White Sox Weekly Rewind: Week Eight
Record For Week: 2-4. Record For Season: 33-17, First Place, AL Central.
The Good: Pitching is still the name of the game. Buehrle gobbles up 9 innings on Tuesday night and keeps his foot on the Angels' throats long enough for the offense to scratch out one more run in the 11th inning. Garcia turns in a solid start the following night. Dustin Hermanson is still the real Mr. Zero and has yet to allow a run this season. Konerko has somehow managed to raise his batting average 50 points in the past two weeks. Frank Thomas makes his return to the lineup in front of what should be a packed house at US Cellular this afternoon.
The Bad: Brandon McCarthy just might not be ready for prime time yet, as his 6 ER, 3 BB in 5 innings Friday gives him the loss and a plane ticket back to Charlotte. The team scored 15 runs in the past week...Texas scored almost that many off them on Sunday. Jon Garland looked like the Judy Garland of old with one bad inning of work yesterday. The consensus among the Chicago baseball observers I was guzzling Heinies with on Friday night says that he'll finish the season 16-12 in spite of his torrid start. Crede's not hitting (if you take out his 2 hot weeks to start the season, he's below even last year's pace), Dye's not hitting (and not really fielding well either, and before his 3 hits yesterday, Juan Uribe had exactly 4 in his previous 13 games. It's gonna be really hard for Scott Podsednik to keep swiping bases if he can't get to first.
Ahead: Vs Los Anaheim, 5/30-6/1. Vs Cleveland, 6/3-6/5.
Thoughts: There's a lot of folks just giddy at the prospect of the Big Hurt's return today, many of who think that he'll spark the offense back to life. I'm not so optimistic--I think he'll see a lot of pitches and wear opposing hurlers down, but I'm not looking for him to just start teeing off with 500-foot H-bombs. Plus, he still can't run with the gimpy ankle and could turn into a liability clogging up the basepaths, especially with DP-prone types like Konerko hitting behind him.
Record For Week: 2-4. Record For Season: 33-17, First Place, AL Central.
The Good: Pitching is still the name of the game. Buehrle gobbles up 9 innings on Tuesday night and keeps his foot on the Angels' throats long enough for the offense to scratch out one more run in the 11th inning. Garcia turns in a solid start the following night. Dustin Hermanson is still the real Mr. Zero and has yet to allow a run this season. Konerko has somehow managed to raise his batting average 50 points in the past two weeks. Frank Thomas makes his return to the lineup in front of what should be a packed house at US Cellular this afternoon.
The Bad: Brandon McCarthy just might not be ready for prime time yet, as his 6 ER, 3 BB in 5 innings Friday gives him the loss and a plane ticket back to Charlotte. The team scored 15 runs in the past week...Texas scored almost that many off them on Sunday. Jon Garland looked like the Judy Garland of old with one bad inning of work yesterday. The consensus among the Chicago baseball observers I was guzzling Heinies with on Friday night says that he'll finish the season 16-12 in spite of his torrid start. Crede's not hitting (if you take out his 2 hot weeks to start the season, he's below even last year's pace), Dye's not hitting (and not really fielding well either, and before his 3 hits yesterday, Juan Uribe had exactly 4 in his previous 13 games. It's gonna be really hard for Scott Podsednik to keep swiping bases if he can't get to first.
Ahead: Vs Los Anaheim, 5/30-6/1. Vs Cleveland, 6/3-6/5.
Thoughts: There's a lot of folks just giddy at the prospect of the Big Hurt's return today, many of who think that he'll spark the offense back to life. I'm not so optimistic--I think he'll see a lot of pitches and wear opposing hurlers down, but I'm not looking for him to just start teeing off with 500-foot H-bombs. Plus, he still can't run with the gimpy ankle and could turn into a liability clogging up the basepaths, especially with DP-prone types like Konerko hitting behind him.
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