White Sox Weekly Update: Signs of Life and One Dumb Fantasy Decision

Before I do a White Sox roundup in the wake of a pretty successful week for the Pale Hose, I have been given permission to republish a press release sent to me this morning by the Society for Ass Clowns. Here is the release:

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DALLAS, Texas — May 26, 2009 — The National Unified Trust of the Society of Ass Clowns is pleased award Midwest Sports Fans author an “managing editor” JRod its esteemed Fantasy Baseball Douche Award for the week of May 25th, 2009. JRod has been named this week’s Fantasy Baseball Douche for his untimely and idiotic release of Alexei Ramirez early last week from his first place fantasy baseball team.

Despite extolling the virtues of the Cuban Missile earlier in the year — and being exactly right that Alexei Ramirez was simply off to a slow start and would turn it around — JRod decided to not even listen to his own advice, resulting in his releasing of Ramirez on May 21st. Since being released from JRod’s fantasy team, Alexei Ramirez has found a home hitting in the #2 hole and has gone 8-20 with 2 HRs, 6 RBI, 6 R, and 2 SB. For the season, Ramirez has overcome his putrid start to now have respectable totals for a second baseman of .243, 3 HR, 20 RBI, 14 R, and 8 SB, and obviously he is trending sharply upward.

N.U.T.S.A.C. would like to extend its most heartfelt congratulations to JRod for not only dropping a player with significant more upside than his current second baseman (Alberto Callapso of the Royals) but also for giving up on one of his favorite players in May. Nothing defines “douche” quite like that.

In related news, Lifetime Douchechievement Award winner recipient Jay Mariotti extends his most heartfelt congratulations to JRod.

“Well, I can’t say that I am pleased or proud to be winning this award,” JRod said in a statement. “However, I would like to state for the record that I held onto Alexei Ramirez in two other leagues and have reaped the fruits of Alexei’s success this week. Plus, I would be remiss if I did not point out that one of my motivating factors in dropping Alexei was the knowledge that each year I drop a player and he goes on to post incredible numbers the rest of the season. I was hopeful that by releasing Alexei it would help to turn his season around – which it did, almost immediately.”

After learning of JRod’s statement, N.U.T.S.A.C. has decided to also award him with next week’s Douche Award for using the phrase “reaped the fruits” and for making up a stupid excuse to rationalize his indefensible release of a ridiculously talented player on his own favorite team with a history of slow starts. To be fair, the fantasy team in question does currently sit in first place (thanks to lucky later round picks of Adrian Gonzalez, Jason Bay, and Raul Ibanez) but how soon will that last with such a moronic loose cannon at the helm?

Congratulations JRod. You are this week’s N.U.T.S.A.C. Fantasy Baseball Douche.

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Okay, moving along now.

After a horrific 9-day stretch during which the White Sox went 1-7 and began to fall deep into the depths of the AL Central standings, the team rebounded for an absolutely necessary 5-2 week that got the Sox within 4 games of .500. Of course, this is the White Sox, so it was a 5-2 record unlike many you will see. The 5 wins included a 17-3 thrashing of the Angels last night, a series win against division rival Minnesota, and two straight shutouts against Pittsburgh in Interleague Play.

Amazingly, the two straight shutouts of the Pirates came immediately after the White Sox gave up 20 runs in a loss to the Twins. And the Sox other loss was a heartbreaking 4-3 defeat in the final game of the Pittsburgh series when Bobby Jenks blew the save. The inability of the White Sox to close out a sweep, or win the final game of a series, continues a disturbing trend. Thus far in 2009 the White Sox are 4-11 in the last game of a series. I guess that means no coffee for the White Sox.

Still, 5-2 is 5-2 and right now the White Sox and their fans will take any signs of life and positivity they can get. Last night’s 17-run explosion was certainly a sign of life, and hopefully it will continue. This season is far from over, with the White Sox 5.5 games out of the first place and only 1.5 games back of 2nd place Kansas City. Obviously with plenty of games left against Detroit and the rest of the AL Central remaining, nothing has been decided. And the White Sox veteran core is proving more and more every year that they don’t get hot until the weather warms up, so perhaps this kind of start is what we should have expected.

Of course, not everything was birthday cakes and butterflies last night. Struggling but ultra-important left fielder Carlos Quentin got hurt…again…after doubling in a run in the first inning. He was limping badly after feeling a pop in his sore foot and had to be helped off the field. The reports on Chisox.com actually sound pretty positive though, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed:

That pop cost Quentin the rest of the game and probably the remainder of this three-game set at Angel Stadium. But surprisingly, the injury might not be as bad as it sounds.

“Supposedly, from what I understand from [White Sox athletic trainer Herm Schneider], it is a good thing,” said White Sox bench coach Joey Cora, serving as manager in Ozzie Guillen’s absence. “But we’ll find out [tomorrow].”

By tomorrow, of course, they mean today. I’ll be scouring for news and will update if anything more is known about TCQ’s injury.

In other White Sox news…

Clayton Richard moving back to the bullpen once Jose Contreras is ready to rejoin the club may not be a foregone conclusion; nor should it be. Clayton has pitched very well over the past couple of weeks since being moved into the rotation, and he is a purported building block for the future.

I love Jose Contreras, but his ERAs from 2007-2009 (through 6 starts) are 5.57, 4.54, 8.19. He just has not been the same since being one of the most dominant pitchers in the league through the first half of 2006. I think that Ozzie needs to decide whether he will move forward with Contreras or Colon, but leave Clayton Richard alone. (And when I say “leave Clayton Richard alone”, I mean in regards to his rotation spot…not Ozzie’s apparent propensity for fondling the strapping youngster’s pecs. We should really do a caption contest for the pic to the right…) And if Richard begins to struggle, we can always plug the odd man out between Colon and Contreras back in. Regardless of how Ozzie juggles it, I want to see Richard show what he can do with consistent starts.

Congratulations to Jim Thome for passing Mike Schmidt and taking ahold of the 13th spot on the all-time home run list. I was not a fan of Jim Thome before he got to the White Sox and it took me awhile to warm up to him once he got here, but his homer in the 1-0 victory over Minnesota in last year’s one-game playoff earned him my appreciation. Way to go Jim.

Colon faces Joe Saunders tonight at 9:05 CDT on WCIU. Hopefully we can make it 6 out of 8.

Tags: alexei ramirez, carlos quentin, Chicago White Sox, clayton richard, jim thome, MLB, ozzie guillen

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