Carlos Quentin is a beast, leading the AL in OPS vs. fastballs (1.101) and curveballs (1.063).

The right wing can't stand him:

NS: Would you consider yourself well-informed
JZ: I’d consider myself extremely well-informed.

NS: Who are the two senators from South Dakota
JZ: Thune and, uh, Johnson.

NS: Very good. South Carolina?
JZ: Go fuck yourself. I'm done with this interview if you're going to ask me stupid questions like that. Obviously I know who Lindsay Graham is.

NS: Well, since you’re running a website calling people misinformed, I’d like to see if -- there are certain things you’ve said that I would consider misinformed.
JZ: Misinformed? You're a piece of work! You are never going to have the guts to post a representative transcript on your website! I thought you actually ran a legitimate website!

NS: Thank you, have a good day.
JZ: Go fuck yourself.

With which I couldn't agree more:

Snip:

Still, I'm terribly impressed by the way FiveThirtyEight.com is working this balance between raw data and anecdotal reportage, doing each as fully and as fairly as possible, and putting themselves out there by making predictions with conviction. Silver's taken the site to acclaim behind the strength of his statistical analysis, but the site deserves kudoes to their commitment to following the election on the road. Both on the balance sheet and on the trail, FiveThirtyEight has done a superlative job at making sense of this election, in ways that have far surpassed the traditional media.

The White Sox do it all pretty well, and there are some excellent macro signs for the club as well. Alexei Ramirez, now the team's full-time second baseman, is slugging .515 and shows no signs of slowing down. With Ian Kinsler out for the remainder of the season, no AL team will trot out a better player at the position. Also coming around is Paul Konerko. He has battled injuries and horrendous BABIP luck all season long but he has reverted to form of late, posting a .293/.446/.561 line thus far in August. Oh and in case you haven't noticed, Carlos Quentin has outperformed Eric Byrnes this season (oops). The offense should continue to pound the ball.

There are those out there who believe that the pitching staff has been getting it done with smoke and mirrors. But they look about right to me. However lucky you think Gavin Floyd has been, and yes he has been lucky, take a look at Javier Vazquez. The man is second in the AL in strikeouts, his K/BB figure is in the top-10 as well and yet he sits with a 4.34 ERA. He has been lights out in August, though, so his higher profile stats should begin to come in line with his peripherals. John Danks continues to dazzle, Mark Buehrle is solid, and the bullpen, led by a resurgent Matt Thornton, is excellent as well.

More at the link

Eric Zorn asks the readers of his blog (Chicago Tribune) to take this poll:

Cub fans: Would you rather the team make it to the World Series this year and lose to the White Sox, or not make the World Series at all?

Therefore my question, which I'll ask of Sox fans just to be fair: Is it better to make it to the World Series and lose to a dreaded rival, or lose in the playoffs and hope for better luck next year?

If I HAD to make this unpleasant choice....
I'm a Cub fan: I'd rather make the World Series and lose to the Sox
I'm a Cub fan: I'd rather NOT make the World Series if it meant losing to the Sox
I'm a Sox fan: I'd rather make the World Series and lose to the Cubs
I'm a Sox fan: I'd rather NOT make the World Series if it meant losing to the Cubs
I'm a fan of BOTH teams, so it's all good. :-)

Where do YOU go for actual information on the White Sox?

From Cowley's game recap in the Sun-Times:

When asked about his slow start and the roller coaster ride he's been on with his new team, he responded, ''I'm finally enjoying the ride. Through all the trials I went through, I think it made me a better person and a better player.''

From Jim at Sox Machine:

Swisher finished this past month with a line of .315/.402/.630, and nearly doubled his RBI (23) and homer (7) totals in June alone. Basically this confirms our most optimistic set of hopes, that:

No. 1: This kind of thing happens to him once in a while. In the prior post, I had mentioned his two-month slump of 2006. He's rebounded better this time around, posting a 1.000-plus OPS one month after instead of two.

No. 2: He had to have one of the worst runs of luck imaginable. He's maintaining a career-best line drive rate, but only lately has his batting average on balls in play began to rise at a commensurate level.

Swisher has also reminded Sox fans what it looks like to have a first baseman with some semblance of range. He showed creativity Monday night, diving and knocking down a ball near the coaching box, then recovering in time to flip the ball to Gavin Floyd. Paul Konerko and his one-topple range wouldn't have even touched the grounder to begin with.

Meanwhile, the other offseason outfield possibilities have all fallen back to earth to varying degrees after hot starts. Kosuke Fukudome is the best of them, having settled comfortably at an .800 OPS over the last two months after a blazing April. Meanwhile, Aaron Rowand finished the month with a .618 OPS and Torii Hunter has seen his OPS tumble from .878 in April to .762 in May to .672 in June.

Pardon the link to the Sun-Times, but it's to Roeper (who is a Sox fan).

I always loved Carlin's routine about the difference between the friendly game of baseball and the forbidding, roughneck game of football:

"Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and unnecessary roughness. Baseball has the sacrifice.

"In football, the object is for the quarterback, also know as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault . . . with short bullet passes and long bombs. . . .

"In baseball the object is to go home, and be safe! I'll be safe at home."

He was the voice of the counterculture, and he was one of the 10 best stand-up comedians of all-time.