BASEBALL'S STAGGERING STATS

Let's start with White Sox and their foes. After their sweep of the sinking Sox, the Twins have now won 34 of their last 42 and have tied the Sox for 2nd in the AL Central.

It's hard to criticize a team that's still 18 games over .500, but the White Sox have lost 12 of 15.

On May 30th, Mark Buehrle was 6-2 with an ERA of 2.62. After getting shelled again today, he is now 9-9 with a 4.81 ERA. So his ERA has almost doubled since the end of May. He has lost 5 straight and has given up 34 earned runs in his last 26 2/3 innings pitched. That's simply staggering (like the post title says). In July, hitters are nailing him at a .394 clip. For the season it's up to .291.

I heard a sports talker say the other day that he's not worried about Buehrle because his body of work is too large and he's sure he will bounce back. Well the numbers I just pointed out are a large enough sample that even I figured out that this is approaching Micah Bowie territory. It's not unlikely that I could step up and lace one through the right side off Buerhle right now and I bat lefty. Is it safe to say that unless Buehrle finds himself the Sox are doomed to be one of those clubs that win it all and miss the playoffs the next year? I think it is, and they don't call me the best color man in the league for nothing.

On to the Cubs. Look, we are going to end this Dusty Baker thing right now. Every team has injuries. Even teams like the Royals and Pirates. They are the only teams in MLB with records more lousy than the Cubs. But the thing of it is, you could combine the team payrolls of both of those teams and it still would not equal that of the Cubs. As Alec Baldwin said in GlenGarry Glen Ross, "Your excuses are your own."

Really--this is the equivalent of GGGR. Baker says he can't sell with these stale leads, but Baldwin would say "Hit the bricks, pal". If you think that suddenly Baker is going to sell, you're nuts. He has to go.