32-year old lefty swinging LF Juan Pierre was brought in by the White Sox to provide speed and a .300+ bat at the top of the lineup. Well, he has provided speed so far this season as he is leading the majors in steals with 61. He has played in 154 games for the Pale Hose so far this year and he is 170 of 627 (.271 avg, .651 OPS) with 88 runs scored, 1 homer and 44 RBIs. The White Sox felt they had enough power to cover for Pierre’s bat as long as he got on base a lot. Hopefully next season Pierre will hit over .300 with 100+ runs scored.

The White Sox have shut down 27-year old righty starting pitcher Gavin Floyd for the rest of the year. He has tightness in the back of his right shoulder. Floyd started 31 games for the Pale Hose this year and he was 10-13 with a 4.08 ERA and a 1.37 WHIP. Tony Pena will replace him in the rotation for his last couple of starts. Pena has pitched in 50 games (1 start) for the White Sox this year and he is 4-2 with a 4.87 ERA and a 1.49 WHIP. He has been a life saver for the White Sox pitching staff as he worked 88 2/3 innings so far this year.

The White Sox were expecting 38-year old righty swinging DH/OF Manny Ramirez to catch fire down the stretch but that hasn’t been the case so far. Ramirez has played in 18 games for the Pale Hose and he is 14 of 52 (.269 avg, .768 OPS) with 5 runs scored, 1 homer and 1 RBI. At the time I loved this pickup for the White Sox but with hindsight being 20/20 maybe the Pale Hose would have been better off using Andruw Jones/Mark Kotsay at DH the rest of the year.

When the White Sox signed 43-year old switch-hitting infielder Omar Vizquel they didn’t expect him to play too much. His main role was going to be as a mentor for Alexei Ramirez and Gordon Beckham. But, Mark Teahan broke a finger and Vizquel took his job as the starting 3B while he was out of action. Vizquel has played in 96 games for the Pale Hose this year and he is 87 of 303 (.287 avg, .707 OPS) with 35 runs scored, 2 homers, 28 RBIs and 10 stolen bases. Even with Teahan back, Vizquel is starting most of the time at 3B for the White Sox and he has done an outstanding job both on and off the field.

21-year old rookie lefty reliever Chris Sale only pitched in 11 games (0 starts) in A+AAA-ball this year in which he was 0-0 with a 2.61 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP. The Pale Hose thought they saw enough of him to call him up to the Windy City and he’s making a huge impact for the team down the stretch. Sale has pitched in 12 games (0 starts) for the White Sox so far and he is 1-1 with 1 save, a 0.66 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP. He has only given up 6 hits while whiffing 19 batters in only 13 2/3 innings as his stuff is just downright nasty. The only blemish in his game so far is his control as he has walked 9 guys already. Look out if he can tighten up his control a bit because he’s already dominating.

The White Sox have designated 23-year old righty reliever Clevelan Santeliz for assignment. Santeliz pitched in 36 games (0 starts) in AAA-ball this year for the Pale Hose and he was 1-4 with 2 saves, a 4.65 ERA and a 1.43 WHIP. He pitched in 173 games (29 starts) in his five years in the minors and he was 12-26 with 12 saves, a 4.46 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP. This is no loss for the White Sox.