The Sox, if you ask them, have not one but two legitimate Rookie of the Year candidates. As Guillen told the Sun-Times today:

Guillen continued to push for Beckham, and now Chris Getz, to be in the final argument for rookie of the year honors. But he made one thing clear for the Sox public relations department.

”You know, no one talks about Getz, but Getz has had a great year, too,” Guillen said. ”Those two guys grew up in this organization and hopefully they get it.”

”The only bad thing about it is maybe the [Sox] PR department will make me fly from Venezuela when they hear the news, and that’s [a negative]. I don’t fly from Venezuela for anybody’s award.”

Hilarity of that last bit aside, what about Getz’ chances as Rookie of the Year? Consider the numbers of the Sox’ prized freshmen:
Getz: 97 games, .271/.330/.366, 46 R, 18 2B, 4 3B, 2 HR, 31 RBI, 22 SB
Beckham: 83 games, .274/.350/.458, 45 R, 23 2B, 1 3B, 10 HR, 52 RBI, 6 SB

On the surface, what we’re looking at are two players with two different sets of abilities; one who can hit well and run better, and one who does almost the opposite. Considering also the fact he was drafted in 2008, Beckham would seem to have the obvious advantage, and it’s unlikely anyone will argue Beckham as the superior player of the two.

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A few items of note on this Thursday afternoon:

Chris Getz has an oblique injury.

The Sox are placing him on the 15-day DL, and bringing Brent Lillibridge up from Charlotte. Jayson Nix will take over as the everyday second baseman. Getz is hitting .250 in the month of August and has played in nine game. Nix is hitting .261 in the month of August and has played in eight, thanks to the Alexei Ramirez injury which allowed him to play some games at shortstop. Considering Nix has seen some playing time as of late and his defense has been solid this year, the Sox shouldn’t expect much of a dropoff in production.

Charting the 1959 White Sox.

I’m not much of a Sox history buff — I don’t even play one on the Internet — but even I found the above link at Cybermetrics pretty interesting. Looks like a good lot of that team’s successful season had to do with some serious luck: their RISP stats as opposed to their opponents is quite striking.

Last night’s game.

I feel for the Sox beat writer stuck in the box press after 12 a.m. Chicago time. I gave up after the Sox’ half of the twelfth. I had a feeling it would not end well. Thanks to Ken Griffey Jr., Scott Podsednik getting picked off third and the Sox’ inability to capitalize with RISP — that  ‘59 team would have won last night’s game! — they lost 1-0.

If there’s a silver lining, it’s that the Sox’ staff — including Mark Buehrle, who has struggled as of late after his perfect work — kept an opponent scoreless for 13 straight innings in one game.

It was the first time the Mariners have ever been held scoreless that late into extras (12th inning) in the history of their franchise.

Yesterday afternoon, Chris Getz hit a broken-bat RBI triple in the second inning, which in part helped the Sox beat the Cubs 4-1.

One reporter wanted to know what was up with his bats breaking so much:

Yes, Chris Getz said he needs to “upgrade his wood.” What? He said it, not me.

+ As of today’s loss to the Jays, the Sox have now lost six of their last seven.

+ They’ve been shutout six times this season, which leads the majors.

+ The 1-0 lead the Sox got Saturday and then later lost was the first they’ve had in Toronto since going up 3-1 on June 3, 2007.

+ No team in all of baseball has scored less runs than the Sox, who as of today sit at 140 total runs for the year.

+ Only the A’s have less hits on the year than the Sox. The Sox have 288, while Oakland has managed 273.

+ The Sox’s total team offense ranks last in the majors.

+ Chris Getz’s Twitter account ranks third to last in all of baseball for players on the micro-blogging service because he hasn’t updated in two weeks.

OK, I made that last one up.