Early Friday, news broke that Cuban slugger Yasmani Tomas defected and will soon be free to sign with any Major League club.
Given the White Sox's current influx of Cuban nationals on their current roster (five), as well as the success of their most recent import, Jose Abreu, one has to wonder if they'll be among the bidders for Tomas' service.
Read MoreThe monumental sea change that the Sox ninth inning comeback offered proved to be just a passing wave. After Adam Eaton's RBI double against the platoon advantage in the ninth tied an otherwise dispiriting game at 4, two Daniel Webb walks proved one too many, and a walk-off Brian Dozier single off Ronald Belisario sent the Minnesotans home happy in the bottom half with a 5-4 win in a game the Twinkies mostly dominated.
Read MoreIt seemed like a good time to face the Twins. They opened their rainy ballpark to the White Sox as owners of a 5-game losing streak and were kind enough to run some middle-aged rookie out to the mound. The Sox just don’t know a good thing when they see it. With the opening game dropped they have 3 more games to make good on their trip, which is very much advised because a series loss means they’ll find themselves sitting in last place just in time for a trip through the AL East where heavier competition awaits.
Read MoreI could try to take heart in that this ballot doesn't promise to actually determine who participates in the Home Run Derby, but since it represents who the MLB thinks fans want to see, there's only so much comfort.
Read MoreThe eighth inning did not go so smoothly for the White Sox in Minnesota, to be honest. There are quibbles, per usual, with sticking with Jake Petricka with no help throughout the tailspin that decided the game, sticking with him as he faced Joe Mauer with the go-ahead run on third, sticking with him after Mauer had doubled the Twins ahead, sticking him as the whiff-starved reliever faced a bases loaded scenario, and sticking with him as moths descended on Target Field to devour the populace as their home team won 4-2.
Read MoreThe White Sox's offense was impressive in a brief two-game series against the National League's best.
Facing Matt Cain and Tim Hudson, the White Sox managed 15 runs in a pair of victories against the San Francisco Giants, a welcomed rebound from last weekend's sweep at the hands of the suddenly juggernaut Kansas City Royals. (Wait, what?)
What looms ahead as the White Sox look to claw their way back to the .500 mark is an 11-game road trip that begins at 7:10 p.m. Thursday night against the Minnesota Twins and Yohan Pino, a 30-year-old Venezuelan making his Major League debut.
Read MoreWith a 5th playoff spot in each league and with each league generally bunched up around the middle, we find ourselves slowly closing in on what should be an interesting trade deadline. Some teams, the White Sox included, may have to make some hard decisions about their prognosis for the second half of 2014. And at this point with only Tampa Bay, San Diego, Arizona, and Houston looking definitely dead at this point - okay, probably Minnesota, the Cubs, the Mets, and the Phillies too - the pieces that will be on the trade market is still unclear. And even though David Price has been the subject of trade rumors for forever now, his market is shaping out in pretty weird fashion. Where do the White Sox fit in?
Read MoreIt takes a lot to take the focus of a Chris Sale Day--now a branded event---off of Chris Sale. In this case, Jose Abreu and Adam Dunn wrested the focus way with over 770 feet of damage and five RBI generated from their two home runs, both on 0-2 counts to power the Sox to a 7-6 victory, and a two-game sweep from the team hosting the best record in baseball.
Read MoreIn a surprise twist of fate, Tyler Flowers has not become a scrappy, high-average hitter by simply willing it. His adjustments were championed, and acknowledged even here, that I donno, something's working, when Flowers was hitting .373/.413/.440 through April 28.
The very clear warning signs were present in hilariously obvious degrees (36.3% strikeout rate, .600 BABIP), but he was doinking singles. Maybe he would keep doinking singles after the magic died.
Instead, Flowers is looking to have normalized his numbers by the All-Star break. He's hitting .165/.248/.303 since April 28, striking out over 40% of the time with a .255 BABIP. Flowers can't cover the strike zone, make consistent contact due to the hitch in his swing, and only possesses a good batting eye and enviable strength. At least he started using that a bit.
Read MoreThe scuffling White Sox, losers of four-straight and seven of nine, welcomed the best team in baseball Tuesday, who would start former NL Cy Young winner Matt Cain against surgically-repaired John Danks. Hunter Pence clobbered the fourth pitch of the night for a home run, and he sense of an oncoming butt-whupping was palpable, we got one.
Read MoreThe Giants don’t come to US Cellular Field very often. In fact it’s been over a decade. In 2003 in their only trip to the Southside the Giants handled the White Sox with relative ease, scoring 22 runs in 3 games off the likes of Jon Garland, Bartolo Colon and Mark Buehrle. Barry Bonds hit a HR in each game, making for a pretty clean HR/Game ratio in our humble home park. Only one player remains on either team from those games, and the White Sox captain is not in the lineup the evening.
Read MoreGwynn, was more simply, and more purely, a collection of right decisions and humming execution. The elaborate lie that a pitcher crafts on each lunge to the plate, Gwynn processed it immediately, determined the appropriate action and saw that it got done. Then he could step off the field and tell you what he did. The impossible, endless mystery of baseball that was poeticized by our elders as something you could spend your life exploring, Gwynn treated like a telegram that was just waiting to be read aloud.
Read MoreLast week started out in very promising fashion. Monday saw a thriller where the Tigers kept coming back, but the White Sox had an answer every time, holding on to win 6-5. The next night the offense lit up Justin Verlander, pulling the squad back to .500 once again and back to within 2.5 games of the first place Tigers. It prompted James to question whether the team hadn't played their way into thinking that they should be buyers at the deadline in what was supposed to be a rebuilding year. Then the next four games happened.
Read MoreHector Noesi actually looked pretty good to start the game on Saturday. He had a very clear plan the first time through the lineup, getting ahead of hitters on strike one, sitting about 92, and then attacking very aggressively once getting to two strikes, dialing it up to 94-95, going up and in on righties, and sweeping his breaking stuff everywhere. At first he only allowed a few unlucky hits on weak contact that went for no damage. Then the fourth inning was a combination of poor control by Noesi, atrocious defense (a Leury Garcia error and a Dayan Viciedo-it-wasn't-called-an-official-error-but-he-messed-up) meant the Royals would put up a 5-spot. Danny Duffy was on his game and that was far more than he would need.
Read MoreFriday the 13th is supposed to be unlucky. Jeremy Guthrie destroys the White Sox. One had hoped that these two things together would cancel each other out and Chicago would once again pull to .500. Those hopes were immediately dashed as Quintana started the game by allowing five straight hits, and the game was instantly out of reach. Jeremy Guthrie, who has been coasting with a K-rate below 5 for years now, struck out 9 batters and easily protected the lead he was staked.
Read MoreA good laugh was had by all this week at the continuing and well-documented decline of Justin Verlander. It's more than a guilty pleasure. Verlander has terrorized the division nearly relentlessly since his full-season debut in 2006.
Watching him struggle is not just thrilling because it's like watching the laws of physics lapse, but it hints that life may be moving forward from the prolonged stretch of the Tigers basing yearly contention around two superstars. Miguel Cabrera and Verlander have both exited their 20's, and exited anything resembling affordability, and have the Tigers chasing diminishing returns with less funds to spread around elsewhere. And despite their very genuine and well-funded efforts, the Tigers could pass through the primes of these two MVP winners without a World Series championship.
Read MoreWell, you can't face Justin Verlander every night.
One night after rudely banishing the old lion of the Central into further ignominy, the White Sox offense...well, didn't do enough to fill out a sentence. To talk about the bottom half of the innings Thursday night, besides to wonder if the producers had time to breath before throwing it to commercial, is to talk about Max Scherzer, since he was one doing the work.
Read MoreOh the billed pitcher’s duel. We look at calendars and try to figure out when they might be upon us so that we can clear our schedules and watch two masters of the crafts go at it, knowing that in the end one man’s squad must emerge victorious. Rainouts, skipped starts, blisters, all sorts of tiny little items can wreak havoc on pitching schedules and ruin what we clamor for. But tonight we get one. We get Chris Sale vs. Max Scherzer. Could-have-been reigning Cy Young vs. actual reigning Cy Young.
Read MoreJames already did a lovely assessment of the White Sox' current awkward position of "mediocre team that's kind of hanging around, and has non-crazy reasons to think it might hang around, but really should just consolidate and go for it next year." Unless the White Sox do ultimately decide that they're really going for it this year, there is one player that it is pretty much unanimous should be traded: Adam Dunn.
Read MoreWhen it comes to coping and pitching with mounting physical decline, it would appear experience matters.
Now four games into his mystifying turnaround from the brink of utter useless, John Danks danced around hard contact with great economy (7 IP, 93 pitches), while Verlander, pounding his head against the wall with diminishing stuff that neither overwhelms nor tempts like it used, couldn't stopping digging his way to disaster in the sixth inning, allowing the Sox to rip open an easy 8-2 victory over the division-leading Tigers.
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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