Ozzie Guillen Wants Javy Vazquez to Step Up

Throughout his career, Javier Vazquez has been seen as a good pitcher, but he's never been great. He has some of the best stuff in baseball, yet in eleven seasons, he's only been able to compile a career record of 127-127. A big reason for this is because Javier seems to disappear in big games.

It's a perception that Vazquez has worked hard to rid himself of, but he hasn't had much of a chance...

Continue reading at FanHouse

Mark Buehrle Is Fine...Or Is He?

No, he's fine.

With last night's game against the Twins being postponed thanks to rain, the White Sox had to adjust their starting rotation for the first time this season. Of course, the adjustments they made immediately caused an uproar that something must be wrong with Mark Buehrle.

It seemed logical that instead of jumbling the rotation around because of one day off, that the Sox would just push everybody's expected start back a day. Jose Contreras was supposed to start on Thursday, but instead will pitch tonight against the Tigers, and Gavin Floyd will get the start on Saturday. Then the "controversy!"

Instead of having Mark Buehrle pitch the series finale against Detroit on Sunday, Mark is going to get the start against Oakland on Saturday. In his place on Sunday, Javier Vazquez will get the nod. Why the change? Well, there's a pretty good reason for it actually.

“It keeps everyone out there as close as possible without sitting too long,’’ Don Cooper said. “And the big thing is Oakland might be more susceptible to lefties, as well as Tampa. This is the best way we figured it out with, No. 1 what’s best for the team, and No. 2 what’s best for the individual. The match-ups have a small part to do with it.’’

Buehrle went 0-1 with a 3.86 ERA in two starts against Oakland last season, while Vazquez has a career 6.60 ERA against the Athletics. As far as Oakland against left-handers this season, they’re hitting .204 with two home runs. The Sox are hoping to take advantage of that with Buehrle and then Danks.

So that's settled.

It's also best to get Buehrle as much rest as possible whenever you can. He's never been a flamethrower in danger of blowing out his arm, but he has thrown over 200 innings each of the last seven seasons. I don't care how hard you throw, at some point, that's going to catch up to you. Arms just aren't supposed to undergo that kind of treatment.

Besides, while the month of April is littered with off days for teams thanks to weather concerns, once we hit May and the summer months, days off become a rarity. So it's best to get your guys as much rest as you can while it's still early.

Javy Vazquez Will Start on Opening Day

In what is a bit of a surprising announcement, especially considering the season doesn't start for another three weeks, Ozzie Guillen came out on Wednesday and announced that Javier Vazquez would be getting the Opening Day start over Mark Buehrle.

"It's a great honor to pitch Opening Day," he said after Guillen revealed the recent plans.

"If they tell me Opening Day, that's a great honor. If they tell me the second game, that's great. Fifth game, that's great too. I just want to pitch."

I have to admit, I'm a little surprised by this. Mark Buehrle hasn't exactly been getting knocked around this spring, and he's always been the guy who starts on Opening Day, with the exception of last season. Jose Contreras got the honor last year, and got destroyed by the Indians.

I can understand why Guillen would give it to Vazquez, though. Javy has pitched very well so far this spring, so he's earned the right, plus it should be a reward for what he did last season. Vazquez was the best starter the White Sox had last season.

What scares me though, is the other bit of information Ozzie dropped about his starting rotation yesterday. Gavin Floyd is moving from the 5th spot to the 3rd spot in the rotation.

Guillen said Floyd's effort has sold him on moving him up from the fifth spot, with left-hander Danks tentatively scheduled to slide to the fifth spot.

"Gavin Floyd has the stuff to be the No. 2 pitcher," Guillen said. "Hopefully not too far away he can be a No. 1. But he has good enough stuff to be one of those guys."

I wonder if Ozzie and I are watching the same Gavin Floyd.

There are other reasons for the move besides Gavin's performance this spring, with the biggest one being Guillen doesn't want Buehrle and John Danks pitching on consecutive days since they're essentially the same guy.

Still, having Floyd as our third starter doesn't exactly inspire a lot of confidence in me about this upcoming season.

Should Dye Stay Or Should Dye Go Now?

I have no idea what to think about the White Sox right now. Going into the season it was known that if the team was out of it-though nobody thought they'd be this out of it-Mark Buehrle and Jermaine Dye were the two players likely to be traded.

Tadahito Iguchi's name came up too as a free agent, but there was never any real talk about an Iguchi trade. (Well, okay, I talked.) So now we sit here on July 31st and Mark Buehrle is signed for another five years, Tadahito Iguchi is hitting home runs against the Cubs for the Phillies, and now maybe Jermaine Dye is about to sign a contract extension.

What the hell is going on?

Jermaine Dye remains a member of the White Sox, and the possibility exists that he could stay in Chicago despite strong interest from Boston.

The White Sox, according to an industry source, have made overtures about giving Dye an extension that wouldn't mortgage their long-term future. Dye can become a free agent after this season and seek a long-term extension elsewhere, even though he indicated last week that he wouldn't settle for a one-year contract.

From what I'm hearing, the Sox are offering a two-year deal, but Dye would like it to be longer. While I wouldn't be that upset if the Sox kept Dye, I still don't think it's the right move to make. As I've said before, Dye is the only valuable trade chip the Sox can afford to lose right now. It's a lot easier to replace corner outfielders than it is starters like Jon Garland and Javier Vazquez.

The White Sox were close to sending Jermaine to Boston yesterday for Wily Mo Pena and a couple of prospects, but the Red Sox aren't sure they want to hand over the prospects that Kenny Williams wants. The latest talk I hear is Pena and one prospect for Dye.

I think Kenny's just going to sit around and wait on this as long as possible in hopes that the Red Sox will relent and accept the trade. Williams is probably also fielding phone calls from the Angels who lost out on Mark Teixeira yesterday and might be a little more willing to part with young talent for Dye's proven bat. Even if it does leave a logjam in the outfield.

At this point I'd say it's 60/40 that Dye will be traded within the next two hours.

Morning Wood - Paulie!

Chicago White Sox 5 Tampa Bay Devil Rays 1

Good news: Konerko had his 21st multihomer game of his career, with a two-run homer in the second inning a seventh-inning shot that made it 5-1. Devil Rays.

Excellent news: Javier Vazquez pitched seven innings of one-run ball to earn his first victory since June 1. (The rotation, by the way, has posted a 2.50 ERA over its last eight games and the bullpen extended its scoreless streak to 10 innings over its last four games.)

Bad news: Jermaine Dye missed his sixth straight game and could go on the disabled list.

No news: Nothing on the Buehrle signing. Well, a little news:

Two sources familiar with the negotiations said the two sides were close to completing a four-year, $56 million contract that could make Buehrle the highest-paid Sox player annually at $14 million per year.

"Hopefully whatever happens, happens quick and move on," said manager Ozzie Guillen. "No matter what that is ... the good one or the bad one. I hope it's more good than the bad."

Regardless, feels like uncertainty is doing wonders for the team's focus.

Elsewhere...

AL

• Cleveland 4 Oakland 3
• Detroit 5 Texas 2
• Minnesota 8 Toronto 5
• New York 8 Baltimore 6 SPD

NL

• Florida 9 Pittsburgh 7
• Houston 8 Colorado 5
• Los Angeles 9 Arizon 5
• Philadelphia 8 Cincinnati 7

Ozzie Has Figured Out Vazquez

Wow. Javier Vazquez has had two starts in a row where he hasn't self-detonated.

Some of the credit has to go to Vazquez, who really does seem to have a new mindset on the mound this season. He doesn't seem to be as bothered by the umpires as he was last year.

It still gets to him, mind you. In last night's game you could see him become visibly upset with some calls, but he was able to move on.

Still, the biggest reason Vazquez hasn't had the huge inning yet has nothing to do with Vazquez.

It's Ozzie.

Ozzie has started taking Vazquez out the minute he shows any sign of trouble from the fifth inning on. On Friday Javier started the sixth inning with a walk and Ozzie practically sprinted to the mound to get him out of there.

If Ozzie keeps doing that, and the bullpen holds their end of the bargain, the way Vazquez pitches before the 5th inning he might end up with 20 wins this season. They'll be the cheapest 20 wins in history, but they'll still count in the standings.

Juan Uribe provided the Sox with all the offense they would need. He had a sac-fly in the second inning, and followed it up with a three-run blast in the fourth. Jermaine Dye also added a two-run shot in the fifth that sealed the deal.

Uribe has been terrific so far this season. He's hitting .321 with 3 home runs and 9 RBI. He's always had the home run and RBI production, but if he can keep his average from dipping too far below .300--say .290 or so--the White Sox are going to win a lot more games this season. Their offense was scary enough last season, and that was only with four guys producing on a regular basis. Now the top and bottom of the order are hitting again. Combine that with the pitching we've had thus far, and maybe the Tigers won't be so tough to catch after all.

Let's Look At The Bright Side

Yeah, yeah. Bobby Jenks blew a save last night. It sucked, I know. The Sox are now at 3-4 on the season, but I'm actually pretty happy about it.

Have you been paying attention to the starting pitching over the last six days? Ever since the series against Cleveland ended, the Sox starters have been fantastic. Between Javier Vazquez, John Danks, Jose Contreras, and Jon Garland last night, our starters have combined for a 1.40 ERA over their last 25.2 innings of work. They've only allowed 12 hits while striking out 18 batters. Sure the 13 walks aren't pleasing, but they've gotten out of all the jams they've faced.

In other words, the starters are pitching like it's 2005 again.

The fact the Sox have only gone 2-2 in that stretch doesn't bother me because we all know the offense will be there, and that Bobby Jenks isn't going to blow a lot of saves like he did last night.

Mark Buehrle will be taking the mound in a few hours for the Sox as they look to take a series in Oakland for the first time since around 1845. It will be interesting to see how he bounces back from taking that line drive off of his forearm last week.

Speaking of the Sox' struggles in Oakland, I don't really think it's such a big mystery why they struggle there. They don't score a lot of runs in Oakland. The reason for this is because the White Sox offense has been alarmingly dependent on the home run as of late. Last season 46% of the runs the White Sox scored were via the long ball.

That's way too high.

So when they go to Oakland, where it's damn near impossible to hit home runs at night on a consistent basis, they're going to struggle. I mean let's look at the first game of the series. We won, but how did we score our runs? On a Jim Thome and Scott Podsednik homer. Last night the Sox only managed a single run, and at one point couldn't get Alex Cintron home from third after he led off the inning with a triple. (I know it was ruled a three-base error, but there's no way that Mark Ellis should have to take the blame for not catching a ball he had to run 100 feet to get to and catch it over his head.)

The White Sox offense still doesn't seem capable of playing the small ball tactics that Ozzie wants them to get back to. Last season a lot of the blame fell on Scott Podsednik. Well, Pods is batting .421 right now with three stolen bases. He's getting on base. It's the rest of the offense that's not getting him home.

As I said earlier though, I'm not worried about any of this in the slightest. If the Sox can keep pitching like they are the offense will come around and this team will start winning like they're supposed to a lot more consistently.

Let's just hope it starts this afternoon. I'm dying for a 10-1 victory right now.