May 20: Angels 6, White Sox 5

After putting together three really nice starts to open the month of May, Jake Peavy faceplanted last night at the Cell, essentially putting this game out of reach by the 3rd inning following an RBI single by Kendry Morales and sacrifice fly from Hideki Matsui. Peavy is quickly becoming the poster child for the "AL > NL" debate, the guy is just struggling in his first full season in the Junior Circuit. And it's not like he's just been facing a plethora of really, really good teams, he's had two starts a piece against Kansas City and Cleveland who are currently jockeying for that #2 overall pick in the 2011 Draft behind Baltimore, two more against the middle-of-the-road Blue Jays, and now a dud against the Angels, who have been good in recent memory but entered this series struggling as much as the Sox offensively. The only two really above average teams he's faced so far this year have been the Rangers and Rays. And yes, he was terrible in those two games, a combined 10.2 IP, 13 H, 12 BB, 12 K, and a slash line of .295/.446/.432 and ERA of 10.97. It has been a rough year for Jake.

After the game, he told reporters that he felt wholly responsible for last night's loss. So at least we all can agree on that; Peavy was easily the LVP last night, posting a -.271 WPA after his shaky 6 innings of work punctuated by a 2-run Juan Rivera HR in the 6th inning that really put the game away because, as it turned out, the Angels' bullpen needed every one of those runs.

The Sox MVP for the game was A.J. Pierzynski. Pierzynski posted a .131 WPA fueled by a 2-run, ground-rule double in the 8th inning that brought the Sox back within 1. That hit was worth .202 WPA and was, far and away, the biggest of the game. My only complaint: how does Juan Pierre not get awarded home? You're going to tell me that, with two outs, Pierre doesn't score from first if that ball just rattles around in the corner? Please. I'm so jaded about this Sox team, however, that all that call did was probably save us from losing an hour later. May as well save the arms for interleague, we stand a chance to win a few there!

Pierzynski's hit was immediately followed by a fly-out to center from Andruw Jones, worth -.173 WPA and the biggest out of the game. Jones posted a -.214 WPA and was completely ineffective at the plate last night; his only positive at bat occurred in the 1st when he drew a walk, otherwise, the Sox were worse off every time he stepped to the plate. Jones' renaissance was one of the big, positive storylines of the early 2010 season, but over the last few weeks, he's really hit a wall; since May 4, Jones is batting .170/.259/.298. This is especially troubling considering that it was about this deep into last season when Jones' renaissance in Texas fell apart, as FanGraph's Joe Pawlikowski points out.

Sustained Mediocrity: Maybe this happens more often that I realize, but now that we're 40 games into the season I find it very interesting that the Sox have been 4-6 in every 10-game block so far. 4-6 after 10, 8-12 after 20, 12-18 after 30, and now 16-24 after 40. They've been remarkably, consistently mediocre, especially over the past 20 games, which has to be the lamest roller coaster ride ever; since sweeping Seattle at the end of April the Sox have yet to win consecutive games, have only lost consecutive games three times, and haven't lost more than 2 in a row. It's basically been win-loss-win-loss, which, I suppose, makes me confident for tonight's game against Florida.

May 19: Angels 3, White Sox 2

I could have made my first post about the Sox this season yesterday's impressive win over the Tigers, but something about that didn't feel genuine, considering how extraordinarily impotent the Sox have been all year. Thankfully, they returned to form tonight and essentially played a case-study of this woeful season in Wednesday's 3-2 loss to the Angels.


Statistically speaking, Paul Konerko wins tonight's Pick To Click contest, posting a .148 WPA fueled by scoring the team's two runs, the first on a sacrifice fly courtesy of Carlos Quentin in the 2nd inning and the second on an ultimately meaningless solo home run to lead off the 9th. A quick glance at the box score, however, makes a strong case for John Danks, who posted a pedestrian .013 WPA only because his offense so thoroughly failed him (again), as the Sox score 3 or less for the 5th time in 8 starts. Seriously, he is pitching as well as he ever has in his career, and only has a 3-3 record to show for it.

Meanwhile, the White Sox offense hit another new low tonight, getting completely baffled by Joe Saunders. Joe F-ing Saunders. Yes, a guy who entered tonight's game with a .287 BAA, .364 OBPA, and .517 SLGA silenced the Sox bats to a tune of 4 hits and a single run over the course of 7.2 innings of work. As you might expect, there's plenty of blame to go around; Alex Rios gets the distinction of posting the team-low -.268 WPA thanks to an 0-4 night highlighted by an inning-ending fly-out in the 6th leaving the bases loaded while the Sox were still down by 1. Andruw Jones nipped his heels posting a -.229 WPA by also going 0-4 and striking out twice, once as the tying run to end the 8th inning. Alexei Ramirez had the single worst out of the game, the game's final one, a strike-out with the tying run on 2nd base. And who can forget Jayson Nix, who was quiet at the plate (0-3) and only posted a -.097 WPA but really put this game out of reach in the 8th with his brutal defensive play at third, bobbling a grounder and then throwing it to right field. Getting charged with two errors on one play and allowing what was ultimately the winning run to score? Thaaanks!

Sox Biggest Hit of the Game: Konerko's home run off Brian Fuentes to lead-off the 9th.

Failed Opportunities: Despite losing, the Sox actually had 7 of the 10 biggest plays of the game according to WPA, and not just from one inning, they had chances to bust this game open in the 2nd, 6th, 8th, and 9th. The problem: The Angels top 2 plays netted them 3 runs. The Sox top 9 plays only netted them 1.

Sox Biggest Out of the Game: A.J. Pierzynski gunned down Bobby Abreu trying to steal second in the 7th inning, worth -.063 WPA and indicative of Pierzynski's increased ability to limit opponents on the basepaths this year. In the past, A.J. has had all kinds of problems keeping other teams from running on him, but with Abreu and Torii Hunter's CS earlier, that is 16 stolen bases off AJ now in 24 attempts, only a 33.3% CS% but that's nearly in the Top 5 for the whole American League and much better than the usual low-20s, high-teens CS% he was producing for most of his time in Chicago.