VAfan

Anyone noticed that the Twins are now 45-35, having won 18 of 19? Or that we still trail the 56-26 Tigers? If our pitching doesn't find a way to improve itself, we could very easily finish third to these two clubs. In June, the Tigers ERA was 3.32. The Twins, with 2 automatic victories out of every 5 games when Santana or Liriano take the mound, was even better, at 2.76. Where was ours? 20th in baseball, at 4.74 runs a game. That's not counting the 15-spot the Cubs -- THE CUBS (who have the worst offense in baseball) -- laid on us yesterday, or the 6 they tallied the day before. Sure, we scored more runs in June than any team. 173 runs. That was 16 more than the Tigers, who came in second. But, because of the woeful pitching, we lost games 10-9 and 15-11 (the latter in July). That's not going to cut it for very long. It's hard to sustain winning streaks without solid starting pitching to sustain it. With Santana and Liriano penciled in for winning 4 out of every 10 games and the rest of the Twins starters capable of at least splitting the other 6 games, the Twins could win 100 games. (A 7-3 pace every 10 games actually would leave them at 102 or 103 wins.) After all, the Tigers went 55-25 in the first half. Why can't the Twins match that in the second half? (They may have the two best starters in baseball.) And, to win 100 games too, the Tigers need only go 44-36, which shouldn't be too hard if their pitching doesn't collapse. (Their offense can win them games too.) But can we win 100+ games without better pitching? I think it could be tough. We have 12 games against the Twins, 13 against Detroit, 12 against the Yanks and Boston, 6 in Oakland/LA, 3 at Toronto, 4 with Seattle and 7 more against Cleveland. That's 57 games against winning teams or teams that play us tough. We are still projecting last year's starters onto this year's team. But the June ERA's of our starters has been pathetic: Vazquez 7.50, Contreras 6.21, Garcia 4.81, Garland 4.50, Buehrle 3.89 (until yesterday's debacle). There isn't a single pitcher in there who would have a chance against the Twins or Tigers starters at the moment. A week ago, I said I wouldn't trade our guys for anyone else's guys. But after this latest spell of horrible pitching, I'm convinced we need a break. I wonder if Ozzie shouldn't have left Buehrle and Contreras off the AS team -- neither deserved the nods based on the way they have been pitching lately -- and just shut them down to get some rest. I'm not sure what else is going to work. We can't swap these guys out. And McCarthy can't sub for more than one of them, and even that would seem drastic. They are just going to have to suck it up and get it done. I'm not going to ever give up on these guys. GO WHITE SOX!! 2006 WORLD SERIES CHAMPS!!! Let's just say I'm concerned.

QUOTE(Brian @ Jul 1, 2006 -> 03:58 PM) Got lucky with Uribe. Making one of our hottest hitters bunt was questionable. But with Anderson, the tying run is already in scoring position. Let the kid get one in the jet stream, possibly. I was for swinging away, but why not with Mack?

That's 0-3 in attempted bunts in the last couple of innings. Iguchi, Uribe, Anderson. Ozzie should have pinch hit the last two times. Where is Mack or Cintron against Howry?

Gotta pinch hit here too. Much better move than Anderson bunting.

I would rather pinch hit Cintron than have Uribe bunt. We need to go for the win.

The risk of Riske is giving up the long ball. The last two years with Cleveland, he surrendered 11 in 70+ innings each year. This is his 3rd in 14 innings between Boston and us.

With Iguchi so bad this year against lefties, I wonder if Ozzie shouldn't mix up his lineup a bit more. Teams get to bring in a lefty for Pods, Iguchi, and Thome, then go to the righty, for Konerko, Dye, AJ, Crede, Uribe, Anderson. We are seldom matched up well in these late innings.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jul 1, 2006 -> 03:22 PM) Very solid post. I think a lot of people over-rated Vazquez which is why I've jumped on this, but he's more than capable of posting a low 4's ERA over a full season while throwing a ton of innings. Right now he's really bad but what frustrates me is his attitude. Maybe. I really wonder if we shouldn't flip him with McCarthy after the break if he doesn't get out of this funk soon. Vazquez, with his strike outs, might be very good out of the bullpen. It would force him to concentrate, but only for short periods.

Well, at least some of our hitters are still doing their jobs! Way to go Paulie!!

I think if Vazquez doesn't come around quickly, that he should be moved to the bullpen, with McCarthy to the rotation. Vazquez does have good stuff. If he focused in medium-long relief, there's a chance he could be pretty good. Of course if we did that, his trade value would be nearly zilch.

A 4-pitch walk? Why did they go to the mound? QUOTE(LowerCaseRepublican @ Jul 1, 2006 -> 03:15 PM) They're trying to get him through the inning so he they can pinch hit for him in the top of the 7th since his spot is due up first. No sense in bringing in a bullpen arm for 1 out and then having to pinch hit for them. But you don't have to. Put Mack in the pitcher's spot to lead off the inning, and slot the pitcher in Anderson's spot.

He can't even get the pitcher out in less than 7 pitches. No way should he face Pierre here.

Get him the f*** out of the game!! I don't care if it was on an error. Leaving Vasquez to give up runs 7-9 lost us that game against Houston. All the blame for this game is on Ozzie in my opinion, if we need to come back with more than 2 runs to win.

Pull the double switch here, Ozzie. Put Mack in the game in the pitcher's slot, and bring in someone from the bullpen. Vazquez cannot be allowed to let the Cubs score any more runs.

I know Uribe's hot, but that's in part because of all the lefties teams have thrown against us. I would have used Cintron today. He couldn't have done this badly.

Vazquez should be a 4-inning pitcher until he gets it together again.

Cintron should also have been in this game. And Mackowiak.

This has to be Vazquez's last inning. But, knowing Ozzie, it won't be. I don't care about building his confidence as much as I care about winning these games. We've got a deep bullpen that isn't used that much. Bail out these bad starts before they happen. Vazquez should never have pitched to Ramirez.

Ozzie needs to start yanking Vazquez in these kinds of games. Why else do we have McCarthy?

Here are the team's June offensive numbers. Chicago White Sox Team Batting Statistics NAME G AB R H 2B 3B HR TB RBI BB SO SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Paul Konerko 23 89 13 33 4 0 4 49 20 7 11 0 0 .371 .429 .551 .979 Jermaine Dye 25 98 18 32 7 0 6 57 19 9 18 0 1 .327 .385 .582 .967 Pablo Ozuna 13 37 10 17 0 0 0 17 4 0 2 0 2 .459 .474 .459 .933 Alex Cintron 15 49 10 17 3 0 2 26 10 4 5 5 0 .347 .396 .531 .927 Jim Thome 22 72 18 19 3 0 5 37 16 12 25 0 0 .264 .371 .514 .885 Joe Crede 23 84 20 24 4 0 6 46 21 3 10 0 1 .286 .315 .548 .862 Juan Uribe 21 74 13 21 6 1 4 41 15 1 9 0 0 .284 .293 .554 .847 Tadahito Iguchi 22 94 17 29 6 0 2 41 14 8 16 1 0 .309 .363 .436 .799 A.J. Pierzynski 22 83 8 24 5 0 2 35 10 4 11 0 0 .289 .337 .422 .759 Rob Mackowiak 21 46 8 14 2 0 0 16 3 5 11 0 0 .304 .377 .348 .725 Ross Gload 16 30 3 10 1 0 0 11 4 0 3 0 0 .333 .333 .367 .700 Scott Podsednik 23 90 18 22 4 2 1 33 17 11 20 6 3 .244 .320 .367 .687 Brian Anderson 15 48 6 10 4 0 1 17 7 3 10 0 0 .208 .269 .354 .623 White Sox 26 930 167 276 49 3 34 433 162 72 162 12 7 .297 .352 .466 .817 Players are ranked by OPS. The runs scored is 173 in 27 games, or 6.4 runs/game. Compare this to May's offense. NAME G AB R H 2B 3B HR TB RBI BB SO SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS Jermaine Dye 21 68 14 18 1 1 8 45 16 13 16 1 1 .265 .373 .662 1.035 Jim Thome 27 100 19 29 3 0 10 62 26 21 32 0 0 .290 .410 .620 1.030 Chris Widger 9 25 4 9 3 0 1 15 3 2 8 0 0 .360 .407 .600 1.007 Pablo Ozuna 18 34 4 12 3 1 1 20 6 3 4 3 2 .353 .405 .588 .994 Scott Podsednik 25 85 25 27 6 3 1 42 9 20 16 14 3 .318 .443 .494 .938 Rob Mackowiak 25 64 7 22 4 0 2 32 5 8 10 0 1 .344 .425 .500 .925 Paul Konerko 28 107 15 25 4 0 9 56 21 12 29 0 0 .234 .315 .523 .838 A.J. Pierzynski 24 90 12 29 8 0 2 43 8 4 13 0 0 .322 .358 .478 .836 Joe Crede 28 102 9 30 4 0 4 46 17 6 11 0 0 .294 .324 .451 .775 Tadahito Iguchi 23 96 19 25 2 0 4 39 10 5 25 3 1 .260 .311 .406 .717 Brian Anderson 25 48 7 8 0 0 2 14 5 7 14 0 1 .167 .281 .292 .572 Juan Uribe 26 93 9 22 4 0 1 29 6 1 20 0 0 .237 .260 .312 .572 Alex Cintron 12 41 1 10 1 0 0 11 3 0 3 2 0 .244 .238 .268 .506 Ross Gload 11 18 0 3 1 0 0 4 2 0 3 1 0 .167 .158 .222 .380 NAME G AB R H 2B 3B HR TB RBI BB SO SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS White Sox 28 971 145 269 44 5 45 458 137 102 204 24 9 .277 .347 .472 .819 In May, we scored 145 runs in 28 games, or 5.1 runs a game. I think it is interesting that our team OPS was slightly higher in May (.819 v. .817), yet we scored a whole lot fewer runs. One of things I would attribute the difference to is that in June, we no longer have two automatic outs at the bottom of the lineup. We only have one -- Brian Anderson. Not only did Juan Uribe go from slugging .312 to slugging .554, but Alex Cintron also hit extremely well in the games he played. Plus, Anderson played in only 15 June games after stinking up 25 May games. The key to all of this in my mind is Juan Uribe, who had a fantastic month. He went from 6 RBI in May, to 20 in June. That damn near led the team. Only Joe Crede -- with 21 RBI -- had more. That Crede/Uribe combo went a long way to winning us the World Series last year. They are doing it again. Another key is to use Anderson in only half the games as a hitter. And it's unfortunate that Ozuna pulled up lame again, because he needs to start against all lefties -- either in left field or at second base. Iguchi has sucked against lefties this year.

QUOTE(Punch and Judy Garland @ Jun 30, 2006 -> 05:34 PM) Great win, great game by Juan. I think that, while one start doesn't mean THAT much, tomorrow is a referendum of sorts on Javy Vazquez for Sox fans. Given the marketplace, if he can't get it going we could move him for a set-up man and a top pitching prospect. He needs to show some stones tomorrow. We can't really use Brandon tomorrow so he better go some innings too Javy Vazquez isn't going anywhere. Just think where Jose Contreras was for us after two half-seasons. He was all over the place. Then he fixed his mechanics and hasn't lost a regular season game since. I don't expect Javy to make the same transition, but I'm sure KW is going to give him a season to get straightened out. And I don't see why McCarthy can't go again tomorrow. 29 pitches shouldn't shut down a starter like him. Personally, if Javy gets in any kind of trouble, I think we need to use McCarthy, who needs more work, not less.

QUOTE(Rowand44 @ Jun 30, 2006 -> 04:54 AM) This thread will be even more hilarious when the Tigers lose one to Pitt this weekend. Pitt will be lucky to score a run in 3 games off Tigers pitching. Just compare what they did to Houston after Houston knocked our pitching around for three games. Two shutouts. Our team ERA in June was 4.84. The only reason we won so many games was that our offense scored 167 runs in 26 games, or 6.4 runs/game. That's better than the 2000 Sox. Fortunately, there is time to turn around the pitching. We've seen bad stretches by these guys before.

I think today's loss sucked big time, but I'm not ready to panic or throw in the towel. The Chicago White Sox still have the best team in baseball. By a mile. We have the best offense. And it's not going to slide from that perch between now and October. Crede is the real deal. Dye is just relaxed and playing the best of his career. Thome is being Thome. Konerko has more production around him. And the guys who were scuffling -- like Pods in June, Anderson, and Uribe -- are all going to be better from here on out. Uribe could become a monster hitter if he can ever keep it together. We have the best depth of any starting staff in baseball. Sure, our guys aren't doing as well as they are capable of at the moment. Garcia - 4.65 ERA Vazquez - 5.00 ERA Garland - 5.76 ERA McCarthy - 4.35 ERA But won't all of these ERA's improve? By as much as a run/game? If we're pitching this bad in September, maybe I'll be concerned. But it's June. We finally have a developing bullpen that could become outstanding. Jenks, Cotts, Thornton, and Riske are all doing the jobs they are supposed to do. I don't expect those guys to get scored on very often. McCarthy has been bounced around, but appears to finally be taking to his role. (If only Ozzie would use him as a true long man and give our starters a break when they don't have their A games.) The jury is out on Politte, but if he doesn't return to form, Montero is a capable bridge to a replacement in the trade market. We also have a deep bench that we didn't have last year. Sure, we could do better than Widger (any catchers on the market?), and Gload doesn't have much of a role. But Mack, Cintron, and especially Ozuna have really helped us. Plus we have one of the best managers in baseball -- one who will take the heat off his team all day long. He gets his team ready to play and win. And we have perhaps the best general manager in baseball. He's not going to sit on his hands if we need something to improve. So, a game like today sucks. Ozzie mismanaged it. Contreras stunk. And Politte got stretched beyond where he should have been and we lost. I bet our guys are going to blow it out of their systems and move on to stomp on the Cubs. Would you trade our team for any other team in baseball? I certainly wouldn't. At the end of the day, if we're playing like we are capable of playing, I don't think any team can touch us. Let everyone think we're third or fourth fiddle. I'll take our guys. GO WHITE SOX!! 2006 WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS!!!

I care a whole lot less about whether Contreras starts the game than about Contreras getting his groove back. It seems like as soon as he started messing with arm angles this year, he lost his consistency. I bet most of his problem has to do with his mechanics, though I wouldn't have a clue what he needs to do to straighten them out. If Contreras isn't dominating, our whole staff looks mediocre. But with him leading the way, I'll take our guys over any other starting group in MLB. Get it together, Jose!

I would agree that the starting pitching has become a serious concern. Without it, it is very difficult to sustain long winning runs that will be necessary to pass Detroit and gain home field in the playoffs. But how to correct this problem? Therein lies the rub. I wonder if Ozzie shouldn't adjust his pitching philosophy a bit and pull his starters short of 100 pitches if they aren't doing well. Why else have a long man like McCarthy if we're not going to use him for long stints? He could easily pitch the 6th and 7th innings 2-3 times a week if necessary, and the increased load might actually help him improve his sharpness, much as Vizcaino did last year when he was used more. If nothing else, this should help lower team ERA. We won't have Vazquez going back out after giving up 6 runs, only to give up 9. We won't have Contreras come to bat when the Sox are a run down in the 6th only to give up another run in the bottom of the inning (especially since it was the key run of the game). We won't let Garland or Garcia give up 7-8 runs in any outings any more. This would only be an incremental help, but it might give our guys a rest now and then so that they pitch more effectively in their other starts. Until now, Ozzie couldn't really do this because our bullpen was worse than our starters. Now our bullpen (except for Politte) seems to have straightened itself out. There's no harm in using it -- and especially McCarthy -- more.