The trade deadline passed and the White Sox did … nothing.
Unless you’re one to get worked up over the acquisition of a minor league infielder, all the rumors that have been bantered about over the past several weeks resulted in nothing.
And you know what? That’s OK.
Read MoreIn sum, Thursday was not a good day for the White Sox, but it takes a lot of context to understand why. Let's recap!
Read MoreI suppose the important element of the past 24 hours as far as a White Sox blog is concerned, is that for the third night in a row the White Sox stepped on the field at Fenway Park, and instantly overwhelmed the Red Sox. They battered their pitching relentlessly, trashed their bullpen for the next night (Rick Porcello left in the third), and improbably climbed another game closer to the Wild Card slot.
Read MoreWe’re just a few days away from the non-waiver trade deadline, and the White Sox have yet to make any significant moves (unless you count Conor, sorry James), nor have they tipped their hand on whether they will be sellers or not. Yesterday’s report that they would wait until after the current series against the Red Sox to determine their trade deadline fate has us all anxiously waiting to see if something, anything, is done between now and Friday.
Read MoreMake that 36 runs over five wins to start this road trip. It's been said about past iterations, but the ruin of the Sox did not come due to their inability or unwillingness to slay the bums of the league. Just as they revitalized themselves in May with a six-game win streak largely on the backs of the Brewers and the A's, they have launched a five-game streak off the backs of the sloppy Indians and now a hapless Red Sox team. The Sox offense has it struggles, but let it be known, after this 10-8 slugfest, the Sox can score runs against teams that are hopeless at run prevention.
Read MoreFirst of all, get these Cleveland clowns up out of here. In a four-game sweep of their division rivals, the White Sox got a long look at their spiritual twins. The Indians came into the year with a brawny rotation that prompted many--including most all of the TCS staff--to pick them to win the AL Central, only for them to be undermined by awful defense and abandoned by several black holes on offense. Just like the Sox, higher early ERAs than expected for big-time starters Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar offered some optimism for a recovery, but this team looks like it's on the express train to nowhere, or stranded in the lost city of Brohio, or whatever expression you want to deploy for a 75-win season.
Read MoreComing out of the All Star Break, the White Sox went 1-5 against the Royals and Cardinals, while averaging three runs a game on offense. As they stared at 42-50 with a -81 run differential on the season, there wasn’t much reason for optimism as they started a 4-game set in Cleveland against the likes of Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer, Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar.
Read MoreCan we talk about Jose Abreu again? It's bad, and it's painful, and there's clearly something wrong, and he's being relentlessly jammed by anyone and everyone. But worse yet, even holding out for him to run into one--which seems like the only benefit to forcing out a clearly slumping and ailing star--is misguided, because his hand isn't healthy enough to stay through anything.
Read MoreThe Sox killed off the last traces of their optimism with a bad series against Kansas City, where their putrid offense, awful baserunning and shaky managing were all on full display.
Read MoreDespite all indications all-season long that the Sox are one of the least likely teams to sustain a great, redeeming second-half run (they can't score!), many looked for this now departed four-game series with the Royals for a telling assessment of their worth as a franchise.
Read MoreCaveat: I have been told I am of the dour persuasion when it comes to my fandom. But the silver lining to, "Man, this team hasn't looked like a competitor this year," should not be, "Well, even if they were a competitor, Ventura would just sabotage them anyway."
Read MoreUh, where is Chris Sale? He last started on Saturday, so regular rest would have meant starting on Thursday, he didn't pitch in that All-Star Game--not sure if we mentioned that--but he's not on the announced slate of pitchers for the Kansas City series thus far.
Read MoreThe day after the All Star Game is always so brutal as a baseball fan. No games — not even a home run derby to entertain us. We aren’t close enough to the trade deadline to see any deals, and so the only option seems to do a general assessment of what the second half has in store.
Read MoreDespite this year's somewhat embarrassing one representative showing, the White Sox have not been invisible in recent All-Star Games. There's a history, and it's a proud one.
Read MoreNow that we've had an extra day to be lazy and not write...
Read MoreWhen discussing Jeff Samardzija's future with the Sox at the beginning of the season, we had to consider three scenarios: the Sox would be able to extend him and he would be the right-handed power arm in the middle of the starting rotation for years to come, or they would have to satisfy themselves with focusing on this year's playoff chase and try to get a compensation pick or see if a qualifying offer could drive his price down.
Or, there was the distant possibility that the season would be a total bust and they would have to try to sadly flip him back out for diminishing returns as a half-season rental.
Welcome to Door No. 3!
Read MoreMark Primiano joins James and Matt to talk about the White Sox hot stretch and what to expect moving forward. Also: Horse talk!
Read MoreJust for novelty's sake, playing a long, sloppy game where the offense bails everyone out is a lot more fun than it has a right to be. Adam Eaton's surprisingly annihilated (okay, just 398-feet, but this is not a large dude) walk-off bomb ended a 7-6 slugfest the featured 16 Sox hits, and broke their 24-game streak of home games with four runs or less.
Read More"Jose Quintana deserves so much better" is an annoying trope that the Sox can't help but keep fulfilling. It smacks of reverence for the win stat, but Quintana is a competitor--it might be one of his strongest traits--who strives to win the game for his team, and clubbing him over the head with negative reinforcement constantly is increasingly gruesome to watch.
Read MoreWhat a rapturous night of pitching and baseball. The Chris Sale vs. Mark Buehrle matchup lived up to hype in the most brisk and watchable way, with the former matching the latter penchant for quick innings and soft contact. The momentary horror that the Blue Jays aggressive approach would (and it did) spell doom for Chris Sale's double-digit strikeout streak was ameliorated by sharply played competitive sprint the Sox engaged the Blue Jays in while a very feisty crowd of just under 25,000 watched.
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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