Fox Mulder: Are you asking me to give up?
Dana Scully: No. No, I can't ask you to do that... But I can tell you I won't be coming home tonight.

Its that time of month again. By now you know the drill. A quick recap and a nice place to look at a few advanced stats in one place.

Not a huge fan of the X files sequel but I could not help but feel a lot like Mulder; confused, searching and wanting to believe.

Much like last month, the 2009 White Sox did their best to blow the season at the beginning of June. They were home for a 12 game stretch against Oakland, Cleveland and Detroit. It was time to make up serious ground. Wrong. They promptly put up a measly 4-8 record during the 2 weeks dropping a critical Detroit series 2-3 in which every game seemed winnable.

Here we go again. June 1-12 team batting line .220/.308/.358. What the??? I mean its June. Time for Greg Walker's crew to do their summer dance all across poor opposing pitchers. Last year the home team slugged a resounding .300/.361/.521 in June. This year we were greeted to 3 shutouts in 4 days, crushing the team's momentum and increasing the number of hits to MLBTrade Rumors/WhiteSoxRumor.

Could anything save us or the team? It was June 12th and the team was 6 games under .500/6.5 games out. How about a trip back on the road? Enter Milwaukee. The first game pretty much followed suit of the previous homestand. Decent starting pitching and not much hitting. Bullpen implodes, game over. Yawn. The next day was a Fox broadcast. Jose Contreras followed up a brilliant return start from the minors against Detroit with an equally impressive one in the land of Cheese and thus began the 2nd half of the month resurgence, which is becoming all too common.

The offense from June 13-30 put up a .287/.366.511 line. Now that's more like it. Okay so the team is a little like Sybil.

But when it was all said done a crappy home stand had resurrected a Count and called up a Savior. Fields lost his starting job and Wilson Betemit lost major league employment all together (thank goodness.)

What should the Sox do? That's the million dollar question. No secret I have screamed to Southside heaven the team should buy. Cheat has covered it. Jim over at Sox Machine has covered it.

It doesn't matter here. Someone else can and will write the final trade entry and evaluate future trades till we are all blue in the face. Today is about the June and ytd numbers. Numbers that leave the White Sox 4 games out.

record 39-38

RS 343

RA347

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Offensive

May numbers .258/.340/.444

YTD  .257/.330/.416 compared to 08 at this time .262/.336/.437

.746 Team OPS  (11th in the AL)

31.8 Team VORP (11th in the AL)

Early June did not work out too well. Its hard to believe the same team with 3 shut outs early, roughed up Cliff Lee to end the month. In the end there was some progress as the team moved up 1 whole spot (yea) in team OPS. Some things did return to normal. They mashed 41 homers in June (tied for the most) to move up to 7th overall. July gives the boys only 12 home dates. Is that good thing? Their road OPS is .791 compared to .701 at home.

RF Dye- .295/.363/.570 How can you not love JD? My heart wants him to retire a White Sox. VORP leader at 22.3 with an EQA of .302. Everyone else is here.  Plenty of scouts looking as he seems to be the popular subject.  

DH Thome- .241/.397/.492 Still chugging along. A buddy in my class Thursday night told me he wanted to get rid of Thome because he was only hitting .241 (eyes roll.) Interleague is pretty much over (I know 1 Cub game left), so he doesnt have to ride the pine. Seems healthy. Stay that way. 

1b Konerko-.286/.341/.487 Battled thumb issues and dipped a little but doing his job to complete the Sox 3 headed monster. I am used to Konerko improving in the 2nd half. Its really just perception as his career numbers are .830 before/.859 after. I suspect with the thumb and his age the best we can hope for is that he hangs on. That and continuing to pick up throws in the dirt......

Q - A spot will forever be reserved for him. He is afterall Q.

2b Getz- .248/.306/.346 Still nothing to write home about but he did improve. June OPS was .717

3B Beckham the Savior- .267/.353/.387 Oh boy. Ozzie wasn't thrilled with a home call up or BlackJack. But the numbers back him up. Beckham raked away from the home pressure. OPS 1.189.

SS Alexei- .265/.319/.398 He still doesn't entirely understand its okay to take pitches with Pods on 1st but with a.826 OPS in the 2nd slot I won't complain. 7 homers in June and 10 walks. He had 18 all last season.Somewhere Joe Sheehan and Keith Law cry.

OF Pods- .313/.368/.411 What the hell can I say? I mentioned earlier I just hope the deal with the devil is for the whole season. Seriously he and Alexei have formed a competent 1-2. Been awhile since you heard the leadoff blah blah huh?

C AJ- .294/.327/443 Umm AJ, you now walk less than Alexei. Just saying.

OF BAnderson- .244/.328/.325 Dude where is the power? It took me a long time to let go of Rex Grossman. I find myself in a similar situation. Im sorry I can't defend him anymore. The defense is not "THAT" great. He definitely should lose abs vs right handers and is prime target number 1 for upgrade.

Bench Fields- After losing his job Fields put up a .903 OPS in a limited role. Power and patience. Hmmm is that his future? Better as a reserve? I would trade him now.

There are plenty of good trends from an offensive standpoint, that said, a .701 OPS at home simply will not do. A return to just average home production would be very nice.

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Pitching

Team  ERA/FIP 4.05 (5th in AL)/4.16 (5th also)

K/9-7.20, BB/9-3.37 & HR/9- 1.05 (rising but still avg which is okay considering the park)

Buerhle  ERA 3.26/FIP4.20

Danks    ERA 4.08/FIP 4.07

Floyd      ERA 4.12/FIP3.65

Contrea ERA 5.19/FIP 4.37

Richard  ERA 4.48/FIP 4.68

Colon     ERA 4.23/FIP5.65

 

39 Quality starts (tied for 5th in AL)

The starting pitchers remain very good lately. Its been the team's rock. Since that Richard start in Toronto the starting staff has a 3.04 ERA for 41 games. For June the total staff put up a 3.58 ERA.

Buerhle- Unfortunately he walked more batters then we were used to this season. Over 3 a game in June, but nothing over the top. Still having a great season and likely all star. A 6 WAR is unlikely but 5 is in reach and he continues to earn his contract.

Danks- Great June. Seemed to put things together. Raised HR rate but limited batters to a .193 avg in the month. If he could only play the Cubs every day.......

Floyd- Damn. We knew Floyd had some bad luck in the first part of the season in regards to hits. We also knew he was walking too many batters. Fine. He just just decided to eliminate them both (lol.) A .94 whip in June and pitching like a number 1. Okay let's not get carried away, but as Jim pointed out at Sox Machine:

"Here's what does it for me:

             IP                       H        BB       K         ERA            WHIP

IP	H	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
76 1/3	52	21	60	2.00	0.96

That line represents the combined Junes for Gavin Floyd and John Danks.  Floyd saw Danks' seven shutout innings against the Cubs on Sunday and raised him two more outs, blanking the Indians for 7 2/3 innings in the White Sox's 6-3 victory over Cleveland."

Man that's good.

Contreras- Jose asked to be sent to the minors so he could figure some things out. Mission accomplished. 4 starts and most of us don't know what to think. The guy had no control when he left. Now he walks 1 a game? I expected Contreras to give the Sox a good stretch. How long will this last? June ERA 2.15/FIP 3.35.

Richard- Saved himself a little yesterday but wasn't good at all in June 6.04 ERA and failed to eat innings. If he stays in the rotation (he is likely to continue the pattern.) The good news is we are talking about the 5th starter. Perspective Tdogg, perspective.

The Big 4

Jenks         ERA 3.21/FIP 4.01  9.0k/9  82.6%strand

Linebrink   ERA 2.17/FIP 4.11   9.31k/9 82.4% strand

Dotel          ERA 3.23/FIP 3.83    11.45 k/9 81.8% strand

Thornton    ERA 2.93/FIP 2.98  10.86 k/9 81.8% strand

The overall stats are fine but June was not kind to the group. Much of it was regression to the mean but it still sucks. Thorton became human. FIPs are up a bit again. The K rates remain solid. Strand rates decreased. We noticed. Runs definitely crossed the plate late in games. Linebrink's line is misleading and not in a good way. He mildly improved this last week but a 1.030 OPS against in tie ball games is insane. For a 4 million reliever that is. I don't want to overeact because as I said regression was expected. The starting staff limits their work and they should be good to go for the 2nd half, assuming no trades. Sox Machine has great thoughts on the bullpen.

The rest-

DJ Carrasco- ERA 2.96/FIP 2.76 That bases empty stat is huge. Somebody email that to Ozzie.

Gobble- ERA 8.18/FIP 7.41 Last month I wrote, "My mom said if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all." rinse, repeat. And don't leave him in for an inning. Goodness.

Poreda- ERA 0.00/FIP 1.84 Should he really be here now?

Lately chinks in the armor but still a good bullpen

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Defense

.692 defensive efficiency.

8th in AL

Overall team

UZR -10.3

UZR/150 -2.2

Here is the team summary.

Konerko (3.7) continues to be the top White Sox defender. Lately he even passes Chicago Pete's eyeball test. I know I've taken some grief by pointing out the White Sox defense had improved a little and been decent. They proceeded the same day to make 5 errors. Ouch. Ozzie finally snapped on Alexei who's tended to become far too lazy too often. This team makes way too many errors and giving up an average of .5 run a game in unearned runs is not cute. But (always a but huh?), the efficiency improvement is real and definitely contributes to pitcher success. Keep in mind, prior to improvement the defense was probably castrophic. Minor note Getz held steady.

Fangraphs has its 1/2 year avgs up.

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Team Base running.

Per BP the team’s Equivalent Base Running  Runs (EqBrr)

The White Sox rank 17th with an team score of-2.66615.

Team leader Getz 3.18 (very good.) No one else is over 1, though Pods is close with +.96

Team anchors Thome -2.72 & Anderson  -2.54 (again no excuse for this and further reason I'm off his bandwagon.)

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A week and half ago I felt the Sox would be 3 out at the end of June and even by the time Tampa rolls in.

I don't think this team repeats the weak start stuff this month. Critical stretch against the Central division. Let it begin.