{"id":543,"date":"2009-03-10T05:00:32","date_gmt":"2009-03-10T11:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/?p=543"},"modified":"2009-03-09T22:22:41","modified_gmt":"2009-03-10T04:22:41","slug":"i-said-good-day-to-you-mr-thome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/543\/i-said-good-day-to-you-mr-thome","title":{"rendered":"I Said Good Day to You, Mr. Thome"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lost in all the fawning and relentless hullabaloo over certain <a href=\"http:\/\/www.suntimes.com\/sports\/baseball\/whitesox\/1466985,CST-SPT-soxnt09.article\">promising<\/a> White Sox <a href=\"http:\/\/www.suntimes.com\/sports\/baseball\/whitesox\/1453677,CST-SPT-soxnt28.article\">youngsters&#8217;<\/a> showings this Spring are the following indisputable facts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jim Thome is hitting .143<\/li>\n<li>Jermaine Dye is hitting .200<\/li>\n<li>Carlos Quentin is hitting .222<\/li>\n<li>Combined home runs for Thome, Dye and Quentin: 1<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So where o where is the panic over who will swing the slow, stupid lumber for the Good Guys this season? Who among these mighty contenders will strand the <a href=\"http:\/\/chicago.whitesox.mlb.com\/news\/article_perspectives.jsp?ymd=20090308&#038;content_id=3947046&#038;vkey=perspectives&#038;fext=.jsp\">legendary speed<\/a> of Jerry Owens on second base? Why no concern over the all-important two-run-home-run-hitter-hitterer? Why are we, the Soxerati, not engaging in lengthy debates over just who among these caber-tossers is most deserving of the Designated Hitter Hitting Designation?<\/p>\n<p>All kidding aside, it&#8217;s an interesting phenomenon, the byes that established bats get during these preseason games. People will destroy Corky Miller and his .500-something average for not being that great with the staff or maul Wilson Betemit for. . . well, that&#8217;s too easy but the point is, how closely do the Sox monitor DHs in the spring? And if not, what would they have to lose by doing so?<\/p>\n<p>Say Jim Thome absolutely stinks up the spring. Why not shake things up and really test the club&#8217;s 25-best-guys mantra by starting #25 in Charlotte and handing the stick to Jayson Nix and his 1.000 slugging percentage? How about moving JD to the permanent on-deck circle and running a Jerry Owens\/Brian Anderson\/Quentin trio to cover the outfield? They&#8217;ve already spent the money for either, so what, really, have they got to lose?<\/p>\n<p>Oh sure, you know, veteran experience and athlete psyches turnaround slow start blah blah blah, but if they&#8217;re really serious about &#8220;winning now,&#8221; really bent on fielding the best team possible, then why not take a gamble? It&#8217;s a long season, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/475\/how-to-write-a-white-sox-spring-training-report\">you know<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>And, some may ask, what of one Captain Paul Konerko?<\/p>\n<p>What, haven&#8217;t you heard? He&#8217;s through with hitting and past baseball entirely; Paulie these days finds himself training for a lonely war against no less a foe than <a href=\"http:\/\/www.suntimes.com\/sports\/baseball\/whitesox\/1455600,CST-SPT-soxnt02.article\">pain itself<\/a>, and why shouldn&#8217;t he? He&#8217;s alone at first base and there&#8217;s a glut of bats ahead of him just waiting to take a seat. In the meantime, we&#8217;ve been handed some exclusive footage of yesterday&#8217;s super-secret Thome\/Dye\/Quentin home run derby. Enjoy.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><object width=\"480\" height=\"385\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/LTSZ1tcxDP8&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1&#038;rel=0\"><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/LTSZ1tcxDP8&#038;hl=en&#038;fs=1&#038;rel=0\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" width=\"480\" height=\"385\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The South Side position battle no one&#8217;s talking about this spring &#8211; and with good reason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[108,35,377,239,211,38,376,357],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":557,"href":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543\/revisions\/557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sox35th.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}