I'm almost too depressed to write this week.
Chicago seems to be in a perpetual state of gray. There've been about four sunny days all month, and it's been lightly raining basically the entire time.
Even on days the sun has been out, it has been muffled by a layer of haze. I know this isn't particularly out of the ordinary, and that realistically it could have been worse. The weather hasn't been awful; we haven't been hit by a lot of horrible storms or broken precipitation records and it hasn't been remarkably cold, but the forecasts still look bleak.
It's hard to believe that we're going to be in what could reasonably pass as a spring any time soon.
During that span the White Sox have fallen to the bottom of the AL Central, winning one game over their last three series without scoring more than three runs a single time in that span.
Ozzie is joking about getting fired. Alex Rios is barely hitting my weight, let alone his. And Adam Dunn has three times as many strikeouts as he does hits.
The only positives I can think of right now are that the Sox are still a half-game ahead of the Seattle Mariners (for the worst record in the league), and seem to have figured out a way to stop their bullpen from blowing leads late in games: Never gain a lead to begin with.
Generally, though (at least until this weekend), they've been within striking distance in most games. They haven't had any major injuries, Jake Peavy continues to heal and I see no reason to think that the high expectations I had coming into this year won't ultimately be realized.
But it's raining outside again, and the forecast says it will all week.
And the Sox are traveling to New York to play the Yankees.
Good Weeks
The Tampa Bay Rays hit .500 for the first time this week (initially against the White Sox, who took a four-runs-in-four-games dump all over U.S. Cellular Field) and remain there.
They're still struggling to get base runners (last in MLB in on-base percentage) and knock in runs (Johnny Damon's bearded corpse is leading the team in RBIs), but the pitching has been solid and after going 5-2 this week they're now in second place in the AL East.
The Florida Marlins' Hanley Ramirez went 1-22 with one total base and five strikeouts this week to continue what has been a brutal year. He holds the current record for "Incumbent All-Star with the worst batting average on a team with the most players I've never heard of before."
But the Marlins? All they did was win five of six this week behind the capable bats of Mike Stanton and Emilio Bonifacio.
Bad Week
The Cincinnati Reds are still scoring a ton of runs, but their starting pitching may be a weakness. Not one of their starters has an ERA below four, and they've won just one game in each of their past three series, against Pittsburgh, Arizona and St. Louis.
The Reds begin a three-game set tonight against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Played Well
Daisuke Matsuzaka: 2 W, 15 IP, 2 H, 0 ER
Jose Bautista: 4 HR, .476 BA, 1.815 OPS
Juan Uribe: .450 BA, 9 RBI, .750 SLG
Did Not Play Well
Shin-Soo Choo: 5/26, 7 K, .445 OPS
Edwin Jackson: 12.2 IP, 23 H, 7.82 ERA
Ubaldo Jimenez: 10 IP, 7 ER, 6 BB
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