A couple of late night quick hits

Aside from the Sox-O-Meter I finally got around to publishing earlier tonight, it's been quiet around here, mostly because the Sox have been pretty quiet. After trading Nick Swisher and Javier Vazquez seemingly before Ken Griffey struck out to end the Sox's season, Ken Williams has played his cards close to his chest. So close, in fact, basically nothing has happened.

On Friday, ESPN 1000's Bruce Levine reported that the Sox were working with the Texas Rangers on a blockbuster trade that would send Jermaine Dye and Aaron Poreda south for Michael Young. The Tribune's Dave van Dyck, however, wasted no time putting that rumor to rest,

Williams, via e-mail, said he "would not waste" time chasing rumors the Sox might... have a big deal working with the Rangers involving All-Star shortstop Michael Young, veteran outfielder Jermaine Dye and top pitching prospect Aaron Poreda.

Fair enough. The only other potential move I've caught wind of in the past few days is this quick, uncited blurb from MLBTradeRumors.com. As I'm sure you know, the site generally just republishes rumors it finds throughout the web, so it was surprising to see them casually mention the Sox as three potential suitors for Freddy Garcia. I'll keep my eyes open.

As for stuff that's actually happened, Matt Thornton will be representing Team USA in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. While I am personally wary of this tournament and the affect it may have on Thornton's effectiveness during the season, I'm sure this is a personal honor for him and I hope he pitches some big innings for Team USA. Not to downplay Thornton's role with the Sox, but honestly, I'd rather it be him than a guy like Buehrle, Danks, or Floyd. With Clayton Richard and Aaron Poreda in the wings, the Sox at least have some talented lefties that could potentially fill Thornton's role should the worst happen.

But let's not think like that.

If the Cactus League has an international flair to it this year, you may be able to thank the Sox. We all remember the huge fight that occurred between the White Sox and Tucson recently; the Sox wanted to move their Spring Training home to the new stadium they're building with the Dodgers in Glendale, but were contractually obligated to stay in Tucson for at least a few more years. Thankfully, a deal was reached and the Sox and the local government settled amicably. Anyway, the Arizona Daily Star reported that a professional, Japanese team may take the Sox's place in Tucson. Can't say I remember something like this ever happening, but it would be very interesting if it did. One of the major limitations to Spring games is that a lot of guys, pitchers especially, don't neccessarily show all their stuff to keep their repertoire fresh for actual games. If an international team played in the Cactus League, it would allow pitchers to work on all their pitches without fear of tipping their hands to a team they'd play in meaningful games later in the summer.

I like it.

Finally, if all the doom and gloom economic news has you down, check out this. The White Sox are giving away season tickets. The contest runs until January 21st. The team is giving away 2 pairs of split-season tickets (which I believe means weekend games only) in the Lower Box. The only catch is you have to become a registered user at whitesox.com, so you'll have to cough up your email address. If you can tolerate the occasional email from MLB.com and the White Sox, then you can find the contest's entry form and official rules here.

Good luck!

Quick update before bed

Very quiet day from Las Vegas, both for the Sox and just in general around Major League Baseball. What did we learn today? Apparently CC Sabathia wants to be a Dodger, Greg Maddux has retired and, as expected, Orlando Cabrera declined salary arbitration from the White Sox, so the Type A free agent is now free to sign with whomever he likes. For right now, I believe this means two things:

• The White Sox cannot negotiate with Cabrera until May 15, when he will almost assuredly be off the market and...
• The best case scenario for the Sox is OC signing with the Dodgers, as well. Since the first 15 picks of the draft are protected from free agent compensation, the Sox can only snag a 2nd 1st rounder if Cabrera signs with a team holding a pick between 16-30. If I did my math and slotting right, the Dodgers hold the 17th pick in the 2009 Draft.

If I'm wrong on any of those points, please let me know.

The only interesting nugget to chew on that I found today comes from John Perrotto from Baseball Prospectus via Sports Illustrated.com hosted by CNN (got all that?). Perrotto claims that the Sox are likely to bring someone in to fill the hole in center field rather than give the job to our current internal options: Owens, Anderson, or Wise. If that is true, well, I can't blame them.

Finally, Jow Cowley threw together some KW soundbytes from the last few days, which summarize pretty succinctly where he and the White Sox organization stand. Can't be more than 300-400 words and is a good, quick read.

'08 Season a Failure?, Early Off-Season Analysis, and the Sox Are a Hit on the Boob Tube

We'll start tonight with a delightful piece from Mike Imrem that was published in The Daily Herald about a week ago. In it, Imrem lambasts the Cubs and Sox as a pair of losers who deserve the same treatment after their LDS flops this past October; even if the Cubs were sexy pre-season picks to win the National League in the World Series, cruised to 97 wins, and were generally considered the best team in the N.L. from Game 1 to 162 while the Sox were written off as pretenders in the A.L. Central and only won 89 games this season, even with the added benefit of getting to play a 163rd game!

If you can't tell, I strongly disagree with Mr. Imrem, who summarizes his basic position when he writes,

The Rays eliminated the Sox in four games and the Sox are considered successes.

Down deep they aren't.

I could go on copying and pasting his rants about how Chicago fans should expect a winner every year, yada yada yada... My only question is where does a Chicago baseball fan get the right to take on that kind of Yankee-fan mentality? When did baseball only become a game of "World Championship or Nothing?" The 100-year-and counting and 88-year-old droughts aren't enough? I'm not saying I'm 100% satisified with the way this season ended, but to paint it a dissapointment and failure is remarkably oversimplifying what this great game is all about.

In the end, I agree with Richard Roeper, a great Sox fan, who summed it up when he noted that, simply stated, the Rays were just a better team. Over the course of the regular season and in 3 of the 4 ALDS games, Tampa Bay was just the superior baseball team. Even with just one week passed since the 2008 White Sox season ended, the dissapointment I felt after Game 4 is fading; this Tampa Bay team is just really good.

Where I stand with the Sox, however, is why I feel this year was a success. Last October, the White Sox were coming off a 90-loss season and looked old and full of holes. The Indians and Tigers looked much better on paper, and it appeared the Sox were doomed to spend the next few years struggling to keep their heads above .500. Now, I look at a roster teaming with good, young players like Carlos Quentin, John Danks, Gavin Floyd, and Alexei Ramirez. I see some holes that if plugged correctly, will make the Sox an immediate contender for next year's American League pennant. In short, I've turned nearly 180-degrees on the Sox. I can't wait for next year to begin. They say that hope always springs eternal in February and March, but if hope springs eternal in October and November, well then how could it be bad?

If you remember, earlier this month I wrote about the fact the Sox had already pulled the official "Division Champs" hats from whitesox.com... Not that I'm 100% sure, but it looks like the White Sox shop has even less Division Champs stuff up now. I could be wrong, but I could have sworn there were more than 5 items up for sale last time I checked a few weeks ago. At any rate, I'm sure there's not a ton of this stuff lying around so get it while you can.

This afternoon, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported Ken Griffey, Jr. had his left knee scoped today in Cincinnati. The Enquirer also reported that it's very unlikely the Sox will pick up the $16 million option on Griffey this year, but if Griffey's knee is healthy for '09 (a big, big *if*, I know), he could be an intriguing role player for the Sox. If this bum knee was responsible for his power outage in '08, when his at-bats per home run nearly doubled from 14.27 AB/HR in 2007 to 29.33 AB/HR in 2008, why wouldn't you want a power-hitting left-handed bat with some outfield defensive versatility? For the right price, of course.

The White Sox want you to know that Kenny Williams is hard at work... At least that seems to be the angle of this piece published yesterday on the main site. Though the first half is the general "rah-rah" fluff you'd expect from the official voice of the Sox; the usual lines about needing balance, consistency, depth, etc. However, the 2nd half has some nice analysis of the current state of the Sox's payroll situation. As of right now, the White Sox have 13 players under controlled contract for 2009 at the tune of $99.125 million. With key guys like Bobby Jenks, John Danks, and Gavin Floyd either up for arbitration or still needing to settle on an '09 contract, that figure should balloon, I'm guessing to around last year's Opening Day payroll of $114 million before you even finish the 25-man roster.

I don't know how this will handcuff Williams and the Sox. Merkin wants you to believe that Josh Fields and Chris Getz can be starters on contending baseball teams, but I really don't see it, especially with Fields who is more of the same "all home run, little defense, not much else" that everyone was so damned pissed about in the first place. This also doesn't really address the fact that with Jose Contreras out until at least midyear, the Sox currently have no real plan in place for the 5th starter's spot, other than now to have Richard and Broadway duke it out and pray Contreras isn't terrible when he comes back.

Bottom line: Plenty of holes, not as much money.

Northwestern University's Medill Reports suggests that high ticket prices for the Sox, as well as Bears, Cubs, and Bulls are here to stay despite recent economic problems. The article mostly focuses on the Cubs (rightfully so, since their average ticket price is now 60% higher than the MLB average ticket price), there are some good graphs and interesting data if you're into the whole sports economics thing.

Greg Hansen, a columnits from Tucson, Arizona feels the Sox are trying to dupe the good residents of Tucson as they try to bolt town for greener pastures in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix. Apparently the fate of the White Sox Spring Training plans for 2009 is all the talk of Tucson, and Hansen even gets particularly feisty when he writes,

Here is the deal: Reinsdorf and the White Sox will pay $3million to leave town now. Do they really think we are the kind of suckers who would take that deal? Is the cost of blowing up spring training baseball in Tucson a mere $3 million?

Here's my take, as a lifelong Sox fan: I honestly don't care. I'd like to see the Sox get the best deal they can and bolt Tucson for Glendale... Having never been to Arizona, I can't comment as an expert as to what's going on out there, but as far as I can tell, Phoenix is the place to be. I can fly there and not have to drive almost 2 hours through the desert. Just about every other team that trains in Arizona plays somewhere in the Phoenix area. The Phoenix Metro area has over 3 million more people than Tucson, and believe me, that means much more to do non-baseball-related. And finally, have you seen the park the Dodgers and White Sox will share in Glendale? It's beautiful.

Finally, the Sox had a huge gain in television ratings this past season, despite the fact baseball's TV ratings on average suffered in the '08 season. The Sox's rating jumped 67% from 2007, of course boosted by their 17-win improvment over last year. The only team that had a bigger ratings jump, percentagewise, was the Rays, who nearly doubled their ratings in a single year. Paced by both the Sox's and Cubs' play-off runs, Comcast SportsNet was one of the strongest local baseball television stations in the country, and the White Sox finished the season as the 11th most watched team in baseball.

Good-bye, 2008 White Sox

As far as season-ending losses go, this one was pretty painless.

That's the way Jim Margalus at Sox Machine (the best White Sox blog out there) described tonight's 6-2 season ending loss to Tampa Bay. As I sat on my couch, watching the outs slowly melt away, there was no agony or depression like in 2003. No heart-breaking dissapointment a la the 2000 ALDS. No bitter numbess like in 2007. It was just ending. A remarkable season, unlike any other in White Sox history ended today, on our home turf with a whimper. When Ken Griffey, Jr. struck out to end the Sox season and perhaps his career, it was just over, like any other game. Of course, over the next few days when I come from work with nothing to watch on television that baseball is over for the winter, but tonight strangely doesn't feel like that. Tonight was a night to celebrate all the Sox had done in 2008; they went from division doormats to a wild, roller coaster play-off race, to division champs. I think this guy, a part-time columnist from Rockford got it better than anyone else. Even the players and management were in good spirits, all things considered.

From a fan... Good-bye, 2008 White Sox. You weren't my favorite. But this was a great season. I had a lot of fun, and when compared to last year, when in mid-season I was agonizingly counting down the days left in that failed campaign, I am already counting down the days until pitchers and catchers report. I'm pumped for 2009, hoping for more heroics at the Cell.

Not much in the news today... Kenny Williams said he has a plan for this off-season that is a crossroads for the organization. With some premium young talent, like Carlos Quentin, Alexei Ramirez, John Danks, and Gavin Floyd, the Sox have an enviable core to build around, but there are a lot of question marks, some the Tribune hits, others it doesn't.

Quickly, as far as I see it, in the starting 9, there are 3 question marks for the '09 Sox... Center field, Shortstop/Second base (depending on where Ramirez settles), and Third base. If the Sox can add three speedy, decent OBP guys to those holes you may be looking at a 90+ win team next year. More off-season musings to come in the next few weeks.

Shockingly, a guy who covers the Tampa Bay Rays has little concept of baseball... The meekest Sox play-off loss since 1919? Come on, dude, stick to the Rays and leave the rest to us. 2000 ring a bell? When the Sox put up the best record in the American League and were swept in the first round by Seattle? Don't pat yourselves on the back too hard, the 15 or so Ray fans out there, we've been beaten much worse before.

A day after his gutsy performance in Game 3, Ranger fans are still trying to put a positive spin on the Danks/McCarthy deal.

Finally, on the lighter side, we have Evan Brunell over at some conglomerate of sports blogs, Most Valuable Network (MVN), who plays GM for the Padres in the '09 off-season today. First move? Trade Khalil Greene, a nearly 29-year-old middle infielder who hit .213/.260/.339 (all career lows) last year for the Padres and is due $6.5 million in '09 for Clayton Richard, the Sox's 24-year-old lefty prospect who had mixed results in his first 1/2-season spend in the bigs.

Uh, OK, dude.

As for White Soxing... I'm not taking too much time off. Work is crazy right now, but there's some off-season stuff to be done.... Player report cards, off-season predictions, etc. Plus, by now I think we all know Kenny Williams isn't afraid to pull the trigger, so there should be some juicy off-season news to write about. Come check back before February, you here?

As for now, enjoy the ALCS, NLCS, and World Series, and go Bears!