GO TO BP SOUTH SIDE
/In case we weren't clear, the whole TCS crew has moved their work to a Baseball Prospectus local site focused on the White Sox. Check us out.
Read MoreWe had the most fun
/A funny thing became readily apparent while we were trying to launch The Catbird Seat during the early months of the 2014 season: I realized I was probably ready to quit.
Read MoreTCS Morning 5: The White Sox are too deep, obviously
/Well, so much for that.
Read MoreTCS Morning 5: Dingers are blessing no matter the time
/The White Sox hit 12 home runs in April of 2015. That came over 19 games, where they scored 64 runs total, and slugged .352, worst in the AL. They finished last in the AL in slugging for the year, it was not an aberration.
Read MoreTCS Morning 5: Austin Jackson afterglow
/Waiting for Austin Jackson to slide down to one-year, $5 million deal, while torturously late and removed from the major moves of this offseason, fits in line with the larger theme of seek small financial commitments that do not go beyond 2016. It doesn't look like Baseball Reference has added Jackson's $5 million to their Opening Day estimates for the Sox salary.
Read MoreTCS Morning 5: The games have started
/The White Sox played something resembling a baseball game against another professional team Thursday for the first time in 2016, and got righteously tuned up by the Dodgers 6-1, in a game that would have seemed especially lifeless if it wasn't, you know, the first Spring Training game of the year.
Read MoreJimmy Rollins to end up being one of the bigger free agent signings of the White Sox offseason
/A few days into March and a couple split squad games is as long as the White Sox could sustain the suspense of a position battle at shortstop. Bruce Levine reported Wednesday that Robin Ventura admitted Jimmy Rollins is a near lock to make the White Sox roster, and gave this telling quote to Dan Hayes.
Read MoreTCS Morning 5: Employers giving out raises to be nice is probably not a trend
/In a rare moment of vaguely normal treatment of employees, the Kansas City Royals rewarded Salvador Perez for playing a vital role in their company's unparalleled success and tore up the rest of the absurd five-year, $7 million contract they inked him to before he had any real service time or any standing to pass on a guaranteed fortune, and gave him a huge five-year, $52.5 million extension.
Read MoreTCS Morning 5: It's the morning, here are five White Sox things
/White Sox co-owner Eddie Einhorn died Tuesday night at 80 years of age due to complications from a stroke. Those same complications had kept him out of the public eye and away from day-to-day team operations for the last few years, but was formerly the Chief Operating Officer and club president throughout the 1980's. An original partner with Jerry Reinsdorf when the team was bought in 1981, Einhorn also served on the Bulls board of directors.
Read MoreKenny Williams unsubtly implies the White Sox lacked the budget to be players in free agency
/The White Sox have gone the entire offseason not taking on a single new financial commitment for the 2017 season, and to date their biggest investment of the winter is absorbing Todd Frazier's second-to-last arbitration year, for which they owe the still extremely bargain rate of $7.5 million. They return the worst right fielder/designated hitter combo of 2015 and let a nearly-unprecedented bevy of offensive upgrades go off the board for fair value or far less.
Read MoreWhat does Jimmy Rollins mean?
/Jimmy Rollins is a minor league signing.
He gets $2 million if he makes the major league roster out of camp and we can discuss about how likely that is to happen, but he's a minor league signing at an extremely vulnerable position for the organization.
Read MoreThe Catbird Speaks 2.23.16 The Jimmy Rollins signing is very NSFW
/Kanye West recently released an album that could be described even by his own most devoted fans as a willful mess. At turns profound and serene but also shockingly base and crude, its discordance reflects an artist who is both dealing with significant transition in his life but also just naturally two minds about nearly everything.
Read MoreTCS Morning 5: Will we live to see the White Sox add an outfielder?
/In the distant future, the effect of climate change have become an unavoidable amount of daily life, MLB players dread road trips to the seceded Republic of Texas and the bizarre and hard-to-acquire documentation needed to go out to the clubs in Houston after the game, the International Draft was instituted and it sucked.
Read MoreTCS Morning 5: The 2016 White Sox are in Arizona
/Despite the satisfaction of the final moves to shore up a competitive roster never coming along, the White Sox are looking disturbingly like a team that is actually getting ready for the season.
Read MoreThe Catbird Speaks 2.16.16 - Who knows how excited to be?
/James, Ethan and Matt gather together at another odd juncture in the White Sox inexplicable offseason. Spring Training is arriving, but the Sox are an addition short of being an interesting contender, and an odd mix of good, win-now pieces and black holes if they are not making any more moves.
Read MoreTCS Morning 5: [Another headline about waiting]
/There is an actual, living and breathing competitor for signing Dexter Fowler identified now in the Baltimore Orioles, who are actually reportedly interested in Fowler, rather than simply being in need of an outfielder during a time when Fowler is the best available. On that alone, I would bet on the Orioles signing Fowler, or at least not the Sox, who have been staring at him indifferently for all of 2016. Perhaps more disqualifying is that the Sox have yet to make a significant, or even multi-year free agent outlay this offseason and it's February so, maybe they're more devoted to the trade market.
Read MoreTCS Morning 5: So, Mat Latos, then?
/The White Sox are still in a holding pattern as far as addressing their HUGE UNDENIABLE PROBLEM IN THE OUTFIELD, but made a decisive move to address their source of mere nagging doubt at the back of the starting rotation.
Read MoreTCS Morning 5: Your favorite lost White Sox seasons
/Proving that trolling can be productive, my completely unhelpful interruption of Nick--who was not talking about the White Sox--got me headed down a path.
Read MoreTCS Morning 5 - Plausible explanations
/The White Sox reportedly tried looking in on acquiring Yasiel Puig at what it can only be hoped is the nadir of his value, per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. They were promptly rebuffed and re-routed to Andre Etheir, a potential improvement but a very clunky one, and Carl Crawford, whose all-around skill set is less charming now that he's 34, declining and lacks a useful specialty.
Read MoreThe Catbird Speaks 2.3.16 - We're still doing this?
/Nick & James gathered together (all two of them!) to discuss the frustratingly slow offseason. Topics include:
--The merits of Dexter Fowler
--The downside of Andre Ethier
--The case for simply sticking with Tyler Saladino at this juncture
--Even if Rick Hahn is good, it doesn't make missing out on all the free agent outfielders not bad
--What the White Sox are great at, balanced by their struggles
--Looking forward to losing in the ALCS