The White Sox recently wrapped up a 6-game west coast road trip with a record of 4-2. If they could do that every time, they’d be in good shape the rest of the way.
However, while on paper it looks like a completely successful road trip, it doesn’t feel that way right now to many Sox fans.
After winning the first 4 games, they dropped the last 2, wasting two phenomenal pitching performances and dropping Wednesday’s game in terrible fashion in the 14th inning.
After 13 innings of poorly played baseball on both team’s behalf, Alexei Ramirez hit a clutch two out-two RBI double to give the Sox a 4-2 lead. But in the bottom half of the frame, Hector Santiago surrendered a string of consecutive hits, including a Yoenenes Cespedes game-tying home run. “Screwgie” certainly didn’t have his good stuff.
But as always, there are positives and there are negatives to take away from this series of events. In my eyes, there luckily are more positives than negatives, so let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first.
Open your eyes, Brent!
What had me shaking my head:
The youngsters, for the most part, do not look good at the plate. Speaking obviously about Dayan Viciedo, Gordon Beckham, and Brent Morel, who are taking up 1/3 of our batting order but have not shown the potential that we all know they possess.
Viciedo started off the year looking good, taking big rip after big rip and making contact often enough to collect some hits, including two early home runs. “The Tank’s” BA has dropped by over .100 points in the last week and a half, while striking out about once per game, give or take.
Morel was our weakest link for a while, but has made some strides recently. He is hitting the ball with a bit more consistency, and making good contact here and there, too. While it’s an improvement for what we saw right off the bat, it’s still nowhere near good enough. Brent has compiled a .177 batting average this year, although he has raised it .074 points in the past 6 days.
I’d say Beckham has been our weakest link overall. As I’ve said before, we’ve realized our expectations for him may just be too high. However, I think I speak for most Sox fans when I say hitting .250-.260 while mixing in a decent number of extra-base hits would be great to see. Gordon is hitting .180 with just 2 RBI so far this year.
While the rest of the guys have not produced much in the last couple of days, it is just 2 games, so I don’t want to put much blame on the guys who have had good campaigns overall so far.
These 3 hitters, being “everyday starters” are definitely the biggest problem area for the team right now. I’m confident that Viciedo will pick it up, but he needs to have protection in the order to assure there isn’t too much pressure put upon his shoulders.
Still, he needs to get it going sooner rather than later. And as far as the other guys go, I don’t see them both staying in the lineup if the Sox stay in contention for another 3-4 weeks. A contender just simply can’t afford to have two guys in the lineup that are only there for defensive purposes.
Many teams would not be able to have had any success to this point with a few “automatic outs” in their lineup, but the White Sox pitching has been far better than any of us predicted, which is what I’ll touch on next.
The Good:
As just said, the White Sox sure are lucky that their pitching has been so dominant. Without it, their 10-8 start would probably look a lot more like 8-10, or even a lot worse.
Our weakest links in the rotation to this point have been John Danks and Gavin Floyd. While Floyd picked up the loss 2 nights ago, he pitched a gem and definitely deserved better than that.
And while Danks may not be a number 1 guy, we do know that he’ll be consistent. The pressure of being labeled the top gun may be getting to him a bit, so I see him settling in over time and having a typical John Danks season.
Considering how minor those concerns are, the rotation is taking shape to be one of the best in the league. Jake Peavy has been as good as anyone, Phil Humber is obviously coming off of a perfect game, and Chris Sale looks like not only the real deal, but the certain future ace of the staff.
Sale has a 3.12 ERA so far in 2012
And while Hector “Screwgie” Santiago blew a big save Wednesday, the bullpen has been great overall, and if he can tighten up the screws, our pitching should not have much to worry about for the foreseeable future this year.
So now, the White Sox come home for a 7-game home stand with the opportunity to make April a great month for the south siders.
Let’s just hope that Robin encourages the team to take Wednesday’s poor performance as motivation to get better in front of the Chicago faithful at US Cellular Field throughout this stretch, instead of letting the team get discouraged by it.
What I see next:
I see the White Sox going 5-2 on this home stand. Their pitching should continue to dazzle, and coming back to a home crowd and a hitters ballpark, the runs hitters should be able to produce more than we have seen in the last few days.
Have I mentioned I’m an optimist?