Fully Torqued: A White Sox 40-Game Review

Remember how we used to laugh?

White Sox Record: 18-21- 3^rd in AL Central (4.5 games behind Cleveland)

It’s been an interesting start to the 2012 season for the SouthSiders thus far, filled with lots of highlights and an equal amount of lowlights. Within this article, I’ll try to cover some of both, as well as a few “meh” areas that fall right in between.

The Highlights:

The Guys We’re Paying a Lot of Money: Adam Dunn (.241/.374/.579, 12 HR), Paul Konerko (.356/.435/.578), and Jake Peavy (4-1, 2.65 ERA, 2.5 WAR, 57.2 IP) are three guys that the Pale Hose are paying a lot of money in 2012. Paul Konerko continues to do what he does best, which is be a damn good professional hitter. While the first baseman on the North Side of town is getting a lot of attention (and deservedly so, I might add), Konerko continues to fly under the radar with another spectacular season. He can't run at all and his range is limited defensively, but don't throw him fastballs. Those are likely to be hit very hard somewhere. Nobody was too concerned about Konerko this year, but Peavy and Dunn were the two guys that everyone believed needed to step up in 2012 in order for the White Sox to compete. Well, they’ve done their parts, as Dunn has already surpassed his 2011 HR total (11) in 2012, and Peavy currently leads all AL pitchers in WAR. What’s even more encouraging than the numbers that Peavy and Dunn are putting up, though, is the simple fact that when these two do their jobs well, they are extremely fun to watch. Watching Adam Dunn hit homers like this two-run BOMB against the Tigers and watching Peavy curse at himself on the mound after any pitch that misses have made watching the Sox a little more fun this year.

Alejandro de Aza: Lady Gaga would be so proud. As Cubs fans well know, watching Juan Pierre, a “traditional” leadoff hitter, trot out and have 5 weak ground outs a day can really wear on you as a baseball fan. Yes, Pierre almost never struck out and yes, when he was younger he stole an awful lot of bases. However, last year, Juan Pierre hit .279/.329/.327. He had 17 2B, 4 3B, and 2 HR, over 639 AB. That’s an awful lot of at-bats to give to someone who is, to put it plainly, not that good at baseball anymore. However, watching de Aza this year has been a revelation for Sox fans. Thus far in 2012, de Aza already has 9 2B, 2 3B, 3 HR, and has a triple slash line of .288/.360/.438. Where Pierre was 27/44 in stolen bases last year (61% success rate) (woof), de Aza is 7/9 (78%). Yes he strikes out more than Pierre ever did, but let me tell you, watching your leadoff hitter go up there and drive the ball can be a thing of beauty. The only question with de Aza is why it ever took the Sox so long to call him up.

The John Travoltas (This Could Go Either Way):

Alex Rios: With the emergence of de Aza, and the fact that the Sox are paying Alex Rios a ton of money still ($12M in 2012, $12.5 in 2013 and 2014), Rios was moved to RF this year, and the results, while not quite as awesome as the Dunn/Peavy comeback train described above, have at least been encouraging. Rios looks much more comfortable in right field than he ever did in center, and seeing Rios, who is fairly fleet of foot, playing RF after watching Carlos Quentin out there for two years makes Rios look like a gold glover. At the dish, Rios is hitting .267/.322/.370, which doesn’t sound great except for the fact that it’s a drastic improvement (so far) over last year’s .227/.265/.348 line. He also called out Chris Perez for celebrating too much after a save (I mean c'mon dude. You pitch for Cleveland), and then proceeded to do this to Perez his next at-bat. Rios is signed with the WhiteSox through 2014 and is clearly making too much money for this kind of performance. However, if he keeps his average around .280, chips in a few more homeruns, and continues to play a stellar RF, well, it could be worse (cough, Soriano, cough).

The Chris Sale Saga: One of the reasons why Ozzie Guillen left Chicago this offseason was because there was a clear rift that had developed between Guillen and General Manager Kenny Williams. By bringing in a new, and I mean brand new, manager in Robin Ventura, it seemed that many, if not all, of the annoying tiffs between manager and GM that had plagued the White Sox and their fans over the last several years would be gone.

Another beloved member of the WhiteSox left this offseason too, in the form of Mark Buerhle, and one of the reasons the Sox allowed Mark to leave was because of Chris Sale. Sale, who had a season-plus under his belt as an excellent left handed reliever, had trained all offseason to make the jump to starter and try and make up for some of what the Sox had lost in Buerhle. Well, the early results were encouraging, as Sale went 3-1 over his first 5 starts. Sale threw 32 innings in those starts, striking out 29 while walking just 8, and displaying the nasty 93-95 mph fastball, wicked slider, and changeup that had led the Sox to believe the kid was going to be a starter for the long-haul. And then a bunch of weird stuff happened.  Varying reports about Sale’s elbow from Robin Ventura, pitching coach Don Cooper, and various Chicago media outlets, ranging from “sore” to “tender” prompted Coop & Robin to send Sale to the bullpen for what sure seemed like the rest of the season in order to “save his career.” Then, the Sox reneged on some of that language saying it was precautionary, saying that he may return to a starter’s role, and on and on and on. Finally, we fans found out that Sale was scheduled for a “routine” MRI on his pitching elbow, which is kind of like saying I am planning to go out on a routine date with Blake Lively tonight. With a prized young lefty who throws 95 and weighs about 150 lbs, there is no such thing as a routine MRI.  Surprisingly through all of this, nothing was heard from Kenny Williams.

Fast forward to the day of the MRI, when Sox fans finally heard from Kenny, explaining that the MRI came back 100% clean and that Sale would be moved back to the starting rotation immediately. Further, we learned that Sale had called Kenny personally, gone over his manager’s head, and asked to be moved back to a starting role. In the end, at least for now, Sale continues to pitch in the rotation (he actually threw 5.1 innings today, striking out 7 and allowing 1 ER against the Angels, earning the win), but the Sox will look to tread cautiously with his arm going forward. Sale in the rotation is a very good thing. All the weird stuff; starter to closer to not-quite-closer back to starter, is not so good.

The Lowlights:

Bacon: Although Gordon Beckham has been proclaimed to be back (“HE’S BACK!”) at least 7 different times this season, it’s May 17^th and the best hair in the AL is hitting .198. Today the former Bulldog went 0-5 with 6 runners LOB out of the 2 slot. Yes, he still plays excellent defense at 2B and yes, that hairdo isn’t changing any time soon, but so far it’s been, in my opinion, an incredibly disappointing start for a guy once considered to be the future of the White Sox organization.

Brent Morel: .171/.207/.189- 39 strikeouts. There’s no kind way to put this. Brent Morel has not been worthy of a major league roster spot this year. Which is why I hope that when RV plays Dunn in LF against the Cubs this weekend (as he has already stated he plans to do), he moves the suddenly surging Dayan Viciedo to 3B so the Sox don’t have 2 pitchers batting at all time. (Note: As I wrote “suddenly surging” Viciedo just hit his 6^th HR of the year, a bomb to left field) (Other note: He swings very hard). Like Beckham, Morel plays good defense, but that type of production from third base just isn't good enough.

Outlook: Overall, it’s hard to tell what kind of team the White Sox really are after ~40 games as at times they have looked great and other times they’ve looked just miserable.  Unfortunately, it seems that the truest answer is often the simplest. The Sox are a team with some talented players but too much inconsistency throughout the lineup to finish much better than .500 this year. This weekend, the Sox will send Mr. Perfect Philip Humber to the mound on Friday, who has been anything but since his perfect game. Saturday the Sox will send the struggling John Danks to the bump, who easily could have made the lowlights section of this piece as well (2-4, 6.46 ERA), while Sunday the Sox will finish the three game set with their true ace Jake Peavy on the mound. Thankfully the Crosstown Cup will bring some excitement to the baseball fans of Chicago, because at this point, it’s not certain the baseball being played by either team will.