No, no, no, wait, wait, waiiittttt,
This is not just a 'Be mad at Robin Ventura' post. The instantaneous outrage and condemnation is what Twitter is for, and we knocked it out of the park. But in identifying a decision-making process as bad, coming across it again, calling it bad again, and repeating ad infinitum, we start to accumulate a lot of words about poor choices without coming particularly close to understanding why they exist.
Read MoreAfter an early-season blitz where everyone on the lineup--except for Alejandro De Aza, who's been Larry Gergich all year--started out smacking homers and piling hits, Conor's start to the season has stretched out beyond the scope of an April hot streak. He's going to finish the month of May hitting over .300. He was hitting .355/.399/.468 after his four-hit Memorial Day special, and he could spend the rest of the year playing to his meh ZiPS and Steamer projection and still finish the season as an above-average hitter.
Read MoreThe 2014 White Sox bullpen has had a revolving door since the beginning of the season. Nate Jones, who came into this year considered to be one of the closer candidates, was the first casualty as he was added to the 60-day disabled list with a hip injury early in April. Lindstrom followed suit and was placed on the disabled list with an ankle injury that requires surgery. He will be out at least three months. As a result, Robin Ventura and his coaching staff have mixed and matched with the remaining relievers, including some pulled from the waiver wire and the minors.
Read MoreBetween the prominent presence of Royals fans in the Internet baseball writing landscape - Joe Posnanski, Rany Jazayerli, Jeff Passan, and Rob Neyer to name a few - the Royals' recent trolling of the White Sox, and my petty schadenfreude when they fail, I have paid a lot of attention to the Royals in the past few years. Dayton Moore has also just been interesting in his own right, making grand proclamations only to backpedal from them as his promises of a winning team in 5-years was then revised to 6, 7, 8 and then 10 years as the Royals kept losing. Moore has his strengths as a GM. He added a lot of talent to the Royals' minor league system* and got a very good return on Zack Greinke from the Brewers. Salvador Perez looks like a nice find, and he's squeezed more value out of Jeremy Guthrie and Bruce Chen than one might anticipate. At the same time, since his hiring in June of 2008, the only hitters on the major league roster who look like they can hack it are (1) Eric Hosmer, a #3 overall draft pick who plays first base and is currently slugging .391; (2) Lorenzo Cain, a player I like a lot, who was part of that Greinke trade I was praising earlier; and (3) Salvador Perez, not necessarily because I think he's a very good hitter, but rather that I think he's a good enough hitter for a good fielding catcher. Otherwise, the offense still largely depends on Alex Gordon and Billy Butler, two guys acquired by Allard Baird before Moore arrived.
Read MoreWe've written quite a bit about the pitching lately, as frankly that has been the most tenuous place on the roster, and the area that is undergoing the most flux. Perhaps, then, this will be a change of pace. The White Sox have played 49 games so far, more than a quarter of the season, and they sit at 24-25.* Although their bats have cooled off from the insane start, they still sit in the top third of the league, 10th overall in wRC+. This is a vast improvement on 29th in the majors in 2013. I decided to poke around at this on a position-by-position basis and see where the improvements had occurred.
Read MoreWith Gordon Beckham, Conor Gillaspie and Adam Eaton returning to health over the last several weeks, the White Sox's lineup appeared to be as healthy as it had been all season (Avisail Garcia notwithstanding). Then, Jose Abreu got hurt and it brought us back to a point where we're still not entirely sure what Robin Ventura's daily lineup will look like when he has a fully healthy starting lineup to work with.
Read MoreIn just under two months of play this season, the White Sox have already been forced to shuffle the roster quite a bit due to both injuries and poor performance. There have been 19 different pitchers and one position player that have pitched for the team. Waiver claim Moises Sierra has even made 11 starts in the outfield due to injury. There are a few guys that have been demoted due to performance who will still be with the team and they each have had a little time to show improvement or decline. Who is taking advantage of this time to get their season straightened out and who hasn't?
Read MoreJames did a great job breaking down the bleak situation the White Sox find themselves in his week in review post yesterday. The picture James paints of the White Sox starting pitching options is pretty grim, and even more troubling is that it is true. The White Sox traded away Hector Santiago, and were relying heavily on the risky trio of John Danks, Erik Johnson, and Felipe Paulino. Unfortunately, Erik Johnson's velocity is gone and they don't know where it went, Paulino was unplayable, and now John Danks is doing his best to push his ERA above 6.00. To make matters worse, half of the two starting pitchers the White Sox have who ARE good, Chris Sale, has been out for over a month now. What now?
Read MoreI initially saw the headline that Sale had struck out eleven batters in his first rehab start since being sent to the DL on April 22. A little more information makes that figure even more impressive - Sale struck out eleven batters in only four innings. Other pieces of context: This was against a AAA team, not your classic High A rehab game where all Sale would have to do is throw a slider anywhere close to the zone and he would annihilate people. On the other hand, this is a AAA team that sent Ray Olmedo of all people to the plate to lead off, so this wasn't exactly the AL All Star team either. What does this mean for Sale and the White Sox going forward?
Read MoreIt's a reasonable request since his bum ankle is a problem that dates as far back as two months ago, and with it, he looks like that super-unathletic, one-dimensional masher we were all warned about. After he cranked his three-run homer in Oakland Wednesday, it looked like Abreu took about 0.8 seconds to revel in his accomplishment, and then set his mind to the grim work to dragging his body around the bases. He should probably take a day.
Read MoreEaton and Semien have lined up No. 1 and No. 2 at the top of the order 21 times this season. In those games, they combined to average 4.08 pitches per plate appearance. For the season total, Semien was out ahead of Eaton into Tuesday, averaging 4.23 to Eaton's 4.12. Semien's mark is in the Top 10 in the American League, whereas Eaton would be filling out the Top 20 if he had enough plate appearances to qualify.
Read MorePerhaps that's because Ramirez's turnaround has been so profound that it's thrown Harrelson more off-kilter than usual. Few things were more steady and pronounced than the decline of Alexei Ramirez's power and the morphing of his approach the past three years. He stopped being able to jump on fastball,s he threw aside forced attempts to become patient at the plate and sold out to just put a weak bat on everything.
Read MoreWhen the White Sox agreed to bring back Paul Konerko on a "last hurrah" contract for 2014, one had to wonder how the roster would fare with three DH/1B types on the roster in Konerko, Adam Dunn and Jose Abreu. (Well, four if you count Dayan Viciedo).
Early-season injuries to Avisail Garcia, Conor Gillaspie and, now, Adam Eaton made that a conundrum earlier than most expected, and when the White Sox played their fourth of 10 games in National League parks Monday against the Cubs, the issue was further magnified.
Read MoreThe end of April and beginning of May were none too kind to the White Sox. After climbing a game above .500 and taking 3-of-4 from the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday, the White Sox promptly dropped four straight to division rivals Detroit and Cleveland before ending their week with a bang, thanks to Dayan Viciedo.
Read MoreThe White Sox have rather brilliantly managed expectations this season. They're a game below .500, their biggest development project of the season didn't survive the first road trip of the year, and their brawny offense also means that a large portion of their losses are of the bullpen meltdown/groinkick variety. And yet, they're regularly, and rightly identified as exciting.
Read MoreThe Catbird Seat staff is often skeptical or pessimistic when it comes to the White Sox, slow to trust positive developments. Even in that company, my cynicism when it comes to Dayan Viciedo is considered a bit extreme. With that in mind, I will do what I can to be even-handed about Mr. Viciedo and his strong April.
Read MoreFor a season that looked like it might see the Sox turn away from Rienzo as a starting option early on, it's now hard to see a scenario that doesn't ask for 20 more starts from him if he's ready and willing to provide it.
Every time I watch Rienzo, I'm struck by how much he looks like a reliever. Not in the way that Wade Davis looks like a reliever, in that he's awful and shouldn't be allowed to start anymore, but that he's effective in bursts. He takes damage as his command lapses and he starts playing too safe with a mix of 89-91 heat and mediocre sliders that don't really afford him the ability to be conservative, and he looks like a impact player when he's riding high on emotion, snapping 12-6 curveballs and smacking his mitt.
Read MoreAt 13-13, the White Sox's winning percentage is an even .500 for the 10th time already this season. At different points during the first four weeks, they've been 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5, 6-6, 8-8, 10-10, 11-11, 12-12 and now 13-13.
That strange fact paints us a picture of a consistently average team. Of course, average is still a gigantic step forward from 2013 and while the team's pitching staff likely prevents the White Sox from being serious playoff contenders in 2014, they've at least been entertaining. Just this past week alone, they've hit two go-ahead grand slams — Marcus Semien's eighth-inning blast against Detroit and Jose Abreu's walk-off winner against Tampa Bay.
Read MoreConor Gillaspie is turning into Matt Davidson soon, Alexei Ramirez could be turning into Marcus Semien, or just older Alexei Ramirez. Carlos Sanchez, Leury Garcia or Micah Johnson could wind up showing more range than Gordon Beckham--a man whose entire reputation is staked on defense--but are hardly replacing Dan Uggla. And while Jose Abreu is a wide-eyed pup compared to Paul Konerko, but is a natural designated hitter.
Read MoreThere's a lot of excitement around Jose Abreu right now, as there should be. Seven home runs is a lot of home runs to hit in one's first month in major league baseball, and Abreu has a week left to work with. His two blasts in Detroit have all been fine examples of where all the money went--both were bombs over the 420-foot sign in Comerica Park's center field; a place where even in the day of every player having home run power, people simply do not hit the ball out of.
Read MoreThe Catbird Seat is a White Sox blog by White Sox fans that focuses on intelligent and humorous baseball commentary. Brought to you by ESPN's SweetSpot Network.
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