There's baseball on TV tomorrow

Tomorrow marks the season debut of the radically overhauled roster of the White Sox against an always formidable Central Division foe, the Cleveland Indians.


Okay, so maybe the roster overhaul is more of promotional gimmick than reality.  We really only have two new guys in the starting lineup with Pierre and Teahen, and the entire starting staff was on the big-league roster last season.  This is coupled with the misconception that the team will no longer swing for the fences and will rely on small ball.  Even the espn.com preview for tomorrow's game proclaims that this year will see an attempt to return to the Ozzie-ball approach of 2005, forgetting that the Sox hit 200 home runs that season including 40 from Konerko and 30 from Dye.  The removal of Dye and Thome from the team was not a complete disavowal of power hitters, but a purging of increasingly ineffective power hitters.  Thome still got on base with regularity last season but was nowhere near as dangerous a hitter as even the year past, let alone when he was first acquired in 2006.  He also ran like Dick Cheney.  I attended a Sox vs. Orioles game last season where Thome hit two balls to the wall, both of them singles.  Having a guy who can not reach extra bases under any circumstances and needs three base hits to score requires more than the paltry 20-something home run numbers that Thome would be good for.  Dye on the other hand, died in a tragic accident over All-Star Weekend, and his propped-up corpse hit .179 in the second half.  Not until the White Sox shed a Konerko, a Quentin, or some other not-terrible power hitter will I believe a philosophical transformation has occurred.  Anyone who's seen Alexei Ramirez swing like he's being attacked by bees knows this team still hacks for the fences.  The ballpark dictates such an approach, and it takes a conscious effort not to give into it.  (This means you, Mark Teahen.  We're all waiting for how you react once you hit a routine fly ball that lands in the left field bullpen)


My opening sentence contains a second lie, in stating that the Indians are formidable; because they're not.  If Cleveland shows any spunk this year, it will probably not be early on, for they are very, very, very young.  Sizemore, Choo, Peralta, Cabrera, and Hafner are the only position players with any significant experience.  Sizemore and Choo are both superb, but not exactly the types to turn shit into lemonade.  Peralta had an OPS under .700 because his power hitting fell off a cliff last year, and has the stink of someone Cleveland wanted to trade but couldn't find a taker for.  Cabrera led the team in batting last season and at 24 is looked at as the shortstop of the future in Cleveland, but doesn't project to be a guy who will ever slug for a high percentage.  Hafner hasn't been a monster since '06 and has battled injuries the past two seasons. 30 HR and 90 RBIs would been seen as a gift from God.  Speaking of gifts of God in terms of 30 HR seasons; Russell Branyan, the poster child for such occurrences and Cleveland's most recent ill-advised pickup, will start the season on the disabled list.

I could belittle the position players for Cleveland all day, but the fact that they're trotting out Jake Westbrook as the opening day starter is really eye opening.  All of the rumors out of spring training were that Fausto Carmona is back in form and tearing things up.  Which makes it more perplexing that Westbrook (an ideal No. 3) guy is being shoved out on opening day after miss all of last season and practically all of '08.  I understand that the organization is protective of Carmona, (Rightly so, he was a disaster as a reliever almost purely due to his lack of mental fortitude.  He reacted to base hits like an 8 year old whose puppy just got ran over by a tractor), but is he seriously less ready than Westbrook?  It's not like Westbrook has been fantastic in the spring.  He's been, well...Westbrook-ian.  This only makes sense if Cleveland is just matching up their real ace with our real ace, Jake Peavy.

Maybe I'm just upset that this put Carmona on track to start on Wednesday, the first game I have tickets to.  A pitcher's duel between Peavy and Carmona would be awesome I suppose, but I want wins, WINS!

The rest of the Cleveland rotation is very green, and the bullpen will not be a strength.  With Kerry Wood hurt (This is a prevailing theme), Chris Perez has been named the closer.  You may remember Chris as the guy who came in for the Indians the day after they had traded for him, and promptly hit two of the first three White Sox batters he faced in the head (Including Alexei Ramirez, prompting Trainer Herm Schneider to race out and cradle Alexei's head like it was an injured baby squirrel.  Herm is one of those guys who doesn't always make you sure he knows what the fuck he's doing).  Scouts are really high on Perez's stuff, and maybe he's ironed out his control problems this spring...

Chris Perez   12 G, 11.1 IP,  5.56 ERA, 8 H, 13 SO, 11 BB, 1 HB

Nope!



It seems absurd to predict an opening day sweep, when the first series is consistently unpredictable and no one is in the swing of things yet.  The Sox should take 2 out of 3 on the basis that this team is crappy, but there's no way to be sure how long it will take to work the kinks out.  Only a sweep by Cleveland would merit marginal concern.