4th in winning percentage over pretty much any time period from 1990 until present...trailing only Braves, Yankees and Red Sox depending on which specific time period you're looking at. So we do a few things right. And we've been okay against lefties this year, with some pretty pathetic looking line-ups. Who has absconded with the White Sox offense?

Danks should go 7, but even he has a bad game once in a while. Then again, maybe it's time for a Lance Broadway outing... Let's just get this game and try to take down Felix. One thing is certain, BA will be in the line-up. It would be like sitting Brandon Allen against David Price. Thornton with three lefties in a row...Griffey will be pinch-hit for. Johjima's out, so that's one bat off their bench.

Thank God. Not so easy to trust Linebrink and Thornton coming in cold in that situation, either. Dotel would have been the logical choice, but Colon is a veteran that Ozzie can trust to get himself out of trouble in those situtions. Corky has one of the Top 5-7 arms in the game and he has a ton of experience at the position. He's also had a lot of time on the bench to observe, which proves invaluable to catchers and later managers. (Although never seen a MLB manager with those sideburns).

QUOTE (jphat007 @ Apr 28, 2009 -> 05:59 PM) You can't walk Russell Branyan with a 2 run lead and nobody on You can't have Brent Lillibridge within 500 miles of any major league team.

Thanks, Lillibridge. Don't let the door hit you on your way to Charlotte. Welcome Jayson Nix to the big league team.

Colon, you're the greatest. Wonder if he will make it through 8 innings. Almost scared of Jenks coming into this game and messing it up somehow.

I think the cold weather has something to do with Getz not playing, although it might be so cold he won't be able to feel any of his fingers. Owens 1/11, Lillibridge 5/33 now. 6/44, not so good. .136 and falling off a cliff. Fields looks like crap. Please try Betemit or even Viciedo.

The Corkaroo magic is already gone. Lillibridge really needs to go down to Charlotte and play everyday and work on bunting and hitting the ball on the ground and simply making better contact. He's like Curtis Granderson up there, with the only plus being his speed/defense, which don't help much if you're not on base. They can mix in Nix and the only downside is they have to keep Owens around as the back-up outfielder. This game is being played at the pace of the final game of a minor league season when everyone has a ticket to get out of town that night.

Only 8 pitches that inning. Way to go, Bart. He's really pitched pretty well in 3 of 4 starts, with the exception of the Baltimore game and one pitch by Thornton with the bases loaded against Ben Zobrist. One of the better FA signings (dollar value wise) of the offseason so far by KW.