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Or so goes the argument. Whether or not one believes that the physical and mental effort required to throw a no-hitter/perfect game causes poor performance immediately thereafter, Mark Buehrle has performed poorly in his six starts since his July 23 perfect game: 37.2 IP, 54 H, 7 BB, 12 K, and 26 RA. As is apparent from that line, control hasn't been a problem as his walk rate remains low. What else is apparent from that line, though, is that command has been a problem. His K rate is low and his hit rate is insanely high. He's been throwing strikes but they really haven't been good ones.

With the White Sox embarking on a treacherous 11 game road trip against the Red Sox, Yankees, Twins and Cubs they also need to ride their best pitchers. Unfortunately, it's hard to ride them when they aren't performing like the best. And with the offense scoring 1 to 4 runs, it's also hard to overcome less than stellar pitching performances.

With the loss, the club is three games back (pending the completion of the Tigers-A's game). The teams they'll be facing are good so the White Sox could very well find themselves out of the race by the end of the trip. The offense is going to need to produce. Jose and Freddy are going to need to turn back the clock to 2005. And Buehrle is going to need to turn the clock back to July.

Runs?

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Battled.

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Despite the result, John Danks did not have a good game. As those who were watching the game know, it didn't look like he was going to make it out of the third due to the return of the circulation problem Danks has been having with his left index finger. As is probably intuitive, it is essential for a pitcher to be able to feel the ball and be able to know how much pressure he is using with his fingers on his various pitches. Danks was obviously struggling with the "feel" on his pitches and it showed in the six walks he issued. As the game went on, both his feel and the Orioles' desire to swing increased, which permitted Danks to end up throwing 6.1 innings. Gordon Beckham also had a couple very nice plays on what should have been Brian Roberts hits. On another night, however, this game could have gotten ugly real quickly.

What is getting ugly slowly is Ozzie's need to have an outfield rotation. Prior to tonight's game, Scott Podsednik in the last month has a super line of .255/.284/.347. Is he that bad? No, probably not. However, he's also not as good as he was during those magic pixie dust halcyon days from mid-May to mid-July. Alex Rios did not need a day off. He had Thursday off. Rios is a better baseball player in just about every facet of the game - including, I might remind those who love speed, in stealing bases (20 for 23 v. 19 for 28).

I understand Ozzie's desire to rotate players in order to keep them fresh. However, now is the time for which you kept them fresh. A day off for players who just had a day off two days ago is not necessary. If the White Sox are going to win this division, they need to ride their best players.

Daniel Hudson via Sox Machine.

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This week:

• Daniel Hudson had a decent, though inefficient, outing: 5 IP, 6 H, 2 BB, 4 K, 1 WP while also permitting four stolen bases. Ben Badler has an extensive scouting report on this outing (Jon Link report, too). The Tribune profiled Hudson and Kevin Goldstein declared Hudson his minor league breakout pitcher of the year - though don't expect to see him on the South Side until mid-2010.
• Jordan Danks has not played since August 14. While not officially placed on the DL, presumably to keep him eligible for the Arizona Fall League, it has been reported that he is indeed injured. Here's some video of him from Sox Machine. (Update: Danks will be back tonight.)
• Jake Peavy dampened expectations for his big league return with both a mediocre outing and his own words: 4 IP, 5 H, 0 BB, 5 K, 1 HBP. He threw 67 pitches, 44 for strikes. His next start is Sunday Monday, again for Charlotte.
• Brent Morel has continued his late season surge and was voted best defensive 3B in the Carolina League. .285/.343/.470.
• Wrapping up the draft, the White Sox did not sign anyone else. The team will receive a compensatory third round pick in next year's draft for failing to sign Bryan Morgado. The Sox signed ten of their twelve picks in the first ten rounds and spent $3,892,100 on them, which is about middle of the road.
• The "18"year old Juan Silverio continues to rake in the DSL: .321/.366/.547. Others putting up good numbers include Daurys Mercedes (.319/.410/.473), Julio Alcala (.295/.392/.454), and Darwin Matos (69 IP, 59 H, 34 BB, 82 K). The DSL's season ended on Friday.
• Tyler Flowers took a foul ball off his hand and missed most of the week. .278/.337/.430 in Charlotte.
• You can expect that the rosters for the Arizona Fall League will be announced next week. Last year saw the likes of Gordon Beckham, Jordan Danks, Aaron Poreda and Carlos Torres participate. The eligibility rules are straightforward. If I were assigning for the organization, and without regard to the position constraints and so on which inevitably arise during the "draft" process, the players I would send are: Tyler Flowers; Jordan Danks; Dayan Viciedo (foreign); C.J. Retherford; Daniel Hudson; Jon Link; and John Ely. The White Sox have usually sent four pitchers but the depth in position talent is greater and I don't really see a more deserving pitcher, though Charlie Shirek may get the opportunity based upon the numbers game.
• Jared Mitchell: .304/.427/.461. 18% BB rate, 34.1% K rate.
• Bristol roundup: Trayce Thompson: .216/.255/.255; Leighton Pangilinan: .304/.322/.411; Miguel Gonzalez: .273/.353/.463; David Holmberg: 30 IP, 31 H, 17 BB, 29 K; Matt Heidenreich: 17 IP, 10 H, 11 BB, 9 K.

As always, check the White Sox Minor League Update fanpost on the right sidebar for daily updates and commentary, and to participate in the weekly poll. If you're interested in White Sox minor league updates, follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SouthSidelarry.

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_I_*_I_

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Jose Contreras did his thing, pulling a random well-pitched out of his...

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I made a comment at the beginning of yesterday's abortion of a comments section, that it felt a lot like the '04 season. While the focus of that particular comment was about the mid-season trades (for Freddy Garcia and Jose Contreras) that seemed as much for the future as the present, the parallel continues as the two take the mound this week against the Royals.

Garcia became the 9th different pitcher to start for the White Sox this season, which is the most since that '04 campaign that featured such luminaries as Arnie Munoz, Felix Diaz, Jason Grilli and Danny Wright. With Jake Peavy and possibly Dan Hudson waiting in the wings, the Sox are virtually assured of reaching double digit starting pitchers on the season.

The stat is noteworthy because the Ozzie Guillen-led Sox have become known for their starter durability. Since '05 the White Sox have used the least number of starters in baseball, and continually ranked 1st or 2nd in innings pitched by their starters. It's arguably the biggest reason they've been competitive (with the exception of '07) in the Guillen era. 

Anyway, Garcia made his return to the big leagues Tuesday nearly 11 months after helping the Sox extend their season as a member of the Tigers, and the results were as to be expected. Garcia simply doesn't have major league stuff. The truth is that he could have been hit around a lot harder. He was leaving his fastball up (where it was surprisingly effective) and kept hanging his breaking balls, eventually handing over a 3-run lead to the hapless Royals. But he left the Sox in a position to win, which is all that I could have asked for (though I obviously have low expectations).

• This was the second time in a week that the Sox had a baserunner thrown out at home on a would-be sac-fly in the middle innings of what turned out to be a 1-run loss. Both games featured tons of baserunners in the early innings for Sox against the opposing starter only to be completely shut down by the bullpen.
• Billy Butler's 3 doubles gave him 41 on the year, which is more than any two White Sox who started the season on the major league roster have COMBINED. It also puts him with an outside shot to join that exclusive club I noted Beckham had a shot at next year. Kid's pretty good.
• The Royals got away with a couple things you can only do as a last place team on Tuesday
  
  • They sent Alex Gordon to the minors, where he has always raked, to, I don't know, avoid accruing service time, maybe. They might be able to squeeze out another year of club-control with the move.
  • Trey Hillman stuck with Robinson Tejada for 3 innings of set-up work, which is the type of thing you can only do when you're playing for only today. Ozzie can't run Matt Thornton out there for 3 innings if he's mowing people down. Ozzie wants to have him available for the next day, should he be needed. Not that I'm complaining, I probably would have done the same thing if I was Hillman, which is the first time you've been able to read those words on this blog. 
• The Sox are not without their own roster shenanigans, moving Dewayne Wise to the DL instead of the unemployment office to make room for Garcia. With their being less than 15 days until rosters expand, all the Sox needed to do to keep him on the roster was invent an injury, which was simple enough considering his poor play and shoulder separation earlier this year.

This is NOT /b/

With the comments section to our last recap devolving into a level of discourse not seen outside of a town hall meeting on health care reform, serving as further evidence of the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory,  and resulting in not one, but two separate emails from the Powers That Be, who have NEVER emailed me concerning site content before, I think it's time to address the tone of the site. I don't exactly run the tightest ship here, so if anyone is to be blamed for things getting out of hand, it's me.

That being said, this is not /b/, or as it's otherwise known, the asshole of the internet. I'm not easily shocked or offended, and am extremely lenient with the ban hammer, which has led some to take advantage. I've never been interested in reading every comment to monitor for good taste, and don't intend to do so in the future. It was always my hope that the community would be able to police itself.

Unfortunately, things got out of hand yesterday. Rather than trot out a bunch of ad hoc rules to make this place conform to the ideals of your typically over-moderated site, I'm only introducing one along with asking you all to tone it down a bit. And I know you know what I'm talking about because of how many comments there were about the content of the last thread. If you think you're over the line, you probably are.

New Rule: All pictures must contain a subject line, which serves as a handy self-moderation tool for all users. You can simply click the subject to make a borderline image disappear. There were plenty of pleas for this today, and I don't think it's too much to ask to keep the site both SFW, readable, and just plain tolerable. 

I realize that it's easy to forget the subject line after a year plus without it being a requirement. As such, I won't be handing out any bans for isolated acts of forgetfulness, though there will probably be plenty of warnings.

I'm sure the Powers That Be want me to come up with more hard and fast posting guidelines, and I'm absolutely positive they'll be reading this post and your comments. Let's prove to them we can have nice things. I don't want to be called into the principal's office again because my classroom has gotten out of hand.

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Seen this movie before. Halfway home, Sox down 1.

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Kenny Williams wasn't happy Monday as he talked to reporters in not-quite-off-the-record fashion. He felt like the White Sox had given away winnable games on their recent West Coast trip, winnable games that could have put them in  first place. And even though the Sox came out on the winning end of a back-and-forth game, it's hard to imagine he felt much better 6 hours later. 

The Sox were still giving games away -- What other purpose does Scott Linebrink have? -- but the Royals have perfected the craft through years of organizational ineptitude. 

There might not be a more hollow victory all season.

• Linebrink gets the win after giving up two 2-out walks and a first pitch, game-tying homer to Mike Jacobs
• Scott Podsednik gets CSN Player of the Game honors on a night, like most others, that he made you want to... trail off without finishing your thought so that your post is as incomplete as his game.

It's almost as if the baseball gods are just fucking with us. They have to be. If I had bothered to write anything about the weekend, I would have commented about the proper usage of Bobby Jenks in a tie game on the road in the bottom of the 9th inning. But we all know how that worked out, which might help reinforce (to Ozzie and others) the notion that Jenks shouldn't be used in high-leverage non-save situations. Which would be a horrible conclusion to make, especially given the alternatives.

Anyway, I suppose a lot of us feel a lot like Kenny. This whole season has been one long tease. The division is right there for the taking. It will probably only take one 5-1 or 6-1 week to take over the division. But the Sox are running out of weeks. And even though most of the games have been exciting when viewed in a vacuum, collectively they've made this Sox season one of the most frustrating in recent memory... even in victory.

More photos » John Smierciak - AP

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Halfway home, Sox down 1