Chicago White Sox-Midseason Grades
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by user Fornelli
The White Sox go into the All-Star break with a 57-31 record. It's good enough for the second best record in baseball, and the 57 wins equal the amount the Sox had at last year's All-Star break. Unlike last season for the White Sox, it's been their overpowering offense that's responsible for their record. As a team, they have scored a Major League best 520 runs, a fullly 32 more than the next highest team total. (Cleveland 488). The White Sox also lead the Majors in Home Runs with 133.
Unlike last season the pitching has not been as dominant, nor anywhere near as consistent. Still, the team has managed to be 26 games over .500, and are within two games of the division-leading Detroit Tigers. If the pitching ever decides to catch up to its offense, the White Sox may be damn near unbeatable in the second half of the season.
Still there are two and half months left in the season, and anything can happen.
Here are my mid season grades for the Chicago White Sox.
Scott Podsednik LF(.276 2HR 33RBI 29SB)-Pods has had a bit of a down year. His on base percentage is at an unimpressive .353. He has been hot and cold month to month: April was freezing, May was hot, June was cold and now in July he's raised his batting average about 20 points. Scotty still has managed to steal 29 bases but that's no where near the 50 he had at this time last season. On top of all this it seems Pods has taken his offensive struggles to the field with him. His defense has been less than adequate at times, though it's been improving the last few weeks. Podsednik said himself about a week ago, "I'm not a horseshit player, but I've been one out there so far this season." I wouldn't go that far Pods, but you can definetely do better. Grade-C
Tadahito Iguchi 2B(.287 10HR 40RBI)-Gooch is one of the more underrated second baseman in the Major Leagues. He plays a stellar defense, and often goes unnoticed at the plate due to his unselfish nature. He is the perfect player to bat in the 2 spot. He sacrifices himself every time the situation calls for it. If not for his willingness to move runners along, and take pitches to help Podsednik steal a base, Gooch would probably be batting .300 with 15 or 16 home runs right now. As of now his only true weakness is he has trouble with left-handed pitchers. Grade-B+
Jim Thome DH (.298 30HR 70RBI)-White Sox GM Kenny Williams took a risk in the offseason by trading fan favorite Aaron Rowand to the Phillies for an aging slugger coming off an injury-plagued season. Thome has shown Williams his gratitude, being everything the White Sox could have hoped for and more. Not only has he made Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye better, he's made the entire team better. Along with his strong clubhouse presence, he has been the biggest factor in making the White Sox 3-4-5 part of the lineup the most dangerous in all of baseball. If he has a second half anything like the first he may be adding an AL MVP trophy to his long list of accomplishments. Grade-A+
Paul Konerko 1B (.313 21HR 67RBI)-Since being rewarded for his role in bringing the White Sox their first World Series championship in 88 years last season, Paul Konerko has shown no signs of slowing down. If anything he's on pace to have a career season AFTER getting paid. How often can that be said these days? Not only has Paulie continued his rise to being one of the games best hitters, but he has also continued to improve his defense. He has saved his infielders from countless number of errors this season while sporting a .996 fielding percentage. Grade-A
Jermaine Dye RF (.318 25HR 68RBI)-While a lot of MVP talk has surrounded Jim Thome and David Ortiz this season, Jermaine Dye continues to fly under the radar of both. Dye is having an MVP-caliber season. He nearly beat the Boston Red Sox by himself on Saturday, repeatedly getting his team back in the game every time Boston took a lead. On Sunday it was Jermaine Dye who hit the game tying home run in the bottom of the 9th off of Jonathan "I've given up 3 runs all freaking year" Papelbon. In the 11th inning it was Dye's double that kept the White Sox rally alive when they came back from a 5-3 deficit. Finally in the 19th inning it was Jermaine Dye making a brilliant catch in the gap that ended the inning. In other words, every time you need a big hit, JD gives it to you. Every time you need a huge defensive play, JD gives it to you. Dye has been arguably the best all around outfielder in the American League this season, and maybe in the Majors. Grade-A+
A.J. Pierzynski C (.320 6HR 29RBI)-I think Ozzie Guillen summed up A.J. best when he said, "When you play against A.J., you hate him. When he's on your team....you hate him less." In fact you tend to love him. A.J. is a gamer in every sense of the word. He cannot stand losing, and has been a winner his entire career. He is overlooked defensively as he has only thrown out about 25% of attempted base stealers this year, but a lot of it has to do with the long deliveries of Jose Contreras, Freddy Garcia(basically if you get a single off of Freddy...it's a double. My grandmother could steal second on Freddy's delivery), and Javier Vazquez. A.J. is also having a possible career season at the plate, hitting .320. The only knock on A.J.'s hitting is his low run production totals this season. It's hard to tell what the biggest factor is, in his low RBI total: if it's him just not coming through in clutch situations or the fact that by the time Thome, Konerko, and Dye have batted there's nobody left to bring in or whether that those same three aren't the fleetest of foot and tend to get held at third base a lot. I'm guessing it's a combination of all three, though in the last few weeks Pierzynski has had quite a few clutch hits, including a game-winning three run shot at Wrigley Field. Grade-B+
Joe Crede 3B (.294 16HR 57RBI)-Joe Crede kinda blew up on the national scene during the 2005 postseason. His clutch hits and sparkling defense really stood out among all the great baseball being played by the White Sox. Well, Joe took all that momentum into the 2006 season with him this year. A notoriously slow starter, Joey Clutch is on pace to easily surpass his career highs. He also has added three grand slams to the mix this season. He 57 RBI also makes him one of 4 players on the team with 50+RBI, making the White Sox the only team in the Majors with 4 players over the 50 RBI mark. Then of course there is his defense. I'm just going to come out and say that Joe Crede is the best third baseman in baseball. He's better than Eric Chavez, he's better than Mike Lowell and, yes, he's better than Scott Rolen. When Brooks Robinson is giving you props, you know you're good. Grade-A+
Juan Uribe SS (.237 11HR 46RBI)-Juan got off to a horrible start offensively for the White Sox this season. But over the last 20 games, Uribe is hitting over .350 with 8 home runs and 28RBI. He is the type of player who, when he gets hot, can carry a team all by himself, and he was for about a week a couple weeks ago. His defense is outstanding as usual, though at times the cannon attached to his right shoulder has misfired a few throws to first. Paul Konerko probably just has one continuous bruise on his left hand from the bullets Juan fires across the diamond. Grade-C
Brian Anderson CF (.192 5HR 20RBI)-Brian has struggled mightily all season at the plate. He was just starting to get it going and then was forced to serve a 5 game suspension for his part in the May 20th brawl with the Cubs. The last few games he seems to have gotten his swing back, but now we've reached the All Star break, so who knows if he'll be able to keep it. The truth is that with the Sox lineup, anything Brian does at the plate is just icing anyway. Where B.A.'s real worth comes through is out in center field. He displays an ease out there in which he makes every single difficult play look way too easy. It's because of this I don't think Brian will ever be considered for a Gold Glove. On plays where the majority of center fielders will have to make incredible diving catches in full sprint, Brian generally just coasts there and makes the catch standing still. He gets scary good jumps on balls out there. To top it all off he has a very strong arm too. So his defense saves his grade a little bit. Grade-C-
Bench
The White Sox probably have the deepest bench in Major League Baseball. Everybody plays regularly, and they all contribute when they do.
Alex Cintron IF (.284 2HR 20RBI)-Alex could probably start for 85% of the teams in MLB. He is also one of the biggest clutch hitters in the game, delivering at least 3 game winning hits that I can remember so far this year. Defensively, he has been above average as well. Grade-A
Rob Mackowiak OF, IF (.309 2HR 14RBI) -Rob plays everywhere, but mostly has been used in a platoon with Brian Anderson out in centerfield. His defense out there has been suspect at times, but Rob has never claimed to be a center fielder so it's hard to get too mad at him about it. Grade-B
Pablo Ozuna OF, IF(.413 1HR 13RBI)-Pablo is the most fun player to watch on this team. Everytime he comes into a game, or starts a game he is a guarantee to make something good happen. He is still batting .413 at the All Star break in 92 at bats. He's had trouble playing out in left at times but like Rob, Pablo has never been an outfielder before and is learning on the job. Grade-B+
Chris Widger C (.203 1HR 7RBI)-Chris isn't going to give you much at the dish, but that's not his role. He handles the pitching staff just as well as A.J. and is a very valuable backup catcher. Grade-B-
Ross Gload 1B, OF (.288 OHR 6RBI)-Ross is the least used member of the Sox bench. (59AB) Still it seems that Ross can sit on the bench for 3 weeks, get a chance to pinch hit, and then rip the first pitch he sees into the gap for a double. He's also a very good defensive replacement late in games. Grade-B
Starting Pitchers
The starting rotation has not been as good as last year but to be fair, it's pretty unrealistic to expect them to be that good again.
Jose Contreras (9-0 3.38ERA 109.1IP)-Jose hasn't lost a decision since August of last season, winning 17 in a row. That's almost an entire year. Truth be told though, The Count has had some bad starts and his offense bailed him out. Of course,that only seems fair given that he bailed out his offense all the time last year. Contreras has used his filthy stuff from different arm angles and given opponents fits. Still there is room for improvement. Grade-A-
Mark Buehrle (9-6 4.02ERA 123.0IP)-The quick and efficient left hander has been inconsistent this season at best. He seemingly goes for about 3 starts throwing very well, and then he has 2 bad outings. There have also been two instances where he has given up 7 runs in the first inning. (@Minnesota, @Chicago Cubs) It seems at times that his accuracy, and ability to throw first pitch strikes catches up to him as opponents attack him early. As usual Mark continues to eat up innings like Pac-Man eats glowing little pellets. Grade-B-
Freddy Garcia (10-5 4.91ERA 113.0IP)-2006 has brought with it a large drop in velocity from Freddy Garcia. In big spots he's known to get his fastball up to 93MPH, but generally it stays between 85-89. When Freddy is hitting his spots, this is fine, but when he's not it spells trouble. Freddy has been inconsistent - sometimes he throws a 2 hit complete game shutout (vs. St. Louis), sometimes he gets absolutely rocked. Also as previously mentioned, Freddy is horrible at holding runners on. Opponents steal at will against Garcia and his long motion. To his credit, Garcia does do a pretty good job of getting around it. One area Freddy would like to see improvement is in the team's defense behind him. There have been a few too many times in which Freddy's defense has let him down. This year though Freddy doesn't have the velocity to blow batters away to get through it, and it jumps up and bites him more than not. Still, despite all that he leads the staff with 10 wins. Grade-B
Jon Garland (8-3 5.37ERA 109.0IP)-Jon got off to a slow start this year, in which he was getting beat up. Over the last month though Jon has fallen back into his form from last season, in which he finished with 18 wins. He's gotten back to attacking hitters hands, and breaking bats with his heavy sinker, getting a lot of groundballs to third base. Despite a 5.37ERA, Jon still has racked up an 8-3 record. If Garland continues to pitch the way he has for the last few weeks in the second half, he could end up being the White Sox best pitcher in the stretch run. Grade-B
Javier Vazquez (9-4 5.07ERA 108.1IP)-Javy is the most maddening of the White Sox rotation to me. He has electric stuff but throws way too many pitches. He rarely gets past the 6th inning, and puts too much wear on the bullpen. A typical Vazquez outing goes like this" three shutout innings, one inning in which he gives up 4 runs, two more shutout innings, and then finally he gives up 3 or 4 more runs. He also seems to have a lot of trouble dealing with questionable calls from umpires. If an ump doesn't give him a call, it visibly effects Vazquez. I often wondered how a pitcher with such great stuff could play for so many different teams and have a .500 career record. Well, I'm slowly starting to find out. At this rate I wouldn't be surprised if Vazquez isn't in the postseason rotation should the White Sox make it to October again. Grade-C-
Bullpen
The White Sox bullpen has not been anywhere near as good as last season's version. Of course last season's bullpen was simply lights out, and helped by the fact the starters generally always went 7 innings. There have been a few standouts here though, but also some disappointments.
Brandon McCarthy (3-4 4.25ERA 48.2IP)-Brandon has been a solid long man for the White Sox. He has continued to show flashes of brilliance that the White Sox see in him for the future. This time next year BMac is in the starting rotation. Grade-B
Neal Cotts (1-2 2.95ERA 36.2IP)-Neal has been the most consistent of the middle relief corps. With his sneaky delivery, hitters have a hard time picking up his fastball before it's too late. I don't think there is a team in the Majors who wouldn't take this lefthander in their bullpen. Grade-A
Matt Thornton (3-1 3.13ERA 31.2IP 34K)-When the Sox picked up Thornton from the Mariners for Joe Borchard, it was as a project. The flame-throwing lefty (his fastball is anywhere from 95-98MPH) has been outstanding for the Sox. He got off to a bit of a slow start, but ever since about early May he's been terrific. Grade-A
Cliff Politte (2-2 8.04ERA 28IP)-Cliff was absolutely outstanding last season, and for that I thank him. This season he has been absolutely god awful. When I see Ozzie bringing Politte in from the pen I get this sinking feeling in my stomach, and more often than not Cliff delivers the kick right to my gut. He has to go. Grade-F
David Riske (0-1 1.80ERA 10IP)-The Sox just recently picked Riske up from Boston, and in his limited time here he has been a remarkable improvement over the aforementioned Cliff Politte. Grade-Incomplete
Bobby Jenks (2-1 2.83ERA 26S 41.1IP 49K)-Big Bad Bobby Jenks has been the anchor of the bullpen. If not for Bobby the White Sox would probably be about 6 or 7 games out of first right now. He's converted 26 of 27 save chances, and if not for Jonathan Papelbon, would be the biggest story among closers so far in 2006. Grade-A+
In the second half the White Sox pitching will have to get more consistent, and adding an arm for the bullpen by July 31st should be Ken Williams biggest priority. As a team the only grade I can give the White Sox on the whole is an A. They have the second best record in baseball, and haven't even played their best games yet.
It should be a very interesting AL Central race this summer.
http://tomfornellisportsblog.blogspot.com
Date
Mon 07/10/06, 3:02 pm EST
