The Sox may not win another game all year

It's been really hard to keep up with this thing these days. I mean really, what is there to say besides the fact that this team is pretty bad.

The defense is piss poor and the offense is atrocious. The pitching keeps the team in the game for the most part but all in all the Sox do everything in their power to lose a game.

I believe we're past the point where you can call it an "early season funk" or say "don't worry, they'll snap out of it." Coming into tonight's contest, the Sox are 29-39, dead last in the AL Central and nine games behind the division leading Tigers. It's a fate that was hard to imagine on opening day. I had thought the Sox would at the very least hover around .500 and be able to keep your interest during the summer months.

But no.

The lack of power and lack of basic fundamentals has killed this team making them fall off the standings since they hit .500 on May 26. At that time it looked like the Sox were starting their usual summer tease. Something I would gladly take over this crap. Since then they are 5-15. The lowest point probably being losing 3 of 4 to the lowly Houston Astros.

Naturally with a team that can't score, the games aren't decided by many runs. The Sox are 10-15 in one-run  games. Aside from one, every game in June has been decided by three runs or less. I don't think I need to tell you which side the Sox fall on in those games.

At this point it's hard to imagine the Sox putting a run together. The offense can't muster up any runs and the pitching staff already seems tired with Gavin Floyd out with a season ending injury and Jake Peavy on the DL until later this summer.

Quite the opposite of where this team was at this point last year.

The current road trip continues in Minnesota this week then limps into Kansas City. The Sox have been a God-awful road team posting a 13-25 mark away from The Cell.

Hawk line of the game - 5/19/13

"1-1 the count to the 31 year old veteran. Might have the biggest feet in Major League Baseball."

Hawk during Josh Hamilton's at bat in the 8th inning.

You know things are going bad when...

Adam Dunn was batting with two outs in the third inning of this afternoon's game when the Sox had runners on 1st & 2nd.  Dunn popped up a 1-1 pitch behind the plate in foul territory.

Royals catcher Salvador Perez couldn't pick up the ball but third basemen Mike Moustakas ran from third base to behind home plate to make the catch to end the inning.

Brutal

The White Sox are a disaster right now.

They end the month of April in last place in the A.L. Central with five currently on the D.L. and one player (Jeff Keppinger) having missed the last four games due to back spasms.

The offense is ranked at the bottom of every major offensive category in the league. They are last in on base percentage, 29th in batting average and 28th in runs. The defense is terrible having already committed 16 errors and the bullpen arms have shown flashes of dominance but overall are giving up too many walks and have a knack for giving up leads late in games.

The lineup Robin trots out everyday does nothing to inspire. Adam Dunn, Jeff Keppinger, Hector Gimenez, Conor Gillespe, Trevor Greene, Dewayne Wise and newly acquired Casper Wells does little to excite. Why? Because they're bad. Really bad.

The frusterating part are the guys like Dunn, Keppinger and Tyler Flowers.

Adam Dunn is terrible. I gave him the benefit of a doubt in his first season in 2011. He rebounded somewhat last year to hit 41 home runs and driving in 96 runs. His batting average was low but you could live with it since he was producing. Now, he's back to being a black hole and that's unacceptable. Dunn is in the third year of his four year deal that is currently handcuffing the middle of the lineup.

Jeff Keppinger was hyped to be a guy that takes a lot of pitches, walks and rarely strikes out. The Sox must give something to their free agent signings because Keppinger is not the player the team and fans thought they were getting. His defense at third base was below average and he has not seen four balls out of the strike zone that has put him on base.

Tyler Flowers was supposed to finally take that step and make fans forget about A.J. Pierzynski. To be fair, his defense behind the plate is fine but he's pathetic at the plate with his .177 batting average and 25 strike outs in 62 at bats.

Failure has two faces

All of this contributes to a team that is 10-15 and shows no signs of improving.

Unfortunately this really doesn't matter as the Sox, for years, seem content with slow starts and finishes that don't result in postseason play. Just take the offseason actions. Kenny Williams was promoted to Executive Vice President while Rich Hahn took over Senior Vice President and General Manager duties.

These two have overseen a team that has only made the postseason once in the last seven seasons and have averaged 83 wins in that time frame. That's simply not good enough but somehow good enough for both of them to keep their jobs and even be promoted.

I've always thought the easiest thing for a sports writer/commentator/blogger/fan, etc, to say or write is "___" should be fired. But in this case, I think enough time and talent has come through this organization with no results to finally axe the men in charge over the last decade if things don't improve. 

May looks to be another rough month. 15 of the first 18 games in May are on the road. They are currently on road trip that takes them to Texas, Kansas City and New York to face the Mets. They are already 0-1 on this trip as a sloppy game resulted in a 10-6 loss to the Rangers.

Finding ways to lose

The abysmal White Sox continued their homestand tonight with the Cleveland Indians coming to town after the Sox were swept in their shortened series against the Twins. The quiet Sox bats showed no signs of waking up which is a shame because they wasted yet another stellar start by a starting pitcher. This time, Dylan Axelrod was the victim of the putrid Sox offense. Axelrod held down the Indians to one run in six innings of work. Unfortunately the less-than-threatening Sox lineup  held true to the trends tonight struggling to get on base and hitting with runners in scoring position.

With no margin for error, the Sox are keeping their fans on their toes by finding new ways to lose every night. Tonight, they brought out a few surprises from their bag of tricks;  quite possibly the fastest three outs ever recorded after they had runners on first and second with nobody out, throwing a ball into center field on a second base pick off attempt and misjudging a bloop single in left field that all contributed to the 3-2 loss.

The Sox grasped a 2-1 lead in their half of the 7th when the Sox found themselves with runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out. Surely, they had Indians' starter Justin Masterson on the ropes as he was in and out of the strike zone all night. But alas, Blake Tekotte (running for Hector Gimenez) was picked off at second base then two pitches later Alejandro De Aza grounded into a double play to end the inning and seeminly set up the Indians come back.

And there's no better White Sox pitcher to give up the lead than Matt Thornton.

In a "what to do with runners on 1st and 2nd situation" the Indians were aided by White Sox stupidity. Thornton tried to pick off Drew Stubbs but made a bad throw that ended up in center field which advanced both runners. Two batters later Asdrubal Cabrera ripped a single to center field to plate the two runners to give the Indians a 3-2 lead. 

Basically nothing is working for the White Sox.

Tonight is their 4th loss in a row and drops them to a 7-12 record.
That's a last place record in the A.L. Central.

It doesn't get any easier as Jose Quintana will try and throw a perfect game to try and get a White Sox win tomorrow night.

So this team can score runs...

Hold up the truck that was backing into U.S. Cellular Field, the Sox have won two in a row!

The Sox put it all together in tonight's 7-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in the Rodgers Centre. The victory also marked the first shutout of the Blue Jays in Toronto since 2007.

The Sox must have gotten some hats for bats. They finally backed  a stellar outing by Jose Quintana where he went 6 2/3 innings striking out seven. Jesse Crain and Donnie Veal played their part as well, not giving up any runs to the potent Blue Jays offense in relief.

Tyler Flowers and Alex Rios both
went yard in tonight's game that saw the Sox pound out eleven hits with five of them being extra base hits.

If the Sox can pull out a win over last year's Cy Young winner, R.A. Dickey they will come home .500. Not awful seeing they lost the first five on this ten game road trip.

It would help if the likes of Adam Dunn,  Alejandro De Aza and Jeff Keppinger can wake up and start producing. These top of the order guys are key to getting this offense going. Keppinger has been inept so far in the first weeks of the season. The "Great White Hope" who was talked up on never striking out has already struck out 7 times. He struck out a total of 31 times last season in 385 at bats.

Then there's Adam Dunn. He has 6 hits in 30 at bats so far with 2 home runs and 17 strikeouts. He seems to have regressed to God-awful Adam Dunn of 2011. It will be interesting to see what Robin does with his position in the lineup if his crap continues.

#notmakinganimpact

This has been a shitty second week of the season for the White Sox.

They received word that second basemen Gordon Beckham is going on the D.L. and is expected to miss six weeks with a bone fracture in his wrist that will require surgery. They were swept in D.C. by the Nationals and watched a familiar scene tonight in Cleveland when Jose Quintana threw a gem only to lose in the 9th inning on a Nick Swisher walk off single. And to add to this mess, they sit in last place in the A.L. Central early on in the 2013 season with a 4-6 record.

The offense wasn't able to muster anything up tonight against Justin Masterson who threw a nine inning shutout while scattering five hits  but Quintana did his best to give the Sox a fighting chance. He went seven scoreless innings while the Sox bats went cold and only had one real opportunity to push a run across the plate.

In the 8th inning Conor Gillaspie led off with a double but Alexei Ramirez failed to lay down a bunt. He popped up the attempt for the first out of the inning. Much can be debated about if Alexei should've been bunting. I thought it was a horrible decision for a guy who has never handled many bunt attempts or is able to move runners along, but hey, the team wasn't hitting regardless so Robin rolled the dice.

A ground out and a strikeout followed Alexei and the threat was over.

In the 9th, Jesse Crain was on to get the game into extras. Unfortunately, Michael Bourn  got a B.S. bloop on the left field line that rolled to the wall that put Bourn on second base. Three batters later, dirty .230 himself, Nick Swisher hit a walk off single to give the Indians a 1-0 win.

 Piss poor.

Four game losing streaks will come and go but this early in the season and after the 4-2 start is pretty disheartening. The Sox are going to have to find ways to succeed with their pitching because scoring runs is something that looks like the Sox will struggle with. Alex Rios can't rake every night...

Hawk line of the game - 4/6/13

"I want two dozen eggs scrambled. I want a loaf of bread toast. And I want a pound of bacon.  Stan looked at him and said "Are you sure?" He said "Yeah."... He must of had a case of Heineken beer while we were there at that thing and ate all that. He checked in the next morning  when we weighed in, he checked out at 275, he checked in back in at 297."

Hawk talking about former teammate Frank Howard's eating extravaganza one night. If you do the math, Hawk claims this guy gained 22 pounds overnight.

Someone at Comast SportsNet needs to be fired. Now.

If you couldn't get a ticket to the season opener yesterday perhaps you were one of the people that watched the game on Comcast SportsNet. Many people did. According to this tweet by Chuck Garfien, yesterday's White Sox season opener was the highest rated White Sox season opener in Chicago network history.

Opening Day was the highest-rated White Sox season opener in Chicago regional sports network history. Game did 3.42 TV rating.

— Chuck Garfien (@ChuckGarfien) April 2, 2013

Unfortunately the broadcast started off with quite possibly the worst thing man has ever created. It's a lip-synced metal rap video of several White Sox players and a creepy Don Cooper. The opening has already been slammed by Deadspin and White Sox fans alike.

If you dare, click this link to see the video.

You may lose a lot of respect for Comcast SportsNet, the Chicago White Sox, and humanity in general.

Sale awesome in opener

A solo home run off the bat of Tyler Flowers was enough to down the Kansas City Royals on Opening Day. That's because Chris Sale turned in a dominate shutout to please the sell out crowd on a chilly afternoon at U.S. Cellular Field.

Yes, temperatures struggled to reach the 40s on Monday but the cold didn't stop Sale from pitching into the eighth inning. He bested new Royals ace, James Shields in a pitching duel that was scoreless through the top of the fifth.

Flowers led the Sox half of the inning with a solo shot to left center that looked to be the start of a big inning. The Sox then added two more base runners but Adam Dunn who already started hearing "boos" from the crowd, grounded out to end the inning. Dunn on his own left five men on base while striking out two times.

Shields did his part for the Royals. He lasted six innings scattering eight hits and the one run. The much hyped Royals offense couldn't get anything going off Sale. Seven strike outs and seven hits were surrendered by the lefty who got help in the seventh by the glove of Gordon Beckham.

Eric Hosmer led off the frame with a single and next batter Lorenzo Cain hit a sharp liner that Beckham dove and caught before the ball got through the infield. The ball was ticketed toward the outfield which would've put runners on the corners with no outs. Sale then went to his new found change up and got Jeff Francoeur to ground into the inning ending double play.

All in all it was a good day at The Cell. For sure you would've liked a bit warmer temperatures but on April 1 you never know what you're going to get. And at least for one day, you can say the Sox are in first place.

Sox are back at it Wednesday afternoon when Jake Peavy will make his first start of 2013. Gavin Floyd will pitch the final game of the series Thursday afternoon before the Seattle Mariners come to town for a weekend series.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

In five days the gates to U.S. Cellular Field will open and the 2013 Chicago White Sox will take the field to open the season against the Kansas City Royals.

For the most part, the team that pulled a fade in the final weeks of the 2012 season is returning this year minus fan favorite A.J. Pierzysnki and mid season pick up Kevin Youkilis.

New faces Jeff Keppinger and Conor Gillaspie will hope to solidify third base and infield utility, respectively. Matt Lindstrom has been added to an already strong bullpen and Tyler Flowers will finally get his chance to show everyone he's capable to be an everyday catcher.

As usual, the Sox will rely on what hopes to be a strong starting rotation. Chris Sale has been named the Opening Day starter and hopefully all those innings thrown last season don't wear on him this year as Sale shouldn't have any sort innings limitations.

Jake Peavy is returning on a fancy new two year deal signed in the off season looking to show he can stay healthy for more than a year. Gavin Floyd, Jose Quintana and Dylan Axelrod will round out the rotation as John Danks will start the year on the D.L. as he continues to recover from left shoulder surgery.

So what to make of this year's squad?

Lackluster, is what I say.

It's hard to get excited about a team that had a late season meltdown, didn't get better in the offseason and watched the team that beat them get better. All the while the other teams in the division also improved.

For the Sox to rise up and overcome, the pitching will have to go above and beyond what they accomplished last year. I have a fear Sale may regress a little bit in his second season as a starter. Not saying he'll be a disaster and a bust for his White Sox career, but, I can't see him repeating his stellar 17-8 campaign in 2013.

Peavy is another interesting case. 2012 was his first full season in some time. He's always going to be an injury risk and with Danks already on the D.L., I don't know if the Sox have the pitching depth to withstand long term absences by two of their top rotation guys.

The offense needs to be better. The Sox are a home run hitting team, no doubt. It remains to be seen if Adam Dunn can continue hitting the long ball in a White Sox uniform and if Alex Rios can put together two consecutive productive seasons. We'll need to see improvements from Dayan Viciedo, Alexei Ramirez and Tyler Flowers. Also, if anybody wants to find Gordon Beckham and have him report to the regular season, please do.

Also, Miguel Cabrera needs to booze himself out of baseball and Justin Verlander needs to lose 10mph on his fastball.

I really don't know what to make of this team. Detroit is obviously the favorite to run away with the A.L. Central but I don't expect the Sox to be blown out by the summer. The team should be able to keep things interesting to get fans in the park to take advantage of the new lower pricing at The Cell.

There are a couple of tune-up games in Milwaukee on Friday night and Saturday afternoon and then it's on Monday afternoon at U.S. Cellular Field.

Now we just need some warmer weather...