Here are your second group of first round games, look for the results tomorrow morning.

(2) Aramis Ramirez vs. (7) Bunting

The highest seeded player in the bracket faces off with a White Sox fundamental vice in the 2-7 matchup.  Aramis has torched the Sox time after time in Crosstown Classic games.  His splits are absolutely outrageous against the South Siders (.341, 11 HR, 30 RBI, 1402 PA).  But this will not be an easy game for Ramirez facing off with the Sox ability to bunt.  One would think that a team managed by stud bunter Ozzie Guillen would be good at bunting, that unfortuntelty is not the case.  Bunting's weakness in this match is the fact that the Sox should be better this year at bunting, but that shouldn't halt its chances too much.

(2) Doug Davis vs. (7) The Phillies

Doug Davis is essentially the definition of a soft-tossing lefty, and we all know the Cubs struggle with those. Davis' career ERA is a run higher than his career showing against the Cubs. Recently things have gotten worse, with long droughts of hits with only Derrek Lee's random homers to break up Davis' fun. The Phillies are a beast of a team, but there is no excuse for the way they have abused the Cubs recently. The most recent series was about as low as it gets- old man Pedro kicked our ass, Samardzija tried starting, and it ended with Cubs fans dumping beer all over people. I think they have a .700 winning percentage against us this decade.

(2) Lower Level Access at U.S. Cullular Field with Upper Level Tickets vs. (7) FanFoto

Thanks to a bunch of idiots running on the field attacking umpires/coaches/security guards, fans are no longer allowed to go to get to the lower level of the stadium with a ticket from the upper level.  However, if you do make it down to the lower level, you are almost guaranteed to run into the Lower Level Access's opponent in the first round, the FanFoto people.  These annoying probably underpaid U.S. Cellular Field employees run around with cameras, take your pictures, and then force you to go to whitesox.com to look at how hideous of a picture they just took.  How horribly uncomfortable that makes us all feel.  Solid 2-7 game, could easily go either way.

(2) Soriano's Contract vs. (7) Theriot's Baserunning

It may come to many people's surprise, but Sori was actually worth the money he makes in the first two years of his gigantic contract. But then came 2009. He had a terrible season and looked very much like a player hitting a steep decline. It doesn't look he's been fully healthy since becoming a Cub, and it doesn't look like he'll ever reach the levels he did in his pre-Chicago days. Oh, and he is due $18 mil a year due to him through 2014. Among Theriot's faults is his baserunning. Anyone who has watched him scamper around the bases has a very good understanding of why Urban Dictionary has an entry in honorTheriot: TOOTBLAN. Or, Thrown Out On The Bases Like A Nincompoop. Two very worthy competitors, but it looks pretty clear which one will prevail in this 2-7 matchup.

It was a tough battle for some one seeds in the tournament of torture, with at least one upset narrowly escaped. While this first day of games wasn't as exciting as the real tourney, this afternoon's 2-7 games bring some extra intrigue. On to the results.

#1 Twinkie Dome vs. #8 Scott Linebrink

Linebrink tried his best to pull off the major upset in round one, but in the end his bad contract and worse second halves couldn't slay the giant. At least Linebrink brings the annual tease of being a pretty good pitcher in the first half of the season before he implodes completely. While the Metrodome might not be home to the Twins anymore, memories of that place live on.

To me nothing sums up why the Twinkie Dome won more than this story. The Sox are mounting a surprising comeback against the Twins in the Top of the 9th last season. Mark Kotsay steps to the plate looking to get the game winning hit (or maybe it was game tying, the actual details are irrelevant). Kotsay hits a bullet line drive to right field that looks like it will get the job done, but it hangs in the air and lands in the glove of Jason Kubel. Hawk screams bloody murder, the Twins win the game, and I'm pretty sure Ken set the record for curse words sent via instant message. See you in round two Twinkie Dome.

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#1 - TwinkieDome vs. #8 - Scott Linebrink

The clear number one overall seed on the Sox half of the bracket draws a very tough 8 seed in Scott Linebrink.  The TwinkieDome has been the White Sox nighmare since the day it went up.  With multiple 1 out of 9 win years, the Sox are at the front of the line to press the button when that place gets blown up (not sure when this will actually be happening though).  Linebrink is the lone current White Sox player in the tournament earning his bid due to his god-awful performances in 2009 and his ridiculous contract to go with them.  1 vs. 8 should be an easy win for the 1 seed,  but in this case, that's just not true.

When it comes to Cub-killers these days, no one stands out more than Carlos Lee. It began when the Cubs were fortunate enough to face him only six times a year with the Sox. Bad turned to worse when he entered the division before the '05 season after being traded to the Brewers. After a brief reprieve when he was with the Rangers, we got bitten again when he signed with the Astros. He's a home run waiting to happen, Wrigley is his playground and he seems to mess with the bleacherites more than anyone else. And then there's the "scrappy" little Counsell, who annoys the life out of TCB. He gets the lowest seed because his stats don't show his Cub-killing as much as the others. But everytime he comes up it seems he's fouling pitch after pitch until he gets on base with a squibber. Inevitably the Braun/Fielder homer follows this awful sequence.

#1 Pick to Click Scoring System vs. #8 U.S. Cellular Field Dog Day Promotion

Hawk Harrelson's crown jewel of outrageous things during White Sox broadcasts found it way to the lower half of the White Sox side.  It's not the game itself where the beef lies, it's really about the scoring system.  Does anyone know how it works?  Has Hawk ever lost? Are there separate scores on separate channels? Why don't they ever reference how it works?  These are all questions.  Hawk has never given us answers.  The 8 seeded opponent in this region is Dog Day.  The smell, the poop, the barking.  Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of dogs, but this one just doesn't do it for me.

#1 Crane Kenney vs. #8 Horry Kow Shirt

These are two pretty bad things. On one had we have the Cubs Team President, who has managed to stick his foot in his mouth a countless number of times. From Greek Priests to insulting the last two managers of his team Kenney has set the bar pretty low. Most people thought Kenney should have been fired when new ownership took over, but it appears his foot-in-mouth disease hasn't cost him his job-yet.

Crane's oppenent is a strong one though. Baseball fans love making stupid shirts that say stupid things about other teams' players (Zambrano mows my lawn, Cardinals fans take it up their Pujols etc) but Horry Kow might be the worst. Some moron made this shirt to "honor" new right fielder Kosuke Fukudome during April of 2008. The shirts feature an asian-looking Harry Caray/Cubs logo combo with the phrase "Horry Kow" underneath. Get it? That is how an Asian speaking english would say Holy Cow. Stupid racist Cubs fans.

Yesterday I have you two Cubs Hall of Famers to compare. You can find the results by clicking the read more button (or here).

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Two of the more imporant pieces to the White Sox season showed some very good things today in the team's 5-1 win over the Dodgers. Jake Peavy's health (and to a lesser extent ability to adjust to the AL) might be the biggest thing for the Sox this year. He had a fantastic outing today going 5 innings against one of the more talented lineups in baseball. He allowed three hits and one earned run (on a homer) while striking out six and walking two.

That is a great sign for the White Sox, and so is the play of Andruw Jones. The Sox DH went 2-3 with a homer and four RBI. He also took a walk. This puts Jones' batting average at .400 for the spring. While Spring Training isn't an indicator of how a guy will perform, the things Jones has shown make it look like he might be able to be decent this season. He looks like he's in great shape, actually looked okay in center the other night, and is probably going to make the team. That's your starting DH, and if Rios struggles, your starting center fielder.

The bullpen held its own today as well. Matt Thornton, Scott Linebrink, Tony Pena, and Carlos Torres combined to allow now runs on just three hits and no walks. While that has come to be expected out of Thornton, the other three guys have all been big question marks. Getting just one of them to be reliable throughout the season would be a huge boost to a bullpen that needs a bridge between the starters and Thornton/Putz/Jenks at the end.

The Sox next game is Friday against the Cubs. It will be tape delayed and shown on MLB Network that night.

Last week Crane Kenney opened his mouth, and as usual, something puzzling came out. Among other things, he said that Lou raised the bar for the Cubs. I take this to mean that winning those two division titles created heightened expectations on the team and organization. Kenney called this a burden (uhh..what?) and I whined about that before. Now I'd like to get into another issue I have with the statement, because it's always fun to poke at him.

Kenney's dislike of Dusty is pretty well-known, and I can't fault him for that because I'm not exactly Dusty's biggest fan either. But let's be honest about it Crane, Dusty was the one who turned things around for the Cubs, or rather the expectations were raised when he was in charge.

There are no stats or metrics that can back up this argument, just opinion. I didn't experience '84 or '89 and even in '98 I was too young to really grasp what was going on. But I've heard a lot about all that from my Dad and Grandpa over the years, so I think I have a pretty good grasp on the feelings of Cubdom over the years.

2003 alone pretty much changed the tenor of Wrigleyville and the whole fan base in my opinion. When they finally won a playoff series (on Kerry's back), the postseason ceased to be a novelty. Obviously every fan hopes and prays that their team wins the whole thing once they get in, but we are a fan base that hadn't seen the team win a playoff series for 58 years at that point. And that just applies for the older crowd, most of us had never seen it period. The thrill of simply getting there faded, at least for me. I don't want to dwell on it at all, but coming as close as they did (for me) made the World Series a painfully real possibility for the first time.

The 2004 team had a ton of buzz and expectations around it before the season, and they were being crowned as much as last year's Cubs were. Funny how both turned into big clunkers. Despite the disappointment, that was still an 89-win team. That, a mediocre 2005 and an awful 2006 led to Dusty's exit. But after all the hoopla and praised heaped on him after '03, the grace/honeymoon period should have lasted more than three years, even with as bad as '06 was. Hmm, not holding on for dear life to a past glory like the '03 season sounds like the organization wasn't comfortable just spinning its wheels.

The team had a clear direction when Lou was brought in and he had (and still has) a clear mission: win right now with a veteran team. The veteran championship window was created with big money going to Soriano and Aramis at that point. There is a big difference between hiring the flavor of the month, hot-ticket guy like Don Baylor and a guy like Lou. The bar had already been raised and Lou was the one brought in to put it over the top.

This may be the one time I'll throw any praise Rusty Dusty's way, but credit should be given where it is due.

This is the kind of news that just makes me laugh. So after Crane Kenney did his thing last week some people thought that the Cubs Tax was dead, instead it is more alive than it ever has been before. Actually pretty much the opposite has happened, the car rental tax has been dropped from the proposal so that the focus can be on the ticket surcharge.

The new bill would eliminate the $1 additional surcharge on rental cars in order to raise funds. McComish's proposal hopes to create direct user-generated funding by charging a surtax on every spring training ticket sold. This procedure would take the burden of funding future spring training projects off taxpayers and the car rental industry and put the cost directly on the ticket buyers for spring training games. Of course, that indirectly impacts each of the 15 major-league teams that participate in spring training in Arizona.

This essentially is a spit in the face of Bud Selig and the other teams in the Cactus League. They have been lobbying hard to get rid of this ticket surcharge, and now the legislature has pretty much gone all in on it.

The idea is to make baseball fans pay for a baseball stadium rather than put even heavier taxes on car rentals. The article mentions that the ticket surcharge would be around for at least 30 years, the idea being to pay for more than just the Cubs new facility. I eagerly anticipate the responses from all the involved parties, because this is a pretty major change if you ask me.

It isn't often that I feel bad for baseball players, but right now I feel bad for the two guys who play first base in Chicago. Their impending free agency looms over this season and the media has been all over it. Today the Sun-Times has a piece about the Sox future plans at the position.

It looks like the Sox plan on using Dayan Viciedo at first base this season in an effort to groom him for the major league job very soon. Viciedo certainly had some issues in the minors last season, but a move off of third base might help him. The plan to move him to first base doesn't really bother Paul Konerko though.

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The White Sox 2010 roster is pretty much set.  But the importance of each player is still hotly up for debate.  Over the next few weeks I'll be comparing the importance of a par of players and determining which player's success will be most critical in White Sox success.  In the first installment we pit Alex Rios against Carlos Quentin.

Alex Rios - The midseason acquisition from the Blue Jays was (and still is) expected to bring a jolt of athleticism, speed, and power into the Sox lineup.  In his short stint on the South Side last year Rios experienced a number of well-documented struggles.  But his career numbers indicate that he should be able to turn it around this season and become a productive part of the Sox lineup.  You can expect Rios to hit somewhere between .270 and .300, steal 20+ bases, and drive in somewhere around 80.  His projected spot in the batting order is still up in the air.  He could hit as high as 2nd, and even as low as 7th.  But no matter where Rios hits, his presence will be needed in the Sox lineup.  He's got to be counted on not only to drive in runs, but also be able to get on base and start the rallies.  With a still hobbled Quentin in right and Pierre in left, Rios will need to cover a lot of ground oif the Sox want to improve defenively as much as expected.

Carlos Quentin - Through his long bout with plantar fasciitis Quentin was not able to produce any results even remotely comparable to his numbers in 2008.  Quentin started the season slow, and after the injury he could just never find his way.  But his rehab has been going well, and he's hitting the ball hard thus far in Spring Training, so the organization is counting on him for a lot this season.  Quentin's career numbers would project him at .250-.270, 25+ HR, and 90+ RBI.  But his near MVP worthy season in 2008 has Sox fans and coaches alike expecting much more.  Everyone believes Quentin is capable of a season of around 40 HR and well over 100 driven in, but no one is quite sure how long he can stay healthy.

The Verdict - Both of these guys have an excellent chance to have an enormous impact on the Sox this upcoming year.  But in the case of Rios vs. Quentin, the edge has to go to Q.  Quentin has the capability of being one of the elite hitters in the American League.  In 2008 he took the White Sox and put them on his shoulders for 2 months and was a critical reason why they made the postseason that year.  His impact could change the entire look of the Sox offense in 2010.  If he can regain his 2008 form, he will find himself in the 3-slot in the lineup and should be hitting time after time with people on base in front of him.  If Quentin can get his bat going early, the Sox offense goes from average, to really good.  Due to his inability to stay healthy throughout much of his career, Quentin is a risky guy to rely on.  But the Sox need him if they want to be as good as many believe they can be.

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