I don't like the Cubs.
This isn't hatred, or dislike, it's just the absence of like. I don't get into the 'root for Chicago' hubbub. They're another team, and it's taken a long time to get to this place of at least superficial indifference after being raised in a Cubs-hating household, and accumulating teenage bitterness from being a south sider who had to bus and train for an hour to the north side to where CPS hid the good high schools.
Read MoreHere's our crack at a scoop (It's not a scoop, it's compiling information reported by others and trying to suss out meaning. It is blogging in a nutshell, whooooa this got existential, and fast).
Read MoreWhen I was a young lad, around the age of six or seven and eager to devour every little bit of baseball I could find, I was a bit of a bandwagon jumper. I didn’t know it at the time, of course, but I’m pretty sure there’s home video of me somewhere declaring myself a Blue Jays fan shortly after Joe Carter’s walk-off home run ended the 1993 World Series.
Read MoreWell, if you were able to take morbid, sardonic pleasure in Yankees fans paying hundreds of dollars for tickets, only to watch their squad struggle to collect as many hits as hours they spent getting through security to get in the stadium, you'll love the NL Wild Card.
Read MoreThis was not a good nor sharp weekend of White Sox baseball. Defensive and baserunning blunders marked two ugly losses to the Cubs and served as a stark counterbalance to how they out-executed a superior team in Wrigley last month. Avisail Garcia just keeps running into outs until someone takes him up on it, routine throws to first are somehow still an adventure even with Conor Gillaspie off the team and no starting pitchers seem particularly invested in backing up their catcher...but White Sox still employ Chris Sale.
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 MoreCome award season in November, there is a pretty reasonable chance Chicago will sweep the MLB Rookie Of The Year awards, with mega prospects Kris Bryant, Carlos Rodon, and Jorge Soler all having legitimate chances to produce at the highest level in 2015.
Read MoreIt's been odd watching the White Sox have plenty of runs and scramble around for pitching this year. It brings me back to the 90s and early 2000s, but it is an inversion of the model that we have become used to seeing in the Obama Administration. With the presence of Jose Abreu and Adam Eaton -- and hopefully eventually Avisail Garcia and Matt Davidson -- it appears that the organizational need pendulum has swung away from offense and back toward pitching. And although this may change, it appears that a clear Top Three has emerged for the upcoming MLB draft and the White Sox are fortunate enough to have one of those three selections.
Read MoreComing into Thursday night, the White Sox thought Scott Carroll could be a useful temporary contributor to the starting rotation, Moises Sierra was worth a look in right field, and Maikel Cleto could at least serve as the last man in the bullpen. After the 12-5 clobbering the Cubs laid down to end the Crosstown Series, it's hard to see all three concepts lasting the night. Adrian Nieto even came in late and mucked it up behind the plate for a bit for the sake of completion.
Read MoreScott Carroll impressed in his debut and we all knew he wouldn’t be able to repeat it. And then he basically repeated it. In 2 starts, Scott Carroll has allowed just one earned run. Can he keep it going against a Cubs team that’s managed just 5 runs over the last 3 games? I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens when small samples duel. After going a month without a winning streak the White Sox have a 4 game streak while their top pitcher and spark plug at the top of the lineup are both on the disabled list. They'll go for 5 in a row with a 29 year-old rookie on the mound.
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 MoreThe White Sox have not been scoring runs at a deafening rate over the past week. In fact, it’s been a bit of a struggle for them as they’re averaging under 3 per game over that stretch. However they are still first in the AL in runs scored and sit in a position that could earn them their first winning streak of the season and put their record back to that familiar and comforting .500 mark. All they have to do is score more runs than Hector Noesi allows…
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 MoreWho could have predicted a cold-weather showdown between two losing teams working toward their sixth-straight year without a playoff appearances could have turned ugly?
With temperatures dropping into the 40's and a wall of wind protecting the fences, the shimmer of the Jeff Samardzija-Jose Quintana pitching matchup soon was soon sullied by how hard it was for the Cubs-Sox offenses to mount a compelling fight.
It took until the 12th inning, when Marcus Semien got out and around a Justin Grimm delivery and yanked it into the left field corner for a go-ahead two out single, for someone with a bat to meaningfully impact the game. After that, it went right back to being a game determined by incompetence. But given the Sox luck when Semien delivers go-ahead blows, Grimm plunking Paul Konerko then walking Alejandro De Aza to force in a run gave necessary breathing room to a 3-1 White Sox victory in the first game of the Crosstown Classic.
Read MoreIt's four games happening in the here and now that act as a sort of referendum on long-term rebuilding philosophies. Worse yet, the Sox have positioned themselves so that for their argument to hold water in the eternal endowment-measuring contest that is the baseball internet, they have to win every game.
The Sox were the win-now team, and now they'e the flash-fried rebuild team, and in either case, if they're not winning immediate head-to-head matchups with the team dutifully punting seasons for a greater reward at some unknown date in the future, then what are they doing?
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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