Now Its Over!

Well, the White Sox made a nice run this year, but are going to fall pretty far from the division title they seemed poised to get just over a month ago. They were last in first place on August 11th and are now 9 games behind those pesky Twins after being swept at home by those same rivals. The series this week was UGLY for the Sox too as they didn't just lose; they were destroyed and on their home turf. I read yesterday that one local writer is calling The Cell Target Field East as the Twins are now 12-2 in their last 14 games here. That is NOT good!

Let's face it...the only reason the Sox even made their unlikely run in the first place had more to do with their schedule than anything else as they simply feasted on the weak NL teams they were blessed to play this summer going 15-3 in inter-league play which was the best record for any team this season. The Twins on the other hand were 8-10 so that works out to a substantial 7-game advantage in the standings for the White Sox. Luckily for the Twins, they get to play the White Sox just as many times as interleague where they more than made up that 7-game deficit going 13-5 against the Sox. The AL Central is the biggest overall difference between the two teams with the Sox going 30-36 while the Twins dominated their division with a 43-20 record with winning records against all four of the other teams. That folks is what a division winner should look like...you shouldn't be able to feast on other teams while losing to your closest rivals and still win the division against those rivals.

So while the Sox entered this series in a "must sweep" mode as they were 6 games back to start ended up with an apocalyptic scenario instead...they got swept. With 16 games left, the Twins "magic number" is 8 which is the smallest for any of the divisions. That means any combination of 8 Sox losses and Twins wins finishes off the Sox officially, but everyone knows they're done already including the Sox themselves. This was as demoralizing a sweep as we've seen in Chicago since the 97-win 2008 Cubs (how long ago does that seem right now?) were swept by a steroid-aided, Manny-led Dodgers team in the NLDS. Too bad for Kenny Williams and the Sox they didn't get the steroid taking Manny from 2008 because they certainly paid for that guy with the nearly $4 million contract they picked up from the Dodgers. Instead, they got another Juan Pierre type singles hitter without the wheels. Manny is hitting .293 for the Sox since the trade, but in his first 14 games and 54 plate appearances in those games, he has ZERO home runs, ZERO extra base hits, and worst of all ZERO RBIs! WOW!

Kenny Williams chose to ignore the bullpen issues facing his team and put all his waiver-deadline eggs and nearly $4 million of his boss' money in the basket of an aging slugger. Was that his final move as Sox GM? Most "experts" feel like the Ozzie/Kenny show is just about done with the two clashing several times in the last 12 months...most notably over the signing/not signing of Jim Thome...and one of them is probably out the door. Will it be Ozzie or Kenny or maybe both? The Sox chose to not sign Thome to be their everyday DH and instead go with a committee approach which failed so miserably that they were almost forced to sign Manny at the waiver deadline. Thome made about $1.8 million for a full-season in Minnesota while the Sox paid Manny nearly $4 million for about 30 games...hmmm...sounds like someone screwed up BIG TIME to me. Of course, had Manny been Manny at the plate rather than just with his hair (pretty hypocritical of the Sox to allow him to keep the dreds) and helped push the Sox over the top to take the division from the Twins, most people wouldn't have worried about the money. Instead Thome continues to be a major force for the Twins while Manny again has ZERO RBIs in 14 games here. So it was Ozzie this past off-season that very emphatically stated he didn't want Thome but it was Kenny who put up Reinsdorf's $4 million for Manny...so who goes and who stays?

You can add in that Kenny brought in Edwin Jackson who has been amazing with the exception of his last start (3-1 with a 2.94 ERA in 7 starts), but he also brought in Jake Peavy who is 10-6 with a 4.11 ERA and only 20 starts pitching 127 innings in well over one year and about $18 million; he's also guaranteed another $37 million over the next 3 years. Of course, he gave up Daniel Hudson for Jackson who has really shined for the D-backs going 6-1 with a 1.67 ERA in 9 starts and he gave up Clayton Richard for Peavy and all he's done is go 17-10 with a 3.80 ERA in 42 starts pitching 246 innings for the Padres. On the face so far, those trades were HORRIBLE for the Sox as they gave up a 23-year old for a 27-year old and a 27-year old for a VERY expensive and injury-prone 29-year old. Forget Manny, these two deals do it for me...fire Kenny!

Has Jerry had enough of Ozzie's antics? Maybe even more importantly, have his players had enough? Is it not working any more? Have they tuned him out? I feel like you have to blame the manager at least a little bit for the losing. They have only been to the playoffs in two of the last ten years...that's kind of pathetic as even the lowly Cubs have been there 3 times in the same timespan. Granted they did win the World Series only 5 years ago...isn't that the grace period though...5 years? They haven't won a playoff game since winning the World Series in 2005 either. It may be time to start over from scratch here Jerry. The Twins are back and seem to be here to stay especially now that they have their own baseball park which should bring in a LOT more revenue and allow them to spend more money on the team's payroll. That was the one advantage the Sox enjoyed over the Twins and that seems to be gone now too.