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A White Sox Blog Chronicling The Mess Over On 35th.

Friday, January 13, 2006

Singleton a smart choice 

Just a quick thumbs-up to the bunch over on 35th for the hiring of Chris Singleton. This team won a championship by keeping all phases of the operation in-house and the addition of Singleton is consistent with that. The last thing needed was a Steve Lyons type who would probably blab every clubhouse rumor to his buddies at FOX. The Tribune article that (big surprise) took a few shots at the hiring mentioned this about Lyons:

"Lyons, who does national games for Fox, wanted the job and would have brought some personality and experience to the booth. But a faction within White Sox management apparently didn't like him."

Then I don't like him either, and I'm glad they gave Singleton the job.
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Monday, October 24, 2005

I had a feeling last night. I didn’t say anything, but I had a feeling we were in for a fantastic finish. It started just after the first inning ended, when I turned to my son, who had just come in to watch the game, and sarcastically told him that Buerhle had a perfect game going. He told me not to jinx it. To which I replied, “jinxes only count after the 5th inning.” Naturally a few seconds later Ensberg rockets Buerhle’s first offering into the seats. After a few jokes about me being the White Sox version of Steve Bartman, I was fine. Because I had that nervous feeling I get watching a big sports event when I just know everything is going to be OK. Rather than sitting down, eating, drinking, pointing out the complete wrongness of every comment made by McCarver and Buck and occasionally switching over to “Cheaters”, I was up, pacing around, clapping and nervously straightening out the house. I’ve come to recognize this behavior as a good thing from my experience watching the 80s Bears and 90s Bulls. It’s not a feeling that can be manufactured either. It just happens. Just like I know my team is in trouble when my attitude going into a game is: “There’s no way they can lose this thing.” That’s why I knew all would be well when the Astros were up 4-2 and the Cell was damp and dreary and the crowd was starting to sound sort of dead.

OK, enough with the personal shit. Let’s get to what 35SM is all about:

Bossard and his crew stepped up to a new level last night. There are very few MLB stadiums where the field would be playable, let alone in the terrific shape the turf at the Cell waslast night after a day of rain. While I want this thing to end in Houston, preferably Wed. night, in a way it will be a shame if sports fans across the country don’t get one more chance to see Bossard working his magic.

In previous 7-game World Series, teams that have jumped to a 2-0 lead hold a 38-10, or .792, advantage, with half of those 38 wins being sweeps. Not quite a lock, but we have to feel pretty good. It will be best to close it out in Houston. Once these things get to game six, it’s only a 50-50 chance.

Garland still worries me.
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Sunday, October 23, 2005

Pettitte no sure thing 

Andy Pettitte has had a great season and from the all-star break to the end of the season he has probably been the best pitcher in the world. Even better than Jose Contreras. Since the break, Petitte has posted a 1.69 era. But there’s reason to believe he can be hit.

The Sox are going with Buerhle, who is having a terrific year in the Cell, 10-2 2.48 ERA during the season and 2-0, 2.81 so far in the playoffs. He’s going to have to be good, because I’m guessing Petitte is going to come out tough. His team is in a must win situation and I seriously doubt he’ll be offering anything but his best stuff. The hope has to be that whatever it is about the cell that has tormented Pettitte in the past gets to him again tonight.

A last quick note: We’ve been critical of Gene Honda here at 35sm, and the criticism has been justified in our view. But during last night’s player introductions, Honda really stepped up and did this outfit proud on the national stage. Ditto for Bossard and Faust. I wonder if 2005 is the first time the same stadium announcer handled both the Final Four and the World Series.

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Saturday, October 15, 2005

Santana vs. Garcia 


I wouldn’t worry too much about this Ervin Santana, the LA moundsman for game four. There has been some concern out there over how he shut out the Sox back in May and the way he shut down the Yankees in relief of Colon in the game 5 clincher. This guy is good, but he’s hardly unhittable.

Against the Yankees, all Santana did was keep the game close until the bullpen took over. He gave up 3 runs in 5.1 innings, hardly ace numbers. A nice job considering the circumstances, but certainly not the stuff on which legends are built. When he shut out this bunch in May, it was on a Monday following a weekend series at Wrigley field. He caught this bunch at a good time. They were coming off an emotional series and there was probably jet lag involved. Again, a nice performance by the rookie, but it doesn’t suggest that he’s a Sox nemesis.

Here are some more numbers from game four’s matchup:

Santana has had most of his success in Anaheim, going 9-3 with a 3.18 ERA at home.
Garcia has had most of his success on the road, going 10-3, 3.40.
Garcia has also been an Angels nemesis his entire career, going 11-3, 2.66.

What this says is we’re looking at another pitcher’s duel. But Garcia's history as a good road hurler and his history against the Angels should also be taken into account here.

Also, teams that are up 2-1 in a 7-game LCS have won 23 of 32 times, or a 72% success rate. But we all know this outfit’s chances look pretty good right now.

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Friday, October 14, 2005

Tainted Win Perfect For This Bunch 

You knew if this group was ever going to win anything of consequence some type of shadowy, maybe yes, maybe no, inconclusive even with replay, play would factor heavily into the mix. That's just the way White Sox teams are put together. Personally, I wouldn't want it any other way. It fits this moribund outfit like a glove.

Here's hoping the press and baseball purists continue to talk up the illegitimacy of game 2's victory as Chairman Reinsdorf shows off some new jewelry in April of 2006.
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Why the Angels must be stopped 

I never thought of baseball as anything more than just a game between two teams. They play a bunch of these games every spring and summer and the teams that won the most play for the championship in the fall. There was no higher meaning, no romanticism and no metaphors for life involved for me. Just baseball. But this post season has changed my mind. It’s pretty clear that the White Sox are on a mission. I already pointed out why beating the Red Sox was important.

Now for the Angels. The 2002 Angels championship was handled well, I felt. Even though it was the club’s first in 40 years of existence, there was no talk of curses or the pain of being an Angel’s fan being lifted. Nothing like the crap that came out of Boston last fall. This season is different. Look at the reasons to hate the Angels:

The mission is simple. Spare the country from what an Angels victory would bring. Not that this is the main goal for this outfit. Winning the championship always is the main goal. But it’s clear this is more than just a championship. It’s now a mission.

As for game 3, I’m worried. Garland doesn’t inspire much confidence. Should they pull it off, I think the series is ours. I like our chances in games 4, 5 and 6 with the pitching matchups.

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Thursday, October 13, 2005

AJ and Buerhle come up huge 

I don’t know if the ball hit the ground or not. The replay is pretty inconclusive. The ball appears to hop, but I saw no dirt being kicked up. The home plate umpire clearly thought so, because he never called AJ out. Josh Paul clearly didn’t think so, because he tossed the ball away. AJ looked like he had no idea, because he started walking to the dugout before turning and dashing to first. I don’t know if he was thinking, “what the heck, let’s see what happens”, he went because the ump never called him out, or he really thought the ball hit the ground. I do know that one player, that would be AJ, made a heads up play and one player, Josh Paul, didn’t. AJ’s team won the game because of it. Whether this inattentive approach to the game was spotted long ago by the braintrust and led to Paul’s departure from 35th is up for speculation, but the fact remains the team that played smarter won for the second straight night.

The smart thing is going to decide the series too. In game one it was the Sox throwing the ball away and running themselves out of innings. An aggressive strategy works fine against pathetic teams like Detroit, Kansas City and the Cubs, but is doomed to fail against a smart, fundamentally sound crew like the Angels. These are two similar teams, featuring strong pitching carrying unspectacular hitting. Because of the, the next five games will also likely be tight, nerve-fraying affairs. Ozzie best reign in his grinders and tell them to go easy on the aggressive baserunning, work the count, take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves and let the pitching carry it.

Last night’s win does up this outfit’s chances, at least historically. Since the ALCS was expanded in 1985:

To say Buerhle came up big would be an understatement. His performance saved the season. Too bad the sports yakkers will only be talking about the call.
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Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Losing Game 1 

Is not a good thing. Not fatal, but not good either. Since the ALCS was expanded to 7 games in 1985, the team that won game 1 has won the series 24 of 38 times, or a little more than 63% of the time. Since the addition of the ALDS, the game 1 winner is 14-6 in the series, or a 70% success rate. Teams that win game 1 on the road are 11-6, 65%.

So looking at history, our heroes have about a 35% chance of pulling this off after last night’s fiasco. There are other factors, of course. The Angel pitching staff is still a mess. Colon is out, Washburn is ailing and I can’t wait to see what happens when Paul Byrd tosses his garbage up there again in game 5. Hopefully this bunch will be a little more patient. But the fact is the Angels stole a game that should have been ours and now they’re in the driver’s seat.

More stats

I wanted to post these yesterday, but time didn’t permit:

The Sox had a better record, winning four more games than the Angels. Everything else favors the Angels. They outscored the Sox, 761-741 and gave up fewer runs, 643-645. It’s pretty close though and probably balanced out by Colon’s absence.
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