I don't get much mail from readers, with good reason. That's what the comments section is for. But like any good website operator, I've got my email listed at the bottom of the site, you know, in case any of you had some of those Jack Daniel's Club Seats that you couldn't use. But the only people who bother to email me are either asking for something -- the answer is almost invariably no -- or telling me how stupid I am. Take Friday's winner.
After your nice post on the 14th do you feel like an idiot now? Its a 162 game season, let the squad work things out. I wouldn't go as far to call it all off now. Now that they are on a 8 game win streak I suppose you spoke to soon. Ozzie is one of the best. You are clueless.
Let's forget that I've never said the season's over -- though it is listed sarcastically in the FanShots -- and have generally been quite supportive of Ozzie Guillen. Let's concentrate on the post which yielded such furor.
Sure, the headline is a little over the top. There are plenty of poorly coached teams in the baseball, and I think Don Cooper and Ozzie are quite competent at their jobs. But the focus of the post was on the stark difference in execution between the Angels and White Sox.
Conveniently, there are a number of similarities between that game and this one. John Danks and Jered Weaver were the starters, with Weaver shutting down the Sox and Danks pitching well enough to win on most days. Heck, the final score (2-0) was even the same. But it's when you get to the bullet points of the first post that things get repetitive.
- The Angels stole 3 bases on John Danks. Two were completely uncontested... Yep.
- The Angels right-handed hitters were content to poke the ball into right field... Nope. No opposite field hits against Danks. 4 of the 5 Angels hits against Danks were for extra-bases, and the 5th was close. Still, a much more competent offensive attack than the Sox could muster.
- Sox outfielder fails to hit the cut-off man... Yep. Carlos Quentin unleashed a doozy of a throw that missed not only the cut-off man, but air mailed even the pitcher backing up home plate.
- And finally the unspoken bullet point: The offense, silenced for the 4th time against Weaver, who now owns an ERA of 0.34 in 4 career starts against the White Sox.
So what has changed?
The Sox ran off an 8-game winning streak that included 3 games over the indisputably terrible Giants and 3 more against an Indians squad which is in a tail spin and struggling to do anything at the plate this month. While the pitching has been impressive -- Danks fell an inning short of extending the Sox consecutive quality start streak -- the offense hasn't exactly matched their excellence. They've barely been average, and even that is arguable.
So looking back, do I feel like an idiot? Nope. Seems to me like this is the same team I wrote about on the 14th.