I’ve been at a loss of words for the past week thanks to the performance of the Chicago White Sox.  They started their homestand in grand fashion, but they proceeded to lose the next three games to the Oakland A’s.  While it was a head scratcher, we still had to focus for the Indians were coming into town.  With division games, you simply have to win as much as you can, and the White Sox failed to do that.  There are three phases to baseball: pitching, offense, and defense.  The White Sox lacked most of those phases in their series with the A’s, Indians, and Tigers.  While the pitching was better in the Tigers series, it wasn’t good enough to overcome the errors of the defense or the lack of offense.

While the Sox walked away from the Tigers series losing three out of the five games.  They had opportunities to win every game.  I always believed that good teams overcome errors or bad calls from the umpire, and the Sox aren’t a good time currently.  They cannot align all three phases into a game, and they are suffering because of it.

Offensively, situational hitting is killing the Sox.  The last team the Sox had in which they could execute effectively was 2006.  Alexei isn’t a batter that should be in the second spot.  He started out well because he was seeing a lot of fastballs, but when pitchers started going offspeed and outside the strikezone, Alexei was doing all the work to get him out.  Last year, Alexei was one of the best, or the best clutch, hitter the Sox have seen since Crede, but Alexei has only shone lukewarm highlights of his breakout rookie year last year.  Ozzie benched him for a few games at the beginning of the season for Jayson Nix, and it helped awhile with him sitting back on the breaking ball, but it hasn’t improved his clutch hitting or situational hitting in key moments.  His sacrifice bunting skills are pretty terrible, and he is prone to popping out instead of moving the runner.

I knew that Gordon Beckham would be making his debut in a Sox uniform, but I expected that to happen after the All-Star break.  With the departure of Wilson Betemit, I thought that would give more playing time for Jayson Nix.  Ozzie and Kenny thought that Beckham was ready, and they called him up leaving Fields’ status with the team in jeporady.  They weren’t going to call up Beckham to sit on the bench, so I assume that Kenny would be using Fields as trade bait.  Unfortunately, Fields doesn’t have a lot of value because he is prone to striking out a lot and he doesn’t have a strong glove and gives up big errors in key situations of a game.  The callup of Beckham hasn’t been as hopeful as some might have thought.  Beckham might be an answer to part of the problem, but he isn’t the answer to all of their problems.  Looking at Beckham’s approach to the plate, it seems that he just hacks at the first pitch.  There was one game in which he saw a total of three pitches in the game.  Beckham needs to calm down at the plate and work the count a little.  While there were some pitches that he drived well, start with the little things like singles before swinging for the fences.  The Sox have enough thumpers in the lineup.

There are many more issues with the offense, but I want to get to pitching.  Starting pitching has been blah.  Either we have great starting pitching or it’s been medicore at best.  In games in which you think you have a shot at winning, you watch the starters begin to fade and the bullpen is rushed onto the field to make matters worse.  I do not think Ozzie has been managing his starting pitching every well this last homestand.  He left Buehrle too long in the Tiger series, and it cost him a win.  I understand the desire to save your bullpen, but being down in the standings as you are, you have to treat each game as if it is the final game of the World Series.  I hate to see what would have happened if the Sox lost the last game of the Tiger’s series after Bobby gave up the two run homer to Granderson in the top of the ninth.  The team looked flat as it was, and losing that game would most likely have been a death sentence. 

Linebrink and Dotel have struggled during the homestand.  Giving up big runs when they are called upon to hold games.  Carrasco has been one of the bright shining lights in the bullpen this year, but you are going to get to a point in which you go to the well a little too much.  I think the woes of the offense and the defense has effected the pitching.  Pitchers aren’t confident in overcoming errors or lack of offense.  Danks pitched a whale of a ballgame, but he walked away the empty in his effort.  Gavin Floyd was spectacular in his outing only to see a no decision because Jenks gave up a big two run homer.  The only starting pitcher that notched a win in the Tiger’s series was Contreras – who looked amazing in his first start since being sent down to the minors.  If Contreras can duplicate his outing, we would be in decent shape because we can bench Colon – he is on DL currently.  Colon has been a huge disappointment.  One outing he is amazing, and the second outing he looks terrible.  While you can have a little patience with Floyd and Danks, you expect more from your veterans.  What has been killing the bullpen has been walks.  Starters and Relief alike have been prone to walking alot of batters in a game – especially the leadoff hitter.  Holding runners at first has been a challenge, and it has plagued the pitching staff for the last few years.

Last phase is defense, and the Sox haven’t been a strong defensive team this year.  Those big errors have cost a lot of games for the White Sox this season.  Because of his lack of defense and production at the plate, Wilson Betemit was DFA, and you have a feeling that Fields isn’t that far behind.  Because of the injury to Konerko with his thumb, Fields has been playing a few games at first base.  Still, Fields defense hasn’t been spectacular even though he worked with Joey Cora in the offseason.  Along with his subpar defense, his hitting hasn’t been any better.  He has a high strikeout ratio, and isn’t prone to hitting in clutch.  Then again, you could say that about a lot of the Sox players.  Another player with error issues has been Alexei.  You would think with his talent, he would be more sure handed, but it hasn’t been the case for the young shortstop this season.  Giving extra outs to any team is a recipe for disaster.  Pitching hasn’t been strong enough to simply overcome those errors this year.

I do not see the Sox going far this season unless they can turn around their pitching, hitting, and defense.  With the way that the Tigers are playing, we are going to be hard pressed to make any ground whatsoever.  We had a good opportunity to make a dent in the standings, but we let three games slip through our fingers.  I see the Sox as sellers soon if they have a bad road trip with interleague play.  Most likely you will see JD, Fields, possibly Contreras if he pitches well, Buehrle – his contract value goes up if he is traded I recall, Thome is another possibility – some teams are looking for bats.  While it might be a little early to sound negative, but the Sox really hasn’t shown us something to really cheer about this last homestand – especially against teams in our own division.  I hope they turn it around because I hate to see them lose the way they have been.  You will lose games.  It’s the nature of the schedule, but to lose the games as they have been… it’s simply an embarassment to the fans, to the organization, and to themselves as ballplayers.