You Can't Predict This White Sox Season

This White Sox season has got to be one of the most "out-of-the-sky" events in recent Chicago sports history. Before the season the Sox were pretty much left for dead by prognosticators, since here were their main moves:

- lose Buehrle, likely your best single pitcher over the last 50 years, to free agency and get nothing in return
- get rid of your closer, don't get a new one
- bet on Dunn and Rios, who were "epic fails" in 2011, to rebound. In fact Dunn's miserable performance in 2011 was so bad I stopped going to the games because he was just killing us
- get rid of Carlos Quentin, who at least had pop in his bat, when he wasn't hurt
- continue to bet on Paulie, who is at the tail end of his career when usually numbers start to decline
- just bet on a whole crop of rookies to fill in all the gaps in the field, pitching, and everywhere else

And one move that was a bit of a head scratcher for baseball, hiring Robin Ventura, who was out of baseball, as manager.

Anything was better than Guillen... the one move I whole-heartedly support (firing his whiny, insane, motor-mouth ass).

On to the 2012 season, which was summed up by this incredible game summary for the 14 inning victory last night (I stayed up until the 12th inning before I conked out, sorry):

The Sox used nine pitchers for the second time this season - of which eight were rookies... It almost seemed fitting that the Sox scored their winning run on a 14-pitch at-bat by Kevin Youkilis, who hit a sacrifice fly off Everett Teaford to score Beckham.

The fact that the White Sox were able to successfully rely on EIGHT rookie pitchers to get the victory is probably the most amazing statistic that I have seen in years. Along with that is the deal where the Sox picked up Youk (which Gerry celebrated here) for an absolute steal (we gave up that little guy Lillibridge and a minor league pitcher). Note how in that summary above Youk took that pitcher from Kansas City on a 14 pitch at bat, just like the "Greek God of Walks" is supposed to do. And it plum wore that pitcher out in the wee hours.

Oh and while we are pointing out the completely unexpected, there's more. You have a sore-armed reliever - Sale - what do you do with him? Take him out of the bullpen, make him the starter, and see him contend for the AL Cy Young Award, and be a potential starter for the All-Star game. And although individual achievements aren't as important as the fact that the team is in first place, you can't forget Humber's PERFECT GAME, of which he may be baseball's most obscure pitcher ever to do that.

I didn't get a picture of last nights' game but here is a good one of Paulie from a Sox / Cubs game back in 2007 when I had seats right in front of the White Sox bullpen and could watch them warm up that close. Say what you will about Wrigley but that is a great place to watch the ballgame.

I had over 40 games for last years' debacle of a season and wasn't going to buy ANY this year (due to Dunn) but I broke down and bought a 14 game package. The seats were great, all in the 100 section (not bleachers), in a variety of areas. For that game 4th of July weekend I was in the 12th row! Hopefully the Sox start to fill the park and build up a bigger season ticket base for 2013.