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John Danks isn’t giving Chicago White Sox fans a good reason to be hopeful for his return to the rotation. Danks told the Chicago Tribune that he’s still feeling soreness. Danks appears that he won’t be ready to start again anytime soon after having his return date pushed back.

Danks had been slated to return to start against the Chicago Cubs on Monday, but Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune tweeted on Friday that Danks’ return would be pushed back.

Peavy, Floyd Sale listed as starters for next week’s Cubs’ series, meaning Danks’ return will be pushed back.

— Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) June 15, 2012

Danks said on Thursday that he experienced more soreness than he thought would be normal after playing catch that day. He said that he thought it resulted from his minor league rehab start on Tuesday.

The sixth-year starter said:

I obviously didn’t expect to feel quite this sore. I’ve never had this before, so I really didn’t know what to expect. So I knew I’d be sore. I was just hoping I would bounce back better than I have. It’s part of it and it’s kind of like spring training. You go without throwing, it’s going to be sore.

Danks seems like he’s sensing the soreness well as he recovers from his shoulder soreness. He’s feeling his way through the recovery, determining at each step whether the soreness is going down.

Each step might bring a little less discomfort. Currently, Danks appears like that progress is coming slowly. He described the shoulder as feeling “pretty sore” on Thursday.

On Friday, Gonzales tweeted that Danks said he was feeling a normal level soreness.

 

Danks played catch, felt normal soreness, said he’ll visit Dr. Gregory Nicholson on Monday in Chicago.

— Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) June 15, 2012

 

One can only guess what that normal level of soreness is. Perhaps it means that he’s back to the level of soreness that he feels he should have at this point in recovery.

Unless the doctor says that his shoulder is as healthy as it should be after being out for almost a month, Danks is at least another two weeks away from returning to pitch for the White Sox. The White Sox will be watching him closely to ensure that he doesn’t return before he’s ready.

The 27-year-old is the biggest long-term investment that the White Sox have on the mound. They gave him a five-year, $65 million extension in December, and they wouldn’t want to watch that money go to waste as his shoulder falls apart.

Taking that extra time to have Danks recover can help him stay healthy for the long-term.

In the meantime, the White Sox are fine without him. Jose Qunitana continues to do well in his place. Quintana has allowed three runs in 11.1 innings in his last two starts.

As long as the soreness persists, the White Sox would be safest to keep Danks out. Once he feels like he’s not that sore, he should be able to return.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Chicago White Sox put forward a decent, albeit somewhat unpleasant fight in the first game of the season. They fell in a 3-2 decision to the Texas Rangers on Friday. It was a melancholy start to the beginning of Robin Ventura’s tenure as White Sox manager.

A few players looked particularly good for the White Sox. Adam Dunn had a very pleasing start to the season. John Danks did fairly well in his start. Addison Reed did a solid job in relief.

Some didn’t do too well. Brent Morel was horrible each time he went to the plate. Gordon Beckham wasn’t that impressive.

Following is a look at some key points to Opening Day for the White Sox.

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Carlos Quentin became the latest major player to be traded by the Chicago White Sox on Saturday.  The White Sox dealt Quentin to the San Diego Padres for two minor league pitchers, Pedro Hernandez and Simon Castro, according to Sports Illustrated.  While the White Sox lost their No. 2 run producer, they get two pitchers who may contribute on the big league level for the White Sox in 2012.

Williams has been mostly focused on rebuilding this offseason.  Before dealing Quentin, he let Mark Buehrle sign with the Miami Marlins and traded Sergio Santos.  The Quentin deal saves the White Sox money while replenishing the team’s stock of prospects.

The deal brought the White Sox significant savings.  Quentin was arbitration eligible and could have demanded several million dollars.  With $91 million committed to 12 players, and the White Sox looking to trim the payroll, the White Sox seemed more likely to cut ties with players who were arbitration eligible than to keep them.

While giving John Danks an extension seemed to be an exception, the Quentin deal followed the probable line.

The Scoop on Castro and Hernandez

Castro seems like a solid prospect.  He was ranked No. 58 of all prospects by Baseball America entering the 2011 season.  His 5.63 earned run average this year isn’t nice, but the more important numbers—strikeouts (94) and walks (34)—look much better.  Also, he pitched 115 innings in 2011 and 140 in 2010.

Castro may be ready to start in 2012 if he starts the year well in the minors.

Pedro Hernandez, 22, looks like a good prospect as well.  Hernandez rose from Single-A to Triple-A in 2011.  Across all levels in 2011, he posted a 10-3 record with a 3.49 earned run average, 94 strikeouts and 22 walks in 116 innings pitched.

Hernandez may need some more work starting in the minor leagues in 2012 before starting in the majors since only 18 of his 28 games pitched in 2011 were starts.

Either Castro or Hernandez would be worth putting in the White Sox’s bullpen in 2012 for some period of time since the White Sox’s bullpen currently looks thin.  Addison Reed seems most likely to close with Jesse Crain setting up.  Aside from Jason Frasor and Josh Kinney, it’s hard to tell who will pitch middle relief for the White Sox.

Conclusion: What’s Next for the White Sox?

Now that the White Sox have dealt Quentin, one must wonder what their next move will be. Will the Red Sox or Orioles remain in the hunt for Gavin Floyd, as the Chicago Tribune and Boston Globe reported?

One must wonder whether the Red Sox will still go for Floyd after the Andrew Bailey deal.

Will the White Sox continue to waffle the rebuilding trail by chasing Cuban outfielder Yoennis Cespedes, as CBSSports.com mentioned?

Reading Williams’ moves is difficult.  If he plays correctly, he’ll trade Floyd for extra savings.  He’d have to be pretty clever to come out of a Cespedes signing with a cheap deal.

Hopefully, he makes shrewd, smart moves.  Trading Quentin for Hernandez and Castro was a step in the right direction.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Theo Epstein will take control as general manager of the Chicago Cubs as soon as the Cubs and Boston Red Sox finalize the deal. Epstein takes the reins of the Cubs after the haphazard tenure of Jim Hendry.

In nine years, Hendry oversaw moderate success. Hendry’s Cubs teams made the playoffs twice and went to the National League Championship Series once.

However, Hendry didn’t do a terrific job running the baseball side of the Cubs in his nine years as general manager.

Hendry spent fortunes on players who weren’t worth their pay (e.g. Alfonso Soriano, Aramis Ramirez), and the ChiCubs minor league system was as unproductive as ever.

Epstein will be a refreshing hand leading the club. Following are five ways he’ll recalibrate the Cubs organization.

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The Chicago White Sox survived a topsy-turvy August, entering the final month of the season second in the division with a 68-66 record.  To say that Ozzie Guillen can be at ease with his White Sox above water would be to overlook both the character of Guillen and the expectations set for the White Sox at the beginning of the season when some picked them to the win the division. 

The White Sox looked like they were out of playoff contention at the beginning of the month.  At the end of August, the White Sox again looked to be out of contention.  The White Sox went on five-game winning streaks and sustained losing streaks.  Additionally, Guillen saw his White Sox hit extraordinarily well for several games at a time only to lose their hitting stroke.  In a similar vein, the White Sox had spells of strong pitching and spells of poor pitching.

Following is a look at some nuggets of wisdom to be gathered from the month of August.

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