Saturday, April 23, 2005
Amazing times on the South Side
With the White Sox' 3-2 victory tonight in extra innings against the Kansas City Royals, they are now 14-4. Yes, that's correct, Fourteen and four.
Let's put this in perspective for just one moment:
This is the best record through 18 games in franchise history. All 105 years of it. Now, I don't know if that says more about this team or the pathetic history of this franchise, but still that is damn good.
Also, the White Sox are the only 14 win team in baseball. The next closest team only has 12 (Los Angeles Dodgers). The White Sox are already 6.5 games ahead of the Detroit Tigers, whom many people picked to win the division, 6 games ahead of Cleveland, whom more people picked to win the division and 3.5 games ahead of the Twins, whom many people picked to win the World Series, let alone the division. The White Sox have not been this far in front since the 2000 team ran away with the division. This whole thing is absolutely incredible.
Outside of the AL Central, the furthest team back is the Colorado Rockies who are 6 back of the Dodgers, yet the Kansas City Royals are already 9 games back. 9 games back 18 games in is not a pretty place to be in.
Now let's analyze what's brought the White Sox to this point. It's quite clear that the starting pitching staff has been the primary reason why the White Sox are in this position. The cumulative ERA is 2.88 right now. The worst on the team now is Contreras at 3.48. Everyone's been solid, almost day in and day out. Garland and Buehrle are already both at 3 wins. White Sox fans have to like what they're seeing so far out of this bunch.
Another large part of the equation are the contributions of various hitters. Podsednik, a guy whom I didnt think would have a great year, but left open the door due to his troubles at Miller Park in both 2003 and 2004, has a .327 AVG with a .393 OBP right now and 9 steals with only one caught stealing. This is exactly what you want out of your leadoff hitter. If he can keep any semblence of this up, then it doesnt matter what Carlos Lee does because the White Sox won this trade based on added depth. Also, Uribe's been hitting very well. .302 average, but a low OBP. Yet, he's had some important bunts and many sacrifice flies (5 already, to match his total from last year in the first 18 games) in close games when we needed him to come through. Crede's been excellent also, hitting .333 and in the midst of a 14 game hit streak. Finally, Iguchi has been surprisingly good early. Though I'm slightly dissapointed in the lack of power and the relatively few walks I've seen from him, it's hard to be too dissapointed in a .305 average from a guy coming over from Japan.
There have been a few worrisome parts of the bullpen. You really cant blame Vizcaino that much for his inflated ERA, he was running on empty and could not be replaced due to an empty bullpen. He's been fairly solid otherwise (he gave up the game tying hit tonight, but he's been a decent middle reliever). Takatsu has been shaky, like last year's start. Cotts has been Cotts-like, though he looked better tonight. But on the flip side, Marte looks a lot better than last year already. Politte looks like a whole new pitcher and is locating his fastball extremely well. Hermanson looks like the reliever he was before the end of the year blowup last year. On the whole, the relief corps has been good enough to win us 8 one run ballgames, and there's nothing wrong with that. Winning 1-run ballgames with a good bullpen is the only real way to outperform pythagorean record by a significant amount and the White Sox are doing just that.
The best part is that they're doing this in spite of Dye, Konerko, Rowand and Everett. If one part falters, there are other parts that could pick up the slack and keep us on this pace. All in all, it's just totally incredible that the White Sox have started this way. I can only hope that they can keep this up.
Let's put this in perspective for just one moment:
This is the best record through 18 games in franchise history. All 105 years of it. Now, I don't know if that says more about this team or the pathetic history of this franchise, but still that is damn good.
Also, the White Sox are the only 14 win team in baseball. The next closest team only has 12 (Los Angeles Dodgers). The White Sox are already 6.5 games ahead of the Detroit Tigers, whom many people picked to win the division, 6 games ahead of Cleveland, whom more people picked to win the division and 3.5 games ahead of the Twins, whom many people picked to win the World Series, let alone the division. The White Sox have not been this far in front since the 2000 team ran away with the division. This whole thing is absolutely incredible.
Outside of the AL Central, the furthest team back is the Colorado Rockies who are 6 back of the Dodgers, yet the Kansas City Royals are already 9 games back. 9 games back 18 games in is not a pretty place to be in.
Now let's analyze what's brought the White Sox to this point. It's quite clear that the starting pitching staff has been the primary reason why the White Sox are in this position. The cumulative ERA is 2.88 right now. The worst on the team now is Contreras at 3.48. Everyone's been solid, almost day in and day out. Garland and Buehrle are already both at 3 wins. White Sox fans have to like what they're seeing so far out of this bunch.
Another large part of the equation are the contributions of various hitters. Podsednik, a guy whom I didnt think would have a great year, but left open the door due to his troubles at Miller Park in both 2003 and 2004, has a .327 AVG with a .393 OBP right now and 9 steals with only one caught stealing. This is exactly what you want out of your leadoff hitter. If he can keep any semblence of this up, then it doesnt matter what Carlos Lee does because the White Sox won this trade based on added depth. Also, Uribe's been hitting very well. .302 average, but a low OBP. Yet, he's had some important bunts and many sacrifice flies (5 already, to match his total from last year in the first 18 games) in close games when we needed him to come through. Crede's been excellent also, hitting .333 and in the midst of a 14 game hit streak. Finally, Iguchi has been surprisingly good early. Though I'm slightly dissapointed in the lack of power and the relatively few walks I've seen from him, it's hard to be too dissapointed in a .305 average from a guy coming over from Japan.
There have been a few worrisome parts of the bullpen. You really cant blame Vizcaino that much for his inflated ERA, he was running on empty and could not be replaced due to an empty bullpen. He's been fairly solid otherwise (he gave up the game tying hit tonight, but he's been a decent middle reliever). Takatsu has been shaky, like last year's start. Cotts has been Cotts-like, though he looked better tonight. But on the flip side, Marte looks a lot better than last year already. Politte looks like a whole new pitcher and is locating his fastball extremely well. Hermanson looks like the reliever he was before the end of the year blowup last year. On the whole, the relief corps has been good enough to win us 8 one run ballgames, and there's nothing wrong with that. Winning 1-run ballgames with a good bullpen is the only real way to outperform pythagorean record by a significant amount and the White Sox are doing just that.
The best part is that they're doing this in spite of Dye, Konerko, Rowand and Everett. If one part falters, there are other parts that could pick up the slack and keep us on this pace. All in all, it's just totally incredible that the White Sox have started this way. I can only hope that they can keep this up.
# posted by Karno : 11:07 PM
