Kuzul

Many baseball experts discuss the pitcher who has been unlucky, who just cannot seem to win no matter how well he pitches. Roy Oswalt is the main example being used this season, and his 8-13, 3.36 ERA season is indicative of a player whose win-loss record should be flipped.

Conversely, many players get really lucky breaks, whether it’s due to a great offense or getting a lot of run support, and as a result they have a winning record despite a decent at best ERA. As such, I am listing the top 10 luckiest pitchers. Some are borderline cases, and I try to limit them to players with not so good ERAs, though some who end up on this list will have fairly good ERAs as well.

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Freddy Garcia has been the most consistent Chicago White Sox starters in 2010 with a 9-3 record and has only lost once since April 15th.  He has won nine of his last 10 decisions and has been a big part of the White Sox turning their season around, helping them to move into second place in AL Central as of last night.

The Chicago White Sox were 24-33 a month ago today on June 8th. On that date, they were nine games under .500, nine and a half games behind the first place Twins in the AL Central, and six games behind the Tigers.

Since that date a month ago, however, the now-second-place Twins have played 11-15 baseball, compared with the White Sox who have played at an amazing 21-5 clip. One of the reasons?

Freddy Garcia.

Freddy Garcia (9-3) has pitched well consistently after losing his first two starts of the season. Garcia had to battle Dan Hudson for the fifth spot in the starting rotation in spring training but manager Ozzie Guillen made the right choice by using Garcia as the fifth starter.

Garcia has had 12 quality starts among his 16 starts this season and has not walked more than two batters in any of his last 14 starts.

Speaking of Batters…

The White Sox were hitting .225, which was the worst batting average in the majors early in the season, but since then have raised their average to .254, which is 23rd in the majors. 

So they went from April 25th to May 22nd without winning more than one game in a row. Then, the White Sox reached their low point of the season on June 8th with their 24-33 record.

But the turning point of the season was when they defeated the Detroit Tigers in the last two games of a three game series, and then defeated the Chicago Cubs in the first two games of that series for a four-game winning streak.

They lost to the Cubs the next day, but then put together an 11 game winning streak, sweeping the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Washington Nationals and the Atlanta Braves before losing the third game of a series against the Cubs.

Even facing the first and second place Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels of the AL West has not slowed down the White Sox, who then took two of three from the Rangers.

A win today will mean a four-game sweep over the Angels.

When they return from the All-Star break, the White Sox will hit the road for a four-game series with the Minnesota Twins, and then they’ll play the Seattle Mariners and Oakland Athletics in their next 13 games.

So What is There to Watch For?

From August 3rd to August 19th, the White Sox play the Twins and Tigers 13 times in a 17 game stretch. By the end of play on August 19th, we should have a good indication of how good this White Sox team can be this season.

With Jake Peavy on the 15-day DL and possibly out for the season, it is imperative that the White Sox get some wins out of his spot from either a minor league pitcher or trade for a top notch starter. There is a rumor that Cliff Lee could wind up with the White Sox but with so many teams vying for Lee’s services, including the Twins, the chances of the White Sox actually winding up with him are slim.

Where to Improve

Some of the White Sox hitters who struggled earlier in the season are now starting to hit. Carlos Quentin and Alexei Ramirez are two who have hit well recently. Juan Pierre still has not hit like he has in the past but he has shown some improvement lately.

Paul Konerko and Alex Rios have hit well from the start of the season but Gordon Beckham has struggled from early in the season and can’t seem to get past the .210 mark. Brent Lillibridge hitting .429 and Dayan Viciedo hitting .281 have hit well coming off the bench.

One concern is that three everyday players have an on base percentage under .300. Viciedo has a .281 OBP, A.J. Pierzynski has a .278 mark and Beckham has posted a .272 OBP.

The key to the second half is finding a dependable starter for Peavy’s slot in the starting rotation. Beckham needs to at least get his average back to .250 and start hitting with power so he can move up from the ninth spot in the batting order.

A month ago it looked like the White Sox were not going to be a factor in the AL Central. Now it looks like they will be a contender in the division all season.

It remains to be seen if general manager Kenny Williams will make any moves to improve the team before the trading deadline. There have been rumors that the White Sox might trade for Adam Dunn of the Nationals. The question is, how many prospects are the White Sox willing to give up for Dunn who may turn out to be a three month rental player?

Dunn, who hit three home runs last night, would be a huge upgrade at designated hitter over Andruw Jones and Mark Kotsay. Dunn leads the NL in extra base hits with 47 and is only one behind the major league leader Miguel Cabrera.

It is a good sign the White Sox have played this well for an entire month.

And it shows they are capable of being in the AL playoffs in October.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Freddy Garcia’s 2010 season started slowly as he ended April with an 0-2 record and an ERA of 5.87 after four games. Since then he has won eight of his last nine starts and has been a stabilizing force for the White Sox starters.

Garcia was 3-4 and posted a 4.34 ERA for the White Sox while making only nine starts for the team in 2009. When spring training started he was expected to battle Dan Hudson for the fifth spot in the rotation, but Hudson was sent to the Charlotte Knights during spring training.

Nobody is calling Garcia the ace of the staff but he has pitched like one this season with his 8-3 record and a 20 win season within the realm of possibility for the 33-year-old Venezuelan right-hander.

He has pitched at least six innings in 10 of his 13 starts and has been 5-1 against first or second place teams.  He has been the stopper for the White Sox with seven of his eight wins coming after a loss. Yesterday was his first win of the season coming after a win.

The White Sox were hitting .225 earlier this season but were among the team leaders in home runs. Now they are hitting fewer home runs, but the team is hitting .247.

The low point for the 2010 White Sox was on June 5 when they were 23-32. Since then they have played 11-2 baseball.

Mark Buehrle, Jake Peavy, and John Danks have won their last two starts while Gavin Floyd hasn’t won in his last five starts but has allowed only three runs in his last three starts encompassing 22 innings.

Juan Pierre is hitting 50 points lower than last season with his .248 average but has stolen 27 bases—he has to improve on his .194 average in the last 10 games.

Alexei Ramirez still isn’t hitting well with only a .238 average in his last 10 games.

Alex Rios has hit consistently with a .344 average in May and a .328 average in June. With 20 stolen bases and 13 home runs he has the best chance of any major leaguer to join the 30-30 club this season.

Paul Konerko hasn’t homered in his last ten games but is hitting .366 and has driven in 10 runs in his last 10 games. He hit only .233 in May but is hitting a torrid .390 in June.

Gordon Beckham still can’t quite get going in the 2010 season. He is hitting .205 but one encouraging sign for Beckham is that he is hitting doubles again after not hitting one in a stretch from April 29 till June 9. He had a period in June where he hit five doubles in eight games.

Carlos Quentin is hitting .270 in his last 10 games but hasn’t homered since June 11. He is only hitting .216 for the season but is second on the the White Sox behind Konerko in RBIs with 37.

Andruw Jones has seen his average drop each month of the season from .259 in May, .208 in April and .107 in June with three hits in 28 at-bats this month.

A.J . Pierzynski has shown improvement each month going from a .169 average in April, .241 in May to .333 in June.

Mark Kotsay has been all over the place this season with his average hitting .108 in April, .261 in May and back down to .194 in June.

Omar Vizquel has caught fire in his last 10 games hitting .333. He is hitting .400 in day games and .222 at night. Most right-handed hitters thrive when facing left-handers but not Vizquel—he is hitting only .176 against left-handers.

The six game winning streak may have come at the expense of last place teams with three game sweeps of the Pirates and Nationals, but the wins have to be confidence boosters for the White Sox.

They will face a real test when they host the Braves coming in for a three game series starting on Tuesday. They will be starting John Danks, Mark Buehrle, and Gavin Floyd then they face the Cubs with Jake Peavy, Freddy Garcia, and John Danks taking the mound.

It was only a week or two ago that it looked like the White Sox would finish no higher than third place in 2010, but after this current hot streak they look like they are ready to be serious contenders for the AL Central crown.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

With half of the Crosstown Classic played, it is almost as traditional to pick the best of the two clubs as to play the series.

To the disdain of the North and South sides of Chicago, both the Cubs and White Sox are less than stellar this year, combining for a record of 56-69 before action on Tuesday. Despite the lack of pizazz in this year’s series and the addition of the BP Cup, fans still come out in droves to watch.

The basics determine who gets the nod at each position (hitting, defense, etc.), but looking at how a certain player is performing may get him the nod over a player with better statistics.

This is the list, for better or for worst…

Reminder: All stats are from before play on Tuesday.

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