Let's not freak out about 8-man bullpens (or anything right now, really)

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I'm typing these words on Feb. 25. If my math is correct, there are 40 days until the White Sox play a game that counts in the regular season standings.

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Scorpions ate the baseball team and other White Sox notes

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Since the events of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, scorpions have been derided as a national menace. Now, they serve as the initial test for a White Sox team eager to prove themselves as contenders. If they survive the Spring with a casualty rate under 30%, they're playoff-bound. That's how it works, and we're already seeing how weaker organizations are being felled.

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The Catbird Speaks - 2.24.15: It's Spring Training for us too

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As for the actual discussion, well, there was Brad Penny, because we were obsessed with finding out who the ideal long reliever in the White Sox organization is. Other topics include Jeff Samardzija already using as much analytics as anyone would want, trouble with the ESPN rankings, the horror of an eight-man bullpen, and other excellent Sox nuggets.

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Every team in the AL sucks

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Heading into the 2015 regular season, it seems that most every American League team fancies themselves as a contender. As I’ve talked about earlier, this center-heavy distribution of talent should have interesting implications on the playoff race. This post is not about that. This post is me being a mean person who sees the flaws in everything. This post is about how every team in the American League will finish below .500, mathematical impossibilities be damned*.

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Your Ultimate 2015 White Sox Spring Training Primer

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Spring Training is finally here. What this means is we can all get excited about the sight of actual major league baseball players on an actual baseball field, and then cry over the realization that we're still six weeks away from meaningful games being played.

Still, the season of optimism is upon us, so let's take a look at some of the important things to monitor during the White Sox's time in Arizona.

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The White Sox reporting early en masse

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White Sox position players are not contractually required to be in Glendale until next week, and the pitchers aren't required to be in until Friday. And yet, at least a third of the players invited to camp were reported to have already arrived by Monday. Dan Hayes even reported that Adam Eaton and Jeff Samardzija were ahead of the game and live in Arizona and have been in and out of team facilities for the last few months. Actually living in that state; now that's true sacrifice, something that layabouts like Jose Abreu--showing up less than three weeks early--can only dream about. 

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Initial Vegas Over/Under Has White Sox At 82 Wins

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Baseball fans have a lot of projections at their disposal - PECOTA, Zips, Steamer, Cairo, etc. etc. One projection system is sometimes overlooked in certain circles, and I suspect because people view it as having a different purpose than projection - Vegas Lines. People think Vegas Lines are just trying to exploit the perceptions of casual fans.  But, because of how Vegas makes a profit - trying to get equal action on both sides of the line and simply taking a cut off the top - the market can "correct" lines until you get a sort of Wisdom of the Crowds result with the input of some very knowledgable people.  Depending on the year, you can get different results - but in short, Over / Unders from Vegas are a worthwhile resource when trying to figure out what will happen in the coming year.

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Gordon Beckham: Our Kirk Hinrich

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This is the both a casual, lazy diss comp and stunningly accurate with numerous parallels. I could dredge up other instances of familiar utility infielders whose roles expanded beyond initial plans because their managers' love of their reliability trumped cold assessment of their skill level and statistical production. But probably the most relatable example for this audience is current situation on the West Side, where a seemingly innocuous bench player has their role expanded until it is a blinding hindrance.

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The Catbird Seat rails against ESPN's preseason predictions

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The wise and just ESPN Sweetspot Guru David Schoenfield is going through his pre-Spring rankings of every MLB team and the White Sox have come up...a bit earlier than I would have hoped. David ranks them 23rd in baseball, predicts a 77-85 mark and cites concerns about the back-half of the starting rotation, problems spots in the infield, and does not appear to be a Tyler Flowers’ Glasses Truther. The Sox are behind the Tigers--whom he acknowledges could be division favorites again--the Royals, the Rays, and his surprise team: the Houston Astros.

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Playing Without A Safety Net - Life in the AL Central

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As Rick Hahn pointed out, the most important thing to take away from the various AL Central projections is that it's probably going to be a tight race. Sure, if you take two teams with "true" 81-win talent, give one good luck and the other bad they may wind up very far apart. But right now we don't know where that luck is going to fall, and most projection systems seem to think that the Indians, Tigers, White Sox, and Royals are pretty close in terms of present talent. Over the course of 162 games, injuries will likely play a huge role in differentiating between these four teams. While there are certain things teams can do to mitigate against injury - Herm Schneider is considered one of the best in the business at doing just that - the best thing a front office can do is prepare as many Plan Bs as possible in the form of depth. So which organization is in the best shape in terms of backup plans should Plan A go awry? 

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The importance of Carlos Rodon

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Since the minute Carlos Rodon signed to a $6,582,000 bonus, the largest in the 2014 draft and White Sox draft history, it’s been clear he’s on the fast track to the big leagues. Though that promotion did not come to fruition in 2014, Rodon has already reached Triple-A, and has stuff that in short bursts was entirely overwhelming to hitters there despite lackluster command.

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The Catbird Speaks: 2.9.15 - Just talking about baseball, really

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It's February: the most exciting and thrilling time of the baseball news cycle. Between Gordon Beckham return, Dayan Viciedo leaving, and Spring Training....coming eventually, there's so much White Sox news to t--ah screw it.

James Fegan (@JRFegan), Nick Schaefer (@Nick_TCS) and Ethan Spalding (@spaldingethan) gathered together to dish on Victor Martinez's knee injury, Tigers' depth problems, the Royals' stupid, cheap offseason, how the Indians could be scary, Mookie Betts being overrated, defensive metrics being dumb, and then, then it went off the rails.

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Dayan's gone & White Sox notes

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Rick Hahn is known for at least outwardly broadcasting a very aggressive negotiating position, but at this stage, I want to grant him the benefit of the doubt and conclude that there is not a verifiable soul working in an MLB front office that wants to give up anything of substance for Dayan Viciedo. In which case, probably good that they didn't give him 500 more PA's and a gang of innings in the outfield. 

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Establishing a reasonable floor for Chris Sale

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Part of the trouble projecting Sale is expecting regression from a miracle. He had blown away expectations just by being as effective as he was out of the gate, but the nutty pitch development ability from which his slider was born never stopped being at play. 'Sale working on using his changeup vs. lefties' seemed like a space-filler offseason story about a guy who was already death to lefties, but then he went and reduced his OPS against them to sub-.400 levels. Despite only having three pitches, Sale has never been as simple as just betting on his ability to repeat prior performances. 178 ERA+ is too preposterous to become his new baseline, but he's not just going to zap back to the guy he was in 2012-13 either; he's evolved

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White Sox hire new game presentation director, natural order threatened

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Chicago Business' Danny Ecker's Monday article--which basically does not much more than imply that there might be a different volume of Jock Jams spinning in the U.S. Cellular Field CD changer in 2015--doubles as a character sketch of the protagonist in a 'Fish out of water who transforms his new environment' comedy.'

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