As we head in to the All Star Break, the White Sox are in first place and I’ve been to 20 games. Here’s the team’s records for those 20 games.
| TeamCity | TeamName | Won | Loss | Winning Pctg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington | Nationals | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Kansas City | Royals | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Boston | Red Sox | 2 | 1 | 0.667 |
| Chicago | White Sox | 12 | 8 | 0.600 |
| Seattle | Mariners | 1 | 1 | 0.500 |
| Houston | Astros | 1 | 1 | 0.500 |
| Toronto | Blue Jays | 1 | 1 | 0.500 |
| Continue reading → |
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. |
Name: Alex Rios
Rank: 385
Position: RF/CF
Years With White Sox: 2009-Present
Alex Rios has been one of the more perplexing souls to take up residence on the South Side. He came to the Sox after the trade deadline in 2009, in what was widely assumed to be a blocking move to keep the Blue Jays from trading him to the Tigers. Toronto, however, was happy to undo their mistake in giving him a 7 year, $70 million contract and let him go on the waiver claim with no compensation.
Rios spent the final 41 games with the White Sox, finishing up with a disappointing .199 batting average and only 9 RBI as the team failed to repeat as champions of the AL Central and missed the playoffs. He rebounded in 2010, hitting .284 and putting together the fourth 20/20 season in White Sox history.
Last season, however, was a train wreck, as his average dropped back down to .227 with only 13 home runs and 44 RBIs. Along with Adam Dunn, he was the poster child for the failed All In approach that sunk the 2011 team.
23 games into the 2012 season, Rios appears to have rebounded once again, with a .299 average. It is extremely early, but hopefully he can keep it together for the rest of the year. Sadly, he is signed for 2 more years, with a team option for 2015 that I would expect to be declined.
Rios’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, are: Continue reading →
Today will be my 15th Opening Day for the White Sox, and my 12th in a row. The first was in 1985, a blowout win against the Red Sox in rookie shortstop Ozzie Guillen’s first game in Chicago. Other highlights include the 2005 1-0 victory against the Indians and the raising of the championship banner on Sunday Night Baseball in 2006.
Joining me for today’s game will be my niece and nephews. A certain mascot should be stopping by sometime during the game to wish Michael a happy birthday. Hopefully the weather holds out and the White Sox uphold their end of the bargain.
Here’s the results of the previous 14 openers (11-3 record) I’ve attended:
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 → |
Continuing the tradition started last year, here are my picks for the upcoming baseball season.
East: Yankees
Central: Tigers
West: Angels
Wild Cards: Rays, Rangers
AL Champion: Angels
Cy Young: C.C. Sabathia
MVP: Albert Pujols
East: Braves
Central: Brewers
West: Giants
Wild Cards: Phillies, Dodgers
NL Champion: Braves
Cy Young: Zach Greinke
MVP: Jason Heyward
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
I “only” went to 43 games this year, the ninth highest total of my life, and only hit the two local stadiums.
| TeamCity | TeamName | Won | Loss | Winning Pctg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | Angels | 2 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Detroit | Tigers | 3 | 0 | 1.000 |
| New York | Yankees | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Boston | Red Sox | 2 | 1 | 0.667 |
| Baltimore | Orioles | 2 | 1 | 0.667 |
| Chicago | White Sox | 24 | 18 | 0.571 |
| Continue reading → |
6 months ago, I looked into my crystal ball and tried to predict the outcomes of the upcoming baseball season. Now that the season has (mercifully) come to an end, and my predicted divison winners finished an average of just over 13 games back, let’s take a look back at how wrong I was.
American League
East: Red Sox
National League
East: Braves
Wow. Neither team won their division, though both had commanding Wild Card leads heading into September. Both ultimately blew those leads, missing out on the playoffs on the final day of the regular season. The Red Sox actually were one of, in not the best team in baseball for 4 months this summer, but they were horrible in the other two, April and September. The Braves can at least point to injuries to their starting rotation as the cause for their collapse.
Central: White Sox
Central: Brewers
Another week of SWAT leads to more disappointing days, with Monday’s breakthrough past the 10,000 step barrier the one brightspot of a Tigers thrashing of the White Sox.