Snobs vs. Slobs

Brian Anderson, the Sox first-round draft pick from 2003, has been optioned to Charlotte. He was sent down to get regular ABs and “get his swing back.” According to the Sox’ Web site, they still have faith in Anderson. (more…)

I know Bill Simmons (fancypants opinion-maker and all-around baseball moron over at Fourletter.com) has expounded on the “five-year grace period” for a fandom once a team wins a championship. I know there should be some appreciation that the Sox won the World Series in 2005 (If you Cub fans haven’t stopped reading already, do so now). (more…)

Jim Thome has sore ribs. Jermaine Dye has a back problem. (more…)

Last night the Cubs bullpen blew another small lead, leading to yet another one-run Cubs loss. The Cubs are now 0-5 in such affairs, and are 0-3 in games decided by two runs.

Interestingly, in spite of their awful record in close games, the Cubs actually have the best run differential in the NL Central. Through last night’s game, they have scored 87 runs and allowed 77: (more…)

He led the Bulls in scoring yesterday after the Bulls took the first playoff game from the Heat in their first round series.

Also, Best column ever.

I guess, if you asked me on Monday who I thought would throw the next Sox no-hitter, I probably would’ve said “John Danks.” He’s kind of unknown and he misses bats a little more, so the threat of a bloop single is less so.

And if you asked me to name the Sox starter least likely to throw a no-hitter, it’d probably be the guy who threw one last night: Mark Buehrle. (more…)

Scott Podsednik was put on the disabled list last night, prior to Tuesday’s loss at the hands of the Rangers. The team recalled Boone Logan to replace Pods. Why? I’m not really sure. (more…)

Alfonso Soriano, welcome to Chicago.

A year after the seemingly invincible Derrek Lee lost his season to a freak injury, the Cubs lost the historically durable Alfonso Soriano to a hamstring injury last night, and though preliminary reports have indicated that Soriano will be out for just a week, the Cubs have recalled Felix Pie from Iowa, which indicates that maybe Soriano’s injury outlook isn’t quite as rosy as the official propaganda pages may indicate. The good news: The Cubs haven’t placed Soriano on the DL; instead, to make room for Pie, the Cubs optioned Angel Guzman (who has pitched very well so far on the young season) to Iowa and will go with an 11 man pitching staff. The bad news: Wade Miller is still on the pitching staff, and as I write this, he has already surrendered two runs in the first inning against San Diego.

For what it’s worth, Pie was hitting the tar off the ball in Iowa (16 for 36, .444/.543/.583), and Baseball Prospectus projects him to post slightly better numbers than Jacque Jones:

Pie: .288/.342/.480
Jones: .284/.343/.473

Our good friend and frequent commenter to the site Jacob Shorr came up with that headline, which seems to be all too prescient at this early stage of the season. Mr. Shorr said that to me at some point during the first series of the year, in which the Cubs saw their bats fizzle in game one, come alive behind Lilly in game two, and then lose a winnable game due to defensive and bullpen gaffes in the series finale. Seven games later, the Cubs are looking a lot like the ‘05 team, treading water around the .500 level at 4-6, and losing close, heart-wrenching, often winnable games. The problems thus far have been mostly defense and bullpen related. The good news is that it’s really too early to say definitively that the “new” Cubs really are the same as the old Cubs – after all, there are still 152 games left. But the games count, so it’s worth examining trends where they do exist, both positive and negative: (more…)

Because it’s the first week, I’ll first go with a game-by-game breakdown, then give some general thoughts on the Sox’ first week of 2007. (more…)