Paul Konerko Is Captain Obvious

The White Sox are off to a 15-18 start to the 2009 season, and that record is pretty misleading. The fact of the matter is that the White Sox have played a lot worse than their record would indicate. They're at or near the bottom of the American League in any significant offensive, defensive, or pitching stat that's kept. They were also shut out for an MLB-leading sixth time on Wednesday afternoon, and as Fletch mentioned it in the Starting Five on Monday, when they lose, they lose big. They've now been outscored 125-39 in their 18 losses.

So what's the reason for the team's lackluster play? Is it injuries? Maybe it's just the cold weather during the first few weeks of the season? Nope, according to Paul Konerko the answer is pretty simple. The White Sox just aren't that good.

'We're just not good right now -- that's it,'' he said after a 4-0 loss to the Cleveland Indians in which Jermaine Dye and manager Ozzie Guillen were ejected for arguing balls and strikes. ''You need to score runs in the American League. Any team that scores three runs or less, except the team with the best pitching, is going to have a horse[bleep] record. That's the way it is.

''We ask, how do we get it better, how do we score runs? [There's] not an easy answer because it's not one of those things where you can say, 'Hey, let's all go out there and swing for the fences.' It's one of those things where every hitter has to look at himself and say, 'OK, what do I do well, what makes me tick?' And try to focus on that.

''We're not putting anything together. It's not like other sports when you could say, 'OK, let's go defense, let's go offense,' and everyone has kind of the same flow. We all need to get better.''

Konerko has every right to say all of this because he's the only member of the White Sox lineup who has shown any kind of consistency this season. Hell, not even the lineup itself has been consistent because injuries and bad play have forced Ozzie Guillen to jumble it around on a daily basis.

Konerko is currently the only regular on the team to have a batting average over .300 at .303 with three homers and 21 RBI. Of the other players finding themselves in the lineup consistently, five of them have batting averages of .235 or lower: Carlos Quentin, Alexei Ramirez, Jim Thome, Josh Fields and Brent Lillibridge.

Combine that with some shaky pitching and bad defense, and you get what the White Sox are giving. Thankfully, for their sake, they play in the AL Central where a 3-game win streak can make you the favorite.