Series Preview. White Sox vs. Indians

The White Sox start a three game series against their division rival Indians today. This is a very important series because the Indians are leading the central right now and the White Sox are not that far behind them in the race. The Indians are a hot team coming off a sweep of the Tigers and they are 8-2 in their last 10 games. The White Sox are also hot as they are 7-3 in their last ten and just won a series against the Twins. This will be a tough series and will be a test for both teams in all three parts of the game. Whichever team wins the series will have a great advantage in the division heading forward.

Game 1
Jose Quintana (0-0 0.00 ERA) vs. Jeanmar Gomez (3-2 3.19 ERA)

Jose Quintana will get his first major league start because John Danks was recently put on the DL for having shoulder soreness. In AA, he pitched 35.1 innings and had a 3.06 ERA, 26 Ks, and 11 BBs. He made his big league debut in the bullpen for the White Sox and will now have a chance for his first start. Nobody knows whether or not he will have a good start, but the White Sox can hope that he comes out confident and by having stuff that none of the players have seen, he can fool some of their batters.

Gomez has been pretty good recently. In his last three starts he is 1-1 with a 3.60 ERA. He had a pretty strong start against the Marlins on Saturday and hasn't allowed a run in his last 16 innings. The last time that he pitched against the Sox, he gave up 6 runs in one inning. His pitching could go either way against the Sox and if players like Konerko, De Aza, and Rios keep up their hot streaks the White Sox can easily win this game.

The key to this game will be whether or not Quintana has the stuff to beat a major league team. The White Sox offense will have to back him up by scoring quite a few runs, but I think the Sox have a great shot to win this game.

Game 2
Jake Peavy (5-1 2.39 ERA) vs. Derek Lowe (6-2 2.15 ERA)
Jake Peavy has probably been the best pitching story of the year. He had a terrible year last year and came back this year and is dominating teams. He isn't up to the level he was when he won the Cy Young, but he is doing a great job being the second pitcher in this rotation. In his last three starts, he is 2-0 with a 3.38 ERA and 16 strikeouts. If he continues to pitch like he has previously, he gives the Sox a great chance to win this game.

Derek Lowe has pitched well this season and recently. He's had two quality starts in a row, one in which he pitched a complete game shutout. In his last three, he is 2-1 with a 2.71 ERA and 5 Ks. He'll be a tough test for the White Sox offense, but since they are so hot recently that challenge might not be a challenge at all. In 64.2 innings pitched against the White Sox he has a losing record at 1-2 and has 3.34 ERA and 43 strikeouts. The White Sox haven't really struggled against him and if they can score 3-5 runs, they can win the game easily.

Game 3
Gavin Floyd (3-5 4.66 ERA) vs. Ubaldo Jimenez (5-3 5.02 ERA)
Floyd has been Mr. Inconsistent this year having a good start and then the next time he goes out, he is horrendous. If Floyd has one of his good starts, the White Sox have a good chance. If Floyd has a bad start it kills the entire team's momentum and they will probably lose.

Jimenez is having an alright year. He has a winning record, but his ERA isn't something to get worked up about. The same story goes for his last three starts (he is 2-1 with a 7.16 ERA). The White Sox will be able to score runs against him, but the key to winning will be stopping the Indians offense from backing him up like they have done so far this year.

Story of the Week
Paul Konerko is the story of the week for the White Sox. He has been extremely hot and is on a 10 game hitting streak. He leads the team in almost every hitting statistic and might even have a shot at MVP if he keeps hitting like he is. Right now he is .384/.462/.649 with 10 HR which is quite impressive and is obviously leading the team. In the last week he is batting .615 with 3 HRs and 6 RBIs which is the reason he is the story of the week.

Series Recap. White Sox win 2/3 against Twins

The White Sox had a tough series, but ended up winning 2 out of the 3 games. The first game was the worst of the entire series, but the only game that was even close to easy was the second game. The pitching by the White Sox was not stellar in the series, but Chris Sale did have a great start in the second game.

The power from the White Sox was the biggest story of the entire series. The players that hit home runs this series are Beckham, Rios (2), Konerko (2), Pierzynski, De Aza, and Viciedo. The power was especially helpful to the White Sox in their win in the third game of the series as they came back in the 6th after their terrible 5th inning.

The Indians swept the Tigers, so the White Sox did not gain any ground in the central division race. The Sox will have a great chance to do that though as they are going to play a three game series against the Indians starting tomorrow.

Game Preview. White Sox vs. Indians

The White Sox go from Texas to Cleveland without a day of rest as they play the Indians today. This might be a small problem because of the little rest, but I'm sure manager Robin Ventura has them ready to play today. Playing the Indians shouldn't be as much of a struggle as playing the Rangers was, but who knows because the White Sox weren't exactly stellar against division opponents last year.

Chris Sale is on the mound for the White Sox making his first Major League start. If he can control his pitches and not leave that slider hanging, he'll have a good game. During spring training, he looked like one of the best pitchers on the staff and he'll hopefully keep that going into the regular season today against the Indians.

The White Sox offense will need to back Sale up with a few runs. They had big troubles with runners in scoring position against Texas and need to do a better job of bringing those guys home in this series and game. Brent Morel, who is still without a hit, will probably start today and will hopefully get on track against the Indians. Rios and Dunn have been pretty good so far and they'll look to continue that. Konerko is solid as he always is. De Aza and Beckham haven't really gotten it going yet this season, so I'll look to them to have big games. Neither Pierzynski nor Flowers have been great at the plate so far, but whoever is playing today will hopefully get a base hit or two and get on track for the season.

The White Sox can win this game if Sale pitches well. The offense will have to score some runs because I don't think Sale will shut them out. The short rest could hurt the White Sox, but this game is still winnable for the Sox.

Blind Optimism

Right now, every White Sox fan is probably going crazy. Buehrle is gone, Kenny hasn't made any big moves, and there are probably more players on their way out the door. There's not a lot of positives going through the fanbase right now, but why not? I think there are some things to be positive about.

The first is that despite losing Buehrle, the Sox still have a rotation that can do some damage. With the new manager and basically all-new coaching staff, things are going to be turned around. If Beckham, Rios, and Dunn can all have average years, the White Sox offense will be dangerous. If rookie outfielders Dayan Viciedo and Alejandro De Aza can preform, the offense will be even better.

Yes, these are all hypothetical, but lets look at the last time the White Sox won the world series. 2005. The first thought is probably that that team was perfect in chemistry on and off the field and this team has nothing to do with that one, but you're wrong. Before the start of the 2005 season the White Sox were picked to finish fourth in the division and had a lot of ifs on their team. Their entire pitching staff was a giant if and nobody knew if the offense would be as good as it was. The 2005 season also started with a brand new manager. You see, the similarities are endless.

Let us also look at last year's World Series Champion, the St. Louis Cardinals. Did anyone honestly pick them to win the World Series other than some meatball Cardinals fan? No. They fought hard and won series after series. They weren't a stacked team with a rotation like Philadelphia, they were just an average team that knew how to win games. So who says that the White Sox can't win the World Series this year?

Series Recap. Sox take 2/3 from Tigers

This series against the Tigers was viewed as a very important series. The Sox played well all three games. They were very close to getting a sweep.

The first game was a very good game for the Sox. Buehrle was solid, like he always is and the offense preformed well. It was a great start to the series and put the Sox 3.5 back from first place.

The second game was going to be tough. With Justin Verlander on the mound, the Sox had to have very good pitching so that the few runs the Sox did happen to score would win the game. Adam Dunn did hit a home run, but in the end the Sox' effort was enough to win the game. The Sox fell back to being 4.5 games out of first place.

The third game was crucial. This series was a series the Sox needed to win. The De Aza call-up paid off as he hit the home run in the second inning that would win the game. Danks was solid and got his 4th win.

Overall, the series was a good series. The Sox almost swept. After looking good in the Cleveland series, this is a good sign. Hopefully the White Sox can beat the Red Sox in this coming series.

Game Recap. Sox win 2-1

Alejandro De Aza was called up to replace Alex Rios for awhile. I figured he would play well, but wouldn't be great. I was wrong. In the second inning he hit a two run home run. Those are the only runs that the Sox would score, but also the only ones they would need. De Aza also made an amazing play in the field. Pretty good for his first day in the big leagues this season. I hope to see more of him soon and hopefully this helps Rios know that he has to hustle.

John Danks pitched very well today. He got himself into quite a few jams, but managed to get out of them. He pitched 6 innings giving up 6 hits and one run. That one run was an Austin Jackson home run. He got his 4th win of the season and now has a 4-8 record.

Chris Sale pitched 2.2 innings giving up no hits and striking out three before Sergio Santos came into the game to get the one out save. That save was Santos' 21 of the season.

A good game for the White Sox. The pitching was great again and the bullpen was lights out.

Jackson and Teahen Traded, De Aza Called Up

Today has been a busy day for the White Sox. Last night De Aza was pulled from his game in Charlotte and was sent to Chicago. Nobody was certain whether he was going to be used in a trade or if he was being called up. We learned today that he was called up and will start in place of Alex Rios in center field. I like this move. Rios needed to sit for awhile. He wasn't playing well at the plate or in the field. De Aza should provide a little more hustle in the field and should be able to provide a little offense. He can't be worse than Rios, so I like this move a lot.

The other move that was made was that Edwin Jackson and Mark Teahen were traded to Toronto for Jason Frasor, a reliever, and Zack Stewart, a pitching prospect. When I first saw this trade, I didn't like it at all. Now that I think about it more and more, I don't think it's that bad of a trade. Frasor has a good ERA and should be a good addition to our solid bullpen. Stewart isn't a great prospect, but our farm system is very good for churning out pitchers so I trust that the Sox' system will make him a better pitcher that we can either use in a trade next year or make him someone that will be ready to move up to the big leagues in a few years.

I never liked the Edwin Jackson trade. Daniel Hudson has a lot of potential and I didn't want to see that go. I felt like Kenny Williams saw that Jackson had a no-hitter and thought he was a fantastic pitcher. In reality, Jackson isn't a great pitcher. He throws too many pitches, has terrible control, and always gives up too many runs in the beginning of the game. I'm glad he's gone.

I didn't really like the Mark Teahen trade either. I thought the Sox gave up too much. I liked Getz and thought he could be a good 2B for the Sox for a long time. Now the Sox have Beckham playing second and he plays it beautifully. I'm happier with this trade now, but Teahen was being payed too much money. The Sox needed to get rid of that contract. I liked the way that Teahen had been playing. He wasn't terrible, but he wasn't great. He was good to put in when Morel wasn't playing well. Now Morel has the reins at third base. I think he can handle it.

Overall, I think this trade was good. The Sox got some pitching and got rid of the guys they needed to get rid of. I also like the calling up of De Aza. I look forward to seeing him play tonight. Hopefully he'll get a couple hits.