I would say that Mark Buehrle and the White Sox just got unlucky on Monday night, but the truth is they had nearly as many cheap hits and extra outs as the Angels but couldn't avoid the rally-killing double plays. In fact, I would argue that double plays --the Sox hit into 4 to the Angels 0-- were the entire difference in the game.

The Sox took an early 3-0 lead in the second after the Angels were unable to turn a double play on Joe Crede, who was somehow credited with a hit on what would prove to be the first of about 4 different questionable scoring decisions. While there are 2 errors listed in the box score --the Anaheim official scorer apparently only hands out errors if the ball leaves the field of play-- I can think of at least 4 more shoulda-been-an-errors off the top of my head. Juan Uribe had two, both of which looked like easy double plays, and Orlando Cabrera added another.

Buehrle didn't get hit hard. Only the Vladamir Guerrero homer, which followed one of Uribe's botched DPs, was really tagged, but poor defense, a number of weak hits, and the aforementioned bizarre scoring makes it look like a terrible outing in the box score. As I mentioned in the gamethread, Buehrle entered the night with the 3rd worst DER (balls in play converted into outs) of any American league pitcher at .652. By my calculations, that defensive efficiency dropped to .636, which would put him within an eyelash of the worst mark in the league. To quote Hawk, he's wearin' it.

In what was a microcosm of the game, the Sox allowed what proved to be the winning runs in a bizarre 6th inning. Buehrle had just come off a rough 5th that saw him give up the Vlad HR after the shoulda-been DP, and a 2-out Garret Anderson RBI triple --Swisher needs to stop coating his throwing hand in non-stick cooking spray between innings-- one batter after Robb Quinlan hit a Baltimore chop infield single. Buehrle struck out the first two batters of the 6th and induced a soft ground ball to third base that a charging Joe Crede threw away. The next 5 batters would reach base, plating 4 runs after what should have been the 3rd out.

Here's how it went down: Buehrle gave up a double before Ehren Wasserman --Did I mention I was worried about Wassermann?-- gave up a rope and nubber, followed by a couple of solid hits off Boone Logan before they could finally record the final out, a strikeout. They struck out the side, but an error, an unfortunate bounce, and some generally poor relief work finally sunk the Sox hopes.

The Sox are just finding ways to lose right now. There was blame to be thrown around to every part of the team once again Monday. So as they sit in third place a game below .500 it's time to ask; unlucky or just plain bad?

Orlando Cabrera provided all of the White Sox offense Friday night in Toronto; 2 singles. With a collective 2-for-29 day at the plate, the Sox continued their quest to match the feeble '07 attack, lowering their average to new league low of .237.

The only blemish on Mark Buehrle's night came after what should have been a 1-2-3 first inning. Joe Crede's error extended the inning, and allowed a Vernon Wells double and a Shannon Stewart single --the two hitters entered the night a combined 27-63 against Buehrle-- to provide the winning margin... in the first inning.

I would say Buehrle deserved better, but he should be getting used to this north of the border. He took a complete game loss in his last start in Toronto, allowing only 2 hits, both solo HRs, en route to another 2-0 loss. Buehrle's outing was something of a rarity. It was the first time since late 2003 that a pitcher got a complete game loss while allowing no earned runs and only the 12th since the strike in '94. The last time a White Sox pitcher was handed a similar loss was Mike Sirotka on 7/23/00.

The only time the Sox advanced a runner past first base was in the Seventh when Quentin, Crede, and Anderson worked consecutive 2-out walks ahead of Juan Uribe's weak flyout. In other words, Marcum'd is Canadian for Sonnanstine'd.

Cabrera had himself a day, not only recording the Sox only two hits, but starting a beautiful double play with a sliding stop and glove flip on a Vernon Wells ball back up the middle.

* * * * *

No hitter surprised me more over the season's first few weeks than Jermaine Dye. He had a forgettable spring training, and looked terrible doing so, striking out 21 times in 70 at-bats while walking just 3 times. He had the type of spring you'd expect out of a 39-year old slugger trying hang around for one more season. So it was a pleasant surprise to see him sporting a .316/.369/.513 with a 12/6 K/BB ratio after 72 regular season at-bats.

Since he took a few games off with a sore groin, however, it's been back to the old-man, washed up looking Dye. In his first three games back, Dye is 0-12 with 7 Ks, including some swings that had to leave even Juan Uribe wondering why Dye was swinging.

It wouldn't be a big concern if Dye hadn't batted .219/.276/.412 while battling a variety of leg issues over his first 300 plate appearances last season. But since his effectiveness is obviously blunted by nagging injury issues, it might not be such a terrible idea to convince him to take a 15-day DL trip and give Jerry Owens a shot. That is if Dye continues to look like the '05 version of Sammy Sosa, let's say for the rest of the weekend.

This one had all the makings of the White Sox first 3-game losing streak of the season. Gavin Floyd had a third inning that evoked images of Javy's second inning earlier this week. He didn't seem to want anything to do with the strike zone, and would stake the Yankees to an early 3-0 lead. And then the rains came.

Thank god they came. For the series the White Sox seemed unable to push runs across against the Yankees starter, or the two aces at the end of the Yankees pen. But the rain knocked Yanks starter Phil Hughes out of the game, and gave the Sox offense a crack at the ass end of their bullpen.

Sure enough, the Sox rolled up another big inning, 5 runs in the 4th off Ross Ohlendorf (pronounced Nick Masset). It would have been 6 if not for a would-be Alexei Ramirez triple finding the right field seats resulting in a ground rule double and Carlos Quentin on 3rd base. The Gentleman Masher later added a Walloped Tater to finish the Sox scoring against the spare parts of the Yankee pen.

Floyd would take his lead and generally pitch well. But much like Javy on Wednesday, the Yankees mounted a lightning quick 2-out rally to cut the lead to one and make it a battle of the bullpens for the remaining 3 innings.

You can tell that Ozzie is still trying to get used to his new bullpen. I've yet to criticize Ozzie's bullpen usage this season in part for the same reason.

• Bobby Jenks is the closer
• Boone Logan is the top lefty
• Scott Linebrink is the top set-up man

All other roles are up for grabs, and any move to call on the remaining 4 members can be called into question in a tight game. With the Yankees running out a predominantly left-handed lineup, Ozzie tried to steal an inning with Matt Thornton, but a 2-out single and a walk forced Ozzie to call on Linebrink with the right-handed Morgan Ensberg due up. You know how that worked out.

Ozzie then tried to get multiple innings out of Logan, in part because he breezed through his first inning of work and, as is becoming quite redundant, because the Yankees lineup is littered with lefties. But when Logan had trouble getting his second out in the 9th, Ozzie made the call for the big man, a move we've begged for constantly on this blog. Even DJ tried to convince Hawk why it's in the Sox best interest to have their best reliever on the mound in the highest leverage situation. He didn't put it like that, but at least he's trying.

Jenks coaxed a double play out of Jorge Posada, and looked like he would be available to go in the 10th. The two resident ManCrushes of this site had other ideas.

With one out and Joba Chamberlain locked on cruise control, Quentin, who was in the midst of a terrible night at the plate, battled to get a bit a hanger, which he was able to rope for a double off the left field wall. Four pitches later, Joe Crede, who you might have heard is clutch, buckled his knees and poked a flat 1-2 slider into center field for the game winning single.

I don't want to overstate the importance of a single game, but if that game ends in a loss the last week plus would have had a very 2007-like feel to it. Avoiding the sweep, putting up a fight even when the bullpen blows a lead; this is a different team. I can't say they're a great team, or even a team that will stick around for the rest of the season in the AL Central, but at least they're better, more entertaining, than last season.

I think for the rest of the season we shall refer to games like this--where the opposing right-handed starter expertly changes speeds and hits his spots--as being Sonnanstined. Mike Mussina doesn't have much in the way of stuff anymore, but he made up for on Wednesday night by throwing strikes--good strikes, on the corners--and mixing in some junk. A 65 MPH curveball here, a knuckleball there, 86 MPH with movement on the black, the White Sox hitters were perplexed.

Give them an Edwin Jackson, a Dana Eveland, a Daniel Cabrera, they'll mount a credible offensive attack. But if you've got a Sonnanstine, a Lance Broadway with control, these Sox are probably in for a long night.

Joe Crede and Carlos Quentin provided all of the Sox offense against Moose, each with a solo-shot, the former on a poorly located fastball and the latter on a hanging 73 MPH breaking ball. The rest of the Sox combined to reach base just twice in 7 innings against the veteran hurler.

For the second straight night, the Sox provided some excitement by destroying the non-Joba/Mo part of the Yankees bullpen. But for the second straight night, Girardi smartly called on one of his aces in the hole to put out the fire and end the Sox hope of a comback.

The loss is the Sox' 5th straight versus the Yankees at USCF, and their 7th in their last 8 meetings on the south side. It's the Sox first losing streak since back-to-back losses on the 9th and 11th of the month.

They've played 11 games since those two losses, during which I've routinely lauded their play, going 6-5 in the interim. That's not exactly tearing it up for a team that's "playing well." Perhaps it's time to reconsider that notion.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Javier Vazquez' inconsistent outing on the night. At times, Javy was attacking hitters and having easy innings. At others, like the second inning, for instance, he seemed like he wanted nothing to do with the strike zone and paid for it. Then, just for good measure and to put the game just out of reach, he was hit hard as he threw lots of strikes to end his outing.

* * * * *

My favorite part of the broadcast--when I wasn't tuning out Hawk and DJ as usual--was when Jorge Posada hit his third double of the game. Hawk made a comment, which was met with silence from DJ, about the hit "sounding weird." I can understand why DJ was silent, as it seemed like Hawk was insinuating that Posada was corking his bat. After a measured pause, DJ asked him in directly indirect fashion "did you think that bat had a weird hollow sound?" Hawk immediately laughed it off, No, that's not what he meant. He knows that sound, chuckle.

But what I really liked from the exchange was a few pitches later when DJ asked Hawk "Have you ever seen that show Mythbusters?" He would then go on to explain their baseball myths episode, and how when they tested corked bats they found no difference (or a negative effect, I don't remember now) in ball speed off the bat. DJ, expressing exactly the same concern I had with their conclusion, said it's not about ball speed off the bat, it's about the speed of a bat itself. After all, you can get a 31 ounce bat around faster than a 32 ouncer.

There's also something of a psychological effect to the corked, slightly lighter bat. It's the same reason you swing with doughnut on your bat in the on deck circle. If the bat feels lighter in the box than it does normally, you've got a better shot at getting around on some major league heat, or fighting off those tough breaking pitches.

* * * * *

We had a major outage during the game, as I'm sure most of you are aware. I'm not exactly privvy to the details of the outage, other than to say it was a problem with our server structure. All I can say is that I'm positive we have a number of people working hard to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Instead of recapping the shellacking the White Sox handed to the Tigers for the second straight game, I thought I would look back at the first two weeks of the season as a whole.

The Sox opened up the season with a pair of losses to Cleveland, allowing 17 runs in the first two games of the season. It looked like it was going to be another season of S.O.S, Same Old Sox.

But these Sox bare only the smallest of resemblance to the '07 Sox. Observe.

• In 11 games, they have attempted 1 stolen base, fewest in MLB. That steal came in the first inning of Game 1. That means they've gone over 100 innings (101 to be exact) without attempting a stolen base.
• In 11 games, they've attempted 2 sacrifice bunts (one successful), none since Game 4.
• They employ a leadoff hitter for whom speed is his 5th best tool, but who has posted a .378 OBP since the start of the '05 season.
• In their one game with Swisher on the bench, they batted not-quite-a-rookie who boasts a .413 minor league OBP, and similar speed as his 5th best tool status.
• The prospect of the 1.5 tool Jerry Owens getting significant playing time in center field and leading off continue to shrink by the day. Owens is 0-8 at the plate in his two rehab starts thus far.
• The two young starters have each carried a no-hitter beyond the 5th inning to help snap a 2-game losing streak that felt longer thanks to off-days.
• The 4 pitchers who make up the go-to portion of the bullpen (Jenks, Linebrink, Dotel, and Logan) have combined for an ERA of 2.75 in 16.1 innings.

I could go through all sorts of offensive stats where the Sox rank first in the AL, but I don't think listing them is particularly useful. There are a number of guys hitting well above their true ability, and it almost goes without saying that they won't continue to score at a rate of over 6 runs a game, at least not unless Pierzynski and Crede can continue to channel Ted Williams and George Brett, respectively.

What is important are those first few bullet points. I never understood the notion that plugging in a couple of speedsters makes the Sox a more dangerous club. Sure it would be nice if Thome, Konerko, Pierzynski, Crede, and Dye ran faster. But you'd have to overhaul the entire team for that speed to even approach a team with above-average speed. The Sox are a plodding, station-to-station club, an Earl Weaver 3-run homer crew.

Adding a couple light hitting "adept handlers of the bat wasn't going to change anything. That would be like putting a spoiler on a Hummer and expecting it to get better gas mileage. The Sox resisted overhauling their core -- They'll be that lumbering Hummer for at least another two seasons -- so it's best to trick this Hummer out with some truly complimentary accessories.

It's not that I've ever been against adding speed to the lineup; I've just always wanted it added in the form of multi-talented players. For almost the entire existence of this blog, I've been clamoring for "a multi-tooled .800 OPS outfielder." With the addition of Nick Swisher and Carlos Quentin, it appears the Sox have found not one, but two of them.

They're a far better offense for it.

Gavin Floyd overcame some early-game shakiness to put together a nice outing Saturday, making a run at a no-hitter and eclipsing his 2007 win total in the process.

It looked like it was going to be a rough one for Floyd in the first inning. He walked The Unsinkable Clete Thomas after AJ Pierzynski dropped a 3-2 foul tip. Thomas would immediately steal second, and move into third on Placido Polanco's flyout. A nice pick and throw home from Joe Crede when Thomas went home on the contact play saved a run from blemishing Floyd's line. Carlos Quentin crashed into the outfield wall to catch a near-homer from Magglio Ordonez to close an eventful, unscored upon first.

The hard outs and walks would keep on coming through the first few innings. Nick Swisher made what is becoming his trademark defensive play, a basket catch on the warning track in the third, and Jermaine Dye had to run one down in the gap in the second. Floyd used double plays to wipe out walks in the third and fourth, so it's little wonder I hadn't realized he had a no-hitter working up to that point.

Floyd might not have known either.

He must have gotten a glimpse of the scoreboard as he took the mound in the fifth, because he started to put hitters away the rest of the game. There was one good drive by Pudge in the 5th, but other than that, the Tigers didn't mount much of anything against Floyd until Edgar Renteria's bloop single broke up the no-hitter in the 8th.

Floyd is now 3-0, with a 2.43 ERA in 37 innings against the Tigers. His two quality starts to begin the season give him 7 in his last 8 starts dating back to last season.

Scott Linebrink needed just two pitches to erase Renteria's single, recording the White Sox third double play turned of the game. Unofficially, as in I'm not sure this stat is 100% accurate, that gives them 19 on the year in 10 games. I tried querying Baseball-Reference's Play Index in every way I know how to find the Sox season record for DP's turned, but came up empty. Though I do agree with Larry, I remember it being from the 2000 team (189 is my guess). [Update by The Cheat, 04/12/08 6:21 PM CDT ]: Larry found the answer, 190 double plays turned in 2000.

Orlando Cabrera's solo homerun was the offense for most of game. But when Justin Verlander provided some free bases in the form of a walk and two HBPs in the 8th, the Sox demonstrated their renewed ability to break a game open. Pierzynski, Quentin, and Juan Uribe provided the two-out damage to turn a nail-biting pitcher's duel into a laugher, and the third time the Tigers have been shut out this season.

* * * * *

Jerry Owens is scheduled to begin his rehab stint tonight in Charlotte. I'm taking this as good news because Alexei Ramirez hasn't received a start since game 2 -- not that I'm complaining, but I'd rather see him getting regular work in Charlotte. And the quickest way to accomplish that feat is to have Owens taking his spot on the bench.

Not much went right for the White Sox and John Danks on Wednesday night. Danks was pulled with 1 out in the third when he forced Ozzie's second trip to the mound of the inning by walking in a run ushering in Masset time.

Danks failed to make it through the lineup twice, facing only 16 batters in his outing. Of those 16, he walked 3 and struck out two. Simple math tells us that 11 balls were but into play, with 7 of them finding a soft spot in the defense. All 7 hits Danks allowed were singles.

Rounding up Danks outing is a simple one. He was falling behind hitters, and paying for it. When he wasn't falling behind hitters, he was unable to put them away. The Twins didn't really hit him hard, but he was visibly out of sorts with the number of piranhas circling the bases.

Nick Masset came on in "relief" and quickly turned a bad situation worse, clearing the the bases of inherited runners and allowing the games first extra-base hit. After limiting damage for a few innings, allowing the Sox to briefly make a game of it with solo homers by Nick Swisher, Paul Konerko, and Joe Crede, Masset blew up in his fourth inning of work. He walked Delmon Young -- No easy task. Delmon entered the day without a walk in his last 97 trips to the plate -- after being ahead 0-2, then gave up a grand slam to Jason Kubel on the next pitch.

The Twins had scored just 23 runs in their first 8 games (2.75 R/G), yet managed to score 5 runs in an inning twice Wednesday. Not surprisingly, Masset was involved in both innings.

Trivially, the Sox have yet to have a lead after the 3rd or 4th inning this season.

* * * * *

Ozzie Guillen has remained true to his word. He's got it turned up to 11, continuing to call out umpire and Sopranos reject Phil Cuzzi.

"I don't like that guy behind the plate, and I'm going to let him know," said Guillen, during his pregame meeting with the media. "It's one reason if you don't like me as a man and what I do, I respect that. But if you don't like me, and all of a sudden you're going to take it out on my players, you're wrong.

"That's unprofessional, and I just let him know I didn't like him the first day I saw him, and I think he feels the same way about me. Every time he's behind the plate, we might have a problem. We might. We have. I think the last couple times behind the plate, we have a problem."

Ozzie must have known the Sox were gonna stink up the joint Wednesday, so he decided to take the heat off his players. That Ozzie, he's sly like a, well, like a something.

* * * * *

Andy Sisco, obtained from the Royals before the '07 season in exchange for Ross Gload, will undergo Tommy John surgery. Of all the moves Kenny Williams made last off-season, the Sisco deal was on the one I liked best. I thought acquiring a high-upside arm in exchange for a perennnially underutilized career back-up was a great move. Of course, I was basing that assumption off Sisco, who lacked in minor-league seasoning, spending all of 2007 in the Charlotte rotation. The Sox put him on the 2007 opening day roster over Boone Logan, and he never settled into a role.

Sisco was always a bit of a long-shot to succeed, but the Sox, like the Royals before them, never seemed to be focused on the long-term with Sisco. With the injury, Sisco is probably done with the Sox, and maybe done with baseball altogether. He'll be out of options next year, so if the Sox elect to keep him (doubtful) he'll have to go straight from the DL to the bigs with only a rehab assignment to get things straightened out.

In short, adios Andy.

In what has already become something of a trend here in the early season, I'll open this recap with another It's Not 2007 Anymore type factoid. Today's: The White Sox 5-game winning streak is their longest since a similar 5-game streak August 10-14, 2006, which also included a 3-game sweep of Detroit.

That 5-game streak put the Sox 25 games over .500, and still 5.5 games back of the division leading Tigers, so I won't get too far ahead of myself here. Three games above .500 is a whole lot better than three games under, but even the '07 Sox managed to stay sufficiently afloat at four games over until Memorial Day.

When Tango came to us asking for help with his Clutch Project, I openly wondered how the rest of you would rate the post-surgery Joe Crede. There was little doubt in my mind that pre-surgery Crede would have been the player most SSSers wanted at the plate with the game on the line. A poor spring erased my optimism regarding Crede's return such that I voted him among the Sox hitters I wanted at the plate, though not necessarily the hitter; so I wondered how that spring effected the rest of you. Turns out Crede did end up being the Sox choice for Tango's Clutch Project.

Crede may have answered some of his doubters with a 2-out grand slam off of one of the toughest right-handed relievers in baseball for his second late-inning, go-ahead homer in a week.

In truth, Crede hasn't been swinging the bat well. His doubters, myself included, have noted Crede's lack of consistently hard contact thus far, including 8 pop-ups in the first 7 games. His at-bats certainly don't look like those of a batter who currently owns a 1.100 OPS. But we'll certainly take 'em. Being a supporter and a doubter is not mutually exclusive.

* * * * *

Continuing a theme from last night, the Sox lineup just feels so much better with Nick Swisher and Carlos Quentin in the outfield.

I know Pierzynski isn't going to OPS 1.400 for the rest of the season, nor is Crede going to 1.100, or JD 1.250, or Q nearly 1.000. I also know that Paul Konerko and Jim Thome aren't going to perform as poorly over the whole season as they have to start the year. The additions of Swisher and Quentin have made a huge difference to the Sox lineup, as evidenced by their ability to score runs in bunches -- second straight game with a 5-run inning -- without the need to over-rely on Thome and Konerko.

Ozzie has said that he intends to leadoff Swisher "for the foreseeable future."

"You have a leadoff hitter who can run, that's a plus," Guillen said. "But to be a leadoff hitter, you've got to get on base. You can't steal first.

"I'd rather be a guy who gets on base. [Swisher is] hitting [.261] and all of a sudden he gets on base six times in a row by walks, and we need people on base when you have [ Orlando] Cabrera and [ Jim] Thome behind you. You get on base, you're going to score a lot of runs."

Sounds good to me. While batting Swisher first is unconventional, and might waste a bit of his slugging ability, it's certainly a step up from what we've had since Ray Durham left town. It also seems to indicate that he's looking at the Swisher-Quentin tandem as our longer-term starters in the outfield, even if Jerry Owens were to return fully healthy. And that's the biggest benefit of Swisher leading off; the lineup is far more likely to contain Carlos Quentin.

* * * * *

On the mound, Javier Vazquez had something of a bizzaro-2006 outing. He struggled with command and looked to be just one pitch away from giving up a big inning in the early going, then retired the last 10 batters he faced with greatest of ease in the 5th, 6th, and 7th.

Yes, that headline is definitely tounge-in-cheek. I thought it was funny that both Gonzo and Cowley posted about it the 5th inning at about the same time Pete and Option27 were sounding off in the gamethread. That was about the same time I was able to tune in (fast game), so I could just as easily be blamed for the jinx.

I was able to catch a little bit of good John Danks, a little bit of the wild Danks, and too much of Jermaine Dye costing him runs in the outfield. Good Danks seemed to have his cutter working pretty well, actually he had everything working pretty well.

I think Danks GO/FO ratio of 12/6 would have been his best mark of all of last year, but the no-longer-available MLB.com 2007 gamelog and the differences between GB/FB and GO/FO make that difficult to say with absolute certainty. What we can say for sure is that, at least after one start, it appears that Danks has matured a little bit and his new cutter has allowed him to shift from being such a predominately flyball pitcher.

Allowing fewer flyballs will be key for Danks if he hopes to reduce his homerun rate (28 in 139 IP) from last season. As a general guide, about 11% of flyballs go over the fence. Danks HR/FB was 13.8% last year, allowing 28 HR in 203 flyballs. If he's able to increase his groundball rate, while simultaneously regressing to the more normal 11% HR/FB rate, he'll take a huge step forward to becoming an asset to the staff.

As an example of Danks homer-proneness, in his 26 starts last season, he had just one in which he pitched more than 6 innings and gave up 0 HR, as he did on Thursday.

In the field, Danks was helped by a good play from Nick Swisher catching a long drive as he smashed, almost Rowand-like (not enough broken bones), into the left center field wall on one of the two really well hit balls against him on the day. The other well hit ball flew just over the outstretched glove of Jermaine Dye -- that's two outstretched gloves of Dye vs. three Crede pops it up on the young year -- allowing Travis Hafner, who walked on 4 pitches (bad Danks), to score from first on Ryan Garko's double.

Later in the inning, Dye and Swisher would collide on a routine pop-up, which surprisingly yielded a disagreement in the Sox television booth. DJ thought it was Jermaine's ball, with Hawk arguing, correctly, that the center fielder is the field general, and if he calls you off you back off.

Ozzie made one of those moves that looks smart when it works, but could have lit up the phone lines had it backfired, bringing in Octavio Dotel to face Casey Blake, who took Dotel deep in Opening Day's pivotal at-bat. It was as if Guillen was saying to Dotel, 'I believe in you' as he made the call over Scott Linebrink, who was also working in the pen and worked a perfect eigth.

Offensively, the Sox still have me worried. Joe Crede and Juan Uribe provided all of the the offense on two solo homers. Carlos Quentin got his first start of the year, going 1-4, but grounding into a double play one batter after AJ Pierzynski's poorly executed sacrifice attempt.

I'll reserve railing on the offense for another day. For now, it just feels good to get that first win out of the way.

*** CSN will replay the game at 7pm and 1am ***

The White Sox opening day roster became much clearer thanks to series developments on Tuesday, which made for an interesting day and a good demonstration of our new FanShot feature.

• Following the extended morning meetings to discuss the roster, Toby Hall was called in for at least one meeting, if not two. It initially appeared like Hall was on his way off the opening day roster, but at the end of the day, He and A.J. Pierzynski were the only catchers left on the spring roster.
• Josh Fields was officially optioned to Charlotte, making Joe Crede the starter with Pablo Ozuna and Juan Uribe as his back-ups. Doesn't that sound familiar?
• Juan Uribe has won the second base job, but Ozzie warned that he'll have a quick hook.

  "If Uribe doesn't do what we think he can do, he will be replaced. I'm not going to put pressure on him. He knows he has people around him who can play that position.

  "But the way he played in spring training, and the way he went about his business, I think he earned that spot."

• Finally, Jerry Owens went in for an MRI which reveal he has a slight tear of an abductor. He will be put on the DL retroactive to Monday, and will be eligible to be back for the home opener April 7th. That's the same injury Scott Podsednik has had each of the last two seasons. In fact, Pods battled it last spring, but made the opening day roster before re-injuring the groin and missing the next 2 months.

I'm going to be honest. Sending Fields to AAA doesn't bug me that much, or at least not as much as many of you. I want the Sox to put the best team on the field, and Fields hasn't yet convinced me that his 2008 skill set is greater than that of 2008 Joe Crede. Obviously, that argument would be a whole lot easier to make if Crede were having a more productive spring.

Ultimately, I don't think there is enough evidence on either player's side to get too worked up over the third base situation. There are valid arguments on both side of the ledger, and I'm not convinced that there is an obvious, hard and fast right answer. Fields is obviously the long term choice, and as such, he would have received my vote, but I just can't muster the ire to get worked up over this one.

Were I making the decisions, things would be different. I'd find a way to get Fields on the roster, probably platooning with Thome at DH and occasionally at 3B as many of you have suggested. And truthfully, I would have parted with Crede for whatever meager returns I could have obtained in the last two weeks.

* * * * *

Jerry Owens' trip to the DL is good news for Brian Anderson and Carlos Quentin, who will both open the season on the roster. Anderson, in particular, has the opportunity to earn himself some major playing time in Owens' absence. He'll share center field duties with Alexei Ramirez in the first week of the season, during which the Sox are scheduled to face a number of lefthanders. In addition to C.C. Sabathia on opening day, the Sox should face Detroit's Nate Robertson and Dontrelle Willis before Owens is eligble to come off the DL.

* * * * *

Maybe the worst news of the day was that there was no resolution (or at least no reported news) to what should be a no-brainer in the battle for the final bullpen spot. I can only hope that we haven't heard anything because they don't want to remove the minute amount of trade value that Nick Masset may have by declaring Ehren Wasserman the winner of the final bullpen slot.