Adam LaRoche needs to keep walking

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Stashed away in the loathsome wilderness of the National League for all of his 11 years in the majors, Adam LaRoche has been more or less interchangeable in my consciousness with Nate McLouth, Nuke LaLoosh, Chesty LaRue, The Mighty Boosh, and Lyle Overbay. And yet, he's been plugging away as the typical adequate hitting first baseman we theorize about but never pay to watch. He owns a career .263/.340/.472, 113 wRC+ batting line that he's jumped back and forth across like a metronome. 

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The Catbird Speaks 10.1.14 - This is going to sound dumb in the morning

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Most of the gang got together--James Fegan (@JRFegan), Nick Schaefer (@Nick_TCS) and Matt Adams (@2015WhiteSox)--to wrap up the last threads of the 2014 White Sox season, talk about Paul Konerko's goodbye, other weird stories about the Sox roster usage, mourn the bullpen, pine for Melky Cabrera in free agency and...

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White Sox purge more remnants of old, failed core

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Typically, August 31 is not a frenzied rush of trades, but when it comes to trading half-useful veterans to contenders with part-time roles to fill, the White Sox were all over it, moving both Alejandro De Aza and Adam Dunn for minor league arms within the same 24-hour period. 

The results are rather strange.

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White Sox Trade Adam Dunn To Oakland

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Well, that didn't take long. The only guy who wasn't going to be around on his current contract with the White Sox next season was traded at the absolute last minute for them to do so. Adam Dunn's contract didn't work out the way the team hoped it would, and he was overpaid over the four years, but that doesn't mean he was terrible. After his historically terrible 2011, Dunn managed an OPS+ of 111 over the next three years. Not great, but playable. Now he goes to Oakland to help revitalize their stuttering offense, and hopefully will succeed with them.

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Important stuff (if any) from a 7-2 loss in Detroit

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Classic Noesi! He completely demolished any notion of a competitive game after seven batters, then wind up sopping up six innings and still earning plaudits for perseverance in the end. It was his Sox career in a nutshell. He was bad and didn't give the team a good chance to win, but saved them stress they couldn't afford by not forcing them to find a replacement. When the opposition scores six runs in the first seven batters, you start telling the utility infielders to get their arms warm, but it didn't happen! It didn't happen. We're so blessed.

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Trade deadline angst roundtable thread

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I’ve been preparing myself for this reality for a while now. I wouldn’t be totally bummed if the White Sox don’t go into complete “fire-sale” mode. If you can’t get anything for Dayan Viciedo or Gordon Beckham, it doesn’t make sense to trade them just for the sake of trading them. And you can always try to make something work in the offseason. But in the case of Adam Dunn, not dealing him would perplex me to no end.

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Important stuff from Chris Sale Day, a 7-0 victory over the Twins

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When the Twins announced they were giving left-hander Logan Darnell on Saturday against the White Sox's Chris Sale, one could reasonably assume they were essentially doing the real-life equivalent of pressing the "sim game" button on this one.

But the games are played for a reason, and Saturday night's showdown went, well, about as one would've expected as Sale and the Sox cruised to a 7-0 victory, their third straight in the Twin Cities.

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The Shifting Market for Dunn & Danks

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I keep returning to this subject, because to me it seems so obvious that Dunn should be traded. He's hitting a solid .229/.366/.440 on the year, good for an OPS+ of 124. He's 5th in the majors in pitches seen per plate appearance.* He's also going to be a free agent this offseason, there's no way the White Sox make him a qualifying offer in an attempt to gain a draft pick, and the White Sox probably aren't making the playoffs this year. Despite all of this, I haven't heard as many trade rumblings about Dunn as I might have thought.

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Important stuff from Thursday's 5-2 win in Twinland

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What can I say about tonight's Hector Noesi start in Minnesota that's more telling than this: it prompted a discussion about Zach Stewart's near-perfect game against the Twins in 2011. Noesi retired the first 11 batters he faced, and took a one-hit shutout into the eighth. He did this mostly via flyouts. Long flyouts, medium-length flyouts, not so many short flyouts, and one swinging strikeout, which came against Danny Salazar, who later blasted an enormous two-run homer off Noesi in the eighth, his only runs allowed. You have to throw strikes to do this kind of work, and Noesi did that,  which beats the pants off the time he walked seven people in under five innings. 

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Important stuff from Tuesday's 7-1 drubbing at the hands of the Royals

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Five innings worth of a crisply pitched game is lot of innings. It's most of the game, even! It's certainly plenty to ask of Scott Carroll. But as Carroll snuck out of the fifth inning, throwing something that vaguely resembled a wipeout slider but obviously couldn't be, it was obvious that the Sox were not preparing the calvary to rescue Carroll at the first spot of trouble--as they have none--and instead hoping to stretch Carroll out for as long as he could go.

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The Catbird Speaks - 6.30.14: It's an intervention!

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James Fegan, Nick Schaefer and Collin Whitchurch sat down for a Sunday night gabfest on the White Sox. Our slated topics of conversation were Carlos Rodon's negotiations, the ever-changing bullpen, the fifth starter conundrum, trade deadline goals and target, and what to do about the corner outfield slots. See how close we stuck to the agenda!

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A Chris Sale Day that barely needed its namesake

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It 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.

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Re-Visiting Adam Dunn's Trade Market

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James 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.

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Third straight dominant John Danks start gives Sox series victory

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I don't understand what John Danks is doing. And I am becoming increasingly of the opinion that I do not want to. Squinting at an illusion forever seems like a good way to make it go away. Danks' stuff hasn't found great newfound life. His control has improved but he walked three batters Thursday. He's just unhittable now, and the more people stay ignorant as to why, the better.

Behind Danks' one run allowed over 7.1 innings, the Sox were able to skip their way out of Chavez Ravine with a series victory, despite having two solo home runs as their only offense.

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Please let Hector Noesi screw this game up for himself - Lineups & Preview

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I don't care about Hector Noesi's success as much as Jose Quintana's. I don't care as much about this game as the thrill of flipping a Clayton Kershaw perfecto into a Jose Abreu triumph, and I cannot possibly have my defensive expectation trashed by an outfield with Dayan Viciedo and Adam Dunn in it. There are no walls to break down tonight.

Do your worst, baseball!!

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Rienzo Falls Victim to Luck, Himself, Tanaka

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Andre Rienzo has had worse starts than the outing he put together in Sunday's 7-1 loss to the Yankees, but the numbers might not necessarily show it.

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Hoping For More From Danks - Game Preview & Lineups 5/24

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Adam Dunn's ninth-inning blast gave the White Sox their second straight win over the Yankees on Friday night and the team has won four of five overall to climb back to .500 once again. Saturday, the White Sox will look to climb above that mark for the first time since May 9 and it will take an improved effort from John Danks to do so in the 1:10 p.m. tilt at U.S. Cellular Field.

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Walk-off blast from Adam Dunn caps night of comebacks

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If someone had to show one clip of the Sox 6-5 win over the Yankees, they would undoubtedly go with Adam Dunn pulverizing an 0-2 fastball from David Robertson for a two-run walk-off home run. They'd show slow-mos of Dunn's swing, they'd flash to how Robertson threw both his arms up in frustration immediately after contact, and they would call it a night, and it would be fine. In terms of video, drama, and just win probability, this is the moment to highlight.

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What's the ideal White Sox lineup?

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With 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.

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White Sox get just enough of everything to take second straight over Royals

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Pitching, hitting and defense—the White Sox did just enough of all three to beat the Royals 7-6 for their second-straight victory over their divisional foes.

Offensively, the top of the order consistently got on base, as Gordon Beckham and Conor Gillaspie collected a combined six hits and scored four runs.  Each of them scored on Adam Dunn’s three-run home run in the eighth inning, which extended the White Sox lead at the time to 7-2.

Andre Rienzo had a quality start, allowing only two earned runs on five hits in six innings.  Rienzo also struck out eight, while walking just two Royals hitters.  The outing brought Rienzo’s season ERA down to 4.00 and raised his record to an unblemished 4-0.

Young phenom Yordano Ventura pitched for the Royals and the four earned runs he gave up over six innings matches his season-high.  Ventura allowed seven hits, while only striking three White Sox hitters.

“Fresh” off a two-inning appearance last night, Zach Putnam pitched out of a jam in the eighth inning to help preserve a two-run lead going into the ninth inning.

Putnam was helped out on a spectacular defensive play from Alexei Ramirez, who robbed Norichika Aoki of an RBI single.  Ramirez threw out Aoki from his knees on a ground ball in the hole.

The dramatic anticipation of who would be the White Sox closer after Matt Lindstrom was placed on the 15-day disabled list lasted only one night as Ronald Belisario struck out Lorenzo Cain with the tying run on second base to preserve the one-run victory.

The White Sox go for the sweep tomorrow and a chance to return to breakeven on the season when Jose Quintana opposes Jeremy Guthrie at 7:10 PM.