Please give me a moment, as I must collect myself — and navigate through the tricky emotional ocean of simultaneously wanted to laugh hysterically and cry plaintively — before I will be able to write anything coherent and worthy of your eyes.

…

Quick! While I’m composing myself, follow this link to purchase your very own 2009 White Sox playoff tickets!

…

Seriously? The only explanation I can come up with is that, for some reason, the White Sox are mad at their fans and lashing out. Maybe it’s the poor attendance? Who the hell knows.

But why else would this be the second image in the rotating melange front and center on the White Sox home page?

To go into complete cliche territory here for a second: Playoffs? Are you f%&*$n#g kidding me? Playoffs?

Not in 2009. No sir. Not anymore. No way, how how.

A couple of weeks ago, when the Sox were still hovering a few games over .500 and within a good weekend’s striking distance of Detroit, something like this would be understandable. Get your playoff tickets! Get excited for the stretch run everybody! Jake Peavy! Gordon Beckham! Jake Peavy! Gordon Beckham!

But over our last 11 eleven games, the White Sox have managed to go 2-100. I’m not sure how it’s possible…I know the math doesn’t add up…but it’s true. 

We’ve lost 100 games in two weeks.

Or does it just feel that way?

If someone gave me truth serum, I would tell them that when I wrote this post six days ago I honestly had not totally given up on the team yet. Part of my motivation in writing it, with the season on the brink of slipping away, was a little reverse psychology. The White Sox always seem to tank whenever I praise them on MSF; I figured by publicly doubting them I could reverse that maddening trend. (I realize this is a ridiculous notion, but I’m obsessed with sports and the White Sox, okay? Give me a break.)

Instead, they’ve lost 75 games in the week since that post was published.

Wait…damnit, sorry…it just feels that way. I know it’s only been 50 losses in the past week.

Playoffs. You have got to be kidding me.

(And by the way, as I write this, Mark Buehrle is being outdueled 2-0 by perennial Sigh Young candidate Brian Duensing. The White Sox are teetering dangerously close to another sweep in the Metrodome.  Wait…Scott Linebrink just came in.  Expect a crooked number any second now.)

My apologies for the negativity. You know I don’t like to be this. You know I always look for the positives in everything. But these last two weeks of White Sox baseball easily rank in the top 10 letdowns of my life as a sports fan. It’s all about expectations, and I legitimately expected this team to make it to the playoffs and have a chance to make some noise.

I never expected that we’d be completely and utterly embarrassed like we have been.

Why am I wasting time ranting like this?  Oh yeah, because the White Sox decided to mock their own fans with their outlandish website claims of playoff tickets even being a remote possibility. And while I actually agree with the moves, based on the team’s performance of late, Ken Williams can gussy up the trades of Jim Thome and Jose Contreras however he wants: he waved the white flag.

Sadly, I don’t blame him. But maybe he should have informed the guy in charge of managing the website.

Damn you, White Sox web admin. Damn you.

Update: My strategy may be working!

Down 2-0 headed into the top of the 9th, the White Sox were facing certain death when Joe Nathan came in to close it out. But a funny, unexpected thing happened…the Sox exploded for two runs!!! Wait…just checked again…now three runs!!!  No, four! And we knocked Nathan out of the game!

Time for Bobby to come in and close this out.   Yeeessss!

Maybe my diabolical plot of reverse psychology will work after all.  So about those playoff tickets…

Update: Sox win! 4-2! Bobby shuts the door in the 9th.

A team-galvanizing win that could harken a turnaround…or just a momentary blip in a September of wasted opportunity? We shall see.

But it does, I’ll admit, feel good to get a comeback win at Minnesota.

I was a little out of the loop last night, leaving my computer at the office for the first time in who knows how long and then going to see a movie with the girlfriend. Every now and then it’s good to get away from sports and blogging for a night. Plus, I was dreading the results of the White Sox first game in Minnesota and didn’t want to be put in a bad mood.

Of course, as a proud iPhone owner and MLB At Bat app user, I could not escape finding out about the Sox 4-1 loss to Minnesota — our 9th loss in 11 games — but, and this is the most disheartening part, it didn’t really disappoint me too much because I was expecting it.

What I just saw this morning upon arriving at the office, however, I did not expect. I guess I probably should have.

The White Sox have traded veterans Jim Thome and Jose Contreras to the NL West. Thome goes to the Dodgers and Contreras to Rockies. In return for the players and “cash considerations” (whatever that means), the White Sox received infielder Justin Fuller from the Dodgers and pitcher Brandon Hynick from the Rockies.

Clearly both of these moves were salary dumps by Ken Williams and the first steps in piecing together the 2010 White Sox.

Fuller is a 26-year old “prospect” still mired in A ball. Brandon Hynick, on the other hand, does seem to have a bit of potential. A 24-year old righty, Hynick has had a solid season at AAA: 3.83 ERA and 92/48 K/BB ratio. According to RotoWorld, Hynick could be an effective reliever at the major league level by next year.

But this post isn’t about analyzing two basically nondescript minor leaguers who may or may not ever contribute to the success of White Sox baseball. This post is about saying goodbye to two White Sox veterans who contributed to some really good times during their South Side tenures.

First, Jim Thome.

I was wholeheartedly against the Thome acquisition when it happened. Still hating him from his days in Cleveland, I just could not wrap my mind around rooting for a guy that for so long had been a sworn enemy. Plus, after we tanked in the second half of 2006, and then sucked beyond belief in 2007, I began to believe that by signing Thome and letting Aaron Rowand go the White Sox had somehow cursed themselves.

But finally, late last season, after his home run proved to be the difference in the one-game playoff against the Twins, I fully embraced Thome. I figured a trip to the playoffs was enough to erase whatever curse might have existed.

But like everyone in the White Sox lineup, Thome has struggled in 2009. His home run totals have gone as follows during the previous three seasons: 42-35-34. In this, his fourth season with the White Sox, Thome had only hit 23 before being traded to go along with a .252 average and a .375 OBP that would be one of the lowest of his career.

At 38, Jim Thome clearly was not a part of the White Sox long-term future. With Ken Williams adding so much salary acquiring Alex Rios and Jake Peavy, the writing had been on the wall that Thome would not be a South Sider for long.

And now he is not, heading to the Dodgers to most likely be in the playoffs and contribute as a pinch hitter. Best of luck Jim. I didn’t like you when you arrived in Chicago, but you won me over with your attitude, leadership, and clutch hitting. I’m sure the Dodgers will benefit from your presence.

It is much harder to say goodbye to Jose Contreras.

I know, Contreras has basically been awful this season except for one short stretch after he went to the minors. His numbers on the year: 5-13, 5.42 ERA, 1,448 WHIP. Terrible, awful, putrid…whatever negative adjective you want to put on it, go ahead.

But this is the season I will always remember and appreciate Jose Contreras for: 15-7, 3.61 ERA, 1.231 WHIP in the regular season. 3-1, 33 innings pitched over four sterling starts during the playoffs.

The season, of course, was 2005, when Contreras teamed with Mark Buehrle, Freddy Garcia, El Duque Hernandez, and Jon Garland (who was also traded to the Dodgers last night) to produce perhaps the greatest team playoff starting pitching performance in the history of Major League Baseball.

Maybe I’m overhyping it, but that’s certainly what it felt like.

And isn’t it telling that three of the pitchers from that staff — Garcia, Garland, and Contreras — are past their prime and battling through tough years and injuries, yet they were acquired by contenders for the stretch run? That’s how indelible the memories are of their tremendous performances when it mattered most.

Look, I don’t know exactly why I’ve always like Jose Contreras so much. For his White Sox career he had a 4.66 ERA and went 55-56. And while most people think he “blossomed” once he got out of New York — and yes, his two best full seasons were in Chicago (2005, 2006), — his ERA was 4.64 as a Yankee and was 4.66 with the Sox. Essentially, Jose was what he was: a mediocre major league starting pitcher.

But throughout 2005 and through the first half of 2006 (during which time he was one of the best pitchers in the game before his season fell apart) I just developed a really strong belief that Contreras would always come up big in big spots. I don’t have stats to cite, or a whole lot of anecdotal evidence other than the obvious from the 2005 playoffs, all I know is this: if it wasn’t Buehrle on the hill in a big spot, I wanted Contreras there.

I appreciated his backstory and all that he went through to pitch in the Majors. I appreciated how quickly he seemed to warm to Chicago after being traded from New York. I appreciated the steely determination in his eyes when he took the hill. I appreciated the fact that he always looked like his only thought was putting his team on his back and carrying them through that night.

And I think his teammates and his manager saw the same thing.

That’s why Jose could go 10-17 with a 5.57 ERA in 2007 and still be in the rotation in 2008. And that’s why, after surprising everyone by coming back this Spring Training from a terrible 2008 Achilles injury, Ozzie Guillen did not hesitate to put him in the rotation. 

The one word I would use to describe Jose Contreras is: resilient. And for a time in 2009, it looked like his resiliency — and Ozzie’s faith in him — would pay dividends.

Jose had a great stretch in the middle of the season after being sent to the minors, but just couldn’t hold onto it. It certainly wasn’t for lack of effort, but perhaps more a lack of trust in his own abilities. Jose didn’t trust his fastball and tried to get everyone out with his breaking stuff. It led to walks, way too many hits, and killer big innings that doomed Jose and the White Sox.

And, in the end, it led to Jose Contreras’ departure from Chicago and our departure from the playoff race.

What are we losing statistically? I don’t really know. It pains me to say this, but not a whole lot.  A 5.42 ERA should not be difficult to replace. And our young pitchers, Gavin Floyd and John Danks, have had time to learn from Jose and soak in the lessons from Contreras’ incredible and unique career in baseball.

So perhaps the timing is perfect for Jose to move on. Ever since the second half of 2006, Jose Contreras has been a shell of the pitcher that he was in 2005. But for that one season, and even for half of the next, Jose Contreras was as good a pitcher as the South Side has seen in many years. And say what you will about his struggles over the last three years, but one thing is for certain: there was one time during his White Sox tenure that the team, the fans, and the city needed him more than any other — the playoffs in 2005 — and he stepped up huge.

I’ve never forgotten that, and neither probably have Ozzie and Jose’s veteran teammates. And maybe that’s part of the problem. The 2005 Jose Contreras just isn’t there anymore, no matter how much we’ve all wanted to see it and how many chances he’s been given to recapture that brilliance. In brief flashes he is the same pitcher, but not consistently, and certainly the flashes are fewer and further between.

He was a spry 33 in 2005 (purportedly) and is now 37 coming off an injury. I still see the same look of determination in him, the same will to win that he’s always had, but Jose’s mound presence and pitching no longer are defined by the same level of confidence he once had. At least not to me.

So maybe it would have been better for the White Sox to have just cut ties with Jose once his season went south in 2006. Had they, the only memory White Sox fans would have of Jose Contreras would be 2005. But that’s not how it happened, and to all White Sox fans — many of whom, like myself, are rightly frustrated with Jose’s recent performances — I will just say this: remember Jose for what he was in 2005, what he helped deliver to the White Sox and the city of Chicago, and for the leadership and attitude he provided even during his most egregious struggles.

Jose Contreras will always be a positive part of White Sox history. The time has come for him to move on and ply his trade elsewhere, but I will always remember him fondly. And the Rockies just became my favorite NL team for the rest of 2009.

As to the overall mindset that created the impetus for these two moves, I’m on board.

Ken Williams did everything he could to solidify the pitching staff and lineup for the stretch run this year. But a 2-9 record with the division lead right there for the taking just is not going to get it done. And with the Peavy and Rios acquisitions clearly meant for the future as much as they were meant for this year, Ken couldn’t just sit on his hands while the team pissed away a golden opportunity to defend its division title.

It’s sad to see two tremendous veterans go, and ever sadder to understand the circumstances for why they are leaving — the team’s failure — but I certainly understand it.

Best of luck to Jim Thome and Jose Contreras (and Jon Garland) in their new digs. Their roles will no doubt be different, but at least they will be playing for something. Unfortunately, after the last two weeks, that’s more than can be said about the teammates they leave behind.

Scott Merkin has a great post at his official MLB.com blog, Being Ozzie Guillen, about Jim and Jose entitled Thome, Contreras = Pure Class. I agree wholeheartedly.

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* – Jose Contreras and Jim Thome photo credit: by Charles Rex Arbogast – AP via South Side Sox

* – Jose Contreras ALCS photo credit: Getty Images via MLB.com

* – Jose Contreras hat tip photo credit: Nam Y. Hu (AP) via Camden Chat

I do not think that anyone will argue with me when I say that one of our biggest liabilities is the pitching staff.  More specifically, the bullpen.  There are certain pitchers that come out in relief and all you can hope for is that they are not going to pitch batting practice.  I cannot explain the level of frustration that I feel when I am listening to a game and I hear that Dotel or Linebrink are warming up.

The move to bring in Jake Peavy was a good one.  But if and when he comes back this season, he will still need run support and that appears to be lacking as of late. While I am a supporter of Freddy Garcia due to his performance in 2005, I am not really sure if he gives us a greater chance of winning the division this season.

Speaking of the division, are we just hanging around or what?  We’re not gaining any ground on the Tigers and the Twins are now right up there with us due to our respective performances in the last two series. 

I am just not sure if what we are seeing is a team that has just lost its stride and is going to limp into the rest of the season or one with the potential to still turn things around.  Trust me when I say that I hope that I am wrong, but I think that the writing is on the wall and not even a healthy Jake Peavy can come in the save the day.

Here’s a quick teaser. The analysis of and story behind the White Sox trade for Jake Peavy involves the following elements:

• Chicago
• “The biggest balls in the game.”
• The number 23
• Ken Rosenthal
• Potentially the best pitching rotation in the AL over the next three years, and one that makes my favorite team a darkhorse candidate to make some real noise in October should they find a way to squeeze into the playoffs.

Okay, time to tie all of these parts together.

First off, kudos to MLB Trade Rumors for absolutely hitting another grand slam the past few weeks with their coverage of the trade deadline. No one, and I mean no one, brings together all of the lightning-fast stories from every corner of the country like Tim and the good folks at MLBTR. If you are a baseball fan and don’t have them bookmarked, shame on you.

When I logged on today and decided to check out what the reaction was to the White Sox dealing four solid pitching prospects for a former Cy Young Award winner who is currently on the DL and has been criticized (even by me) for having pitcher-friendly-home-park-inflated numbers, MLBTR is the first place I went. And sure enough, they had found two great articles that told the remarkable story about how Kenny Williams made the Peavy trade happen at the 11:59th hour.

Before we go any further, here are links to those stories, along with compelling excerpts from each:

ChiSox pull off last-second gamble with Peavy deal — (Ken Rosenthal, FoxSports)

If it’s not my all-time favorite trade, it’s close.

It might not be a good trade, though I suspect it is. But for sheer audacity and shock value, how can anyone not like what White Sox general manager Ken Williams pulled off Friday?

“Unreal,” one general manager said of the Jake Peavy trade. “No question, it’s a very high-risk move. You’ve got to have great intestinal fortitude to do it.”

Another exec was even more blunt in describing his admiration for Williams.

“Biggest balls in the game,” he said.

…

“Literally with two minutes left, I’m on the phone with Axelrod and I’m on the phone with Kevin Towers and Rick Hahn is on the phone with Major League Baseball because it had to be in,” Williams said.

“I really didn’t think it was going to all come together in the end. I was prepared for it to not meet the deadline. It all came together with 23 seconds on the clock.”

How times change: Peavy trade comes out of nowhere — (Scott Miller, CBSSports.com)

Instead, there was ultra-aggressive, ultra-stealth White Sox GM Kenny Williams ringing Towers late Friday morning San Diego time asking about the chances of reprising that deal the two men put in place back in May before Peavy used his no-trade clause to scotch it.

That phone call led to, by far the wildest, craziest, most interesting trade of the summer.

…

Peavy was sound asleep napping with his middle son, Wyatt, 5, when he said he was awakened with a phone call just 40 minutes before the trade deadline, proposing the same thing he shot down in May.

I know that I excerpted a decent chunk out of each story, but don’t be fooled that the excerpts alone capture the whirlwind fury of the story behind the most surprising trade of the 2009 trade deadline. Go read both stories. Each provides an insightful, behind-the-scenes look at the how these trades came to fruition. 

Yes, that’s right…despite our past differences, I am strongly recommending that you go read Ken Rosenthal. He may consider me ridiculous and unprofessional, and I may have had some choice words for him privately to friends and co-workers (though I think I’ve kept it pretty clean and respectful publicly), but Rosenthal is unquestionably one of the best baseball writers out there. His account of the Peavy trade, in my opinion, is a quintessential example of why.

And now, let’s deconstruct the details.

Ken Williams, who has emerged over the past few years as one of the most proactive, respected, and forward-thinking GMs in the game, targeted Peavy long ago as a guy he wanted in Chicago. To Williams’ credit, he kept persevering until it got done. He also reportedly made a deal happen in 90 minutes when everyone, including me, had finally been lulled into thinking that the White Sox would not be major players this year at the deadline.

I think I speak for all White Sox fans and baseball observers when I say that I’ll never fall asleep on Kenny again until 4:00 has officially struck on deadline day.

Amazingly, there were four significant hurdles that had to be overcome in the 90 minutes left from when Kenny first contacted the Padres yesterday or the trade never could have come to fruition:

1. Kenny had to get Jerry Riensdorf’s approval to take on the rest of Peavy’s $8 million salary this season, and the $52 million that is owed to him to through 2012. Despite the statements we’ve heard about attendance at U.S. Cellular Field being down and the team potentially needing to hold steady or even cut payroll, Reinsdorf signed off on the deal. (Not sure what this means for a potential Jermaine Dye extension, the John Danks contract talks, and even a potential renegotiation for Mark Buehrle, but that is all to be dealt with later.)
2. Jake Peavy had to waive his no-trade clause, which he had refused to do when the trade was originally consummated between the two teams back in May. Peavy waived it, in large part I would assume, because the White Sox are contenders and built to remain contenders for the foreseeable future, while the Padres are not.
3. Just to talk to Peavy about waiving his no-trade clause, they had to get ahold of him. And as you read above in the excerpt from the Miller article, Peavy was napping with his son when they called him 40 minutes before the deadline. What if his ringer had been off? If Peavy doesn’t return the phone call, the trade does not get done and Clayton Richard starts against the Yankees last night. Crazy.
4. Not only did the White Sox, the Padres, and Peavy have to get all of the details ironed out between them, the two teams had to officially call in the trade to the MLB office. According to Ken Rosenthal’s story, they got the call in with 23 seconds to spare. Again…crazy. Can you imagine if the line was busy or Ken Williams’ cell phone was momentarily out of service? (And, on a side note, how ironic that would have been considering the name of the White Sox ballpark!?)

All of these details and many more combined to make the White Sox acquisition of Jake Peavy one of the more unlikely and exciting trades in the history of the MLB trade deadline. From the details, it appears as if karma and fate was on the side of the White Sox in getting this done. Not since Michael Jordan was roaming the Windy City have Chicago, a city icon (and that is what Ken Williams is becoming) being described as having “the biggest balls in the game”, the number 23, and last-second heroics come together in such exciting fashion. 

Now for some analysis. 

Part of the reason I wanted 24 hours to digest the trade before posting anything about it is that my opinions have been all over the map since talk of the trade originated in May. Initially, I was pumped and went so far as to create a petition for White Sox fans to sign in an effort to show Jake Peavy some South Side love. But after the trade didn’t happen, Peavy got hurt and I took a more thorough look as his career stats and splits. In so doing, I became convinced that the trade not happening was a blessing in disguise for the White Sox. So when word of the trade broke yesterday, my reservations won out and I was not as excited as a lot of other Sox fans seemed to be.

With 24 hours of perspective, reflection, and more information, I still have some reservations…but overall I am very happy with the trade and think the positives outweigh the risks and potential negatives. Furthermore, I love the fact that Ken Williams didn’t just make a deal simply to make one. He has a very specific plan for how Jake Peavy fits into the team’s plans for success this year and over the next three seasons.

Unlike many GMs, Ken Williams always thinks big and thinks in terms of championships. With the Tigers bolstering their pitching staff by adding Washburn, and the Red Sox, Yankees, and Angels also having excellent front-end starters and solid depth, Williams knew the Sox needed one more really good arm to add to the trio of Mark Buehrle-Gavin Floyd-John Danks. If the White Sox can hang in the race, Peavy is saying that he will be back by the end of August; and because his injury is an ankle problem, not anything to do with his arm, there is no reason to think he won’t be his usual nasty self pretty quickly upon returning. He’ll also be fresh, which could be a huge boost not only to help the White Sox get into the playoffs, but to be better positioned to make some legit noise once there.

Additionally, if the White Sox can get something done with John Danks, they could very well have a four-man rotation of Mark Buehrle, Jake Peavy, Gavin Floyd, and John Danks signed through 2011. In an era in which starting pitching depth is usually one of the most important factors for success, you would be hard-pressed to find another organization that would not trade their rotation straight up for the rotation that the White Sox could have locked in together through 2011 (when Buehrle’s current contract ends).

Considering the young offensive talent we have in Carlos Quentin, Gordon Beckham, Chris Getz, and Alexei Ramirez, plus hopefully another couple of productive seasons from JD and Paulie, the White Sox appear poised to compete for AL Central crowns and AL pennants for at least the next 2-3 years, while also giving themselves a more realistic chance at doing serious October damage this year…if they can make it.

So, while I’m concerned that Jake Peavy’s overall numbers will drop by coming to the tougher league and pitching in a tougher park, and while I wonder what the ripple effect will be of his hefty contract, and while I think that we dealt at least two guys — Poreda and Richard — who are going to be at least solid big league starters…I throw my full support and endorsement behind this deal.

When you have a GM that you absolutely would not trade for any other GM in the game, it would be foolish not to trust him. 

Well done Kenny. Time will tell if your vision of the future effect of the Peavy deal ultimately comes to fruition, but you have certainly earned the benefit of the doubt and the benefit of fan confidence in your moves. A lot of fans would kill to have a GM who swings for a double every now and then; White Sox fans should feel pretty lucky and excited that our guy never hesitates to swing for the fences.

As my KVB so aptly put in his text message after the deal was announced yesterday: “You can put it on the board…PEAVY!”

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Here are some other reactions from out friends in the South Side blogosphere:

• Peavy (question mark, exclamation point) — (Tremendous Upside Potential)
• White Sox acquire Peavy — (Sox Machine)
• Peavy deal makes White Sox contenders in 2009 and beyond — (South Side Sox)
• Not a joke: Peavy to the White Sox — (White Sox Mix)

Enjoy your weekend everyone.

* – Ken Williams photo credit: Upper Deck Blog

I was strongly in favor of the deal at the time, even going so far as to start an online petition in hopes of helping Peavy overcome his reluctance to come to the South Side by showing him an outpouring of a support from White Sox fans. (10 supporters! Whoo-hoo! I guess not everything goes viral online…)

Holding full no-trade rights, however, Peavy was in possession of all the cards and in the end he decided to nix the deal to stay in San Diego. I, along with many other White Sox fans, was disappointed. Hanging onto Aaron Poreda was certainly a silver lining, but man was the thought of a Peavy-Buehrle lefty-righty combo atop the rotation enticing.

Who would have thought that, in retrospect, Peavy’s refusal to the accept the trade would look more and more like a positive for the White Sox with each passing week.

First, there is Peavy himself. He has made only four starts since the announcement of the deal-in-principle and is currently on the DL with a strained tendon in his right ankle. And the four starts he made were not exactly stellar (perhaps because of the injury though, to be fair). Only two were quality starts and his ERA rose from 3.48 to 3.97.

Plus, a deeper look at Peavy’s career numbers perhaps shows one of the main reasons why he is so reluctant to leave San Diego, and why clowns like myself were perhaps a little too anxious to get him into the summer bandbox that is U.S. Cellular Field. Look at Peavy’s home/road splits this season:

• Home: 4-4, 3.58 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, .217 BAA, 62:17 K/BB
• Road: 2-2, 4.60 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, .246 BAA, 30:11 K/BB

And for his career:

• Home: 45-31, 2.83 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, .219 BAA, 779:212 K/BB
• Road: 47-37, 3.84 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, .246 BAA, 569:223 K/BB

So this year’s numbers are to be expected based on his track record. And it’s not like I and others excited about the possibility of a Peavy trade didn’t realize this, but I know that I didn’t really consider it with the weight that I probably should have.

PetcoPark, as has been well documented, is a severe pitcher’s park. So I would assume that most San Diego pitchers have similar splits. Thus, I would expect stats like BAA and HRs against to be up on the road. What concerns me looking deeper at the stats is the vastly different K rate. For his career, Peavy’s K/BB ratio is 3.67:1 at home but drops to 2.55:1 on the road. I realize different ballparks dictate pitching guys differently and can have other subtle effects, but Peavy’s numbers specifically seem like a pretty jarring difference for a stat that takes into account what happens when the ball is not in play and is thus not affected by park dimensions or climate factors that affect ball flight.

Maybe it’s a confidence thing, maybe it’s a certain oneness with his home mound, maybe it’s just a comfort level thing of strapping on his stirrups in the home locker room. But for whatever reason, Jake Peavy is dominant at home and much more ordinary on the road. You can’t really consider his home stats when considering what kind of impact Peavy might have made in Chicago. So maybe this deal wasn’t the slam dunk that I thought it was at the time.

To be fair to myself, part of the reason for my excitement was desperation. On May 21st, the White Sox were 17-22 and our non-Buehrle pitchers had not been good or capable of any semblance of consistency. In the six weeks since then, we’ve gone 27-18 and moved to two games within first place Detroit. For a team starved for solid pitching at the time, I thought Peavy would be a great shot in the arm. It turns out that we got a great shot in the arm, it was just an internal one. Look at the numbers:

• John Danks on May 21st: 4.60 ERA | John Danks now: 3.76 ERA
• Gavin Floyd on May 21st: 7.71 ERA | Gavin Floyd now: 4.33 ERA
• Jose Conreras on May 21st: 8.19 ERA | Jose Contreras now: 4.54 ERA

Even with their terrible early season numbers still part of the whole, all three of our 2-3-4 starters have better cumulative ERAs than what Peavy has put up in starts outside of San Diego this season. And Clayton Richard’s ERA on the season is 4.75, which is only slightly worse than what Peavy has done on the road this year.

I’m not saying that Danks, Floyd, Contreras, and Richard are individually better than Jake Peavy. He’s been one of the better pitchers in baseball for the last half decade. But the resurgence of our pitching staff over the last six weeks has certainly made me far, far less regrettable about the trade not going through. And looking at Peavy’s inability to dominate away from home certainly makes me question just how disappointed we might have been had he come to the South Side in a deal for two of our top pitching prospects and threw a 3.9+ ERA up there over the balance of the season.

In the end, I think the Peavy to Chicago deal-that-almost-was ended up working out in the best interests of each party involved (except for the Padres of course, who desperately wanted to get rid of his contract and are now stuck because of his injury). Jake Peavy gets to stay in San Diego and pitch where he is most comfortable once he gets healthy, and the White Sox have been able to enjoy the fruits of the Danks/Floyd combo regaining their 2008 rhythm and Jose “The Phoenix” Contreras rediscovering his supreme badassness. Plus, we still have Aaron Poreda, who has now become a valuable member of one of the league’s best bullpens.

Kudos to Ken Williams for being proactive and putting the White Sox in a position to make a big splash in filling what, at the time, was a pretty glaring area of need. In retrospect though, Jake Peavy’s refusal to the accept the trade was probably a blessing in disguise for the Good Guys.

* – John Danks/Gavin Floyd photo credit: AP via USA Today

With one of the worst in the history of mankind least consistent offenses in the Majors this year, and a perplexing aversion to clutch hitting, the White Sox have struggled to do anything consistently but get dominated by pitchers they are facing for the first time. Certainly the Sox woes at the plate and the uncertain status of Carlos Quentin have many White Sox fans — not to mention management — questioning whether the White Sox should be buyers or sellers in trade talks.

And though I will probably write such an article soon, assuming the White Sox continue treading water as they have been, I caught an article from the Sun-Times website today that shifted my thinking on what I should write for this morning.

It is an article by Carol Slezak that actually focused on something good and positive related to the White Sox offense — just not this year’s, of course. And it is an article that gave me hope that something that unequivocally needs to happen will, in fact, someday actually happen.

Carol Slezak’s article is a feature about the most prolific White Sox player of all-time, and my favorite baseball player of all-time: Frank Thomas.

Most White Sox fans and many baseball fans in general know that Thomas’ time on the South Side did not end well. Ironically, considering how many incredible seasons he had trying to help the White Sox bring a World Series title back to Chicago, The Big Hurt left the team after the 2005 World Series — a season in which he played only 34 games, did not participate in the playoffs, and hit a career-low .219.

For a player who had given so much and played so well for the White Sox over more than a decade, it was disappointing to see his lowest personal moment with the team coincide with the franchise’s greatest moment in a century.

In addition to Thomas’ stuggles with injuries and at the plate in 2005, he left on terrible terms with White Sox management, especially GM Ken Williams. As recapped by Slezak:

Thomas and Williams had feuded publicly in spring training in 2006, when in response to negative comments ”The Big Hurt” had made about Reinsdorf and the Sox organization, Williams fired back, ”He’s an idiot. He’s selfish. That’s why we don’t miss him. … Good riddance. See you later.”

Fortunately for Thomas, he was able to land on his oft-injured feet in Oakland and produced a sterling 2006 season in which he cracked 39 home runs and 114 RBI, leading the A’s into the playoffs. He was a different hitter at this point than he’d been in his heyday, as his season average was only .270; however, Thomas proved that his immense personal pride — perhaps his greatest strength and weakness as a player and teammate — combined with his talent, could still produce productive seasons.

The Big Hurt went on to hit 26 home runs in 2007 for Oakland and eventually moved on to Toronto, where he hit his 500th career home run. And now, after an injury-plagued 2008 in which Frank only played in 71 games, his career appears closer than ever to being officially over.

According to Slezak, Thomas is planning to make a final decision about his baseball playing future around this year’s All Star Break. In the meantime, The Big Hurt has returned to Chicago to do some work for Comcast SportsNet for the upcoming Crosstown Classic between the White Sox and Cubs. Thomas’ return to the South Side has auspiciously been met with pleasant nostalgia from fans and the organization on the heels of encouraging comments back in March by White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf:

And in March, as it seemed increasingly likely that Thomas’ playing career was ending, Williams and Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf let Thomas know that when he’s ready, they would like him to retire as a member of the organization. But it remained to be seen whether Thomas would accept their overture.

As a White Sox fan who still busts out his #35 jersey at least once or twice a month, I want to say the following to Frank: assuming that hatchets can and/or have been buried, please accept the overtures made by Ken Williams and Jerry Reinsdorf; and if issues linger, hash them out so you can accept their offer.

Major League Baseball is embroiled in speculation from everything to who will be buying or selling at the trading deadline, to who may or may not be not on steroids, to just how much the Nationals will be forced to pay an unproven college pitcher. And on and on it goes. But this story is one, for me, that is an absolute, unequivocal no-brainer: Frank Thomas should retire with the organization that drafted him, where the majority of 1st-ballot Hall of Fame resume was written, and where fans still think of him as one of our own.

Sure, we’ve all been frustrating by Frank at times. I’ve gotten upset with him for comments he’s made in the media and called him “The Big Skirt” before. I blamed Frank as much as Ken Williams for their petulant pissing match in 2006 that was just completely unnecessary and downright childish. And we all know that, as Slezak reminisced about in her article, many of Frank’s teammates were sometimes put off by his focus on personal statistics.

Blah, blah, blah.

I don’t want to nominate the guy for sainthood or Man of the Year, so who the hell cares about all of that? Besides, family members feud all the time. Sometimes it gets so bad that you even don’t speak for a while, perhaps even a prolonged while. But time has a funny and consistent way of healing such wounds, and it appears like that could be the case here.

Let’s hope it is.

Frank Thomas deserves the opportunity to don a White Sox #35 jersey once again, trot out on the field, and be showered with love and adulation from a fan base that will never forget nor stop appreciating his amazing accomplishments on the South Side.

And the fans deserve the opportunity to stand in recognition of the greatest hitter in the history of the franchise we love so much.

For the White Sox and organization, Major League Baseball, and sports in general, these are types of moments that need to happen.

Sports fans are the heartbeat of sports, and at the root of our unyielding support for our teams and the leagues we pump time, money, and emotion into is the visceral connection we develop between the individual players out there playing the games. Heck, KVB and I spent so much time together watching White Sox baseball in high school and hanging on Frank’s every at-bat that Frank Thomas is one of the first images that pops up in my mind when I think back to my high school days. Watching and rooting for Frank Thomas, Ray Durham, Jack McDowell, Robert Hernandez and so many of the 90s players is as important and prominent a set of memories to me as my high school basketball career or experiences on my high school newspaper.

I doubt that I am the only one who feels this way, in fact far from it. I bet there are White Sox fans all over the country for whom Frank Thomas remains a very large and prominent part of their collective consciousness as a White Sox fan and as a sports fan in general.

And White Sox fans deserve the opportunity to give a proper sendoff to Frank Thomas. The truth is that we were all distracted when he left in 2006. We were still intoxicated by the excitement of finally winning a World Series and simply not in the mood to witness the BS between Frank and the organization. Many of us even said “good riddance” right along with Ken Williams, so focused we were on celebrating 2005 and looking forward to a repeat performance in 2006.

That’s not how it should have ended with Frank. Not by a long shot.

And while it’s true that Frank has always been received warmly during any trips back to Chicago as a visitor, it will not compare to how warmly he’ll be received stepping back out on the field as a member of the home team again. Those previous moments when Frank came back with A’s and Blue Jays were like phone calls or birthday cards to a family member with whom you’ve lost touch. But when a hug — a full, genuine embrace — is what’s necessary to bring closure to a dispute and set the tone for a new era of cooperation, nostalgia, and pleasantness moving forward, phone calls and birthday cards just won’t cut it.

Frank Thomas and the White Sox need to fully and genuinely embrace, and in my opinion that can only happen — and should happen — by #35 retiring as a member of the White Sox.

Show the fans how much you care by swallowing your pride Frank, if that’s what is necessary. I promise you that, in return, we will show you how much we care and still appreciate everything you’ve done for the Chicago White Sox.

What a great moment it would be to see Frank Thomas thunder out of the home team dugout wearing the home team colors again at U.S. Cellular Field, with his big smile shining for all to see, his cap in hand as he waves it to recognize the throngs of White Sox fans who have risen to their feet in recognition of the man who would be the most prominent, recognizable, and deserving face on any Mount Rushmore of White Sox baseball.

Please make this happen. There aren’t too many no-brainers left in Major League Baseball, but this is absolutely one of them.

**********

* – Frank Thomas swinging photo courtesy of Baseball Evolution
* – Frank Thomas waving during 2005 World Series photo courtesy of the website MITAdmissions.org

It was announced last night that the White Sox signed hefty righty Bartolo Colon to a one-year deal. Colon pitched on the South Side back in 2003 and was an absolute horse. He pitched 242 innings and went 15-13 with a 3.87 ERA. After falling off the baseball map, Colon pitched 7 games last year for the Red Sox, going 4-2 with a 3.92 ERA.

My gut reaction: I like the move.

The top of the White Sox rotation is in order with Mark Buehrle, Gavin Floyd and John Danks. Two lefties and a righty with a disgusting curveball. I would stack the top of the White Sox rotation up against anyone in the AL and feel pretty good about my chances. The back end of the rotation, is far more questionable.

Clayton Richard showed some promise at the end of last year, and is in a mix with Jeff Marquez, Lance Broadway, and Aaron Poreda for the final two spots; at least, that’s how it looks heading into Spring Training. (And remember that heading into Spring Training last year, Greatest Baseball Player Ever Carlos Quentin was expected to be in the minors). Bartolo Colon will now be in the mix with these young pups for the final rotation spot.

Unless Colon comes to camp at 400 pounds or eats Ozzie Guillen, I feel pretty confident that he’ll man the 4th spot in the rotation. I am optimistic about the pitchers the White Sox have in the minors, but I am also optimistic that we have a team capable of winning the AL Central again. Bartolo Colon, if he is right, will be an innings-eater who will help keep the bullpen fresh. He keeps you in games and gives you a chance a win, even if he is not the same dominating pitcher he once was.

Plus, it is a one-year deal. While moronic franchises like the Yankees continue to not learn from their mistakes and dole out long-term deals to pitchers, Ken Williams has gone the more prudent route of finding a quality major league starter for a minimum amount of $$$ and risk. Would I like to have CC Sabathia? Sure, who wouldn’t? But for 6-7 years at $150-200 million? I don’t think any pitcher is worth that…and history has proven it.

How’s Barry Zito working out in S.F.?

So while this move won’t make a huge splash, and could very well be meaningless by April if Colon sucks or gets injured, I applaud it. Ken Williams has earned plenty of leeway with me and I will almost always give him the benefit of the doubt. I’m excited about this signing, and think it could give the White Sox one of the deepest top 4s of any pitching staff in baseball.

Just caught on ESPN.com that Peter Gammons is reporting the Chicago White Sox have traded starting pitcher Javier Vazquez to the Atlanta Braves in a 5-player deal. No official announcement has been made, but Vazquez has reportedly been told that the deal will happen. Vazquez is flying to Atlanta on Wednesday for a physical.

According to the story, Vazquez is being traded along with goatee-superstar Boone Logan to the Braves for Jo-Jo Reyes, Brett Lillibridge, and “another top prospect.” I hope that ESPN is not considering Lillibridge to be a “top prospect.” He hit .220 with 4 homeruns in AAA ball last year. Jo-Jo Reyes was 3-11 with an ERA over 5.00 last year.

Let’s hope that one or two of these guys is like a Carlos Quentin — a young player who struggles in their first few seasons, but who flips the switch once he gets to the South Side. Ken Williams hit gold last off-season with Quentin and Alexei Ramirez (not to mention John Danks and Gavin Floyd) so I’m willing to be open-minded.

Plus, what are we really losing with Javier Vazquez leaving?

He has been serviceable, and sometimes very good, starting pitcher during his major league career. But he has never quite recaptured the magic that he had when he first came up with the Montreal Expos. And while Javier Vazuez pitched decently in 2007, and very well in spurts early in 2008, his own manager questioned his readiness to pitch in big games. And, unfortunately for the Whie Sox down the stretch in 2008, Ozzie’s fears about Javier’s big game cojones were borne out with a succession of poor starts.

I don’t have time to analyze this too much now. And I don’t really know what I’d say without delving more into the minor league careers and projections of Reyes, Lillibridge, and the mystery “top prospect.”

I know this: after the end of last season, I am not all that worried about losing Javier Vazquez, as we have some good young arms like Lance Broadway and others to fill in the back of the rotation between Beuhrle-Danks-Floyd. And hopefully Jose Contreras comes back towards midseason ready to give us a boost down the stretch. And Boone Logan? I will miss his facial hair, but not the untimely late inning homeruns that he always seemed to give up.

You can count me in the corner of the staunch Ken Williams supporters. Not every deal he makes is good, but he hits more than he misses. In a sport where success is getting a hit 30% of the time, I’ll take my chances trusting in the personnel decisions of Ken Williams.

Thanks for the time on the South Side Javier Vazquez. I am not crying that you are gone, and your big-game struggles were frustrating, but I do appreciate your efforts and the many good starts that you had.

Now let’s see what Reyes, Lillibridge, and the other guy bring to the table.

A collection of thoughts about this trade. First, the excitement.

I like this kid Jeff Marquez, at least what can be gleaned from a quick five-minute Internet search. He was a first round draft choice in the 2004 draft and Baseball America recently rated him as the #7 prospect in the Yankees’ organization. Last year, he pitched for the first time in AAA, starting 14 games and pitching 80.2 innings while racking up a 6-7 record, a 4.69 ERA, a K/9 rate of 3.68, and a WHIP of 1.45. Those numbers don’t seem all that great, and they are not — actually, they look pretty similar to Javier Vazquez’s second half numbers from last year. However, for his minor league career, Jeff Marquez is 43-40 with an ERA of 3.60 in 560 innings, with a K/9 of 6.36 and BB/9 of 3.07. The best number though? How about a HR/9 rate of 0.55 (which was much higher during his brief stint in AAA, ballooning to 1.34). For a pitcher projected to start half his games in the U.S. Cellular Launching Pad, keeping the ball in the ballpark is key.

Earlier in his minor league career, Jeff Marquez was described this way on Scout.com:

The Yankees selected Jeff Marquez in the 1st round of the 2004 draft. Marquez has earned tremendous confidence from the organization with a mature approach along with a lethal combination of a sinker and an outstanding power changeup.

So, obviously we won’t know anything until we see this kid spend some more time at AAA and ultimately in the majors, but he appears to have a pretty high upside as he only recently turned 24.

As far as the other guys go, Wilson Betemit was a former top-level prospect with the Atlanta Braves who has never seemed to live up to the early hype and promise. I remember fantasy gurus tugging on their little Salisbury about him when he first came up to the Majors. In six Major League season, Betemit has never topped 400 ABs once, and is a lifetime .260 hitter. He did hit 18 HRs in 2006, the season in which he had his most ABs of 373. He can, however, play both SS and 3B at a decent level and gives the White Sox flexibility to move Juan Uribe or Joe Crede with Alexei Ramirez expected to move to short, Orlando Cabrera to be jettisoned, and Josh Fields hoping to play somewhere.

With respect to Jhonny Nunez, I will withhold judgment until I see him play, but my first impression is not good. Why? Because he spells his name “Jhonny.” This reminds of Jhonny Peralta of the Cleveland Indians, and anything that reminds me of the Cleveland Indians is enough to make me want to wretch. It took me three years to fully embrace Jim Thome as a true member of the White Sox, and as the memory of his home run in the one-game playoff over Minnesota fades, even he still reminds me of the Indians. Anyway, back to serious baseball conversation, Nunez has only pitched 27 innings above A ball, and has already been in three organizations in three years. But he’s still young (22) and has shown a good K rate in his brief minor league career. Perhaps he can help shore up the bullpen at some point, but it does not appear that he will be on the South Side in the coming years.

Now back to Nick Swisher. I was ecstatic when the White Sox acquired Nick Swisher. He had always put up good numbers at U.S. Cellular Field and his defining characteristic was boundless energy that everyone thought would be a positive in a clubhouse that had gotten stale since winning the World Series in 2005. However, Swisher struggled mightily last season, and today’s article on the Sun-Times website explains that Swisher actually brought more negative energy to the clubhouse towards the end of the season as his playing time waned. He apparently was not receptive to coaching, and this did not help him break out of his season-long funk.

While the Swisher and Cabrera experiments in 2008 seem like failures, they were the primary additions (along with Super Alexei) to a team that reversed its awful performance from 2007 and ended up in the playoffs. It seems ironic that both Nick Swisher and Orlando Cabrera with leave Chicago embroiled in stories about how their final weeks and days in the White Sox clubhouse were defined more by pouting and being negative influences than the positive energy and excitement that they seemed to bring at the start of the year, and that everyone thought would be such a boon for the White Sox. I guess they were for awhile, but just could not find a comfortable groove with Ozzie Guillen and the rest of the South Siders.

Either way, I will say this: not every move that Ken Williams makes turns into gold, but he is not afraid to cut his losses and move on. Take a look at his moves before 2008. He struck gold with Carlos Quentin and Alexei Ramirez, and they are now two building blocks for the future of the White Sox. Nick Swisher and Orlando Cabrera didn’t work out, and they will be gone. A lot of General Managers are afraid to admit when they make mistakes, but not Ken Williams. He wants to win. And even though people will now question the wisdom of trading a pitcher with the potential of Gio Gonzalez for one year of Nick Swisher, Williams is not stubbornly holding onto Swisher in hopes it will work out. He has turned right back around and gotten three players in return, one of whom is a starting pitcher probably just one notch below Gonzalez. You have to take chances to win, as Ken Williams did in bringing in Carlos Quentin and Alexei Ramirez. Sometimes they work out, and sometimes they don’t. The good GMs double-down on the moves that work and quickly move past the ones that do not.

We will not be able to assess the true value of this trade for years to come, but I applaud the move despite how much I fell in love with Dirty 30 and his technicolor goatee at the start of the year. Ken Williams has earned my trust, and hopefully the trust of all White Sox fans. Now let’s hope that Jeff Marquez actually turns into the 3rd or 4th starter that he seems to have the potential to become.

[tags]chicago white sox, ken williams, nick swisher, mlb[/tags]