All "this would have been a great deal 8 years ago" joking aside, Sox fans should hope that Griffey can emulate the output of another potential Hall-of-Famer playing in Chicago, Jim Edmonds.
Since suiting up with the Northsiders, Edmonds has hit .277 with 12 homers and 36 RBIs. Throw in a .372 OBP and a .587 slugging percentage and you can see why Cubs fans are now huge fans of the one-time Cardinal.
Sox fans should hope for similar production from "The Kid," who at 38 has seen a drop-off in production but is still someone that the opposition has to take notice of.
The main question most Sox fans have concerns where Griffey will fit in the lineup. The guess here is that Nick Swisher, Jim Thome and especially Paul Konerko will have to give up some playing time. Having lineup depth like this heading into the stretch run is always a nice commodity and something the Sox rarely have.
Rosenthal doesn't mention yet what the Sox would be forking over for the tail end of Griffey's career, but I can't imagine it would be much. The Reds would probably be happy just to get his salary for the rest of the season off the books. Griffey's price tag would likely preclude either team from offering him arbitration this winter, so he wouldn't yield any compensation draft picks.
This year Griffey is batting .245 with a .355 on-base percentage and .432 slugging percentage. Those are obviously all well off his career totals. But over the last month he's hitting .263/.391/.553. So long as the Sox are only sending over a fringe prospect, it's probably worth the gamble to see he can keep it up through the rest of the year.
Of course to ride the hot hand, the Sox will have to drop someone from the lineup, and my guess is that it will be first baseman Paul Konerko.
Konerko and Nick Swisher are both touting poor batting averages, but Swisher has at least maintained respectable on-base and slugging numbers. Swisher also offers a lot of lineup flexibility with his ability to play all over the outfield and at first base.
That will be the right move. Sentiment might not favor benching a player that was a key cog for the team when it won the World Series three year ago, but reason dictates that Konerko has had enough time this season to try to pull himself out of his slump.
Besides, the Sox might be on the verge of acquiring a legitimately good player to replace him in the lineup. Not some guy like Brian Daubach.
Now that the Cubs have gone into Milwaukee and taken the first three games of the four-game series, it's clear that I underestimated the Cubs' character and the overestimated the Brewers' swagger.
With the way the Cubs were tanking after the All-Star break, I felt all signs were pointing to Lou Piniella's squad going belly-up like so many Cubs teams have before. However, with selfless hard workers like Ryan Theriot, Mike Fontenot and Kosuke Fukudome in the lineup and determined winners like Carlos Zambrano and Ryan Dempster on the mound, I guess should have seen this coming.
The Cubs still aren't out of the woods because of their penchant for slumping on offense. However, the chances of this team missing the playoffs now appear to be very slim. A September schedule packed with challenging road trips could cause the Cubs to slip to wild-card status, but this team will be playing in October one way or another.
As for my prediction that the Cubs would be chopped to pieces by the Brewers' buzz saw, I've been wrong before and I'll be wrong again. In the end, it's me and the Brewers who look like bums.
Breathe in and breathe out Sox fans. There's still two months left in the season and this road trip will not alone derail their season.
What could derail it down the stretch is the lack of consistency at the back end of the rotation. Jose Contreras, Javier Vazquez, Clayton Richard, Southside the mascot - anybody please step forward.
Of course, that's not it. Sox fans are clammoring for something to be done with fallen hero Paul Konerko, Nick Swisher is struggling and Scott Linebrink and Joe Crede sit on the DL.
Obviously, the Sox have had better stretches this season but I'm still holding out hope that the front end of the rotation will pull them through it.
Now only a 1/2 game up, tonight's game will pit Gavin Floyd (10-6, 3.57) against Livan Hernandez (10-7, 5.31). Looking at the stats, one would have to like the Sox's chances. As long as Floyd can avoid having Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau step up to the dish with men on base (Richard and the Sox were unable to do this on Tuesday, when the two combined for 5 RBI's), I'm confident the Sox will do enough against Hernandez and regain that 1 1/2 lead. Cross your fingers, Sox fans.
Enjoy being in first place Cubs fans, because it probably isn't going to last long.
Expect a blood bath when the Cubs travel to Milwaukee for a four-game series next week. Considering the way the North Siders have been hitting the ball lately and how they've played on the road all year, they will likely be chopped to pieces by the Brewers buzz saw that's been almost unstoppable since signing CC Sabathia earlier this month.
I'm thinking Milwaukee will win at least three of the four games, but the good news is that the Cubs should have a decent lead in the wild card race after relinquishing the top spot in the NL Central.
It's definitely time for Cubs Nation to recalibrate the expectations because the Brewers look like the team to beat in the National League at the moment.
Here are a few numbers to chew on in the wake of the Cubs' 6-3 win against the Marlins on Thursday night.
-The Cubs are now 38-12 at home this season and 22-30 on the road.
-The Cubs lost their first two home games, meaning they've won 38 of their past 48 at home. They haven't lost back-to-back home games since those first two contests at Wrigley Field this season.
-The Cubs are 1-4 at home against the Milwaukee Brewers and 37-8 at home against all other teams.
-The Cubs have 31 home games remaining and 29 road games remaining.
-22 of those 31 remaining home games will take place in August.
-16 of those 29 remaining road games will take place in September, a month that includes trips to New York to play the Mets and Milwaukee in the final week of the season.
MORAL OF THE STORY: Judging on how the Cubs have played at home and on the road this season, they will need to mop up at the Friendly Confines in August if they hope to coast into the playoffs.
I think 97 wins will assure a playoff spot, meaning the Cubs will need to go 37-23 the rest of the way. If the Cubs play near .500 ball on the road for the rest of the year, that means they'll need to go 23-8 at home to reach that magic 97 number.
After their thrilling 10-8 win over the Rangers on Wednesday, the White Sox will head off for a 10-game road trip against the rest of the AL Central.
Wednesday's victory was huge for a variety of reasons. The Sox won despite commiting four errors, avoided a losing homestand, showed once again that they can battle back, got Carlos Quentin back to being the sport-dominator that he often was in the first half and went up by 2 1/2 games on the Twins.
The jury is probably still out on rookie lefty Clayton Richard who endured three errors (and a variety of other mental hiccups) behind him, while allowing seven hits and four earned runs in four innings. There were things to like about the southpaw - he struck out seven while only allowing one walk and he worked quickly. The two-out rallies that plated four Rangers' runs against him were certainly troubling but it was his first Major League start. Here's hoping he sticks in the rotation for another shot in the Metrodome on Tuesday.
But before the Sox get there, they'll be meeting up with the Tigers, who trail them by 5 1/2 games in the standings.
The pitching matchups are as follows Gavin Floyd (10-6, 3.52) vs. Nate Robertson (6-8, 5.69) on Friday, John Danks (7-4, 3.03) vs. Justin Verlander (8-9, 3.95) on Saturday and Javier Vazquez (7-8, 4.57) vs. Zach Miner (4-3, 3.73) on Sunday. Sox fans can breathe a sigh of relief because they won't be taking on the Gambler, whose earned quite the reputation as a Sox killer.
Verlander was on the other end of that Tigers' win, tossing a complete-game four-hitter. Robertson made a quality start against the Sox in Game 1 of that series, but has struggled in his last two starts, allowing 12 earned runs in just 9 1/3 innings. Miner has only made one start so far this season but threw two scoreless innings of relief against the Sox back in April.
The weekend series will not only give the Sox a chance to put a little more space in between them and the Tigers in the standings, but also an opportunity to get off to a good start on this important trip.
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In honor of Clayton Richard's first MLB start, I thought it would be fun to take a look at the first starts of some other White Sox call-ups. Here are a handful of guys Kenny Williams has thrown into the fire:
Dan Wright, Aug. 1 2001
Wright had actually pitched in relief a few days earlier, but with the Sox rotation in shambles he would get the starting nod the rest of the year. Wright threw five unspectacular innings on his way to the win.
Neal Cotts, Aug 12, 2003
Not Cotts' most memorable start, but I'll get to that in a minute. The lefty had been racking up huge strikeout numbers in the minors before walking the tightrope against the Angels in his first big-league appearance.
The game that stands out in the minds of most Sox fans is this one. Skipper Jerry Manual elected not to pitch Mark Buehrle on short rest, instead tossing Cotts against the Yankees. In Yankee Stadium. In the middle of a heated pennant race. Cotts didn't make it out of the first inning.
Brandon McCarthy, May 22, 2005
Even going against the Cubs in the pressure cooker that the Crosstown series can be, McCarthy was solid in the 4-3 loss. He later took over for Orlando Hernandez and helped the Sox hold off the Indians down the stretch. The rest is history, as they say.
Charlie Haeger, May 10, 2006
The knuckleballer was rocked for six runs by the Angels and was banished to the bullpen the rest of the season. A call-up isn't likely this year before September.
Lance Broadway, Sept. 27, 2007
Broadway was impressive in his only big-league start with eight strikeouts in six innings against the Royals. He hasn't been impressive at AAA Charlotte this year.
In Rich Harden's brief Cubs career, he's pitched 12 1/3 innings, struck out 19 batters and allowed one run, amounting to a 0.73 ERA. Yet he owns an 0-1 record after being completely let down by his offense Monday night in Arizona.
The lack of offense is nothing new as the Cubs continued to struggle to score runs on the road. Since the All-Star break, the Cubs are 1-3, and yet their pitching staff has allowed only six runs in those four games.
Having a staff with aces like Harden, Carlos Zambrano and Ryan Dempster is nice, but it likely won't amount to anything if the Cubs don't score and their top hitters continue to prove susceptible to lengthy slumps.
Some might think this sounds hysterical considering how well the Cubs have hit at home and that Alfonso Soriano has been out of the lineup with a broken hand. However, this current trip to the desert should conjure memories of last year's playoff trip when Aramis Ramirez, Derrek Lee and Alfonso Soriano were completely unheard from as the Cubs were swept out of the Division Series by the D-Backs.
Lee and Ramirez have fallen off the face of the planet again. Lee hit into a backbreaking double play in the ninth Tuesday -- the 20th time he's hit into a twin killing this year -- and Ramirez is a pitiful 0-for-17 since the All-Star break.
There's no doubt the Cubs are one of the best teams in baseball when their offense is in high gear. But as talk of a trip to the World Series builds, fans must take a reality check and realize that the team's top hitters have never proven able to avoid big slumps at crunch time.
Last year, people said it was a fluke that Ramirez, Lee and Soriano all went ice cold at the same time once the postseason arrived. I say it will be a fluke if those three can contribute consistently over a 20-game stretch in the playoffs this year and lead the team to the promised land.
The bottom line is the Cubs' top hitters simply aren't reliable enough to make the team a clear favorite in the National League.
After a poor showing in their series loss to the Royals over the weekend, the White Sox pitching staff is really starting to show its holes.
Various reports, including this one here have the Sox taking interest in relievers Jon Rauch and Huston Street.
Also, now that Jose Contreras has been been put on the shelf, here's a list of starting pitchers that might be out on the market.
It's good to see that Sox GM Kenny Williams is looking over the trade landscape to try and improve the club. As I stated before, the Sox are still in a strong position to win the division despite their pitfalls. It's just that you can never count on the failings of what seems to be an inferior opponent, epecially if they are the Twins.
The Cubs and White Sox begin the second halves of their seasons tonight, so here's how the clubs have done after the All-Star break over the past decade, with their final records in parenthesis:
Bailey believes that in a game that is supposed to "matter," the fans have too much of a say in who makes the team. Bailey put a bull's-eye around Milwaukee's Corey Hart and the Cubs' Kosuke Fukudome. Bailey pointed to Philadelphia's Pat Burrell and Houston's Carlos Lee as two men more deserving of spots.
Bailey was also displeased to see second-tier All-Stars like Dioner Navarro and Christian Guzman playing the bulk of the extra-inning contest.
I countered that many of those players were chosen by the players themselves.
I threw out a proposal that in games like these, players - and even pitchers - should be allowed to re-enter. That way the managers can get everyone in the game and if it heads to extras, the best of the best can get back in.
What would you implement to improve the Midsummer Classic? Invite more players? Get rid of the World Series home-field advantage prize for the winner?
The White Sox bid adieu to Pablo Ozuna, the player manager Ozzie Guillen dubbed "The Secret Weapon" in the middle of Ozuna's career season of 2006, during which he batted .328. The utility man was designated for assignment earlier and refused an outright assignment to AAA Charlotte on Wednesday.
Ozuna caught flack in a lot of corners for his paltry career hitting stats (.285 BA, .322 OBP, .358 SLG), and for his below-average glove. But he did two things well for the Sox. He could at least pass at every infield position and left field. Ozuna also crushed left-handed pitching (.302 BA career vs. LHP), which helped paper over a severe handicap the Sox have had for years.
In the end it was his lack of leather that cost him his job. Juan Uribe, despite all the rumors that have him on the way out of town, is very valuable as a backup for the Sox. He's above-average defensively at every infield position, and the power in his bat is a nice tool off the bench late in games.
Marlins second baseman Dan Uggla didn't look much like an All-Star in the wee hours of the night Tuesday into Wednesday.
The National League reserve was simply brutal both at the plate and in the field, and his awful performance was made all that much worse by the fact that the circumstances were magnified by a tense, competitive contest.
At the plate, Uggla went 0-for-4 and left six men on base. He struck out in three of his four at-bats and also grounded into an inning-ending double play. Meanwhile, Uggla also made three errors in the field, each time putting his pitcher in a precarious position. The three errors were a record for an All-Star Game.
Luckily for Uggla, none of the defensive miscues cost his team. However, the National League might have home field advantage in the World Series if Uggla had been able to put together at least one positive at-bat.
For a guy who wasn't a household name before the game, it'll be tough for Uggla to shake the distinction of being the guy who didn't practically everything wrong during the All-Star game.
Let me know if you can think of an uglier baseball performance on a similarly big stage.
There's a very interesting and funny story on Yahoo! Sports right now about the reason the American League has dominated the All-Star Game of late. Yearly profanity-laced pep-talks from Ichiro.
While the consensus is that the Cubs committed highway robbery in last week's deal for A's hurler Rich Harden, that can only be the case if Harden stays healthy and dominates down the stretch.
Can he stay healthy, though? Nobody knows, but a lot of people are trying to make educated guesses.
If you're into looking at a pitcher's mechanics for clues to this kind of thing, Alex Eisenberg at Baseball-Intellect has an article breaking down Harden. His conclusion: He doesn't know if Harden will hold up either.
Mechanics might not be the best place to assess a pitcher's injury risk, anyway. After all, I remember a guy who supposedly had mechanics so flawless he would nevergethurt.
Outfielder Alex Escobar has been released by the Washington Nationals after struggling in AAA this year. Why the mention? He used to be a White Sox farmhand.
The Sox picked him up off waivers from the Indians late in the 2004 season and early the next year traded him to the Nats for Jerry Owens.
Right now that trade is looking like a garbage-for-garbage swap. Owens has hit so poorly at AAA Charlotte this year that even fans with a fetish for speed at the top of the lineup are having a hard time making a case for his inclusion on the Sox's 25-man roster.
Another tangential link between Escobar and the Sox? Escobar was the centerpiece of the package the Mets gave the Indians for Roberto Alomar before the 2002 season. And as we know, Sox GM Kenny Williams has traded for Alomar twice. No word on if Williams will get him out of retirement for the second half of this season.
If it hadn't already, a red flag certainly went up during the White Sox's 12-11 defeat to the Rangers on Saturday.
No, not Paul Konerko's 0-for-6 performance, hidden amongst a 22-hit offensive output by the Pale Hose, but the continuing lack of anything positive coming out of the right arm of Jose Contreras.
After a win over the Royals on June 5, Contreras had a sensational ERA of 2.76. Since then, the big man has turned into a mess on the mound, serving up an ERA of 8.60 in his last seven starts and no doubt reminding Sox fans of his 2007 meltdown.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention, Contreras' rotation buddy, Javier Vazquez. Vazquez has posted a 6.80 ERA in his last seven starts.
The good news for Sox fans is that Contreras and Vazquez are delivering these poor performances in June and July, rather than in the stretch run when fans and Sox GM Kenny Williams could do nothing but wring their hands.
With the trade deadline approaching, Williams needs to at least survey the market and have a good heart-to-heart with owner Jerry Reinsdorf about potentially expanding the budget for another White Sox playoff run.
I'm not calling for a move here yet. Williams should be applauded for the work he did in the offseason and the trio of Mark Buehrle, John Danks and Gavin Floyd has certainly stabilized the rotation and given the Sox one of the better front-ends in the AL. But what happens if Contreras or Vazquez or even both continue to struggle? Can Danks and Floyd continue to pick up the slack with the rotation vets crumbling in the second half? Can the young guns handle the additional pressure that would come with it?
Contreras, who has one more year left on the extension he signed in 2006 for $10 million/year, could still come out of his slump but unlike Vazquez it's hard to imagine him posting quality starts with much regularity. Vazquez posted a solid 3.74 ERA a year ago and unlike Contreras has age - and probably "stuff" - on his side.
With the Indians already closing up shop and the Tigers seemingly undecided on whether or not they feel like competing this season, the AL Central is ripe for the taking. A game and a half out at the break, the Twins continue to be the irritant that they have always been to the Sox this decade, while often beating out the more talented Sox for the division crown in the process. And while I've said it before about the Twinkies, this team seems destined to decline. Why am I confident? No Santana. No Hunter. Smoke and mirrors. Lots of smoke, lots of mirrors. Please, just take a look at this starting pitching staff. They've also only scored 16 more runs than they've allowed, while the South Siders have outscored their opponents by 83 runs.
But they're still the "piranhas" and because of that, I hope Williams will take the GM Yellow Pages out of the filing cabinet.
Now that that we're at the All-Star break and baseball's trade deadline is around the corner, the rumor mill is spinning into high gear.
While it's fun to speculate by kicking around a few hypothetical trades, it might also be time to dispel the notion that trading for any aging veteran yields a bounty of draft-pick booty.
Dave Cameron at the U.S.S. Mariner blog tosses out a few trades that he thinks make sense (though some of them seem very debatable to me). He suggests that a team willing to take Raul Ibanez will get the two-month rental, plus draft picks when Ibanez signs a deal with another team at the end of the year.
That's true, but only if Ibanez is offered arbitration, he doesn't accept and another team signs him. Ibanez is making $5.5 million this year, and I wouldn't bet on the 36-year-old getting a deal nearly than that in the offseason. Why wouldn't he just accept arbitration, through which the acquiring team can offer him no less than his current salary with a 10-percent pay cut? That team is then stuck with a contract they probably don't want.
A famous example of a player surprisingly accepting arbitration is when Greg Maddux took the Braves up on their offer after the 2002 season. Maddux ended up getting as much in 2003 as he likely would have on the open market in a two-year contract. Plus it blew out the Braves' budget, forcing them to trade Kevin Millwood. And they got no draft picks out of the deal.
Now, there are situations where teams are likely to pick up draft picks.
The Brewers will get another team's first-round pick, plus a compensation sandwich pick (between the first and second rounds) when CC Sabathia bolts Milwaukee. But that's because Sabathia is a superstar who is certain to sign with not only another team, but likely a contender that won't have its first-round pick protected (the first 15 picks can't be snagged as free agent compensation).
For another, but slightly different situation, look to a rent-a-player deal the White Sox made in the offseason. Orlando Cabrera is in the last year of a contract that pays him $9 million this season. The Sox will offer him arbitration because 1) baring a horrendous second half, he'll garner interest from other teams and 2) there's no down side to Cabrera accepting. He wouldn't destroy the team's budget and could hold down the shortstop position for another year without forcing the Sox to bear the burden of long-term contract.
So yes, rent-a-player strategies can still bear some long-term fruits. But the idea that you can trade for any team's trash and turn it into draft treasure is just fruity.
As tough as it was to stomach a near-meltdown by the White Sox bullpen against the Rangers on Saturday, there's no denying that this year's group of relievers has been a vast improvement on the trash that took the mound for the Sox in 2007.
Bad bullpen work is one of the most difficult things to endure as a baseball fan, which probably explains how relievers have gotten to be so overpaid in free agency. And when a guy is bad, you almost begin to hate him.
It got fellow staffer Andy Rohr and I talking about some of the White Sox relievers we've hated through the years.
White Sox starter Gavin Floyd didn't even get out of the third inning Friday night against the Rangers, but it was still long enough to walk a career-high seven batters.
It was by far his worst performance with the Sox control-wise and eclipsed the career-high of five walks he matched three times when he was with the Phillies.
How did it stack up against the career-worsts of the other members of the Sox rotation? Take a look:
Mark Buehrle
6 on May 11, 2003 against the Mariners
Jose Contreras
7 on Aug. 23, 2004 against Detroit and July 1, 2005 against the A's
Javier Vazquez
6 on Aug. 10, 2006 against the Yankees
(Also on May 30, 2003 against the Phillies as a member of the Montreal Expos)
With one more series to go before the All-Star break, how about a look where the Cubs and White Sox have been at the season's intermission the past few years.
Bonus fun fact: The Cubs beat the Sox two out of three in interleague play wrap up the first half in both 1999 and 2000.The Sox exacted some measure of revenge in 2001 when they took two of three from the Cubs coming out of the break
Juan Pablo Montoya did it.
The NASCAR driver's rendition of the Seventh-Inning Stretch at Wrigley Field on Wednesday night and subsequent interview in the bottom of the frame were enough for me.
When asked if he grew up a baseball fan, in another awkward moment for play-by-play man Len Kasper, the Colombian responded, No.
That was the final straw for me after the non-baseball man rushed horribly through the song, finishing reading his cheat sheet as the crowd finally caught up seconds later.
The Cubs should trash the interview after the singing -- which is making me more and more uncomfortable.
Especially since Cubs' games for the rest of the season apparently will grow in significance as the divisional race intensifies.
The last thing I want to hear during a key moment late in the game is that the guy in the middle of Len and Bob doesn't like the sport.
Let 'em sing and then show 'em the door.
