Roster moves and THE MELK

Cabrera would be an ideal signing next offseason. When the Sox know they are ready, know what they are shooting for, and would be seeking maximum output for the first season of the deal. Instead, they have consider Cabrera's worth as a long-term solution, and consider whether they are at the point in their rebuild/retool to be punting away second round draft picks.

Read More

Who should get booted from the White Sox 40-man roster?

These 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 More

The White Sox are not a bullpen away from being contenders

I'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 More

About that intentional walk...

No, no, no, wait, wait, waiiittttt,

This is not just a 'Be mad at Robin Ventura' post. The instantaneous outrage and condemnation is what Twitter is for, and we knocked it out of the park. But in identifying a decision-making process as bad, coming across it again, calling it bad again, and repeating ad infinitum, we start to accumulate a lot of words about poor choices without coming particularly close to understanding why they exist.

Read More

Rain robs Sox of Sale but they win anyway

White Sox fans expecting a healthy dose of Chris Sale in his second start back from injury saw their dreams cut short on Tuesday night as more than two hours of rain delays forced the ace out after just three innings.

But Scott Carroll, of all people, came to the rescue, scattering five hits over the next three innings and the offense did just enough in a 2-1 win over the Indians in a game that lasted until well after midnight.

Read More

Andre Rienzo is undefeated, so the Sox should be fine - Lineups & Preview 5/25

The man to carry the Sox to this mystical lead against Masahiro Tanaka is Andre Rienzo, who seems to have flown under the radar. He's both been surprisingly bad to not be discussed: roughly a 1.5 K/BB ratio, six home runs in 36 innings, ~40% groundball rate while averaging under six innings per start. And he's been surprisingly successful: the White Sox have won all seven games he's appeared in. He's magic. He's Rick Helling. This game is a mortal lock because of his mere presence

Read More

White Sox Closer Choice Should Stay Cynical

Matt 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 More

Guthrie Stands Between Sox and Sweep - Game Preview & Lineups 5/21

Notorious White Sox nemesis Jeremy Guthrie is the last hurdle between the White Sox and A) a sweep of the Royals, and B) getting back to .500 after sitting between one and three games below during each of the last 11 days when the two teams meet in Wednesday's series finale at Kaufmann Stadium at 7:05 p.m.

Read More

White Sox get just enough of everything to take second straight over Royals

Pitching, hitting and defense—the White Sox did just enough of all three to beat the Royals 7-6 for their second-straight victory over their divisional foes.

Offensively, the top of the order consistently got on base, as Gordon Beckham and Conor Gillaspie collected a combined six hits and scored four runs.  Each of them scored on Adam Dunn’s three-run home run in the eighth inning, which extended the White Sox lead at the time to 7-2.

Andre Rienzo had a quality start, allowing only two earned runs on five hits in six innings.  Rienzo also struck out eight, while walking just two Royals hitters.  The outing brought Rienzo’s season ERA down to 4.00 and raised his record to an unblemished 4-0.

Young phenom Yordano Ventura pitched for the Royals and the four earned runs he gave up over six innings matches his season-high.  Ventura allowed seven hits, while only striking three White Sox hitters.

“Fresh” off a two-inning appearance last night, Zach Putnam pitched out of a jam in the eighth inning to help preserve a two-run lead going into the ninth inning.

Putnam was helped out on a spectacular defensive play from Alexei Ramirez, who robbed Norichika Aoki of an RBI single.  Ramirez threw out Aoki from his knees on a ground ball in the hole.

The dramatic anticipation of who would be the White Sox closer after Matt Lindstrom was placed on the 15-day disabled list lasted only one night as Ronald Belisario struck out Lorenzo Cain with the tying run on second base to preserve the one-run victory.

The White Sox go for the sweep tomorrow and a chance to return to breakeven on the season when Jose Quintana opposes Jeremy Guthrie at 7:10 PM.

Sox roll past Diamondbacks with huge 4th inning

As 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 More

Viciedo Saves White Sox From Misery

For 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 More

Looking Back at the Month of Abreu and Beyond

With 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 More

Save Us, Chris Sale - Game Preview & Lineups 4/17

A day after the atrocity that is the White Sox bullpen used up every last pitch in its arsenal in a 6-4, 14-inning loss to the Red Sox, Chris Sale takes the mound in hopes of avoiding the shenanigans that led to that embarrassing conclusion.

Leury Garcia is starting at second base and will likely be unavailable in relief for tonight's 7:10 rubber match against Jon Lester and the Boston Red Sox, but one can rightly assume Daniel Webb, fresh off of a gutsy, 59-pitch performance as the only actual arm left in the bullpen, won't be.

Read More

White Sox offense not missing bats, but neither is the bullpen

If 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 More

Free Passes Give Free Win to Red Sox

Over 5 hours of walks, occasional run scoring, and a position player pitching ultimately resulted in the White Sox dropping a 14-inning affair by the score of 6-4 to the Red Sox. Pitching started out surprisingly effective before winding up familiarly awful, and a barrage of walks was too much to overcome as the series evens up at a game a piece.

Read More

Week In Review: What We've Learned After 13 Games

Alexei Ramirez punctuated an up-and-down second week of the season for the White Sox with his two-run, walk-off home run on Sunday against the Cleveland Indians. The victory gave the White Sox a 4-3 record for the week and raised their record against the American League Central to 6-4 at this very early point in the season, and the 3-1 series win over the Indians helped them exorcise some of the demons that haunted them after going 2-17 against the Tribe a year ago.

Read More

Sox blow lead, drop series, lose Garcia

Developing their young talent and building up their relievers for trades, and maybe win some more games than last year, were some of the White Sox biggest priorities this season (in that order). On Wednesday, Avisail Garcia got hurt, their bullpen was annihilated once more for six runs in the eighth, and they dropped the game and series to a surely not very good Colorado team. To the White Sox credit, the 10-4 loss felt more like an unplanned fall down the stairs than a true blowout.

Read More