24-year old righty swinging 2B Gordon Beckham has continued to slide for the White Sox since an impressive rookie season in 2009. Beckham has played in 128 games for the White Sox so far this year and he is 98 for 427 (.230 avg, .615 OPS) with 48 runs scored, 9 homers, 36 RBIs and 5 stolen bases. He has now played in 362 games in his first three years with the White Sox and he is 312 for 1,249 (.250 avg, .702 OPS) with 164 runs scored, 32 homers, 148 RBIs and 16 stolen bases. Beckham hasn’t been near as bad as Alex Rios or Adam Dunn this year, but the White Sox might have to start looking for other options at 2B if he doesn’t start picking up the pace with the bat again.

24-year old righty swinging 2B Gordon Beckham has looked pathetic with a bat in his hands so far in August. Beckham has played in 17 games so far in August and he is 10 for 59 (.169 avg, .472 OPS) with 5 runs scored, 1 homer, 2 RBIs and 2 stolen bases. He has now played in 113 games for the Pale Hose so far this year and he is 90 for 381 (.236 avg, .634 OPS) with 44 runs scored, 9 homers, 33 RBIs and 5 stolen bases. If the White Sox had a better alternative to play at 2B, Beckham would likely be on the bench right now…..but they don’t. With that in mind, they really need him to pick up the pace with the bat.

When the Chicago White Sox signed 31-year old lefty swinging DH/1B Adam Dunn, they were expecting him to crank out 40 homers and knock in 100+ runs while hitting around .250 per year. For those kinds of numbers, the White Sox paid Dunn $56 million bucks over the next four years. That signing has turned into a nightmare so far this year for White Sox’ GM Kenny Williams. Dunn has played in 91 games for the White Sox so far this year and he is 51 for 314 (.162 avg, .595 OPS) with 28 runs scored, 10 homers and 38 RBIs. He has already whiffed a stunning 137 times this year while walking 56 times, but those kinds of numbers were expected. Dunn has been absolutely helpless against lefty pitching this year. He is 3 for 77 (.039 avg, .252 OPS) with 3 runs scored, 0 homers, 2 RBIs and 35 whiffs. He has walked 16 times against lefties so maybe he should just keep his bat on his shoulder when batting against them. The White Sox are going to have no choice but to bench Dunn if he continues to hit (LOL) like he is right now, because he’s going to hurt the offense big time as they try to hunt the Tigers and Indians down in the A.L. Central.

The White Sox have finally seen enough of 30-year old righty swinging CF Alex Rios to bench him. Rios has played in 19 games in July and he is 12 for 72 (.167 avg, .398 OPS) with 6 runs scored, 0 homers, 3 RBIs and 3 stolen bases. He has now played in 97 games for the White Sox so far this year and he is 75 for 360 (.208 avg, .555 OPS) with 43 runs scored, 6 homers, 23 RBIs and 8 stolen bases. It’s shocking to me that the White Sox pulled the plug on Rios with the idea of turning his position over to 27-year old lefty hitting outfielder Alejandro De Aza. De Aza came into this season playing in 86 games in his first three years in the majors in which he was 47 for 194 (.242 avg, .611 OPS) with 27 runs scored, 0 homers, 13 RBIs and 4 stolen bases. De Aza looked good last night in his debut with the White Sox as he was 1 for 4 with a homer, run scored and 2 RBIs. I look for Rios to get his job back eventually, but it might take a while.

33-year old lefty swinging LF Juan Pierre is on thin ice with the White Sox. Everyone in the organization, but manager Ozzie Guillen, wants to bench Pierre and replace him in LF with Dayan Viciedo who is killing the ball in AAA. Pierre has been awful so far this June. Pierre has played in 19 games so far this June and he is 17 for 80 (.213 avg, .530 OPS) with 10 runs scored, 1 homer, 3 RBIs and 1 stolen base. Pierre has played in 75 games for the White Sox so far this year and he is 76 for 303 (.251 avg, .605 OPS) with 34 runs scored, 1 homer, 16 RBIs and 10 stolen bases. Pierre has also been caught stealing 9 times already this year as he is having a rough time all the way around in 2011.