Signs of life
March 30, 2008Phil Savage Still Bitter, Likely Voting For Re-Seeding
March 31, 2008Division rival Chicago comes to town once again as the Tribe begins defense of the Central Division Championship. The White Sox made small headlines this winter by trading for SS Orlando Cabrera. The Sox gave up Jon Garland in the deal, and in my opinion may regret it later. Cabrera is certainly an upgrade defensively for Chicago, but the 2 time Gold Glove winner has only hit .300 once in his career. Last year. This will be Orlando’s 12th season, and his career .273 average and .724 OPS are better indicators of what he will provide offensively for the pale hose. I’ll say this, he is the prototype #2 hitter, and in that line-up he should score some runs.
The White Sox have at least 5 hitters with the potential to hit 25 homers. Potential is a big word there, as these aging sluggers will have to stay healthy to do it. Jim Thome enters his 18th big league season, and his third with the White Sox. With 507 home runs to his name, about the only milestones Thome will realistically achieve are 2000 hits, which he is merely 75 away from, and 1500 RBI. To get the latter Jim will need to drive in 102 this year. That is certainly possible, but not a guarantee. Thome drove in 96 last season. Jermaine Dye (age 34), Paul Konerko (32) and A.J. Pierzyski (31) add ‘maturity’ to the line-up. Truth is, these guys are all mostly on the back side of their careers. It will be surprising if they are able to duplicate their power numbers from a year ago. The young guys in the line-up are CF Jerry Owens, who everyone is high on, but will start the season on the DL after a slight muscle tear towards the end of spring training, and Nick Swisher.
The rotation is anchored by Mark Buehrle, who had a 10-9 record last year with a 3.63 era. Javier Vazquez, John Danks, Jose Contreras and Gavin Floyd round out the starting 5. In the pen, the White Sox hand the ball to Bobby Jenks to close things out, and he is one of the best having saved at least 40 games in the past two seasons. Octavio Dotel joins Chicago this year, and is expected to be the set-up man. This will be Dotel’s 5th team in as many years. Injuries have played a part in that, but so has his inconsistency. The White Sox are hoping that he can secure the 8th inning much the same as Betancourt does for the Indians.
Pitching Match-Ups
Monday- C.C. Sabathia (L) vs Buehrle (L), Wednesday- Carmona (R) vs Vazquez (R) Thursday- J. Westbrook (R) vs John Danks (L)
Probable Line-Ups
Chicago White Sox: CF- N. Swisher, SS- O. Cabrera, DH- J. Thome, 1B P. Konerko, RF- J. Dye, C- A.J. Pierzynski, 3B- J. Crede, LF- C. Quentin, 2B- J. Uribe
Cleveland Indians: CF- G. Sizemore, 2B- A. Cabrera, DH- T. Hafner, C- V. Martinez, 1B- R. Garko, SS- J. Peralta, RF- F. Gutierrez, LF- D. Dellucci, 3B- C. Blake
Key Injuries
Chicago- Jerry Owens (15 day DL), Danny Richar (15 day DL)
Cleveland- Shin-Soo Choo
1 Comment
Nice write up. Lets Go Tribe!
A few games starting @ 1:00 today. I better start working now cause we all know Nothing will be accomplished after lunch.