Or, to put it another way... 

Posted 12:35 PM by Sean
The Angels weren't exactly subtle last night, whacking the White Sox for twelve runs while Jarrod Washburn put up his first career shutout. I didn't get a chance to see the game, but you've gotta feel good about a contest dominated at both ends like that. After several weeks of covering themselves with muck, the Angels are poised to go into the All-Star break on a high if they can win a couple more and end their current road trip 4-2 or better.

On the down side, is anyone else finding Bengie Molina's speed to be more and more of an embarrassment this year? Last night, he hit into a triple play - and was still out by "four or five steps." I'm getting tired of seeing infielders recover from errors and throw him out by plenty. Yeah, I know - he can hit the ball some. But his weight isn't just keeping him from beating out balls in the infield, or taking extra bases - it also seems to be having an effect on his defense. The accuracy of past years is in short supply on the throw down to second. So far, in 360 innings, 32 stolen base attempts have been made with Bengie behind the plate - and 25 have succeeded, for a pretty wretched 21.9% rate of attempts caught. Compared to his previous, gold-glove-caliber performaces of 44.4% and 44.9% in the past two years, this is particularly worrisome.

I suppose one could argue that, because of his success behind the plate in the past, runners have become more selective, and now attempt steals only in extremely favorable conditions. Well, maybe. But when Jose Molina's behind the plate, the attempts have come at a nearly identical rate - 29 in 326 innings. And Jose's nabbed 15 of them, a 51.7% showing. Huh.

All right, all the doomed people take two steps forward... 

Posted 2:39 PM by Sean
July 31, 1997.

Who can tell me the significance of this date in baseball history? Anyone? Anyone besides Martin?

On July 31, 1997, the Chicago White Sox consummated what has forever after been called the "white flag trade," essentially surrendering their hopes of winning their division by shipping Danny Darwin, Wilson Alvarez, and Roberto Hernandez to San Francisco in exchange for a mess of minor-league talent. Knuckling under to the Indians, Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf proclaimed that "Anyone who thinks we can catch Cleveland is crazy."

At the time, the White Sox were three and a half games behind the Indians.

I was living in Chicago on July 31, 1997, and won't soon forget the incredulous resignation this announcement provoked among White Sox fans. It was, in its way, as cartoonish as Lucy pulling the football away at the last second, while Charlie Brown yelled "AAAAAAUUUUUUUGGGGHHH." And, while the long-term effect of that trade was arguably positive for the Sox, the gut-shot morale of the team ("I didn't know the season ended on August 1," said Robin Ventura) and its fans was painful enough to cause embarrassment to this very day: mention "white flag trade" to a South Sider and you'll likely get a response that contains a phrase that rhymes with "Trucking Harry Minesdorf."

Let's face it, you don't get a whole lot of shots at a World Series. Even if the Yankees didn't hog a quarter of all the championships, making the playoffs is a lightning-in-a-bottle kind of experience. Once you're there, there's still just an average 12.5% chance of winning it all - but there's a chance (offer void in Oakland). So when there's two months left to play, and just three and a half games to make up...well, one can excuse Sox fans for speculating as to the size of Mr. Reinsdorf's testicles, or the connectedness of his head to his fundament.

Now then. I've been away from the blog for awhile (and will be again next week, unfortunately - conference in Boston). What've I missed?