The GM, coaching staff, and pitching staff gets a solid A- from me, with the only black marks being the way Vazquez and Contrares have thrown over the past 6 weeks. These are 2 verteran guys who have been around long enough to fucking figure it out. Not that they have to throw no hitters every time out, but giving up 4 and 5 runs by the 4th inning does not help the team. Yeah the Pen got rocked a bit in Texas, but they have been nothing shy of spectacular all season to this point.

The offense with the exception of a few guys-- Quentin, Dye, Alexi, AJ-- has been mediocre at best. Dozens of times the Sox have left runners at 3rd base with less than 2 out. And while they are hitting thier share of HRs, they have almost zero speed and can't manufacture a run to save thier lives. Konerko, imo, is the biggest dissapointment in MLB this season. I don't expect the guy to compete for the triple crown, but for Paulie to have the numbers he has is embarassing and unacceptable. He is without question hurting this team more than he is helping it.

Defense is good and bad. OC, Alexi, Dye, Swisher (at 1st) have all be throwing leather this year. Dye has made some excellent plays running as slow as he does, and from what I've seen of the guy, its hard to believe Alexi's "worst" defensive position is 2nd base. Crede...hell anyone at 3rd base has been bad. Konerko has been bad pretty much all year at first too. With Thome getting hot recently, I'd much rather see Anderson in CF and Swisher at 1st while Konerko and his team low batting average (thats right, Paulie is at .215 while Uribe is at .219) rides the pine for a good week.

At 14 games over .500, you might think that anything less than an A for the Sox so far is out and out wrong. Fact is, they have lots of flaws and should still probably have a bigger lead than they do, though not all of that is under thier control. The Twins have played well over thier heads for 6 weeks now and the Sox have left quite a few W's on the field. This division is clearly the Sox for the taking, and if they can manage to get that lead up to 4 or 5 games again by mid-August they will run away with this thing for 2 reasons. First, the Tigers do not have the pitching to win this division. Softball scores will not win games in the dog days, and good pitching beats good hitting 99 time out of 100. Second, from August 21st to September 21st, the Twins have a grand total of 6 home games and they do not play well on the road. The Sox get a B from me because they have lost a handful of games that they should have won, but fuck they are in first place and in pace for a good 10 or 12 more wins than I thought they would have.

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A. The pitching, especially the bullpen, has been outstanding. While the starters have slid over the past two weeks, there are still three with below 4 ERAs and one at under 3. They have been significantly aided by the relievers. Every member, short of Mc Dougal and Wasserman, has taken advantage of the opportunities they have been given. I place most of the credit on the shoulders of Linebrink and Jenks.

The hitting has been Jekyl and Hyde. At one point they were the worst offense in the AL. They are now in the top 10. I really think things turned around once Ramirez was placed into the lineup. He made the bottom of the order dangerous. Now that Thome seems to have worked out his problems, I expect some great things in the second half of the season.

The coaching staff has been good. If the early season hitting problems were placed on Walker's shoulders than he deserves all the plaudits for June/July. Cooper has brought along two young starters, while helping Linebrink out of his problems of the last two years. Thornton is really his prized pupil. They took him off the scrap heap and he has quietly been as good as any middle reliever this year.

I had them pegged at .500 plus or minus a few games. I thought they would be competitve but would not be able to keep up with the Indians/Tigers. This record might be attributable to the front runners tanking. However, you cannot simply dismiss one of the better records in MLB.

The grade can be nothing other than an A. They have exceeded expectations to the point that I now see them as making noise in the playoffs if they can get a home field advantage.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Vasquez and Contreras and Konerko are the biggets questions marks agreed. I think you have to put Bobby Jenks in there too.

but


Cabrera is hitting the cover off the ball and Ramirez looks like he'll be the number two guy. I think AJ's lefthanded bat will be more valuable in the lower half of the order anyway. Thome cant hit worse so I think he'll get hot and Konerko and Crede at the bottom make this a deep line-up one thru nine.

1-Cabrera
2-Ramirez
3-Quintin
4-Dye (I know, all RH)
5-Thome
6-Swisher
7-Konerko
8-A.J.
9-Crede

THATS A WHITE SOX WINNER

The one thing that worries me is that it seems like this team is wound up so tightly. I thought Ozzy was suppose to keep things fun and entertaining. He's been coaching more like a skipper who's about to get fired. Certainly the team has not played like a 1st place team at times but overall they've been damn good considering Paul's been missing and Thome until a week ago has been horrible.

PK ain't battin' #7 ma fren

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The only reason why second baseman Alexei Ramirez batted second Sunday afternoon in Texas was because A.J. Pierzynski was not in the starting lineup. When Toby Hall starts behind the plate, even before A.J.'s injury to his left ankle, he always tends to bat at the bottom of the lineup, either at #8 or #9. Hall batted #8 and Juan Uribe batted #9 at third base in that 4 hour marathon. While a week has now passed since Pablo Ozuna was designated for assignment, it's unclear if he has cleared waivers and has decided whether to head to Triple "A" Charlotte. Something tells me that Uribe may still be packing his bags before the trade deadline, despite his low BA.