The Chicago White Sox and Atlanta Braves have officially completed a six player deal that was first talked about earlier in the week. The White Sox will be sending starting pitcher Javier Vazquez and relief pitcher Boone Logan to the Braves in exchange for shortstop Brent Lillibridge, catcher Tyler Flowers, left-handed pitcher Santos Rodriguez and third baseman Jon Gilmore.

The highlight of this deal for the White Sox is shortstop Brent Lillibridge who is a pretty good prospect even though he struggled last year in Triple-A Richmond while he hit just .220 with a .294 on-base percentage in 90 games. He has been successful in 127 of his 162 stolen-base attempts at the Minor League level.

Flowers caught Cox’s attention during Spring Training, and certainly wowed some scouts with the power he showed while playing in the AFL this year.

While playing for Advanced Class A Myrtle Beach this season, Flowers hit .288 with 17 homers and a .498 slugging percentage. Although he has the offensive tools to succeed, scouts have said that he needs to make great strides from a defensive standpoint to be serviceable as a catcher at the Major League level.

Gilmore, a 20-year-old third baseman, hit .186 in 27 games with Class A Rome this season. While with Rookie Level Danville in 2007, he hit .337 with four homers and a .473 slugging percentage.

Rodriguez, a 20-year-old left-handed pitcher, went 1-2 with a 2.79 ERA in 14 relief appearances for the Gulf Coast League Braves this year. In 29 innings, he recorded 45 strikeouts and issued 13 walks.

Chicago White Sox

The postseason didn’t get off on the right foot for the Chicago White Sox as they dropped game one of the ALDS against the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday afternoon. The Sox lost to the Rays by the score of 6-4 as the Rays put up six runs on White Sox starting pitcher Javier Vazquez.

Vazquez was pretty bad as he gave up two solo home runs to Evan Longoria and only pitched 4 1/3 innings. He was tagged for eight hits and six runs in those four plus inning of action. It wasn’t the start that Ozzie and the rest of the coaches wanted to see what is for sure.

All four of the sox runs came via the home run ball as Dewayne Wise hit a three-run blast in the third inning and Paul Konerko added a solo home run in the ninth inning. The White Sox need to do a better job of manufacturing runs and not rely on the home run ball all the time.

Hopefully in game two of the series we will see a sox victory and a good pitching performance out of Mark Buehrle.

White Sox Blog

It was a low scoring game for the White Sox however they still beat the Indians by the score of 4-2. The White Sox got a great start out of Javier Vazquez and home runs by Nick Swisher and Alexei Ramirez in the win. Great win for the sox who are now up half a game on the Twins who will play later today.

Vazquez tossed six innings to record the victory. Both runs that Vazquez gave up came in the sixth inning when Jhonny Peralta doubled. Javier was very affective as he struckout five batters while only walking one and giving up five hits. The bullpen was pretty good as well as Bobby Jenks go double plays in the eighth and ninth innings to record the save.

At the plate, Nick Swisher got the Sox on the scoreboard with a solo home run in the fifth inning. Also in the fifth, Orlando Cabrera plated a run on a rbi double. In the sixth, Alexei Ramirez came to the plate with a runner on base and hit his 16th home run of the season. Ramirez’s home run put the sox up 4-0 and they never looked back.

Hope for a Twins loss tonight, and we will be up a full game! White Sox Blog

The Chicago White Sox suffered a 6-1 loss on Monday night to the Texas Rangers as they began a three game series on the South side.  Things weren’t too bad until the White Sox bullpen allowed four runs to score in the late innings.  The Sox offense just couldn’t get anything going to score that many runs and come back in the game.

Javier Vazquez threw the first seven innings of the game and only gave up four hits and three runs.  Vazques received the loss however and is now 7-8 on the season.  Boone Logan pitched a terrible eighth inning as he gave up four hits and three runs.  Nick Masset pitched a scoreless ninth for the Sox.

The only run the White Sox were able to come up with came in the fourth inning when Carlos Quentin hit a solo home run.  It was Quentin’s 24th home run of the season but it wasn’t even close to being enough for the Sox.

White Sox Blog

The Chicago White Sox put on a show Tuesday night as they erupted for four home runs and scored 16 runs as they blew out the Pittsburgh Pirates 16-5.  It was a great showing my the White Sox offense as they kept pressure on the Pirates pitchers all night long and was able to score off all four of them.

Orlando Cabrera, Jermaine Dye, Jim Thome, and Joe Crede all had three rbi each in the game.  All four of those players had a home run in the game as well.  Alexei Ramirez finished the game with two rbi while Carlos Quentin and Nick Swisher finished with one rbi each.

Getting the win for the White Sox was Javier Vazquez who pitched six innings giving up five hits and five runs.  Vazquez didn’t have his best stuff working but it was good enough to improve his record to 7-5 on the season.  Octavio Dotel, Nick Masset, and Adam Russell all threw a scoreless inning of relief after Vazquez left the game.

Let’s see if the White Sox can keep the momentum going when they face off against the Pirates once again on Wednesday.

White Sox Blog

The Chicago White sure did struggle on Wednesday night as they lost to the Detroit Tigers by the score of 5-1.  The White Sox have been playing some good baseball as of late, but Wednesday night was just one of those nights that nothing seemed to go right for them.

The White Sox were not even able to get into the Tigers bullpen where they really struggle.  Justin Verlander tossed a complete game against the Sox.  White Sox starter Javier Vazquez pitched six innings while giving up ten hits and five runs.  Vazquez just didn’t throw the ball that good.

The one run for the White Sox came in the fourth inning when A.J. Pierzynski singled in Orlando Cabrera.  The White Sox only had three other hits in the the game besides the rbi single by Pierzynski.  Hopefully it is just a one game funk and the White Sox will get back to swinging the bat better on Thursday afternoon as they play the Tigers once again.

White Sox Blog

Jim Thome singled in A.J. Pierzynski for the go ahead run in the top of the ninth inning as the Chicago White Sox defeated the Los Angeles Angels 4-3 to salvage a sweep in the series.  Thome delivered a single off of Angels closer Francisco Rodriquez.  Maybe this will get Thome out his slump that he has been in lately.

Three other White Sox batters had a rbi in the game besides Thome.  Orlando Cabrera, Juan Uribe, and Pierzynski all had a rbi at the plate.

Octavio Dotel ended up getting the win which improved his record to 2-2 on the season and Bobby Jenks recorded the save which was his eighth. Starting pitcher Javier Vazquez tossed 6 2/3 innings while allowing nine hits and three runs.

The White Sox will now begin a series with the San Francisco Giants.  White Sox Blog