The White Sox head to Oakland with a two game lead in the division. Here are a couple of things to know about the A’s:

Jack Cust is FIP — 50.6% of at-bats are “true outcomes”

Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) determines how well a pitcher has pitched, regardless of how well his fielders fielded. To do this only three things matter: walks, strikeouts and home runs; in other words, the three true outcomes.

For the past few seasons, Cust has been the king of the three true outcomes. He has fallen behind a little bit this season, mainly because he only has six home runs. (His K numbers are also slightly down).

A’s fans will take fewer strikeouts, even if it means Cust isn’t the true outcome champ anymore. But the lack of home runs has people wondering, where’s the power?
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Things are good for the Cardinals. They have their largest lead (1.5 games) in the NL Central since June 20, are recently coming off a seven-game losing streak and are Roy Oswalt’s preferred destination should he be traded.

Now the Cardinals come to Chicago to face their bitter rivals who can’t beat the NL Central. Right now the Cubs are 16-27 against the division.

Pujols is different. Not bad … just different — 3.7 WAR

For Albert Pujols, it’s only been an OK season. At the moment, his WAR (Wins Against Replacement) is 3.7, good enough for 14th in baseball. But 96 games into the season, he’s still chasing his usual numbers.

The last three seasons, Pujols’ WAR has been 8.4 (3rd in baseball), 9.3 (first) and 8.7 (first). He’s gotta lot of ground to make up if he’s going to reach those numbers again. But first he has to catch Marlon Byrd (WAR of 3.8).
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Headlines with a Chicago slant

Reasoner for Taffe: In a deal that saved $600,000, the Blackhawks swapped Marty Reasoner and Jeff Taffe. It also brings the Hawks another guy who says his name weird. It’s pronounced Tayf.

Blackhawks sign Brophey: The Blackhawks signed Evan Brophey to a one-year, two-way contract, according to CapGeek. The dollar amount was not included, but come on, it’s Evan Brophey, surely it’s reasonable.

For a brief roundup of scores and news from the non-Chicago teams that matter, continue reading.
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The Celtics blog Red’s Army is at Team USA practice in Vegas and he caught this moment between Tom Thibodeau and Derrick Rose after Day 2.

You can’t make out what they’re talking about and there are no emphatic gestures that suggest Thibodeau’s coaching Rose on one particular part of his game or another; still, it’s a cool moment.

Blog-a-Bull says it well:

“I’m pleased at this convenient circumstance putting these two together so early in the offseason. Get the star on your side before training camp, and the rest will hopefully fall in line.”

Thibodeau understands this after his Celtics experience. Kevin Garnett bought into what Thibodeau and Doc Rivers were selling on defense. The way Garnett played and acted during the Celtics’ championship run, everyone else on the team was best served to follow — or pay.

Rose was one of Vinny Del Negro’s loyal subjects; Thibodeau shouldn’t have a problem with him.

Red’s Army also has a brief interview with Thibodeau. And in this video you can actually hear him.

Headlines with a Chicago slant

Gonzalez to be interviewed?: (A rather subdued Skip Bayless is on the other end of this link. Still, you’ve been warned.) An ESPN source says that former Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez will be among those interviewed by Jim Hendry for Lou Piniella’s old job. Eh. Not interested.

Astros 4, Cubs 3: Ted Lilly may have completed his last season in a Cubs uniform with a 3-8 record. Another bad contract handed out by Jim Hendry.

White Sox 1, Mariners 2: An excellent game ruined by Bobby Jenks’ breaking ball being a no-show … again.

Bulls talking about House; taking a look at McGrady: Neither are very strong reports, but sources have confirmed the Bulls have recognized that Eddie House and Tracy McGrady are, in fact, free agents. The Bulls have “talked about” House, according to Dime; and numerous outlets are reporting that the Bulls are evaluating McGrady’s health.

Bears finalize camp roster: The Bears made a couple of last minute additions and subtractions to their 80-man roster. With a little over a week before Bourbonnais kicks off, I assume this is the final roster.

For a brief roundup of scores and news from the non-Chicago teams that matter, continue reading.
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With the help of FanGraphs and Win Probability Added (WPA), a sentence-long recap of the night’s White Sox and/or Cubs game. Sometimes longer … but usually not.
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How many 20-year-old shortstops, who have played at least 50 games in a season and at least 50% of those games at short, have had an OPS+ over 90?

It’s more than one, but Starlin’s close.

FanGraphs’ R.J. Anderson looked into it and he counts eight. Sixty-four games into his major league career, Castro compares favorably with pretty much everyone who was in the situation he’s currently in. Alex Rodriguez was a freak when he was a 20-years-old. His 36 home runs, 1.045 OPS and 9.8 WAR (Wins Above Replacement) in 1996 is too good to count in this comparison. So I’m not going to count it.

Compared to more normal young shortstops, Castro looks pretty good.
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Antti Niemi’s scheduled arbitration hearing is just more than a week away, so I though it would be a good time to go over the Blackhawks’ current cap situation.

To the right is the current roster. It is currently made up of 17 players whose average age is 26.47 years old. These players will make $60,476,590 next season, which is $1,011,590 more than they are allowed to earn.

Also, 17 players isn’t enough for a hockey team. Still missing is at least one forward, one defenseman and a starting-caliber goalie from that lineup.

Being $1 million over the cap is misleading; come October no one expects Cristobal Huet to be cashing his checks in Chicago. He’ll get them, they’ll just be sent to Rockford and they won’t affect the Hawks’ cap space. Moving newly acquired John Scott to Rockford would clear up space as well.

So we know Huet will be gone. And despite the cap problems we also know this: Patrick Sharp isn’t going anywhere and the Blackhawks aren’t sure yet how they are going to solve their salary cap troubles.

If Stan Bowman doesn’t know, it can’t hurt to speculate.
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