[Alexei] Ramirez also has a contractual decision to make. The White Sox shortstop can opt out of the $1.1 million he is set to earn in 2011, marking the final year of a four-year, $4.75 million deal, and become arbitration eligible. If Ramirez makes that move, as he is expected to do, the White Sox have the choice between exercising a $2.75 million club option or going through the arbitration process. The White Sox would be expected to exercise the option. Ramirez has until Dec. 1 to opt out. The White Sox then have until Dec. 15 to make their decision. …
November 8, 2010
Alexei Ramirez expected to opt-out of his current contract
November 4, 2010
White Sox working on a multiyear year deal for LHP John Danks [UPDATE]
The Chicago White Sox have pushed John Danks near the top of their offseason priorities.
According to a source, the team is trying to work a multiyear contract for the left-handed starter into their budget. So while negotiating with free agent Paul Konerko lies ahead, as well as deciding whether or not to bring back A.J. Pierzynski, not to mention retooling the bullpen, it will all be done with an eye toward Danks.
The 24-year-old still has two more years of arbitration-eligible status, but the desire is to lock him in at least through his first free-agent year in 2013. That would require a minimum three-year deal, but a four-year pact is more desirable, according to the source.
Padilla speculates that something in the $20 million range might be enough for a 4 year contract. Aaron Gleeman thinks a 4 year deal would require something around $30 million.
Padilla also says the Sox are discussing to keep their young core of John Danks, Alexei Ramirez, Gordon Beckham together. Other young players who could join that core are Sergio Santos, Dayan Viciedo, and Chris Sale.
UPDATE: MLBTR agrees with Gleeman and explains why teams have interest in locking up young starters like Danks.
November 2, 2010
White Sox re-sign SS/2B Omar Vizquel
On Tuesday, the first of five days during which teams have to negotiate exclusively with their own free agents, [Omar] Vizquel returned to the White Sox via a one-year, $1.75-million contract. The expectation for the 11-time Gold Glove Award winner is that he will fulfill the role originally intended for him, as the primary backup to shortstop Alexei Ramirez and second baseman Gordon Beckham.
October 20, 2010
Alexei Ramirez is your Sporting News 2010 AL All-Star Team shortstop
Alexei Ramirez named as shortstop of Sporting News 2010 AL All-Star Team, as voted on by the players.
Here’s the press release. The only two other Sox shortstops that won the award are Luke Appling (1936, 1940, 1943) , and Luis Aparicio (1968, 1970). The voters are 326 major-league players, 25 managers and 24 general managers.
October 11, 2010
Differences between expected and actual BABIP for the 2010 White Sox
A couple of years ago, Chris Dutton and Peter Bendix did some research on batted-ball data and created a metric called xBABIP (“expected BABIP”). xBABIP dispelled the myth that BABIP was primarily a function of “LD%+ .120.” Rather, as Dutton and Bendix found, BABIP was better explained as a function all batted-ball types and ratios with speed/power/strikeout considerations.
Last year, Derek Carty and Chris Dutton debuted the simple xBABIP calculator on THT. This tool has empowered users to determine a player’s xBABIP and compare it to their actual BABIP. Therefrom, one could forecast a hitter’s expected batting line, assuming all the input ratios were to remain constant. Over the course of 500+ PA, these ratios tend to be significant, though conclusions can still be drawn at the 300 PA threshold (we’d really only be waiting on IFFB% stabilization).
For all 270 hitters who accrued 300 or more plate appearances this season, I applied the xBABIP formula (by park) to determine each hitter’s expected batting lines. In short, what I have created is a spreadsheet of “what you can expect as a baseline for production in 2011, assuming all else remains constant.” In other words, this is how these hitters should have hit in 2010. …
Numbers for the White Sox players from the full spreadsheet:
| Player | PA | xBABIP | BABIP | Difference |
| Andruw Jones | 328 | .310 | .239 | .071 |
| Juan Pierre | 734 | .351 | .294 | .057 |
| Mark Kotsay | 359 | .298 | .247 | .051 |
| Carlos Quentin | 527 | .282 | .241 | .041 |
| A.J. Pierzynski | 503 | .299 | .278 | .021 |
| Alex Rios | 617 | .322 | .306 | .016 |
| Alexei Ramirez | 626 | .311 | .300 | .011 |
| Gordon Beckham | 498 | .304 | .297 | .007 |
| Omar Vizquel | 391 | .309 | .309 | 0 |
| Paul Konerko | 631 | .297 | .326 | -.029 |
For players that played part of the year with the White Sox I got their BABIP numbers from statcorner. All the numbers are for the time they played for the White Sox:
| Player | PA | xBABIP | BABIP | Difference |
| Jayson Nix | 57 | .262 | .189 | .073 |
| Manny Ramirez | 88 | .313 | .388 | -.075 |
Mark Teahen had only 262 PAs.
October 10, 2010
Colin Wyers (BP) on Alexei Ramirez
Colin Wyers finds players that exceeded PECOTA’s WARP projection in 2010:
White Sox: SS Alexei Ramirez, +4.5 WARP. This might seem a bit of a surprise given Paul Konerko‘s career year (and Paulie is at +2.8), but the Cuban import has settled in to deliver an excellent second season at shortstop after getting moved across the bag in 2009, which shows up in WARP as well as in a variety of defensive metrics. Add in his getting some of his power back, and you’ve got a much better player.
WARP is:
Wins Above Replacement Player, level 1. The number of wins this player contributed, above what a replacement level hitter, fielder, and pitcher would have done, with adjustments only for within the season. It should be noted that a team which is at replacement level in all three of batting, pitching, and fielding will be an extraordinarily bad team, on the order of 20-25 wins in a 162-game season.
WARP is also listed on a player’s PECOTA card. The PECOTA WARP listing is designed to correspond to WARP-1, not WARP-2 or WARP-3.
July 26, 2010
A.J. Pierzynski on track to be a Type-A free-agent after this season
MLBTR crunches the numbers. Here’s the AL catchers section:
Name Team Type Score Joe Mauer Minnesota A 88.095 Victor Martinez Boston A 83.333 Jorge Posada New York A A 79.524 Kurt Suzuki Oakland A 78.571 A.J. Pierzynski Chicago A A 76.190 Bengie Molina Texas A 74.762 Mike Napoli Los Angeles A B 70.476
Name Team Type Score Joe Mauer Minnesota A 87.619 Victor Martinez Boston A 82.857 Jorge Posada New York A A 77.143 Kurt Suzuki Oakland A 77.143 A.J. Pierzynski Chicago A A 76.667 Bengie Molina Texas A 73.333 Mike Napoli Los Angeles A B 70.000
Paul Konerko and J.J. Putz are on track to be Type-Bs. Matt Thornton, club option for 2011, is a Type-A. Alexei Ramirez slipped to a Type-B but he isn’t a free-agent after this season.
Spreadsheets at the link.
July 14, 2010
A.J. Pierzynski on track to be a Type-A free-agent after this season
Name Team Type Score Joe Mauer Minnesota A 88.177 Victor Martinez Boston A 82.759 Jorge Posada New York A A 78.325 A.J. Pierzynski Chicago A A 78.325 Kurt Suzuki Oakland A 77.340 Bengie Molina Texas A 72.414 Mike Napoli Los Angeles A B 69.458
Name Team Type Score Joe Mauer Minnesota A 87.619 Victor Martinez Boston A 82.857 Jorge Posada New York A A 77.143 Kurt Suzuki Oakland A 77.143 A.J. Pierzynski Chicago A A 76.667 Bengie Molina Texas A 73.333 Mike Napoli Los Angeles A B 70.000
Paul Konerko and J.J. Putz are on track to be Type-Bs. Matt Thornton, club option for 2011, is a Type-A. Alexei Ramirez is a Type-A but isn’t a free-agent after this season.
Spreadsheets at the link.
July 4, 2010
A.J. Pierzynski: currently a Type-A free-agent after this season
American League Catchers Name Team Type Score Joe Mauer Minnesota A 87.619 Victor Martinez Boston A 82.857 Jorge Posada New York A A 77.143 Kurt Suzuki Oakland A 77.143 A.J. Pierzynski Chicago A A 76.667 Bengie Molina Texas A 73.333 Mike Napoli Los Angeles A B 70.000
Paul Konerko and J.J. Putz are Type-B. Matt Thornton, club option for 2011, is a Type-A. Alexei Ramirez is a Type-A but isn’t a free-agent after this season.
Spreadsheets at the link.
June 6, 2010
Sox win 8-7. Pitch F/X, videos, and boxscore. (6/5)
June 4, 2010
Sox lose 10-1. Pitch F/X, videos, and boxscore. (6/3)
Alexei hit a solo HR and gave the Sox a 1-0 lead. That was the only XBH of the night for the Sox. Pathetic.
| Chi White Sox | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Danks(L, 4-5) | 5.1 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 3.60 |
| Santos | 0.2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1.80 |
| Williams, R | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5.48 |
| Linebrink | 1.1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5.56 |
| Putz | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2.89 |
| Totals | 9.0 | 15 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 9 | 1 | 4.80 |
May 30, 2010
Sox win 8-5. Pitch F/X, videos, and boxscore.
Highlights: Nix hit a Grand Slam HR. Rios hit a solo HR and two 1B, Konerko hit a 2B, a 1B, and drew a BB. Teahen hit a 2B and a 1B. Vizquel hit a 2B and a 1B too. Alexei hit two 1B.
| Chi White Sox | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peavy(W, 4-4) | 5.1 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 6.23 |
| Santos(H, 5) | 0.2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.48 |
| Thornton(H, 3) | 2.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1.59 |
| Pena, To | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4.05 |
| Totals | 9.0 | 13 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 4.58 |
Cafeteria y Restaurante de Pancho is the place for Alexei Ramirez
So on that April day in 2008, the newly minted Sox player headed straight to the humble Logan Square eatery Cafeteria y Restaurante de Pancho, 2200 N. California.
There, he not only found the arroz y habichuelas — rice and creamy, buttery black beans — of his mother’s kitchen, but a second home in Chicago and a friend in owner Francisco “Pancho” Mendez.
Over a recent lunch of bistec encebollado con maduros — flank steak made with a garlic, adobo, oregano, black pepper and vinegar rub and paired with sweet fried plaintains — Ramirez said, “If I’m not home or at the ballpark, I’m here.” …
May 29, 2010
Sox lose 8-5. Pitch F/X, videos, and boxscore.
Quentin hit a 2-run HR. Alexei hit a solo HR. Koneko had a 2B. All 3 had a 1B too. Konerko, Alexei and Rios drew a BB too. Beckham went 0-4 and under the Mendoza line.
| Chi White Sox | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Danks(L, 4-4) | 4.0 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3.34 |
| Pena, To | 0.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4.15 |
| Williams, R | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5.40 |
| Putz | 1.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 3.38 |
| Linebrink | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4.19 |
| Totals | 8.0 | 11 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 10 | 1 | 4.57 |
