Race To The Bottom: Diamondbacks Stand In The Way

With the White Sox BASICALLY out of contention, every Monday and Thursday until the end of the regular season, we'll take a quick peek at where the White Sox stand in their 2016 MLB Draft position. The draft position is important for two reasons:

The first, very obvious reason is that the higher you pick, the better the talent pool you have to choose from. The second, slightly less obvious reason is that if the White Sox pick in the Top 10, they can sign free agents who are issued qualifying offers without forfeiting a first round draft pick.

We saw this work in the team's favor last season as they signed premium free agents Melky Cabrera and David Robertson and only had to sacrifice picks in the second and third rounds because their draft position was No. 8 overall.

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Race To The Bottom: Sweeping Away Top 10 Position

With the White Sox BASICALLY out of contention, every Monday and Thursday until the end of the regular season, we'll take a quick peek at where the White Sox stand in their 2016 MLB Draft position.

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Top Hitter/Pitcher Pairs in MLB- numbers 21-30

As I introduced on Tuesday, I will be ranking position player-pitcher in the coming few days. Today, I will be ranking the bottom 10. Of note is this list features some really good players, and sometimes even really good pairs. This is decent evidence of the distribution of talent in baseball- even some of the worst teams, like Arizona, Colorado, and Houston, have at least one really good player. But enough preface, now I present the bottom ten pairs in all of baseball:

30: Arizona Diamondbacks, Josh Collmenter/Paul Goldschmidt:

As I was saying, there are some really good players on bad teams. Paul Goldschmidt is really, really good, a borderline MVP candidate in each of the last two years. The problem with this pair is quite obvious-Josh Collmenter really nothing special. That said, he’s the team’s opening day starter, and until Patrick Corbin returns from Tommy John surgery, half of the worst pair in baseball.

29. Minnesota Twins, Phil Hughes/Brian Dozier:

Whereas the Diamondbacks have great disparity between their two frontrunners, the each of the Twins pair are similar in their level of talent. While both Huges and Dozier are perfectly serviceable players, neither is really anything special, not as the star of a team. Like many things in Minnesota, there’s nothing special about this group, but a future pairing of Byron Buxton and Alex Meyer may have the mouths of Twins fans salivating.

28. Colorado Rockies, Jorge De La Rosa/Troy Tulowitzki:

This is another pair like the Diamondbacks in that it has one superstar and one meh pitcher. Tulowitzki is of course awesome; if he had stayed healthy he would possibly have won the MVP over Clayton Kershaw last year. De La Rosa is a totally serviceable pitcher, certainly, but nothing about him stands out, especially as he continues to age. Jonathan Gray and Eddie Butler being on the horizon could have this pair looking up as well.

27. Atlanta Braves, Craig Kimbrel/Freddie Freeman:

The choice of best Braves pitcher was interesting. Julio Teheran is a really awesome young pitcher who, with another step forward could reach quite a lofty ceiling. That said, Craig Kimbrel is in the midst of a stretch of seasons as good as any reliever in baseball. He’s flat out unhittable out of the back of the bullpen. Now, that said, he’s still a reliever, which is why this pair ranks so low.

26. Milwaukee Brewers, Matt Garza/Carlos Gomez:

Carlos Gomez is a really cool player, one of the most fun to watch in baseball. Matt Garza is basically the opposite.

25. Baltimore Orioles, Chris Tillman/Adam Jones:

There really aren’t many players in baseball as fun as Adam Jones. He has, somewhat surprisingly, become a consistent 30 homerun threat while playing solid centerfield defense. Between him, Manny Machado, Matt Wieters, and JJ Hardy, the Orioles have a lot of fun players on offense. Their pitching could limit their chances of repeating as AL East chance, with Tillman leading an overall lackluster group. Kevin Gausman taking a next step could do wonders for the team and possible future iterations of this list.

24. Houston Astros, Dallas Keuchel/Jose Altuve:

Jose Altuve has quickly transformed from sort of a gimmick to one of the game’s elite players. Keuchel took a drastic leap forward himself, and with steady gains, could cause the Astros to rise a lot on this list.

23. Kansas City Royals, Yordano Venture/Alex Gordon:

Losing James Shields hurts the defending AL champs both in their 2015 playoff hopes and on this list. Yordano Ventura has the potential to be a really fun pitcher, but still is more flash than success. If he takes that next step, though, he could ascend to among the game’s best pitchers.

22. Boston Red Sox, Rick Porcello/Hanley Ramirez:

Rick Porcello is a really solid pitcher, and therefore doesn’t do justice how bad the Red Sox rotation is. That said, Ramirez and the offense could be awesome, and in many ways this team could be a more extreme version of the aforementioned Orioles.

21. New York Yankees, Masahiro Tanaka/Brett Gardner:

Masahiro Tanaka’s awesomeness is a testament to how high the Yankees are on this list. Brett Gardner is a really solid player, but hardly up to par for the title of Top Yankees Position Player. If the Yankees miss the playoffs for a third straight year, it’ll be in large part because of a lack of positional star power (if they make it, hopefully it’s on the back of a 50-dinger year from A-Rod Tha Gawd). 

White Sox Offense Thwarted By Some Dude

The White Sox's offense against the Diamondbacks' pitching staff seemed, on paper, like a recipe for a series victory. But for the second straight day that offense flailed away to no avail, this time against a 26-year-old rookie making his Major League debut in Chase Anderson.

Anderson held the Sox to one run on two hits in 5.1 innings as Arizona beat the White Sox 5-1 to take 2-of-3 in the series.

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Quiet Sox bats rob Quintana of a shot at another no-decision

Mandated by law to stay within arms-length of .500 at all times, Sox hitting was just a shade too Paul Konerko-reliant Saturday night vs. Arizona. The elder statesmen/captain/legal guardian vaulted the Sox back into the game with his first home run--a two-run blast--of the season in the fifth, but grounded out with the tying run on second to end it in a 4-3 defeat.

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Quintana v. Miley - Game Preview & Lineups 5/10

After a tough stretch against the Rangers, Tigers, and Red Sox, the White Sox have had a chance to pad their win total against the Cubs and Diamondbacks -- two of the weakest teams in all of baseball. Tonight the White Sox have a chance to go 2-games above .500 for the first time since April 2nd. However, although the Diamondbacks have been horrible this year,  Arizona's offense has been bad, but ordinary bad (25th or so in the majors). The main culprit has been their pitching staff as they are the only team in the majors to have allowed more than 200 runs. Therefore, on nights where they get a decent pitching performance they can be a tough opponent.

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Sox roll past Diamondbacks with huge 4th inning

As it turns out, all the White Sox needed to break out of their offensive "slump" was a visit from old friend Brandon McCarthy and the worst-record-in-baseball Arizona Diamondbacks as the White Sox used a big fourth inning to cruise to a 9-3 victory Friday night at U.S. Cellular Field.

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Remember Brandon McCarthy? - Game Preview & Lineups 5/9

Do you remember Brandon McCarthy?

You probably do, as if you're on this website and reading this article you're probably pretty well-educated about recent White Sox history. But in case you're not, here's a little refresher on the pitcher the White Sox will face when they open up a three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks Friday night at U.S. Cellular Field.

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