If you're looking for a reason why the White Sox are not being immediately crowned as the conquering heroes of the AL Central after their OFFSEASON CHAMPIONSHIP, look no further than vaunted prospect Avisail Garcia. While the Sox have been pushing Garcia as a foundational since his arrival, the projection systems that push around tepid win expectations anticipate Garcia as a complete zero, or at the very best, below-average.
Read MoreRick Hahn is an ever-present character in all White Sox dealings. He's looming not far from the foreground in every offseason story; it feels unnecessary to dedicate our entire focus to him above the actual players coming in. To do so, would be a furthering of the ever-present cult of the executive, where our fascination and praise has diverted from world-class athletes and their craft. Instead of admiring the works of art, or even the artists, we ogle the work of the curator and then take some bizarre fascination in the operating budget they had to secure the priceless. No thoughts of watching Melky Cabrera popping singles all over the yard, just contemplation of 2 WAR for three years for $42 million. Is it worth the investment for a famous tycoon?
Read MoreIn the offseason after the 2013 season, we saw two Scott Boras clients - Stephen Drew and Kendrys Morales - turn down qualifying offers and play hardball for a long term contract for big dollars, only to have it blow up in their face. Each wound up taking a 1-year deal worth less than the QO after the season started, and then posted abysmal numbers. Boras made himself the biggest agent in sports in part because he knew that if he stuck by his demands for his players, one team would blink and come up with the money. But with these two players, the strategy didn't work out at all. Jon Lester has signed with the Cubs for 6-years, $155 million, while the number being floated as Scherzer's demand was $200 million. Is anybody actually going to come close to that number?
Read MoreA week after the Padres lured Derek Norris' revered bat out of Oakland, this isn't the best time to feel rosy about the White Sox seasonal arrangement of below-average and whiff-prone catchers, but they are here. There are many of them, which is the best feature of this group.
Read MoreSome other club will just come along and rescue the Sox from their self-made hell. But what team wants Dayan Viciedo in "a greater role?" Well, this is probably a very bad team. Let's find them. Let's only search the AL, though, because proposing a team needs Dayan Viciedo is bad enough, let's not wish a full season of defense on these clubs too.
Read MoreAt this point, picking at the explained logic of some of the White Sox moves in this beloved and lauded off-season is akin to pull the best man aside during the reception to give him "notes" on his speech, but the White Sox continue to support my theory that I would be much less critical of the mythology behind their finances if they just never discussed them at all.
Read MoreThe White Sox are holding a press conference this afternoon to announce the acquisitions of Jeff Samardizja, Melky Cabrera, and David Robertson. That is good news; three good players, filling holes at three important positions.
Read MoreThe amount of noise that has surrounded the White Sox during Rick Hahn's supermarket sweep over the past month has been alarming for a fan base that has seen its expectations go from "Win Now" to "Win In A Few Years" over the past few moribund seasons.
Read MoreThe actual distributed agenda for this podcast with James Fegan, Nick Schaefer and Collin Whitchurch was as follows:
1. Melky is awesome
2. What's with these ***** saying that Melky isn't awesome?
3. Attendance shaming already?
4. Other holes to fill
Read MoreAs the White Sox have begun to load up for 2015 contention, a persistent worry has been what to do with the last outfield position. Simply put, a team that won only 73 games in 2014 would be hard-pressed to contend while relying on a bat-first left fielder who can’t really hit and really can’t field. This sentiment was clearly shared by Rick Hahn & Co., who late Saturday night reportedly agreed to sign former Blue Jay Melky Cabrera to a three-year deal reportedly in the $45 million range.
Read MoreDespite the fact that the Royals squeaked past Oakland in the Wild Card game and then rode their elite bullpen into the World Series, the 2014 Tigers were objectively the best team in the division. Detroit would win the division and boasted a run differential of +52 as opposed to Kansas City's +27. In fact, they have won the AL Central every year since 2010. Their core has gotten older and slipped some, Dombrowski finally messed up a major trade last offseason, and the window looks like it may be closing. But, like the White Sox, they have had a very busy winter so far. How do they look at the moment?
Read MoreTrading Dayan Viciedo to the Mariners never made much sense, even in the thick of 2014. Viciedo was in the middle of a career-worst season, and was revealing himself to be a power-only right-handed clod, who would potentially play in a park that absorbs right-handed power and erases any trace of its existence.
Read MoreThe White Sox continued their Extreme Bullpen Makeover on Thursday when they acquired lefty reliever Dan Jennings from the Miami Marlins in exchange for Andre Rienzo.
Read MoreI look at the White Sox 2015 payroll and I have the same reaction as any fan: why can't my job find more for me in the budget, man? I work hard.
But the secondary reaction, after curses whispered through tears, is figuring there's still some room for some deals.
Read MoreAfter having a day to ruminate, Collin, James, and Nick joined forces to mull over the recent pitching additions, and what it means for the franchise.
Read MorePlease let me know if you also think this would be a great title for a children's book. Regarding baseball, apparently while I slept the White Sox made two rather huge additions (and possibly some significant subtractions) in trading Marcus Semien, Chris Bassitt, and a third, unknown player for Jeff Samardzija from Oakland and signing David Robertson from the Yankees. Here are my initial reactions:
Read MoreJeff Samardzija, 29, coming off a career year in 2014, offers promise of being the actually good and actually right-handed starter the White Sox have been looking for to place between Chris Sale and Jose Quintana at the top of the rotation. Last year's breakout performance of a 2.99 ERA and 202 strikeouts over 219.2 innings optimistically was the culmination of three years of Samardzija looking transformed from an erratic reliever to someone who can strikeout a batter-per-inning, multiple times through the rotation.
Read MoreThere are two extreme poles at work here. One is this extreme outlay of money (Reportedly over $40whatever, not mine) and years of commitment for a reliever, even super-high leverage reliever. The other pole is how utterly hopeless the Sox were looking for a strikeout at the end of games last season, and their lack of immediate options to fix that problems:
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As written in this space before, the biggest thing working against Minnie Minoso in his quest for Hall of Fame election may be the fact that he's still alive.
Minoso was again denied a spot in Cooperstown Monday when the Golden Era Committee released its ballots on the opening day of baseball's Winter Meetings. Minoso received eight out of 16 votes with 12 needed for election. His vote total actually went down, as he received nine last time around. The committee failed to elect a single candidate.
Read MoreJames fears if he talks to himself about fake rumor news any longer, his sanity will not last. He calls upon his friends to walk him through the most recent massive shift/non-shift in White Sox discussion, where they now might maybe consider possibly spending insane dollars on a free agent frontline starter if suits them right...maybe.
Read MoreThe Catbird Seat is a White Sox blog by White Sox fans that focuses on intelligent and humorous baseball commentary. Brought to you by ESPN's SweetSpot Network.
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