In 2011 we had the pleasure of watching Adam Dunn go from a highly sought after left handed power bat to a walking, talking strikeout victim. As is usually stated, he fell off a cliff. An argument could be made that he actually stumbled off the edge sometime between October and March since he pretty much showed up on the Southside as trouble. A season earlier we watched the flattening out stage in the career arc of a player who likewise took a rather large plunge of his own from MLB elite to 40 man liability. This time in the form of Andruw Jones. Jones didn’t have as steep a decline, but he was much more valuable to begin with and it’s just harder to fall that far that fast.
Which decline is worse? We have the benefit of seeing a few years’ aftermath for Jones. He has landed on his feet to some extent, becoming a serviceable part-time player proving to be fairly effective in a platoon situation. The jury is technically out on Dunn, even though I’m sure the majority of us are ready to permanently etch his name in the “bust” column.
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Early evening yesterday social media was buzzing about Kenny Williams. “I know why Kyle Williams fumbled…Because the White Sox are terrible,” said one Facebook post. A huge play in San Francisco suddenly hit real close to home.
This is probably the worst day in Kenny Williams’ life. The General Manger of the White Sox has gone through losing seasons, bad trades and the occasional dust up with a former manager. However, nothing compares to the feeling he has watching his son Kyle Williams get dragged through the mud today. Continue reading this post »
The Detroit Tigers are reportedly interested in Juan Pierre. Heh.
With the exception of 2009, when he got some really good luck on balls in play (.331 BABIP), Juan Pierre has been the same guy for some time now; someone who can get on-base at an average rate, play good defense, and steal bases. Nothing else.
Then last year Juan Pierre got suddenly worse at playing defense and stealing bases. So, it’s only fitting that the reason the Tigers are interested doesn’t make any sense.
Tigers considering Johnny Damon & Juan Pierre with thinking of adding table setters and letting Boesch and Young make up for VMarts RBI’s
Jim Bowden is also a guy who tried to push OPS + RBI as an actual thing, so it’s no surprise that he’s pushing ideas like two players replacing the production of a single player as being adequate, expressing Victor Martinez’s worth in terms of RBI, and espousing ideas like Juan Pierre being a “table setter”, because the labels “productive hitter” and “unproductive hitter” just weren’t suitable. The Tigers have Austin Jackson, so they shouldn’t need Pierre.
But I come not to bury Juan Pierre. It’s January 22nd and he doesn’t have a contract. Thanks to Ned Colletti, Pierre never has to worry about money again, but it would still be more appropriate to remember a better time.
When a Twitter discussion around Juan Pierre averaging around a homer a year broke out, it occurred to me that Pierre actually hit two dingers last season, and the second was off of Ubaldo Jimenez.
That’s right, Juan Pierre hit a home run off of Ubaldo Jimenez. (notice Brent Lillibridge’s goofy celebration in the dugout. We live in world where Brent Lillibridge views the power displays of others as amusingly quaint)
Juan Pierre–Juan Pierre–hit a home run off a guy who made his name from being able to sling fastballs at 99 mph, and he pulled it to right field.
Now, admittedly, it was 2010 Jimenez who earned that reputation, not the ghostly spectre of August of 2011 who looked like he was flinging pitches to the plate with a wet towel. Ubaldo threw a 92 mph two-seamer that drifted into what could be termed as “the most optimal hitting location for a left-handed batter ever“, and Pierre turned and burned on it. It looks more impressive on video, by which I mean that watching it from the left field bleachers, I saw it more as a looper that never landed.
But this was just an individual jewel from a game that never ended. A 14-inning absurdathon that ended the next day, brought the White Sox back over .500 and dropped the Indians 1 1/2 games behind them. It also brought the Sox within 3 1/2 games of the Tigers. They would never draw closer.
The post title is centered around Pierre, and rightly so, he had three hits and did something else big that I haven’t mentioned yet. But Paul Konerko had four hits, and so did Brent Morel, and that’s Brent Morel when he was still trying to slap grounders through the infield every time up, not the power-hitting September version. In total, the White Sox had 22 hits that night, while reaching base 25 times total, including two intentional walks. 22 hits, one unintentional walk. Yes, Ozzie Guillen was managing this team.
5 of those hits were triples. In a single game the White Sox hit 5 triples, and still had to battle 14 innings with the Cleveland Indians for an 8-7 win. Partially because only two of those triples actually scored, and mostly because they stranded 16 runners. 16!
That’s a shame, because really this game should have gone down as “The 5 Triple game”, or “‘Kosuke Fukudome is Not a Center Fielder’ Game”, or the “‘Shin Soo-Choo is Still Sleeping This One Off’ Game”.
Any team considering adding Fukudome as a fourth outfielder will have to reconcile themselves with the images of his fielding on Alexei Ramirez’s triple, or his route and footspeed on Alex Rios’ triple. Or they won’t, because Shin Soo-Choo is going to find the master file for this clip and burn it.
The first De Aza triple, and the Flowers triple both came with two outs, so it’s hard to get too worked up about those guys being stranded. The Alex Rios triple–well, first, it was an Alex Rios triple, and should have been treated like an endangered species–but it came with no outs in the bottom of the 11th. The White Sox had three chances to score Rios to win the game. First, Alexei Ramirez grounded out hard to 3rd base; pretty much the worst place on the field he could have placed it. Next, Brent Lillibridge was intentionally walked.
We live in a world where Brent Lillibridge is intentionally walked in crucial situations.
To end it all, Tyler Flowers lined out to Jack Hanrahan at 3rd, who doubled off Lillibridge drifting off 1st to end the innning. We live in a world where Brent Lillibridge is forgiven for baserunning gaffes due to his power-hitting.
The Indians had their chances too. In the top of the 13th, facing Jesse Crain in his second inning of work, the Indians got back-to-back one-out walks. Matt LaPorta was forced to hold at 3rd base on a Michael Brantley single, but that still left the bases juiced with one out for Shin-Soo Choo.
Crain’s a good pitcher and Choo was in the middle of a year from hell, but I have to believe that few remaining fans behind home plate conspiring to chant “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH-CHOOOOOOOOO!!!!” with every pitch led to Crain picking up the strikeout.
As fate would have it, Juan Pierre strode up to the plate in the bottom of 13th with the chance to win the game–because Gordon Beckham had hit a double–against the just-brought-in and usually-a-starter and what-am-I-doing-here David Huff. David Huff threw Pierre a changeup just off the outside corner, which is the perfect speed and location for Juan to slap it out to left in front of Michael Brantley and send them all home.
One more sorta-excited celebration in front of a sparse crowd for Juan.
Now that he’s gone, and all the furor about his playing time and attempts at base-stealing has died down, it’s hard not to smile at footage of Juan goofily clapping to himself after his home run, or skipping around after his walk-off. It’s easy for the kind and glowing words to flow when reflecting on his maximum-effort style of play and endearing attitude. Now that’s he’s gone, that is.
Follow James Fegan on Twitter @ JRFegan. Also check out his full-time, daily blog, White Sox Observer
For my first entry here as a staff member of Southside Showdown, I thought it appropriate to establish the tone and approach that my readers at White Sox Observer have become familiar with: cynicism and exasperation.
With pitchers and catchers set to report next month, the natural amount of enthusiasm and optimism for a new season is gathering for fans and players of even the most fringe contenders. To a degree, they’re all correct. Anyone can win. Prospects can bloom sooner than expected, rebound years from struggling and/or previously injured veterans can happen, and they can all line up, and the Arizona Diamondbacks can win the 2011 AL West, and you never ever really know.
So before that reaches a fever pitch, it’s important to mull over why staying out of the bottom two slots in the division would be a nice place to put fan expectations for the 2012 White Sox*. In the case of this post, you can go ahead and swap out “important” with “needlessly defeatist” as you see fit.
*Edited after @VeeckAsInWreck pointed out that should never actually be a team’s goal Continue reading this post »
Things have changed on the south side. New middle management, new(ish) corner outfielders and of course with a new year comes a new slogan. Brooks Boyer and co. unofficially give us, “Appreciate the Game.” My initial response to this is to wonder, “Why so feeble?” Why not chuck the brevity and let us really have it?
“Hey, guys, it’s possible we’ll win some games but probably not a lot so just enjoy whatever we put out there, ok?”
“If you aren’t generally in the business of winning but do enjoy the game of baseball itself then by all means, stop by and check us out.”
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Anthony John Pierzynski has been one of the smartest players in the game for almost his entire career. From his knowledge of the rules of baseball to his ability to position any fielder not named Alex Rios to his ability to call a ballgame, A.J. is the scum of the league. Ozzie Guillen once said of him, “If you play against him you hate him. If you play with him you hate him a little less.”
Pierzynski is coming off of a typical A.J. season of 8 home runs, 48 runs batted-in, and a batting average of .287. He also managed to make it through the year without any controversies or punches to the face, extending his streak to six years – a personal best for the left-handed hitting catcher. A.J. played in 129 games in 2011 as rookie Tyler Flowers played in thirty games late in the year. Pierzynski is the kind of guy who would be behind the plate for all 162 games if he had the choice so the fact that he only played in 129 is strange.
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One of the more pleasant surprises of the 2011 season was third baseman Brent Morel. Mark Teahen started the season at third base for the Sox but Morel was determined to get into the starting lineup and he showed that any time he got a chance to play. Teabag Teahen went down with an oblique strain in May which gave Morel the opportunity to take over the starting third base job. Morel played his heart out and won the starting spot, forcing Kenny Williams to trade Teahen to the Blue Jays. In that same trade now World Series champion Edwin Jackson went to the Cardinals. Who saw that happening? Nobody? Yeah.
Brent’s skills have been compared to those of Joe Crede, a comparison that I wholeheartedly agree with. The 24-year-old Morel resembles Crede in a lot of aspects except the power area and he’ll only get better as he gains more experience. Morel played 126 games last year, collecting 101 hits in 413 at-bats for a batting average of .245. He only hit ten home runs last year but he drove in 41 which, though not great, is a lot better than we expected from a kid we knew nothing about. So what should we expect?
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The White Sox hosted a Q&A conference call today with John Danks, Don Cooper and new hitting coach John Manto for Sox season ticket holders Thursday afternoon. No groundbreaking questions were answered but at this time of year it’s always nice to hear inside folks excited about the upcoming season. Those of you heading to Sox Fest this year, I suspect you’ll hear all the same information and more…
The italics are my thoughts, and I’ll thank you in advance for excusing my paraphrasing:
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I hate to bring up 2005 because like Cubs fans will tell you, “That happened over five years ago, get over it!” However I still do it. I do it because that is a team I will always remember. I remember them because they were a well liked team. The manager and players were all people the fan base can get behind and it was an energy that took them all the way to a World Series win. Last year’s team was just the opposite and ultimately led to their demise.
Other than Paul Konerko and Mark Buehrle, I can’t think of anybody else on last year’s team the fans really liked. Maybe Alejandro De Aza but we did not see enough of him to really fall in love. Instead what we saw Alex Rios lazily attempt to chase down fly balls. Adam Dunn strike out three times a game and not seem to care about it. Jake Peavy and A.J. Pierzynski argue about what pitch to throw next. Should it be the B.P. fastball or the breaking ball that no longer bites? We love Konerko for what he does on the field but he’s always been a shy quiet guy so he can’t be the go to personality on a team. Gordon Beckham is not the young darling we thought he was, Alexei Ramirez doesn’t say much of anything and on the personality meter John Danks and Gavin Floyd sit at about a three. Continue reading this post »
Anders Johanson
Bear Goggles On
Blackhawk Up
Call to the Pen
Cubbies Crib
FanSided
Pippen Ain't Easy
Kings of Kauffman
Motor City Bengals
Puckett's Pond
Wahoo's on First
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