2014 White Sox

I will make this one short, as I didn't see much of the game today and don't have much time as it is.

Today's Summary - Sox are able to pull off the victory today over the Royals, 5-1, thanks in part to a phenomenal performance by Chris Sale and a four-run outburst in the top of the ninth by the offense. Sox bring it back to .500 at 3-3, six games into the season.

Positive takeaway:

Contribution from many - One of the trends I'm noticing so far is that I am seeing large contribution across the board from the whole team. The pitching (namely, Chris Sale) stepped up today. Flowers continued his offensive success with a 1-4, 2 RBI performance today. Gillaspie rallied with two doubles off of Shields. Alexei had a 2-4 performance including a 2B and 2 RBIs. Leury Garcia looked like a 10-year veteran on the basepaths in the top of the 9th. Avisail Garcia came up with a brilliant grab defensively. All in all, I am seeing a lot of contribution across the board, and that bodes well as the season will continue.

Negative takeaway:

The little things - One other thing i'm noticing is that there seems to be a lot of mental lapses on the field. Two errors were committed today, and I personally consider the botched double play in the bottom of the 9th to be an error in my book. Gillaspie looked like he had never bunted when he popped it straight up in the top of the 9th. For those of you reading who have ever played baseball, you would know that you have taught to NEVER drop the barrel of the bat on a bunt like he did. These are the kind of things that change a win to a loss in a one-run game. Look at 2013 - the Sox were 24-36 in one-run games, largely due to "the little things." I expect that the Sox will better that statistic this season, but it starts with fixing the little things first.

Series vs. Rockies Preview:

Today's Summary - Well, the Sox were unable to pull off the victory today. Now having dropped three straight games, they are 2-3 on the season, tied for 4th in the division with the Twins. Obviously we are only five games into the season, so I am not discouraged with the sub-.500 record at the moment. However, after paying attention to most of the game today, here are a few positives and negatives I took away from the game:

Positives:

Adrian Nieto - I'll admit, I was kind of surprised that Flowers rode the bench today because of his recent tear on offense. Despite the fact that Nieto is still looking for his first hit of the season, I was genuinely happy with his play. Bruce Chen does not have a powerful fastball (< 90 mph), and can really get you with his offspeed pitches. Chen struckout 7 in 6 1/3 innings today, but Nieto was able to make decent contact in each appearance. More notably than his offensive performance, I thought he did an excellent job behind the plate today. What stuck out most was his throw to nail Jarrod Dyson trying to steal 2nd base. Dyson has incredible speed, and with a solid jump, becomes near impossible to throw him out. Nieto delivered a perfect toss for Ramirez to catch and apply the tag the moment it was caught. Any deviation in the timing or the throw, and Dyson is safe, and this would have allowed Dyson to score in the bottom of the 8th, making it a 5-3 lead going into the top of the 9th for the Royals.

John Danks - Obviously, we know that Danks is capable of great things, otherwise he wouldn't have been signed to the contract he was. It has been disappointing due to his injuries and lack of performance in recent years. However, despite the average numbers he provided today, it is a solid start to the 2014 campaign. I think that Danks has a lot to prove this year after all of his setbacks, and I'm sure he is aware of that. We expect Danks to be a #2 starter, because we at one point knew him to be that. With 7 IP, 6 SO, 4 BB, 5 H, and 3 ER, he did what he needed to do to keep the Sox in the game, but it unfortunately wasn't enough. Luckily for him, he escaped with the day with a ND due to a 2-run burst in the top of the 8th to tie it at 3-3, so he will still be looking for his first decision of the year in his next start. I expect Danks to at least match his performance in his next start, if not better it, and for the offense to help him out more than the one run through seven innings that they were able to provide for him today.

Negatives:

Marcus Semien - Now I know he is subbing for Beckham until he is ready to play, but I am not sold on him yet. He doesn't look comfortable at the plate. We saw him able to notch his first hit of the season, a solo-HR, on Thursday in the series finale against the Twins to put the Sox up 9-8 in the bottom of the 8th, but that is the only brilliance through 5 games we have seen from him. He has expanded his strike zone way further than normal in the majority of his at-bats thus far. Most baseball players go through streaks like this, where they over think things way too much, and put unnecessary pressure upon themselves, leading to prolonged offensive struggles. I am not concerned about his defense, he seems to be holding his own there, but he still has a lot of work to do before he appears to be comfortable in the batter's box at the major league level. 

Defense - Not surprisingly, the defense still has a long way to go. As most errors are, the errors committed by the White Sox thus far have been brief mental lapses. I don't like seeing any numbers larger than a zero in the error column in any given game, but it can't be expected that this will be the case for every game. Their defensive efficiency ratio (DER), which is calculated based on a formula relating the defensive outs recorded in defensive opportunites, thus far places them in the bottom five in the league. Defense was a large issue last year - they were 2nd in the league in errors committed, and 21st in the league in DER. While defense doesn't really 'win' games, it can definitely lose games. I look for the White Sox to place a large portion of their focus towards mental toughness and concentration in the field.

Things I expect to see:

Gordon Beckham - He will be right back to his old, brick-wall self once he is healthy enough to play, but I assume it might take him a few games to get going offensively. Expect him to have many at-bats with Eaton on first base and working to move him over for Abreu to hit him in.

Robin Ventura

Predictions for next game:

White Sox win 7-4.

  Expect Chris Sale to have another solid performance on the mound as

he continues to assert his position as a Cy Young candidate by the end

of the season. I look for the Sox to claim this game with a strong

offensive performance against James Shields, despite his recent

success against the White Sox, having a 2.03 ERA in six starts against

the Sox last year. Expect Billy Butler to have a big offensive

performance, as he is has hit .412 with 3 HRs and 10 RBIs in the past