Reflections on opening week so far

I went to both opening day and night games for the Chicago White Sox this week and saw some wonderful things and some areas of concern.

The fact of the matter is that what excites me and what concerns me can do a complete 180 by the time June hits.

Heck, it could even do a 180 by the time May hits.

First, let's start with the good news.

The bullpen looked awesome for two straight days. Not just adequate, but straight up awesome.
You really can't ask for more out of a bullpen than what the combination of Clayton Richard, Matt Thorton (Easy Heat), Octavio Dotel, Bobby Jenks and Scott Linebrink did.

Zero earned runs over two games of work without much drama either.

Sounds like a far cry from the end of the 2008 season.

Even the young guys looked good so far: Chris Getz and Josh Fields were both key cogs in the first win of the season.

The pitching in general was/is the key concern with the White Sox this season and those questions won't be answered until we get our first look at the back end of the rotation (Jose Contreras and Bartolo Colon).

Of course you can take all the positivity with a grain of salt.

The offense, for better or worse, is exactly the same as last year's version.

The team shuffled the lineup today after two miserable performances by leadoff hitter DeWayne Wise. Wise is in way over his head in my opinion and resembles nothing more than a Timo Perez clone.

The lineup once consisted of Wise and Getz as the No. 1 and 2 guys now features Getz as the leadoff hitter and Wise as the No. 8 hitter. Catcher A.J. Pierzynski is back in the no. 2 spot he was in last year.

Personally, if Wise continues to disappoint it makes sense to move Fields into the second spot with Getz remaining at leadoff. There really isn't an ideal situation because they don't have a leadoff hitter no matter how you switch it around but Fields seems to be able to do the little things right (bunting, taking the extra base, etc.) that is demanded of a no. 2 hitter.

Time will tell because there are 160 games left.