163

It's the best week in sports.  College basketball holds its championship on Monday -- here's a shout-out to my alma mater, Michigan State, for making it to the Final Four for the sixth time in the last 12 years.  The Masters begins on Thursday.  Everybody is wondering if Tiger will be able to come back without having played in a tournament.  The Update is wondering if he'll be any good without having the amount of sex he apparently was having when he was on top (of the golf world, that is).  The NHL season finishes up and the teams vying for Lord Stanley's Cup will be sorted out -- Go Hawks (my old team) and go Caps (my "new" team).  Teams are fighting to make the playoffs in the NBA.  And most important of all, baseball starts up again.  Let's take a quick look at our Chicago White Sox, who currently are tied for first with the rest of the division and have a Magic Number of 163.

The Update is not a big fan of small ball.  We actually favor the Earl Weaver three-run homer school of thought, especially in a park that is as homer friendly as the Cell.  But Ozzie convinced Kenny Williams to turn the Sox into a National League team.  The only problem with that strategy is the Sox are still in the American League.  We're skeptics, but will be happy to be proven wrong.  At least we picked up the right guys to implement the small ball strategy, or maybe not.

Juan Pierre batting leadoff makes very little sense to us.  Small ball requires base runners, especially at the top of the order, so you want a guy with a high on-base percentage filling that role.  Pierre ranked 127th in OBP last year, which by the way placed him three spots behind Jim Thome.  No, we're not suggesting Thome should bat leadoff; just pointing out how bad an OBP guy Pierre is.  Well at least as a corner outfielder, he has power right?  Not so much.  He had no homers last year, one the year before that, and none the year before that.  He makes Scottie Pods look like he was on steroids.

How about Gordon Beckham batting second?  His OBP in his rookie year was even worse than Pierre's: .347, which is good for 204th place.  Now, we love Becks, but he's not the right fit for small ball either.  Also, how much will he be disrupted by having to learn a new position again this year.  Is it smart baseball to take a kid who plays shortstop his whole life and convert him to a third baseman last year, and when he gets semi-decent at that, move him over to the other side of the infield, where he's never played before?  We don't think so.

And why did Becks move to second?  So Mark Teahen could play third base (which in our view, he's not all that good at).  The best thing about picking up Teahen is that he no longer will be able to bat against the Sox, whom he seemed to own when he was in Kansas City.  The bad news is that his already not-so-gaudy offensive stats are likely to suffer now that he doesn't get to hit our pitching.  At least his OBP can't suffer too much -- at .325 (326th place) in 2009, it was even lower than Beckham's.  Hopefully, Ozzie won't put Teahen anywhere near the top of the order.

How about that other newcomer, Andruw Jones?  He's slated to be part of Ozzie's rotating DH squadron.  Well it sure ain't because of his OBP last year, which at .323 (333rd place) is even lower than Teahen's or for his batting average, which at .214 was even lower than his weight, even after showing up for spring training in supposedly great shape.

Alex Rios?  We know how that worked out after Kenny got suckered into taking on his huge salary on waivers last year: an OBP of .220, which would have been good for 628th place had he put up those numbers all year long.  His actual season-long number, .296, allowed him to finish in 466th place.  His batting average with the Sox at .199 was below the Mendoza line and below the Jenny Craig line since he weighs 205.  Let's see what happens this year, but at his salary, we can't even imagine what he'd have to do to justify what he's paid.

At least we'll have Mark Kotsay for a full year.  Just kidding.  Kotsay got on base at a .327 clip, which made him the 326th best player in baseball in that category.  But Ozzie seems to love him.  We don't.

And we don't like Omar Vizquel either, at least not as a DH like Ozzie has threatened.  You're going to take one of the best fielders of all time and let him hit but not use his glove?  That would make sense only if Vizquel were an even better hitter than he is a fielder, but we're not sure Babe Ruth was a better hitter than Vizquel is a fielder.  And Omar is no Babe Ruth.  His .316 OBP ranked him 363rd in baseball last season, with no power either -- just 10 extra base hits, only one of which was a homer.  He's got that part of small ball down pat.

The rest of the guys were all here last year.  Paul Konerko, A.J. Pierzynski, Alexei Ramirez, Carlos Quentin, and Jayson Nix.  In the case of Paulie and A.J., we're not sure that being another year older is a good thing; in the case of the others, a little more seasoning might be just what the doctor ordered.  But none of them is the high OBP player that small ball works best with.  We don't hate these guys,  We just hate these guys for Ozzie's system.  Even with the right guys, the numbers show that stolen bases and bunting go against the percentages.  And don't make us repeat the fact that the Cell is a home run haven. 

By the way, the last position player is back-up catcher, Donny Lucy, who is on the team only because Ramon Castro is starting the season on the DL.  Now somebody explain to me why Ramon Castro is on the team at all.  The 240 lb. backstop didn't hit his weight (.184) and his OBP at .262 barely exceeded his poundage.  Lucy has a total of 15 at bats in the majors, all with the Sox in 2007, so he's clearly a non-factor here.  What does that say about Tyler Flowers, catcher of the future?  According to our sources, in this case a scout who's a friend of Bob Koza, Flowers has wilted as a prospect and likely will not help the Sox anytime soon, if ever.

It's a good thing that the pitching looks so good.   We love Jake Peavey and think he makes the rest of the starters better by taking the pressure off of them to lead the staff.  Mark Buehrle will get the opening day nod, which will give him the record over Billy Pierce, but think of Buehrle as the number two starter and he'll get re-aligned there soon enough.  Gavin Floyd at the three spot will have an advantage over most team's third starters, and John Danks (who some day may be known as Jordan Danks's brother) has an even bigger advantage over virtually all fourth starters in baseball.  Sweaty Freddy Garcia could be serviceable at the back end of the rotation, but if he's not, it won't take them long to promote Daniel Hudson.  The rookie earned a spot on the 25-man roster, but there was no place to put him, so he's in Triple-A Charlotte for now.

The bullpen could be pretty good as well.  We love Bobby Jenks and are glad to see that he seems to have worked out his calf problems.  When he's healthy, Jenks is one of the best.  But you know who might be even better?  Matt Thornton, that's who, at least according to Sports Illustrated.  In their review of the Sox (whom they pick to finish behind the Twins and Tigers in the A.L. Central), they suggest that Thornton has suprassed Jenks, comparing Matt's 2.71 ERA over the past two seasons, with a fantastic 164/39 strikeout to walk ratio to Bobby's 3.13 ERA and 87/33 K/BB ratio.  Behind these two, you've got newcomer J.J. Putz and Scott Linebrink, both former closers, although the only thing Liner seemed to be able to shut down last year was the Sox's chances of winning.  Randy Williams and Tony Pena return to toss middle relief, and Sergio Santos, the former shortstop turned pitcher who throws 97 MPH heat, nailed down the last bullpen spot.  By the way, former Sox center fielder Brian Anderson is trying his hand at pitching as well.  He already hits like a pitcher, so maybe this is his calling.

In our view, the pitching is going to have to carry the Sox since we don't see much hitting -- especially given Ozzie's preferred strategy.  It wouldn't surprise us if the Good Guys have a better road record this year, when their pitchers get a break from the Cell.  We're not sold on the Twins now that Joe Nathan is our for the season, and the Tigers don't move us either.  So maybe the Sox pitching can get the team to the playoffs in what we think will be a weak division.  Go Sox!