It's a rare situation for players to be both bound enough to their current team to re-sign within the five-day exclusivity window while also being good enough for anyone to actually care what they do. Mostly we have teams cutting ties with undesirables at breakneck speed, and that's what we have here.
Read MoreThese are people on the White Sox 40-man roster. Grown men. Proud men. They've dedicated their lives to a challenging, brutal craft and many have lived their last few years fighting against the odds to keep it going, even as the once dreamed about financial windfall become faded and childish fantasies, they've trudged on dutifully and fought to keep playing until they're asked to go.
Let's fantasize about cutting them.
Read MoreThe White Sox bullpen numbers certainly look like someone was applying a theory and wondering where it took them.
Read MoreThis is one of those games that a rebuilding team can manage to enjoy even though the result was a loss. By far the most important thing is that Avisail Garcia returned from the DL, and in fact went 2/4 on the night. Far less important is the return of Matt Lindstrom's return from the DL. Unfortunately, he was knocked around - but there's a silver lining here as well.
Read MoreIt started with a pain in the ass. When Nate Jones originally reported health issues way back when the team was basically still stretching in Glendale, it was for a gluteal strain. He recovered long enough to appear in 2 games and face 5 batters. Of those 5, he walked 3 while allowing the other two chances to hit the ball. They obliged and he failed to record a single out. ERA: infinite. The gluteal strain reappeared and that was that. While out of commission, it morphed into a back issue which extended his stay on the disabled list and while progress reports along the way were never completely encouraging nothing seemed particularly damning either. Until Wednesday afternoon when it was announced that the short-lived White Sox closer had undergone Tommy John surgery on Tuesday.
Read MoreI'm firmly of the belief that Hawk Harrelson is mostly harmless, probably helpful and informative more often than not. The misinformation and confusing tangents are distracting and certainly coming at a higher percentage than most, but what's the point of taking time out to cover his every offense when everyone else is already offering theirs?
Read MoreThe 2014 White Sox bullpen has had a revolving door since the beginning of the season. Nate Jones, who came into this year considered to be one of the closer candidates, was the first casualty as he was added to the 60-day disabled list with a hip injury early in April. Lindstrom followed suit and was placed on the disabled list with an ankle injury that requires surgery. He will be out at least three months. As a result, Robin Ventura and his coaching staff have mixed and matched with the remaining relievers, including some pulled from the waiver wire and the minors.
Read MoreMatt Lindstrom as the White Sox closer was always artificially installed. He never read as the best pitcher in the bullpen, nor was he expected to develop into it by season's end, nor did his stuff project to play well in the role. Once the season started, he struggled immediately and mightily, yet the Sox weathered his troubles even though his potential didn't justify it.
Read MoreYet another White Sox player has fallen victim to injuries this season and this time its Matt Lindstrom.
Read MoreAs 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.
Read MoreThe end of April and beginning of May were none too kind to the White Sox. After climbing a game above .500 and taking 3-of-4 from the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday, the White Sox promptly dropped four straight to division rivals Detroit and Cleveland before ending their week with a bang, thanks to Dayan Viciedo.
Read MoreFor 26 innings, the White Sox had nary a hope of victory against the Cleveland Indians. Staring down a series sweep and fifth consecutive loss thanks, in part, to a dominant performance by Corey Kluber, Dayan Viciedo came to the rescue, blasting a three-run homer off of John Axford in the ninth inning to give the White Sox a 4-3 victory on Sunday.
Read MoreWith the month of Abreu — sorry, the month of April — officially in the books, James Fegan, Collin Whitchurch, Nick Schaefer, Matt Adams and Rob Flot sat down and discussed what we've seen out of the White Sox so far. Among the topics we broached were Jose Abreu, the pitching staff, Adam Dunn, Alexei Ramirez, trades and attendance. Feel free to join in on the conversation in the comments below.
Read MoreTwice Marcus Semien has provided his White Sox teammates with a late-inning, dramatic go-ahead home runs, and twice he has been denied by uncooperative teammates coming out of the bullpen. Deferred but not denied, Semien gave it one more try Wednesday night.
Read MoreIf Maikel Cleto is not the White Sox bullpen in a nutshell, he certainly was temporarily inhabited with its spirit Wednesday night. Possessed with nutty velocity and a slider that can look Sergio Santos-inspired, he has all the raw materials to be an effective high-leverage reliever.
Read MoreThere are about a half-dozen sub-plots and examples of important trends that emerged from Sunday's 4-3 win over the Cleveland Indians, and they were all washed away when Alexei Ramirez grip-and-ripped a high John Axford fastball into the left field bullpen to make the White Sox walk-off series winners.
The 32-year-old shortstop saw four pitches all game, but nothing logical is standing in the way of his absurdist MVP-like stretch. He capped off a 2-4 day with his hands triumphantly spread at his sides after driving Jordan Danks home with a two-run blast that saved the Sox from another bullpen meltdown and putt his line at .420/.463/.680 for the season.
Read MoreAfter a week of games one thing is certain — there are still 156 games to play.
Yes, it's a long season. But let's take a look at some of the more noteworthy bits and pieces we saw after six games of White Sox baseball.
Read MoreMatt Lindstrom, in floating fastballs up in the zone repeatedly, blowing a one-run save, wasting a comeback and taking the loss in a sloppy and wet 10-9 defeat to the Twins, could at least take heart in knowing he was not alone.
The de-facto closer of the moment was only part of a bullpen that allowed five runs over four innings, and turned 8-5 and 9-8 leads into the first loss of the season.
The RBI single Lindstrom allowed to Trevor Plouffe to tie the game, and the booming go-ahead triple to center Oswaldo Arcia clubbed beyond the grasp of Adam Eaton (who robbed him on a nearly identical play to end the seventh) weren't as bad as the results generated by Nate Jones. After walking two more batters in the seventh, both of whom scored to trim the Sox lead to one, Jones has yet to retire a batter all year and his trademark delivery is looking more like a hitch that throws off his aim before he releases every time. A Josmil Pinto bomb in the eighth got Ronald Belisario involved in the tailspin erased the last traces of the initial seven-run surge that put the Sox ahead until Lindstrom was handed a save opportunity to spurn.
The shenanigans gave another no decision to Jose Quintana, who provided an uneven six innings; striking out eight but allowing the bases to be emptied twice for five runs.
In 2013, four runs was typically more than the White Sox could manage over nine innings. On Thursday, they reduced a deficit that size to ashes in two. After the second of two Chris Colabello RBI doubles the Sox were stuck in a 5-1 hole going into the bottom half of the fifth.
From there on out, they scored eight runs, lost the lead back again and saw Marcus Semien transition from hopeless, to legally alive and all the way to nearly a hero.
After yesterday, where the Twins treated Jose Abreu like the only hitter on the team, they enjoyed the fruit of a competent top of the order. Adam Eaton started the fifth off with a triple to the right field corner, scored on an Abreu double to the warning track in the right-center gap, and had all his hurry mocked when Adam Dunn cut the lead to one by keeping his wrists inside a Phil Hughes fastball and flipping it into the seats.
The fifth inning push was started by one of Tyler Flowers' four singles on the day (yes). After Leury Garcia singled himself on, Adam Eaton and Marcus Semien each sweated out full-count walks, the latter of which tied the game at five. More importantly, the Sox navigated the iffy parts of their order to get their one true masher, Abreu, up in a critical situation. After looking confused by two-straight curves, Abreu leaned over and crushed a triple to the center field wall that cleared the bases after turning Twins center fielder Aaron Hicks a few times.
Marcus Semien's first hit, a go-ahead solo shot into the left field bullpen in the eighth, provided brief hope that the Sox still could overcome their pitching deficiencies. But it was not to be, even after a Dayan Viciedo duck snort combined with a Twins throwing error put him on third with one out for no good reason.
Alejandro De Aza added his third home run of the year in the second.
Team Record: 2-1
Next game: Tomorrow at Kansas City at 3:10pm
Hey, here's a Rick Hahn quote from Scott Merkin's piece on Matt Lindstrom getting the closer role.
"Upstairs, we can worry about guys' trade value or how they fit going forward," Hahn said. "We really tend not to have those types of conversations.
At this point there is the same amount of evidence that Rick Hahn does not allow front office concerns to infiltrate immediate personnel decisions as there is that he simply never admits when they do.
Read MoreThis season will be the third in which Robin Ventura is at the helm of the Chicago White Sox and the second in which mystery as to who will close games for the team will likely drag all the way up to the start of the regular season.
In 2012, you might remember, it wasn't revealed that Hector Santiago was the team's closer until the second game of the regular season when he began warming up with the White Sox ahead in the top of the 9th inning against the Texas Rangers.
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