SoxFest begins tomorrow night and I saw the schedule of events. Missing is a marketing panel which has really turned into a Sox fan festivus. During that session, fans got the opportunity to air grievances with the occasional suggestion for making things better as an experience at the ballpark. One of the questions that was asked last year by a fan got me thinking about rooting for the team versus rooting for the players.

The fan asked Brooks Boyer why he should root for  Alex Rios when Alex couldn’t even be bothered to show up for SoxFest. If you recall, Rios had an absolutely horrible 2011 and fans were rightly upset with his play. Brooks had the perfect response to the fan: you should root for Rios because he wears the White Sox uniform! And that exchange leads me to thinking about what exactly as fans are we rooting for?

A lot of times when we become fans of a team, it might be due to a particular player. Jen, who writes on this site is an example of someone who became a Sox fan because she was following a player. A friend’s brother became a fan because he liked the team colors and I became a fan because I just started watching the team and enjoyed their play compared to other teams I saw. All of us are White Sox fans rooting for that team. Hopefully, the players on the team follow, but sometimes it gets really hard to do. » Continue reading “The Name On The Jersey”

Photo courtesy of Keith Allison

The third basemen of the past few seasons haven’t looked so hot for the White Sox. General manager Rick Hahn has hopefully bolstered that position with today’s signing of Jeff Keppinger.

Keppinger signed a three-year, $12 million deal, which is the first multi-year deal of his career. He’s played with a few Major League teams and spent time with the Kansas City Royals when Buddy Bell was employed there. Despite having surgery earlier this offseason on a broken right fibula suffered when he fell down the stairs in his home, he was hotly sought after. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported that the Cubs, Yankees, Rays, Diamondbacks and Marlins were all interested in signing him. » Continue reading “Welcome, Jeff Keppinger!”

Breaking news. The Chicago White Sox have extended Jake Peavy for two years. The team has also exercised the option on Gavin Floyd for the upcoming season.

In other transactions, the options for Brett Myers and Kevin Youkilis have been declined. The team is still lacking a third baseman, but the starting staff is looking a letter bit better.

This is surely just the beginning of what could potentially be a frenzied off season for the Sox. More details to come.

It’s March 23, 2012. Spring Training is well under way. In fact, it will soon be over and the games will really begin to count. And I am starting to get nervous.

Nervous? you may ask. Yes, Nervous. You see, given how the winter was rather . . .  uneventful for the White Sox, I have just assumed and still do assume the team will be lucky to get to .500. In fact, if they do get to .500 this season, it would be considered a success.

I just don’t have faith that some players who need to have bounce back seasons. I am not sure that Alex Rios will ever be useful at the plate. Of course, if he were competent in the field, he *might* disturb me less.

I am starting to think the great glove handling, no ability to hit Gordon Beckham is the real deal and not the guy who after a very slow start, went on a tear when first called up. » Continue reading “Nervous”

There has been a ton of talk lately in Chicago about general managers. This because that team on the other side of town is looking for one after getting rid of the one it had. It has a lot of Sox fans are starting to voice some “concerns” (ok, RAGE) about our current general manager. Mainly because they want the guy below, Rick Hahn to be the man in charge.

Oh and to lose him to that other team up north would be such a horrible DAGGER in our hearts. Hahn’s name has come up in discussions frequently for a general manager position. At this point, it is only a matter of time before he gets his chance.

In listening to the “people” i.e. sports talk radio heads discuss Hahn going to that other team, the big knock they have against him is the lack of player development with the White Sox. But, is he really to blame for that?

He is the assistant GM and the philosophy of how to use the minors would be something coming from the GM. With the White Sox, that would be one Ken Williams. Thinking back over his tenure of GM of the Sox and the players who have been developed who are on the Sox right now, well . . . » Continue reading “Philosophy”

Yesterday the team made nine more cuts from big league camp. None of the latest round of cuts should surprise anyone. Assigned to AAA Charlotte were: OF Alejandro De Aza, C Tyler Flowers and RHP Gregory Infante. The other players were assigned to minor league camp. They include: RHP Brian Bruney, OF Jordan Danks, RHP Jeff Gray, RHP Josh Kinney, RHP Shane Lindsay and INF Dallas McPherson. This now leaves four more players who will be cut before opening day to get the roster down to 25.

Still kind of a guess as to who the 25th man will be considering that Mark Teahen is having a tremendous offensive spring (and thus given his flexibility you have your super utility guy). This could potentially spell trouble for Brent Lillibridge since he also can play the outfield as well as spell the middle infielders when those guys need a rest. Lastings Milledge has been tearing it up this spring. He has a tremendous upside, but his problem has always been a lack of focus to truly stick with a team and go about his business in the proper manner. » Continue reading “Happenings at 35th & Shields”

With today being the eve before position players (what few who haven’t made it to Glendale yet) report for spring training, now is the time to start thinking about what you really want to see answered in spring training heading into the season. True, the White Sox look fantastic on paper, but just as with any team, you really can’t know if the results on paper are what should be expected. Not to mention, Baseball Prospectus as of the 16h of February had the White Sox finishing in 3rd place in the AL Central with a record of 82-80 for the season. The Tigers and Twins will sit atop the division with records of 83-79.

Given all of the moves, that is really disappointing, especially considering it took 94 wins last season for the division. In any event, while some say questions about the team don’t need to be answered, I do have some I’d like to see answered before camp breaks. Those include:

1. Who will be the closer? It’s great that Sale is in the bullpen, but he really only saw the guys he made look silly last season basically one time. Will the hitters adjust to him and subsequently, will he adjust back to their changes?
2. If Matt Thornton is the closer, will he have short enough memory to handle the rare times he doesn’t get the job done as well as hearing all the fans on him when he gets the job done, but not as easily as the fans would like.
3. Will Paul Konerko have a year close to what he did in 2010? Typically, Konerko puts up numbers yearly, but he usually has done it either in the first half or the second half. Last season was one of the few times he put it together for an entire season and was consistent.
4. Will Adam Dunn suffer from the small park syndrome that some guys suffer from? The small park syndrome is something I term for the guys who come to US Cellular Field and see that it isn’t that far to hit a ball out of the ballpark and immediately start swinging for the fences and thus end up with the production going down instead of staying where it was at or even improving. Perhaps because they see into the bullpens to get out of the park that it seems smaller. In any event, will he be just like he has always been or will he suddenly start to feel pressure and that pressure affects his performance? And how will he adjust to being a full-time DH? The team is going to be better with him not having a glove.
5. The Carlos Quentin: Will he stay healthy this season? Will he finally be able to relax enough to get out of his way to enable him to have the kind of season he had in 2008 before he got in his way and ended up missing the last month of the season due to a broken wrist?

Granted, some of these questions won’t really be answerable until the season begins, but some of the questions we can get hints at during Spring Training. What questions are you hoping will be answered during spring training?