Well, shoot, that didn't work.
Frankie Montas got his big, compromised chance to start a big league game Wednesday afternoon and for the most part got blow'd up over three disastrous, defensively challenged innings. He had absolutely no favors done for him by management or defense, but ultimately he's the only one who got tuned up for 3 IP, 6 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, HR in a 7-4 loss.
Read MoreWith 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.
Read MoreThe White Sox reacted to poor play with a benching, mashed on offense, and sealed the Thursday's game in Detroit after a cagey managerial decision. Were they kidnapped? Are we dead?
Read MoreThe White Sox, a team has shaded mediocre (25-30 record) to downright bad (AL-worst -56 run differential), have kicked off their very challenging June schedule with mediocre to downright bad play,
Read MoreThe success or failure of teams in the MLB Draft is difficult to determine. The main reason for this is because it takes so long for most draftees to reach the majors, and players shuffle from team to team so often (whether it's by trade or otherwise) that looking at a particular team's draft class for a particular year will often only yield one or two players who actually made an impact on that team's major league roster.
Read MoreThe fun thing about being a good team--and this is theory from me, since I've been blogging Sox stuff since 2010 and never covered a playoff game--is that you have enough potential for impactful play up and down the roster that you can survive a disappointing performance from a reliable contributor. As bad as White Sox starting pitching has been, with shaky starts from presumed headliners Jeff Samardzija, Jose Quintana, and once more again Wednesday night, Chris Sale, is that the offense has provided no hope of picking them up.
Read MoreThe White Sox series split with the Indians, leaving both teams at 3-5 on the season, was quite an experience in contrast. After a 4-1 game where everything seemed right-save some early nibbling SP Jose Quintana- just about everything went wrong in the Thursday 4-2 loss.
Read MoreOne of the most common refrains whenever we start to get worked up over something that happens this time of year is "it's only April."
While that, as well as everything you can say about the small sample size these results are a product of remain true, the wins and losses, as you very well know, count just as much as the wins and losses in August and September.
I bring this up because the White Sox are in the midst of a season-opening stretch that sees them play 25 of their first 28 games against AL Central opponents.
Read MoreThat's more like it.
A day after breaking their season opening four-game skid, the White Sox welcomed Chris Sale back with open arms and he pitched them to a 6-2 win over the Minnesota Twins, the Sox's second in a row against the presumptive AL Central bottom feeders.
Read MoreHeading 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*.
Read MoreThe wise and just ESPN Sweetspot Guru David Schoenfield is going through his pre-Spring rankings of every MLB team and the White Sox have come up...a bit earlier than I would have hoped. David ranks them 23rd in baseball, predicts a 77-85 mark and cites concerns about the back-half of the starting rotation, problems spots in the infield, and does not appear to be a Tyler Flowers’ Glasses Truther. The Sox are behind the Tigers--whom he acknowledges could be division favorites again--the Royals, the Rays, and his surprise team: the Houston Astros.
Read MoreIt's February: the most exciting and thrilling time of the baseball news cycle. Between Gordon Beckham return, Dayan Viciedo leaving, and Spring Training....coming eventually, there's so much White Sox news to t--ah screw it.
James Fegan (@JRFegan), Nick Schaefer (@Nick_TCS) and Ethan Spalding (@spaldingethan) gathered together to dish on Victor Martinez's knee injury, Tigers' depth problems, the Royals' stupid, cheap offseason, how the Indians could be scary, Mookie Betts being overrated, defensive metrics being dumb, and then, then it went off the rails.
Read MoreFor the second time in four years, a very superb and proud athlete suffered a most unfortunate knee injury during his pre-season workouts.
Read MoreI always dreamed that a post like this would be written about Justin Verlander, after he had been sent off to slaughter a distant alien race on behalf of all humanity, but the wrath of God Detroit starting pitcher has left the division, and it’s that homer-prone fastball-slider guy with platoon issues from a few years back. Max Scherzer has signed with Washington for all the money in the world. Detroit still boasts David Price, Anibal Sanchez, and a possibly resilient Verlander, but have now lost two of their three-most productive arms from last season with Rick Porcello already off to Boston.
Read MoreDespite the fact that the Royals squeaked past Oakland in the Wild Card game and then rode their elite bullpen into the World Series, the 2014 Tigers were objectively the best team in the division. Detroit would win the division and boasted a run differential of +52 as opposed to Kansas City's +27. In fact, they have won the AL Central every year since 2010. Their core has gotten older and slipped some, Dombrowski finally messed up a major trade last offseason, and the window looks like it may be closing. But, like the White Sox, they have had a very busy winter so far. How do they look at the moment?
Read MoreI cannot imagine what possible inspiration there would be to discuss anything besides the excellent, excellent MLB postseason to date, and since I cannot imagine it, it's a major hindrance to writing about it. The AL Central results in the playoffs so far have been rather extreme, and discussing the fallout can only be fun.
Read MoreFor a while there, the sheer madness of the 2014 MLB trade deadline was like watching a heart-pounding segment of international news. It was gripping and compelling, but it would surely never actually affect you. The local news reminded you that your existence was a mundane one. The local news was the Twins debating whether to renew a millage tax, and the Royals announcing that the summer carnival was being postponed to next summer due to unforeseen permit issues.
Then the Tigers got David Price.
Read MoreClassic 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.
Read MoreI will almost certainly write several more articles on this topic before next season starts. But, with the All Star Game come and gone, the Amateur Draft Deadline in our rearview mirror, and teams having played between 95-100 games this season, it seems as good a time as any to take stock of the White Sox' competition for the near future.
Read MoreWell, you can't face Justin Verlander every night.
One night after rudely banishing the old lion of the Central into further ignominy, the White Sox offense...well, didn't do enough to fill out a sentence. To talk about the bottom half of the innings Thursday night, besides to wonder if the producers had time to breath before throwing it to commercial, is to talk about Max Scherzer, since he was one doing the work.
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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