Tag / White Sox

by admin

Playoff Pitching Leaders

Well, the White Sox have been pushed off the post-season stage and, thanks to yesterday’s rainout, the Cubs still need to take 2 from the Marlins to avoid the same fate.  It’s time to take our updated look at the pitching leaders from the now 30 post-season games I’ve attended since the White Sox won the AL Central in 2000.

Wins

Name Total
Mark Buehrle 2
Jon Lester 2
Jake Arrieta 2
25 tied with 1

Losses

Name Total
Matt Clement 2
29 tied with 1

ERA (> 6 IP)

Name Total
Aroldis Chapman 0.00
Stephen Strasburg 0.00
Kyle Freeland 0.00
Johnny Cueto 1.13
Chad Billingsley 1.35

Strikeouts

Name Total
Jon Lester 25
Jake Arrieta 22
Mark Buehrle 13
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All Time Playoff Team Records

For the first time since 2008, both the White Sox and the Cubs are in the post-season following this abbreviated 2020 season.  The expanded run to the World Series will start with the White Sox facing A’s in Oakland for a best of 3 series starting tonight, while the Cubs welcome the Marlins to Wrigley starting tomorrow.  Winners will advance to the LDS and enter a playoff bubble, with the AL moving to California and the NL to Texas.

With the AL Wild Card Series set to kick off today, it’s time to take an updated look at the team records for the now 30 playoff contests I have attended. These contests come from the 2018 Wild Card game, the ALDS in 2000, 2005, and 2008, the NLDS in 2003, 2007, 2008, 2015, 2016, and 2017, the NLCS in 2003, 2015, 2016, and 2017, the ALCS in 2005, and, of course, the 2005 and 2016 World Series.  Sadly, I won’t be adding any games to this list this year.  Thanks, corona virus.

Post-Season Team Records
Team Name Won Loss Winning Pctg
Florida Marlins 3 0 1.000
Seattle Mariners 2 0 1.000
New York Mets 2 0 1.000
Colorado Rockies 1 0 1.000
Arizona Diamondbacks 1 0 1.000
Chicago White Sox 5 4 0.556
Los Angeles Dodgers 3 3 0.500
Atlanta Braves 1 1 0.500
Cleveland Indians 1 1 0.500
Los Angeles Angels 1 1 0.500
Washington Nationals 1 1 0.500
Tampa Bay Rays 1 1 0.500
Chicago Cubs 9 13 0.409
San Francisco Giants 0 2 0.000
St. Louis Cardinals 0 1 0.000
Boston Red Sox 0 2 0.000
Houston Astros 0 1 0.000
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2020 Predictions Revisited

The shortened 60 game 2020 baseball season wraps up today.  2 months ago, I made my annual predictions as to who would win what, not really knowing what a shortened season during a global pandemic would entail.  Now that the season has come to an end, it is time revisit those predictions and see what, if anything, I got right.

American League

East: Yankees

Well, that’s one down.  The Yankees looked to be on cruise control, until a plague of injuries knocked them off course.  The Rays, meanwhile, took home their first division crown since 2010.

Central: Twins

The Twins take their second consecutive division title, thanks in part to the White Sox crapping down their pants leg over the last week of the season.

West: Astros

The A’s came through in a big way, dethroning the Astros after their 3 year reign atop the division.

Wild Cards: White Sox, Rays

Well, these predictions were made before the current playoff structure was put in place.  The three second place teams are guaranteed a post-season slot, with the next two best records earning a wild card spot.

AL Champion: Yankees

While they didn’t win the division, the Yankees do seem primed to make a strong run.

Cy Young: Blake Snell

Indians ace Shane Bieber pretty much has this wrapped up.

MVP: Yoan Moncada

Moncada has struggled after contracting COVID-19 back during summer camp, but I think I was in the right ballpark.  Jose Abreu looks to be the clubhouse leader for this award.

National League

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by jim

5’s All Around

On the back of 5 solo home runs, the White Sox and Dallas Keuchel took down Trevor Bauer and the Reds 5-0 to reduce their magic number to clinch the Central Division to, you guessed it, 5.  Meanwhile, on the north side, the Twins have a 7-1 lead over the Cubs heading into the bottom of the 7th, so it doesn’t look like we will be getting any additional help there tonight.

In other news, Tim Anderson raised his batting average up to .366 and trails DJ LeMahieu by .001 points for the league lead.

by jim

RIP Tom Terrific

Former White Sox pitcher and Hall of Famer Tom Seaver passed away Monday at the age of 75.  Seaver won 311 games, had a 2.86 earned-run average and struck out 3,640 batters over a 20-year career that began in 1967.  The 12-time All-Star led the National League in wins three times, ERA three times and strikeouts five times.  He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1992, earning 98.8 percent of the vote, the highest voting percentage ever received at the time.

Seaver joined the White Sox at the end of his career, acquired in the free agent compensation draft in 1984.  He quickly made his mark on the south side, earning two wins in the same day by pitching the final inning of a suspended, 25 inning contest from the day before and then starting the regularly scheduled game against the Brewers.  On August 4, 1985, Seaver threw a complete game to earn his 300th career victory against the Yankees in New York.

Seaver is survived by his wife Nancy and daughters Sarah and Anne.

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Back To School

School is back in session and we have Michael to bring us into fall.  The main photo is from his graduation last spring.  Surrounding it, clockwise from the top left, is a shot of him on the field at Guaranteed Rate Field, posing with White Sox legend Bill Melton at Grinder Bash, with Danny at the WWII Memorial in DC, on the balcony at the Newseum with the Capitol building in the background, with Danny again at Miller Park in Milwaukee, and at his final junior high band concert.

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No-No

In 2018, Lucas Giolito was, statistically, the worst starting pitcher in baseball.  That offseason, he began rebuilding his game from the ground up, leading to an All Star appearance last year and culminating in a no hitter last night.  Giolito held the hapless Pirates hitless, striking out 13 while facing one batter over the minimum of 27.

Giolito’s no hitter was the first of 2020 and the 19th in White Sox history, the first since Phillip Humber’s perfect game against the Mariners in 2012.