White Sox Preview

The Bucs travel to the South Side of Chicago this week to take on the White Sox (38-31, 1st place in the AL Central), at the fiscally advantageous time of 7:11pm CDT tonight and tomorrow, with a 1:05pm start on Thursday. After their torrid streak following Ozzie Guillen's tirade earlier in the month, the Sox have since lost 5 of 6, including a three-game sweep by the Tigers in Detroit, and losing two of three to the Rockies at home over the weekend. Their offense has failed to muster more than five runs in any game during that six-game stretch, scoring five only once in a 5-4 win over the Rockies on Friday. This was after scoring 61 runs in the previous seven games (all wins). Clearly Mr. Guillen will have something to say if the south-siders continue to struggle against the utterly mediocre Pirates.

Think "utterly mediocre" is too harsh? Check it out: the Buccos are 5-5 in their last 10, 10-10 in their last 20, and 15-15 in their last 30. Though there are many who are eager to accept utter mediocrity at this point, there's something about those numbers that just doesn't feel good. Treading water with this pitching staff is somewhat of an achievement, but considering that McClouth, Doumit, and Nady (pre-injury) are probably playing over their respective heads, those numbers start to look a little more shaky.

Pitching: Speaking of shaky, the pitching staff brings some awful road stats to The Cell. Ian Snell (7.40 road ERA, .894 road OPS) has been very good his last two starts (both at home), so hopefully some of that success made the trip to Chicago. Tom Gorzelanny (9.32 road ERA, 1.001 road OPS, which translates to "GOD AWFUL") has somehow managed to post a 5-5 record, despite being just this side of Matt Morris' 2008 performance. Staff "ace" Phil Dumatrait (4.54 road ERA, .698 road OPS) gets the start Thursday, hoping to continue his resurgence (or is it just a surgence?) after giving up five earned runs in as many innings his last time out.

Batting: Despite the worse record away from PNC Park, the offense has hit slightly better on the road this year (.746 OPS on the road vs. .727 OPS at home). Despite PNC Park slightly favoring pitchers, it's usually the other way around. Without Nady in the lineup, you can probably expect to see Jason Michaels in RF (1.013 OPS in June despite a .222 BABIP, well below his career average); the rub will be where to put LaRoche/Doumit/Doug M. with two righties (Vazquez and Floyd) pitching in the series, since Raul Chavez seems to be the catcher of choice these days.

Matchups: Javier Vazquez managed a ND against the Bucs last year, in a game the Pirates eventually won. They lost to Mark Buehrle the day before, in no small part to the pitching magic of John Van Benschoten. Gavin Floyd has not faced the Pirates since before being traded to the White Sox in the Freddy Garcia deal in 2006. Snell lost to the White Sox in 2006 in his only start against them. Gorzelanny has never faced his other home town team, but hopefully he doesn't match his numbers against the Cubs (6.75 ERA). Dumatrait has also never appeared against the White Sox.

Prediction: Pain, to quote Clubber Lang. Once again the Pirates are set up to play slump-buster to a struggling team, which is especially dangerous in inter-league play, considering how terrible the Pirates are against the American League, and on the road.

Roundup: Both the PG and the Trib are inconclusive about whether or not Nady will make a trip to the DL. Given the lingering shoulder issues for Mr. Sanchez, is it a terrible idea to give Xavier a couple weeks off? Probably not, but with a month and half to go to the trade deadline, it's a lose-lose for the Bucs, whom I wouldn't expect to keep Nady past July 31. Either he sits for a while and diminishes his value by being hurt and not playing, or he plays probably hurt, and his production slips (which it's bound to anyway).

Also, Rob Biertempfel says PNC is getting ready for replay. Not to jump on the bandwagon, but it's about time. Keep the scope limited, get the home run calls right, and have the kinks (somewhat) ironed out before the playoffs start. It's a no-brainer.

Lastly, Dejan says the Pirates signed three more draft picks, bringing the total to 24/50, though Mr. Alvarez was not among the three that were signed.