AL Central

Like vultures surrounding a dead carcass, teams are flying overhead of the Chicago White Sox, hoping for some scraps to add to their contending team as the White Sox slowly waste away in the American League Central race.

The Texas Rangers have already shown interest in 33-year-old catch A.J. Pierzynski and the latest whispers say the Philadelphia Phillies, among others, are scouting reliever/setup man J.J. Putz and closer Bobby Jenks, with a focus on the latter.

When a pitcher has a bad outing, you shrug it off. If you get lit up by the Colorado Rockies, you definitely let it go.  Even for a Cy Young Award winner, a bad outing is part of the game.

But when a dominant pitcher gets tagged for eight runs in less than four innings against the team his old catcher plays for, you know what’s going on.

Dontrelle Willis just can't seem to get on an even keel.

It's a problem that he's had since he arrived in Detroit two years ago.

There have been times that he has looked like the D-Train of old, back in his Florida Marlin days, when he was a fan favorite.

And more times than not, he appears as the secondary piece of the Miguel Cabrera deal.

The Detroit Tigers are fresh off two wins in M.C. Hammer's old stomping grounds—Oakland, Cal.

With the Sox on the verge of losing again, I have felt the need to get back into blogging with a similar article to what I had gotten recognition for last summer.

Hopefully you enjoy—I am open to comments and opinions.

Five Reasons to Give Up on White Sox

1. Gordon Beckham

Bo·da·cious, adjective: remarkable, outstanding.

That sounds like Eddie Bonine of the Detroit Tigers this year, does it not? That is what I have taken to calling him lately: Bodacious Bonine.

I'll go one further: Steady Eddie.

I will note, one really has to impress me in order to get labeled with the "S" word.

The Sox have been hard to watch this season. Most expected them to be roughly .500, but the pitching hasn't been nearly as strong as expected and only two players are hitting over .260. The Sox are seven and a half games back after their win today and could be selling at the trade deadline if things don't improve relatively quickly.

However, that's not what this article is about. Not everyone on the Sox is struggling, and rather than dwell on the negative I'm going to highlight these players.

Somehow I found 6 slides for this article.

Alas, the days when teams had one relief pitcher who pitched multiple innings are gone. Specializing relief pitchers is part of the game now, as we rarely see a reliever go more than one inning unless special circumstances apply (rain delay, blowout, etc.). 

The whole point of specializing relief pitchers is to make them more efficient.

A lefty specialist can focus only on left-handed batters, and he usually comes in when another left-hander is up.

Royals manager Trey Hillman has just been relieved of his duties, effective immediately. Ned Yost will take over as the new manager to replace Hillman. Hillman's record was 151-206 in his two-plus seasons as the head guy in Kansas City.

He had been in hot water for quite some time after the team once again to off to a slow start to the 2010 season, winning 12 out of their first 35 games.

The firing of Hillman continues the revolving door of managers that the Royals have had in recent years.