BaseballNick

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ May 22, 2013 -> 03:53 PM) I've seen video. At 2nd, he starts a walking lead, then reaches a point and sort of walks paces in place, facing the pitcher. From 1st it is a similar thing, but he is facing 2nd base instead of the pitcher. That's interesting. I'd like to see it. It sure seems to be working for him.

QUOTE (thxfrthmmrs @ May 22, 2013 -> 03:18 PM) Micah Johnson caught twice stealing third base today. I would like to know what's his stl % on third base this season. From what we read before, he uses the regular lead instead of the walking lead when stealing third base. How would you use a walking lead from 2nd? The only time I've ever seen anyone use a walking lead is when the pitcher is in the wind-up...

Not too surprising; NBC's D.J. Short is reporting that Danks may begin the season of the DL. John Danks might begin the season on the DL

Beckham hits .310 with 25 HRs and keeps playing stellar defense.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Jan 29, 2013 -> 08:38 AM) Damn Cesar Carrillo too? He actually lived right around me on the southeast side of Chicago back in the day and I saw him play in little league. That sucks to hear. I played with Cesar for a few years at Mount Carmel. It's sad to hear he took PEDs, but I understand why he did it. I actually went up to Milwaukee for his ML debut and saw Prince hit one close to 500ft off him. At that point I kind of knew it wasn't happening for him.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jan 22, 2013 -> 01:46 PM) Yeah its hard to argue with a guy who had the White Sox and A's losing 94 games each last year. Had the Orioles losing 98 and had the Giants not even .500. Listen to Passan. He nails it every year. I'm not saying Passan is great, but point me to the guy who had the Sox, A's and O's picked correctly last year. I think they all surprised just about everyone.

Link 2012 record: 85-77 Finish: Second place, AL Central 2012 final payroll: $101.8 million
 Estimated 2013 opening day payroll: $119 million Yahoo! Sports offseason rank: 18th Hashtags: #santajerry #danksyouverylittle #backloadedcontracthell #teachyourkidtoplaythird #mediocreville #greatsale #paulieballnuts #sinequanon #peaceoutaj #300obpprettyplease OFFSEASON ACTION On opening day last season, the White Sox carried a payroll of $96.9 million. Today they stand more than $20 million higher, and all they have to show for it is a 32-year-old who has gotten full-time at-bats once in his career, will man a position he has spent less than a quarter of his career playing and got a three-year contract nonetheless. Oh, and a reliever who throws hard. Other than that, the White Sox's offseason has been dandy, thanks very much. This is what Backloaded Contract Hell looks like, and with Jerry Reinsdorf pulling the budget reins like he's Santa and Rudolph is getting a little frisky, the White Sox are staring at a potential transition year. Already gone are one stalwart (catcher A.J. Pierzynski, to the Rangers) and three midseason acquisitions, Kevin Youkilis (New York), Brett Myers (Cleveland) and Francisco Liriano (Pittsburgh, ostensibly). Now comes the part where the White Sox have to win with even lesser personnel than the group that blew a playoff spot in 2012. The not-really-a-third-baseman who had 418 plate appearances last season and is guaranteed $12 million over the next three years is Jeff Keppinger, whom Joe Maddon used in Tampa Bay last season to platoon perfection (.376/.402/.521 against lefties) but is neither good enough against right-handers nor in the field to merit a multiyear deal with a starting job. The third-base market thinned quickly, and with the Yankees chirping about a two-year deal, Keppinger played free agency to perfection. Because the money isn't enormous, new general manager Rick Hahn – elevated to the position when Kenny Williams ascended to team president – won't necessarily regret if Keppinger spits the bit. Nor will he care if the signing of Matt Lindstrom, erratic fireballer, turns conflagrant for its one season. The last time the White Sox devoted significant money – well, it has a chance to be one of the worst contracts out there. And they've got some other whoppers that, in hindsight, probably were ill-advised. Which is what made the White Sox winning at the clip they did last season so shocking. And which makes any expectations on this season so misguided. REALITY CHECK So, where to start? Should it be with the guys who don't get on base, which is pretty much the whole team, or just the guys who play every day? Or should it be with the pitchers whose ERAs didn't exactly match their peripherals and thus are looking at serious regressions this year? Actually, perhaps it's best to save those gems for later and go with the pitcher responsible for the majority of the payroll hike this year, that aforementioned significant money. For the first season of his five-year, $65 million deal, left-hander John Danks earned $2 million. This year, and for the next four, that annual figure jumps to $15.75 million. For that, the White Sox get a pitcher coming off shoulder surgery that limited him to about 50 innings last year and is expected to keep him out a portion of this year. Just 28, Danks has time to recover. It's just going to cost a lot, and even with advances in surgical technique, the return from shoulder work remains a crapshoot. Chris Sale and Jake Peavy were excellent atop last year's rotation, though because of Sale's perceived fragility and Peavy's injury history, health always will be a question with them. Beyond them, there is the underachieving Gavin Floyd and a pair of effective rookies from last season, Jose Quintana and Hector Santiago, the former of whom doesn't strike out nearly enough hitters and the latter of whom walks far too many to repeat their performances. And then there is the White Sox's lineup. If Alex Rios shows up again – it's really a year-by-year proposition at this point – and Adam Dunn tries to balance out his 200 strikeouts with 40 home runs, that helps. And if the White Sox's up-the-middle infield trio of catcher Tyler Flowers, shortstop Alexei Ramirez and second baseman Gordon Beckham can at least try to get their on-base percentages above .300 … well, they might get a round of applause from the bench. Because all eight White Sox bench players with at least 50 plate appearances last season couldn't muster a .300 OBP. The 2012 season for the White Sox was as much about overachieving as it was succeeding. It did nothing to solve their failure at developing position prospects of any consequence (their only homegrown players are Ramirez and Dayan Viciedo, two Cuban refugees, and Beckham, a bust) and only served to put Chicago in that desperate no-man's land of mediocrity, where it's good enough to keep alive flickers of competitiveness but ultimately not a playoff team. If you're not going to be good, it pays to be really bad. In between shouldn't cost almost $120 million. SAVIOR The Paul Konerko of 2008 – the one who looked like he didn't have a good at-bat left in him – resurfaced in the second half of last season. Before the All-Star break: .329/.404/.528. After: .263/.333/.437. Respectable, of course. Just not Paulie. Even at 37 this spring, Konerko is the White Sox's sine qua non. If they want a chance at parlaying Robin Ventura's second year into an even greater success than the first, it starts with first-half Konerko. If second-half Konerko shows up, the White Sox could be in even more trouble than we imagine. HAIKU Now that the White Sox No longer play with A.J. They can hate him, too

I seem to remember Donnie Veal facing Prince Fielder and other tough lefties a number of times down the stretch in what used to be the signature Matt Thornton role. To me, it seemed like Matt wasn't the go-to-guy in those situations like he once had been. I guess that's what I was getting at. Maybe I'm wrong.

QUOTE (Eminor3rd @ Dec 20, 2012 -> 05:19 PM) I just think it showed they are interested in actually using the bullpen effectively, instead of handing roles out via seniority. I don't think his usage has anything at all to do with how enamored they may be with him. I disagree. I don't think Robin or Coop trusted Thornton in high pressure situations last year and did everything they could to not put him in them.

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ Dec 19, 2012 -> 09:53 AM) I guess I just don't get the Michael Bourn obsession. He's barely got a .700 career OPS and will cost 12+ million more than De Aza. No thank you. Last year, Michael Bourn was a 6.4 WAR and De Aza was a 2.7. He's a much better player, but given the Sox payroll contraints, I don't know if that would be money well spent.

QUOTE (Lamar Johnson 23 @ Dec 13, 2012 -> 01:59 PM) Here's the situation...right now, the Sox are no better than they were at the end of last season. In fact, if anything, they're worse. (Flowers for AJ is a downgrade, Keppinger for Youk is a "wash", losing Myers, etc.). Meanwhile the Tigers have added Torii Hunter and have Victor Martinez coming back, the Royals have improved, as have the Angels, Blue Jays, Red Sox, etc. The Sox are also getting John Danks back in the #3 spot in the rotation. That's a big deal.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Dec 10, 2012 -> 08:46 PM) Grady Sizemore He just had microfracture surgery and won't be available until mid-season.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 7, 2012 -> 06:21 PM) Season ticket renewals right now over 90%. Last year they were 50%. I would think that's largely due to the ticket policy for the postseason. Whatever the reason is, it's great news.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Sep 2, 2012 -> 10:06 PM) Hudson hit the ball pretty hard. Too bad they had a man there. That was one of the more frustrating series I've seen in a while. Try to forget about that one and move on...

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 9, 2012 -> 10:09 AM) 12:05 start, should be a good pitching matchup, Kuroda vs. Fister. Fister's last 5 starts: 4-1, 39 IP, 37 K, 1.62 ERA Kuroda's last 4 starts: 2-1, 28.1 IP, 22 K, 1.27 ERA Kuroda has an ERA of 0.25 in day games this year.

The Chicago Tribune has a decent one called South Side Rundown.

QUOTE (danman31 @ Jun 18, 2012 -> 02:00 AM) If you're a pro prospect you'd make all-conference in the Chicago area. I can promise that. Sure, there are some politics involved, but the good players make all-conference. If the kid was a pro prospect, he'd have made it. I absolutely agree with you.

Everyone is different. People thought Cespedes would sign in Miami because of Ozzie and that it would be easier for him to play for a Latin manager. Well, that didn't happen. Soler is supposedly years away from being a big leaguer so he wouldn't even be playing with Alexei and Dayan during his trasition to the states - making that argument moot. Usually the guy will go where the money is at, so let's hope the White Sox make a nice offer for this kid. It sounds like he'll be a really nice player.

Frank Thomas Bo Jackson Jack McDowell Mark Buehlre Paul Konerko Ray Durham Tadahito Iguchi Jose Valentin Joe Crede Herbert Perry Aaron Rowand Ross Gload Roberto Hernandez

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Dec 6, 2011 -> 03:15 PM) No, I've seen the "Top 50" claim several times in this thread now. What I heard on the radio (#18 in the Blue Jays deep system) is drastically different from that. edit: I'm just looking for clarification there. A Top 50 prospect for Santos would be pretty ridiculous. Your post inspired me to do a quick search of "top 100 MLB prospects 2012." The first one I clicked on was http://fantasyrundown.com/2012_MLB_Prospects.html and they have Nestor Molina at #44 overall. I haven't heard of this publication, but a lot of the usual prospect names are on the list (Jesus Montero, Brett Jackson, Yasmani Grandal, Bubba Starling etc.) and it is being updated to account for the 2011 season and 2011 draft.

QUOTE (RockRaines @ Nov 29, 2011 -> 09:00 PM) I love how all of this stuff is coming out in the media now, the team has been wokring on this stuff for months I get the sense that the local beat reporters just aren't that in-tune with what's going on. Maybe the Sox are doing a nice job of keeping things quiet, but it sure didn't seem like a huge secret that Thornton was going to be shopped this offseason.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2011/11/padr...r-scouting.html

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 15, 2011 -> 12:54 PM) If Vernon Wells is moveable for actual return, then anything is possible. Wells was traded in the offseason following a very productive year (his third best in terms of OPS). Rios is nowhere near that, so trading him is going to be much more difficult, in my opinion.

Sox scouting Atlanta per Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe:

What a class act. As a dog lover, I know this kind of gesture would mean the world to me had I been in that situation.