White Sox Re-Sign RHP Matt Albers

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According to Ken Rosenthal, the White Sox have re-signed RHP Matt Albers to a 1-year, $2 million deal with a team option for $3 million or a $250K buyout in 2016. Albers was very good in 37.1 IP with the White Sox in 2015, posting a minuscule 1.21 ERA with a 6.75 K/9 and a small 2.17 BB/9.

While this deal has minimal risk and stabilizes the bullpen, Yoenis Cespedes isn't a White Sox yet (and is being linked heavily to the Nationals, who apparently are willing to go five years), so who really cares anyway. 

Ethan Spalding is a statistics major at UW-Madison and lifelong White Sox fan. Follow him at @SpaldingBalls

Nate Jones' contract is great but it's not impetus to trade David Robertson

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As someone who has been very high on Nate Jones since at least his breakout in 2013, was elated at his return in 2015, and even endorsed him as the centerpiece of that truly disastrous 2014 bullpen experiment, the announcement of his extension still put me through a sliding scale of reactions as the torrent details and additional years of control and clauses were revealed.

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White Sox acquire 3B Lawrie; city hopes emojis can't start another Chicago Fire

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The White Sox have acquired third baseman and potential pyromaniac Brett Lawrie from the Oakland Athletics for minor league pitchers J.B. Wenkeldon and Zack Erwin. Lawrie, who hit .260/.299/.407 (94 wRC+) in 602 PAs with Oakland last year, looks to slot in the White Sox as-good-as vacant 3B hole, hopefully solidifying a position that has been in flummox for the last decade.

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Two Roads Diverge at the Winter Meetings, are the White Sox walking blindly into the woods?

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 In recent years, the Winter Meetings have been a time of much activity for the White Sox, especially since Rick Hahn filled the GM seat. In the last tow years, Hahn has acquired Adam Eaton, Jeff Samardjiza, Melky Cabrera, and David Robertson all during baseball’s annual December assembly, moves that have been, for better or worse, some of the most consequential of the Hahn regime. What the White Sox plan to do at this year's Winter Meetings seems to be completely up in the air.

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Hardly, Hardly, Hardly, Hardly Pay Anything

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On Wednesday, MLB Trade Rumors published a list of the largest contracts in each MLB team's history. As could probably be assumed, the list was full of face-of-franchise studs- Giancarlo Stanton, Clayton Kershaw, Troy Tulowitzki, Alex Rodriguez (twice!)- as well as a fair share of major albatross contracts- Albert Pujols' Angels deal, Vernon Wells' Blue Jays disaster, and the Twins' extension of Joe Mauer. One thing that stands out is most franchises have by now given out a mega deal, with 22 of 30 teams (including financial lightweights like the Rays and Marlins) having inked a player to a deal of at least $100 million.

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Searching for optimism after a season of abject misery

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The 2015 White Sox season was not good. In fact, it may be better described as bad, terrible, disappointing, sad, awful, or any combination thereof, probably best mixed with profanity.  After a 2014 season with encouraging signs abound and an offseason full of additions, a team expected to contend finished the 2015 season with a laundry list of embarrassing "accomplishments."

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Chris Sale’s greatness amongst the White Sox' futility

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Chris Sale is the best pitcher in baseball right now.

Yes, this is hardly an irrefutable fact. Yes, Sale’s numbers this season in totality don’t quite matchup with Gerrit Cole, Max Scherzer, or Chris Archer, and yes, if we expand to the last two full seasons, Clayton Kershaw has him beat. For the purpose of this article, I really don’t care. With all the talent at the top of the league, this is hardly a debate with a conclusive answer, and that’s fine.

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Filling the voids in the White Sox lineup

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Going into the season, one thing many pundits noted about the White Sox was the holes in the roster. 

Through 31 games, it seems those fears were quite warranted. Between catcher, third base, and second base, White Sox players have combined for a grand total of 0.0 WAR, ranking in the bottom seven teams in baseball for production at each position. 

As a team teetering on the brink of contention with a 5.5 game deficit, such holes are too big to not work to fill them. Micah Johnson being replaced by Carlos Sanchez won’t do that; neither will any potential in-house replacement for Conor Gillaspie at third. 

Though Tyler Flowers is likely the White Sox’ man at catcher, Gillaspie and Sanchez can probably be replaced in a trade. Though the trade market has yet to develop this season, the White Sox may have a few options soon, which I assessed and sorted into relatively arbitrary categories. 

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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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The Pros and Cons of Shark and Robertson

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Please 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:

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