I’m no fan of Halloween, but the guys at Oral Sox managed to make it something worthwhile with their newest installment of “The Offseason.”
Awesome, awesome work guys.
October, 2009
...now browsing by month
A tricked-out treat
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
There goes the neighborhood
Friday, October 30th, 2009I’m not necessarily opposed to adding more of a neighborhood around U.S. Cellular Field, but I am vehemently opposed to it when the topic is broached as such:
Many Chicagoans have long complained that when they go to a White Sox game on the South Side, there aren’t any restaurants or bars right outside the stadium like there are outside Wrigley Field when they go to Cubs game.
I mean, one of the area’s greatest charms is that it scares away Chad and Caiytlaiyn.
Plus, that’s terrible sentence construction.
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Carlos Torres has one more endorsement than you might think:
“That glove, it’s quality,” says Torres, who pitched a shutout wearing a Vinci model MV30 glove in September, during his third-ever major league start. “And if I have [a glove design] idea, I can call and talk to them about it. A bigger business like Nike (NKE, Fortune 500) isn’t going to change a glove for one player.”
Torres says that although he expects to pick up licensing deals next year, “my agent knows I am keeping my glove.”
By the way: Torres didn’t quite pitch a shutout. He pitched seven scoreless inning in a shutout.
Greg Walker: “I’m the right man for the job.”
Thursday, October 29th, 2009Over the years, it’s been hard to find new things to say about Greg Walker.
The Sox have had the same issues with cold weather, advance scouting and prolonged slumps for years, and nothing changes. People around the Sox organization insist that Walker is the first to arrive at the ballpark and the last to leave, Walker insists his guyare putting in work and will eventually be the players the backs of their cards say they are. Sometimes they come around, sometimes they don’t, and either way, he isn’t held accountable.
After reading Joe Cowley’s interview with Walker, I guess it’s good that Walker is outwardly ramping up his efforts to reverse course, but it’s hard to be encouaged.
It’s a pretty fun read if you’re into gallows humor. I’m not sure which part is my favorite. It’s either this quote:
“I’ve done this for seven years and I think for those seven years we’ve underachieved two of them. Even those years we did underachieve we went about our business the right way. When they decide it’s someone else’s turn then it will be someone else’s job.”
Or this part:
The search for more answers begins Sunday for Walker when he flies to California for a sit-down with Quentin. It will be the first of two trips he may make out West to work with the outfielder this winter. In December and then January he will be off to Puerto Rico to meet and work with Rios.
Already crossed off the to-do list is meeting with Beckham, who drove to Walker’s home last week.
The former is great because it overlooks that the Sox have had the same exact problems for three straight years, and I don’t even know what that last sentence actually means. The latter is amusing if you imagine an overhead map of North America, and Walker leaving a trail of devastated hitters in his wake.
Needless to say, I’m not sure why Walker is still around and I’m not expecting big things. Either way, 2010 should really put the Sox’s renowned organizational loyalty to the test — and the Cubs’ three-year investment in Rudy Jaramillo after an equally disappointing season should provide a fascinating comparison. Click to continue »
Dotel’s advocate
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009A couple more offseason plans arrived in my e-mail today. Not to spoil them, but they both start by letting Octavio Dotel leave without offering arbitration.
That has been the one unanimous decision in all the offseason plans thus far. Letting Jermaine Dye walk is a close second, but some have at least entertained the idea of taking him back at a reduced salary for DH purposes.
Anyway, along with the plans in my e-mail, I got this one from Chris Pummer introducing the argument in favor of offering Dotel arbitration.
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I’m one of your lurking readers. Thanks for all the work you do in putting out a quality White Sox blog.
The offseason plan posts you’ve been running have been interesting, even if they’re not always realistic. It’s still kind of a fun way to see how informed readers think the team can be improved for next year.
A universal component of these plans is to decline arbitration to Octavio Dotel because of his $6 million price tag this past season. Assuming he didn’t break the bank with an arbitration panel, he’d stand to get a modest raise over that — though I don’t know I foresee an award bigger than $7 million.
That’s a pretty steep price to pay for a middle reliever, which is why I’m sure so many readers think it’s not worth the risk to offer arbitration.
But would it really be that much considering the cost of acquiring a capable replacement?
Viciedo injured, and one more plan
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009We can officially call Dayan Viciedo’s first minor-league season “underwhelming.”
Dayan Viciedo.
His Arizona Fall League experience came to an end on Monday. He’d missed the last handful of games, and it turns out elbow inflammation is the culprit. His final AFL line is full of 1’s and 6’s:
18 AB, 6 R, 6 H, 1 2B, 1 HR, 6 RBI, 1 BB, 6 K.
There is a silver lining — Brent Morel, who is nearly as interesting as Viciedo, takes his place. And with Jordan Danks posting a 1.210 OPS so far, it’s been a pretty good year for fall ball thus far.
Joe Cowley seems to think Viciedo will be good enough to attend Camp Cora in January. Hopefully that’s the case, and Viciedo won’t be dragging around a bum arm.
Since we’re on the subject of Cubans and about to introduce another offseason plan, this seems as good a time as any to mention that the Sox have expressed interest in Aroldis Chapman.
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Our final offseason plan (for now) comes through e-mail courtesy of Matt:
MUST-MAKE DECISIONS
1) Octavio Dotel: Arbitration, or not?
Dotel – Walk
2) Jermaine Dye: Mutual option, arbitration, or not?
Dye – Buyout
Fourth anniversary, fourth plan
Monday, October 26th, 2009Four years ago, the White Sox gave fans the greatest day in the history of their baseball-loving lives.
Therefore, it’s only fitting that we take a look at a fourth plan of attack for the 2009-10 offseason. This one comes all the way from Singapore courtesy of theghostofmansoolee, whose living entity served as the bullpen catcher for that 2005 team:
MUST-MAKE DECISIONS
1) Octavio Dotel: Arbitration, or not?
No arbitration. He’s supposedly a Type A free agent, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts. But it’s probably not worth the risk of having to pay more than what an aging reliever is worth in the current market.
2) Jermaine Dye: Mutual option, arbitration, or not?
Buy Dye out. Then you can try to see whether he’ll come back for cheaper. I honestly don’t know if there are any significantly better options in the FA market than him, and Dye sounds like he might come back for a lower price tag.
Prospect odd and ends, and another offseason plan
Saturday, October 24th, 2009Before going into our next offseason plan, here’s C.J. Retherford hitting a homer off Stephen Strasburg. His at-bat begins at the 1:30 mark:
(h/t Larry at South Side Sox.)
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And now onto our third set of 2009-10 plans, courtesy of Kevin:
Arbitration and re-signings:
1. Decline arbitration to Dotel
This just seems academic. Dotel has performed relatively well, but the organization needs to focus on stockpiling young, fringy arms that usually comprise an economically sound and statistically palatable bullpen.
2. Decline Dye’s option.
Is there a sound argument for this bringing him back? He clearly can’t play defense anymore, and his bat is too much of a risk to pencil in at designated hitter for $12 million.
The offseason’s first Kenny cryptogram
Friday, October 23rd, 2009As we continue to peer-review our offseason plans, Kenny Williams gives us something to chew on.
It’s not a whole lot, of course. Having an entire article based on KenSpeak is the equivalent of putting a bag of oranges into the Juice Loosener. You might get a drop of information out of it, if you’re lucky.
In a nutshell:
- “You play with things. It doesn’t mean you are going to act on anything, but you play with possibilities.”
- “Look at the team we ended with. Start with them and add a few key fits here and there, and I think we can be one of the teams to beat in the division.”
I think we can count on him not taking away wins on paper (sorry, Jose Lopez fans). I’m still operating with the thought in my mind that, as Chris De Luca has stated, Bobby Jenks has thrown his last pitch in a White Sox uniform, so I think that’ll be the key to one positional upgrade, similar to the Jon Garland-Orlando Cabrera trade. Look for veterans being pushed out for younger in-house replacements.
With that in mind, here’s our second offseason plan, courtesy of timmeh, a first-time caller, long-time listener. It’s slightly pithier than Knox’s Dickensian entry, but has some new names and dollars to discuss. I don’t know about you guys and gals, but I’m enjoying this thus far.
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MUST-MAKE DECISIONS
1) Octavio Dotel: Arbitration, or not?
Dotel – Walk
2) Jermaine Dye: Mutual option, arbitration, or not?
Dye – Buyout
knoxfire30’s 2010 White Sox offseason plan
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009Big ups to an apparently sober Knox for taking the first crack at hashing out a feasible plan for an offseason strategy, turning it around so fast and so thoroughly (seriously, it was a matter of an hour or so) that it almost concerns me. Here are the guidelines, if you missed them, and below is Knox’s plan.
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My Offseason:
MUST-MAKE DECISIONS
1) Octavio Dotel: Arbitration, or not?
1. Decline Arbitration to Octavio Dotel. While being a pretty above average reliever the sox don’t have the payroll flexibility to try and take advantage of his type A status. In house candidates like Jhonny Nunez can help fill the bullpen void and Tony Pena may make some positive strides with a full off season and spring with Don Cooper.
2) Jermaine Dye: Mutual option, arbitration, or not?
2. Decline Jermaine Dye’s mutual option. This is an easy call as Dye has proven he really can’t cover any ground in the outfield and has consecutive seasons where he was an offensive train wreck in the second half. We love you JD but its time to move on.
Fantastic newness!
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009*Newness! I’ve created a new Facebook page for Sox Machine, if you haven’t already noticed. I hate the phrase “become a fan,” but it definitely wouldn’t suck if you went ahead with it.
It’ll probably be rather quiet during the offseason, but ultimately I’d like to use it as:
- A way to make new posts more easily accessible, should you not use RSS readers.
- A place to share photos and video when you take them at games, spring training, SoxFest, etc.
- A place to rid of/acquire extra tickets among friends, or arrange meet-ups.
And if you have any other suggestions, I’m all ears.
(Some of you may be fans of the old one, but evidently it isn’t picked up in searches for “Sox Machine,” so that doesn’t help.)
*Newness! The guys at Oral Sox debuted the first video of a series simply titled “The Offseason.” Check it out:
