White Sox: Extreme Makeover Edition

Okay, I don't even want to talk about last night's White Sox/Tigers game. It was pretty fucking pathetic. If you want to read about it go here, but in a nutshell:

The Tigers played baseball last night and the White Sox didn't.

I'm not gonna complain about the fact that home plate Dan Iassogna had two completely different strike zones last night. I'll let Ozzie stick to doing that.

What I am going to complain about is the Sox' inability to suck it up and deal with it.

The difference between last year's team and this year's team is that last year the Sox wouldn't have given a shit about the umpire and played through it. This season's team just seems to want to bitch and moan at the umpire all night.

Also, I will always have a hard time understanding why the Sox have no problem hitting 97 MPH fastballs, but can't seem to hit 70 MPH changeups. So what if there's movement? When I was 5 years old and my dad tossed me underhand pitches. There was movement on those too, but it didn't stop me from hitting the ball.

For Chrissake, Kenny Rogers can't throw a ball over 85 MPH, so what the hell are you all in such a hurry for?

And do none of you notice how the Tigers have made a living off of us the last few days just poking the ball to the opposite field? Considering the fact they've outscored you 11-1, maybe you should.

But the White Sox biggest problem, as it has been all season, is their pitching. I can't fix that. All I can think of involves starting Mike MacDougal, Matt Thornton, and Bobby Jenks. That obviously isn't possible.

So the White Sox just have to accept that they're going to have to score five runs a game if they want to win regularly.

That's well within reach for the Sox but even with the best offense in the league, I still think some changes need to be made to the lineup. The current one worked well at the beginning of the year but that's cuz Jim Thome was out of his mind for the first month and a half.

Right now a little makeover might be just what they need:

1. Rob Mackowiak/Pablo Ozuna LF - Pods just isn't working out this season. Granted, Mackowiak isn't your prototypical leadoff hitter, but he's more capable of getting on base than Pods is right now. Ozuna could platoon against lefties.
2. Tadahito Iguchi 2B - Gooch has been hot/cold all season but he's still the Sox' best suited player for the 2 hole in the lineup. He seems to be the only one on the roster who can maintain his original game plan to stay up the middle and opposite field all the time.
3. Jermaine Dye RF - Thome's been in the 3 spot all year. For the first few months, while he was hitting over .300 and homering every other at-bat, it was fine. But as of now, Thome is striking out too much to be a #3 hitter, and also, is easily walked with a runner on 2nd to set up a double play with Konerko on deck. JD is the team's best hitter right now and that's who the #3 spot is typically reserved for. No team is going to pitch around JD to get to Thome. I am getting incredibly sick of seeing Podsednik and Iguchi left on base in the first inning lately, and I think moving Jermaine up in the lineup solves this problem. It also removes the opponent's ability to just bring a lefty in against Podsednik. Since Iguchi has struggled against lefties this season, other teams have gotten into the habit of bringing in a southpaw to face Pods, Iguchi and Thome. With JD lurking that's harder to do this cuz they then face the prospect of having JD face the lefty or letting Thome go against a righty.
4. Jim Thome DH - Thome is just more suitable for the cleanup spot. Plus with Konerko behind him it sets up the whole right-left-right in the middle of the order.
5. Paul Konerko 1B - Konerko hasn't really done anything to deserve a demotion from the cleanup spot, it's just for the symmetry of the R-L-R. Also in the 5 spot it's more likely Paulie comes up with runners in scoring position, which generally makes him focus more on taking the ball back through the middle instead of turning on everything.
6. A.J. Pierzynski C - If AJ could learn to just go to with the pitch to left field all the time he'd probably still be hitting around .325. As it is he's still hitting over .300, which comes in handy in this spot for two reasons: if there are runners on base, AJ can drive the runs in; if he's leading off an inning or there's one out he gets on base for Joe Crede behind him.
7. Joe Crede 3B - It's nice to have a guy hitting .300 with 25 HR and 80 RBI batting 7th in your lineup. Joe tends to get a lot of clutch hits late, so it never hurts to have him down here if at the end of a game the Sox are in the lower part of the lineup.
8. Alex Cintron SS - This isn't just due to Juan Uribe's year long struggles at the plate. It's also thanks in part to Juan's lack of focus in the field this season. Cintron isn't exactly a big drop-off defensively and he's a much better hitter than Uribe right now, especially in late inning situations, which the Sox sorely need.
9. Brian Anderson CF - Brian is really just for defense, even though his bat is starting to come around. If Ozzie still wants to give him days off against tough righties, he can move Mackowiak to center and keep him in the leadoff spot while playing Pods in left and having him bat 9th. That way if Pods does get on base you have a speed threat on with some of your best contact guys coming up to the plate.