TCS Morning 5: Mostly stuff about Austin Jackson
/1. We went over a good chunk of why the signing of Austin Jackson is important in Sunday’s post, but it’s worth talking about in more detail.
Read MoreTCS Morning 5: A post-Alexei existence
/It is going to be awfully weird to see Alexei Ramirez in another uniform. Luckily, he's headed to San Diego, which means he'll most likely never be seen again. Ramirez is reportedly headed to the left coast on a one-year deal with undisclosed terms, pending a physical. Even without the terms, it's looking pretty clear that the market for Ramirez did not exceed, and likely not even meet the heights of his one-year, $10 million option.
Read MoreTCS Morning 5: The intrigue of the South Side
/Mid-January 2016, where minor clarifications on the White Sox seemingly incomprehensible public stance on free agent target are the juiciest rumors over the whole weekend.
Read MoreTCS Morning 5: A glimpse at Trayce Thompson's future?
/The Boston Red Sox agreed with former White Sox farmhand Chris Young to a two-year deal according to multiple reports. After initial alarmist concerns that this hinted at a trade from the Red Sox outfield group of Mookie Betts, Rusney Castillo, Jackie Bradley Jr., and Brock Holt...until more sober voices suggested that Young was more likely a platoon bat/competent major league quality insurance for when one or more of those previously named falls flat on their face in an everyday role. Which is likely.
Read MoreTCS Morning 5: A flamboyant bench coach hire
/Daryl Van Schouwen reports that the White Sox will likely name Rick Renteria as their bench coach in the next couple of days.
Read MoreTCS Morning 5: Who knew the best shortstop in the AL was available?
/Collin did the thankful job of recapping the Alexei situation so I didn't have to Thursday, which is good, because that means it didn't devolve into 900 words of blubbering, fan-hating snark, and a 10-minute video posted at the end that's just me pointing my finger at the camera and hissing.
Read MoreIf not Alexei, then who?
/The White Sox declined the $10 million option on Alexei Ramirez on Wednesday, a somewhat surprising move that seems to create another black hole on an offense that already has question marks at second base, third base, catcher and right field.
Of course, it’s entirely possible we still see Ramirez in a White Sox uniform in 2016. The White Sox had to act on his option by Wednesday, and with teams able to come to terms with free agents starting on Saturday, they may still come to terms on a deal before everything is said and done.
Ramirez had the worst season of his career in 2015 and, as essentially a replacement-level player who will be 34 for basically the duration of the 2016 season. He’s also only a year removed from being an All-Star caliber shortstop and, quite frankly, there aren’t a ton of appealing options outside of Ramirez should the White Sox choose to go in another direction.
Read MoreWhite Sox decline Alexei Ramirez's $10 million option
/The White Sox dropped some rather surprising news on Wednesday, announcing they have declined the $10 million option on shortstop Alexei Ramirez, making him a free agent.
Read MoreTCS Morning 5: Staring at the stove, which is not yet hot
/It is nearly the deadline for activating club options, also known as the long-awaited decision day on Alexei Ramirez's future with the White Sox. Or, is better said, it's the deadline for determining whether their desire to purge $9 million from the 2016 payroll outstrips any interest in shopping the veteran for talent in return, or any interest in just not giving 600+ plate appearances to Tyler Saladino.
Read MoreTCS Morning 5: Vague, hopelessly vague, White Sox rumblings
/Here's our crack at a scoop (It's not a scoop, it's compiling information reported by others and trying to suss out meaning. It is blogging in a nutshell, whooooa this got existential, and fast).
Read MoreTCS Morning 5: Has enough White Sox stuff happened to fill out a five-item list?
/Maybe the cruelest punishment of following a routine also-ran is spending October watching the Sox shuffle through moves and possibilities that might shift their 2016 record by a half-win or maybe even a whole one, while other teams have the fates of seasons and career legacies swayed by a few outs. There's no easier blog posts to write than "Courtney Hawkins' foot causing him to miss the Fall League will cost him meaningful reps, uh oh" but I've doing this long enough to know how purposeless they are.
Read MoreTCS Morning 10: Next year in Oakland!
/Reunited with his Spring Training battery-mate, Carlos Rodon threw his sixth-straight outing of six innings or more with two or less runs allowed in Tuesday night's 7-4 victory. His seven-inning, one-run gem--spoiled only by whatever spirit has inhabited Michael Martinez's body--gives him a line over that stretch of 41 IP, 27 H, 8 ER, 4 HR, 15 BB, 41 K, 1.76 ERA. He's throwing real good, guys.
Read MoreTCS Morning 10: White Sox troubles were golfed into the left field bleachers for a night
/Chris Sale wasn't at his peak wrath of God best Monday night, but that's such a lofty placement that it's an unfair comparison. He leaned on improved, but still far from steady fastball command while touching the upper 90's with regularity, and an all-purpose changeup that worked as his finishing option as his slider remained slurvy all night. After some early difficulties dragged out by a 13-pitch war with Mike Trout, he got brutally efficient and breezed through six innings at under 80 pitches before some hanging slurves lent themselves to a two-run double by Johnny Giavotella.
Read MoreTCS Morning 10: Trade deadline gets intense as White Sox keep winning
/I suppose the important element of the past 24 hours as far as a White Sox blog is concerned, is that for the third night in a row the White Sox stepped on the field at Fenway Park, and instantly overwhelmed the Red Sox. They battered their pitching relentlessly, trashed their bullpen for the next night (Rick Porcello left in the third), and improbably climbed another game closer to the Wild Card slot.
Read MoreNobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition or the White Sox Offense
/Coming out of the All Star Break, the White Sox went 1-5 against the Royals and Cardinals, while averaging three runs a game on offense. As they stared at 42-50 with a -81 run differential on the season, there wasn’t much reason for optimism as they started a 4-game set in Cleveland against the likes of Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer, Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar.
Read MoreTCS Morning 10: Better to hustle than face the truth
/How is the main story with the 31-40 White Sox--possibly the owners of the worst offense and defense in baseball, and the team starring the owner of an insane strikeout streak--just your garden-variety griping about hustling, effort and focus?
Read MoreAnd a Happy Chris Sale Day was had by all — Important stuff from a series win
/That's more like it.
A day after breaking their season opening four-game skid, the White Sox welcomed Chris Sale back with open arms and he pitched them to a 6-2 win over the Minnesota Twins, the Sox's second in a row against the presumptive AL Central bottom feeders.
Read MoreYour 2015 Chicago White Sox in a perfect world (or the apocalypse)
/Baseball season is finally here.
After months of speculating, the White Sox's 25-man roster is set and the starting nine will take the field this afternoon against the defending American League champion Kansas City Royals.
Now that all the roster-building questions have been answered, what can we expect out of these guys?
Let's take our best guess.
Read MoreCan the White Sox depend on Alexei Ramirez forever?
/One of the most exciting things about the buildup to a season is anticipating the debut of your favorite team's new acquisitions. This year, White Sox fans can look forward to seeing Jeff Samardzija and Melky Cabrera, among others, in a White Sox uniform for the first time (well, at least in meaningful games).
Read MoreScorpions ate the baseball team and other White Sox notes
/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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