South Side Fireworks Man

Paul Konerko expects to return to White Sox's lineup Saturday By Mark Gonzales MILWAUKEE - First baseman Paul Konerko said he would be "shocked" if he doesn't return Saturday to the White Sox's lineup. Konerko said the shot he received has successfully alleviated the pain in his right thumb. He said he won't attempt to take batting practice before Friday night's game at Milwaukee.

Tonight's Sox lineup: Podsednik lf Ramirez ss Dye rf Pierzynski c Anderson cf Getz 2b Beckham 3b Fields 1b Richard p Konerko says he'd be "shocked" if he was not in the lineup Saturday.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Jun 11, 2009 -> 03:24 PM) Micah Hoffpair Is that "tongue in cheek" or do you know something???

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 05:48 PM) If Nix is a key part of your team in 2010, then we're in trouble again. He's fine as the 2nd back-up infielder. I agree, but I think the same is true of Getz. I want a quality third baseman and Beckham at 2B, this year.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 05:40 PM) Why not give Getz a chance to see what he can do? Besides for Brian Anderson, no one has received more love for accomplishing less than Nix this season. Nix is an outstanding defensive second baseman. Neither can hit much, but Nix has a little more pop. Everyone knows 2B belongs to Beckham anyway, so until they trade for someone to play third (which I hope is soon) I would play the better defender with a little more pop. If Getz or Nix aren't included in any trades, both make decent bench players although again Nix ghas an edge because of his versatilty over Getz.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 05:37 PM) He calls up Beckham but lets Ozzie Guillen sit him in both games of a double header because of a slow-start. That's not true. Beckham is starting tonight.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 05:24 PM) Wow. Poreda is better than Freddy, just promote Poreda is Freddy is going to be expected to be in the rotation at some point. They're probably going to trade Poreda.

QUOTE (tommy @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 05:19 PM) The White Sox also signed right-hander Freddy Garcia to a minor league deal, sources told ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney. Good.

QUOTE (scotty22hotty @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 05:06 PM) Who knew Fields / BA wouldn't perform to their capabilities? They are performing to their capablities. That's the problem.

QUOTE (Wanne @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 04:46 PM) Good...I'd still rather have Nix in than Getz for this game though. I'd rather have Nix at 2B over Getz every game -- until they get a quality third baseman and move Beckham to his future home at 2B.

Lineup posted at WSI says Beckham starting.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 03:52 PM) Fields and Anderson should both just be sent packing. Along with Wise and Getz. Since they decided to bring Beckham up this early, he should be the starting second baseman.

QUOTE (Jenks Heat @ Jun 8, 2009 -> 03:53 PM) Wise, Anderson and Fields are all averaging a strike out once every three at-bats. Ya that's good. All three of them should be gone, unless they want to keep Anderson around solely as a fourth OF. Same for Getz -- OK to keep around, but should not be starting regularly.

My theory on why the Sox are Bad: Their "starting 3rd baseman" Fields sucks. Their starting 2nd baseman, Getz sucks. Anderson and Wise suck. Quentin can't stay healthy. That about sums it up. For cryin' out loud, get rid of Fields, get a real third baseman, move Beckham to second base, and get a real centerfielder. And get rid of Wise once and for all.

QUOTE (chisox2334 @ Jun 7, 2009 -> 09:52 AM) Podsednik, CF Ramirez, SS Dye, RF Konerko, 1B Fields, DH Castro, C Anderson, CF Getz, 2B Beckham, 3B Colon, P Very weak 5 thru 9.

Another problem is Fields is a sub-par defender at third. He may have some power, but I don't think he'll ever be a "good" hitter, at least not good enough to compensate for his poor defense. I say trade both Fields and Getz along with a prospect and get a quality major league third baseman. Move Beckham to second base. And of course, cut Wise ASAP.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 6, 2009 -> 02:40 PM) Astros aren't trading Pence. They'd be stupid to do so, there's really no reason to trade him. They shouldn't want to trade him. But if other team's scouts really believe that Flowers, Poreda or Allen are such hot s***, and you can couple them together with some other young guys like Getz, Fields, Anderson or some of our other prospects along with taking Tejada's salary off their hands, would they be tempted to bite? I don't know but it's worth trying.

QUOTE (VAfan @ Jun 6, 2009 -> 02:24 PM) I like your thinking. Glad to see some folks get the fact that our hitting sucks and we can't rely on AA or AAA to ride to the rescue any time soon. These next few years are going to be very rough if Kenny doesn't get moving to upgrade the offense. I don't know what The Astros' wants/needs are but there are two guys there who would look good on the Sox right now. One of them I'm sure can be had--Miguel Tejada. He'd fit in nicely at 3B for the Sox forthe rest of the season. Beckham could move to what should be his permanent position, 2B. The other guy certainly isn't being shopped but almost anyone can be had for a price. That player is Hunter Pence. He'd certainly look good in CF for the Sox this year and become a fixyure in the Sox OF for years to come. Again, I'm not too familiar with the Astros, but if KW could get these two with a package of some combination of Poreda, Flowers, Getz, Fields, Anderson, Shelby, Allen or other lower prospects, while taking on all or most of Tejada's remaining salary they should definitely do it. An outfield of Quentin, Pence, and Dye along with an infield of Tejada, Ramirez, Beckham and Konerko is pretty darn solid.

QUOTE (VAfan @ Jun 6, 2009 -> 01:25 PM) For those of you who think there is a chance to turn this club around this season, I think you are dreaming. I decided after an absurd lineup and another shutout last night that the Sox reached their high-water mark at 25-25 this season. Unless Kenny starts dealing to bring in some players who can hit the ball with power, this team is headed for a dismal record. Perhaps not as bad as two years ago when we lost 90 games, but that, and even worse, is possible. Here's how the Sox stack up against league averages by position. League average is first, with BA, OBP, SLG. Note that I'm using the best Sox player at each position, or the guy who has played the most. You have to discount this b/c Quentin has missed a fair amount of time in LF and DeWayne Wise has received tons of time in CF. In other words, it is even worse than it looks, and it looks REALLY BAD. C -- 255 .316 .404 - AJ 304 .337 .453 OPS .720 v .790 -- 70 points above LA 1B -- 282 .367 .511 - PK .295 .349 .472 OPS .878 v. .820 -- 58 points below LA 2B -- .272 .333 .407 - CG .245 .310 .302 OPS .740 v. .612 -- 128 points below LA 3B -- .264 .330 .417 - JF 239 .302 .324 OPS .747 v. .626 -- 121 points below LA SS -- .269 .325 .377 - AR 249 .295 .324 OPS .702 v. .619 -- 83 points below LA LF -- .269 .344 .431 - CQ .229 .325 .458 OPS .775 v. .783 (Discount this b/c Pods .720 OPS) -- basically even with LA CF -- .266 .334 .410 - BA .255 .336 .327 OPS .744 v. .663 (Discount this b/c of Wise's ABs at a .377 OPS, just better than NL pitchers) RF -- .277 .356 .457 - JD .278 .337 .550 OPS .813 v. 887 -- 74 points above LA DH -- .251 .335 .437 - JT .247 .380 .479 OPS .772 v. .859 -- 87 points above LA Total -- 240 points below league average (which should be discounted b/c of all the ABs given to even worse players by the Sox.) Here's the actual cummulative total for the Sox 251 .319 .390 .709 Compare that to last year's 263 .332 .448 .780 In 2007, when we lost 90 games, we hit .246 .318 .404 .722. Look at those numbers. The Sox have players above league average at only 3 positions on the field -- C, RF, DH. They are at league average in LF. Every other position is below average, often WAY below. That's not going to get it done. It wasn't just that Kenny didn't fix CF in the offseason (making it worse by trading Nick Swisher's .743 OPS, which would have matched league average). He went in with ridiculous expectations at 2B and 3B too. Add slow starts by Ramirez and Quentin and you have the worst hitting Sox team in 10 years. And yet guys were ripping Nate McLouth on my other post, saying we shouldn't have acquired him. Well, his .250 .342 .459 .801 would look mightly good to me in CF -- it's .138 points better than Brian Anderson, and .424 points better than Wise. It would give us another player above league average, with speed to boot. Frankly, I don't see much hope in the near future unless the Sox are willing to turn over their roster. Beckham ought to be able to approach league average at 3B or 2B. But that isn't going to help much. We need at least 3 new bats, plus Carlos Quentin to come back and hit like he did last year (.965 OPS), plus Alexei Ramirez to hit like he did last year (.792 OPS). Otherwise, it's going to be a long summer on the South Side. You've made some excellent posts here the past few days, VA.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jun 5, 2009 -> 10:20 PM) Exactly. Even Anderson can be added to that mix. We need a healthy, productive CQ to go with a productive Beckham to turn this lineup around. We've got too many guys who are reserves. We need a real third baseman and a real centerfielder. Let Beckham play second base. That coupled with a healthy Quentin would turn this lineup around.

QUOTE (GreatScott82 @ Jun 5, 2009 -> 06:52 PM) Anytime you have Wise, Nix, Fields and Pods in your lineup on a consistent basis, the chances of your offense going to suck are very good. Agreed, but don't forget about Anderson and Getz. In fact, right now I'd take Pods and Nix over them.

I hope KW is trying to get Hunter Pence here.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jun 3, 2009 -> 12:47 PM) Oakland's pitcher has a perfect name for a pitcher. Much more appropriate name for a pitcher than "Balfour" or "Walker" that's for sure.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 3, 2009 -> 03:09 PM) Can he play 3B? Probably as well as Fields does, plus he can hit better than Fields and pitch every fifth day.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jun 2, 2009 -> 09:17 PM) His catch at the wall was insulting last night. After seeing it again, it wasn't close to going out, but he lifted it over his left shoulder to make it seem tougher. I was telling my kids the exact same thing this afternoon.