Tag Archives: Cleveland Indians

Sox are in a funk

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Maybe blowing up some disco records can get the team back on track.

A good April has been replaced by a terrible start to May for the White Sox. The Sox are 2-6, and have become the great tease of 2012. In all of their losses in May except for one they have had they tying or go ahead run at the plate in the ninth giving Sox fans a reason to keep watching. The thing that’s most annoying about this start to May is Cubs’ fans have begun chirping, which is the most annoying sound in the world.

Before we get to far ahead of ourselves I never said the Sox were going to win anything in my preseason predictions, and when I used the 16-game prediction formula I pointed out its only correct 50% of the time. That being said can the Sox still surprise everyone this season? Sure the number of what-ifs that have answered on the positive side seem to point in the right direction. And let’s be honest, this Cleveland team will get on a bad run and be done by June.

If it should come down to the Sox and Tigers you could not ask for two teams more evenly matched at this point in the season. When you look at team numbers it’s kind of crazy:

Homeruns: Sox -31, Tigers – 29
Runs: Tigers – 117, Sox – 116
RBI: Sox – 112, Tigers – 106

Those are a few key categories where the teams are close to even, but overall in the pitching department the Sox are dominate, even though you’d never know by their record:

WHIP: Sox – 1.16, Tigers – 1.33
K’s: Sox – 233, Tigers – 219
ERA: Sox – 3.72, Tigers – 3.96
Opponent’s BA: Sox – .226, Tigers – .262
Hits allowed: Sox – 228, Tigers – 253

It’s kind of hard to believe that the Sox are four games under .500 right now, but that’s the case, as they are having a hard time getting everything to click at the same time. The Sox score six runs and their pitching lets up eight, pitching lets up a run and the Sox strand eight runners. It’s just a bad funk that teams go through from time to time, and the Sox are in one now.

One of their biggest issues takes the mound tonight against the Indians, John Danks their number one starter with a 6.51 ERA. I don’t need to state that Danks has been underwhelming so far this season and tonight would be a good time for him to get back on track. I have not been lucky enough to run into Danks to give him a pep talk like I did Gavin Floyd. Floyd, who has allowed three runs over two starts since we had our friendly exchange at Target.

All of these numbers mean nothing if you can’t find a way to win games, and that’s what the Sox need to figure out this week. Statistically they can be better than the Tigers, but if they have more losses it doesn’t really matter. Just ask the Tigers about the 2006 Cardinals and they’ll tell you numbers don’t mean a thing if you can’t win. The Sox can’t seem to win right now.

‘Chasing rainbows’ for good reason

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The Tigers September turd.

One of the best sites on the web is baseball-reference.com, for all the historic knowledge including leaders, streaks, records, and year-by-year results, etc… you get the point.

It’s funny, but after Smitty told me to keep chasing rainbows I decided to go looking for another one and I found it in the year 2006 when the Tigers had a 5 game lead on September 4 and ended up a game out in second place.

This is the reason why I remain hopefully optimistic that the Sox will and still can make some noise this season with three weeks left. It’s actually kind of funny on how bad the Tigers have been down the stretch under Jim Leyland, including the ultimate fold, the 2006 World Series, losing to a team with the fewest wins ever in the regular season to make a World Series, the St. Louis Cardinals. But I my rainbow chasing did not stop there thanks to baseball-reference.com.

I started looking up the Tigers historically throughout their existence in September and it’s not good. In 1983, they were up a game on the Orioles on August 13 and were trailing only by three on September 1, but by September 21 they had fallen to 8-1/2 games out.

The 1988 Tigers were up 2 games on August 31 and fell to six games back by September 21, trying to repeat after the 1987 team won the AL East. Even that team struggled in September leading by as many as three games in August before winning the division on the last day of the season with a 1-0 nothing winner over the Toronto Blue Jays.

Just for the sake of getting my point across the 1991 Tigers were tied for first on August 26 and finished six games out, so there’s a September history here.

And yes, I am aware the Tigers have won 5 games in a row over the two teams that trail them, the Indians and White Sox, but that seems to be the trend also. In 2009 they rattled off six-in-a-row at the beginning of the month before they imploded. In 1987 they won 4-in-a-row, and again in 1983 they won six-a-row at the beginning of the month before struggling.

It’s these historical facts aka “rainbows” that keep me hopeful, and why I will continue to chase rainbows in 2011 until the Sox are mathematically eliminated.

13-5, Pierre, the kids can play

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Juan Pierre celebrates his game winning hit!

How can anyone forget the White Sox marketing team trying their best to spin a rebuilding year for the Sox with the campaign, “The Kids Can Play.” It turned out to be the perfect slogan as the Sox won 95 games that season with then youngsters, Magglio Ordonez, Paul Konerko, and Carlos Lee alongside veterans Frank Thomas and Jose Valentin. Last night it felt the same out on the field as the Sox won their third straight game in an over five-hour plus extra inning affair with the Indians. Alejandro De Aza went 3-for-7 with two triples, two RBIs, and two runs scored; Tyler Flowers playing for the injured AJ Pierzynski was 2-for-7 with a triple and RBI; Brent Morel went 4-for-7 with a run scored and some great plays in the field.

Tyler Flowers since taking on a full-time roll at catcher is hitting .375 with a homer run, a double, a triple,a RBI, and a run. Not too shabby for someone with only 27 big league games under his belt. Pierzynski going to the DL is shocking since this is his first visit to the DL ever, but when you get drilled in the wrist by a fastball these things sometimes happen. Even with his visit to the DL he still leads all AL catchers with games started at catcher with 103 (105 total games) and total innings caught at 862-1/3. It looks like we finally have a legitimate back-up for AJ.

The big story of the night isn’t really the play by the Sox talented youngsters it’s Juan Pierre hitting a home run and driving in the winning run in the 14th to up the White Sox record against the AL Central post All-Star break to 13-5 and improve to 7 – 1 against the Tribe this year. Pierre had a solid evening going 3-for-7 with a homer, two RBIs and a run scored. This was a big win, not only because the game went 5 hours and 21 minutes, and usually the winner of a game like that controls the series, but the Tigers won easily behind Cy Young hopeful, Justin Verlander, who improved to 18 – 5 on the year. A pretty spectacular year for a pretty spectacular pitcher. As a Sox fan I can take solace in that fact that we’ve played him tough the last two games we faced him winning 8-2 and losing 5-4 on a go ahead hit in the top of the ninth after the Sox tied the game in the bottom of the 8th off Verlander. It’s not much, but he good.

The Sox made it over their hardest hurdle of the year, .500 for the first time since April 15. If they continue to play the way have in the second half they will win the division. The Sox lead the division with a 17-12 record, the Tigers are second at 16-14, and the Indians are 13-16 in the second half. Things are looking good for the Sox. Don’t stop now boys!

GAME NOTE: The Sox had five triples coming one shy of tying the White Sox record set back in 1920.

What a difference, 12-5 against AL Central

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It's coming down to this.

The White Sox could not beat a team within their division to save their lives in the first half of the season, unless the team mascot was an offensive representation of a Native American. Times are changing as that very team, the Cleveland Indians, rides into town tomorrow drinking their fire water and searching for a way to beat the White Sox.

The Sox swept a rain shorten series in Cleveland in July and have posted a 12-5 record against the AL Central since the All-Star break, including a winning record against the Detroit Tigers, a team they had lost nine in a row too dating back to September of 2010 before they won on June 1, 2011. Since that win the Sox have gone 5-4 against the Tigers, and are 4-2 in the second half with six games remaining against them. I know I’ve mentioned this before but I consider the Tigers the real test, not the Cleveland Indians. If the Sox continue to win series they will be knocking at the door by the time they play the Tigers on September 2 in Detroit.

The hardest part for the White Sox will be to survive the .500 bug that infects the team every time they reach the break even point. Will they get over the hump and keep winning, it would seem yes with Indians rolling into town. A series win against the Indians could seemly have the Sox in second and sitting at three games or less back. This is speculation obviously, but Detroit is overdue for a rough patch. Like I said in my preseason predictions that Albert Pujols was overdue for an injury and look what happened. I just feel a Detroit mini-slump coming on. Tonight may have been the start of that as the Tigers lost to the Twins, 9-6; the Twins were helped out by a Wilson Betemit throwing error and Jim Thome hitting home run number 600. Congrats Jim!

If the Sox should not gain or lose ground by the time they play Detroit in September a sweep will be necessary to truly make a run at the AL Central. I think the Sox are coming on at the right time ,and I also believe we’re going to see Adam Dunn make an impact in the final seven weeks of the season. Heck, I’m so convinced that I just picked him up for a dollar in my Fantasy Baseball league, well worth the investment for a bounce back season next year. I digress.

I feel fairly confident that the Sox will be in first place before the year is over, lets just hope it’s on October 1, 2011. GO SOX!!!

AL Central Trade Winners, losers

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Well, the trading deadline has past and I’d thought I’d weigh in on who were the winners and losers in the AL Central, outside of one clear-cut winner, I think everyone faired well, except for the team that traded away their entire future for an average pitcher this season.

1 – Detroit Tigers
By far made the smartest most efficient moves to better their squad in the necessary areas without giving away the farm like another AL Central club. Doug Fister has been a hard luck loser on a bad ball club, the Seattle Mariners. Fister only has three wins this season despite posting a 3.33 ERA, while only allowing 139 hits over 146 innings pitched. Reliever, David Pauley is also an improvement of Charlie Furbush, who pitched well out of the pen for the Tigers, but Pauley has an ERA over a run lower. Enough said.

It pains me to say this, but even the signing of Wilson Betemit makes sense from the fact that he’s been a White Sox killer his entire career, which prompted the Sox to trade for him back in 2007 after the Nick Swisher debacle. Betemit committed three errors in the first four innings of a game and was not heard from much after that. It again cost very little and is an improvement over the struggling Brandon Inge.

2 – Sox/Twins/Royals
There might be people laughing at this right now, but by none of these teams making wholesale changes to their teams they’ve made a commitment to this season and next season by no real movement. Since the Sox had six starters and three players that can play third base they shed some salary and brought over a solid arm to improve the bullpen. With Edwin Jackson and somehow Kenny Williams getting a team to take Mark Teahan, the Sox cleared out some payroll without creating any holes.

The Twins did absolutely nothing which means they feel like making it a four team race, while the Royals only traded away Mike Aviles and his .222 batting average to Boston for two prospects. Again, a bold move for the Royals, but they have a solid nucleus and with the extra revenue next season from the All-Star game they might make some big offseason moves.

3 – The Cleveland Indians
Can’t figure the Indians out? Colorado refuses to release the medical records of Ubaldo Jimenez, so the Indians pay to fly him to their Spring Training facility to work out. He passed the physical so they sent the farm to the Rockies which included top prospects, Alex White and Drew Pomeranz. Both White and Pomeranz were considered the cornerstones of the future Indians’ starting rotation. Even more puzzling they sent Orlando Cabrera to the Giants for minor league outfielder, Thomas Neal, who is currently on the DL. Cabrera was only batting .244, but seemed to be pretty clutch for the Indians this season. Last I checked Jimenez won’t be batting and the Indians really needed some offensive help, but nothing there. Smart.

Kosuke Fukudome was putting together a solid season with the Cubs, but rumors are that the Indians thought they needed to trade for a Japanese player by MLB rule, since they had Shin Soo-Choo on the DL. Well, not really but it’s kind of funny.

Starting to heat up

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Nice game Jake!

The Sox quietly won three series during a West Coast road trip that has notoriously buried them in the past, then they came home, split a series with Texas Rangers, and took game one from the first place, Cleveland Indians, last night at US Cellular Field. Jake Peavy turned in the type of performance Sox fan’s have been longing for since his signing two years ago. Injuries have sidelined Peavy most of his White Sox career thus far, but last night may have been the start of something special.

Peavy pitched a complete game shut out, where he allowed only three hits while walking none and striking out eight. The Sox lone run came from Juan Pierre getting a lead-off double off Justin Masterson that lead to a sacrifice fly from Adam Dunn. Jake took care of things from there keeping the Indians’ hitters off-balance the entire evening. This feels like the start of a run for the Sox and I see them back in the hunt by June 1, as their schedule gets easier as the year progresses.

In fact, they have the best August and September  schedule for home games of any of the AL Central teams which is one of the reasons that ESPN and I picked them to win the AL Central. Playing a majority of the games at home during the last two months of season while getting the two longest road trips out-of-the-way in April and May set things up nicely for the White Sox.

Let’s talk best case scenario regarding offensive numbers for Adam Dunn, the fact that he’s only hit four home runs could lead to a post mid-May explosion where he hits 30-plus home runs between now and September. That would make winning a lot easier for the Sox. At this point last season for the Nationals, Dunn had nine homers, 10 doubles and 18 RBI’s. His stats at this point for the White Sox are almost identical except for his home run productions being down by five, but he’s also played in three fewer games for the White Sox at this point. He’s driven in 17 with 10 doubles and four homers. Not too shabby.

Still, the biggest news is Jake Peavy performing well after this second outing from “Jake Peavy” surgery. GO SOX!!!

Week One Hi-Jinx!

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This may be the most surprising start to the baseball season that I can remember, well at least based on the expectations of experts and the members of this site. There are three things that I find totally bizarre at this point and it has no particular order:

1 – The Boston Red Sox are 2-7.

2 – The Cleveland Indians have won seven in a row and stand atop the AL Central with a 7-2 record.

3 – Carlos Silva is on the Yankees.

 

Let’s start with the Red Sox, well they’ve seemed to remember how to hit once they returned to Fenway this weekend, as they took two out of three from the Yankees. To go along with their solid hitting was some pretty solid pitching. Last night’s game saw Josh Beckett return to form by tossing eight innings of shut out ball, while striking out ten. Even though, game one was not the best outing for John Lackey, the bullpen looked superb by tossing four shutout innings that lead to win for the Red Sox.

After dropping the first two games of their opening series to the White Sox the Cleveland Indians have rattled off seven straight. When will they figure out they are not a good team, probably in a few weeks. The interesting part of the Indians’ story at the moment is the fact that Grady Sizemore is on the DL, which he figures to add an offensive boost when returning from the DL. The Indians could be a team that makes things interesting in the AL Central, but I figure by May 15 they’ll be in bad shape along with KC.

The Yankees are desperate for a starting pitcher that can last longer than five innings, so they’ve signed Carlos the Hutt to a minor league contract. Funny how that works isn’t it? The Cubs asked Silva to go to Triple A before possibly joining the rotation, and he took that as a slight. The Yankees offer him a minor league contract and he looks at that as an opportunity and signs. Sounds like another Yankee disaster in the making.

Meanwhile, back in Chicago things have been pretty much by the book, the White Sox, besides two really messy games last week, have motored along with barely a hiccup, while the Cubs look like the team we saw last year.

I still think Boston will win 98 games, and Cleveland will lose 90 games.

 

 

PV’s favorite baseball flix: A Charlie double shot

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I watched the Charlie two-fer last night, duh winning! Most people remember, Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn from the hilarious baseball comedy, Major League, but do you remember Sheen as Oscar ‘Hap’ Felsch in the docudrama, Eight Men Out? Let’s get to Eight Men Out first.

This movie is very well paced and if accurate very telling of Charles Comiskey’s greed. Comiskey was the anti-Steinbrenner, not willing to open his pockets for his team at all. The bonus for making it to the World Series was flat champagne. Eddie Cicotte won 29 games for the “Black Sox” that season and went to Comiskey for a $10,000 bonus for winning 30 games. “Commie” pointed out that “29 was not 30, Eddie.”

What Eight Men Out illustrates more than anything is the arrogance of baseball players, thinking that they were above the law and would just get away with it. When the jury proudly finds the team not guilty, the eight “Black Sox” all expected to play baseball next season and win the World Series. Instead, the commissioner that the owners put in charge saw it differently and they were banned from baseball.

It’s not only and indictment of what happened in 1919, but it fits with the steroid scandal that took place in baseball a few years ago.

One of the other things that I think Eight Men Out proves is that curses do not exist. The reason I say that is shouldn’t a team that threw the World Series have been damned to baseball hell; instead the White Sox won another World Series in 2005 proving that curses are a farce or more accurately put; an excuse.

The only crime in the banning was that “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and George “Buck” Weaver were banned from baseball. They played their hearts out and were banned for being in on the meetings about throwing the Series.

Everyone’s favorite Tweeter, Charlie Sheen, is more of a supporting character in Eight Men Out, but he has a lead role in the comedy-classic, Major League.

Major League is comedy gold as sports comedies go, and definitely a baseball classic. The new owner of the Cleveland Indians wants to put together a team of has-beens and nobodies to get the attendance under 800,000 to move the team to Miami.

The phone calls that new GM, Charlie Donovan, places to players and potential manager, Lou Brown are comedy gold. I’ve probably seen the movie at least 30 times and still laugh out loud.  “Hey Lou, Charlie Donovan, GM of the Cleveland Indians, how’d you like to manage the Indians this season.”

“Ah, Charlie, I don’t know let me get back to you.”

“It’s a chance to manage in the big leagues!”

“I’ve got a set of white walls to change, I’ll let you know.”

Lou Brown played by James Gannon steals the show, he’s an old school manager who’s managed the Toledo Mud Hens for 30-years. He has the best lines that always are laugh out loud. In a way, the Indians are in the same spot now as they were back in the 80’s when Major League was filmed.

Based on Sheen’s current troubles it’s kind of ironic that his character was in jail when the movie starts.

Again, as in most sports films there’s an underlining theme, and this is the cliché, “there’s a reason they play the games.” This team was assembled to lose and they win the division, not to say that any modern teams have been assembled to lose but there have been some surprises over the years.

Comedy Central is airing Major League next weekend on the 10th and 11th, I suggest you watch if you’re looking for some good laughs.

Thunderstruck

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The White Sox shocked the Cleveland Indians as they came back from a 6-2 deficit in the fifth inning to beat the Indians 8-7 at US Cellular Field. The Indians are to the Sox this year as the Pirates are to the Cubs this year; a team they should beat but can’t seem to win against consistently. It’s really sad we have to get excited over an Indians win, really sad.

The Sox bats knocked around starter Jake Westbrook and the Indians bullpen with another double-digit hitting attack. This has become the most consistent part of the White Sox game at this point in the season, and they’ll need it with the Detroit Tigers coming into town tomorrow night.

Paul Konerko hit his 17th homer run and 41st RBI’s of the season and the hot-hitting Carlos Quentin had a three RBI afternoon for the Sox. Unfortunately, the Sox had to bailout former Sox ace, Mark Buerhle, who only lasted three innings allowing six earned runs. Not good.

A win is a win and we’ll take it anyway we can at this point. It was good enough to gain a game on the Twins and end the weekend on a good vibe. The real challenge is up next, the Detroit Tigers. I’ll be at the game on Wednesday night with Detroit Smitty who will morph into Cubby Smitty by Friday for the Crosstown series at Wrigley. It could be a perfect week, Freddy Garcia win on Wednesday night against the Tigers, Blackhawks win and clinch the Cup as Smitty and I watch the game in the Bullpen Sportsbar, and finally the White Sox pound the crap out the Cubs with home runs by Konerko, Quentin, and Alex Rios. GO SOX!!!! I foreseen it.

Two idiots in la-la land

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Let's dance!

I’m passing out two big idiot awards today from the yesterday’s White Sox/Cleveland game. The winners are umpire, Joe West, and Sox closer, Bob Jenks or should I say “Stenks?” Let’s get to West first.

Joe the game is not about you, it’s about the players and their ability to entertain or disappoint their fans, but you made it about you and that’s wrong. West must have decided when he woke this morning to call a few balks on Mark Buerhle seeing as he has been making the same move to first base for nearly nine years now and has had a total of four balks called since 2001. West dictated the game and might have controlled the outcome by ejecting Buerhle, but four scoreless innings of work from reliever Tony Pena helped lead the Sox to victory and take their second straight series. Unfortunately that would not be done without more drama.

Bobby “Stenks” wobbled into the game with a four-run lead and when the game ended he had a one-run lead. He was up to his old tricks again, letting up hits and walking batters. If the Indians did not sacrifice in the ninth they may have actually won the game. Giving up that out really let Jenks off the hook, thank you. Meanwhile, Matt Thornton pitched another scoreless inning. I think a change is in the near future, and I say if the Philly’s want Jenks,take him.

Maybe “Stenks” can join Country Joe West’s band? Yeah, it has a nice ring to it, Joe West and the Stenks.