Light at End of the Tunnel for White Sox/Cubs?

[caulfield12]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...0,1739372.story

 

Well, I should have expected a Cubs' (former Sox) beat writer to spend 70-75% of his total line space on the Cubs. Well, it's their home games, so have at it.

 

 

Didn't mention anything about Semien, Erik Johnson (counted to be the 4th starter or possibly 3rd for the next five years) or Davidson.

 

In addition, the improvement of Flowers merits a mention, as well as Dunn (if for nothing else but trade return value).

 

Finally, Conor Gillaspie, when healthy, has been a huge bright spot in the early going, helping to provide more balance to the line-up.

[BigHurt3515]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...0,1739372.story

 

Well, I should have expected a Cubs' (former Sox) beat writer to spend 70-75% of his total line space on the Cubs. Well, it's their home games, so have at it.

 

 

Didn't mention anything about Semien, Erik Johnson (counted to be the 4th starter or possibly 3rd for the next five years) or Davidson.

 

In addition, the improvement of Flowers merits a mention, as well as Dunn (if for nothing else but trade return value).

 

Finally, Conor Gillaspie, when healthy, has been a huge bright spot in the early going, helping to provide more balance to the line-up.

 

Can't read it. Not a "Plus" member

[caulfield12]

Can't read it. Not a "Plus" member

 

 

Try copying the title of the article into google...that always works for me here in China.

 

 

 

https://www.dailyherald.com/article/2014050...0509287/photos/

 

For some reason, I can't get the Arlington Daily Herald website to open, but here's "State of the Sox, At a Glance"

 

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2014050...orts/140509287/

 

 

 

Gillaspie could rejoin the White Sox when the interleague series shifts to the South Side on Wednesday. (which means Semien will be going back down, in all likelihood, followed by Garcia when Keppinger's ready)

 

 

 

Jose Abreu

 

He's in a mild 4-for-21 slump (9 strikeouts), but Abreu hit his major-league leading 12th home run Sunday.

 

Cubs pitchers would be wise to pepper Abreu with sliders and change-ups off the outside part of the plate. If you throw the Sox' new first baseman a fastball in nearly any location, he's going to hit it hard.

 

 

Bullpen

 

This was a shaky unit over the first three weeks of the season, but the bullpen has settled down while allowing just 10 earned runs in the last 49⅔ innings.

 

You probably remember Zach Putnam when he was with the Cubs last season, but he's not the same guy that had an 18.90 ERA in five games. Since coming up from Class AAA Charlotte and joining the White Sox on April 17, Putnam has allowed just 2 earned runs on 11⅓ innings (1.59 ERA).

 

 

Scott Carroll

 

You'll see him Thursday at the Cell, and you're likely to see why he is the Sox' best starter despite having just 2 major-league outings under his belt. (a bit of hyperbole with that one, I don't think you will see Rick Hahn handing him a contract extension just yet...or one month from now, for that matter.)

 

Carroll, a 29-year-old rookie and former college quarterback, works fast, throws strikes and has a nasty sinker.

 

Abreu has had the biggest impact in the early going, but the good-natured Carroll is the White Sox' best story.

Edited May 5, 2014 by caulfield12

[caulfield12]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...,4422881.column

 

Sox Ahead of Cubs in Rebuilding Race...David Haugh column

 

 

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseb...,4422881.column

Sullivan...Crosstown Cup Lacks Luster These Days

 

The last public sighting of the Crosstown Cup was last May at Wrigley Field, where it was carted off the field after a Cubs team photo, placed on a shelf in the clubhouse next to a purple Barney doll and left to gather dust.

 

No one seemed to notice it was gone Monday afternoon when the Cubs clubhouse opened. But when informed of its disappearance, one Cubs player said, "It's probably in a dumpster somewhere."

 

Unlike the ill-fated Wrigley Field birthday cake, the Cup had not been tossed in a dumpster. The marketing department had taken it down for a good polishing before its annual appearance at the Cubs-White Sox series.

 

The Cup was taken down the third-base line during Cubs batting practice and placed in front of a makeshift desk being used for a Comcast SportsNet show featuring panelists who usually mock the trophy behind its back.

 

It disappeared again before Monday night's game, waiting for the moment one lucky team will be able to claim it for the rest of 2014.

 

The Cup has a special place in the City Series rivalry, though it's not exactly the place White Sox marketing chief Brooks Boyer and former Cubs marketing boss Wally Hayward had in mind four years ago when they came up with the concept.

 

The Sox and Cubs had good intentions when they decided to award a trophy to the winner of the series, assuming the intent of making money from a corporate sponsor is good.

 

But through an unfortunate twist of fate, the original sponsor, BP, accidentally leaked nearly 5million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico shortly before the inaugural BP Cup was awarded.

 

The three-year contract with BP was not renewed after it expired in 2012, leaving the series without a sponsor. But Cubs spokesman Julian Green said the teams will continue awarding the Cup and are searching for a local sponsor.

 

"We're still calling it the Crosstown Cup," Green said. "We believe it's still viable, which is why we kept it. We believe we can get a corporate sponsor. Obviously it's tough, given the performances of late. But we're keeping the Crosstown Cup in the future."

 

This year's City Series is the earliest a Cubs-Sox meeting has been scheduled, a decision that led to a Ken "Hawk" Harrelson filibuster Sunday in which he ripped the schedule-makers during the Sox telecast.

 

Did Sox general manager Rick Hahn hear about Harrelson's rant?

 

"I did not hear about Hawk's rant on the schedule, no," Hahn said. "That sounds like a Brooks Boyer question."

 

Hahn said the Sox had an "awfully rough run" against playoff-caliber teams over the first 32 games. He was then told Harrelson was referring to the decision to schedule the Cubs games so early, and on weekdays.

 

"I'm sure there is a logic behind why it is (held) these four days," Hahn said. "It's a logic that other people are concerned about more than me. I just want to win the four days, whenever they are."

 

Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer also wants to win the series but agreed with Harrelson's premise that it's too early to play an intense rival.

 

"In general, I know when I was in Boston, I was also disappointed when we had Yankees games early in the season," Hoyer said. "That's kind of the same thing here. I feel like it picks up meaning as it's held later in the summer.

 

"And especially with fairly cold, early-week games, I feel it would be a lot more fun if this was in warm weather and late summer. It would probably add a little something to the intensity of these games."

 

A classic pitching duel between Jose Quintana and Jeff Samardzija brought back some of that intensity, but not nearly enough.

 

The only Cup on anyone's mind Monday was definitely not at Wrigley Field.

 

[email protected]

 

Twitter @PWSullivan

[Swingandalongonetoleft]

...David Haugh column...

 

I'm sad and disappointed every time I open the Tribune in the morning and see that he still gets paid to "write".

[Heads22]

LOL .... "you probably remember Putnam with the Cubs"

 

 

No.....I'm guessing most people don't remember the back end of the Cubs bullpen.

[cabiness42]

Did Sox general manager Rick Hahn hear about Harrelson's rant?

 

"I did not hear about Hawk's rant on the schedule, no," Hahn said. "That sounds like a Brooks Boyer question."

 

LOL, Rick.

[caulfield12]

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/white-sox/...bs-sox-identity

 

 

Greg will love this one.

 

Here's hoping for some Cubs-Sox fireworks

May, 5, 2014

MAY 5

12:08

PM CT

By Jon Greenberg

ESPNChicago.com

Archive

 

Contrary to popular opinion, you don't need good teams to have a memorable Cubs-White Sox series. That's a good thing, considering this is Chicago.

 

No, all you need are interesting personalities.

 

The current Cubs-White Sox series could use some of the unpredictability from the days of Ozzie Guillen and Lou Piniella.

Ozzie Guillen, A.J. Pierzynski, Carlos Zambrano, Michael Barrett's angry fist, Lou Piniella, the BP Cup.

 

They're all gone, except the Cup. But it's not the same, either.

 

Heck, I don't even think there are rats in the Wrigley batting cages anymore.

 

Where have all our good storylines gone?

 

With four games this week, two at Wrigley Field starting tonight and two at U.S. Cellular Field on Wednesday and Thursday, baseball is front-page news in Chicago.

 

I mean, it's not bigger than the Blackhawks or the Bears' draft, but still, somewhere on the front page, folks. Not bad for a sub-.500 team facing a last-place one.

 

Will we be entertained? That's up for debate. The notion that this series has seen better days isn't up for debate. When you don't even have a sponsor for your intramural championship trophy, the writing is on the wall, man.

 

Maybe Ozzie can write some jokes for Rick Renteria and Robin Ventura, but their delivery won't have the same panache.

 

Jose Abreu might think he's back in Cuba when he sees the visitors clubhouse, but I don't see him complaining. Maybe Jeff Samardzija will talk about Hawk Harrelson's broadcast style again.

 

If a Sox player rips Wrigley Field, we'll have five Cubs executives agreeing with them: That's why we need minority investors to start the rebuild!

 

The true purpose of the crosstown series isn't to proclaim the best team in baseball -- the 96-loss Cubs won their first "Cup" last year, beating the 99-loss White Sox. Rather, it's to get all the inmates in the city's baseball asylums in one place for a mass convention.

 

But of course, we're missing Randle McMurphy.

 

No, not Pierzynski. While he best represented the rivalry on the field, the Cubs-Sox series, as we knew it, died the day Guillen left town for a big payday in Miami.

 

 

What's your favorite moment of the Cubs-Sox series?

 

Mike Caruso's home run (1999)

A.J. Pierzynski-Michael Barrett fight at the Cell (2006)

Pierzynski's 3-run walkoff homer at Wrigley (2006)

Carlos Zambrano getting tossed for yelling at Derrek Lee (2010)

Cubs fans boo the BP Cup because they thought it was the Stanley Cup (2010)

 

It was Guillen who stirred up the city's internecine baseball rivalry during his eight years as White Sox manager. He would joke about the steroid-ingesting rats in the Wrigley batting cages ("I think the rats out there are lifting weights"); the intelligence of White Sox fans over Cubs fans ("Because our fans are not stupid like Cubs fans, they know we're [bleep]"); and Cubs players ("Tell that Triple-A [bleep] to shut the [bleep] up -- tell him to start throwing some strikes or he's going to get Dusty fired").

 

By the end, even Ozzie was sick of doing his Wrigley shtick, but he always performed.

 

And of course, we had Lou Piniella. Sweet Lou didn't have any problems, that I can recall, with the South Siders. During this series, he had a beef in his clubhouse and with the media.

 

Piniella had to kick out players in back-to-back years at the Cell after dugout tirades, Milton Bradley in 2009 and Carlos Zambrano in 2010.

 

"Boy, every time we come here," Piniella said with a chuckle after tossing Zambrano for nearly fighting Derrek Lee.

 

And then there was the time Piniella decided to rant about Sox broadcaster Steve Stone during the Cubs-Sox series. That was at Wrigley. Someone asked about the rookies and Piniella went off.

 

"And Steve Stone, he's got enough problems doing what he does with the White Sox," Piniella said that day in the home dugout, his voice rising. "What job has he had in baseball besides talking on television or radio? What has he done?"

 

As rants go, it was highly entertaining and furthered the notion that something always happens during this series.

 

I'm going to Wrigley on Monday hoping something does.

[Jose Abreu]

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/white-sox/...bs-sox-identity

What's your favorite moment of the Cubs-Sox series?

Pierzynski's 3-run walkoff homer at Wrigley (2006)

 

[balfanman]

What's your favorite moment of the Cubs-Sox series?

 

Mike Caruso's home run (1999)

A.J. Pierzynski-Michael Barrett fight at the Cell (2006)

Pierzynski's 3-run walkoff homer at Wrigley (2006)

 

Yeah, I caught that too. Did Pierzynski switch teams for the day?

 

Hey, Looky there, I finally made it to 1,000 posts! Been a member for over 11 years it looks like, guess I listen more than I talk.

 

Or maybe I just post quality over quantity!

 

[southsider2k5]

This season and series has to be eating Cubs fans alive. They are on their 4th year of rebuilding. Rick Hahn has achieved more in 9/10 months of rebuilding than the Cubs have in four years. This series has to be a dagger in their heart to their little remaining faith, as there isn't even a real light at the end of the tunnel.