When Rick Hahn came out and said that the White Sox seven-game win streak right before last year’s trade deadline didn’t impact the team’s decision to hold onto Jeff Samardzija, I believed him. Unfortunately, I think that leads to a much bigger issue: the White Sox seemingly lacked long-term planning with this decision and now the chickens have come home to roost, so to speak.
Read MoreJeff Samardzija's White Sox career likely came to a close Tuesday night with seven confusingly efficient innings against a sleepwalking Royals team, as the Sox cruised to a 4-2 victory. There were back-to-back home runs at one point, there was a startlingly low number of whiffs, but he now has a couple of outings to point to say he figured it out as he hits free agency off a season where he posted a 4.96 ERA over 214 innings with a career-worst 17.9% strikeout rate at age 30.
Read MoreMy heart is not too cold and frozen over to not enjoy the delicious irony of Jeff Samardzija capping his ultimate opus in fan torture last week, only to turn around and twirl a one-hit shutout in his very next start, during a 12:08pm CT Monday afternoon start that no one got to watch. That's poetry. That's the dramatic sweep worthy of the great cinema epics of 70's auteurs. That's fine villainry, and I am satisfied that I have spent my summer being tormented by a master.
Read MoreThe White Sox played a sleepy bad series in Cleveland against sleepy bad AL Wild Card contender, keeping the Indians on the periphery of a sleepy bad AL Wild Card race, whose sole source of drama is the Astros falling into the void. They capped things off Sunday with a 6-3 loss featuring a fairly rough John Danks start, a characteristically high-strikeout outing against soft-tosser Josh Tomlin
Read MoreThe season's almost over and the White Sox are wasting away their final days, so Nick and James got together to discuss, well, mostly the offseason and how to fix this swiss cheese roster, but also what major things there are still to watch.
Read MoreIt just wouldn't be a White Sox season without the eventual slide toward full-blown humiliation. It just wouldn't have their natural full dramatic sweep from beginning with moderate goals of slipping into the playoffs via some lowered bar for performance, quickly dousing that already jaded optimism with a disappointing start, before capping their demise with some season-ending demolition to confirm that the Sox haven't merely underperformed, but are simply in another class from any team any non-diehard would waste a casual glimpse at.
Read MoreIt's the dog days of September, and the White Sox are in the middle of their regularly-scheduled playing out the string, which means:
-Only so much Samardzija left!
-Carlos Rodon and Erik Johnson could be the future of the new Sox rotation that is waiting for an offense to back it up.
-How will the Sox upgrade at third, second, right field, DH, etc? Beyond Mike Olt, that is? Is Adam LaRoche ever hitting again?
-Does Avisail have a future in the Sox core?
Join James Fegan, Matt Adams and Ethan Spalding as they update the state of the White Sox.
Read MoreShouts to Jeff Samardzija for lowering the expectations such that giving up two dingers and four runs to half of a real Cleveland Indians lineup over 6.2 innings doesn't even trigger a twinge of disappointment. Even this snapshot of recent performance--I'm assuming meant to be shocking to the less grizzled and beaten-down of us--just serves to remind: Oh yeah, Jeff Samardzija did win his last start, didn't he?!
Read MoreThe White Sox finally got the thrill and satisfaction of plugging a mediocre pitching staff, launching a comeback to rescue the oh so sympathetic Jeff Samardijza from his personal six-game losing streak, and capped a week of destroying Casey Fien's ERA.
Read MoreIn the soon-to-be seven year drought between White Sox playoff berths, and in the nine years out of the last 10 where they have missed the playoffs, the Sox have finished within five games of first place in their division just once. That year, 2012, is probably more remembered as a gut-wrenching collapse than a spirited playoff bid that finished just short. Their next-most impressive season, 2010, saw 88 victories, but was dead on its feet after Jim Thome walked-off the Sox with a 450-foot blast of irony out of Target Field in mid-August. In gunning for the playoffs with annual thirst, the Sox have not only failed to deliver anything to hang a banner about, but they failed to deliver us from the doldrums of expanded roster September goof-off sessions.
Read MoreI 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?
Read MoreWhat was that? What on earth was that? What in blue damn blazes was that?!!
Read MoreThe White Sox got predictably kicked around by the Royals in Kansas City this week. Three one-run losses later, they're 3-10 vs. the division leaders on the season, and have yet to win in Kauffman Stadium in 2015. They're now 2-7 since the non-waiver trade deadline expired, as the absurdly great pitching that propped up their hot streak has fizzled to the point of allowing seven runs per game. Jeff Samardzija in particular, ended his 10-game streak of seven innings or more, and has barely cover more than nine frames in his last two outings with a 15.43 ERA.
Read MoreI 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.
Read MoreWe’re just a few days away from the non-waiver trade deadline, and the White Sox have yet to make any significant moves (unless you count Conor, sorry James), nor have they tipped their hand on whether they will be sellers or not. Yesterday’s report that they would wait until after the current series against the Red Sox to determine their trade deadline fate has us all anxiously waiting to see if something, anything, is done between now and Friday.
Read MoreThe Sox killed off the last traces of their optimism with a bad series against Kansas City, where their putrid offense, awful baserunning and shaky managing were all on full display.
Read MoreDespite all indications all-season long that the Sox are one of the least likely teams to sustain a great, redeeming second-half run (they can't score!), many looked for this now departed four-game series with the Royals for a telling assessment of their worth as a franchise.
Read MoreUh, where is Chris Sale? He last started on Saturday, so regular rest would have meant starting on Thursday, he didn't pitch in that All-Star Game--not sure if we mentioned that--but he's not on the announced slate of pitchers for the Kansas City series thus far.
Read MoreThe day after the All Star Game is always so brutal as a baseball fan. No games — not even a home run derby to entertain us. We aren’t close enough to the trade deadline to see any deals, and so the only option seems to do a general assessment of what the second half has in store.
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 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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