Enjoy!

The 6.70 ERA of the White Sox is 27th in the majors. They have only one save in four chances, but the Cubs are worse with one save in 10 chances. The White Sox are tied for the lead in walks this spring with Oakland A’s, with both teams issuing 44 walks. Opposing batters are hitting .294 against the Sox with the Indians being the worst team allowing a .331 average.

Jake Peavy’s line for this spring: IP 4.1 ER 9 (tied for most in the majors) H 12 (second worst in the majors) 2 BB, 3K, ERA 18.69, WHIP 3.23 Opponents Batting Average .500.

If this is how Peavy pitches when he is healthy, it might be better to go back to when he was unhealthy. I look for Peavy to say he is hurting anyday now, because that would give him a reason for the terrible pitching. Maybe Peavy and John Danks are getting the bad pitching out of their system and are saving it for the season. The 7 walks in 5 innings is my main concern about Danks.

There is one positive for both Peavy and Danks...neither has allowed a home run this spring.

Nine games played and Sox only have two wins. What is going on with Gavin Floyd? Haven’t seen any spring stats for him. There is talk of trading him still, but how could the Sox trade him when Peavy and Danks are struggling in spring training?

I just had the wife run out to get me a big box of Kleenex it’s going to be one of those nights.....

Riverman - 13 March 2012 02:32 PM

I just had the wife run out to get me a big box of Kleenex it’s going to be one of those nights.....

Floyd pitched well today but Leesman didn’t. See the Cubs are hanging on to lead over Giants. Soriano picked up his 3rd double to go with 4 home runs.

I’m not convinced yet Dunn is going to be productive. I’m also not sold on Jake Peavy either.

I’m afraid the Sox are going to really suck this year.

Robin Ventura better be careful or Kenny Williams and Don Cooper will throw him under the bus like they did Ozzie.

TomD - 13 March 2012 07:07 PM

I’m not convinced yet Dunn is going to be productive. I’m also not sold on Jake Peavy either.

I’m afraid the Sox are going to really suck this year.

Robin Ventura better be careful or Kenny Williams and Don Cooper will throw him under the bus like they did Ozzie.

You got that right about KW and Cooper....They will go to Reinsdorf and say it is all Robin’s fault if they keep losing all season.

I have a feeling Jake Peavy is going to be on the DL soon. Pitchers go on DL sometimes after pitching that badly. Dunn has a long way to go before he proves he is all the way back.

The Sox are on a pace to win 32 games this season if they keep winning two of every 10 games.

The White Sox starters, excluding Floyd who’s trade bait, now have (I believe) a combined ERA of 39.26.

BigBadBill - 14 March 2012 05:50 AM

The White Sox starters, excluding Floyd who’s trade bait, now have (I believe) a combined ERA of 39.26.

I know those are spring training stats, but with spring training being close to half over, they should be pitching a lot better than that by now. It won’t matter who the closer is if the starters keep pitching like this. The long relief guys might be in for a busy summer.

Sox have walked 45 in 87 innings which is third in AL behind A’s and Rays but they have pitched 116 and 109 innings respectively. Sox also have 70 strikeouts which is third worst with only the Tigers and Red Sox having less, but the Tigers have a good hitting team and are still the best team in the AL. Having second worst ERA (5.79) behind the Indians (5.91) is not helping anything.

The offense is doing nothing to help the pitching staff, having scored only 37 runs, while the pitchers have allowed 62 runs to score.One thing for sure is that this performance by the offense and pitchers, can’t be easily explained away by Robin Ventura.

Not too worried about Konerko’s 2 for 15 this spring, since he is always ready when the bell rings on opening day. Fukudome’s 3 for 14 and .214 average only can make us hope he is not an everyday player.

Rios at 3 for 14 is showing no signs of making a comeback this season since he is also hitting .214. Dayan Viciedo is having a terrible spring with 3 hits in 19 AB’s for a .158 average, which places him under the Adam Dunn line. Jordan Danks is hitting well with a .357 average but 8 of his 9 outs have been on strikeouts. DeAza is the only regular outfielder having a decent spring at .278.

Keeping in mind that the Sox could get hot today and start a winning streak, won’t post any more negative stats about the outfield, but as of today the outfield seems to be as bad off as the starting pitching.

Rios could be gone if this keeps up. Dunn is hitting around .300 now and has a lot of walks. The harder an out he makes himself the better the Sox can be.

BigBadBill - 14 March 2012 01:43 PM

Rios could be gone if this keeps up. Dunn is hitting around .300 now and has a lot of walks. The harder an out he makes himself the better the Sox can be.

I agree with Bill wondering how much longer the Sox can keep trotting out Rios to the outfield. Kosuke Fukudome probably would post better numbers than Rios, plus his on base percentage would be about 60-70 points better than that of Rios, who I think had a .265 OBP in 2011. At least Fukudome does get on base, so he has a chance of scoring a run.

Dunn is 3 for 11 and hitting .273 but if he goes 0 for 3 in his next game he will be hitting .214, so he needs to be aggressive. The stat I like for Dunn is only one strikeout in 11 AB’s. It would be great if he could do that all season. One strikeout every 10 AB’s would only be ten per 100 AB’s and 50 for a 500 AB’s season. If he keeps making contact, he will get his share of home runs and RBI’s.

He crushed two the other day that would have been out at The Cell. He also zinged a liner Saturday that should Gould earn the kid who caught it Glove. The kid literally went over the side fence on a fly. All he needed was a fucking cape and a big S on his chest.

That being said, and those things will happen no matter what, Dunn is looking very good to me right now.

BigBadBill - 14 March 2012 02:45 PM

He crushed two the other day that would have been out at The Cell. He also zinged a liner Saturday that should Gould earn the kid who caught it Glove. The kid literally went over the side fence on a fly. All he needed was a fucking cape and a big S on his chest.

That being said, and those things will happen no matter what, Dunn is looking very good to me right now.

That is encouraging to know Dunn is hammering the ball. Wonder why he only has 11 AB’s after 10 games. Is he hurt?

I am worrying less about Dunn and more about Alex Rios, Dayan Viciedo and the starters now.

No, he’s fine. Ventura has him working with multiple pitchers on the side and then brings him into games for only a couple of innings. He did the same for Beckham for a bit until he asked to be left in all the time to get a feel for his defense too. Dunn is different, obviously.

BigBadBill - 14 March 2012 02:54 PM

No, he’s fine. Ventura has him working with multiple pitchers on the side and then brings him into games for only a couple of innings. He did the same for Beckham for a bit until he asked to be left in all the time to get a feel for his defense too. Dunn is different, obviously.

Thanks Bill for the update. I will cross Dunn of my list of things to worry about. Hope you have some positive news about Peavy and Danks really soon. Sox would be crazy to trade Gavin Floyd right now.

Danks is working on a pitch, I have no idea what, so that’s throwing him off. Peavy? I got nothing.

BigBadBill - 14 March 2012 03:00 PM

Danks is working on a pitch, I have no idea what, so that’s throwing him off. Peavy? I got nothing.

I have no clue on Peavy either. He is just plain bad. Sale had a bad game today. Not good when Sox have to score 9 runs to win a game.