Kevin Goldstein is disappointed by Tyler Flowers

Kevin Goldstein is naming his 2010 all-disappointing team:

Catcher: Tyler Flowers, Chicago White Sox

After hitting .297/.423/.516 across two levels in 2009, Flowers seemed nearly big league-ready, but everything went backward this year. Not only did he scuffle to a .220/.334/.434 mark at Triple-A Charlotte, but his defense, which improved in 2009, went backward again, to the point that many scouts wonder if he could play the position every day in the big leagues. With A.J. Pierzynski hitting free agency in the offseason, the timing of Flowers’ regression couldn’t be any worse.

Flowers: Stats, Splits. A look at his BABIPs shows all his minor league seasons, besides Winter Ball in 2007, had BABIPs higher than .330. In 2009 Flowers had .394 BABIPs in AA and AAA. This year’s BABIP? .287.

Mike Singletary wants to talk about the New Orleans game

Mike Singletary won’t talk about the dad-gum yahoo commercial. Epic!

video link (from midwestsportsfans (h/t Deadspin))

- Let’s talk about your offensive line and trying to run the ball.

- That’s a great conversation. There you go.

That’s Bill Cosby! Remember Cliff saying “There you go” to Theo? Maybe some other character?

UPDATE: Youtube:

A.J. Pierzynski and Paul Konerko are still on track to be Type-A free-agents after this season

MLBTR crunches the numbers. Here’s the AL catchers section:

Name	Team	Type	Score
Joe Mauer	Minnesota	A	92.857
Victor Martinez	Boston	A	88.839
A.J. Pierzynski	Chicago A	A	80.357
Jorge Posada	New York A	A	78.125
Kurt Suzuki	Oakland	A	77.232
Matt Wieters	Baltimore	A	74.107
Mike Napoli	Los Angeles A	B	70.982

September 9 numbers:

Name	Team	Type	Score
Joe Mauer	Minnesota	A	92.857
Victor Martinez	Boston	A	87.054
A.J. Pierzynski	Chicago A	A	80.580
Jorge Posada	New York A	A	77.679
Kurt Suzuki	Oakland	A	77.232
Matt Wieters	Baltimore	A	74.777
Mike Napoli	Los Angeles A	B	72.321

Paul Konerko and Manny Ramirez are also on track to be Type-As. Konerko was on track to be a Type-B until the 8/27 update. J.J. Putz is on track to be a Type-B. Matt Thornton, club option for 2011, is on track to be a Type-A. Alexei Ramirez is on track to be a Type-A but he isn’t a free-agent after this season.

Spreadsheets at the link.

Ozzie Guillen thinks Dayan Viciedo isn’t ready

Here’s Ozzie:

“I don’t think Viciedo is ready. That’s my opinion,” said Guillen of the 21-year-old Cuban. “To play in the big leagues? You see a good couple of at-bats here and there, but to get a good 500 at-bats, I would think about it.

“He’s still far away from being here, a year away or maybe two years away. I don’t know how far away. Right now, I don’t think he can perform every day. We have to wait and see in Spring Training how mature he is and how he comes back. It’s good for him to taste a little bit of the big league level and how people do stuff here.”

Seems Ozzie Guillen can’t stand having a DH

Here’s Ozzie:

“Kenny and Jerry [Reinsdorf] never get involved with my lineup,” Guillen said. “They never did and I don’t think they ever will. I hope not. You never know. But all of a sudden you don’t play Manny for three or four days and he’s healthy … we bring this guy here to play every day.

“I don’t blame them to be that way. But they never get into my lineup, they never did. I do the lineup the best I can and pick a matchup here and there who plays better, but playing time for the rest of the guys, they have to wait and see how I handle it.”

… By bringing aboard Ramirez, Williams was essentially forcing Guillen’s hand with lineup decisions. Or at least that’s how Guillen seems to look at it.

“In the meanwhile it’s hard for me to make the lineup every day because of that situation,” Guillen said about Ramirez’s presence.

What part of the ‘the American League uses a DH’ doesn’t Ozzie understand? Is it so difficult to understand if the Twinkies use a 900 OPS DH and the White Sox use a 700 OPS DH, the White Sox would be at a disadvantage?

Ozzie Guillen is getting tired of Nancy Faust’s music

Crouse @ NYT:

The people who say organ music gives a ballpark the feel of a cathedral are being supplanted by the likes of Guillen, the White Sox manager who grew up in Venezuela, where he said organ music was not part of the game-day experience.

Guillen compared Faust’s music to the vuvuzela, the South African horn. “At the beginning of the season, it’s fun,” he said. “Now in June or July, it gets old.”

Something doesn’t sound right here.

John Sickels on Tyler Flowers, Josh Phegley, Brent Morel and Dayan Viciedo

From Sickels AQA:

Q: What do you make of Flower’s year? Do you think its too early to call him a bust? And what do you make of Phegley? Thanks in advance.

A: Not liking what Flowers did this year….I think he went backward. not a bust yet, but heading in that direction. Phegley had limited playing time due to injury, but it looks like he’s got strikeout issues too. He’ll be in the Arizona Fall League and I hope to see him there.

On Brent Morel and Dayan Viciedo:

Q: If the White Sox do not sign Konerko, does that mean Viciedo slides over to first and Morel starts at third on opening day next year?

A: That’s plausable, although i’m not at all convinced that Viciedo will hit enough to be a good regular 1B at this point. He’s got holes.

and

Q: and ultimately, what are their ceilings? Will they both hit enough for those positions?

A: Morel….Joe Randa, and that’s a compliment, Joe Randa was a good player. Viciedo….ceiling, .300 hitter with 25 homer power if he gains any command of the zone. Floor: .220 hitter, washes out.

Stats: Tyler Flowers, Josh Phegley, Brent Morel, Dayan Viciedo.

Paul Konerko calls out the White Sox pitchers not named Mark Buehrle,

Dyck:

Konerko, who homered against Pavano his next time up, said he did not believe the pitch was intentional, but he did appreciate teammate Mark Buehrle hitting Twins’ first baseman Michael Cuddyer later.

“I don’t need to see Mark do that to know he protects his guys,” said Konerko, whose swollen upper lid still made it difficult to talk Friday. “He’s the one guy over the years that not only will go out and do it, but gets it done.”

Tyler Saladino scouting report by ScoutingTheSally

STS:

Offense: With a quiet load, and strong, athletic stance, Saladino makes an excellent first impression at the plate.  When swinging the bat well, Saladino keeps his hands inside the ball allowing him to scorch line drives to left field.  On occasion however, his load will become long forcing his pull arm to extend to a locked position.  While it didn’t happen often, Saladino had great difficulty adjusting to pitches above the letters when it did.

In game action, Saladino did not show much aptitude for taking pitches the other way, but consistently made solid contact and showed the potential for gap power.  His quick wrists and level swing plane are tailor-made for doubles into the left-center field gap.  I have some concern with his pitch recognition as he seemed to struggle picking up decent offspeed pitches and sat “dead red” for most of the series.  This led to his swinging and missing more than a hitter with his approach probably should which explains his K% of more than 22%.

Saladino: Stats, Splits.

Saladino @ Kannapolis: 198 PA, 165 AB, .309/.389./442/.831, 22 BB / 44 K, .412 BABIP, .365 wOBA.

Kenny Williams on Paul Konerko

Here’s Kenny:

“I will say this: In my 10 years in this chair, I’ve never had a free agent to be, especially one that has had the past success and the present year success that he’s had, handled it in such a graceful, classy, professional way. I had to make a statement earlier this year that I don’t know where we’re going to end up, where our revenues are, where our payroll is headed in relation to all the other things we have to do, so we can’t engage in any talks for extensions for anyone.

“He has respected that and been a prince about that. And he’s had every right to question and ask what’s his future. If that question were to be asked, I’d have to say ‘I don’t know.’ All the numbers and projections aren’t in. I’ll get a payroll number at some point in November, I’d imagine. And then we’d have to see how the team fits as a whole, and he’s been here long enough to know we’ve never valued one individual piece more than the team as a whole. If you do that, you can start the spiral that will take you a decade to recover from.

“Now I said that to say this: He is valued on that field, on the bench, on the clubhouse, on the bus, in the hotel, and has just been selfless and one of the best guys you can have around here for a long time, so these are the type guys you would like to finish their careers here.

“Whether that happens or not, I don’t know.”

THT and Fangraphs Fantasy on Chris Sale [UPDATE]

Gross @ THT:

Chris Sale | Chicago (AL) | RP | 5 percent Yahoo ownership.
YTD: 0.57 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 12.06 K/9, 5.74 BB/9
MLS MLE: 8.45 FIP, 1.50 WHIP, 18.00 K/9, 7.50 BB/9
 
Like most White Sox bullpen guys this year, Chris Sale throws hard, with an average fastball velocity of 96 mph in the majors. This has translated to plenty of strikeouts (21 in only 15.2 innings). The walks are outrageously high (10 in 15.2 innings) but as a reliever and a high strikeout pitcher, those walks can be easily masked (see Carlos Marmol and The Joker’s bank robbery crew. Masks. Get it? Never mind).

Along with those high strikeouts comes a decently high propensity to get ground balls with a 46.9 GB percentage and a 1.15 GB/FB percentage. High strikeouts + a lot of grounders = fantasy (and I guess reality) success. This is Sabermetrics 201 (I teach the advanced class).

I view the fact that Sale has not given up a home run as a bad sign. I know it’s the Gambler’s Fallacy to say someone “is due,” especially in baseball, but Sale still has a decent propensity for fly balls and I don’t really trust any pitcher with a decent fly ball percentage (currently 40.6 for Sale) who calls The Cell home (it’s second among major league parks in home runs given up. And unfortunately I don’t have access to super secret THT data about fly ball suppression and such, so I have to go off what ESPN’s Park Factors tell me. Also, Paul Konerko is not the only one hitting those dingers).

So I think Sale will give up at least one home run before the year ends and with the small sample he will pitch on the year, I expect that ERA to go up. But how bad is it really to have your ERA go up from .57 to 2.00? Just ask Ubaldo Jimenez; he’s good with it. …

UPDATE: Golebiewski @ FG:

Sale, slinging his fastball at an average of 96.2 MPH while mixing in low-80′s sliders and upper-80′s changeups, has struck out 23 batters in 17.2 IP. While he has issued 10 walks to go with all those K’s, the Florida Gulf Coast product has a 3.19 xFIP in a tiny sample.

Smells Like Mascot: Near the Reaper

Carl’s latest:

http://www.smellslikemascot.com/2010/09/near-reaper.html

Kenny Williams: Chris Sale to stick with the plan

Merkin:

“Well, I’m a big believer of sticking to the plan until there’s a reason not to stick to the plan,” said Williams. “The plan that was laid out for him was exactly what has happened so far. He would go to the Minors, get his relief shoes on, so to speak, come to the big leagues and play an important role down the stretch.

“He’s done exactly that. The second part of that plan was for Chris to go to Spring Training [in 2011] as a starter and compete for a job in the rotation. I see no reason why we have to deviate from that plan. I understand the value of him down in the bullpen and how that sets up the bullpen. But we have the opportunity to stick with the plan in developing him as a starter in Spring Training.

“That allows us to take our time with Jake Peavy and ensure that he’s 100 percent ready to go in Spring Training,” Williams said. “The worst case scenario? Sale starts off and wins a rotation job in Spring Training and starts off as the fifth guy, which is probably early in the season more valuable than the first left-hander out of the bullpen.”

Joe Posnaski interviews Kenny Williams

Posnaski:

Kenny Williams is thinking about something.

“You know I love this city,” he says. “I love my job. Understand that. Get that part right. I love what I do, and I love where I am. But if the Oakland Raiders called tomorrow and asked me to run the team, I would go. I would do it.”

He wants me to write this down. I write it down. He is joking. He is not joking.

“Don’t misunderstand,” he says. “Get it down right. Get it down that I love what I do. Don’t get it wrong, now. I absolutely love what I do.”

“But you would leave to run the Raiders?” I ask. It’s the second question of the interview. Kenny Williams keeps staring out at the field, and for the first time a hint of a smile on his face.

“I’d have to go,” he says. “I’d have to tell people, ‘Sorry, I’ve been called home. The Silver and Black has called me home.’” …

Great writeup!

NY Mets interested in White Sox Assistant GM Rick Hahn [UPDATE]

Heyman @ SI:

Mets people have high regard for assistant GM John Ricco and consider him a future GM, but the team apparently will instead look to someone with more experience for their top front office position. They are is said to be ready to consider ex-Padres GM Kevin Towers, ex-Diamondbacks GM Josh Byrnes and White Sox assistant GM Rick Hahn, among others, to replace Minaya for that role. Byrnes and Hahn, assuming they are interested, are both extremely highly regarded. Byrnes helped bring the D-backs to the NLCS championship series in 2007 while Hahn was part of the 2005 World Series championship team with the White Sox.

UPDATE: October 2: Rogers:

White Sox assistant general manager Rick Hahn is on the GM short list for the Mets’ expected opening.