2009 White Sox: Something's Missing so Far

Ray Lopiparo by Contributor Written on April 11, 2009
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The White Sox have started the 2009 season 1-3 and have looked pretty sluggish. It's certainly not time to throw in the towel or call the season a failure, but it feels through the first week of the season something's missing.

Joe Crede came up to home plate in Chicago. Wearing a Minnesota Twins uniform and cranked a home run on the second pitch thrown to him, to nearly the same exact place he hit a grand slam against the Twins last year on the White Sox home opener.

After that the Sox would fight back to 3-2 but would be defeated 12-5 after a seven-run inning in the seventh.

It's only the fourth game of the season so I'm trying to stay calm considering last season the Sox started out a little slow.

However, I can't help but wonder now why the Chicago White Sox released so many players. I understand it's trying times in the economy and the team was trying to move forward but maybe they tried to do that a little too fast.

Dewayne Wise has looked nearly helpless batting or bunting throughout the first week and I did a little research. The guy we had in Centerfield last season at this time Nick Swisher is batting .500 with a homer and six RBI.

Again, I know we are only going into the fifth game of the season and I'm not panicking yet, but I'm certainly a little aggravated.

Why get rid of Swisher for Wise? While Fields has actually been pretty impressive I still have to say—why get rid of Crede?

Heck why even get rid of Juan Uribe?

If they were getting rid of Cabrera keep Uribe and have Alexei Ramierez stay at second base.

Chris Getz and Josh Fields are capable players, but by getting rid of all these players and having minor leaguer's replace them has made the Sox a team with no depth. This I can see certainly coming back to haunt the Sox later in the season.

Call me a guy who doesn't accept change well or an idiot but I have to wonder where did all that money go when we let six players go in the off-season?

The bottom line is the Sox wanted to get younger and faster and that's certainly okay however from what I've seen the organization went a little too far a little too fast. They tried to change the identity of a team in six months and so far it hasn't worked.

There are other factors though.

The weather has not been very hitter friendly in Chicago the past few days and it's been pretty cold. I realize and know it's way to early to panic and say the season is lost and I still think this team can be a contender.

However I can already see a massive black hole if you will in the heart of the White Sox. 2005 is long gone and many faces have left and are about to leave—hopefully they can make one last run.

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written on April 11, 2009 Opinion

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