Cat Garcia was reporting from SoxFest all weekend. Her first article for The Catbird Seat is a recap of Rick Hahn and Robin Ventura's comments on the state of the White Sox. Follow her on Twitter @TheBaseballGirl.
Read More
Another baseball season is closer than the frigid, loveless Midwestern landscape would currently indicate. With its impending arrival comes the knowledge that all the assorted cruelties--physical, mental, spiritual--of a high stakes six-month major league campaign are coming with it.
Read MoreTuesday began with a joke.
Read MoreMatt, Ethan and James got together to commiserate after a long and awful 2015 White Sox season.
Read MoreThe 2015 White Sox are done for the year. Thank goodness. What an atrocity, what a complete bungling, what an across-the-board disappointment, what a nihilistic disaster. I took in the finale in person because--well, a friend offered me tickets, and I got to spend time with my mother--but mostly to make sure they were dead.
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 MoreToward the end of this past week we began hearing rumors that the Tigers had decided to fire manager Brad Ausmus at the end of the season. The conversation has largely centered around whether the rumor is correct and the rather ugly optics of forcing Ausmus to manage the last few weeks of the season when he knows he’s about to get fired. I want to discuss how it applies to 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 MoreReunited with his Spring Training battery-mate, Carlos Rodon threw his sixth-straight outing of six innings or more with two or less runs allowed in Tuesday night's 7-4 victory. His seven-inning, one-run gem--spoiled only by whatever spirit has inhabited Michael Martinez's body--gives him a line over that stretch of 41 IP, 27 H, 8 ER, 4 HR, 15 BB, 41 K, 1.76 ERA. He's throwing real good, guys.
Read MoreCarlos Rodon was pretty solid again Wednesday night. That's probably the most important thing to focus on. In his fifth-straight smooth and efficient start under Tyler Flowers, he floated through six innings with the only mark against him being Miguel Sano obliterating a get-ahead fastball, which for the most part have served him well since he dedicate himself to throwing them
Read MoreAfter a rough weekend against the Cubs and four runs in three games to start this awful West Coast swing, the Sox had their periodic and overdue "the offense is breaking out!" game to avoid a sweep in Anaheim with an 8-2 victory Thursday night. Given an opportunity against rookie spot starter Nick Tropeano (pitching because the Sox off capped Matt Shoemaker's downward spiral last week) and bullpen filler Cam Bedrosian, the Sox teed off, finally hitting their 100th home run of the season at a fairly embarrassingly late date in the year and smacking four doubles.
Read MoreSince my despair over Avisail Garcia crested, he's both homered and walked twice in as many games, driven in five, and walked off an otherwise sad and ugly game against the Rays. Both his home runs have been on hanging breaking balls, and he still has to convince the league he can cover the inside fastball, and the level of fear he is generating leaguewide is currently "Managers will load the bases by intentionally walking both Jose Abreu and Melky Cabrera just to get to him."
Read MoreWe shouldn't be talking about this. I certainly don't try to shoehorn Robin Ventura into everything. Hindsight sniping at a manager who's job and motivations are mostly invisible is not fun or compelling writing. Melky is alive again, Adam Eaton is a star, the Sox offense touched up David Price with Jose Abreu hitting out of the No. 2 hole and were all about to take two out of three from the Tigers in convincing fashion.
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 MoreHow is the main story with the 31-40 White Sox--possibly the owners of the worst offense and defense in baseball, and the team starring the owner of an insane strikeout streak--just your garden-variety griping about hustling, effort and focus?
Read MoreIt's remarkable how effortlessly the White Sox pivoted from their first home sweep of the season, and possibly the most encouraging stretches of play of the year, and right into the losing streak that might finally huck this cursed season into the dungeon permanently. They're now stuck in a four-game skid, six games under .500, the proud owners once more of the worst run differential in the AL, and have three more games against the red-hot Pirates team that just thunderkicked them 11-0 Monday night, then three against the Rangers, whose main weakness is pitching and, well...
Read MoreThis is something I'm going to start doing every weekday morning (and weekends when I can) to compile my White Sox thoughts, factoids and fascinations into one digestible morning dose.
Read MoreJames, Nick and Collin gathered together after another peculiar White Sox loss. They discussed how Monday night's result fit alongside a larger, slow offensive revival, Hector Noesi's bullpen appearance and Carlos Rodon's future in the rotation and of course, reviewing Robin Ventura.
Read MoreMaybe I'm jumping the gun with this post. Robin Ventura, after all, is still gainfully employed. And the season is still young, with hope for a turnaround still alive.
Nonetheless, the White Sox's rough start has had many thinking Ventura's days are numbered. And if he's gone, who will be next?
Read MoreShort of injuries, this has been about as frustrating a start to the season as you can get. Losing to the Royals brings its own frustration, but coming off the World Series appearance you can at least understand how they beat you. The Twins were coming off of a humiliating opening set against Detroit wherein they didn't score a run until late in the third game. Tommy Milone was on the mound, and the Royals' terrifying bullpen wasn't lying in wait. And the White Sox got shut out anyway.
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.
An ESPN SweetSpot blog | Design by ofvoid
