SB Nation User Blog: The Cheat

John Danks Keeps White Sox Rolling

The Cheat — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 02:44:50 -0000

More photos » by Charlie Riedel - AP

Jayson Nix and the White Sox continue to jump up the AL Central standings

John Danks picked up right where Mark Buehrle left on Thursday, pitching 7+ innings of zero walk shutout baseball. He didn't allow a Royals baserunner to reach second base until the 6h inning when he gave up back-to-back singles.

On the CSN post game Chuck Garfien opined that Zack Greinke might have been tipping his pitches, but it seemed to me that the Sox had a solid plan of attack against him; look for and attack fastballs. That's a tough proposition when Greinke is on his game, but while Greinke was still lighting up the gun with mid-to-high-90's heat he wasn't painting on the black with it. That allowed the Sox to attack him in more favorable counts where they were less likely to face his wipeout slider. Greinke's curveball was rolling up to the plate today, though with the exception of a single from Dewayne Wise the Sox didn't really make him pay for hanging that pitch.

If anything it felt like the Sox let Greinke off the hook. They had 8 hits and 4 runs through 4 innings, but gave away 3 outs on the basepaths on 3 separate failed stolen base attempts, none of which were close. Thankfully, the Royals defense, as they are wont to do, allowed the Sox to tack on two of those runs in an extended inning.

The White Sox are rolling right now. There's not much else to say. I guess that Tdogg fellow knew what he was talking about. :)

Up

The Cheat — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:41:31 -0000

Next Game

Chicago White Sox
@ Kansas City Royals

Friday, Jul 3, 2009, 7:10 PM CDT
Kauffman Stadium

John Danks vs Zack Greinke

Partly cloudy,rain. Game time temperature around 65.

B-R Preview | White Sox Game Notes | Live Box Score | MLB Gameday

Complete Coverage >

White Sox Look To Add Significant Upgrade By Trade Deadline

The Cheat — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:18:40 -0000

White Sox Record Since Carlos Quentin went on the DL: 21-14

White Sox Center Fielders

	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	AVG	OBP	SLG
Since 5/26	116	20	5	2	1	7	11	30	.172	.267	.276

Mark Buehrle Makes It Look Easy

The Cheat — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:07:21 -0000

More photos » by ED ZURGA - AP

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Sometimes you don't need to play your best baseball to keep a streak going. Mark Buehrle wasn't too sharp in the early innings Thursday, and the Sox offense didn't have a hit until the 4th, but the Royals did what the Royals do to keep the Sox hanging around. The Royals erased singles in each of the first two innings with bone-headed baserunning on shallow flyball. It appeared both runners failed to keep track of the ball on hit-and-runs, which led to a couple of easy outfield-assisted double plays for the Sox.

Buehrle took advantage, cruising through innings 3 through 8 picking up another more conventional double play in the process. Though again, it didn't really feel like he was doing a whole lot more than just letting the Royals do their thing, as he had only 1 strikeout in the game's first 8 innings.

I started off the 9th inning by looking up complete games with one or less strikeouts by White Sox pitchers, which was probably a jinx. So you can blame me for the Royals run. Surprisingly, the less-than-1-K complete game hasn't been a rarity even in the retrosheet era -- Play-Index lists 84 separate occurrences -- though Buehrle does own the last two such games for the Sox.

A couple of opposite field doubles in the 9th spoiled both the shutout and the complete game, but at least Bobby Jenks is happy. He got the easy 2-out save.

Offensively, Jayson Nix continues to drive the ball (2-4 w/ a HR tonight) and might be forcing his way into the lineup more often, which, given his plus glove everywhere we've seen him on the infield, can't be a bad thing. I don't expect Ozzie to pull Getz from the lineup, but it's not like he has enough upside to prevent Nix from getting a good number of at-bats.

The highlight of the game -- aside from, you know, the win, which put the Sox 3-games over .500 for the first time this year -- might have been Scott Podsednik's 4-strike at-bat. He fouled off a couple of pitches on 2-2, then appeared to take a curveball right over the heart of the plate for strike 3. Pods hugh his head and headed for the dugout as home plate umpire Greg Gibson appeared to ring him up. But Gibson's half fist pump was followed by an emphatically loud "ball" call. Pods sheepishly walked back behind him almost as if to say 'are you sure?' and unceremoniously flew out to end the at bat on strike 4.

Sup /b/

The Cheat — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:24:54 -0000

Next Game

Chicago White Sox
@ Kansas City Royals

Thursday, Jul 2, 2009, 7:10 PM CDT
Kauffman Stadium

Mark Buehrle vs Bruce Chen

Partly cloudy,rain. Game time temperature around 80.

B-R Preview | White Sox Game Notes | Live Box Score | MLB Gameday

Complete Coverage >

White Sox Smartly Silent on International Signing Day

The Cheat — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:16:27 -0000

Today marks the first day of baseball's international signing period, the designated time period when clubs can legally sign international amateurs most of whom are just 16 years old. The White Sox are not expected to make any significant splash, with some speculating that they will not hand out a single 6-figure bonus.

A couple of years ago, that statement might have sent me off on a mini tirade bemoaning the Sox cheap ways and the inefficiency of ignoring an entire method of acquiring talent. Not anymore. I'd still like the Sox to participate more (smartly) in the international market, but recognize that they're not in a position to do so right now.

Dave WIlder was the Sox point person on international signings and as I'm sure you're aware is no longer with the club following a federal investigation involving the skimming of bonuses (and laundering those bonuses through a failing Phoenix gay bar).

The Sox gave Juan Silverio a club-record $600k bonus -- though there's no way of knowing how much actually made it to Silverio -- in the summer preceding the Wilder fiasco, and there have been questions about his age ever since. Silverio struggled in the Appalachian League last summer and found himself back in the Dominican Summer League this year, where he has dominated what might be much younger competition. I stress that's just speculation, but there are pending investigations by MLB and the federal government which have very recently turned up other high-profile age/identity cheats who've slipped through the cracks before.

Anyway, my point wasn't to dwell on Wilder and Silverio. I simply wanted to state that the Sox need to get their own house in order, get their international operation up and running with law-abiding, good baseball people... and then they can start dabbling back in the international market. That process might take another year or two, to build the relationships with the potential signees and (ugh) buscones.

There's no point in rushing back into the international market without the proper team in place. I'd rather the Sox sit out a year or two if it means they're doing everything right when they do eventually jump back in the fray.

Aroldis Chapman Reportedly Defects

The Cheat — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:59:08 -0000

Aroldis Chapman Reportedly Defects

Aroldis Chapman, the 21 year old Cuban pitcher you may remember from the WBC -- he's the one who was hitting triple digits -- has reportedly defected in the Netherlands, and is now in the wind.

Contreras & Castro Combine To Topple Tribe

The Cheat — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:56:56 -0000

White Sox roll to season-high 5-game win streak, 2 games over .500

Hey, guys! Come look! Quick! I can see first place from up here!

Jose Contreras continued his surprising return with another strong 8-inning performance Wednesday night. He's gone 8 innings in all of his victories this season, all 3 of them. I kid.

The Sox are 3-2 in Contreras starts since his return from self-imposed AAA exile, with 4 quality starts and both losses coming by just one run. Contreras, like Floyd (and, to a lesser extent, Danks) has turned his season around. Suddenly the Sox look like serious contenders in the underwhelming AL Central. (We're all Tdogg, now)

A certain amount of credit has to go to Ramon Castro, who delivered the big blow at the plate tonight with a game-breaking 3-run HR. Contreras has thrived with him behind the plate, mostly because he has improved command of all his pitches. But there's still some credit that needs to be given to Castro, who boosted Jose's confidence with some encouraging words from Livan Hernandez, and maybe, just maybe, makes him beam with Cuban Pride simply by being named 'Castro.'

Jose Contreras' turnaround

	W-L	G	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
Before Demotion	0-5	6	29.2	40	30	27	4	16	17	8.19	1.89
After Return	3-2	5	37.1	24	10	9	3	5	29	2.17	0.78
Total	3-7	11	67.0	64	40	36	7	21	46	4.84	1.27

If you were to graph the Sox season this year, the two previous high points would have fallen on May 1st and June 1st. They sat at 2-games over .500 and a half-game up on the division in the former, and had just completed their first sweep of the season en route to a then-season-high 4-game winning streak in the latter. So now that's it's July 1st and they've climbed back to within 3 games of the Tigers and have a now-season-high 5-game streak, I'm a bit wary of getting too excited.

Ozzie feels the same way.

"When Kenny asked me about it, I was honest about it," Guillen said. "I said, 'Well Kenny, you got to give me another week to be honest with you because right now I'm confused.' And I told you guys in the media, I'm confused. I don't hide anything, that's my problem. I'm confused. One day we play good, three days we play bad. Of course I have to be confused, we were like 10 games under .500, that's not a good team. Or we a good team playing real bad.

"Little by little, we've started to hit better, the kids start contributing a little bit more, and they take the heat away from the big boys when they start doing more. Then [John] Danks and Gavin [Floyd] and [Clayton] Richard are starting to contribute by pitching well. To have Jose [Contreras] come back and pitch the way he has, it's like we traded for somebody. The ballclub right now is great. How long are we going to be great? Hopefully from now until November. That's my goal.

It was a great series, and maybe the launching pad to a second-half run. But I'm still feeling a lot like I did following Jose's first start since coming back from AAA. Prove it.

You beat up on a down and out Indians team. Great. Go do it again against the Royals.

* * * * *

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