Game Day: Wednesday, July 22nd

Oh crike, it's late.  4:28 PM or 16:28 in the Central Standard time zone in Illinois.

Let's check in on the Illinois' teams.

The White Sox made a terrible trade before the MLB Draft.  Trading Jacob Gonzalez for what amounts to a first round draft pick.  This kid hit .320 with 19 homers at AAA Charlotte.  You trade him for a draft pick to select Landon Thome, spoiled rotten skinny wimp of a player.  

When you look at the trade as Gonzalez for Thome it's a gigantic sacrifice.  You trade a player who is proven to be ready for MLB at-bats for a prep player who honestly is a bit of a cunt.  I watched some interviews and didn't really like the way he carried himself.  Cunty, I'd call it.

They gave up Brandon Eisert too,  LHRP (left-handed relief pitcher) with four years of team control.  Eisert has pitched some good innings in MLB and has the potential to have a long career.  Left-handed relief pitchers aren't easy to find and the White Sox have squandered two good ones in Eisert and Cam Booser, who caught on with Tampa and has thrown the ball well this season.

My White Sox fandom is really going under this year and it's in a year that they are surprising everyone and winning games.  Isn't that odd in a sense?  Chris Getz doesn't strike me as intelligent.  He strikes me as lucky and that's as good of a trait as any in regards to finalities and winning games but I've always been more on the side of pragmatism and sound strategies.

The White Sox beat Jacob DeGrom on Monday night and it was in some way a lot of good fortune.  Five earned runs on seven hits and a pair of walks, no home runs, they got the timely hits.  They hit the ball with runners in scoring position and won that game.  Beating DeGrom is no small feat but this White Sox team is still soft.

Texas whomped them 10-0 on Tuesday.  Kumar Rocker threw 6.0 innings of one hit baseball and shut the White Sox down.  

On the other side, White Sox phenom Noah Schultz (3-7) got shelled again.  Schultz don't belong in the rotation this season.  Trevor Richards and Tyler Schweitzer got smoked in relief of Schultz.  Neither are that good at the back of the White Sox' bullpen.  It's a mediocre team that has been riding a wave of good fortune.  It's exciting, Murakami is a good hitter, Vargas is a good hitter, Meidroth is a good hitter, the offense is stacked and it's a good team but Kay, Fedde and Schultz are all soft in the rotation.  

The bullpen is good at the top.  They have some options on the farm that could make a difference in the rotation down the stretch.  Shane Smith, Jonathan Cannon, Tyler McDougal and Hagen Smith are all throwing well in AAA.  

The White Sox can pull this off this year and that is something else.  That trade Getz made for David Sandlin and Jordan Hicks was a really bad trade.  Passing on Paez and Alberto is going to look bad down the road.  Gage Zeihl was a throw in on the Hicks and Sandlin trade and he might be the best pitcher of the three.  Trading Gonzalez and Eisert was a really bad trade too.  Winning has a way of brushing the dirt under the rug.

I think Getz has made some bad decisions but he's getting results and you can't really argue with that.  It's always a matter of perspective and I don't necessarily see it all cleary.  

Am I rooting for the White Sox this season?  I am a self-professed White Sox fan and for some damn reason I can't get behind this team.  Is it because I picked them to finish dead last in the AL Central this season?  I'd say that is partly the reason.  My pundancy has something to do with it.  

It's strange how fandom can deviate and fluctuate when you have strong opinions.  I have been out to California, down to Florida, all around the countey for many years.  Did I lose my heart for the White Sox somewhere on the road?

I still like the A's.  They were my favorite team as a young kid.  The White Sox were my favorite team as a young adult living in Chicago.  

I can't say.  I can say this.  I hope to never be an earnest fan of the Chicago Cubs.  

I don't have time to get into the Cubs today.  I do care what their ballclub looks like as a fan of MLB and a man who likes to play the bookies' game but I'll have to study their roster another day.

That's it for Game Day today.  No pick today.  It's getting late and I have a few errands to run this evening.

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