:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/1636397/150436023.0.jpg)
By White Sox standards, injuries and poor health marred the 2012 season. Only one pitcher made 30 starts. Their Opening Day starter and third baseman spent most of the year on the DL. Eight rookie pitchers were needed to fill out the staff at one point. Paul Konerko was banged up figuratively, then literally.
Well, the day of reckoning for Herm Schneider has arrived, and it's time for the longtime White Sox trainer to get a long-due scolding. FanGraphs released its annual report ranking teams by the number of days lost the disabled list, and as you might expect, the White Sox ...
... still spent the second-fewest amount of days on the disabled list.
No really, here's the bottom of the chart:
The only difference is the team below them. The Seattle Mariners lost the fewest days to the DL in 2012, whereas the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Sox in this department last year. Given that no one team has beat the Sox twice, you can imagine that they probably look pretty good when looking at the three-year average:
And that's why he's the best in the business, ladies and gentlemen. For more about Herm Schneider's average day, consult this article.
Terrerobytes
Now that we're done marveling over Schneider's consistency, let's switch gears and read about Alex Rios, baseball's reigning on-year-off-year specialist.
Grant Brisbee identifies what he believes to be the worst seven ads of the playoffs, after accounting for the fact that every ad gets tiresome if you watch enough games. I know where he's coming from when he writes:
I'm not immune to the wiles of a well-written or catchy jingle. Hell, 25 years later, I still drop "I love Fruity Pebbles in a major way" in the middle of my freestyle battles.
James goes through the immediate decisions Kenny Williams/Rick Hahn will face upon the conclusion of the season, and does a little bit of extrapolating from there.
Missing Eduardo Escobar in hindsight:
Minutes after being informed he had made the opening day roster, Escobar was fitted with some catching gear for an emergency role. He always arrived at visiting ballparks for early work.
He gave his teammates a laugh by sporting a sombrero before a game against the Rangers in Texas on July 28, only to be traded to the Twins in the deal involving Liriano and reduced to tears and farewell hugs and handshakes from teammates five hours later.