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."
