Well as painful as those first months were, those memories are distant ones now. The Sox have been the hottest team in baseball for the last month or so as they made their climb atop the AL Central standings, and they have been playing thoroughly entertaining baseball during that stretch (I’ve blocked the last Twins loss out of my memory entirely. Let’s just say, I was not entertained.)

The bats have come alive with Paul Konerko and Alex Rios being the lone constants throughout the season. In almost every game the Sox have a different bat heating up. And in the past month it seems as if every bat in the lineup has been clicking.  Alexei Ramirez (.362 BA in July), Omar Vizquel (.333), Juan Pierre (.305) all have consistently populated the base paths. Carlos Quentin (.305, with 6 of his 11 hits in the month as home runs) when healthy, is terrifying to opposing pitchers. And Andruw Jones, while a shadow of what he once was, still puts together tough at-bats (.350 OBP in July, with a healthy mix of patience and power).

Heck, even Brent Lillibridge has gotten into the act, giving some rest to the Sox infielders and giving Ozzie a good bat off the bench in late innings (.423 BA overall in limited at-bats ).

While all those numbers are encouraging, the best news is that Gordon Beckham appears to have gotten his groove back. He’s hitting .421 for the month of July and it looks like the three games off that Ozzie gave him at the start of July helped him get on track. Since June 22nd, he’s raised his batting average forty-two points and has halved his strikeout rates from previous months. This boost from Ramirez and Beckham means that opposing pitchers have no room to relax in the Sox lineup.

I don’t even know where to start with the Sox pitching staff. From Buehrle and Garcia doing their thing, to Floyd and Danks hitting their strides, it’s been fun to watch. Ozzie seems to have found his guys in the bullpen (I’m still holding out hope that Linebrink finds himself, if not for us, then to be used in a trade). Ignoring the question mark that is Bobby Jenks, the only glaring question is whether Daniel Hudson can fill the 5th starter slot and not deplete the bullpen while he’s at it.

Last night, Hudson proved that he has the stuff to stay in the starting rotation. He started the game with a grotesque 11.25 ERA from his start against the Royals where the Sox bats saved him. And he left the game with 2 outs in the seventh inning with a runner on first, having lowered that ERA to 5.06. He allowed one run early on and then settled down, scattering five hits and striking out six (including all three swinging in the second inning). Those numbers would’ve been even better had he not fallen victim to a tight strike zone. One at-bat, in particular, saw Jack Wilson, the Mariners’ ninth batter, get the full benefit of Hudson’s tiny strike zone. Here’s hoping Hudson can keep it up down the stretch for the Sox.

By Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net,

Say what you want about the 2010 Chicago White Sox, but at least they hold true to form. Everyone talks about how up-and-down they are, how they (warning: a cliché as painful as Jim Belushi coming) “are consistently inconsistent.” But it’s not entirely true. About 20% of the way through the season, they give you exactly what you expect. The Sox look terrible against average and winning teams, but they can handle the bad teams. With one exception:

I’ve organized and broken down the record of the 14-19 White Sox by opponent. It’s listed in order of best winning percentage to worst, with the team’s record in parentheses, followed by the Sox record against each opponent. (As of Tuesday, May 11^th)

Tampa Bay Rays (22-10) 1-2

New York Yankees (21-10) 1-2

Minnesota Twins (21-12) 1-2

Toronto Blue Jays (19-15) 3-5

Texas Rangers (18-14) 1-2

Seattle Mariners (13-19) 3-0

Cleveland Indians (11-18) 1-5

Kansas City Royals (12-21) 2-1

You’ll notice the only exception is the inexplicable and unjustifiable 1-5 against the bottom-feeding Indians. But don’t take my word for how bad the Indians are, watch this video from one of their own announcers. Against losing teams the Sox are 6-6, or 5-1 without the Cleveland anomaly. Versus winning teams they’re 6-11.

There are many reasons for this, but we can save those for future articles. For now, let’s focus on the deep literal hole in the two-hole of the lineup. We all expected Gordon Beckham, one of last year’s top rookies to be “coming out swinging like Tiger Woods’ wife” (Apologies to Ludacris) this season. Well, he’s been swinging; and missing. He’s been more disappointing than both Austin Powers sequels combined.

Manager Ozzie Guillen said he is not a fan of Beckham’s body language after Thursday’s loss. “When you see him put his hands on his hips, it’s not baseball- shaking his head every time he makes out.”

Beckham, who hit .270 with 14 HRs last year, went 0-for-4 with three Ks last night. He added two errors in the field. His batting average is dropping like the readership of that crappy Milwaukee Brewers blog that stupidly picked a fight with us last summer. “Bacon” is now at a pathetic .193 and says his problems are more upstairs than they are in his swing. He added “a lot of this is self-inflicted.”

Maybe he was brought up too soon last year? Maybe he needs to go back to Charlotte to figure it out? He’s striking out a whopping one out of EVERY four at bats!

Most Sox fans are expecting his career to develop like Aimee Teegarden in “Friday Night Lights,” becoming more pleasant to watch and with an increased role every year. Instead his career is going down hill like the lives of every child star from “Different Strokes.”

Whatever the issue is, Bacon needs to quickly become crisper, and produce more meat for this batting order. Right now his presence is somewhat Artie Lange-like, a layer of useless flab weighing down a rather punchless lineup.

Paul M. Banks is Founder/President of The Sports Bank.net, an Upper Midwest sports webzine. He’s also a member of the Football Writers Association of America, the United States Basketball Writers Association and a sports writer for the Washington Times.com Communities and Walter Football.com

When I initially heard about the trade, I figured it was a good trade for two reasons: 1) Josh Fields did not have a spot on this team as the most recent winner of the annual Brian Anderson/Joe Borchard award; and 2) while Chris Getz performed only a little bit off the pace of AL Rookie of the Year, Gordon Beckham, the Sox were smart to sell high on the 26 year old who had outperformed most expectations for him.

Remember at the beginning of 2009, Brent Lillibridge and Jayson Nix were expected to play over Getz. Ignoring Lillibridge’s lilliputian production, Nix remains and could serve the same role as last year (slugging utility man) or could start at 3B if Teahen stays in the outfield.

What’s that? Kenny Williams announced Teahen will start at 3B and Gordon Beckham will move to 2B?  Well Crap… as smart as Kenny is, this is a stupid announcement. I’m sure that we’ll hear that he wanted to make this announcement early so that the wunderkind Beckham could spend the entire offseason perfecting the pivot turning the double play from the 2B position. But is this necessary?  No!

The Sox had a Rookie of the Year runner-up at 2B in 2008. That same individual, who goes by Alexei Ramirez or “You ‘Effing Moron” depending on your mood, was pretty horrible at SS in 2009.  With 75 more total chances in 2009 at SS than at 2B during his rookie year, Ramirez’ error total rose from 11 to 20 total errors. We should have seen this coming as (in an admittedly small sample size) he couldn’t go 24 total chances at SS in 2008 with committing an error. This pace would’ve put him at 23 errors if he played SS full-time in 2008.

So considering that one of the major failings of the White Sox team in 2009 was their collective team defense, wouldn’t the organization want to put the players in their best natural positions? I say make it official: Ramirez back to 2B, slide Beckham to SS (his college position, not his “I played it once in the Cape Cod League position) and then tell newbie Mark Teahen that he’ll play at the hot corner or in RF depending on what they can muster in free agency. While Jermaine Dye is likely out, the Sox could always resign him for cheap and hope he bounces back like he did in 2008 from a similar slump in 2007.

Hell, let’s see if Kenny aims for a Jason Bay or Matt Holliday in free agency, although with their new championship, the Yankees will likely sign them both to 8-figure/year salaries.

h/t: Luol’s Dong

I really can’t be mad at the Sox for their performance this year, and I won’t spend six long months wishing they were dead.  I guess it’s partially due to the fact that less was expected of the Sox from the beginning of the year. Can you imagine that some prognosticator’s predicted the Sox to at best finish 3rd in their division?!?!  And while never truly deserving of a full-on “underdog” tag, the Sox were saddled with lower expectations due to age (both young and old), injury concerns and lack of established fourth or fifth starters. This helped my psyche throughout the year when even an above-average performance led to the brief delusion that maybe there was something more to this team. Maybe the Good Guys do Wear Black, maybe the Grinder Rules do still apply, or maybe These Kids Can Really Play.  They always seemed to just be one hot week or two away from really putting it all together.  Alas, even in the face of the Tigers’ self-destructing September, the Sox couldn’t muster the streak necessary to save their season or their teammates (see Jim Thome and Jose Contreras).

The oddsmakers in Vegas had the Sox hovering around 79 or 80 wins when they broke spring training. Right now, after that craptastic showing against the Twins last night, the Sox are sitting at 73-78.  Even if the Sox can’t muster an 8-3 finish, which is likely, there are some good things to be taken away from this season.

a) We got Jake Peavy. I heard a little rumor that he unanimously won some award in the NL a couple years back for being like the best pitcher or something noteworthy like that. Either way, the Sox may have paid a little too much for his services or lack thereof this season, but even if he had been healthy for 6 or 7 more starts, I don’t know if it would’ve made a difference. Better to ensure his long term health rather than trotting him out there with a bum leg.

b) Gordon Beckham struggled at the plate late in the season but still held up well against the grind of his first professional season. He also showed signs of improvement defensively at the hot corner.  I think he might have found the position for him permanently since his reflexes have improved markedly, but he still lacks the range to be a great major league shortstop. All in all, Gordon has 91 hits in 93 games, showed some power with 12 home runs and 45 RBI’s and most importantly proved that he can hang with the big boys.  Hmmm, who would I rather have at 3B: a young, healthy Gordon Beckham who started hitting from the start, or Joe Crede who shut it down again this season to have his 3rd major back surgery?  That’s a real tough one.

c) This season was probably the best thing that could have happened to Chris Getz. The guy outplayed Lillibridge and Nix from the start of the season, avoided all the glare and criticism that comes with being a rookie with Beckham getting much of the buzz, and quietly put up some solid numbers. A .269 average, 98 hits, 25 SB, and a .986 fielding percentage.

d) Along with these two rookies proving their worth, the Sox organization has allowed some of their remaining youngsters to move quickly through the farm system and get a taste of the big leagues. While I think we should stick with AJ Pierzynski for as long as possible (2nd best offensive catcher in the AL behind Mauer, which is saying something), it’s good to see Tyler Flowers getting some at-bats this late in the season. His swing looks awfully long, but I have to keep reminding myself he put up monster numbers in AA, and even wunderkind Matt Wieters but up some atrocious numbers in his first 25 or 30 at-bats in the majors.  Tyler has had only 7 or 8 at-bats sporadically at the end of games to work out the kinks, and should begin to put things together or at least identify what he needs to work on during the offseason. Daniel Hudson is another youngster who has barreled through the minor leagues, which isn’t exactly a cakewalk considering the overall records of the Sox farm teams this year. He’ll need to develop another pitch to be a solid starter but the Sox seem to have some kind of blueprint for the future.  (Don’t ask me if Rios is in those blueprints, I have no idea what his ceiling or floor is).

While I hate to compare them to the Cubs, it’s a fact of life that we have two pro teams in this fair city and it’s tough not to think of the other team. The Sox had their share of disappointments from their corner out-fielders this year (I’m looking at you Mr. Quentin and Mr. Dye of the .189 August and .135 September). If I were a Cubs fan I would be writing to the Ricketts family and Jim Hendry to demand that Sam Fuld and Jake Fox get a fair chance to fight for one of those corner spots next spring, rather than simply buying the next “can’t miss free agent” to fill the void.   The Sox appear to have weathered a transitional year of managing to play competitive baseball with some extremely exciting moments (Exhibit A: Buehrle’s perfect game) while introducing a solid group of youngsters who should have long careers with the organization. And while this might not be the year for any team from the AL Central to make much noise in the post-season, the Sox are in better shape next year. I can’t help but think that one of these years the Cubs wouldn’t benefit from taking the same approach.

Instead, the Cubs once again went for the all-or-nothing strategy, and wound up predictably with a whole lotta nothing. Each time I saw one of the youngsters trotted out there, there was no satisfaction that the kid could be getting his big break. Instead, I hoped he enjoyed his momentary spot in the sunshine before the veteran returned to the lineup or the Cubs signed the next batch of off-season free agents to try and win it “next year”.

Either way, I’m not upset with the Sox this year. They made some pretty bold moves, shook some things up, weren’t complacent, and genuinely kept me interested even when they were trotting out Carlos Torres to start games. The future looks bright, if not spectacular and I can’t wait to see what Kenny has up his sleeve during the offseason.

Cubs Injury Issues: Now Zambrano gets scratched with back problems.  It’s been a season-long injury issue with this team, with Fukudome and Theriot being the only real iron-men on the team.  How are the Cubs supposed to live up to the potential of their ridiculous payroll when none of the big money spent is even taking the field on a regular basis?  Can we blame the trainers? Or Hendry for signing a team full of players made from glass?

Richard Dent Gets Screwed: It’s a real shame that this kind of thing happens.  Richard Dent is one of the greatest defensive ends in the history of the game.  He dominated the position on what was the best defense of all time.  Be it journalists, or veteran’s committees, or whatever, the selection processes for professional halls of fame needs to be amended to actually let in hall of famers.  Dent had 137.5 sacks and was the Super Bowl XX MVP.  He created more turnovers and havoc in the backfield than any end in NFL history.  Why he didn’t get in the Hall is beyond me.

Broncos Fans Boo Orton: Broncos fans really suck.  I mean they are just terrible.  Apparently Orton got booed for having a bad practice.  Not a bad game or series of practices; one bad practice.  Gee I wonder why Cutler wanted out of Denver.

Kevin Gregg is Still Having a Better Season Than Kerry Wood: Even though he blew 2 saves last weekend, his numbers are still far better than Woody’s this year.  Gregg and the entire bullpen has just been overworked and needs some time to rest their arms.  Unfortunately that may or may not happen.

Obama Almost Wore a Cardinals Jersey: I really want to like this guy.  I do.  He says all the right things to make me believe he can turn this country around and he has pretty good handles on the hardwood.  Then he stalls on health care, makes some terrible appointments, continues many of the old failed policies of the last administration, wears a White Sox jacket, and now this.  Apparently he almost wore a Cardinal’s jersey at the All-Star game.  That would have literally lost my vote right there (not to mention make me vomit in my mouth a little bit).  Thank god he didn’t do it.

Hoffpauir Sent Down, Soto Called Up: It’s a numbers game, I get that, but why do the Cubs have to send down Hoffpauir?  Although his average has slipped a bit since he gets less consistent playing time, he still has the power numbers to be an effective left-handed option off the bench.  I mean do we need Scott Baker, Mike Fontenot, Andres Blanco, and Aaron Miles on the squad?  How about send Aaron Miles down, that guy sucks and everyone knows it.

Bulls Save Some Money on Tim Thomas: The Bulls bought out Tim Thomas’s contract which was worth 6.4 million but they only paid 4.8 million.  Every little bit of cap space helps.  I’m still wondering who will shoot the 3 on this team though.

Ben Wallace Returns To Detroit: Just kidding, even I don’t give a shit about this.

I Just Don’t Like Matt Holliday, Why Do I Need a Reason?: Either Mozeliak, LaRussa, or Holliday himself sold his soul so that Holliday, who had been hitting just .276 with 8 home runs before the break, all of a sudden is hitting .525 with 4 home runs since being acquired by the Cards.  I hate that whole team, and Holliday is no exception.  I’m sure he’ll do some classless Cardinal-like thing soon enough (that organization is character poison) to give me a good reason to hate him, but in the meantime I just don’t like him and I have no good reason.

Fine, Gordon Beckham is Good, But At Least I Was Right About Carlos Quentin Being a Fluke: The title says it all.  I was skeptical about both Beckham and Quentin this winter after every Sox fan I talked to told me Quentin was the second coming and Beckham will be great.  Quentin is not the second coming.  Don’t you find it odd he didn’t come up to the majors until he was 27?  And don’t even start with the “he’s been injured” crap.  If anything that just means he is injury-prone, proving me correct that last year was a fluke.  Props to Beckham though, that kid is filthy.

Marlins Little “Goat” Stunt Not Appreciated By Sweet Lou: Who cares Lou?  If the goat and the curse are all bullshit, then it doesn’t matter.  I’m sure you get sick of that stuff, but getting mad about it only brings more attention to the idiots who mock the Cubs.  I never thought I would say this, but Lou needs to just shut up about this stuff.  No one would have even batted an eye if he didn’t get all worked up about it.

The Return of Fire Joe Morgan: My favorite sports blog of all time will be returning (sort of) for one day.  On September 16, the old crew from FJM consisting of Dak, Ken Tremendous, and Junior will be running Deadspin for a day.  Hopefully it inspires them to start writing FJM again, but either way it should be fun.

Some White Sox Fans Might Be Actually Retarded: Not to be too rude, but how can you not laugh a little at how dumb some Sox fans are when you see this picture.  Did you really think Rowand was spelled “R-O-W-A-D-N”?

The “Derrick Rose Had A Rough Summer” Story is Bullshit: He didn’t have a tough summer, okay?  The two stories this is referring to are the gang sign thing and the SAT cheating thing.  Both are bullshit.  No one cares that he might have made a gang sign to a camera one time in college.  And he didn’t cheat, he was proven innocent pretty convincingly.  Here’s the real story of D-Rose’s summer: He tried out with Team USA, worked on his jumpers, and probably bought a lot of cool stuff with all his new money.  I don’t want to hear about the “cheating” or the gang signs anymore, okay mainstream media?

Tom Gorzelanny Can Pitch, and He Looks Like Sloth from the Goonies: So he probably isn’t as good as he was in his start for the Cubs, but to be honest all we need is 3-4 halfway decent starts from him until Lilly comes back.  If he pitches really well for the next couple weeks and its a tough decision whether to send him down or keep him in the rotation, that is the kind of tough decision a team wants to have.  Oh yeah, and he looks like Sloth from the Goonies.

Let’s Get Real, The Peavy Trade Probably Won’t Mean Much This Season: I know this will sound like sour grapes, but seriously, if he comes back healthy he can make 3 starts in September.  If the Sox make the playoffs, which seems less and less likely, then he can definitely be a factor.  Otherwise, this signing was for the future.  The Sox rotation will be formidable with Buerhle and Peavy at the top and Danks and Floyd at the 3 and 4 for the next few years.

In short, Black Jack believes for a team to be considered a legitimate championship contender, a team must have the following three things:

A Cy Young candidate or two;

An MVP candidate in the batting order (he also recommends two or three other guys who would place in the top 15 of voting); and

A Rookie of the Year candidate (he adds that this requirement may be filled by a young player having a breakout year).

While at first glance this criteria seem to be a little too demanding, I’d argue that having one of the first two categories will definitely make your team competitive come playoff time, and having a young player playing well is just gravy.

The recent performances of the South Side’s Gordon Beckham and the North Side’s’ Randy Wells got me thinking how we could assess either team’s potential in the postseason this year given the fact that both teams have players who should legitimately be in the ROY conversation.

Before we look at both teams this year, it may be interesting to see how the last four World Series winners fared in this framework.

Team: Categories (places in voting for each award)

2008 Philadelphia Phillies:

1. Brad Lidge (4th);
2. Ryan Howard (2nd), Brad Lidge (8th), Chase Utley (14th)[Jimmy Rollins had been MVP in 2007 too]; and
3. Could argue that Cole Hamels had breakout in sustaining success from 2007.

2007 Boston Red Sox:

1. Josh Beckett (2nd);
2. David Ortiz (4th), Mike Lowell (5th), Beckett (22nd); and
3. Pedroia (AL ROY), Daisuke Matsuzaka (4th) and Hideki Okajima (6th).

2006 St. Louis Cardinals

1. Chris Carpenter (3rd);
2. Albert Pujols (2nd),  Chris Carpenter (19th); and
3. Adam Wainwright, wasn’t in the running but definitely shone brightly on the biggest stage coming out of the bullpen.

2005 Chicago White Sox (The Astros, who were swept, fit even better into this theory, although it was a weak year for the NL)

1. Mark Buehrle (5th), and Jon Garland (6th);
2. Paul Konerko (6th), Scott Podsednik (12th) and Jose Contreras (T-27th); and
3. Tadahito Iguchi (4th), could also argue for Bobby Jenks here.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at the ROY candidacies of both Randy Wells and Gordon Beckham, along with which teams might also fit this criteria for post season success.

In the meantime, I’d like to hear who you think would be good candidates to fill categories #1 and #2 for both the White Sox and the Cubs this year.

1.) The truth finally comes out. For nearly 7 years now, White Sox fans have had to put up with retorts along the lines of “Well at least our fans don’t charge the field shirtless and beat up on old, defenseless first base coaches while hopped on meth.” Both Ligue boys only had to put up 30 months under probation, while Sox fans had to endure the shame of having these two crap bags as supposed “fans.”

Douche Bag Extraordinaire

The littlest Ligue finally showed his true colors on his MySpace page, letting slip what we should’ve guessed all along. He’s a Detroit Tigers fan, proudly sporting the Tigers’ script ‘D’ chain, and sent by General Manager Dave Dombrowski, on that fateful night seven years ago to sully the good name of the White Sox. This was obviously a nefarious plan to exact revenge on Hawk Harrelson and the organization, which fired Dombrowski from his position as assistant general manager during Harrelson’s one year as General Manager in 1986.

The scariest thing in this entire development is the fact that the youngest Ligue will be a father soon himself according to all MySpace accounts.  Simply scary.

2.) The Tigers are tiring.

Everyone knows that the Detroit Tigers have solid starting pitching. With a starting rotation that includes a rejuvenated Justin Verlander, Armando Galarraga (who’s shown he can put a solid season together), Edwin Jackson, and rookie Rick Porcello, the Tigers are positioned to be competitive in most games.

Looking over shoulder for Dusty Baker

Fortunately, the Tigers are taking no chances with Rick Porcello’s young arm. He’s currently at 87 innings pitched, with a career high of 125 innings pitched last year in the minors.  While I certainly laud the Tigers for protecting their young prospect’s arm, and they certainly can manage it with the occasional spot start from another rookie/minor league call-up, it will come back to bite their own tails.

With the Tigers’ eyes on pitch counts every fifth start, and the occasional bad start from the rest of the starters thrown into the mix, the Detroit bullpen will be pressured to step up and make up for the innings lost to the Porcello Preservation Plan. While the pen is full of potential, recent years have shown the relief arms to be increasingly fragile and unreliable. Flamethrower Joel Zumaya is currently on the DL with right shoulder soreness, and the rest of the bullpen has blown the most saves in the league this year, given up the third most walks, and has the tenth best bullpen ERA in the American League.

Last night Bobby Seay demonstrated this weakness, wasting a quality start by Armando Galarraga (7.1IP ) giving up a 2-run homer to Russell Branyan after inheriting one baserunner from Galarraga. After absorbing this tough loss, the Tigers’ pen will be called upon often as rookie Luke French pitches on Thursday and Rick Porcello will start in the first game of the doubleheader with the Sox on Friday.

Aside from the fragility of the Tiger bullpen, the rest of their team is slumping too. Brandon Inge is suffering from tendonitis in both knees (the Home Run Contest will not only screw up your swing, but also your joints). In the entire Tiger lineup only Miguel Cabrera has a batting average above .300.

All this has added up to the Tigers going 6-9 since July 1st and fans asking when hockey season starts again.

3.) The Sox have stayed hot.

In contrast with the Tigers, the Sox have gone 11-7 since July 1st and have now won 21 out of their last 32 games after yesterday’s exciting 4-3 victory against the Rays. They are now only one game behind the Tigers for the division lead.

I was at last night’s game in roughly the seats where the aforementioned Ligues would’ve stormed the field. I got some good natured heckling in of George Hendrick, the Rays’ first base coach and outfield instructor (also credited as the first MLB player to wear his pant legs all the way down to his shoes).  I thanked him, among other things, for his fielding instruction work with BJ Upton, who looked utterly lost when he was crossed up on Alexei Ramirez’s triple over his head in the bottom of the seventh inning.

The Cuban Missile

Blame it on the Von Wafer mohawk.

Upton’s blunder allowed the tying runs in Gordon Beckham and Scott Podsednik to score.

Jermaine Dye pounced on the opportunity, knocking in Ramirez for the go-ahead run. Matt Thornton then came in to lock down the Rays for the final two innings, earning his first save of the season.

While the established players came through at the opportune moments last night, it was the work of two rookies that give hope that the White Sox will not face a long rebuilding period when Paulie, Jim, AJ, and Jermaine finally decide to hang them up.

Carlos Torres, called up from Triple-A Charlotte a day earlier, ably replaced John Danks and his blistered finger on Wednesday night. Torres stayed ahead of hitters with a mix of fastballs and breaking pitches thrown early in counts for strikes. While the end stat line may not be awe inspiring (6 IP, 3 ER, 3 K’s, 3 BB’s) Torres took the game into the seventh inning, pitched out of a few jams, and generally kept the Rays from getting to the Sox bullpen earlier. That’s all the Sox could really hope for from Torres. He stepped up and provided just that, keeping the Sox in the ballgame, while also saving the bullpen for a stretch of 22 games in 23 days.

The other rookie of note in last night’s game was Gordon Beckham. Last night, I predicted to a friend that Beckham’s jersey will become in the next year as popular as Joe Crede’s was. I know it’s blasphemous, but this kid is something special. After his slow start (1-for-13, I believe) he has really turned it on as of late. Prior to last night’s game, Beckham’s batting average sat at .304. This coincides with a resurgence of other Sox bats with a majority of the lineup hovering around .300. Gordon Beckham has teamed with Scott Podsednik to create an exciting bridge from the bottom of the lineup to the top in late game situations. It always seems as if Beckham is managing to get on base in some shape or form setting the table for the big hitters or merely prolonging an inning, wearing down a reliever.

He did just that last night drawing a walk in the seventh, advancing on an infield hit from Scott Podsednik and then coming around to score on the Ramirez triple. Over the last 5 games, Gordon Beckham has batted .529 in 17 at bats, with a .600 OBP and .706 SLG %. His defense has also come along, again making a tough over the shoulder catch in foul territory in the middle innings, and throwing out several of the speedy Rays runners with ease.

Sox fans have these reasons to be excited for the remainder of the second half of the season and should have an exciting product out on the field each and every night. If there are any Sox fans who read this blog (this blog has come a long way from Stormin Norman’s steadfast refusal to cover anything Sox-related outside of Ozzie blowups) I’d encourage them to come out and support the team if you can, as there are still plenty of quality seats available at most of these games. The more butts in the seats = the more freedom Kenny Williams has to do what he does best.

Chicago Cubs

Corey Patterson: The word on Patterson was that he was the next Lou Brock.  After a good half season followed by an injury, his career sputtered out.

Mark Prior: The second pick in the draft behind Joe Mauer, Prior was amazing for a couple seasons, but injuries plagued his career.  He was recently in camp with the Padres but *gasp* went down for the season with an injury.

Kerry Wood: Remember 1998?  He was a rookie when he tied Clemens’ record for most strikeouts in a game with 20.  He always had nagging injury problems and never developed into the Cy Young caliber pitcher everyone thought he could be.  Eventually he was converted to a closer and he has had some success in that role.

Felix Pie:  All you need to know is he was supposed to be the next Corey Patterson.  Yikes.

Chicago White Sox

Gordon Beckham: All I hear Sox fans talk about is Gordon Beckham.  The shortstop of the future they say.  When he finally came up this season, he struggled a bit.  Recently he has been hitting better though, and time will tell whether he pans out.

Joe Borchard: He was given the largest signing bonus in MLB draft history (until Justin Upton surpassed it).  Unfortunately he only had one stint with the major league club, resulting in a .174 average.  After bouncing around a bit the past couple years, he finally had to undergo Tommy John surgery last season

Josh Fields: Fields came up in August in 2007 and hit 23 home runs between then and the end of the season.  Although he only hit .244, the City had high hopes for him.  Unfortunately Crede came back from injury and started most of the 2008 season.  Fields started this season at 3rd base, but due to poor hitting has been mostly relegated to the bench in recent weeks.

Brian Anderson: The next Willie Mays?  Even I thought so after his ridiculous season in center field a couple years ago.  He was suppsoed to be able to hit too, but unfortunately that never happened.

Chicago Bulls

Jamal Crawford: The Bulls used a lottery pick on this guy, who was supposed to be an elite scorer.  Unfortunately his poor poor defense and terrible shot selection doomed him to mediocrity.  He was recently traded to the Atlanta Hawks, where I’m guessing he will score about 17 points a game while shooting 38% from the field.

Marcus Fizer:  He was the big low post scoring presence the Bulls needed.  Until he sucked.  Terrible player.

Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler (Baby Bulls): Krause traded Elton Brand for the rights to select Chandler 2nd in the draft and then took Curry 4th.  Curry never tried and Chandler never developed into the elite defensive/rebounding  player he was supposed to be.  Until he got traded to New Orleans of course.

Tyrus Thomas: John Paxson traded Aldridge for Tyrus on draft day and most people thought it was a great move.  Tyrus is athletic and has a ton of upside and was only 19 years old.  Oops.  So far he has never taken the step from high talent/low IQ, and has been in all kinds of recent trade rumors.

Derrick Rose: Too early to tell, but most think he will be a perennial all-star at least and a hall of famer at best.  We’ll see.

Chicago Bears

Curtis Enis: His ridiculous college numbers at Penn State did not translate into much of anything.  He had a decent second season, almost breaking 1000 yards, but never made any noise in the NFL again.

Rashaan Salaam: After winning the Heisman in college, he rushed for 1,000 yards in his rookie season with the Bears.  Everyone thought he was going to be a starter in the league for a long time.  Too bad he could never cure his fumbleitis, and the injuries didn’t help.

Cade McNown: This quarterback from UCLA was going to be the best quarterback the Bears had since, well, ever.  Or so people thought.  He was young and perhaps did not deserve all the criticism and booing he got, but his performance on the field did not exactly light up any opposing defenses.

Rex Grossman: Oh the Sex Cannon.  There’s not much to be said about him that hasn’t already been said.  I love the guy, but he just couldn’t see over his line and made so many bad decisions.  He was the quarterback that went to the Super Bowl in 2006, however (note how I didn’t say he “took” the Bears to the Super Bowl).

Brian Urlacher: Hey hey!  Someone that actually panned out.  He was a safety in college, but the Bears immediately moved him to outside linebacker and eventually to the middle.  He was one of the dominant players at his position for the last decade.

David Terrell: The Bears needed receivers (sound familiar?) and turned to this standout from the University of Michigan.  Someone forgot to tell us he couldn’t catch the ball though.  Out of the league within a few years.

Chicago Blackhawks

Jonathan Toews: Toews and Kane are pretty much inseparable in this discussion.  The Hawks have finally begun to turn things around since old man Wirtz’s death.  Toews had a stellar rookie season, scoring the second most goals on the team behind Kane.  He was named a captain and helped lead the team to the Western Conference Finals this year.

Patrick Kane: Although he looks like he’s 12 and has a finesse (see: soft) game, he has been extremely effective for the Hawks.  He won Rookie of the Year and continues to dazzle hockey fans.  Also helped lead the Hawks to the Western Conference Finals alongside Toews this season.

Anyone Else from 1999-2006: I didn’t follow the team and I’m guessing most of you didn’t.  I have no real memory of a “chosen one” from the Hawks during this time.  If you can think of one let me know.  We’ll call these “the lost years”.