Nick Swisher's ERA (Not Batting Average) Leads Off This Week's Chicago Baseball Week In Review

Here at the Chicago Baseball Week In Review, The Big Dead Sidebar will tackle each of Chicago's baseball team's most pressing issue. For the White Sox, it's Nick Swisher's big mouth and miniscule earned run average. While on the North Side, the Cubs' bullpen is making a non-believer out of me.

Stop me if you've heard this story before. Nick Swisher comes to a baseball team in a major metropolitan area and befriends the media. If you have heard this before, you might be a Chicago baseball fan. Specifically, a fan of the White Sox.

Swisher (better yet, his alter ego Dirty 30) charmed the pants off Chicago baseball reporters and fans with his personality. A strong start didn't hurt either. Now, Swisher is back to his old tricks, but this time in The Big Apple where he slurps everyone from A-Rod to Jeter to Joe Girardi. (I don't blame him for slurping Jeter: his leftovers are dimes. I'd wanna be his best friend, too.) But heed this warning Yankees fans, players, management or anyone that will read this upstart blog ... be careful what you wish for.

The antics of one Nick Swisher wore thin as the year went on, which is understandable when you're batting .200. So when Swish says Joe Girardi is the best manager he's ever played for, he's basically calling out White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen in the process. So, why call out Ozzie Guillen? The only logical answer is to get into a media sparring war. And as beloved as Swisher is now, Guillen has the support of Chicago and a fandom that was "sick of Dirty 30 juice."

The Tribsters are all over it:

"All of a sudden, [Swisher] knows everyone on the ballclub. ... You only got one week, two weeks on the team, and everyone is nice?

"That's the way Swisher is. Things work out for him good, everyone is great. That [stuff] doesn't work out for him, it's someone's fault."

Talk about a seamless transition: who's fault is it that the Chicago Cubs' bullpen sucks?

Is it Lou Piniella for putting guys like Neal Cotts and Kevin Gregg in pressure-filled situations? How about the players? They deserve blame, too, right? Well, it's early (get ready to hear that a lot as we enter baseball's third week), but I blame GM Jim Hendry.

Gregg would be good if he was a middle reliever in low-stress situations. I wouldn't mind seeing Neal Cotts ... in another uniform. And when a Rule V draft pick and a White Sox reject round out your bullpen, nothing good can come of it.

In search of a solution? Piniella says throw more strikes. I say throw some scientists into a room and find a way to clone Carlos Marmol as soon as possible.