This Week in White Sox Baseball

(Seeing as there's six months and 162 games in a Major League Baseball season, I decided to just do weekly recaps of the White Sox because it would be too ridiculous to write about the team every time something interesting happens)

Having not posted anything in a week or so, and seeing that the White Sox have been arguably the biggest enigma through the first week of the season, I figured it’s time for a summary of what I think about the team with the first week of the season in the books.

I was more excited about this baseball season than any other (aside from last year as the defending champs), with the reason being that I had less of a clue what to expect out of the White Sox than any other year I can remember following them. So with Monday’s 1:05 start, I skipped my Astronomy class and set myself up all ready to watch the opener. And what a miserable opener it was. 10 minutes into the first inning it was already clear that there was no way the White Sox would win that game. And Grady Sizemore tied Johan Santana as my favorite player I wish I could like but have to hate because he plays on a division rival. Having said that, Sizemore is my early favorite for AL MVP but even if he hits .350 with 30 HRs and 100 RBIs, ESPN’s “experts” won’t consider him because his name does not include the words Jeter, Ortiz, or Rodriguez in them, and when he does win it everyone will be as shocked as they were when Justin Morneau won it last season and these “experts” will talk about what a shame it is that Ortiz didn’t win it because he’s the most clutch hitter in the world and players who don’t play in New York, Boston or aren’t named Bonds shouldn’t be talked about. Then Tim Kurkjian will argue that Sizemore has been wildly underrated and deserves the award, followed by John Kruk and Peter Gammons taking him in the basement, beating him senseless and reminding him that if he ever talks about a player not in New York, Boston, or named Bonds, Kruk would sit on him.

But I’m rambling. Anyways, after the first two games of the season (The opening day shellacking and the heartbreaking 8-7 loss where Jason Michaels stuck his glove out while falling down to make the final out of the game), I refused to listen to 670AM The Score because I know how Chicago fans are and didn’t want to hear all the ridiculous talk about how the White Sox were going to be horrible this year and their starting pitching was bad and their offense was inconsistent and blah, blah, blah, blah blah. Yes, Contreras lasting only one inning and looked as hittable as ever and yes, Jon Garland didn’t impress anyone. But It’s one freaking start! Everyone seems to forget that A) The White Sox have the best pitching coach nobody has ever heard of. B) Their bullpen is ridiculously improved (If you didn’t see David Aardsma blow away three straight Indians’ hitters with the bases loaded and nobody out, trust me, his stuff is just plain nasty. Like Matt Thornton, all he needed was Coop to get him to throw the ball over the plate). And C) Their offense is still among the best in baseball and the fact that they’re 2-3 even though Jim Thome and Jermaine Dye are both hitting .118, A.J. Pierzynski is hitting .111, and Tadahito Iguchi is hitting .143, means that once they start hitting (and trust me, they will start hitting. Just watch this upcoming Oakland series when they get to play in 70 degree weather instead of 20 degrees), they will still be right there in the AL Central race. Combine that with the fact that the Tigers’ pitching looks worn down from last season, the Twins offense is, well, the Twins offense, and the Indians still don’t have a bullpen, and I’m still optimistic about the final 157 games. Although they have to pick it up fast because there isn’t much time to pull it all together (do you sense the sarcasm here? Good.)

Aside from the obvious negatives, here are some bright spots I’ve seen through the team’s first five games:
-Darin Erstad. It’s hard to imagine that a three-time Gold Glover who is a .286 career hitter and who, before last season, had played at least 125 games and had at least 146 hits in eight out of the past nine years would be seen as done after just one injured season. He got the exact same treatment from the Angels that Thome had gotten from Philadelphia a year earlier. After one year they just forgot that the guy can flat out play. And unlike Thome, Erstad is only 33 years old. And he fits the White Sox’s lineup so well. He’s just like Aaron Rowand with the exception that Erstad is more experienced and a MUCH more disciplined hitter. Hitting in the two-hole he can hit in any situation that presents itself. He can bunt a guy over, hit a ball to the right side of the infield with a guy on second base, pull the ball or go opposite field if he needs to. And not to mention the fact that he’s still solid defensively and can play first base if Konerko or Thome get hurt. He did win a Gold Glove there only two years ago.
-Bullpen. Thornton struggled a bit (including the homer he gave up to Sizemore), but aside from that the bullpen has been a pleasant surprise. With the aforementioned Aardsma, there’s also Nick Masset who has had to come in in the second inning twice already with Contreras’ meatball in which he did his best in a bad situation, as well as when Buehrle got nailed with a line drive where he pitched 4 2/3 innings and only gave up one run and four hits. He and John Danks (who only threw one bad pitch against the Twins and would’ve won against most other starters, but unfortunately Santana was on the mound) are making Kenny Williams’ McCarthy trade look alright, but it’s early.
-Javier Vasquez. Yet another question mark because of the 21 million dollar extension Williams gave him before the season started, he looked unhittable through 6 2/3 against Minnesota. Despite walking four, he hit his spots like a guy of his potential should. But the disclaimer about Vasquez is that we saw that same kind of nasty stuff last year, but he did it so inconsistently that he still finished the year with a sub-.500 record. So I’m not going to jump on the Vazquez bandwagon just yet, but it’s a good start for him.

Look, the White Sox gave up 20 runs through their first two games of the season and people freaked out. When a team only a year and a half removed from a World Series with three of the pitchers who got you there still on the team, this should be seen as a worry, and it was. But since then, including Sunday’s loss to Minnesota, the White Sox have allowed only six runs over the past three games. Do I think the staff will continue to only allow two runs per game? No. But do I also think they will allow 10 runs per game as they did against Cleveland? No. My guess is it will land somewhere in the middle. And if that’s the case and the offense picks up, the White Sox will be fine. I’m not jumping in the Chicago River yet.