White Sox drop third straight game at home

Josh Hamilton hit a three-run home run and Hank Blalock added a two-run shot to power the Texas Rangers to a 6-1 win over the White Sox on Monday night.

[christian_h]

Watching the Cubs embarrass Chicago right now, it's quite clear neither team is going to make it to the post season. Pathetic losers, all of them.

[Baseball Gods]

Not only do the Sox get beat by someone in double A recently called up, they can't score runs on top that...hey the all star break ended so they are not tired..oh by the way the detroit tigers did not have any problems scoring runs of that spectacular kansas city royals pitching...19-4...Minnesota loss again as well

Sox are simply underachieving period...They will eliminate themselves by mid august..Folks,Minnesota will eventually over take the sox's and probably win the division

[Mr Baseball]

Are there any idiots left around here who think this pitching staff is any good? After giving up 73 runs in last 9 games to bottom of the league talent, I am willing to bet that it will get much worse as we go, these young arms will tire and the bullpen will be in shambles by mid August. Well at least with the Indians losing almost all of their important players this year, the Sox had a free ride for a while, heck, who knows, maybe the Twins and Tigers will keep playing bad and the Sox will have a chance. It sure does suck though when we all know the only real chance this team has is if other teams play poorly.

[big ed deline]

let's be honest, the way the sox are playing right now, i can honestly say, they have a good shot at finishing last. that is all right, as long as the cubs lose, i'll be happy.

it might be time for reinsdorf to back up the truck, and do a total housecleaning. the first to go should be ed farmer, followed by williams, guillen,cooper, cora, hire carlton fisk as manager, and jim fregosi as general manager, and bring in wayne hagin to be the radio voice.

[LA Southsider]

Jeez, the Sox lose three games and suddenly everyone should be fired? All this doom and gloom can't be good. Sure, the Sox are having some problems but they're in first place. They are the team all these mediocre teams want to beat so the lesser teams play their "A" game. The Sox need to stop being complacent and take it up a notch.

[Ed Vargo]

Too many Sox fans have apparently drunk the kool-aid and fail to appreciate how bad this team's pitching is, and for that matter, how weak the batting order is when guys like Konerko, Thome, Crede, Swisher aren't hitting. We've had essentially the same bullpen of losers for about 2 1/2 seasons and still Williams insists there is nothing better out there or they will take players to get players. Give me a break! Is there an untouchable on this team anywhere outside of Quentin? What Williams and the Tribune sports writer are saying is that the Sox roster and farm system is so deficient that they can't even pony up some credible trade bait. It is just too sad. Hey, I seriously hope that Milwaukee and St. Louis sneak by the Cubs quicker than the Twins or Tigers over-take the Sox, but come on, Kenny, do something. Mr. Phil Rogers identified about a dozen very respectable relief pitchers in Sunday's column that can be had. Their teams are out to make a deal. Instead, we get more lame excuses from Williams and more hollow threats from the guy in the dugout who is kind of hard to understand. Let's not waste another baseball season and another year. Pull the trigger.

[Lefty]

Hmmm.. you are going to play the Tigers this weekend without Jose C. in the rotation? Verlander etc. & Tigers to win series 2-1.
What happens if we sweep CWS? You gonna blow up the team at trade deadline? 3 long road trips still on schedule; go Cubs!!

[Bunny]

The Sox have been a streaky team. Are we approaching the middle of an eight game losing streak?

[Hardliner]

Dragon wrote:

Well, despite everything that has happened to them in the last three games we are still in first place. It looks like the "Winnin' Twins" are having there problems too.
Vasques pitched ok tonight, so I don't think things are as bad as they might appear. I think what Kenny Williams said makes sense.
Stick with the Sox

As for the Twins also losing that may be a successful formula for winning the division but it certainly will not help them advance once in the playoffs which is the whole point.

All pitching staffs go through slumps but even Ray Charles could see at this point that Contreras and now Vasquez are weak links. Conteras is old, mentally fragile and quite frankly looks used up which Kenny Williams knew going into the season but he rolled the dice on him anyway because his contract and ability made him untradable. Now Vasquez is doing his best to prove his doubters right that he cannot come through in a pennant race. Maybe he is hurt, I don't know but it certainly seems like his spincter tightens up to the size of a bebe when he is expected to produce for a winner.

Vasquez has a couple of years left on a relatively cheap contract so it makes no sense for him to be the odd man out. That leaves Contreras. Williams needs to do everything in his power to add another starter to this team to replace him. This staff proved many of the doubters wrong during the first half, myself included, but now it looks like the three pitcher staff most people thought it would be. Williams is a gambler and for a while he looked like he would win his bet on this staff but it's time for a change especially if the Twins get a healthy Liariano back for the stretch run.

[Sox Fan]

They Suk, same old crap, its over, just get it over with. Crede is not very clutch anymore.

[PJW]

C'mon folks, three games is not a skid. Doesn't anybody know basic probability anymore? Baseball is a game of probablities, after all.

[PJW]

Sox Fan wrote:

They Suk, same old crap, its over, just get it over with. Crede is not very clutch anymore.

There is no such thing as a "clutch" player: all players bat their average plus/minus sampling error in the clutch. Power, OBP, etc., are "real" traits: a guy that hits a lot of HR this year probably did so last year and probably will do so next year. However, a guy that hits well in the clutch this year (relative to his overall batting average) will do so next year half the time, and he will have done so last year half the time.

Crede is a pretty good hitter, and an excellent fielder when he is healthy. If the ChiSox get Crede up in a "clutch" situation, then they are in pretty good shape: or at least in as good of shape as the team can be.

[slats grobnik]

lets go sox!

[VAN - BLOOMINGTON]

PJW wrote:

<quoted text>
There is no such thing as a "clutch" player: all players bat their average plus/minus sampling error in the clutch.

That's B-S- unless your "sampling error" stretches to INFINITY. At any given time there are a handful of hitters who go through stretches where they do exceptionally well in "clutch" situations. Ballplayers are not machines.

[Florida Jim]

"I don't want to be negative about the ballclub because we're playing well"-Ozzie.
Well, Ozzie let me be the first to alert you, you are not playing well check the daily errors, Crede hitting 13 for 75, Konerko and Thome watching strike three with the game on 2nd and 3rd.You are now 8-8 for July and 1-3 after the break. Remember hopw happy you were with the six hits in the first inning after break that carried you to victory for that game but you have died since then. You never faced up in 2007 as the team gave up and unless you do something quickly this season will fade. The Twins and Tigers are playing well and we are not! RYan Sweeney is hitting .307!

[Rick]

Did Ozzie just say we're playing well, even if we're not playing good?

[Mike Royko]

slats grobnik wrote:

lets go sox!

Slats, all these years, I thought you were a Cubs fan.

[Hardliner]

Florida Jim wrote:

You are now 8-8 for July and 1-3 after the break.

You bring up a good point. The White Sox have historically been a horrible second half team under Ozzie Guillen. Losing 3 out of 4 games to K.C. and Texas to open the second half is not a good sign and that can't be ignored. I hate to sound like Kenny Williams but they do have enough talent to compete and I am not going to hit the panic button just yet but I do wonder if they get burnt out on Ozzie.

[Rick]

Actually, history has shown that Williams makes most of his major trades over the winter. Except for acquiring Jose Contreres in 2004, he hasn't acquired many quality guys in July.

[Tony]

I just wish someone would put Konerko out of his misery. I can't believe how bad this guy's been again this year. I thought last year was a fluke.Yeah I know he's had the injury bug this year but..