Yer Out!

April has been a terrible month for the White Sox.

We've traded places with the Cleveland Indians as being the new cellar-dwellers of the AL Central (who'da seen THAT coming?), and now Ozzie has been suspended for-what else-something he said on Twitter.





















As I've said before, Ozzie and Twitter are a match made in hell if you're Kenny Williams and the White Sox PR department.

What happened was that during the first inning of the Sox-Yankees game on Wednesday, Paul Konerko was called out on strikes, and Ozzie didn't like that. He thought the ref got the call wrong (he was right, by the way). Ozzie went out to argue the call, got into a fight with the ref, and promptly got tossed.



But that's only the beginning. After being tossed, in a bit of foreshadowing for what was to come from the MLB brass, Ozzie wrote on Twitter "This one going to cost me a lot money this is patetic" . He then took a shot at the ref who tossed him by writing "Today a tough guy show up a yankee stadium". I'm no mind-reader, but I'm willing to bet that it was this last tweet that got Ozzie suspended. Also, apparently, it's against the rules for a manager or player to go on social media during a game.


















(Cartoon by Carl Skanberg)

Now Ozzie won't be gone from the game long-just 2 games will suffice-but he's gonna miss the first 2 games back home in Chicago against the Orioles. I've also read that he's been hit with a stiff fine too, but I don't know if it's true cuz I haven't seen any money amount listed.

Hopefully, May will be the start of a Sox turnaround.

Before I sign off for the night, let me just say that I was surprised to see Bartolo Colon still pitching. I thought he'd all but dropped off the map after the Sox let him go. Maybe the clubhouse buffet table in New York was too good to refuse.



Ahh, the memories of poking at the pitcher I lovingly used to call "Fatso".

GO WHITE SOX!!!
tamtam

Implosion

So I'm sure you've all heard by now, but the Sox blew it in the 10th last night in the last game against the A's.

AGAIN


















This has been an incredibly grating series. Not only have the games been going into extra innings, but the reason they've been going into extra innings is because the bullpen's been giving out.


In the 9th, Ozzie went and visited the mound several times in the same inning (though to his credit, he did manage to manipulate a loophole to a rule in the baseball rule book that I'm pretty sure nobody knew was there), and changed the pitchers so frequently, he made Cardinals skipper Tony La Russa look like he knew his shit (he's (in)famous for changing his pitchers frequently). And at this point, I'm sure La Russa DOES know his shit better than Ozzie! And that's just shameful.











Over the last three games, our bullpen has been hemorrhaging runs like a hemophiliac with a missing limb. 5 runs were given up over the course of this 3-game series, and the Sox are up to their 6th blown save this year. We have no decent setup men, and our closer is nonexistent.

Naturally, Ozzie didn't take this situation too well(hopefully, the video shows up):







So now that our bullpen's falling apart, what do we do?

Well, Oz-n'-Coop better start working their current pitchers, or have Kenny send the scouts out to pay the minors a visit, cuz this can't go on any further. Even an idiot who knows nothing about baseball knows that you don't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning the World Series if you're bullpen is imploding!

You know something? In spite of his assery, I miss Bobby Jenks. At least he was a consistent closer (even though he was starting to fall off the cliff in 2010).


















(Cartoon by Carl Skanberg)

Yep. Somewhere, that dustmop is watching his ex-team implode, and is laughing his ass off.















Yeah, yeah. Laugh on, you fat dustmop.

Tomorrow we're playing the Angels at home. Will things finally click for us in this series? Stay tuned!

GO WHITE SOX!!!
tamtam

Pierror

The series with the A's would have been off to a kicker start on Monday, given how strong Mark Buehrle had been pitching (he had a no-hitter going till the 6th!), but none other than Juan "Pierror" Pierre had to bumble a catch and lose the game in extra innings. A's: 2, Sox: 1 in 10 innings.





























Today, both the Sox and Pierre had a better game. In fact, Alexei "the Cuban Missile" Ramirez, knocked in a solo home run with 2 outs in the bottom of the 10th to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat from the A's! Karma's a bitch, isn't it?!


































Rumors have it that Ozzie's job is on the line. Personally, I don't see this rumor having any sort of backbone to it. Kenny would never let his most precious asset go away like that. In spite of his Harvard degree, canning Ozzie would forever net Kenny this title in Chicago:






























Surely my GM is PR-savvy enough to know not to pull off such a move and not expect some sort of blowback.

Besides, if Ozzie got canned, Kenny should expect to feel the wrath of Oney Guillen, Ozzie's son. Oney is notorious for criticizing his dad's players, and more than once, it got his dad in trouble.




















(Cartoon courtesy of Carl Skanberg, my favorite White Sox cartoonist)


But hey, should Ozzie become unemployed, it'll give him more time to teach Oney how to blast people effectively on Twitter.





















Game 3's tomorrow! Sit back, relax, and strap it down; White Sox baseball is on its way in approximately 24 hours.

GO WHITE SOX!!!

**EDITORS NOTE: The nickname "Pierror" first appeared on "South Side Sox"

A Match Made in Hell

Opening Day is just around the corner-that means baseball 24/7, Es-pun pundits and their view from the nostrils of Derek Jeter and Manny Ramirez, and ever more outrageous Twitter comments from my crazy manager, Ozzie Guillen.

Ozzie and Twitter-a match made in Heaven (or Hell, if you're Kenny Williams and the White Sox PR department).

In this cartoon, I choose Hell.






















GO WHITE SOX!!!
tamtam

News News News

I'm baaacccckkkkkk!!!! Guess you know what my New Years resolution is gonna be (hint: it involves spending more time blogging about the Sox).





















Oh what a chaotic year its been. We brought in the disgustingly-dreadlocked Manny Ramirez in the second half of the season, and he was meh. We also did rather substandard (though not as bad as KC, Detroit, and Cleveland. Those guys REALLYsucked balls!). If there is a good sign in the end of this season, its that we finished in second place as opposed to last (*ahem* KC). Also, the Twins got wiped out of the playoffs in the first round, so that was some comfort and joy to us beleaguered Sox fans.





















The offseason has been a rather busy one by any standard. When GM Kenny sees a player he likes, he wastes no time in getting the said player to come and sign with the Sox.

Take Adam Dunn, our most high-profile signing this offseason. Though he is known for his tater-mashing [basically, he hits alot of home runs], I was not sure if signing him was a good idea because Dunn can't play. He used to be a first baseman, but now all he can do is DH. The Sox already had 3 DHs (does the term "musical DH" sound familiar?), so I questioned Kenny's wisdom in acquiring another one. How useful Dunn is to us this year remains to be seen.
























We also got rid of that fat dustmop, Bobby Jenks.



















From what I'd been able to gather about the Sox, Jenks was really starting to stink up the place. Plus, he and Ozzie were engaged in a bitch-fight, both in person and on Twitter. I don't blame Ozzie for wanting him out. My manager's got already a difficult job to do, and he doesn't need a smartass harping on him all the time. If Ozzie wanted to hear harpies, he's got his kid's Twitter feed to follow.





























In a bit of joyous news, my beloved Carlos Quentin got re-signed by the Sox.




















$5.05 million for one more year, just avoiding arbitration. Also, one more year of me seeing my favorite player on my favorite team.

Also re-signed: Miracle Man John Danks ($6 million) and Tony Pena ($1.6 million)




























In a bit of non Sox-related news: MLB's favorite shit-on-a-stick, Milton Bradley got arrested on a felony charge.

























Apparently, he threatened some woman out in CA. Last I checked, Bradley is scheduled to be in court on Feb. 8. Given Bradley's psychotic personality and colorful history in baseball, I'm pretty sure he's kissed his entire MLB career goodbye.

Before I sign off on today's post, I would like to have a final say about the recent tragedy that took place in my city of Tucson, AZ, in which a deranged, drug-addicted young man opened fire on a crowd of people who had gathered in a grocery store parking lot to meet a local congresswoman. 20 people were injured, including the congresswoman (Gabrielle Giffords), and six people died, including a nine-year old girl. I mention the nine-year old girl, named Christina Taylor Green, because she had a connection to baseball, the sport I love so much. As it turns out, her grandfather, Dallas Green, was a manager for the Philadelphia Phillies and led them to a World Series victory in 1980. Christina Green's father was a scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the young girl herself played on the local Little League team out here in Tucson. What happened a week ago on Saturday was truly a tragic incident. May all those affected by this tragedy find ways to heal and overcome the pain from this incident.

GO WHITE SOX!!!
tamtam

Poop n' Peavy

Well, after an unexpected off-day (you just try following a Midwest team from a completely different region! Blackouts, rain delays, scheduling hiccups, and other stuff will throw you off!) our newly slimmed down diva pitcher Jake Peavy got the call to start today.

The result: a no-decision for Peavy, but the Sox lost 5-3. Instead, setup man Randy Williams gets the loss while Cleveland's Fausto Carmona gets the win.

According to my boys at South Side Sox, Peavy had had a fairly good day. He pitched 5 full innings with 7 hits, three runs, and 5 Ks.




As Peavy's numbers prelude, the Sox were outhit a mind-boggling 10-2. Chicago's lone 2 hits were a single by A.J Pierzynski, and a 2-run HR by Paulie, following a walk by my boy, Carlos Quentin.




















I should make that picture of CQ the wallpaper on my phone, lol :D.

As for the rest of the staff, our favorite Frenchman, Juan Pierre, stole 2 bases in the 1st inning, Alex Rios has been "meh" so far (yes, I know it's early in the season, but still-he struck out when he could have scored!), and Paulie was the player of the game with his HR and a sac-fly that put the Sox up 1-0 in the first.

Fausto Carmona had his stuff today, unfortunately.

Better luck tomorrow, I guess.

Speaking of tomorrow-Gavin Floyd gets the call to start! He'll be facing Justin Masterson. This should be a good one!

And in other Sox news, President Obama made headlines recently when he couldn't name a single White Sox player that he liked. Talk about an epic FAIL.























Instead of admitting he had no favorite player on a team he claimed to be a fan of, Bamster pulled a Grandpa-at-Thanksgiving and went into a rambling diatribe. Mr. President-have you no wit? At the very least, you could have said Mark Buerhle, and no one would have thought twice about it! Now your gaffe will live in cyber history forever (thank GOD for Youtube!)



To end tonight's post, I include another priceless quote from my crazy manager, Ozzie Guillen: "Goo luck to my guys for a great summer and all the venezuelan player even the ones I hate to death" (Posted on 4/5 at 5:38 AM).

Ozzie Guillen and Twitter-a match made in heaven (or hell if you're Kenny Williams).

Good night everyone!

GO WHITE SOX!!!
tamtam

Spring Fever

With Spring Training just around the corner, we still have a few things to take care of before the season starts.

For 1 thing, we have new positions for some of our favorite players! Gordy Beckham will be moving from 3rd to 2nd base, and my beloved Carlos Quentin (who has recovered from plantar faciitis, a sore knee, a sore back, and his infamous wrist injury from 2008, and looks ready to go) will no longer be relegated to left field. Now, my boy will be manning right field. As for our favorite dustmop, Bobby Jenks, he appears to be satisfied and healthy for the upcoming season.

Oy, I am just bursting with excitement at the prospect of seeing all my favorite players again!

Speaking of players, looks like Johnny Damon will not be joining the White Sox this year. According to whitesox.com, Kenny has withdrawn his offer, a reported 1-yr, $6 million contract, from the devil himself, Scott Boras. Kenny says he's waiting for the price of Damon to go down before he reconsiders courting Damon, but it's known that Kenny and Boras aren't exactly on good terms. The two have had issues in the past (and since Boras is the devilish king of sports agents, it's a wonder how not every GM has a target painted on Boras' back), but they appear to be reconciling.

That's all for tonight! More to come as the info becomes available!

GO WHITE SOX!!!
tamtam

Thome or not Thome

So in the course of this busy offseason, we have aquired Omar Vizquel-a 43 yr old wonderboy, avoided arbitration with that fat dustmop Bobby Jenks (although he reportedly slimmed down alot since the end of the season, so now I might have to just call him a dustmop. Wonder if Bartolo "Fatso" Colon took any hints too) and my boy Carlos Quentin. JD might be going to the Cubs (NOO!!), and we officially have no DH now that Thome is gone.

But this gaping hole at DH is precisely the topic for today's post.

"Big League Stew" says that Ozzie intends to use a rotation of Vizquel, Mark Kotsay, and newcomer Andruw Jones in the DH slot. The reason for this, according to the Sun Times, is that if needed, Vizquel, Kotsay, and Jones can pick up a glove and play defense. Thome will be 40 in August, and is clearly well past his playing days, but was our most productive hitter over the course of the mediocre 2009 season. Now that the Dodgers have released Thome, and no one has picked him up so far, big Jim just might come back to the AL central, but as a dreaded Twin or Tiger.

As a loyal White Sox fan, I would excore Kenny Williams to pick up Jim Thome. But reality says that even if we did pick him up, where would we put him? With the whole concept of a rotating DH, Thome might sit on the bench for days at a time, and then get grilled by the media for not playing. And as even the most dimwitted of economists knows, it's never a good idea to waste money on something that doesn't produce its value.

BLS speculates that because the Sox don't look like they want Thome back, we just may as well have traded away our shot at winning the AL Central. Of course, it's early in the season, so there is still the possibility that we'll be fine, provided Alex Rios, my boy, and Mark Teahan all have career seasons. If not, Kenny's got some explaining to do...

Yet in spite of all these concerns and unknowns, I trust Ozzie and Kenny. Don't forget, there's still Spring Training, so if our rotating DH doesn't work out as planned, it's still not too late to go after Thome!

GO WHITE SOX!!!

tamtam