Saturday, July 4, 2009

"Baseball Just About Half Way in Chicago "





BASEBALL IN CHICAGO ON 4TH JULY WEEKEND

Whether you’re a Cub Fan or Sox fan their has to be some feeling of hope that either one of these teams or both will play well into or past the All-Star break.For the North Siders there is 85 games left and to win at least 90 games the Cubs must win 52 of the 85 game left. The Cubs are 1 game over .500 and 2.5 games back of the Cardinals. The North siders have there belovedAramis Ramirez coming back to the lineup most likely come this Monday at home against the Atlanta Braves whom are also making things interesting in the NL East. The Cubs are 22-13 at home and clearly play better close to home. Now with Reed Johnson and Angel Guzman looking to be added to the roster come Monday Lou Pinella will finally have the roster he once had since opening day. Jim Hendry has made some minimal trades to beef up the bench. Jeff Baker the recent acquisition from the Rockies is someone whom can play the whole field just as Mark Delrosa did but doesn’t have the numbers as Mark has. Jeff has had dome injuries this year but is fine and took hit first at bat off the bench against the Brewers Friday afternoon but was unsuccessful hitting a soft grounder to second base. With the ownership quest coming to end here soon the Chicago Cubs will have the Ricketts family to overlook many of t his teams interests come early August if all goes as planned. This Cubs team doesn’t look to make many trades before the July trade deadline except for pitcher Rich Harden whom I predict will be gone being in a contract year . The Cubs will have to refer to their Triple A talent to help overcome any needs or weakness’s. We all know the cubs up to this point have been just a average team at best and are still trying to identify whom they really are. Most Cub fans are hoping we will see this club finally play with the capabilities they show on paper and the way they did in spring training. Baseball is a game of adjustments and variables. Chemistry is key in baseball and let’s see if the warms winds of Chicago summer will activate their gloves and bats.

Now let’s talk South side and the Chicago White Sox.
It wasn’t just a few weeks ago that the White Sox were struggling with pitching and inconsistent hitting.
Much was talked about how the Sox may be trading Jermayne Dye among others needed to help stabilize this team and improve it.
Funny as baseball is Pitching is the key in baseball and really when the sox sent Jose Contreras down to Triple A to find his arm and Alexi Ramirez benched as he wasn’t finding the little white ball the Sox were so close in reinventing their team. Injuries have been some of an issue with the Sox with mostly Carlos Quentin having feet trouble, however he is making his way to the roster after his minor league assignment is complete. Thankfully Scott Podsednik has been the firing stick in driving this team out of there funk. Since April 14th when coming to Chicago he has been a blessing just hitting the ball at will. Scott is hitting a strong batting a solid.317 and playing a strong outfield. The Sox for most of the spring were trying to find a go to lead-off hitter but Ozzie couldn’t get the production he expected. Now going back to May 18th the Sox were in trouble and Kansas City and Detroit were going strong 1 and 2. The Sox were 15-22 in the standings and 5.5 games back of the pack looking to just tumble. Baseball is a crazy game and with Kenny Williams using some of their young talent such in Gordon Beckham, the Sox have turned things around going 27-16 since then and now sitting by themselves in 2nd place behind the Detroit tigers only 2.5 behind. Again as mentioned what sparked this team was an implosion of good hitting and Quality Starts. The White Sox starting rotation especially Glavine Floyd has definitely gotten it done recently after starting slow and with good steady pitching from Danks, Buehrle and Contreras with come threw hitting has given this Sox team a chance to win daily..The Sox Since playing in the cross-town classic have seen to amplify there game but saying that the Sox play in the weakest division in the AL . The white sox will be tested once they play teams outside their own division where the competition goes up a whole lot !! once the sox prove they can bring their A game to all the American League and play well, then watch out for this Team as they will have a chance to make a run into post-season.

Both Chicago teams have different teams and require much more depth form specific areas of there rosters. With just about half of the season completed both teams are finding themselves closer to being good teams.

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