The White Sox Lineup as Craft Beer- 2013 Edition

Mmmmm craft beer. Drink it in. Literally.

First off, I have to admit, I totally stole this idea from Comcast Sports Net's JJ Stankevitz, who wrote about the 2011 White Sox as different types of beer. But if you know me, you know that I love beer and that I love the White Sox. Even better, the White Sox have some pretty solid craft beer and food offerings at US Cellular field, so it seems that this area is something that resonates with Sox fans, or Chicago fans in general. So, basically what I’m going to do is try and match each player in the Sox lineup with a different type of beer, link to that beer on Beer Advocate so you can see how good people think the beer is, tell you a bit about the beer, and explain why it matches with this player. Hopefully you enjoy, and drink more craft beer!

Things That Suck About the Greatest Game in the World

This article ran over at our brother blog, Six Points Down, a Chicago sports and pop culture blog, on Monday, March 25. Since this article is about baseball and we here at GhostRide seem to like baseball, here's the article for your reading pleasure:

Baseball starts in 5 days. I repeat; baseball starts in 5 days. I played baseball for 15 years, and have been a White Sox fan for my whole life. No, seriously, my dad agreed to raise me and my sisters Catholic as long as we were raised White Sox fans. So, clearly, baseball holds a really special place in my heart. But while I’m always excited for baseball season, there seems to be an excessive amount of negativity baseball in general this year. As the season sets to start Sunday night with a wonderful opening night match up of the Texas Rangers, who are good, against the newly American League Houston Astros, who are horrendous, I thought long and hard about some things that the MLB could do to truly revive this game we love as the American Pastime.

Issue #1: The Pace of a Baseball Game

We get it, baseball can be boring sometimes.

Most people who don’t like baseball complain right off the bat- it’s boring! And to be completely fair and honest, while I disagree completely, I can understand the argument. Even during my playing days, I loved playing catcher because you were involved in every single pitch, as opposed to left field, where you could go a whole game with only 2 plays coming your way. For the casual fan who doesn’t understand pitch selections, hit and runs, and other baseball strategy, spending 3 plus hours watching a baseball game may seem like a waste of time. With the rise in popularity of hockey and its lightning fast pace, hitting, and goal celebrations, fans find themselves less and less interested in the deliberate pace of a baseball game.

The thing is, casual fans are never going to understand pitch selections, or advanced metrics, or the pros and cons of trying to steal second base. But what the MLB can do is institute some measures to make the game more enjoyable, and move at a better pace for the casual fan. Then hopefully we can stop Red Sox-Yankees games from lasting almost 4 hours.

The Chicago White Sox 2013 Preview/Drinking Game: Pitching and Predictions!

In case you missed it, make sure to check out the first part of this preview in which I discuss the MLB, the AL Central, White Sox acquisitions, and the Sox everyday lineup.

Chris Sale: Representin' for the gangstas all across the world (and FGCU).

The Rotation: (2012 stats)

The White Sox hope to continue their strong track record of keeping pitchers healthy, and with a strong bullpen and John Danks floating somewhere along the horizon, the pitching staff is promising, if not awe-inspiring. Keep in mind that I will use mostly traditional statistics with the exception of FIP, which measures what a player’s ERA should have looked like over a given time period, assuming that performance on balls in play and timing were league average.

The Ace- Chris Sale- #49- Throws: Left- (17-8, 3.05 ERA, 192 IP, 192K, 3.27 FIP)

Key 2012 Stat: 4.8 WAR

The Chicago White Sox 2013 Preview/Drinking Game: MLB Overview, Season Overview, Acquisitions, and Offense!

Photo courtesy of whitesox.tumblr.com

Baseball is back! And after an opening day gem from new $32M man Chris Sale (7.2 IP, 7 H, 7 K, 1 BB, 104 pitches), and a 417 foot blast from new everyday catcher Tyler Flowers led to a 1-0 win for the Pale Hose, things are looking up on the South Side! Or are they? Well, that’s what we aim to find out. So come join us here at Ghostride the WHIP as we take a look at Manager Robin Ventura’s 2013 White Sox. Read on for my preview, predictions, and drinking fun! 

MLB Overview:

So what’s new in the MLB? First, as was evidenced on Opening Night, the Houston Astros are in the American League now! For those of you keeping track at home, this makes 15 AL teams and 15 NL teams. In years past, the 14 (AL) to 16 (NL) balance of teams led to an even breakdown of NL and AL matchups on any given day. This year, however, things will be different, as the uneven number of teams in each league will result in interleague matchups nearly every day. This means the “cross-town classic” or “BP cup” or whatever you’d like to call it between the Sox and Cubs will be trimmed down from two 3-game series to two 2-game series in 2013 and future years. While there are mixed views on this, I always loved the Cubs/Sox rivalry and will be sad to see those 3 game sets go.

The other bit of under the radar news is that the MLB begins testing for Human Growth Hormone (HGH) this year. Baseball got a (deservedly) bad rap in the late ‘90s/early 2000’s when Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, and some other guy named Barry were pretty clearly using performance enhancing drugs. But lately, the MLB should be commended for increasing its drug-testing, as in-season HGH testing marks a big step in PED awareness. Last year, Melky Cabrera was having a great year for the San Francisco Giants and tested positive for testosterone, resulting in a 50 game ban. Keep an eye out for the effects of HGH testing, whether it’s more players getting suspensions or a decline in overall power numbers. (Decline in overall power numbers is also referred to as the “Adam Dunn,” but we’ll get to that later.)

Sox Season Overview:

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.

Northside vs. Southside

A couple of awesome commercials hit the interwebs this week, playing up the "Northside vs Southside" rivalry. The first commercial, which you can see here, is from NewEra. Anytime Ron Swanson talks about anything, it gets my attention. When he's talking about Chicago baseball with Darryl from the Office aka Reg Mackworthy from Eastbound & Down, it's doubly awesome. The second clip from Nike for some reason involves Kenny Williams, and also features AJ looking as toolish as ever. But man, how good does Beckham's hair look? Check it out here. Happy baseball everyone!

Your AL Contributor and White Sox Preview (So You Know Who You're Cheering Against)

Who's ready for some baseball? As teams pack up and leave spring training ready for the season, fans across the country are full of excitement, anticipation, and optimism as each team gears up for the first of it's 162 games. Unlike the rest of the contributors on GTW, however, I have allegiances to the SouthSiders and hope to provide a little bit of occasional AL/SouthSide related insight.