White Sox 7/25/03
July 17, 2003
LATEST NEWS
RECORD: 52-50
PLACE: 2nd
GAMES BACK
Sorry for the delay, especially considering how much has happened with the White Sox over the past few weeks. To start, Billy Koch has lost his closer role to the so-far-dominating right/lefty duo of Tom Gordon and Damaso Marte, and hasn't done much to get it back, giving up five runs in his last 4 2/3 innings. While Paul Konerko and Mark Buehrle have reverted back to their old selves.
AT THE PLATE
Paul Konerko, 1B/DH
Last week was the best time to start Paul Konerko, of course, who would've known he would've gone from two extremes so quickly. Konerko went from terrible hitter with no chance to a serious threat in the matter of a week. Will it continue? Another week of this should be a pre-lude to the rest of the season. Start him against hard-throwers, sit him the remainder, for now.
Frank Thomas, DH/1B
Attention: Frank Thomas has a new hitting approach - pull everything possible. Whether it is in, out, up or down, Thomas has made it clear he will be thinking left field and left field only. This will stop him from becoming the overall hitter he's been, but will also lead to more homers. Thomas is at 399 in career homers. The 400th one may be slow in happening, but once it comes, the rest should fall into place.
Joe Crede, 3B
Crede has regressed all season; even in his good games. He's had a long swing far too many times and is just simply outmatched, getting beat by himself more times than not. Fortunately for Crede, the Sox don't have a viable option after him, so he will continue to play, but I don't see anything good coming from it. You can bench him or release him and sign him back up once he starts going, which doesn't look to happen for at least a couple weeks.
Carlos Lee, LF
One thing that has gone unnoticed about Lee this season is his consistency month to month. He leads the team in RBIs with 63, driving in 18, 16, 15 and 14 so far in each month (excluding March). Lee will be facing the D-Rays and Royals this upcoming week. The first series (D-rays) is the team he's had little success against in his career, while against the Royals, he has a career .303 average.
ON THE MOUND
Mark Buehrle, SP
Mark Buehrle is hot, a must-start and untradeable. With that, ignore his last start against the Blue Jays (5 runs in 7 innings) as it all came on just a couple mistakes. He was strong and effective overall.
Bartolo Colon, SP
Colon wasn't too brisk going into his last start. So what did he do? Throw fastballs and nothing but fastballs, pitching his way to his seventh win. Thing is, this strategy won't work against any good hitting team. Colon needs to gets thing together in his next start against the Devil Rays -- another weak team -- or the final two months against teams like the Royals, Mariners, Yankees, Twins and Red Sox could be very long.
