I was able to attend another conference call on Cheryl’s behalf again today, and this time we were able to speak with Dan Fabian, the director of baseball operations, and Brooks Boyer, senior vice president of marketing and sales.

The call started off with Fabian, and he was first asked what his typical day looks like as the director of baseball operations. During the season, he has a daily chart of things he has to do, and he reads it much like a box score. He also spends a lot of his day working with the pro scouts. The Sox have eight of them, and Fabian will organize their reports with them and schedule where to send them next. Those are the two biggest things that take up his time, but various projects come up that he will have to attend to as well.

Fabian was asked what kind of prep work was done during the offseason with the new staff. He said that he is there to provide the staff with what they need. He will tell them what has been done in the past, the coaches will ask for things that they may have gotten in the past, and they work from there. Fabian said it’s still an evolving process, and once the season gets started, things will fall into place better.

Several questions were asked about the trade deadline. Fabian’s job around the deadline is very busy. Before the buying deadline and selling deadlines come around, he has already run material and has player info at hand. He will usually compile the top ten players from a team so Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn have that information to facilitate conversation. » Continue reading “Conference Call Time Again! Featuring Dan Fabian and Brooks Boyer”

Now that SoxFest is over, I feel like I can finally start to decide what I think of this team as it stands now. There seemed to be an overall feeling of trying to make fans feel good about what could potentially be a not great season. This hit me immediately in seeing some of the molds of Joe Crede and Juan Uribe that are in the monument plaza. I was also vividly reminded of the 1985 Bears team. Mainly because the way the 2005 was being celebrated.

Don’t get me wrong, they should be celebrated. When they won game four in Houston, I was beyond ecstatic and love that they did it. But now I am worried that 20, 30 years down the road at SoxFest, guys from that team will continue to be trotted out in a feel-good moment. » Continue reading “Final Thoughts On SoxFest 2012″

(l-r) Pablo Ozuna, Cliff Politte, Darrin Jackson, Chris Widger, Neal Cotts, Joe Crede

SoxFest concluded yesterday. It turned out to be a pretty full day. Lots more questions that were similar to what was asked previously. There was also some possible annoyance from some of the panelists about some questions that were constantly getting asked in the same session. Oh, and of course, more digs at a couple of players who are deemed as the ultimate bums.

Like Saturday, I did end up in twitter jail for a time. Fortunately, they let me out after an hour. Just like before, if you have any questions, please ask in the comments. I know the typing may have gotten screwy, especially with auto-correct. Also, be sure you checked out some of the various other publications out there. There were some really good news nuggets and stories people got. Definitely worth your time. Later, I will try to get you links to some of those great stories.

Happy Monday and here are the tweets from the last day of SoxFest 2012:  » Continue reading “Final Day At SoxFest 2012. Now What?”

(l-r) Jeff Manto, Brent Lillibridge, Ken "Hawk" Harrelson, Adam Dunn

Yesterday was day two of SoxFest. It was another fun day. There were moments of testiness as well as some questions that were asked that left me scratching my head. Below are the tweets of the day. There are a couple of gaps. For the first time ever, I ended up in Twitter Jail for tweeting too much in an hour. Fortunately, it only lasted for an hour. If it had gone longer, I am not sure what I would have done. Maybe create an account just for the jail time. In any event, enjoy. I will bring you day three today as well on twitter. As always, if you have any questions, please ask. I know the spelling gets wonky at times so some of the tweets might not make a ton of sense. (Like Ichiro turning into i crap!)

Day Two Tweets: » Continue reading “SoxFest Day Two. A Bit Of Drama”

Howdy loyal White Sox fans! Not much happening at The Cell of late, but the big talk has been of Jeff Manto’s comments regarding walks. It’s enough to have people who are very big into numbers up in arms because walks can be a great thing. Personally, I prefer them over giving up unnecessary outs (like bunting does oh, 99% of the time). However, I prefer to let things shake out a little bit more than they have. At least the coaches are giving us fans something to contemplate in this off season that so far has been rather dull for Sox fans.

In case you missed these stories, Jim and James have some good recaps and takes on what Manto said. Whether the comments are something to be concerned about, remains to be seen. As for other news, Hawk Harrelson is apparently prognosticating on what the Sox will don in the future. As much as Hawk annoys me in the booth when watching games, he does entertain me when he gives his opinions on what he thinks will happen or what he thinks about things in the past. Some of the things that Hawk says just really make me shake my head. Almost as much as he does when he broadcasts a game. » Continue reading “Happenings At 35th & Shields: November 7, 2011 White Sox News”