Phillips take on Sox season

[southsider2k5]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/notebook?page=bbtn

 

By Steve Phillips, ESPN

 

Before the season I had pretty high expectations for the Chicago White Sox and picked them to win the AL Central. As the season got underway there were four -- and in some people's minds, five -- teams that had a chance to win that division. But I really thought that the White Sox would have a power-packed offense that would outslug their opponents and allow them to come back from deficits when necessary. I loved the power arms they had in the bullpen and thought they had good depth in the starting rotation with an improving John Danks and Gavin Floyd.

 

Well, things just haven't gone as expected this season for the White Sox, who lost again at Minnesota on Tuesday and are now five games below .500 (64-69) and seven back of Detroit in the AL Central. They always seemed close to making a run, but they just never got enough consistent starting pitching or bullpen innings. The biggest problem, though, has been their offense. They got down years from a lot of their lineup. Yes, Jermaine Dye, Jim Thome (before he was traded to the Dodgers on Monday night) and Paul Konerko all had 20 or more home runs, but Carlos Quentin hasn't been nearly the player he was a year ago because of injury. Alexei Ramirez got off to a horrific start this year, hitting .214 in March and April. He has since turned it around, but without the type of production the team has desperately needed to stay in contention.

 

Home runs are important -- and the White Sox have always been able to hit them -- but their ability to hit in big spots has been missing this season. As a result, their number of lost opportunities is rather large. Their pitching is good, but not good enough. They don't have a shutdown rotation that allows them to win a lot of close, low-scoring games. It seems like on the days when they did get the starting pitching they needed, the offense didn't step up or their bullpen would let them down.

 

It just seemed that whenever they were ready to get hot, something else would go wrong. It's clearly time to change the mix in Chicago, and general manager Ken Williams is well on his way to doing just that. He's traded Jose Contreras and Thome and acquired Jake Peavy and Alex Rios.

 

The White Sox need to get younger and more athletic, just as the Red Sox, Yankees and Rays seem to be doing. Having depth and balance on your roster allows a club to win any kind of game. Right now, the White Sox don't have the ability to manufacture runs. When they've had those opportunities this year, they haven't come through in the clutch. The good news is that, because there is no dominant team in their division, a quick remake of the roster could have them right back in contention next year. Gordon Beckham is going to be a tremendous major league player. He has the talent, makeup and character to be a star for a long time. He reminds me of a young Derek Jeter. I don't know if he'll have 2,700 hits by his mid-30s, but Beckham is clearly part of the future in Chicago.

 

When teams don't live up to expectations, people want to always play the blame game. I feel that Williams and manager Ozzie Guillen are part of the solution in Chicago. We are never left wondering what Guillen thinks or feels, and his team plays hard and they care. He has them prepared day in and day out. They don't need a new manager or general manager; they just need some new players.

[Steve9347]

To sum it up. White Sox suck.

[iamshack]

Steve Phillips has always been a fan of the Chicago White Sox - at least the Chicago White Sox as run by Kenny Williams. Had a chance to meet Mr. Phillips back in December, and he was just as bright and engaging as he is on tv. I did forget to ask him how annoying Joe Morgan is, however.

[Milkman delivers]

I usually don't like most things that Steve Phillips has to say, but he did a very good job on this article.

 

The only part where I can find fault is "and his team plays hard and they care. He has them prepared day in and day out." I'm not so sure this team is always playing hard or that they care too much. And they often look unprepared.

[DBAHO]

Nothing really "shocking" about that piece.

 

The offense needs to get more consistent and that's been a theme for a few seasons now. Whether or not we have the resources and personnel to accomplish that going forward, well we'll have to wait and see.

[BigSqwert]

Maybe we can hire some better advanced scouts.

[CanOfCorn]

Well said, Mr. Phillips. When one thing would go well, another would go bad. Lets move on...and go for 2010!

[Texsox]

That that is a decent summary of the season.

[Kyyle23]

I think thats the first time Phillips said something baseball related that I agreed with

[hogan873]

I agree with most everything in the article. The piece of about the team playing hard...well, not as of late. He pretty much summed up what we've been saying here on this board. The players are most at fault for this season. I think KW has done a good job. The Peavy deal is pretty much a sure thing, IMO, and Rios will come around next season. I just hope that KW continues to makeover this team in the offseason.

[iamshack]

I think thats the first time Phillips said something baseball related that I agreed with

I know it is fashionable to bash basically every sports talking-head on television, but are you guys watching the same ESPN that I am? Of all the yahoos on ESPN and other networks that carry and comment on baseball, you're going to include Steve Phillips on the list of idiot commentators? I don't get that. I have always thought he was insightful, bright and well-spoken, especially as compared to his peers like Joe Morgan and John Kruk.

 

I dunno, I've always felt like he is undeserving of so much criticism and venom.

Edited September 2, 2009 by iamshack

[BigSqwert]

I know it is fashionable to bash basically every sports talking-head on television, but are you guys watching the same ESPN that I am? Of all the yahoos on ESPN and other networks that carry and comment on baseball, you're going to include Steve Phillips on the list of idiot commentators? I don't get that. I have always thought he was insightful, bright and well-spoken, especially as compared to his peers like Joe Morgan and John Kruk.

 

I dunno, I've always felt like he is undeserving of so much criticism and venom.

I'm with you on this one.

[LosMediasBlancas]

Seems like we've been hearing 'younger and more athletic' for a while now.

[southsider2k5]

Seems like we've been hearing 'younger and more athletic' for a while now.

 

And we have been going that way for a couple of years now.

[Chisoxfn]

I don't agree with him on the rotation, but for the most part he summed it up well and while this season has been a disaster I'm already excited for next season because this team is close.

[iamshack]

Seems like we've been hearing 'younger and more athletic' for a while now.

My only concern is:

 

Can "younger and more athletic" hit?

[bigruss]

I know it is fashionable to bash basically every sports talking-head on television, but are you guys watching the same ESPN that I am? Of all the yahoos on ESPN and other networks that carry and comment on baseball, you're going to include Steve Phillips on the list of idiot commentators? I don't get that. I have always thought he was insightful, bright and well-spoken, especially as compared to his peers like Joe Morgan and John Kruk.

 

I dunno, I've always felt like he is undeserving of so much criticism and venom.

Comparatively, hes not bad at all. But man he can say some really stupid things, especially when it comes to trades and signings and you know why he is a FORMER GM.

[Frankensteiner]

I don't agree with him on the rotation, but for the most part he summed it up well and while this season has been a disaster I'm already excited for next season because this team is close.

 

Close to what? Our starting pitching should be great but the other areas (hitting, fielding, bullpen) are disasters. I doubt we can fix those holes in one off-season, especially when we already sunk a bunch of money into Rios.

[greg775]

Close to what? Our starting pitching should be great but the other areas (hitting, fielding, bullpen) are disasters. I doubt we can fix those holes in one off-season, especially when we already sunk a bunch of money into Rios.

 

I agree. I don't understand why everybody thinks a clean slate 0-0 record will guarantee a good season next year.

We have no bullpen. None, which in itself will pretty much guarantee .500 at best.

Unless we dump Rios, who has sucked, how are the Sox going to upgrade? It's still the same cast of characters.

I'd move Lexi to second, keep Gordon at third. Are there any OC type ss's available on the cheap for a year?

At least can't hit Rios is good on defense so Lexi at second, a new defensive ss and Rios in center would give us much better D up the middle.

[WCSox]

Good analysis by Phillips.

[MEANS]

it's almost as if somebody else wrote that for him b/c he actually sounds somewhat intelligent in his writing. Overall good analysis, but as others have said we've been saying the same things on this board for some time now.

[NorthSideSox72]

I actually think that a big part of why this team is 6 or so under .500, instead of 6 or so over, hasn't been discussed yet.

 

We all get upset about the team not hitting in the clutch. But even with the recent slide, the Sox are still 10th among the 30 MLB teams in AVG w/ RISP. So what does that mean? To me, it means they aren't making productive outs. Even if you are good at hitting with RISP, you are lucky to be .280, so the other .720 is outs. I think the Sox have been horrible this year in making those outs productive.

 

Part of that may be bad luck, but I suspect its mostly two other things. One, players going for broke - not hitting situationally, but instead trying to make the killer blow. This would explain the relatively high average but much fewer productive outs. The other thing I think is, the team was too tight. Guys seemed like they were pressing, like they felt the pressure was on THEM in those situations, when really it is on the pitcher.

 

Anyway, that's my theory.

 

[oldsox]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/notebook?page=bbtn

I usually like to listen to Phillips, but he is not an expert on the White Sox. I am certain there are several readers here who know more about the Sox than he does. So, he really didn't say anything profound in his article. His article took up space, that's all. He admitted he picked the sSox to win the division, so that disqualifies him as any kind of guru. In terms of personnel in April, how can you have picked the Sox with what they had at third, left, and center? This was a bad team from the get-go. There was no reason to pick them to win anything. Kenny has a lot of work to do, but at least he patched a couple of holes.

[NorthSideSox72]

I usually like to listen to Phillips, but he is not an expert on the White Sox. I am certain there are several readers here who know more about the Sox than he does. So, he really didn't say anything profound in his article. His article took up space, that's all. He admitted he picked the sSox to win the division, so that disqualifies him as any kind of guru. In terms of personnel in April, how can you have picked the Sox with what they had at third, left, and center? This was a bad team from the get-go. There was no reason to pick them to win anything. Kenny has a lot of work to do, but at least he patched a couple of holes.

LOL, someone picks the wrong team to win a division that everyone knew would be tight and hard to predict, and that makes then disqualified to speak on the topic?

 

[nitetrain8601]

I usually like to listen to Phillips, but he is not an expert on the White Sox. I am certain there are several readers here who know more about the Sox than he does. So, he really didn't say anything profound in his article. His article took up space, that's all. He admitted he picked the sSox to win the division, so that disqualifies him as any kind of guru. In terms of personnel in April, how can you have picked the Sox with what they had at third, left, and center? This was a bad team from the get-go. There was no reason to pick them to win anything. Kenny has a lot of work to do, but at least he patched a couple of holes.

 

Well Fields was a hot prospect up until this year. CF was a problem, but that was supposed to be the #9 hitter. LF was supposed to be Quentin. On paper, the White Sox had the most talent. It's very easy to see why he predicted the Sox would win. Why wouldn't he?