The White Sox starting pitching situation is rough. Monday night, they sent out 29-year-old rookie Scott Carroll to get mollywhopped for the third time in a row, and after a defensive breakdown opened up the floodgates for a five-run first, they counted themselves lucky when he got through three more innings with only one more run. It was an improvement over John Danks' outing on Sunday, after all.
Read MorePaul Konerko’s bases-clearing double in the fifth inning gave the White Sox the separation they needed in an 8-3 beat down of the Cubs, the Sox’s third straight over the Northsiders.
Read MoreAfter a pair of subpar outings and general blah results through six starts this season, the White Sox hope John Danks can turn things around as they go for their fourth straight victory and a series win Wednesday against the Chicago Cubs.
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 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 MoreThe matchup can’t be any worse than Leesman v. Verlander now can it? Andre Rienzo’s got an inning’s worth of work this season for the White Sox, not much to go on, but his 13 innings in Charlotte are not encouraging. He’s allowed 15 hits and 7 walks in that time for an ERA of 4.85 that almost exactly matches his short-sample ERA in the big leagues last season of 4.82.
Read MoreThe players are certainly going to try to pretend like last night never happened as they take the field, and I’m going to do the same. You know, off the field. There are good things to look at here. Namely, Jose Quintana’s excellent beginning of the season and the prospects of it continuing. He’s walking batters a bit more than usual than other than that he’s been at or better than the rates from 2013 in the major categories, including the most important, run prevention.
Read MoreThe White Sox have scored 7 or more runs in 5 different games already this year. They only managed 7 runs total in a 3-game series with the Red Sox. Once clearly on top of the league for offensive production, a lesson in small sample size comes by way of 3 offensively inept games, pushing the Sox down to a second place tie in wRC+ with the Anaheim Angels. They’re going to need an offense today when Felipe Paulino takes the mound.
Read MoreA day after the atrocity that is the White Sox bullpen used up every last pitch in its arsenal in a 6-4, 14-inning loss to the Red Sox, Chris Sale takes the mound in hopes of avoiding the shenanigans that led to that embarrassing conclusion.
Leury Garcia is starting at second base and will likely be unavailable in relief for tonight's 7:10 rubber match against Jon Lester and the Boston Red Sox, but one can rightly assume Daniel Webb, fresh off of a gutsy, 59-pitch performance as the only actual arm left in the bullpen, won't be.
Read MoreSince dropping the finale of their season-opening series against Minnesota, the White Sox have not strayed more than a game above or below .500 through 13 games.
They can break away from that stretch on Tuesday when they welcome the defending World Series champion Boston Red Sox for the first of a three-game series at U.S. Cellular Field.
Read More"Everybody wants to ramp up to Opening Day, but the season is a long season, so you can't really look at it like that, unfortunately,"
Read MoreMuch of the excitement leading up to the 2014 season has been built around anticipation for the young building blocks Rick Hahn acquired over the past six months.
In Jose Abreu, Adam Eaton, Avisail Garcia and pretty soon Matt Davidson, the White Sox have players fans can get excited to watch develop over the course of the next season and beyond.
The development of those four, as well as the likes of Erik Johnson and Marcus Semien, will be a major factor in whether 2014 is viewed as a success or failure. But while how those guys fare is key in shaping the team for success in 2015, 2016 and beyond, the team's success or failure in 2014 will largely be shaped by the performances of the incumbents.
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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