Series Preview: White Sox @ Mariners

Chicago White Sox

2011 Regular Season Record: 11-21, 5th in A.L. Central (11 GB)

Seattle Mariners

2011 Regular Season Record: 15-17, 4th in A.L. West (3 GB)

Pitching Matchups:

Friday, May 6th – Felix Hernandez vs. Philip Humber

Saturday, May 7th – Doug Fister vs. Gavin Floyd

Sunday, May 8th – Erik Bedard vs. Mark Buehrle

Seattle:

David Aardsma 15-day DL *

Shawn Kelley 60-day DL **

Mauricio Robles 60-day DL **

Adam Moore 60-day DL **

Franklin Gutierrez 15-day DL *

• * Not on Active Roster
• ** Not on 40-Man Roster

Chicago:

Jake Peavy 15-day DL *

Synopsis

I don’t pay attention to a lot that goes on outside of our division. Obviously the White Sox got no-hit this past week by Francisco Liriano and it wasn’t done in exactly the most impressive ways. But, the White Sox aren’t a bad team. They have guys like Paul Konerko and  Carlos Quentin that can hit the ball hard and have hit well to start the season despite the rest of the team.

But this is Safeco and guys like that generally don’t succeed as much as they do say in …U.S. Cellular Field,  which is a hitters heaven.

The White Sox, much like the Mariners, haven’t been good on defense and haven’t been good at the plate. Using the weighted Runs Created+ metric you’ll that the White Sox currently have produce less offense with a total score of 83 versus the Mariners towering 86.

The only thing keeping the White Sox season together right now is the pitching staff. Who have combined for 3.8 WAR over the first month and generally ranks in the top-10 overall.

If the Mariners want to beat the White Sox they are going to have to do it through by getting to the bullpen and waking up their bats. They don’t get up a lot of free passes and they strike a lot of people out.