MLB: White Sox on a roll... TOO!!

cyfanatic

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Oct 18, 2006
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Nothing in the White Sox lineup tells me they can sustain the kind of play right now.

BUT, the AL Central sucks. So, it won't take much like the NL Central last year.

Really? In fact, what was supposed to be the "core" of their lineup is hitting about .220 right now! Maybe less! So I do think they can sustain their play. I would even state that while Quentin is most likely not to keep this pace up...the White Sox are bound to get more from Konerko, Thome and whoever plays 2B!

As for the pitching...Buerhle is struggling...can the back end of the rotation hold up? That is THE big question!

Ozzie has done a great job managing this club so far!
 

JRCampy

Active Member
Apr 11, 2006
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On a topic-related note, whatever happened to Josh Fields? I graduated HS with him and I recall him playing 3B for a while, but then Crede got healthy again and came back. Did he get traded, promoted, or cut?

He's playing AAA ball right now. I'd expect after Crede walks after the season (sad to say, but it's going to happen) that he'll be the starter at 3rd base for the forseeable future. I'd also expect he'll get a call up at some point later in the season if Swisher continues to be an offensive liability...
 

Seth

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Mar 17, 2006
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He's playing AAA ball right now. I'd expect after Crede walks after the season (sad to say, but it's going to happen) that he'll be the starter at 3rd base for the forseeable future. I'd also expect he'll get a call up at some point later in the season if Swisher continues to be an offensive liability...

Ah, good to know. Thanks for the update.
 

cyfanatic

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Oct 18, 2006
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You posted about a MLB team other than the Cubs...of course this is what was going to happen. :wink:

On a topic-related note, whatever happened to Josh Fields? I graduated HS with him and I recall him playing 3B for a while, but then Crede got healthy again and came back. Did he get traded, promoted, or cut?

The White Sox just didn't have a spot for Fields at this point. Last I heard he was really getting it going in AAA after a slow start (possibly an injury involved?). He is still in the plans for the White Sox.
 

cyfanatic

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Oct 18, 2006
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He's playing AAA ball right now. I'd expect after Crede walks after the season (sad to say, but it's going to happen) that he'll be the starter at 3rd base for the forseeable future. I'd also expect he'll get a call up at some point later in the season if Swisher continues to be an offensive liability...

Seriously...if you look at the White Sox lineup you would have to think they are going to start scoring more runs! That is what makes their start so impressive...doing it without having to score a ton of runs!
 

JRCampy

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Apr 11, 2006
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Really? In fact, what was supposed to be the "core" of their lineup is hitting about .220 right now! Maybe less! So I do think they can sustain their play. I would even state that while Quentin is most likely not to keep this pace up...the White Sox are bound to get more from Konerko, Thome and whoever plays 2B!

As for the pitching...Buerhle is struggling...can the back end of the rotation hold up? That is THE big question!

Ozzie has done a great job managing this club so far!

Ramirez at 2B has been refeshing recently. He's also started to get the bat on the ball a bit more. He swings WAY too hard at times, but his defense is partly making up for his offense at the moment.

And I also agree with the way Ozzie is handling the club this year, great job outta him!! :wink:
 

CrossCyed

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Mar 30, 2006
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It's nice knowing that if we're up after 7 innings, it's essentially over with Linebrink and Jenks.
 

cyfanatic

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Oct 18, 2006
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Ramirez at 2B has been refeshing recently. He's also started to get the bat on the ball a bit more. He swings WAY too hard at times, but his defense is partly making up for his offense at the moment.

And I also agree with the way Ozzie is handling the club this year, great job outta him!! :wink:

I like Ramirez too...what to do when Uribe comes off the DL?
 

JRCampy

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Apr 11, 2006
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I'd imagine Wise goes back down.

Uribe will be activated by the end of this week (he was retroactive to the 16th of May), Wise will be the odd man out.

It would also be nice if they sent Wasserman back down, he is definitely not ready for primetime at the moment...
 

CrossCyed

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Mar 30, 2006
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Who do you replace Wassermann with?

Childers may be a non-40 man option. Other than that, Russell or maybe Broadway? Egbert's been trash since coming off of injury.
 

mwitt

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Mar 23, 2006
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For those of you who say that the White Sox will fall back to earth -- where is that to? In order for that to happen, doesn't that mean that someone else in the division is going to have to step up and win? I predict that 90 wins will probably win the AL Central this year in undoubtedly a down year. The White Sox are currently on pace for 92.

But I'll stick with 90. In order to reach 90 wins, the other teams in the division would have to win the following percentage of their games:

Twins - 56.9%
Indians - 60.6%
Tigers - 62.4%
Royals - 63.9%

Just FYI, a .60 winning percentage is good for 97 wins over the course of a season.

The White Sox have the best bullpen in the division. The only other respectable bullpen in the Central is Minnesota, as Nathan is amazing, but the pen takes a hit with Neshek out.

Another thing to consider is that after this series with Tampa Bay, the White Sox will have played 12 more road games than home games. As anyone knows, teams generally have better home records than on the road, so they should be able to take advantage of that as it evens out.

The White Sox are also the only team in the division to have a winning record on the road.

Although I never would have guessed this at the beginning of the season, it appears that the division could come down to the White Sox and Twins again. I don't think it bodes well for long term success that the Twins have given up 10 more runs that they've scored.
 

JRCampy

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Who do you replace Wassermann with?

Childers may be a non-40 man option. Other than that, Russell or maybe Broadway? Egbert's been trash since coming off of injury.

They probably don't really have a good pitching replacement at the moment. I'm guessing they want to keep Broadway in the starter role for the time being.

On a side note, what the heck happened to Ozuna?? He was hitting .400 for the longest time last season and now hardly sees the field (except when Crede gets the day off)...
 

mwitt

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Mar 23, 2006
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He swings WAY too hard at times, but his defense is partly making up for his offense at the moment.

They showed a stat on the broadcast on last night's game. In his last 12 games, Alexei is hitting over .300.
 

CrossCyed

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They probably don't really have a good pitching replacement at the moment. I'm guessing they want to keep Broadway in the starter role for the time being.

On a side note, what the heck happened to Ozuna?? He was hitting .400 for the longest time last season and now hardly sees the field (except when Crede gets the day off)...

The fact that we don't need to occasionally play him in left field anymore helps....:wink:
 

JRCampy

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Apr 11, 2006
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They showed a stat on the broadcast on last night's game. In his last 12 games, Alexei is hitting over .300.

The hit he had in extras the other night where he squared up to bunt and brought the bat back and hit a double the opposite direction was awesome, my jaw just dropped when I saw that. You can definitely tell there is talent there. Plus he has a canon for an arm. It's just going to take some time for him to develop...
 

mwitt

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Mar 23, 2006
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The hit he had in extras the other night where he squared up to bunt and brought the bat back and hit a double the opposite direction was awesome, my jaw just dropped when I saw that. You can definitely tell there is talent there. Plus he has a canon for an arm. It's just going to take some time for him to develop...

And did you hear that Alexei was supposed to lay down the bunt? He took it upon himself to pull back and swing when he saw how aggressively Cleveland was playing the bunt.

His inexperience defensively at 2nd would make me nervous in a pennant race, but Juan's bat will make me have gray hair by the time I'm 25.
 

Tweedt4Cy

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Apr 14, 2007
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That will happen when you've played the Pirates for 40% of your season...

Must be rough playing the underachieving al central. :biglaugh:

Cubs are actually playing a pretty good division. Especially since the Pirates have more wins than half of your division. :biglaugh:
 

JRCampy

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Apr 11, 2006
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Must be rough playing the underachieving al central. :biglaugh:

Cubs are actually playing a pretty good division. Especially since the Pirates have more wins than half of your division. :biglaugh:

By the looks of it the top three teams in the NL Central have dominated the NL West (which I think everybody would agree is THE worst division in all of baseball) by a combined 33 and 19. I would say that is boosting those teams records a bit.
 

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