Tuesday night's game between the White Sox and Cubs at Wrigley Field was postponed because of heavy rains in the area. No makeup date was announced.
...
Danks will now pitch Wednesday's game, with Gavin Floyd (4-5, 4.94 ERA) going on Thursday for the White Sox, pushing back the scheduled start of Jose Contreras.

For the Cubs, Ryan Dempster (4-3, 3.87 ERA) will now oppose Danks on Wednesday, with Zambrano set to pitch on Thursday against Floyd.

"As a player you go through a thing where you kind of have people that have confidence in you, your front office and your manager having confidence in you, and I really don't know this situation,'' Fields said. "It's been weird. Ozzie sat me down the other day and tried to go through it a little bit, but it's kind of hard to swallow I think. If I was still at .212 like I was for a while, it would be easier, but pulling my average up and the team getting into second place, it just kind of came surprising I guess.

"I asked [Guillen] a couple of questions, but I have more questions for [general manager] Kenny [Williams] and I haven't been able to actually sit down and talk to him. I know the draft is coming up and stuff, but we'll get to sit down here before long and we'll get to ask all of the questions that I need to.''
Asked if he was frustrated about the timing of the Beckham call up, Fields responded, "I think so.''

"Obviously they have their reasons,'' Fields said. "I'm just an employee, so I don't make decisions. But you can always look at things and say 'Why this, why that?' We're struggling now and I think everyone knows that, that's the truth. As a team and individually we were really struggling, but to then come back to within [3 ½] games ... I mean I would kind of consider this a big change, not just a small tweak. To be doing pretty well as a team at that time and then to make a big change, it's still kind of a question that I'll have to ask.''

Fields isn't even sure he'll like the answer, but at least he'll have one that eases his mind.

Mark Gonzales: The Chicago White Sox placed outfielder Carlos Quentin on the 15-day disabled list (retroactive to May 26) with plantar fasciitis in his left foot.

The Sox returned outfielder DeWayne Wise from his rehabilitation assignment at Class AAA Charlotte and reinstated him from the 15-day disabled list.

Those contract extensions for the entire coaching staff that were expected to be signed, sealed and delivered with a mid-April announcement?

Well, they're no longer in Ozzie Guillen's hands.

And while the White Sox manager was saying all the right things about his current staff and their immediate future on Tuesday, he also made it very clear that the final decision will now come from general manager Ken Williams.

That's a bit different than what was said several years ago, when Williams insisted that Guillen was given the full say of the firing and hiring of the staff around him. Even earlier this season, the manager told the Sun-Times that several of the coaches had already signed deals and they were finalizing extensions with the others. ...

"Carlos came to me after [batting practice] and said he couldn't go,''[Joey] Cora said, as Quentin's left heel continues to be a problem. "The plan right now, he's leaving Sunday night to Chicago and get some treatment Monday. And hopefully be able to play on Tuesday, but that's where he's at right now. He won't be available tomorrow or on Monday.''

Head trainer Herm Schneider actually sent word that Quentin will get re-evaluated tomorrow morning at the Rogers Centre, and if there's no improvement he could be on a flight out by late afternoon.

If he has to go on the 15-day DL the Sox would be in some real big trouble, as the outfield is already thin.

Can you say 2007 all over again?

Confirmation

White Sox general manager Ken Williams ... sounded as if he would have loved the Los Angeles' Dodgers and chin music maven Don Drysdale after watching his batters get knocked down last week while his pitchers let opposing hitters get comfortable.

"Pitching wise, you got to be tough through this season," Williams said. "You can’t allow other teams to pitch inside and knock your players down and not reciprocate. You can’t do it. You have to establish the inside part of the plate and move hitters off the plate in order to open it up more.

"If you don’t do that and allow the other team to do it to your hitters, then you’re losing at both ends. So we got to get better at those areas. We got to fight a little bit harder. And if we don’t fight a little bit harder, it doesn’t matter whether we think we’re the best team or not. You got to go out there and prove it."

Ozzie Guillen made the change for Wednesday's [rainout] against the Tigers, putting Jayson Nix in for Ramirez at shortstop. During his pregame chat with the media, the White Sox manager made it clear this was not a one-game respite for the Cuban Missile.

"It's hard for me to say, but it's not a rest," said Guillen of the change from Ramirez to Nix. "I always tell my players, 'Give yourself a chance. Get good at-bats.' But when you see one at-bat after another, after another, after another, and no results, no adjustments ...

"I'm not going to say I'm punishing him. But we are letting people know, just not him. We have to play as a team. We've got to see people on the field to help us." ...

By Bill James

What Nate Silver does on fivethirtyeight.com — and this is my understanding of what he does, not his description of it — is search data for the underlying order of the universe that is depicted by those facts and statistics. Every topic in the political cosmos is blanketed by data. What Silver, 31, is very, very good at is finding and assembling that information on what you and I might envision as some terrifying backroom machine but that in reality is probably just a pretty good laptop.

Silver is equally good at avoiding searches that produce only the elements that prove his point of view. Let us take, for example, gay marriage. It's not that Silver doesn't have an opinion on the issue; he probably does. It's that he doesn't start his analysis with his opinion; he starts with the data. He finds every vote on the issue of gay marriage that he can — every poll, every survey, all the related factors. Then he looks for aspects that might reveal changing attitudes. Where was the public on this issue in 2004? Where was it in 2006? Where is it now? What are the numbers from Nebraska? What are the numbers from California? How are the numbers from Nebraska different from those from California? After studying all of it, he reaches a conclusion: Gay marriage is gathering voter support by about 2 points a year, and within three or four years, gay-marriage advocates are going to start winning elections, and here's when that's going to happen in California and in Nebraska and in Arkansas.

Is he right? I don't know. The point is not how precisely he calls the results but that after reading his analysis, you actually know something you didn't know when you started. In a world choking on retreaded arguments long worn bald of the facts, this type of analysis has proved to be stunningly — and reassuringly — popular.

Monday's home opener between the White Sox and Kansas City Royals has been postponed until Tuesday (1:05 p.m.) due to Monday's forecast of snow, rain, cold and high winds. Save your excuses for the boss until Tuesday.

larry: still a 1:05 start. monday tix good for tuesday or may be exchanged for April 8-10 or April 27-29.

Watch on MLB.TV or listen with Gameday Audio as the White Sox play their final exhibition game before Opening Day. Jose Contreras started for the South Siders. MLB.TV | Live box score | Gameday

Sox: Wise, CF; Getz, 2B; Quentin, LF; Thome, DH; Konerko, 1B; Ramirez, SS; Fields, 3B; Miller, C; Anderson, B, RF

The Cactus League slate is over, but you can catch the White Sox in exhibition action vs. the D-backs at Chase Field with Gameday Audio. Gameday Audio | Boxscore | Gameday. Game is on WSCR in Chicago.

Sox: Wise, CF; Getz, 2B; Quentin, LF; Thome, DH; Dye, RF; Konerko, 1B; Pierzynski, C; Ramirez, SS; Fields, 3B

Smells Like Mascot: The End of the Dark Ages?

Watch an exclusive live webcast as Mark Buehrle makes his final spring start before Opening Day when he faces the Rockies on Tuesday at 3:05 p.m. CT. Watch live | Boxscore | Gameday

Assistant GM Rick Hahn is supposed to replace Bill Melton today. Update: No Rich Hahn. Melton was replaced by Paul Jensen.

Exercise physiologists have studied caffeine’s effects in nearly every iteration: Does it help sprinters? Marathon runners? Cyclists? Rowers? Swimmers? Athletes whose sports involve stopping and starting like tennis players? The answers are yes and yes and yes and yes.

Starting as long ago as 1978, researchers have been publishing caffeine studies. And in study after study, they concluded that caffeine actually does improve performance. In fact, some experts, like Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky of McMaster University in Canada, are just incredulous that anyone could even ask if caffeine has a performance effect.

"There is so much data on this that it’s unbelievable," he said. "It’s just unequivocal that caffeine improves performance. It’s been shown in well-respected labs in multiple places around the world."

Aside from being blessed with a strong arm, Anderson follows a few basic philosophies when trying to make that perfect strike to third base or nail a runner at home.

"You have to make sure you field the ball because you can't throw what you don't have," Anderson said with a smile. "But with repetition, it becomes second nature. You try to get a good grip on the ball and don't throw any two-seam dreams to the base.

"My main goal is to get the arm up and get behind the ball. Get my fingers behind the ball, and throw it with a nice backspin, on a line. I don't want to short arm it or get on the side of it because it causes the ball to tail a little bit. Not many guys can throw accurately at a three-quarter arm angle."

Anderson pitched a little bit during his collegiate career at the University of Arizona and credits that part of his game as an aide for his strong throwing arm. There also has been shoulder-strengthening exercises incorporated into Anderson's workout program to keep it from hurting, although not necessarily make it stronger.

"Long tossing has really helped me trough the years," Anderson said. "This year, I'm just mainly trying to keep the ball down and just trusting my arm that the ball will get there.

"In the past, I've occasionally sailed the cutoff man. It's tough to get the ball there on a line, but if you can get behind it and make a nice one or two-hopper to the base, it increases the chances of throwing the guy out."

Watch a free live webcast today when the White Sox play the second of two in a row vs. the Giants, with Jose Contreras slated to start. Watch live | Live box score | Gameday

Anderson, B, CF; Ramirez, SS; Quentin, LF; Dye, RF; Thome, DH; Konerko, 1B; Betemit, 3B; Stewart, C; Lillibridge, 2B

314. That’s the total number of postseason games that have been played in Major League Baseball over the last decade. Each year, there is talk about how clubs that make it to the postseason earn incredible sums in revenues, but is that entirely true?

The answer is yes, although it is often indirectly. Making the postseason nearly guarantees increased season-ticket sales the following year, and can result in sponsorship and television deals in the multi-millions of dollars.

But, what about directly? How much revenue do the clubs make in the postseason off the games themselves? The answer is, it depends.

To try and answer this question, I have come up with a new metric called Average Postseason Revenue, or APSR for short. ...