The Sox offense finally goes nuts

White Sox

I'm probably still as high on the White Sox chances to turn this season around as anyone. Yeah, they've been terrible so far, but I can't get over how poor the division is and how strong the roster still is.

This Sox team has always had its obvious flaws (the catcher couldn't throw out Matt Stairs if he were trying to steal the pitcher's mound, you'd be hard-pressed to find three slower regular starters in the league than Konerko-Thome-AJ, and the supposed back-end of the rotation is more of a punchline than anything), but at least talent wise, the roster matches up with any in the division.

There is no way the Sox are going to score the least amount of runs in the AL. Right now, even after last night's 17-run breakout, they've only scored 184 runs, good for second worst in the AL, and fifth worst in the majors. They're going to come around. Eventually. Maybe it'll come when the weather finally gets warm (seriously Chicago, way to blow Memorial Day), maybe it's just that these guys are slow starters and need a healthy dose of at-bats before they're truly ready to rake.

Alexei has already started to turn it around, and Quentin will if he ever gets healthy. Konerko's resurgence is a bit of a surprise, but no one else is really playing over their head right now, either. I don't expect any big regressions as some of the others start to come around.

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Jim on ScottyPods:

Podsednik is hitting .353/.415 since he introducing the running start.  Better yet, it looks like he's saving his running for the batter's box.  He stayed put on the basepaths on Monday, and as long as Alexei Ramirez can hold down the second spot and the middle of the order keeps slugging away, that's for the best.  He'd been picked off and caught stealing the last three times he tried to swipe second.

I was as skeptical as anybody when Podsednik returned to the team in late April, saying he was prepared for whatever it was he didn't know, but he's won me over.  Watching Josh Fields fan at belt-high fastballs over and over and over again makes me appreciate somebody who will try something so unusual to avoid obsoletion.

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Bulls

It's hard to talk about anything until we find out what's going on with Gordon (more on that later this week, probably), but one quick post-lotto thought I had was that the Bulls should push for Chris Kamen. He's definitely not ideal - I'm still down for going balls to the wall after Bosh and Amare, in that order - but I feel like if Gordon is resigned, you may as well see what you can get for Hinrich, and Kaman may be the best they can do.

He and Kirk are about the same age, and should be of similar value. I think Hinrich is probably the better player, but tall is more valuable than short. Plus, Kirk is coming off a solid playoff series and Kaman has missed major time each of the last two seasons. I think if it comes to it, LA would take that deal.

I view Kaman as a half-grinder/half-skilled big man who would give the Bulls a roughly league-average center. The goal should be to acquire someone much better, but you can only do so much, sometimes. Best of all, it would give the Bulls a crazy 'Twin Towers' feel with Noah and Kaman. That would just be too much fun.

We'll have more on Gordon later, but for the record, I doubt he'll be back. JR just won't pay the luxury tax, which sucks, but is something I kind of understand (sympathy for billionaires?).

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Find of the day: LeBron, the football player

I've been having this conversation all too often lately. The big question is what position would he play? He was a great high school receiver, but I can't help but think he'd be better on D. LeBron could probably be the greatest ball-hawking free safety in the league or a dominant d-end. I still say his best position would be as a Shawn Merriman-style edge rusher.

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Finally, check out the new Top Ten Chicago Sports on the Chicago Tribune's brand new Chicago Now blog network.