AL Central Wins Losses Minnesota Twins 87 75 Cleveland Indians 82 80 Chicago White Sox 81 81 Detroit Tigers 75 87 Kansas City Royals 72 90
from the blog:
So this new set of projections looks only at the starting lineup of every team, the top 5 pitchers (rated on runs above average in a neutral environment for 200 innings each), and the top 2 relievers (70 innings each).
No. 11 holds a special meaning in the annals of White Sox history.
It was once worn by Jim Essian and Don Kessinger, solid players, if not exactly infinitely memorable in franchise lore, and was last worn by Rudy Law during the 1984 season. At that point, the number was retired by the White Sox in honor of its most famous and accomplished owner in shortstop Luis Aparicio.
But while the only native Venezuelan to ever be elected to Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame will not be coming out of retirement at age 75, his jersey will be back in action for the 2010 campaign.
The White Sox announced Monday that Aparicio has given his consent for Omar Vizquel to wear No. 11 in his first year with the White Sox, as the number will be un-retired by the organization for Vizquel to wear in tribute. …
UPDATE: Vizquel wanted no. 13 at first, but Ozzie (who wears no. 13) and the Sox marketing dept. objected.
And here’s a picture.
Chris Jaffe on the Cell:
… More randomly, this place does the best job finding National Anthem singers of any place on the planet. Maybe this is just the random luck of the draw, but I’ll routinely hear a sensational version of the song here when I go. I still remember a time about 10 years ago I heard four opera singers do a multi-part harmony with the song and it was so brilliant the crowd began cheering halfway through – and this was before 9/11. It’s a small part of the ballpark experience, but the Sox routinely nail it.
When even Phil Rogers implores you to get a DH:
The guess here is he can make enough plays to make a difference in 2010. He [Johnny Damon] appears headed to the Tigers, but the White Sox ought to stage an intervention.
Imagine Damon in the Sox leadoff spot and Juan Pierre as the No. 2 hitter — or the other way around. Can a rotating DH including Mark Kotsay, Andruw Jones, Omar Vizquel and Jayson Nix outproduce Damon? And what would be the harm in having 23-year-old Jordan Danks spend time with Damon? They seem to be the same kind of player.
Dye’s continuing unemployment relates to an unflattering statistical analysis of his outfield skills and his reluctance to accept a role as a DH or extra outfielder (the Cubs pursued him before turning to Xavier Nady).
… Branyan, like Damon, could improve the White Sox’s DH spot. He strikes out a ton but delivers long balls — 43 in 563 at-bats the last two seasons — and the Sox haven’t added power after sliding to sixth in the AL in homers. He could fit on almost any team in a bench role but fits best in the AL, where he would be an instant upgrade for the Indians, Athletics and Rangers.
then you know,
The run projections I calculated with Dye as DH yielded 12-18 runs more than the ones with Kotsay/Jones.
Several baseball executives said Friday that they expect Jermaine Dye to sign with an American League club. That way, his at-bats could be spread among the maximum number of positions: left field, right field, designated hitter and perhaps first base.
But that begs the question: Which AL team? …
Merkin has a long Q & A with Brooks Boyer. Here’s what Boyer had to say on this year’s commercials:
I think this year’s commercials, if they go off the way we want them to go off, are a little more grinderish. Because you are going with a tagline of “It’s Black or White,” all based on the honesty of the team and a work ethic, I don’t think they are going to be as funny as they were. I think they are going to be cool, but we have some viral things planned that we think have a chance to be funny and engaging and so truthful.
It’s kind of, “Life isn’t always black and white, but our baseball is.” Playing on something like that is going to make it engaging.
and on the budget/payroll:
… Hopefully, we get a little bit better weather in April and May, and hopefully we have a little bit better team in September than we did last year. That certainly carries a lot of weight. How we budgeted, we feel very confident, as we sit here right now, we feel confident we will be able to support a payroll that’s north of $100 million.
There’s a lot more on the link.
Seriously, a Jones/Kotsay platoon is the first option? Keep in mind that a league-average hitter is a replacement level DH. While Jones might still have his uses as a bench/platoon player, CHONE projects him as a below average hitter (.324 wOBA, -7/150 in context-neutral linear weights). If you think that’s bad, Kotsay projects at .297 wOBA, -16/150 context-neutral. That’s not useful at any of the positions Kotsay backs up at this point, much less DH. Even if efficiently platooned, that’s ugly. Heck, Mike Jacobs (-6) would be an upgrade, and would also keep the Chicago/Kansas City pipeline active.
They really didn’t have room for Thome? He probably adds just a few runs for the Twins, but he would be at least a one, maybe two win improvement over Jones/Kotsay. …
- Andrew’s Spring Training Preview preview
- 2010 MLB Rookie Career Development Program: Chicago White Sox prospect Dan Hudson on pitching in the majors (2:12 video)
- BDD’s Top Prospects Compilation: Update #14:
Spreadsheet: 2009-2010-Top-Prospect-Lists.xls [198 KB]
- MLB Notebook takes a look at new Sox Daniel Cabrera.
- Freddy Garcia is the key. He also doesn’t like the Cubs.
- 73 stolen bases in 121 games? Ozzie is furious Kenny didn’t pick him up!
The Cubs want to build a stadium for Spring Training in Arizona and the plan calls for all the Cactus League teams that hold Spring Training in Arizona to “bankroll the $84 million stadium though ticket surcharges.” The Sox don’t want to do so, since they didn’t get help from the other teams when they were building their Spring Training stadium in Arizona (the Camelback ranch that opened last year).
The Diamondbacks are also opposed.
NOTE: The freeloaders tag refers to all the teams that seek public money to pay for their stadiums.
UPDATE: Sullivan: “The Cubs believe the surcharge is fair because of all the business they bring to the Cactus League.”
Carl’s latest:
http://www.smellslikemascot.com/2010/02/carl-draws-dh-cartoon-beats-dead-horse.html
Awesome with a capital A baby!
…will be the tagline of the 2010 advertising:
The new campaign will carry the tagline “White Sox baseball: It’s black and white.” The theme is intended to suggest there are no gray areas at the White Sox, particularly when it comes to winning and losing.
That small total represents the remaining players from the 2005 World Series championship team on the current White Sox roster. With Paul Konerko, Freddy Garcia and A.J. Pierzynski playing under the walk-away year of their respective contracts, and closer Bobby Jenks and ace-hurler Mark Buehrle facing free agency in 2012, this 2010 season could represent the last hurrah together for this special group.
… “It’s time we put on one more big show,” said Jenks with a smile.
The Chicago White Sox, Comcast SportsNet, WGN-TV, WCIU-TV and WSCR Radio (670 AM) have announced the team’s television and radio broadcast schedules for the 2010 season. …
All the games will be broadcasted except the July 24 game at Oakland (probably due to the FOX exclusive window).
Full schedule inside. Or http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/schedule/broadcast.jsp?c_id=cws (more…)
