Odds, Sods and Sox

Jason Bourgeois, the versatile infielder/outfielder who dominated spring training this year Pablo Ozuna-style, finally got the call he's been waiting for all season. For the first time in his career, he's a major leaguer. To make room on the roster, the Sox DFA'd pitcher Charlie Haeger.

He probably would have been promoted earlier if he didn't hit like Oney Guillen for the first month of 2008 at Triple-A Charlotte. In 22 games, he hit .180 in April before catching fire and finishing the season with a respectable .286 average.

Bourgeois joins Chris Getz and Jerry Owens as a 2008 version of the old "Group Four starring Willie Harris." With a combined 71 minor league stolen bases this season between the three of them, you can guess what their primary purpose will be down the stretch this season. Now Jim Thome, Paul Konerko and Ken Griffey, Jr. can each have their own designated pinch runners. Talk about luxury.

Charlie Haeger seems like an insignificant loss, as once again he and his knuckleball failed to dominate Triple-A this year (10-13, 4.45 ERA). But I always had a soft spot for the guy, and conventional wisdom says it takes longer for a...more

Two impressive comebacks and a 450-foot walk off homerun vaulted the Sox to a 2.5 game lead in the AL Central with 21 games to go.

Things to take away from tonight's thrilling, 15-inning victory over the Angels:

1. Unlike some previous models, this Sox team is resilient. Twice tonight the Sox faced deficits I thought were darn close to completely insurmountable: down three runs to John Lackey, and down one in the 9th to Francisco Rodriguez.

Both times the Sox calmly mounted impressive rallies to come back and tie the game. In seasons past, the Sox might have packed it in in those situations. Not the magical 2005 team of course, but mainly the 2003 squad (and possibly 2006 squad as well), with whom this team bears the most resemblance.

There are many comparisons to 2003: a sloooow-footed, veteran-heavy line up, completely reliant on the homerun, boosted by a midseason acquisition for a defensively-challenged centerfielder (Carl Everett in '03; Griffey in '08) to back four solid starters and a fifth starter black hole. (To be fair, Clayton Richard and Lance Broadway have fared much better than Felix Diaz, Jason Grilli and the like did in '03.)

In any case,...more

What a great day for baseball in the city of Chicago. First, the White Sox opened their lead in the AL Central to 2 full games--the largest it's been in a month--by defeating the Orioles in a laugher and watching the suddenly mortal Twins drop their second in a row to the lowly Mariners.

Then for the cherry on top: Jay Mariotti, the face of shoddy journalism and irrational hater of all things Sox, quit his post at the Sun Times.

No need to give any attention or credibility to the least relevant writer in Chicago. So good bye Jay, take your cowardice and personal grudges some place else.

As for the Sox, John Danks will look to extend the AL Central leader's win streak in tonight's series finale in Baltimore.

The most surprising news from Deadline Day on the Sox front was that they did not acquire a relief pitcher to bolster their bullpen. The second most surprising news is that they picked up Ken Griffey, Jr.

I was so sure Ken Williams was going to trade for a quality, late-inning reliever this afternoon, I would have bet the farm. After Nick Masset went to the Reds, I thought it became even more of a certainty.

I know-if the market isn't there, there's nothing Williams can do. But I am utterly shocked he didn't create some kind of market for any relief pitcher. Forget the over-hyped Brian Fuentes or George Sherrill, or even Huston Street, whom the Sox were known to covet. I was expecting a middle tier guy like Rafael Betancourt, Scott Downs, John Grabow, Jason Frasor, Cla Meredith or Heath Bell.

Williams didn't fail for lack of effort, that's for sure. The price tags on those seemingly secondary...more

The White Sox are trying to relive the magic of 2005, and nothing is more 2005 than a trade deadline trade rumor involving Ken Griffey, Jr. This time, however, it looks like the future Hall of Famer is finally coming to Chicago.

According to Ken Rosenthal of Foxsports.com, the Reds have agreed to deal Griffey to the Sox to play a new position, "DH-2", just invented this morning to make room for one of the Sox longest standing crushes. The only reported obstacle is Griffey's no-trade clause; he allegedly will decide to accept or reject the trade later this morning.

More on this as more details come out. The Sox have been millimeters away from acquiring Griffey before, so this could still fall apart.

For the record, Griffey, who has been playing right field in Cincinnati, is batting .245 with 15 HRs, 53 RBIs, and a .355 OBP this season. He has heated up in July, batting .271 overall this month and .324...more

Considering how poorly they pitched, played defense and ran the bases, the Sox probably should have been swept by the Tigers this past weekend in Detroit. Instead, they miraculously won two out of three based solely on the sheer offensive force of Carlos Quentin, Jermaine Dye and Jim Thome who are all, like a drowsy Joe Quimby facing Sideshow Bob at a televised Springfield Mayoral Debate, on fire.

(Except in this case the flames aren't added electronically by channel 6. And for the record, I do think that Paul Konerko should do more hittin' and less whinin'.)

But it looks like the high wire act of shaky starting pitching, faulty bullpen work, downright horrid defense and a black hole from spots 6 though 8 in the line up finally caught up to the Sox Monday night in Minneapolis.

Behind Kevin Slowey, the same guy the Sox torched for 8 runs and 10 hits at the Cell a month and a half ago,...more

When the Sox acquired outfielder Nick Swisher from Oakland for the organization's number one, two and three prospects, the expectations were set pretty high that he would become a cornerstone in Chicago.

One line of thinking was that GM Ken Williams paid a high price because a.) Swisher was signed to a long term, inexpensive contract, b.) he would put up monster power numbers in the Cell compared to spacious McAfee Coliseum and c.) the Sox were getting him right before he made the leap from above average regular to super star.

No doubt his infectious spirit has been a welcome addition to the clubhouse, but at more than 100 games into the season, the budding superstar talk might have been a bit optimistic.

Using the blanket "putting too much pressure on himself to justify the trade" and "playing in a new city" pretexts, Swisher got off to a wishy-washy start that forced Ozzie to demote him from lead off to the...more

Closer Bobby Jenks is officially headed to the DL, and hopefully set-up man Scott Linebrink will quietly head back to the 8th inning.

With Jenks unofficially on the shelf for the past week, the Sox have turned to Linebrink as a temporary stopper. But after being scored upon in his last four outings, it's clear to everyone that Linebrink, a beast as a set up guy, is just not cut out for closing.

I doubt anyone needs any stats to back that up, but I spent a long time going through the whole season's game logs to come up with this so you're getting it:

• Linebrink 8th inning: 27 IP, 2 ER, 0.67 ERA, 0.74 WHIP, 0 HR allowed
• Linebrink 9th or later: 10 IP, 8 ER, 7.20 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 5 HR allowed

Does anyone want to guess the last time Linebrink gave up an earned run in the 8th inning?

An extraordinary thing happened yesterday afternoon at the Cell: the White Sox won a game without hitting a homerun. I kid you not, take a look at the box score yourself. It's only the 5th time that has happened all season, and the first time since June 26.

No word on whether Greg Walker poured over the Major League Baseball official rule book all night to see if such a win is legal.

The 4-3 win over Oakland wrapped up a mighty impressive 8-2 homestand that saw the Sox battle a slew of baseball's best pitchers. Ryan Dempster, Cliff Lee, CC Sabathia, Justin Duchscherer, Joe Blanton, Greg Smith and Rich Harden all rolled through town; three of those guys are All-Stars and the rest are noted Sox-killers but the Pale Hose won all but two games.

That's a good sign for a team that is fighting for a semblance of consistency in an up-to-now boom or bust season. The no-homer thing is nice...more

I am firmly of the mindset that a baseball team is not as good as it looks during its winning streaks and not as bad as they look during their losing streaks. Hot streaks, luck and slumps are part of the game, and believing every performance is representative of the team's true ability is fool's gold.

But how can you not be jazzed after last night's come-from-behind 3-2 victory over the Indians?

With the Sox down to their last strike in the 10th inning, Alexei Ramirez and his sky high fly ball left every fan at the Cell holding their breath until the ball landed inches out of the reach of leftfielder Ben Francisco for a game-tying homer. Then Dewayne Wise and Orlando Cabrera showed there's more than one way to scratch out an extra-inning run with a disciplined approach of line drive singles.

It was certainly the most electric crowd I've stood with in Section 116 all season, none of whom even for a second sat down from the time...more

This wasn't the prettiest weekend on record for the Chicago White Sox. Three straight times, the Sox were blown out of the water by their cross-town "rivals," bringing out a level of frustration in fans not seen since, well, last year.

Just ask the man with the toughest job in baseball: Chris Rongey. (Hawk likes to say that the hitting coach is the toughest uniformed position in baseball, but even Greg Walker doesn't have to deal with deranged callers taking out all their life's frustrations after a Sox meltdown.)

Rongey probably had to throw back more than a few Miller Lites at various South Side locals to get through the weekend's postgame shows; no one deserved Monday's day off more than him!

Yes, the Sox played quite badly and were beat down quite thoroughly by the Cubs. But the biggest point is: Don't be angry that the Cubs swept the Sox.

First of all, these aren't your faking-their-way-through-it Cubbies playing over their heads for the...more

It's hard to complain about the Sox offense when they score 37 runs over a three-game series.

But…

…Ha! Gotcha! Actually I have no complaints after the Sox banged out 44 hits and 10 homers against Ian Snell, Tom Gorzelanny and company.

Even without Paul Konerko, who was placed on the 15-day DL as expected, the Sox had more than enough to go around against the city of Chicago's designated slump buster, the Pittsburgh Pirates. (The Bucs are 3-12 against the Sox and Cubs this year, but interestingly 31-27 vs. everyone else.)

The Sox will lose another bat from their line up for the next week in NL parks, as the DH spot is swapped out for yawn-inducing pitchers at bats. Last year, the combination of injuries and NL rules resulted in some of the weakest line ups in recent White Sox memory.

(For those of you who blocked it out,...more

The offensive enlightenment that spurred the Sox to victory Friday night eluded them for the rest of the weekend, as a 0-run, 3-hit performance ended the 9-game home winning streak on Saturday and a Sunday afternoon loss capped a losing series to the lowly Colorado Rockies.

It's time to start the "tip your cap" count, as Ozzie opted for the ol' cliché after Saturday's loss to Jorge De La Rosa, who came in with an ERA over 8 but left after five shutout innings of 1-hit ball.

Maybe there should be a column for cap tips (TC) next to wins (W), losses (L) and games back (GB) in the newspaper's standings. The White Sox enter play tonight 38-31 with 12 cap tips, 4.5 games atop the AL Central.

I don't want to hear anyone associated with the Sox, anyone who has ever worn a Sox hat or t-shirt, use the patented "tip your cap" line ever again.

The loss was fine. It was ugly, but...more

That crucial base on balls, that elusive hit with runners in scoring position, and yes, the ever-popular long ball returned to the Sox box score last night in a come from behind win against the Rockies that ran the AL Central leader's home winning streak to 9 games.

On the road, the Sox seem strangely incapable of coming from behind or manufacturing rallies with patient at bats and strategic singles. So with the ball flying out of the Cell like mad, the Sox go-ahead 7th inning rally was all the more impressive in its lack of homers.

The key at bats, besides the run-scoring hits by Juan Uribe (I have to admit I was grimacing when I saw him walk up to the dish with the bases loaded, but he came through!) and AJ Pierzynski, were the walks to Nick Swisher and Joe Crede.

With the Sox trailing by two, Swisher and Crede may have both felt compelled to drive in Jermaine Dye,...more

As was pointed out to me last night, it is horribly unfair that I pick apart the Sox 3 game losing streak and effectively ignore the 7-game winner that preceded it.

Good point.

Recent road woes notwithstanding, there is no question that the overall outlook for the 2008 Chicago White Sox, who on June 13 own the largest lead of any first place team in baseball (5.5 games), is very sunny.

The Indians and Tigers, consensus picks to finish 1 and 2 in the Central, have been decimated by stretches of anemic offense, horrific pitching, injuries and bad mojo. The Sox' nearest competitor, the Twins, was greeted with a 4-game sweep that last time they visited town.

The Sox themselves, meanwhile, have been the pleasant surprise of the majors so far, entering play tonight at 37-29 and on pace for 90 wins.

How has it happened? Dominant pitching.

Even the biggest of Gavin...more