September 14, 2015

Race To The Bottom: Diamondbacks Stand In The Way

September 14, 2015/ Collin Whitchurch

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.

September 07, 2015

Race To The Bottom: Sweeping Away Top 10 Position

September 07, 2015/ Collin Whitchurch

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.

August 25, 2015

TCS Morning 10: Will Jeff Samardzija have a lower ERA than John Danks?

August 25, 2015/ James Fegan

I do not covet watching this man pitch anymore. The rippling thrills of watching Jeff Samardzija vaporize the first two hitters of an inning with electric stuff in the mid-90s that wiggles in every direction, and follow it up by drilling some dude in the ribs, then backing up a couple sliders and giving up three runs in a matter of minutes, well, it has dissipated over the last few months, I must say. All it takes is a few pitches to see the enormous potential sitting on Samardzija's broad shoulders. But it's the end of August, the team is bad, and he's 30. Who cares what he can do? How many more of these almost-good starts do I have to watch?

July 30, 2015

TCS Morning 10: Trade deadline gets intense as White Sox keep winning

July 30, 2015/ James Fegan

I 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.

July 28, 2015

TCS Morning 10: Winning makes future murkier

July 28, 2015/ James Fegan

Make 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.

April 06, 2015

The Catbird Seat's 2015 MLB Season Predictions

April 06, 2015/ The Catbird Seat

Sick of reading what other people think is going to happen this season?

Yes? Oh, well this is awkward...

February 23, 2015

Every team in the AL sucks

February 23, 2015/ Ethan Spalding

Heading into the 2015 regular season, it seems that most every American League team fancies themselves as a contender. As I’ve talked about earlier, this center-heavy distribution of talent should have interesting implications on the playoff race. This post is not about that. This post is me being a mean person who sees the flaws in everything. This post is about how every team in the American League will finish below .500, mathematical impossibilities be damned*.

July 12, 2014

A.J. Pierzynski and the Boston Narrative Sox

July 12, 2014/ Mark Primiano

One of the earliest things you learn as a baseball fan growing up in Chicago is the power of narrative. Not so much for the White Sox, who seemed to appropriately blame bad seasons on either bad players or the team playing poorly. No, this was more of a Cubs thing. They were destined to fail because their storied past said so, never mind poor roster development or overpaying for underperforming.

July 10, 2014

Strong Quintana start spoiled, comeback spoiled, afternoon spoiled

July 10, 2014/ James Fegan

Perfect baseball moments seem to make a point of creeping in out of nowhere, to the point where perfect setups should be looked at suspiciously.

Jose Quintana cruising with a perfect game through five innings against a sleepy Boston offense, in the afternoon hour so that the baseball world could gaze upon him and wonder how he missed All-Star attention? Too perfect.

Conor Gillaspie pinch-hitting hopelessly in the ninth inning against Koji Uehara with a runner on and down two in the ninth? Just random enough.

July 09, 2014

Bullpen blows four-run eighth inning lead in loss to Red Sox

July 09, 2014/ James Fegan

Well, many White Sox fans would probably describe the end of Wednesday night's game as "upsetting."

The White Sox were again betrayed by their bullpen, which when asked to get four outs with a 4-0 lead delivered by Chris Sale, delivered a 5-4 walk-off loss in Boston after getting just two. Worse yet, the heartbreak came at the hands of two relievers Robin Ventura was hoping he could start to trust.

July 09, 2014

This needs to be said: Forget about an A.J. reunion

July 09, 2014/ Collin Whitchurch

The moment it happened I knew it was coming. It shouldn't be worth addressing and, yet, it is.

July 07, 2014

Defending World Series champs helpless against Scott Carroll

July 07, 2014/ James Fegan

If we take the last two weeks of play as representative, the White Sox rotation is absolutely aces, and Dayan Viciedo is a power-slugging monster. But I'm still not sure if that provides solace to the Red Sox, who were non-existent in an easy-breezy 4-0 romp in Fenway Park.

April 21, 2014

Week in Review: Pitching & Moaning

April 21, 2014/ Collin Whitchurch

Two victories bookended the White Sox's first significant losing streak of the season in a week that further highlighted the team's pitching woes.

April 17, 2014

Free Passes Give Free Win to Red Sox

April 17, 2014/ Matt Adams

Over 5 hours of walks, occasional run scoring, and a position player pitching ultimately resulted in the White Sox dropping a 14-inning affair by the score of 6-4 to the Red Sox. Pitching started out surprisingly effective before winding up familiarly awful, and a barrage of walks was too much to overcome as the series evens up at a game a piece.

April 16, 2014

Getting the Offense Back - Game Preview & Lineups 4/16

April 16, 2014/ Matt Adams

The second lowest run output for the White Sox in 2014 resulted in a win. If one was to bet money, it would have been placed on Chris Sale or Jose Quintana being part of the game story for such a contest. Instead it was Erik Johnson pulling it together, and tonight we hope for another back-end starter to put together enough effective innings to keep the bullpen sharp and effective.

April 15, 2014

Walk-Off Error Seals Victory as Johnson Shines

April 15, 2014/ Rob Flot

This game was all about the pitchers. That is until the ninth inning as a throwing error by Xander Bogaerts allows Alexei Ramirez to score, capping off a pitcher's duel with a White Sox 2-1 victory.