- Hey the Sox lost again, so Ozzie went out and called Mariano Duncan a liar.
- Jeff Angus, whose study on the White Sox bullpen usage in '05 I'd love to see, has a brief interview with Don Cooper from earlier this year.
- I don't know exactly why, but I somewhat enjoyed reading some Philly Phans comments about Aaron Rowand now that the euphoria surround the catch has died down.
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Jim at Sox Machine writes about the unfairly maligned Rob Mackowiak and Ozzie's neglect to use him in the right situation.
When Ozzie needs a left-handed bat off the bench in a key situation, he isn't going for the best left-handed bat. He's going for the left-handed bat who can take over for that position in the next half-inning. That being the case, Scott Podsednik always pinch-hits for Pablo Ozuna, Alex Cintron always pinch-hits for Juan Uribe, and Mackowiak always pinch-hits for Anderson.He also notes that Mack is hitting .350/.427/.453 since April. Obviously, Mack isn't going to hit .350 for an entire season, but with Anderson hitting now and Pods being Pods, maybe Mackowiak should be seeing a lot of time in LF. There's no doubt he should be the first left-handed bat off the bench.
That's all well and good, except that because Anderson always hits ninth, Mackowiak always has the fewest chances of making an impact off the bench. In three games the past week, Podsednik has entered a game to pinch-hit for Ozuna. He's 0-for-4, and the Sox have dropped all three games. Cintron is 0-for-3 in similar situations, again all Sox losses. During that stretch, Mack hasn't entered the game as a pinch-hitter. He did have a single at-bat after pinch-running a couple innings earlier, but that's not the same thing.
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