Pitching is back...in the NL

It's the new hot trend...it's what all the cool kids are doing...
It's pitching. and it's back in the National league.
I am making this post in light of the perfect game by Roy Halladay. One of our contributors, Shawn, is an avid Phillies fan, and is very happy about this. i think that the Doc is the best pitcher in the league, by far. And by in the league I mean all of baseball. But his perfect game got me thinking...
I remember watching alot of MLB network, and watching about how the 1960's was a dominant era for pitching. I feel like this feeling is back, but only in the NL. Where pitchers like Halladay and Lincecum and Jimenez are owning their opponents. In the AL, they still have alot of high scoring games, because of the DH. But in the NL, I have noticed alot of low scoring games lately, and even though i'm a Sox fan, I kinda like it.
The only issue here is the question of whether or not this has to do with the strict testing for steroids that has happened lately. As much as I don't want to think that is the reason for this dominant pitching, I can't help but be opened minded to the idea. After Manny got suspended for 50 games last year, other players all over baseball must have been more weary of their own situation.
Howevr, the pitching also kind of speaks for itself, as we have already seen 2 perfect games and a no hitter, not to mention that the 2 perfect games were in the same month!! And not only that, but there have been a plethora of one hit shutouts, not only by Lincecum, but by other NL pitchers who have proved to be dominant. As much as I am a Sox fan, I keep re-iterating that I love the NL this year, as it's noth the same boring teams that are awesome. And for the first time in a while, I truly think they can win the all-star game, and get the home field advantage in the World Series.
So this cool new trend might be a short lived fad like Pogs, Furbys, and crazy bones, but all in all, it makes for a much more fun baseball season, at least through these first few months.
So congrats to the Doc on his perfect game, and let it be known that I think the old school way of baseball is awesome, as it was in the 60's with the likes of Gibson owning for the Cardinals. I still wish the Sox well, but I know that come all star time it might actually be a competition unlike the last few years...

A weird one in Cleveland...

I love when Ozzie gets ejected from the game before I even wake up in the morning.
A very early start must have meant that the umpires couldn't get much sleep last night, either. At least I had an excuse, I'm freaking out about the Blackhawks. ^_^ But those balk calls were...well...I hate to sound like Hawk, but they were pretty bad. Especially that second one. And as Buehrle threw his glove on the ground in disgust, he got ejected as well, which was sad because I think he could have gone at least 7 innings, get the win, and go to Tampa Bay a happy human. Instead, I now was worried because our bullpen had to come in very early.
Williams wasn't too good, but he was really just there to give Tony Pena some extra warmup time. Pena then came in and did an amazing job, and Hawk and Stone Pony mentioned that his performance picked up the whole team, and I completely agree. Props to him for coming in on such a weird moment's notice and getting it done.
The offense was nice too, scoring the 5 runs we didn't need at first, but then ended up needing by the end of the game (more on that in a bit...). Teahen continued to produce where Carlos Quentin couldn't. After Quentin struck out with the bases loaded, Teahen got a nice 2 run single to increase our lead. It was also nice to see Kotsay put one on h board, and the offense in general seems to be clicking a bit more lately which will obviously help alot going into this next series against the Rays, although the Rays' pitching is pretty sick.
Matt Thornton had another nice appearance, but then Bobby came in. I expected him to be a little shaky, maybe a walk here and there, maybe give up 1 run just to make us Sox fans squirm. But instead, he cut our lead from 4 runs to just 1, and luckily he got out of it before it was too late. His appearance against the Marlins last week was outstanding, but then today he was terrible. It kind of personifies how the team is as a whole, but hopefully now that the offense is consistent, Bobby can be a little more consistent. He really just got lucky that we scored 5 runs.
But like I said, it sucked that Buehrle couldn't get the victory, because I really think he would have this time, because the offense actually scored the 5 runs we usually need. Then again, maybe the offense scored because they were fired up after Ozzie and Mark got tossed. I suppose we'll never know, but like I said, my key to this game was Tony Pena being clutch.
Now, off to Tampa Bay...eek...

No Teahen party for Masterson

(I can't take credit for that one myself, as Bill melton used that joke last year when we played KC in reference to how well Teahen hits against Mark Buehrle...)

4 runs in the first inning? We must have been playing Justin Masterson and the Indians. I had mentioned in my blog yesterday that I wanted to beat up on these bad AL teams like we are supposed to, and i'm glad we did. Especially because I also almost forgot that the Twins will be playing the Yankees these next few days, so if there was a good time to gain some ground it would be now. With Peavy going tonight and Buehrle going tomorrow, I hope we can continue to give this unusual run support and help a bro out. Sweeping the Indians would be a great thing, but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. Let's focus on tonight first.
but even before I focus on tonight, I want to share some things I liked about last night. getting runs early is obviously helpful, especially when you know your offense is so off and on. luckily, those 4 runs were all we needed to support another good outing (besides maybe a bit of a high pitch count) by John Danks. But the other runs were good to see too. Especially because Mark Teahen got it going, after I was complaining about him offensively (maybe he knew I wanted Crede back ^_~). But that 2 run double in the first was a nice way to get the rest of the team going too, even Beckham who had also been struggling got a couple of hits for himself. Ozzie knew Masterson struggled against lefties, so it was only natural that Pierre and A.j. both got hits to start with as well, and that can also be taken into account for Teahen's big night. I'm glad Danks did well once again and we actually gave him a win to show for it.
as far as tonight goes, Mitch Talbot has been pleasantly surprising for the Indians so far this year, so the pitching matchup tonight will prove to be a fun one I think. And since the key is run support, that does kinda scare me. we might not need 7, but we might need 4. looking at the offense lately (besides Sunday of course) I think we can do it. I have faith that Peavy will keep it together too, and maybe we can get a nice little streak going before we head down to Rays land. Let's gain some ground on those Twins while we can, boys! My pick to click tonight shall be...Alexei Ramirez.

Series win a good thing?

As the Blackhawks swept the Sharks on the west side, the Sox hoped to also have a fish fry of their own over in the South side. However, Freddy giving up 4 runs in the first inning was a pretty good indication that it wasn't going to happen.
The first two games against the Marlins were refreshing to see for us Sox fans. it was really good to see Buehrle and Floyd have nice outings, and see the Sox giving them some run support. Quentin is starting to come around at least a little bit, and Rios is continuing to impress. The Sox website is trying to get fans to vote for Paulie and Rios for the all-star game, and I agree with it that if they send anyone from our team's offense, it should be them. I know fans don't get to vote for pitchers, so I also hope that John Danks gets some recognition too, because he deserves it. the W-L stat has always been very decieving for Danks, as the lack of run support is an obvious issue (and Matt Cain of the Giants can now sympathize with that after yesterday, losing 1-0 to the A's with that run being an unearned one). I know the all-star game is far away, but MLB does a nice job of getting crazy fans like me to think about it early.
I would also like to give Bobby Jenks some credit for Saturday afternoon. I really liked his velocity, and his nice 1-2-3 inning notching the save. Getting runs is hard for the Sox at times, but it's good to know that when we do, Bobby at least has the capability to hold the lead for us if he could keep up his velocity, even after there was some question as to whether or not we should hand the ball over to Matt Thornton in the 9th inning.
The Sox seem to do well against these NL teams. I like interleague play because it's cool to have these random matchups, plus there are always the two "reject teams" in the NL that don't get to participate. I wonder if Bud Selig's proposal for teams to switch divisions if they want to could also entail switching leagues, as his Brewers did not too long ago. if the Sox can only generate a consistent offense against NL pitchers, maybe that wouldn't be so bad...but i'd really rather beat up on bad AL teams anyway. Like for example, Cleveland! Hopefully we can get a few wins together down there before having to go to Tampa Bay and another terrible dome with an awesome team. My pick to click tonight shall be...Alex Rios.

A crazy 3rd base idea...

After last night's game, a thought had occurred to me. I started thinking about somebody I hadn't thought of in a while, because there hadn't really been reason to think about him. I give credit to my boytfriend who mentioned this person on the phone last night and kind of sparked my idea.
So, at 3rd base we have basically 2 choices as of right now. Mark Teahen, who can't hit, and Jayson Nix, who can't field (last night alone was even a good enough example of that). Now, I have a solution, and those of you that know me probably know what i'm going to say...
...what would we have to lose if we signed Joe Crede?
I know the main issue, and yes i did think of it, would be his chronic back problems. But perhaps not having played yet this year and getting the extra rest could be helpful for that. Crede has a career bating average of .254, and while that doesn't sound extremely great, it can be put in perspective by going through the Sox lineup and looking at their averages. Teahen himself is only hitting .221. The biggest thing isn't even the batting average, though, although it would help. Defensively Crede has obviously made a name for himself with this team, and would definitely be a better fit than Nix over at third.
I know it sounds crazy, but i'm running out of ideas on what they can possibly do to make this team better. Last night was another frustrating one that was brilliantly pitched by John Danks with no run support for him whatsoever. Even moving Beckham to the 9th spot didn't help anything as far as he goes.
Hopefully with Peavy going tonight we can continue alternating losses with wins as we have been doing alot lately, meaning we would have to win tonight. Hopefully instead of continuing the trend after that, we can just win a few in a row, (especially to an NL team...). Peavy has been outstanding lately so i look forward to this one very much. My pick to click tonight shall be...A.j.

Another series lost to a bad team...

The Sox still have all the same issues. That sentence was sitting on my screen for a while as I tried to figure out what else to really say about it. I feel alot like Rongey in the sense that i have to repeat the same thing every show (or in my case, blog), but i'll try to mix it up at least a little bit. I only saw bits and pieces of these games, but from what I saw the same things have been happening as they have all year. Friday's game was another strong start from Buehrle...for a while. One could argue that Ozzie left him in a bit too long, but I agree with him as far as the theory that (and i loosely quote Ozzie) no matter how good a starting pitcher is, if he makes 1 mistake, it's game over. That's pretty much what happened on Friday, and kind of what happened today as well.

The hitting on this team is still bad, and even though i feel like a broken record saying it, it's still the main issue. And I know i've said this before too, but as I anticipated Rios being the defining factor on this team, he has been very very good (notably his 12 game hitting streak, and today's game) and the rest of the team is under performing to say the least. It used to be the pitching and the offense, but now it's mostly just the offense. i really don't like looking at the beginning of the broadcast and seeing that most of our lineup is hitting in the vicinity of .160 .190, and the occasional .250 if we're lucky. This of course is besides Paul Konerko and Andruw Jones I believe, who actually have pretty decent averages. Is Greg Walker to blame? I still agree with what Gordon Beckham once said in that Walker isn't the one going up there and swinging the bat. but from the higher ups perspective, apon seeing these terrible batting averages on paper there are only 2 people to put the blame on, and that is Walker and Kenny Williams. Kenny put together a really good pitching staff, but we absolutely need the Quentins and Beckhams of the world to hit up to their potential to support them. i know they can come around, but the "it's still early" thing isn't going to fly anymore because May will be over before we know it.
I'm still happy with the way Peavy is throwing now, as last night he had another nice start (almost a complete game, even). This pitching is good we just need some run support for goodness sake. It doesn't get a whole lot easier tomorrow when we begin our 3 game series with Detroit, but if we can get the bats going, these games can prove to be very important if we don't want to consider ourselves out of the AL Central race already. Freddy will pitch against his former team (for a few minutes anyway) against Rick Porcello, who hasn't had that great of a start so far. I really hope we can take advantage of that.

after this series against those Tigers, we come back home to play a lowly Angels team that is even struggling to keep up with Oakland AND Texas, so if we can get a series win in Detroit before that, it could be the start of a nice little streak for us.
On a non Sox related note, I must praise the National league for a second and how unbelievably random it is. The Reds and Padres are in first place in their respective divisions, and the Nationals and Marlins are looking to hold their own in the Wild card hunt against the Giants (my original Wild card pick, however I had The Rockies winning the division...). This should be a fun MLB network year for me. ^_^
So hopefully this series against Detroit goes well. Let's give our starters some run support, boys!!!

Target field debut and other Sox tidbits

Well, many many many things have been going on with our dearest White Sox since I last got a chance to blog. Jake Peavy must have heard what I said (well, and what everyone else was saying) and he has gotten worlds better. I listened to an interview with him on the Saturday morning radio show "hit and run" on 670 the score and got some insight. The biggest thing was that he and Coop actually watched old tape of him pitching for the first time after the series against the Rays. After that first inning against the Rangers in his next start, he seemed to have found his old edge, and his next 2 starts after that were very very good. It's good to see him back in his usual form, which is why we got him in the first place. I feel alot better about our starting rotation, aside from Gavin. He has been struggling alot the whole season so far, and I hope he can get back to his usual form. The Sox need to also hit alot better (aside from a few games here and there where the offense explodes) to support our pitchers when they do end up doing really well. A perfect example of this is Danks's last two starts, including today. He is our best pitcher so far, in my opinion, and the way he's been pitching he shouldn't have a loss let alone two. Our team's batting average is probably still last in the AL, with Rios being the only one hitting over .300 in the lineup today. The thing i'm most sad about it Beckham's hitting performance (or lack thereof) so far. I hope he can find his groove because I know how good he can be, maybe the pressure was a bit too much for him as he instantly became a star on this team after his rookie of the year-like performance last year.
The issue of Bobby as the closer was a hot topic this week as well, after he blew the save the other day i was thinking Matt Thornton would have to be the new man. I am however glad that Bobby got another chance yesterday an came through against a Twins team that almost always kills the Sox. i guess we'll just have to see how things play out with Bobby over the next few weeks, and see if Thornton needs to come in and take over if Bobby loses his control again.
I am very very pleased with Rios, as his awesome 12 game hitting streak just came to an end. At the beginning of the year I aid him hitting was going to be the key to the team's success, but even though he is delivering there are other unforeseen issues with this team that Rios can't control. I also am happy about Konerko and his league leading home runs. I just hope we can win some games here and improve our 8 games back situation, because if we're still out of it by the end of June, I dunno where Paulie will end up, but it might not be here.
these past two days have been special to me especially because of the fact that we were playing in Minnesota and we weren't in that awful awful dome. I might be the only one who hates it as much as Hawk does. My favorite part of the broadcast today was when they showed Hawk in the booth setting off the detonator to blow it up. I went there in person last year and it was even more awkward and ugly in person as it was on TV. I'm glad it' gone, and Target Field is actually a really pretty looking park. And I love how we won our last game at the dome and our first game at Target Field. Now that's something.
So now we are off tomorrow and then it's off to Kauffman stadium for 3 against the Royals. That should hopefully be a good series for us, as the pitching matchups look like they are heavily in our favor, especially in the first two games with Buehrle and Peavy starting. I know i've said it alot so far, but if we can get the bats going, we'll be fine. ^_^