This is Part Two in a series of three that are broad, back-of-the-napkin estimates of how the estimable, formidable, and ecological Paul Boye and I see the 2016 season playing out. If you are interested in Part One ( AL & NL Central) you can check that out here. Bookmark these so that in 8 months you can ridicule me / admire Paul's foresight
Read MoreTeams are always searching for the new market inefficiency. With the A’s in the early 2000’s, it was on-base percentage. With the Royals of yesteryear it was building a team that was perfectly suited to winning in their home ballpark – they focused heavily on defense to improve their pitching staff and favored contact hitters that would thrive in the gaps of Kauffman stadium. The new market inefficiency I propose? Finding an owner that’s willing to invest in his or her own team!
Read MoreWhite 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 MoreThe 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 MoreWhen Rick Hahn came out and said that the White Sox seven-game win streak right before last year’s trade deadline didn’t impact the team’s decision to hold onto Jeff Samardzija, I believed him. Unfortunately, I think that leads to a much bigger issue: the White Sox seemingly lacked long-term planning with this decision and now the chickens have come home to roost, so to speak.
Read MoreJimmy 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 MoreKanye 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 MoreThe oft-posed question of “are you really going to go into the season with Tyler Saladino as starting shortstop?” has a murkier answer than it did last week. The White Sox have agreed to terms with Jimmy Rollins on a minor league deal and an invite to big league camp.
Read MoreIn 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 MoreWe have been fortunate enough to have the excellent Paul Boye contribute to the site before, and this will be the first of three pieces where he and I give a rough look at how we see the six divisions shaking out in 2016. Obviously, there are still some free agents out there that could alter the calculus slightly, but with battery mates already stretching out in Arizona and Florida, we could wait no longer.
Read More
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 MoreIt's finally here. Well, kind of.
White Sox pitchers and catchers officially report to Spring Training in Glendale, Ariz., Thursday, and an offseason that seemed to last three lifetimes officially comes to a close.
Read MoreOn paper, Johnson may not be the type of pitcher you give anything but a hesitant head shake to going into a season as crucial as 2016 is for the White Sox. But when you listen to the man behind the poor numbers and the rocky past speak, you feel his determination in his words.
Read MorePECOTA was released this morning and you can look at the Depth Charts over here. Compared to the exuberant projection of 92 wins for Cleveland (tied with the Cubs for second in all of baseball!) and the dour expectation for the defending champion Royals (76 wins- the same as the 2015 White Sox!), 82 wins for Chicago looks sober, rational, and normal.
Read MoreJames, 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 MoreThere 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 MoreThe Padres were rumored to be shopping outfielder Matt Kemp...
Read MoreAs we enter Year 36 of the 2015-16 MLB offseason, and the White Sox draw ever closer to beginning Spring Training with three--a third of the lineup!--regular members of the potential Opening Day lineup coming off seasons with a .675 OPS or lower, we began to see some testing of whether Sox fans can talk themselves into any potential improvement.
Read MoreThe last four guys probably are not particularly rosterable, but including Turner's guaranteed money, that's slightly more than $25 million for six guys likely to break camp with the big club. And since Frazier and Lawrie could just be non-tendered after 2016, that is total sum of the commitments they have made overall this offseason, relative to $13.3 million that cleared off the books.
Read MoreThe 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 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.
An ESPN SweetSpot blog | Design by ofvoid
