November, 2009

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Something old, something new

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Hope everybody had a terrific holiday weekend.  I have to catch up with some book-writing, so here’s an assortment of items past, present and future:

*I added a dozen photos from Cooperstown to the Sox Machine Facebook page, many from the Viva Baseball exhibit, which I hadn’t visited before.

I also scored a couple old Bill James Baseball Abstracts from 1986 and 1987, which covers the beginning and end of Hawk Harrelson’s one-year stint as general manager.  Like the 1960s, that’s a period of Sox history I’ve always wanted to know more about.  These should be a pretty good window into how that debacle played out.

*Takashi Saito is on the White Sox’s radar, according to reports out of Japan.  He’s effective, but he’ll also be 40 when pitchers and catchers report. He was mentioned in timmeh’s offseason plan (suggested retail value: one year, $3 million), but I wouldn’t count on the Sox emerging victorious, as they rarely win these multiple-team free-agent throwdowns.

*Andrew breaks down the mid-1990s-Cleveland-to-2000s-Chicago “talent” pipeline.

*Phil Rogers likes Eduardo Escobar:

Some with the White Sox believe Escobar has that [Vizquel's] type of potential.

More than Buddy Bell does:

I don’t think we want to drop Omar Vizquel (comparisons) on him just yet.”

*An Oakland blogger wants Brent Morel.

*Looking through the Chicago Tribune archives to see what kind of ink Robert Valido received (the answer: similar, but not even as early as the raving about Escobar), I came across this quote from John Danks Sr. after Jordan Danks declined signing with the Sox following the 2005 draft:

“My hope is that he enjoys a couple of years at UT before getting drafted by the White Sox. I love the White Sox. I hope they play in the World Series.”

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Thanksgiving leftovers

Thursday, November 26th, 2009

First, a brilliant new video from the guys at Oral Sox:

YouTube Preview Image

Secondly, a couple quick thoughts about the Andruw Jones signing:

No. 1: Interesting that they signed a Scott Boras client. Although it’s about as stress-free as managing a Boras client can get.  The only way it’ll become somewhat of a hassle is if Jones rebounds to have a quality year, and I think that’s a problem the Sox would like to have.

No. 2:  Flexbility continues to be a priority. The Sox are now two to three players deep at every position except for catcher, and that will be remedied shortly.

No. 3:  Are the Sox positioning themselves for a late buy? Remember, last year the Sox could’ve had Bobby Abreu if they had the money and room for him.  Alas, Jermaine Dye was pretty much unmovable.

This time around, the Sox should not only have the room, but they’ll almost be in a position to pick the best player available, whether it’s a corner outfielder or corner infielder.

That said, there isn’t much to say about Jones himself.  He’s voluptuous and past his prime, and he had a second half just like Jermaine Dye’s.  It won’t hurt too much if they cut him.

Oh, and so much for the youth movement.

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Jenks weight flap may be light on impact

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

In the ever-developing case of Jenks v. Conditioning, we know which side Kenny Williams is taking:

“It comes into question when you are not in the best shape you can be in, now doesn’t it?” If [Jenks] doesn’t like that, I don’t really care if he doesn’t like that. It’s the truth.

“I’ve seen it time and time again. We would not be in his corner and we would not be real friends, real people of support, if we didn’t give him the information.”

At first glance, this seemed like more coal in the engine on the train out of town.  Now,  I don’t think this necessarily increases the chances of Williams trading Bobby Jenks.  In fact, it might mean that he’s staying.

Here are some reasons.

No. 1: His words are awfully harsh about a guy whom Williams is supposed to pretend has value.

I went back to the Nick Swisher trade last year.  As the rift grew larger between the clubhouse core, Ozzie Guillen and Swisher, I tried to see if Kenny Williams had anything to say.

Here’s what I found from the Sun-Times in the wake of the Sox’s ALDS exit:

After the 6-2 loss to the Rays, general manager Ken Williams stopped at Swisher’s locker, gave him a hug and said, ”Come back next year and start all over again.”

Reports began to surface soon after saying that Williams was shopping Swisher, but he had nothing but his typically terse statements until the trigger was finally pulled.  Here’s a deal in which Williams was content to get nothing in return but salary relief, and even then, he kept his lips zipped.

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Small deal, big deal for Vizquel

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Omar Vizquel, upon having officially signed with the White Sox for one year and $1.375 million, spoke to the media at a press conference, where the team made a big deal over what uniform number he would take and how he would play a part in a legacy at shortstop.

I don’t remember the Sox making a huge deal when they traded for Alex Cintron.  But hey, it’s always nice to see Luis Aparicio.

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Amid the pomp and circumstance, Ozzie Guillen mentioned an unanticipated (at least by me) consequence of this signing that bears watching:

“We will try and find [Vizquel] a lot of playing time, especially early in the year because everyone knows Ramirez struggles early either because of the weather or over-training.”

This is valid criticism, and hopefully it’ll turn into an effective motivational tool.  Through the team’s first 30 games last season, Ramirez had a line of .198/.240/.260 — and yet he had started in 27 of them because Brent Lillibridge was the sole alternative for most of that stretch.

Let’s just hope that Vizquel’s presence doesn’t make Ozzie jump the gun too quickly in case Ramirez starts 2010 with a bad first week.  After two weeks?  Then it may be time to make a change.

I wouldn’t worry about Vizquel getting that much playing time, if only because he took No. 17.  The last three players to wear it — the injury-prone Chris Getz, Darin Erstad and General Soreness.

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Arizona Fall League wrap-up

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

The Arizona Fall League concluded with the thunderclap of C.J. Retherford’s boomstick, as he walloped a two-run homer well, well over the 360-foot left-field wall in the eighth inning to give the Peoria Javelinas a 5-4 lead.

Watch it for yourself. And then, watch it again. It’s fun to watch that stumpy power uncoil.

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It was a tremendous conclusion for a so-so AFL season for Retherford. He finished with a .250 batting average, a .389 slugging percentage and an OBP around .340 or so (MLB.com doesn’t track things like HBP and sac flies).

The good news is that nothing was particularly out of whack in spite of the lukewarm results.  He struck out only nine times over 70something plate appearances, which he countered with eight walks.

One of those walks came on Saturday, and it was nearly as impressive as the homer. He fell behind 0-2, laid off a good slider, took a fastball inside, sliders, fouled three pitches off (including another good slider), then watched two more out of the strike zone for a nine-pitch walk.

Patience has been the one element that suppresses excitement regarding Retherford’s major-league potential, but he showed the ability to lay off a fastball-slider guy (Jeff Mandel) who hadn’t walked anybody in 10 fall-league innings.

The only mistake Retherford made on the day came two batters after the walk. He broke for third on a chopper snagged by Mandel, and should’ve been hung out to try.  But Mandel didn’t run him back, rushed the throw to third and ended up throwing it away.

Otherwise, he had a nice day for himself, chopping in a run on a fielder’s choice, grounding out to second on a nice diving play by Jemile Weeks, and laying a tag down on steal attempt for an out. Hawk Harrelson would be happy to see that Retherford let the ball come to him, but then again, Hawk seems like everything Retherford does. That’s just par for the course.

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Old news: On Vizquel, Jenks and Contreras

Sunday, November 22nd, 2009

There’s still time for Omar Vizquel to change his mind, you know.

The rumored one-year deal to aquire the quadragenerian shortstop hasn’t been made official; MLB.com, the Trib and Sun-Times are all calling it varying degrees of “close.”

Back in 2004, all outlets were saying the same thing as the Sox and Vizquel worked toward a two-year deal.  The Trib’s headline read “close,” the Sun-Times’ version said “imminent.”  Then in came the Giants with an extra year, and Vizquel took off for San Francisco, leaving shortstop in the unreliable hands of Juan Uribe, and we know how that turned out.

Anyway, I went to the archives to see if there was any perceivable bad blood between the two parties.  Judging from Kenny Williams’ quotes in a Scot Gregor story from Nov. 16, 2004, nope.  While he was described as “shock,” he seemed to chalk it up to the business:

“It was obviously disappointing,” Williams said. “But the Giants saw fit to trump our offer and that put them over the top. That’s the bottom line.”

I imagine if Williams had any hard feelings, they were erased when he won a World Series ring. Vizquel is still looking for one.

(Also found while looking through the November 2004 archives — some Trib reader named J.J. making the argument for the Sox to acquire Alfonso Soriano.)

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Pull quotes

Friday, November 20th, 2009

Since he shares a dugout with Ozzie Guillen, Don Cooper doesn’t always get the credit he deserves when it comes to quotability.  Soak this one in:

“Lack of conditioning, lack of preparation makes cowards of us all.”

If that doesn’t fire you up, what will?  Anyway, Cooper’s urging his pitchers to show up to spring in better shape, with Mark Buehrle trying a shoulder-strengthening program in the offseason.

Writing fatigue is making a coward of me, so let’s just go with a massive link dump:

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*Everybody’s saying the same thing about the free agent pool — it’s worth it to wait.  Kenny Williams says agents shouldn’t take that approach, though:

“I don’t know if January is going to be January as it has the last two years, where some very good players have been out there,” Williams said. “If I’m those players and those players agents, I don’t know if I’m going to wait for that team to come sweep me off of my feet in January. You might want to take the best deal you can get, as early as you can.

This leads us to a…

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Goin’ mobile

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

After a successful test run on State of the Sox, I’ve activated a plugin that will make browsing and commenting on this blog a lot easier on many smartphones, such as the iPhone, Droid, Pre, various Blackberries and others.

Give it a shot, and let me know if you have any problems.  My phone ain’t smart enough to handle it yet, so I’m flying blind and relying on the kindness of strangers to inform me of any issues. So far, the feedback has been positive, and I hope it improves the experience for those of you on the go.

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Baseball America has the list of minor-league free agents, which I always have an unusual amount of fun browsing. The White Sox system’s casualties:

Chicago White Sox (10)
RHP: Dylan Axelrod (Hi A), Fernando Hernandez (AAA), Kelvin Jimenez (AAA), John Van Benschoten (AAA), Ehren Wassermann (AAA)
C: Justin Knoedler (AAA)
SS: Eider Torres (AAA)
OF: David Cook (AA), Josh Kroeger (AAA), Michael Restovich (AAA)

A few thoughts…

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Prospectus prospect props

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Baseball Prospectus’ Kevin Goldstein released his list of his top 11 White Sox prospects:

Four-Star Prospects
1. Daniel Hudson, RHP
2. Jared Mitchell, OF
3. Tyler Flowers, C
Three-Star Prospects
4. Jordan Danks, CF
5. Dayan Viciedo, 3B
6. Brent Morel, 3B
7. Clevelan Santeliz, RHP
8. Trayce Thompson, OF
Two-Star Prospects
9. Santos Rodriguez, LHP
10. David Holmberg, LHP
11. C.J. Retherford, 2B

The top six are no surprise, of course, but he has some interesting names ahead of C.J. Retherford (and he talks about four more beyond 11).  Santeliz has a chance to break camp with the big-league club, but the rest are pure projection.  That said, he also took questions in a chat, and wasn’t so eager to compare Trayce Thompson to Mike Stanton.

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Fifth place for Beckham, and a stupid rumor

Monday, November 16th, 2009

Despite winning two other rookie of the year awards, Gordon Beckham finished fifth in the American League Rookie of the Year voting. Oakland closer Andrew Bailey took home the hardware, followed by Elvis Andrus, Rick Porcello and Jeff Niemann.

Beckham tried to play down his miffedness:

“It was the first full season for me, not even in the big leagues, but ever, and it probably didn’t help I struggled the last month,’’ Beckham said. “I won two awards that were voted on by the players. At the end of the day I would want the players to respect me more than the writers.’’

It makes sense that Beckham wouldn’t fare as well in the main ROY voting.  Beckham’s case — he had the highest offensive impact but the shortest year — is the kind that opposing players would remember.  A team might not see a pitcher in a series, and they might not get an opportunity to see a glove guy like Andrus show his skills.  They’d get a good look at a good hitter three or four times a game, though, so Beckham’s name had a better chance of resonating.

The writers, however, are more apt to take the whole season into account. Considering Beckham started a month late and tailed off in September, he just didn’t have the quantity of the others.

But hey, Magglio Ordonez finished fifth in his rookie year, too, so it can’t be all bad.

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