White Sox Series Preview: Q&A with South Side Sox

There is much consternation over Chris Sale and his elbow, what with having recently skipped a start due to soreness. This vaguely reminds me of Brett Anderson, who had forearm trouble forever before finally needing Tommy John surgery. What is the consensus on whether Sale will hold up over the long-term without surgery?

The start Chris Sale recently skipped was due to supposed shoulder tendonitis, which worries me more than any elbow issues. I don't believe Sale will wind up on the Brett Anderson eternally injured career path (which has severely bummed me out as I enjoy watching Anderson pitch), but yeah, I understand the general level of concern from the Keith Laws of the world about Sale's throwing motion. People that follow the Sox on a regular basis aren't as worried about it thanks to the combo of Don Cooper, one of the best pitching coaches in baseball, and a ridiculously good training staff.

I feel like I haven't heard a lot about Robin Ventura as a manager, good or bad. (Considering Ozzie Guillen's reputation, maybe that's not such a bad thing). What are some of his good tendencies, and some of his more maddening ones?

It's been nice having a quiet manager that doesn't seem to draw any attention towards himself over the past season and a half. Robin is a fairly traditional by the numbers kind of manager, calling for more bunts than we'd like but not an enraging number. He can be a bit annoying with overuse of relief pitchers and occasionally misusing ones, but he does decently enough at learning from his mistakes which is all one can really hope for.

The A's recently wrapped up a series with the Giants, their Bay Area rivals, while the White Sox just had their North vs. South series with the Cubs. As it stands, there isn't a whole lot of love lost between A's and Giants fans. How do White Sox fans feel about the Cubs fans, and vice versa?

When I was younger (I'm about to turn 25), I hated the Cubs with a fiery passion. I grew up, the Sox won a World Series, and everything about the Cubs just kind of stopped mattering since I didn't have to be around their fans as much. The drunk and meatball fans on both sides are horrible during the series every year and you get to hear the terrible stereotypes and neighborhood bashing. Sox fans like to attack the general yuppiness and white bread fan base of the Cubs (not to mention the tired homophobic jokes) where as the favorites for Cubs fans to harp on have always been attendance and the "dangerous" (read: not rich) neighborhood U.S. Cellular Field is located in.

Adam Dunn is kind of an enigmatic player. He's getting older, but on the other hand, he's a three true outcomes guy, anyways. Is he a useful player going forward for the White Sox?

He really hasn't been useful for quite some time and it's really disappointing. Adam Dunn seemed like such a perfect fit for the team and would be the best left-handed slugger since Jim Thome was with the Sox. But something went wrong and now we're all just kind of counting down the days til his contract expires. At some point he needs to be benched. We'll see when that day is.

Join us to see the battle of tWtW supremacy (the irony being that Harrelson was trying to be complimentary of the A's).