Tag / A’s

by jim

2012 Predictions Revisited

Exactly six months ago, I looked into my crystal ball and tried to predict the outcomes of the upcoming baseball season.  Now that the season has come to an end, and half of my predicted divison winners are headed home instead of the playoffs, let’s take a look back at how things unfolded.

American League

East: Yankees

The Yankees went down to the wire, not with the Red Sox as expected, but with the surprising Orioles.

Central: Tigers

After picking up free agent Prince Fielder, the Tigers were expected to run away with the Central division.  Instead, they underachieved much of the season and battled the overachieving White Sox for most of the season.  However, a late season collapse by the White Sox offense helped the Tigers take the division.

West: Angels

The Angels just may have been the biggest disappointment in the league this year. After dropping over $330 million in one day on Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson, the Angels were expected to be at the top of the heap this year.  Unfortunately, things just did not work out and, even with the addition of rookie of the year shoo-in Mike Trout, the Angels were unable to make a serious run and finished in third place, behind the surging A’s, who swept the Rangers in the last series of the season to take the division title.

Wild Cards: Rays, Rangers

The Orioles and the Rangers will face off in the first wild card play-in game.

National League Continue reading →

by jim

2012 Final Standings

Another disappointing season comes to an end today.  The White Sox, who spent 126 days in first place, sputtered through September and dropped to second place.  The Cubs managed to lose 100 games for the first time since 1966.

TeamCity TeamName Won Loss Winning Pctg
Washington Nationals 1 0 1.000
Colorado Rockies 1 0 1.000
Kansas City Royals 1 0 1.000
Boston Red Sox 2 1 0.667
Tampa Bay Rays 2 1 0.667
Chicago White Sox 18 13 0.581
Oakland A’s 1 1 0.500
Houston Astros 1 1 0.500
Toronto Blue Jays 1 1 0.500
Continue reading →
by admin

Magic Number 13

After a shaky first, Gavin Floyd settled down and held the Royals in check and the White Sox, behind solo home runs from Alejandro de Aza, Gordon Beckham, and Alex Rios, protected their 3 game lead and topped KC 3-2.

In Detroit, the Tigers thumped the A’s 12-2 despite an early exit from Max Scherzer due to a shoulder issue.

by jim

Nostradamus Wept – AL Edition

With 81 games in the books, we are officially at the halfway point of the 2012 season.  The so-called experts at Sports Illustrated made some pre-season predictions that are looking a little off a this point.

Team Won Lost

Predicted

Wins

 PredictedLosses Comments
AL East
New York Yankees 49 32 95 67

After a slow-ish start, a long winning streak moved the Yankees back into first place despite an injury-ravaged pitching staff.
Baltimore Orioles 44 37 63 99 One of the surprises of the first half, theOrioles need only 19 second half wins to match their predicted output.
Tampa Bay Rays 43 39 92 70 Tampa has continued to keep things togetherwhile once again losing Evan Longoria for an extended period of time.
Boston Red Sox 42 40 91 71 After their collapse at the end of last season,the Red Sox have struggled to stay above .500 in the first half.
Toronto Blue Jays 42 40 85 77 The Blue Jays were having a strong half beforelosing nearly their entire starting rotation in one weeks time.
AL Central
Chicago White Sox 44 37 67 95 While most people did not expect the White Soxto be as bad as SI did, nobody thought they would be in first place at the halfway point.
Cleveland  Indians 42 39 80 82 The Indians have been right around where expected, a little over .500 instead of a little under.
Detroit Tigers 40 42 93 69 The Tigers were expected to run away and hide in this division, but they have been unable to outhit their poor pitching performance to date.
Kansas City Royals 36 44 82 80 Eric Hosmer’s sophomore slump has held back the developing Royals.
Minnesota Twins 35 46 72 90 Could this be the end of the Ron Gardenhire era?  The Twins are woefully bad for the second straight year.
AL West
Texas Rangers 50 32 94 68 After losing back-to-back World Series, the Rangers look to be stronger than ever.
Los Angeles Angels 45 37 97 65 The Angels, and new acquisition Albert Pujols, got off to a slow start before putting things together with the arrival of Mike Trout.
Oakland A’s 41 42 68 94 The A’s have been much better than expected in the first half.
Seattle Mariners 35 49 64 98 The Mariners have struggled offensively again in the first half.

 

by admin

#376 – Mike Bertotti

Name: Mike Bertotti

Rank: 376

Position: P

Years With White Sox: 1995-1997

Mike Bertotti made his major league debut on July 29, 1995 for the White Sox, picking up the victory against the Orioles.    Less than 2 years later, he ended his career facing one batter in another White Sox victory, this time against the A’s.  In between, he managed 26 other mostly mediocre appearances  during parts of 3 disappointing seasons for the South Siders.

Bertotti’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:

Continue reading →

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All Time Team Records

Heading into the 2012 season, here all the all-time team records in games that I have attended.

All-Time Team Records

Team Won Lost Winning Pctg
California Angels 1 0 1.000
Arizona Diamondbacks 12 2 0.857
Florida Marlins 15 8 0.652
Philadelphia Phillies 10 6 0.625
Toronto Blue Jays 8 5 0.615
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 13 10 0.565
Chicago White Sox 191 158 0.547
New York Yankees 9 8 0.529
Chicago Cubs 188 168 0.528
Continue reading →
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#454 – #463 – The Unknowns Part 3

More unknown players from the Chicago White Sox past.

 

Name: Miguel Dilone

Rank: 463

Position: CF

Year With White Sox: 1983

Dilone spent 6 days with the White Sox in September of 1983, acquired from the Indians on September 1st and traded to the Pirates on September 6th.

 

Name: Lou Frazier

Rank: 462

Position: CF

Year With White Sox: 1998

Frazier wrapped up his big league career with 7 games for the ’98 White Sox.

 

Name: Dave Schmidt

Rank: 461

Position: P

Year With White Sox: 1986

Acquired from the Rangers for Ed Correa and Scott Fletcher, Schmidt went 3-6 with a 3.31 ERA for the ’86 squad.

Continue reading →

by jim

2012 Games Of Interest

Fireworks Night

4/28 vs Red Sox

5/12 vs Royals

6/23 vs Brewers

7/4 vs Rangers

8/25 vs Mariners

9/29 vs Rays

 

Kids Day

4/15 vs Tigers

5/27 vs Indians

6/10 vs Astros

7/8 vs Blue Jays

8/26 vs Mariners

 

Other Fun Stuff

4/13 vs Tigers – Opening Day

5/26 vs Indians – Robin Ventura bobblehead

6/3 vs Mariners – Southpaw’s Birthday Party and Southpaw Mini Plush Pal

6/24 vs Brewers – Kids 1972 Replica Jersey

8/3 vs Angels – Elvis Night

8/5 vs Angels – Kids Chest Protector Backpack

8/12 vs A’s – Spirit & Mascot Day