Breaking News!

Our fifth starter has been announced, finally! John Danks, who I love, is our "official" fifth starter! So now we have a complete pitching rotation that may look like this:

1. Mark Buehrle, LHP
2. Jose Contreras, RHP
3. Jon Garland, RHP
4. Javier Vazquez, RHP
5. John Danks, LHP

Does that not look good?

Infielder Reviews

# 8 Alex Cintron. We locked him up in the off-season and he can play anywhere in the infield except first base. He came through in the clutch against Pittsburgh last year and he should do the same this year. He's a switch hitter so we can use him against any pitcher if any of our infielders need a day off. A-

# 24 Joe Crede. Our third baseman and one of the best defensively in the league. He goes all out in the field and can make some Spider-man like catches. He can hit, too! 30 homers and 94 RBI for a defensive third baseman? Sounds pretty offensive to me... A

# 15 Tadahito Iguchi. TADAHITO (clap, clap, clap clap clap)!!! This guy makes the best plays at second base yet they don't even count for fantasy! If they did though... you'd be winning leagues like crazy! Anyways. I like the way he hits and he can bang some homers as well. Dude's only 5'-10" and he can play ball with the best of 'em. A

# 14 Paul Konerko. If I say anything bad about Paulie I may jinx him... So I'm going to just say that he can hit homeruns and drive in runs... anything yet? Good... he can play first base really well... Paulie also made the final outs for each of our playoff series' in '05 A+

# 38 Pablo Ozuna. The ultimate utility player! He can play first, second, short, third, and all of the outfield! I love Pabs! .328 average last year and he only played in 79 games! What a trooper. I love his style though he needs to improve in the outfield. A little touching up in that catagorie and you have one of the best utility players in the game. B-

# 5 Juan Uribe. The best shortstop EVER!!! Ok maybe not that good but he can play. He was part of the final out of the 2005 World Series (along with Paulie and Jenks *see pitching reviews*). He can hit, too, but not so much power as just getting on base. B+

Catcher Review

Pitchers are done so the Catchers, naturally, should be next!

# 44 Toby Hall. I like his style plus he adds a right-handed veteran bat to put in against all the tough lefties we usually face. He and Vazquez seem to wrok well togther but that's just what I think. Can't wait for the regular season on him. B+

# 12 A.J. Pierzynski. A.J. is a grinder and has been since we got him! I love how, when he got punched by Barrett last year, he didn't punch back and get ejected. Though that would've been good to of seen some life out of the Sox and know they're alive I like the way A.J. reacted. Pure all-star last year even though he didn't get to play in the game. A

White Sox Pitching Review

OK, so the team is about to go into their 107th season in the Majors. My team review begins now:

# 54 David Aardsma. Acquired from the Cubs for Neal Cotts, this fire throwing right-hander has come out of nowhere to be one of our best bullpen arms. He can throw in the mid 90's, usually. A good addition to our already good bullpen. B

# 56 Mark Buehrle. Our "ace" since Loaiza left the team. He has one of the best pick off moves I've ever seen and can pitch a game in under 2 hours. A great left handed starter and we have him! He did go 12-13 last year with a 4.99 ERA but he should improve on that this year. B+

# 52 Jose Contreras. A consistent starter since 2005 when he was a crucial key to our championship run. I need to see more wins out of him yet he gets 'em when we need 'em. The other thing is that he baffles hitters with his 3 arm angles. You never know where hes coming from! B

# 34 Gavin Floyd. He is an OK pitcher, young and vulnerable, but OK. He does get cocky at times and misses his spots A TON! Yet he does show signs of being good and can impove on everything with Dr. Cooper, AJ, and Toby. He's in the running for our 5th starter spot. D

# 20 Jon Garland. One of the winningest pitchers on the Sox in the past 3 years. He went 18-7 last year with a 4.51 ERA. He's in serious contention for a Cy Young award(if Johan Santana suddenly dies...). A

# 40 Charlie Haeger. I saw him pitch in his first game against the Angels last year and he walked like 7 guys in 2 innings. He is a knuckleballer so that could've been some of the problem. I do like his stuff though and he could be a potential set up man in our bullpen. Wouldn't think of him as a starter just yet. B-

# 45 Bobby Jenks. One of the best closers in the league. 40+ saves a year and he was on the mound for the last out of the World Series in '05, which we should all forget. When he's on and focused you can expect a 100 MPH fastball which is awesome for a closer. A

# 57 Boone Logan. I don't know too much about Boone but he does have some control issues from what I've heard. Too early for me to make a comment. ???

# 47 Mike MacDougal. If Jenks goes down, which I hope he doesn't, Mike would be our closer. He can also throw around 100 MPH and has wicked poise on the mound. I like his stuff and he should be our go-to guy in the bullpen. Next to Jenks, of course. B+

# 46 Nick Masset. Picked him up in the Brandon McCarthy trade so I don't know much about him either. I heard he can hit 98 MPH on his fastball, but I have no idea yet. Too early for him, too. ???

# 51 Andrew Sisco. Also acquired in the McCarthy deal. And I also know nothing about him! ???

# 37 Matt Thornton. Great arm in the bullpen for anytime to have, but last time I checked: We do. I like the way he pitches and he shows great confidence on the mound. He can throw mid 90's like Aardsma. I like him! Another person to consider for the closer spot if, and I mean if, Jenks goes down. A-

# 33 Javier Vazquez. I didn't like him before but now I'm starting to have second thoughts. He's a strike out monster and can win ballgames. Needs to improve on his ERA a smidge but other than that he may become a favorite in my mind! B+

Sox Fall to Padres

Another game today resulted in another crushing, bruising, defeat by Ozzie & Da' Sox. Despite Thome Knockin' Our Sox Off twice we still managed a loss to the low-rised Padres... that makes me embarassed as a Sox fan...

I'm going to stop posting for now... Until the Sox actually start...

Say It Aint So Joe

Third baseman Joe Crede hit a homer in todays game against the Rockies. Yes the Rockies. Again.

7-4 was the final score, even with Crede's home run. He went 2-3 with a homer (how many times can I post that?). He is the first recipient of my "Knockin Our Sox Off" home run game. Its an "award" to who hits the longest home run. So Joe, congrats on Knockin Our Sox Off!

Thats really all I want to type about this game.

Sox Lock Up Vazquez Through 2010

You all know how much I dislike this pitcher. Sure he strikes out a ton of hitters and wins some games, but I just don't like his style of pitching! The Sox signed him through 2010 which makes me as happy as a butterfly in the rain. Yes... I just said that.

With my projected rotation shaping up like this:

• Mark Buehrle
• Jon Garland
• Jose Contreras
• Gavin Floyd
• Javier Vazquez

You can tell Vazquez is out numbered by good pitchers. Although I have yet to see Floyd throw a pitch I'm confident in his ability and control on the mound.

Sox Obliterate Cubs, 13-2

Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye were two major components to the White Sox's beating up of the North Side Scum.

Jon Garland started the game, pitched 3 innings striking out 1 and only allowing 2 hits. No Runs.
Then came Charlie Haegar in the 4th inning he struck out one also, but only went 2 innings. But enough of the pitching, lets get to the killer offense!

Brian Anderson and Robert Valido's first at bats resulted in strikeouts. Then up came Paul Konerko to face Rich Hill (who pitched awesome... yes I said that...) and crush a 3-2 fastball 400 feet out of the park. Followed by a Jermaine Dye fly out to second. The second inning comes up with a K for Josh Fields, and a double play. In the erd inning things didn't go much better. But the Sox lit up in the 4th. The inning started out with a walk to Valido, and a walk to Paulie. Up cam Jermaine Dye with 2 on, no out, smashed some 2-1 high cheese for a 3-run bomb. Wait, it gets better. No, really!

Fields grounded out, then came a first-pitch jack from Rob Mackowiak (the "official" Cubs killer of the team). Nothing happend after that until the 5th inning when Paulie crushed another home run! I love this guy!

The damage quieted down for awhile. Until the 8th inning when Rob Mackowiak hit a single, moved to second base on a Wiki Gonzalez strike out, then was driven in on a Gustavo Molina (no relation to Jose, Bengie and Yadier) home run. I dont know who he is either!

The Sox scored 2 more runs in the 9th for a final score of:

Sox 13 - Cubs 2 (ha ha ha!)

Another Game, Another Loss

I did not listen to the game because it wasn't on the radio... or TV...

Jose Contreras started the game, pitched 2 innings allowed 4 hits, 2 runs and 3 walks. This is the guy who won 17 straight games from 05-06. Can you believe that? I know this is spring training (emphasis on the word: training) and the guys are just practicing. And I know that the games don't really matter. But to us fans, they really, really, really do.

On the offensive side mlb.com has Josh Fields (pictured above) driving in 2 runs. Paul Konerko driving in 1 and Ryan Sweeney driving in 1. Yet they have the final score listed 10-3. According to my 7th grade math the total RBI should add up to 4. Am I right? But according to my sister "They're so bad that when they score runs they don't even count." and she's a big a Sox fan as I am! So either it was a) a typo b) somebody didn't listen in math class or c) they don't even care.

Our relivers did a good job combining for a total of 3 K's out of 5 pitchers! Dewon Day got another look today. I liked what I heard when he pitched on Wednesday, and he equaled that in todays "outing". I wonder what he'll be like in the regular season. Maybe he'll be our next Neal Cotts. Or maybe he'll end up like Cliff Politte... think happy thoughts...

Sox Fall to D-Backs 8-5

Another game lost and a hard lesson learned. And that is, you ask? Don't send all the good players to the easy game! Today all we had against the Diamondbacks were Jermaine Dye, Jim Thome and Josh Fields! But we did manage to score more runs than we did yesterday!

The good thing is that we got a look at Andrew Sisco and David Aardsma. Both members of the Rubber Maid's. Sisco hurled 1 inning and gave up 2 walks, while Aardsma went an inning and gave up 2 runs. Lance Broadway pitched and gave up a homer to Carlos Quintin. Oh and I didnt even mention Vazquez. 2 and 1/3 innings with 5 earned runs, 2 walks and an ERA of 19.29. Ouch.

On our offensive side, Thome drove in a run. So did Josh Fields, Casey Rogowski, Robert Valido and new catcher Toby Hall.

The offense did as well as they could. It was our pitching that bothered me. Thats all the games for now.

Well, there will be more games they just wont be on The Score.

[Next Game Info]
The next game is on Sunday against the Cubs! That game will be on The Score (AM 670) and the Cubs' side WGN (AM 720). I'm going to be listening to The Score because I'm a Sox fan. The game, of course, will be hosted by Ed Farmer and Chris Singleton. Oh and it's at 2:05 PM CT.