What’s more embarrassing, being swept by the Cubbies at home or being only a game and a half better then the $35 million juggernaut that is the Kansas City Royals? Chicago sports fans have suffered through some bad seasons by the home teams over the last 15 years, but it’s hard to imagine one as genuinely depressing as what the 2007 White Sox are putting together right now.

Let’s make one thing clear: this is not Kenny Williams fault. It’s hard to tell by looking at the standings and statistics, but this Sox team was put together correctly. Anyone who bashes Kenny Williams for the squad he assembled this year, or for any of the offseason acquisitions he made, is an idiot. The White Sox are bad, no doubt about it, but their ineptitude is perplexing, to say the least. No one could have predicted the way this season would go, no baseball savvy human, at least, but that doesn’t mean that Williams put this team in a position to lose before the season even began. It’s not like they don’t have talented, proven, championship ring wearing players covering the field.

The Sox are so bad this year for obvious reasons, starting with their inability to get hits. Last year the Sox won 90 games on the strength of their powerful lineup; somehow all those proven hitters, most of whom are in the primes of their careers, have suffered a collective slump throughout the season. It would be impossible to think that the meat of the White Sox order- Paul Konerko, Jermaine Dye, Joe Crede, AJ Pierzynski, Taddihito Iguchi- would all have the worst hitting performances of the their lives in the same season. Just take a look at the numbers for those players this season, compared to last year.

BA 06 BA 07 OPB 06 OPB 07 OPS 06 OPS 07
Konerko .313 .246 .381 .339 .932 .775
Dye .315 .230 .385 .286 1.006 .708
Crede .283 .216 .323 .258 .828 .576
Pierzynski .295 .248 .333 .296 .769 .697
Iguchi .281 .255* .352 .336 .774 .691
*= Team leading. Yes Iguchi leads the White Sox with a .255 batting average. In a related story, Dmitri Young is hitting .338.

Only Jim Thome has been kept up his consistent bashing, but when everyone else around him is hitting below .250, it really doesn’t matter. And who possibly could have predicted these drop offs? The White Sox had one of the most dominating offenses I’ve ever seen last year, the only team in baseball with four guys slugging 30 or more homers. It’s the same team too, the only switch in the lineup is Darrin Erstad for Brian Anderson, yet, all these proven hitters just aren’t getting the job done this year.

What’s crazy is that the hitting and starting pitching have completely flipped from last year. If you put this year’s starting roto with last year’s lineup, the Sox would be looking towards a 100 win season. The rotation, 4/5 of which returns from 06, has been one of the best in baseball. Buehrle and Garland both have ERA’s around 3.5 and have pitched like the staff aces that they have become over the last few seasons. Vazquez, who couldn’t get out the fifth inning to save his life last year, has been a complete starter this season, posting a 4.15 ERA with a dominating 83 strikeouts (23 more then anyone else on the staff) and only 23 walks (second to only Buerhle). Contreras numbers are solid, too. And anyone who bashed the Danks for B-Mac deal is eating dirt right now. Danks looks legit; his development is probably the one silver lining for this season.

For how great the starters are, the bullpen has been the exact opposite. That is the one area where Kenny Williams deserves to take some heat: he redid the bullpen this year by getting guys who can throw hard, and thought that Coop would be able to straighten them out, like he did with Matt Thornton last season. That has not worked at all, Andy Sisco isn’t a major leaguer and David Aardsma isn’t nearly as good as was in April, but the big problem with the bullpen is Thornton and Mike MacDougal, two guys the Sox thought they could count on. Even if Sisco and Aardsma turned out to be busts, the Sox would be ok with Thornton, Mike McD, and Jenks closing out ballgames. Unfortunately, Thornton and Mac Daddy are pathetic, something, again, no one could have seen coming. Those two were rock solid last season, now both have ERA’s around 6.5, and MacDougal can’t even keep himself in the majors. You would think that if Kenny even hit on one of the Masset, Aardsma, Sisco trio he brought in, the Sox would have at least an above average bullpen. But when two guys you were counting on let you down, the Sox are now left with Jenks as the only reliable pitcher in the pen. Masset should still be pretty good, whether it’s as a starter or coming out of the pen, and Boone Logan has been better then anyone thought, but this year’s bullpen has cost the Sox a lot of wins. Just look at how well Buehrle has pitched this year…he’s only 4-4.

So with a 30-42 record, the White Sox probably have to become sellers at the trading deadline, and it’ll start with the three players who become free agents after this year, Buehrle, Dye, and Iguchi.

The first thing the Sox should do is resign Buehrle. Whether the Sox are rebuilding or reloading next season, and all signs point to rebuilding, Buehrle deserves to be around for it. The problem is that the Sox don’t sign pitchers to contracts of more then three years, and Buehrle is probably looking at something around 5 years, 75 million. For that price, the Sox should sign him up. Along with Konerko (who they anteed up for), he’s been the face of the franchise since The Big Hurt’s skills started to diminish, and he’s still young enough to pitch well for the next five years. I think people forget Buehrle is only 28 because he’s been around for so long. Besides, it’s not like Buehrle is a power pitcher, so he shouldn’t regress with age. If anything, he’ll continue to get better.

Unfortunately, it looks like resigning Buehrle probably isn’t going to happen. Trading him is fine, but they have to make sure they get a boatload of good prospects for him. The Sox need at least one front end of the rotation pitcher, a good middle infielder, and possibly a power hitting outfielder in exchange for Buehrle, and Kenny and the new scouting department better make sure these guys live up to their potential. The reported offer from Boston, Clay Buchholz, Mike Bowden, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Jed Lowrie, would be worth it. But do you really think Boston would give up all those dudes for Buehrle? Buchholz would be the prize of the package, a 22 year old starting pitcher with a 6-2 record, 1.79 ERA, and a devastating 111 strikeouts for the minor league Portland Sea Dog this season. Ellsbury, an outfielder, has the speed that the White Sox love and Lowrie would be an immediate upgrade over Juan Uribe, who may be the worst starter in the American League. That’s the kind of package the White Sox would need to get for Buehrle. I still want them to resign him, but I understand the logic of trading him, after all, if you are going to rebuild the team, you might as well get some monster prospects in your system. If Kenny does deal for Buehrle, the guys he gets for him better workout, otherwise it’ll be a horrible move.

Dye and Contreras will probably be moved to, and if the Sox are going for the youth movement (HEY THE KIDS CAN PLAY), those two should be dealt. It would be nice to get Lastings Milledge, a guy the Mets have soured on, in a deal for Contreras, but that might be asking too much. In either of those deals, the Sox should focus on position players. Every year in the draft, and again this year, all they take are pitchers. Teams like Minnesota can call up guys like Punto or Bartlett seemingly every year and they help them win games, the Sox need to start developing some position playing prospects.

The moves Kenny makes this year are going to determine what this team looks like in the future. In Fields, Sweeney, Owens, Gio Gonzalez, Broadway, Heagar, and Floyd, the Sox have the beginning of their rebuilding effort. But they have to make correct evaluations on the prospects they get for Buehrle, Dye, and Contreras if they are going to continue to compete in the future. The way things are going now, it looks like they will be getting their first top 10 draft pick in about 15 years. Kenny Williams really can't be blamed for how bad the White Sox are this year, but his upcoming trades (or lack there of) will determine their future.

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