Posts tagged ‘Gavin Floyd’

Anybody who’s ever watched a White Sox-Twins game in the HHH Metrodome knows what it means to stand on the side of the road as a horrific car crash you were able to predict 20 minutes beforehand unfolds in agonizing slow motion directly in front of you.

Too reactionary?

It’s one game on July 31, but it sure felt like a lot more. It always does when you’re playing the Twins and the type of lunatic scenarios like the one which unfolded in the 7th inning of tonight’s game help spark a meltdown that would make the China Syndrome seem like a minor slip-up. After a series like this you can’t do a whole lot other than just tip the cap and sigh that, no matter what the stakes or situation, the Twins don’t quit. That was evidenced when their manager threw a 100% undiluted hissy fit and got himself thrown from the game over a play in which no out was recorded, no runs were scored, and ultimately the batter in question reached first base anyway.

After stalling the Twins on Wednesday behind a sharp performance from Gavin Floyd and key power hitting from Carlos Quentin and Alexei Ramirez, the Sox were getting exactly what they needed from John Danks heading into the bottom of the 5th inning, and piecing together some timely hits for a 4-0 lead. You may recall that on Tuesday this exact same script was unfolding while left-hander Clayton Richard was on the hill. Thursday’s performance had an identical ending.

The key sequence in tonight’s game came in the bottom half of the 7th inning, with an incorrect “swing” call on Denard Span’s bunt attempt as he was hit by an inside pitch. The misjudgment was all it took to set off the raging mound of fury that is Ron Gardenhire. After futile efforts to plead his case gave way to an incoherent ramble of profanities, he punctuated the performance by tossing his cap in disgust; by this point the Twins faithful were sufficiently motivated to litter their blessed little FieldTurf with caps and balls, triggering Ozzie Guillen’s more primal instincts as his instantly recalled his team to the dugout and got into more than one verbal spat with fans hanging just over the first-base line. Ordinarily I would just sit back and wait for order to be restored in a situation like this. “Both teams are letting off a lot of steam but things will settle back in,” I’d tell myself. Not against the Twins. Not now, and not the seemingly 72 other times in the last five years when s&*t like this has routinely happened to presage a Twin comeback in a game the Sox absolutely had to win. I muttered to nobody in particular, “Minnesota’s gonna score at least 3 runs this inning.”

They scored 4.

The Sox closed back within 7-6 on a Jermaine Dye homer before the weakest links of what is now undeniably a fading bullpen allowed three more runs (aided in no small part by the fact that Nick Swisher cannot play first base. You want to know ultimately why I oppose benching Paul Konerko? The reason was on display tonight with Swish’s attempt to show “range” on the right side of the infield. Does he think he gets extra points for falling down on his rear end after failing to catch the ball?).

It was gonna take a real whopper in tonight’s game to turn the news that the Sox acquired Ken Griffey, Jr. into an afterthought, but (as they always do) the Twins and their voodoo-powered ballpark didn’t disappoint. The Sox can do two things for this point on: dwell on two blown leads in three nights against the Twins, or turn their attention to beating the Royals. I’d love to be able to say confidently what might happen next, but at this point I think everybody knows what a pointless declaration that would be.

The one thing you can count on in sports is just when you think you know you have no idea. As the White Sox head into the All Star break with a 1.5 game lead over the Twins, it is time to reflect on what we thought we knew as the season marched on. In March the problem was the pitching, many said a rotation relying on John Danks and Gavin Floyd to be major contributors was doomed to fail. Well 94 games later the Sox boast the second best ERA in all of baseball and the main reason for this has been the emergence of Floyd and Danks. Arguably they both should be pitching in New York tomorrow night as Gavin ends the first half with 10 wins, an ERA of 3.65 and has twice carried a no hitter deep into the 7th inning. Johnny Danks is fourth in the AL in ERA and with any sort of run support would be making a case not only to be in the All Star game, but to be on the mound in the first inning. Danks has decided recently to control his own fate by pitching into the 7th inning or later in three straight starts, which he was failing to do early in the season.

The sure thing headed into April was obviously Mark Buehrle, but after a rough April some fans were questioning the signing and wondering if Mark had lost it. On May 27th Mark’s ERA was 5.26, nine starts later it has dipped to 3.68. If there is one thing I have learned as a Sox fan the last person I am ever going to worry about is Mark Buehrle. The ace of the staff was supposedly Javy Vazquez and he played the part the first two months of the season, but after being outdueled by Scott Kazmir in Tampa in May, Javy has looked the Javy the Yankees wanted no more part of. Now there are Sox fans muttering it is the same old Javy that just doesn’t have the mental make up to be a front line starter. I am a sucker for pitchers with great stuff and without a doubt Javier has the best stuff on this staff. If he continues to slide into August, there may be something to worry about, but Ozzie is giving him plenty of rest over the break and that may just be exactly what he needs.

It was only about a month ago when Jim Thome was washed up and needed to be benched. He was hitting just over the Mendoza line, but Big Jim has been on fire in July, hitting .372, but more importantly putting up typical Thome slugging numbers. He can’t hit lefties? Well he is hitting 30 points higher versus lefties this season. Just another example of the more you know, the less you know.

What could be a deciding factor in the AL Central race is what the Sox get out of their Captain, Paul Konerko. Hands down he has been the biggest disappointment in the first half, but the “sit down Paulie talk for Brian Anderson and moving Swisher to first” nonsense needs to stop. The man has earned the benefit of the doubt and has shown in the past he can have a big second half. I don’t want to make excuses for Paul, but he did have a nagging hand injury and then the oblique strain. The man is just 32 years old, did he just all of a sudden lose his ability to hit? Somehow I doubt it, and I think we are in store for the Paulie of old coming up in August and September and hopefully October.

It is a looooonnnng season Sox fans - a team that wins 90 games is going to lose 72 games. It is important to keep that in mind and not get too high when it’s going good or to low when inevitable bad streak happens. Not many expected this team to be where they are in the standing at the All Star break and the division is ours for the taking.

Let’s all sit back and watch Quentin and Dye help secure home field advantage tomorrow night and get ready for what promises to be an exciting second half.

If it’s February, it must be Spring Training in Tucson. The Sox final year of workouts in their old Tucson Electric Park digs before relocating to their shiny new facility in Glendale has no shortage of plotlines, from Ozzie’s promise to be “back to being Ozzie” to Bobby Jenks’ decision to go with long hair and the annual debate over what exactly a ‘hang-wuff-em” is. But those are all questions for another time and place. As Spring Training kicks off in earnest (pitchers and catchers were due Saturday, with a number of positional players such as Joe Crede, Josh Fields, AJ Pierzynski, and Brian Anderson showing up ahead of the mandatory reporting date this Friday), here our five storylines worth paying close attention to:

5 - The Back End…Will it be Gavin Floyd & John Danks in the last two rotation spots, as everybody seems to expect, or can one of the remaining prospies (Lance Broadway, Charlie Haeger, Adam Russell, Jack Egbert, or even the always popular ‘Unknown’) earn their way onto the roster? Wild card factor - who arrives in a probable Crede trade.

4 - Grinding Back…Last season the top two spots in the order were plagued by injury and inability to do some of the fundamental “little things” required to win. Can Orlando Cabrera & Nick Swisher right the ship by bunting, sacrificing, getting on base, stealing bases, and creating scoring chances for the middle of the lineup?

3 - Outfield Shuffle…The Sox now have a depth of outfielders, but who’s going where? Ideally I’d like Swisher in left, but Carlos Quentin’s a natural LF and there just is too much roughness around the edges on Jerry Owens. What about Brian Anderson? All these things need to be sorted out in time. Personal prediction: it’ll be Dye (RF), Swisher (CF), Quentin (LF). While Dye & Swisher will be out there no matter what, that third spot is still up for grabs, so anybody could grab it with a good spring.

2 - Second Base is Up For Grabs…Juan Uribe, Danny Richar, newly-signed Cuban defector Alexei Ramirez, & Pablo Ozuna each have a hat in the ring. Richar didn’t do enough last season to nail down the job, but I’m all for giving it to him and seeing what he can do over the course of a full baseball season. If Uribe REALLY lost a lot of weight and attacks from the first spring training game on, it’ll likely be him. An unknown variable that could alter the Sox thinking: how well/fast Ramirez picks up MLB pitching. If he mashes the ball during spring and/or the minors, his time could be sooner rather than later; if he flops that’ll be one less candidate for the bench.

1 - Endgame at Third…The day Sox fans have been dreading for almost three full years may finally be at hand. Joe Crede is an unrestricted free agent after 2008 and there appears to be no room for negotiation between Kenny Williams & Scott Boras, which is very unfortunate but also incredibly predictable. The two sides haven’t had any concrete discussions on the matter, which makes you hope they could work something out if they ever got down to the bargaining table, but the reality is that right now the Sox see Josh Fields as ready to play everyday. And not as an outfielder. That makes a healthy Crede highly valuable trade bait considering the Sox need both the kind of 3rd/4th starter pitching talent he could bring in, or a stud prospect or two to resupply their farm system. A new report in the Chicago Tribune suggests that a deal with the Giants could be in the works, but it would likely be Crede for prospects, not Crede for Noah Lowry (as has been speculated). Either way, a final decision at third is the last (and biggest) question for the Sox to come up with an answer to before breaking camp.