The White Sox middle infield sucks, but you know this. You guys have spent much of the season debating who was worse, Juan Uribe or Orlando Cabrera, and continue to do so today. They're not hitting --both own and OPS around .600-- and their defense on the season can be described as erratic, including last night when they looked like the double play combo for a poor high school team.

More concerning to me than the erratic play is the complete disappearance of, for lack of a better term, Cabrera's bat handling, his ability to be a tough out. When Cabrera was acquired, I tried to avoid using such axioms when describing him, but failed.

I really had to resist the urge to fill this entry with cliches such as "he's a tough out" and "adept handler of the bat," but the Cabrera of the last two seasons has been just that every time I've seen him play. He's a player I've really grown to appreciate over the past couple of seasons.

And I wasn't alone, the even more statistically minded Jeff Sullivan from Lookout Landing wrote the following.

As an Angel, Cabrera was everything that drove me insane. He always made contact, he'd fight off enough pitches to have those really long annoying at bats, he ran fast enough to beat out infield grounders, he'd hit bloopers into the outfield because he doesn't have any power, he'd make flashy plays with the glove, he beat the hell out of the Mariners, and he had that Wizard of OC nickname that made me want to water my lawn with the blood from Steve Physioc's wrists. Cabrera became the face of everything I hated about that team. For three long years, he practically took up residence under my skin.

So when Cabrera struck out on three pitches with the bases loaded last night, I thought to myself, "if he was still wearing an Angels uniform he probably would have fought that last pitch off, maybe even flared it into right field." But Cabrera's not in an Angels uniform anymore.

And this is where it becomes an issue that's bigger than Cabrera. You know where I'm going with this. I'll once again point to something I wrote when Cabrera was acquired.

Cabrera doesn't see a lot of pitches, just 3.39 per PA last season and 3.50 for his career, but he makes excellent contact (makes contact on 86% of his swings). He seems to like the ball in off the plate yet has the ability to push the ball off the outside corner into right field. (I'm sure Walker can fix that pesky habit.)

That, my friends, is coaching you can count on.

• In the series opener, Gavin Floyd, who I once called the Joe Borchard of pitching prospects, took a no-hitter into the 9th inning.
• Yesterday, Carlos Gomez hit for the cycle -- the 8th cycle the White Sox have allowed in the retrosheet era.
• In the rubber match Thursday, Juan Uribe was the hero and Jim Thome recorded his first steal since he was playing in Cleveland, both of which seem equally unlikely.

Just days ago, there was speculation from inside the White Sox clubhouse that Juan Uribe was a goner, a sacrificial lamb for the team-wide hitting slump and 6 game losing streak. Thursday he may have provided the spark to help lift the Sox out of their funk.

While Uribe's 2-run homer in the 5th inning put the Sox up for good, it was hit takeout slide of Brendan Harris in the 8th that really brought life to the dugout.

"Awesome," manager Ozzie Guillen said of Uribe's clean but ferocious slide. "I was the first one that jumped out of my seat.

"When somebody hits a home run, I just sit there and wait for the guy to shake his hand, unless it's to win the game. But when I see plays like that -- clean, play the game the way they should be playing -- it's something we're missing."

The first thing I noticed after Uribe bowled over Harris was the reception he received in the dugout. It was much more boisterous than the homecoming following his 2-run shot. It may have been a while since the Sox have seen a multi-run homer, but it's still something they're used to seeing. A well executed takeout slide, however, was something to be celebrated.

If the Sox are able to come out of their team-wide slump, you know that play will trotted out as the turning point. If the Sox bats head back into hibernation, if Uribe continues to hit below his weight, the simple fundamentally sound play will be forgotten as the calls for Jerry Owens crescendo. I'll stick with the view that it was a good play, and if the Sox get some more plays like that, and the properly executed run down, and, you know, some timely hitting they'll turn things back around.

* * * * *

I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't describe the bizarre circumstances surrounding Thome's first steal in a White Sox uniform. To set the stage, with nobody out in the Thome walked to advance Carlos Quentin to second and bring Paul Konerko to the plate. Konerko worked a 3-1 count, and was unable to check his swing on an inside fastball.

Home plate umpire Doug Eddings --It's always Doug Eddings-- was slow to call anything (sound familiar?). Konerko, hearing nothing, assumed it was ball four and began to take off his shin guard. At the same time Quentin and Thome began trotting towards the next base. Meanwhile, Joe Mauer started asking for help, inexplicably pointing to third base then finding the proper ump at first, who (correctly) called it a strike on a failed check swing. But by this time, Thome and Q were mere steps away from 2nd and 3rd, respectively, giving Mauer no play.

Mauer returned the ball to Matt Guerrier, who ran around the field tagging Thome and Quentin, who now stood safely 90 feet closer to home. Ron Gardenhire came out to argue Eddings' slow call on the play, and eventually got the boot. Meanwhile in the White Sox dugout, Ozzie yukked it up, pantomiming Guerrier looking for outs by tagging anyone within arms reach of him.

The Sox would not score in the inning. The smiles were removed from their faces... until that Uribe slide.

• In a somewhat surprising twist, it seems the person most responsible for keeping Owens off the roster right now is Ozzie. This probably has more to do with Ozzie's inflated view of Alexei Ramirez more than anything else, but it's notable because it seems like Ozzie is always fighting to keep his bantam-weight speedsters on the roster.

• Anecdotally, based solely on my own observation and without going through the game logs or Pitch F/X data, it feels like there is a (negative) correlation between the opposing starter's fastball velocity and their game ERA against the Sox. Put more simply, the Sox can't hit soft tossers. The harder you throw, the better they've hit you (at least since the Baltimore series). If anyone wanted to take the time to dive into the data, I'd be forever in your debt.

• As if there wasn't enough misguided, tangentially White Sox related material floating through my inbox and feed reader with the manufactured outrage surrounding latex inflatables in a locker room in the news everywhere, Ozzie went on another one of his Ozzie being Ozzie rants where he says a whole lot of nothing, causing those who don't cover him every day to proclaim he's talking himself out of a job. We all know this is about as far from the truth as you can get, so I'll just continue to point out that the coaches and staff from the '05 World Series team have recurring contracts and Get Out of Jail Free cards that run through 2012.

They say good hitting is contagious. Well, for the White Sox, bad hitting is a plague, an epidemic.

The Sox closed out a road trip that saw them score just 9 runs in 6 games, with Sox hitters going 4-37 with runners in scoring position.

I've been sitting up waiting for more definitive news on the state of the Sox roster, because all I know right now is that changes appear imminent. Adam Russell is gone without appearing in a game, and it looks like Alexei Ramirez is your new starting 2B. Why? I have no idea.

Juan Uribe's presence in the lineup is tough to defend, but he still seems to give the Sox a better chance to win than any of the other options at second base.

Perhaps the turkey leg that fully blocked the fat man's artery came in the third inning when Uribe found himself in an unfamiliar place, third base, with nobody out. Orlando Cabrera grounded to the rag-armed David Eckstein, who was playing what Hawk would call "half way" at short, but Uribe didn't come home. The next batter, Carlos Quentin, lifted a shallow fly ball to right field where the strong arm of Alex Rios made a running a dubious decision. Uribe held again.

Uribe's mistake was amplified by the Sox 14 inning scoring drought and Javier Vazquez' magnificent performance. Vazquez. who was throwing in the mid-90's in his last inning of work, would have finished out the 8th if not for a poor play by Pablo Ozuna. He narrowly missed becoming the third White Sox starter to grab a complete game loss while north of the border.

For his part, Ozuna had an opportunity to take Vazquez off the hook for the loss when he came to the plate in the 9th with the bases loaded and nobody out. -- I don't need to go on about Ozuna. If there's anyone who deserves to be gone (aside from Ramirez) it's Ozuna. -- With the Sox needing just a deep fly ball, and Joe Crede unavailable because of a migraine, Ozuna grounded into the game ending 1-2-3 double play.

I wish I knew the direction the Sox were thinking about taking so that I could make a preemptive post about it tonight while I have the opportunity. All I know for sure is there are no quick fixes available, and all of the conceivable solutions are hardly solutions at all.

There probably would have been a lot of angst following Tuesday's loss to the Yankees would the bullpen had been able to keep the game close in the late innings. I'd argue that angst would be misplaced, and instead should (theoretically) have been directed squarely at the offense unable to put together the big inning.

The White Sox had what looked to be a big scoring opportunities in the 5th, 6th and 7th innings, but could only net 2 runs total in those three frames. Jermaine Dye had a particularly tough day at the plate, stranding 6 runners and striking out twice in key situations to dampen Sox rallies. And when your hopes are riding on Juan Uribe at the plate, well, you don't have much hope at all.

Trying to find some positives in the breezy three hour, forty-four minute game...

• Jose Contreras looked pretty good. He threw over the top for much of the game, though I assume that had more to do with the general left-handedness of the Yankees lineup more than anything else. Still, his velocity is better than last year, and he looks like a guy who can at least keep the Sox in the game every 5th day.

• The Sox offense had a productive game against Wang. It just didn't result in--how do I put this--runs. They left a baker's dozen stranded on the basepaths tonight.
• With his second late-inning, bases clearing (in a bad way) outing in a White Sox uniform, Octavio Dotel probably won't be getting any high-leverage innings for a while.
• It was almost fun to watch Bobby Jenks pitch again... Then I realized it was Joba Chamberlain. I'm sure Bobby's just saving his heat for the playoffs.
• The Sox gave up 5 homers in their first 160+ innings pitched. In the 9 innings since an unnamed poster boastfully claimed the Sox have "some of the nastiest pitches" in baseball, they've given up 3 more. Coincidence? I think not.
• We're due to have a small, two hour (hopefully shorter) downtime on the site tonight, so don't freak out. We should be back to normal in the overnight hours.

Hours before game time, upon hearing the news that Alexei Ramirez and Toby Hall would be in the starting lineup in place of Jermaine Dye and AJ Pierzynski, I wondered aloud where the White Sox offense would come from on Saturday.

I absolutely understand the need for both of them to have off-days. The bottom 3rd of the lineup just looks a whole lot uglier with them out.

The game is essentially shortened to 6 innings with three consecutive below replacement level hitters placed back-to-back-to-back. There's not much room for error.

Needless to say, the Sox did not play error-free baseball. The key gaffe came early, the second inning, after Mark Buehrle hit Jonny Gomes and subsequently appeared to have him picked off first base. The infielders -- I'm not going to assign blame, though Hawk and DJ seemed to agree that it was Juan Uribe's fault -- botched their second rundown in as many days, setting up what would prove to be the game-winning, 2-out rally. Three singles and 19 pitches (alot for a Buehrle meltdown) later, the Sox were down 3 runs, from which they would never recover.

Andy Sonnanstine had himself a resume builder, tossing 9 3-hit shutout innings, facing just 2 over the minimum. He just went right at the Sox and they couldn't do anything to stop him. They couldn't work their way on base; he was always ahead in the count. And more importantly, they couldn't do anything with the balls in the strike zone. Almost everything was hit softly, and generally on the ground. Heck, their first hit of the game was a bunt single by Orlando Cabrera. It was almost a 2-hitter.

Elephant in the Room

After being limited to just 3 hits, one of which was a bunt, by Sonnanstine on Saturday, the White Sox now rank 13th in the AL in batting average at .239, lower than they hit during the dismal '07 season, fractions of a percentage point away from the cellar (Cleveland at .239, or .2389). It has gone largely unnoticed thanks to good plate discipline and timely homeruns, but the Sox still aren't hitting.

The starting lineup today featured two batters with an average above .250, Nick Swisher and Joe Crede. That's not going to cut it, no matter how many walks they draw or how many homers they crank.

When you pick up your morning paper later today, you'll probably be greeted with stories crafted around the idea that the White Sox needed to bounce back from the brutal loss Thursday at the hands of the Orioles. I'm wasn't exactly concerned about how they bounced back.

This team is playing very well right now. Since last Saturday, they've lost two games, each by a run. The first came at the hands of a lefty making his second career start, and the second being the aforementioned bullpen meltdown in Baltimore. During that stretch they've also shutout Detroit, twice, and allowed more than 2 runs just once.

There's a feeling about this club that they can -- nay, should -- win every time they take the field. And when you've got a team going like that, you don't worry about how you'll respond to a tough loss; you can't wait to get back on the field and get back in the W column.

I was not at all surprised to see Javier Vazquez and the offense right back at it, doing exactly what they've been doing all season. Vazquez was able to pitch over a terrible HBP call and a poor defensive decision by Pablo Ozuna in the second and was quickly rewarded. The offense put together two big innings on the strength of back-to-back Jim Thome and Paul Konerko homers in the 3rd inning and took advantage of an Evan Longoria throwing error to get things started in the 4th. It was a laugher before the game even reached the half-way mark, giving Ozzie the opportunity to play the back-end of the bench.

* * * * *

Jerry Owens officially came off the DL and was promptly optioned to Charlotte, where he was on rehab assignment. This is a clear sign that the Sox are happy with their current 25-man roster. Who can blame them when they're leading the AL Central with a 10-6 record, and playing this well? But I'd actually like to see Owens on the roster.

Owens is never going to be anything more than a 4th or 5th outfielder on a good team, while Alexei Ramirez might be able to hold down a starting role on a good team in the near future. I could see keeping Alexei around if he was getting some starts on the infield, but Juan Uribe has started all but one game at second, and Ozuna appears to be the primary backup on the infield. With the emergence of Carlos Quentin, who has been the left field starter every game since game 2, there just aren't enough at-bats to go around. I'd rather those at-bats not be given to Owens than Ramirez, who could clearly use some more development time.

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.

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 ***

Early deadlines for Zellco tonight. This article was posted before the new episode Real Houswives hit air. Seems like we've got ourselves a new built-in excuse when the bats go silent, though it probably won't be used for Juan Uribe; brains get in the way. Just ask Greg Walker, on Carlos Quentin:

"He has big-time power," hitting coach Greg Walker said. "Physically, this guy is talented. This is a guy who will have to keep his brain from getting in the way, but he showed [his ability] at the end of spring.

"At the end of spring he became low maintenance for me. … Even though at times he thinks too much, you can tell he's talented and he battles."

He went to Stanford!

The article had the encouraging headline of "Sox's Quentin will get his chances" though it was lacking in hard details about how Quentin would find his way onto the field.

[Update by The Cheat, 04/02/08 12:10 AM CDT]: Joe Cowley has some more substantive Walker quotes. Nothing on Quentin but on the larger issue of this site being labeled Fire Greg Walker for the last 5 months of the '07 season.

"I'm going to attempt to make that a non-story. It did become [a distraction] last year. I was always taught that you never want to run from a question, but it kept getting asked so much.

"I really do hope it's not an issue,'' Walker said. ''Not for me, but for the players that then have to answer it. I'm close to a lot of those guys, all of them. I love them. I don't want them worrying about me. I want them worrying about playing baseball. I just want it to be a non-story, and the best way to do that is to win games.

"And you know what? One year later, I'm still a non-story. I'm just a small piece of the puzzle. We're here to help the guys. We do great, I'm a non-story; we do terrible, I'm a non-story. That's the way I'm looking at it, and that's how it's going to be dealt with this year."

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.