Baseball

A funny thing happened to the Chicago White Sox on their way to a disappointing offseason.

They decided to get off the mat and play baseball.

Two weeks ago, it had been 19 days since they had won a series. In that span their record was 5-11. Eight of the 11 losses were by two runs or fewer.

The bullpen was faltering and fighting through injury. Key cogs of the offense were struggling, and it seemed the starting rotation was finally tiring.

I had a chance to talk to a Toronto Star journalist (he's an acquaintance of mine) two weeks ago about the Toronto Blue Jays, and everything he said is consistent with what I've been hearing about the fans in that city.

Or more specifically, what other Torontonians are feeling about the Blue Jays, based on what I've been hearing on the Fan 590.

Colby Rasmus may have a one-way ticket out of St. Louis this off-season, if the reports are true he’s unhappy with the Cardinals. 

Rasmus has denied asking to be traded back in July, but Albert Pujols made a pointed comment this weekend that if Rasmus didn’t want to play for the Cardinals, then he should be traded.

Tony La Russa was also quoted as saying it’s up to management, not Rasmus or his teammates, to decide whether he remains in St. Louis.

Sunday's game did not go as planned, as the Angels were able to outscore the A's seven runs to four.

While it was upsetting and Mazzaro struggled in his second start in a row, it was not horrifying. While he gave up five runs in the game, he was able to last 4.1 innings, which is certainly better than his last outing.

The game made the 23 year old's era jump up to 4.29, which is a respectful number. However, the A's organization did not like this and decided to option the young pitcher down to AAA.

Cubs catcher Geovany Soto’s home run in the bottom of the eighth inning was the game winning run.  The Chicago Cubs took game one of the three-game set by beating their NL Central archrivals Houston Astros 5-4 in front of an attendance of 31,647.

When the game was deadlocked at 4-4 in the eighth, Soto sent reliever Wilton Lopez’s two-out 1-0 fastball out of Wrigley Field.  The long solo shot is his 17th round-tripper on the season, and his second in two days.

The NL-Central boasts a few great pickups this week and one real surprise Sit ‘Em candidate.  While there is great outfield help abound, a couple could use some rest on your bench. 

Low-percentage owned pitchers rounds out the help in this week’s fantasy baseball forecast.  Congratulations to those of you who followed last week’s advice in starting Neil Walker and sitting Dexter Fowler.

Start ‘Em

Jonny Gomes | Cincinnati Reds | 36.1 percent

Derek Jeter is a household name.

In case you didn't know, Jeter is the starting shortstop and Captain of the New York Yankees.

He has five World Series rings, four Silver Slugger Awards, and  four Golden Gloves along with countless other awards. Some of them recognized Jeter the player, others Derek the person.

Jeter is the ultimate Captain. Find me a professional athlete, fan, manager or coach that would disagree.

When the White Sox drafted Chris Sale with the 13th pick in the first round they knew they could use him in the bullpen immediately.

The reason the Sox were so sure of this was the fact that he already had two major league caliber pitches and a third one (his slider) that wasn't far behind.

Clearly GM Kenny Williams and his scouts were right about Sale; he's put up a 0.82 ERA since his call-up and has looked like Matt Thornton's underfed twin.

What makes a premier closer in Major League Baseball?

Let's start with a simple, but elusive attribute. Control. As entertaining as Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn was in the movie Major League, a guy that fails to pin point his pitches is murder on the nerves of fans. A Mr. Francisco Rodriguez comes to mind here.

Most closers only have two pitches. Having the ability to control where those pitches wind up is paramount to success.

The Toronto Blue Jays shut Brandon Morrow down after Friday’s start due to the number of innings he had thrown.  While his season didn’t end on the brightest note (3.0 IP, 5 ER, 6 H, 3 BB, 4 K), he leaves behind a stat line that shows off all the promise we’ve heard so much about:

10 Wins
146.1 Innings
4.49 ERA
1.38 WHIP
178 Strikeouts (10.95 K/9)
66 Walks (4.06 BB/9)
.348 BABIP