White Sox Un-Retire #11, Vizquel to wear Aparico's number with his blessing
The Chicago White Sox have un-retired uniform No. 11, the number worn by Hall of Fame shortstop Luis Aparicio, for the 2010 season, during which it will be worn by Omar Vizquel, the team’s newly acquired 11-time Gold Glove infielder. Vizquel, a native of Venezuela, will don the number as a tribute to Aparicio, who is the first and only Venezuelan to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
"If there is one player who I would like to see wear my uniform number with the White Sox, it is Omar Vizquel," said Aparicio. "I have known Omar for a long time. Along with being an outstanding player, he is a good and decent man."
"I feel privileged to have the opportunity to wear the same uniform number with the White Sox as the great Luis Aparicio," said Vizquel. "It is a great honor for me."
Hey, who wants to sit around and talk about 2005?
by 67WMAQ on Feb 7, 2010 4:51 PM CST
62 comments
I'm not talking October 2005. But February of 2005.
I wasn't really following White Sox baseball (other than "I'm a south sider and I like the White Sox"), during the 2004-2005 off season.
What was that offseason like? If everyone freaked out about the Twins signing Jim Thome and Orlando Hudson, then everyone must have really lost their minds five winters ago.
There are a lot of parallels between this offseason and 2004/05. Power hitters like Lee and Magglio were gone, replaced by a slap hitter and a guy with a questionable injury history.
PECOTA had the Sox at 80-82 that year, in third place behind Cleveland and Minnesota. Detroit was pegged as the team most likely to break out.
Here's what Nate Silver had to say about Kenny's moves:
Perhaps Kenny Williams has some form of Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy, and needs to ruin the team in order to save it? Perhaps it's something in the White Sox' ill-conceived lease with the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, which doesn't require the White Sox to pay rent until the 1.5 millionth customer has passed through the U.S. Cellular turnstiles? In any event, this was looking like the year in which the Sox might finally have done poorly enough to trigger some necessary, long-overdue front office changes, but the flurry of constructive late-winter signings ought to be just enough to pull them back into their self-built purgatory.
Jay Mariotti wrote in the Sun Times:
Oh, this makes loads of sense, building a slap-and-tickle team to play 81 games in the most power-friendly ballpark in the majors..... Ken Williams is trading mashers for midgets....Amazingly enough, a team that hit a major-league-best 242 homers in 2004 has lost four prime power hitters, including Jose Valentin. And the only attempt to fill the void was Williams' cheapskate signing of injury-hobbled Jermaine Dye, who will make $4 million next year ($10 million less than Ordonez made last season) and is a career .208 hitter with two out and runners in scoring position.....Don't be fooled by (Scott) Podsednik's 2003 National League Rookie of the Year award or his 70 stolen bases last year. This is a leadoff hitter who has trouble leading off, hitting only .244 last season with a lame .313 on-base percentage....
Of course this sounds familiar, because this is what we have been saying for the last three weeks. It must have been much worse then, because Lee and Magglio were still in their prime.
As we all know, everyone went on to live happily ever after.
That brings us to this year. The pitching staff, in my estimation, is much better than five years ago. These guys are good. You don't have to wonder if someone's going to pull a phenomenal season out of their ass.
You might want to check my math on this - but I'm willing to say that heading into this year, the offense is better than five years ago. Even without Thome and Dye (yet).
Here's what I'm looking for this year
1- The hot start. Five years ago, the Sox jumped out of the gate so fast that everyone kind of forgot that the Indians were the best team in that division (at least until September). Throw in a couple of extended winning streaks, and I can enjoy a Tums free summer.
2- The question marks. Not ours, theirs. Everyone talks about the problems with the White Sox, but what if the Orlando Hudson that shows up in Minnesota is the Slow-Dog who lost his job in LA to Ronnie Belliard? What if JJ Hardy is the player that bounced back and forth between Milwaukee and Nashville? What if Justin Morneau has a hard time recovering after back surgery? There's some stuff lurking in the weeds up north too.
3- The deal. Kenny's not done. He can trade for a bat. He can sign someone.
4- The bouncebacks. The consensus in the stat community is that Rios and Quentin will bounce back. You toss a non-slumping PK, an older Beckham, and Alexei into the mix, you have a team that can hit the ball.
5- Ozzie. With the exception of 2007, he's outperformed PECOTA. He beat the projection system by 19 games in '05, 8 games in '06, 0 games in '07 (but even that team did better than it should have), 12 games in '08, and 8 games in '09. Given Ozzie's track record, the Sox should clock in at 88-89 wins.
6- Surprises. Sometimes, a Kenny gamble pays off. Jermaine Dye, Tadahito Iguchi, and Bobby Jenks in 2005, Jim Thome in 2006, Carlos Quentin in 2008, and Pods 2.0 in 2009 are all examples of question marks who later became cornerstones. Odds are someone's gonna turn some heads.
So there's your daily dose of optimism.
62 comments | 11 recs
South Side Sox 2010 Fantasy Baseball Challenge
by e-gus on Feb 6, 2010 1:47 AM CST
123 comments
Last year we had a SSS fantasy baseball league on yahoo. It was huge. 18 teams huge.
I'd like to contract this season by cutting a few teams, and change it to a more interesting head to head format with three divisions.
Guys who were fighting in contention last season are invited back for sure: Illini(AKA his ringer at the draft), El Diablo, furby, U-God, KenWo~even though he blew his wad early- no innings left for all of september but wouldnt trade what he couldnt use for what he needed like a jack-ass.
Come back, join the league again and be ready for pain.
tsk, wu, hazymania, hoodlight, jbasic, grinders in training- you guys are all cut from the league.
You suck at fantasy baseball.
123 comments | 0 recs
What Is and What Never Would Be: Former White Sox OF Prospects
by U-God on Feb 4, 2010 5:25 PM CST
136 comments
I liked justjc's idea of taking a look back at former top prospects that the Sox traded away. I decided to start with the outfielders and limit it to the past half-decade. I also left Aaron Cunningham out, since I feel its still too early to say anything much about his trade and future. That left me with six young men (in absolutely no specific order): Chris B. Young, Ryan Sweeney, Jeremy Reed, Brian N. Anderson, Jerry Owens, and Joe Borchard.
Chris B. Young: The Sox drafted Young in the 16th round (493rd pick) of the 2001 draft out of Bellaire High School in Bellaire, Texas. He took two years to ge tgoing, but began dominating the minors in 2004 with a .261/.365/.503 line in Kannapolis. This resulted in BA naming him the 6th best prospect in the farm system, as well as the fastest baserunner and best athlete. Shortly after posting a .922 OPS and 32 steals in 38 attempts at Birmingham, he was shipped to Arizona with Orlando Hernandez and Luis Vizcaino for Javier Vazquez on December 12, 2005. He continued his hot hitting in 2006, being named the 12th best prospect in baseball entering the 2007 season. He played 148 games for the Diamondbacks, hitting .237/.295/.467 with 32 homers and 27 steals. His performance earned him fourth place in the NL RotY voting. He followed that with a more productive 2008, improving his OBP and defense enough to be worth 2.2 WAR. The wheels fell off last season, as his defense crapped out, ISO dropped yet again, and K% spiked to a career-high 30.7%. He had a better second half, but it seems like being an averageish player is his ceiling. Career line: .235/.307/.438.
Ryan Sweeney: Sweeney was the Sox second round choice in 2003 (52nd) out of Xavier High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He was awarded a $785,000 signing bonus. He took well to the minors, showing a strong arm and a decent batting eye, but lacking more than doubles power. He garnered high praise his entire minor league career: 2005-42nd best in MiLB, 2nd in CHW as well as best hitter for average and best outfield arm, 2006-92nd best MiLB, 3rd in CHW as well as best outfield arm, 2007-55th best MiLB, 1st in CHW as well as best hitter for average and best outfield defense. He was sent to Oakland with Fautino de los Santos and Gio Gonzalez for Nick Swisher on January 3, 2008. He was worth 4.1 WAR last season, splitting time between right and center while playing plus defense in both. This is the only outfield prospect we traded away on this list that looks like it may bite Kenny Williams in the ass, mostly due to the second Swisher trade getting us back nothing from the Yankees. Career line: .284/.341/.387.
136 comments | 2 recs |
Lineup Construction, the Tango Way
by U-God on Feb 3, 2010 7:39 PM CST
372 comments
For those who have never read a thing Colin has ever posted, Tom Tango is an expert when it comes to sabermetrics and wrote The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball back in 2007. The Book uses methods such as linear regression and Markov chains to help prove and disprove common long-held strategies managers have always used. The chapter I found the most interesting was the fifth, which took a very in-depth look at the true importance of batting order.
In what is now old news, it turns out that batting order means relatively little since it is essentially set in a loop that only ends with the 27th out. It is possible to get more runs out of that order through some optimization techniques. Ideally, you would like your best three hitters (using wOBA as our metric) in the 1, 2, and 4 slots. The player hitting second should walk more than the clean-up hitter, who should have more power than the man hitting second. The lead-off hitter should be comparable to the 2 and 4, but with less power as homeruns from the lead spot are less valuable. The next best hitters should bat 5th and 3rd respectively. After that, you can just plug the rest of the players into spots 6-9 in order by descending wOBA. Pretty simple right? Well, here's what you get when you try this using CHONE and Marcel projections for our 2010 Chicago White Sox.
372 comments | 0 recs |
Strange, Way-Back Machine
by U-God on Feb 2, 2010 12:24 PM CST
143 comments
Since its another slow day (only 30 more til the first ST game), I wanted to bring up something I noticed a little while back. When SBN switched to the newest format, we got a neat little Roster toolbar that has players on the 40-man listed and has short bios of them. These have scouting reports on the right-side. Most of them are fairly accurate, but then some feel as though the scouting report was written by someone who only had access to MVP Baseball 2005.
When was the last time Mark Kotsay was honestly "a slightly above-average center-fielder"? I believe it was around the same time Andruw Jones was "a great defensive center-fielder" and Mark Teahen was listed as "an above-average thirdbaseman". The strangeness is not just limited to players on the White Sox roster, as these examples show. I do love the resource, it just seems kind of odd that some of the more high-profile drop-off players are still viewed as they used to be or still held in high-regard at positions they no longer play. Oh well.
143 comments | 0 recs
2010 White Sox Sure To Be Passionate
by homesickalien on Feb 2, 2010 9:39 AM CST
56 comments
Ok, not necessarily. I just couldn't help but re-use such a clever and intriguing headline, taken from the current front page of mlb.com.
This week is the Caribbean World Series, which, as mlb.com reports, is sure to be passionate.
56 comments | 1 recs
Thoughts on Baseball America's Top 31 White Sox Prospects
by larry on Jan 30, 2010 9:04 PM CST
in Minors
457 comments
First, the list. After the jump, some musings.
- Jared Mitchell
- Tyler Flowers
- Daniel Hudson
- Brent Morel
- Jordan Danks
- Trayce Thompson
- Dayan Viciedo
- David Holmberg
- Clevelan Santeliz
- Miguel Gonzalez
- Josh Phegley
- John Ely
- Sergio Santos
- Stefan Gartrell
- C.J. Retherford
- Carlos Torres
- Lucas Harrell
- Santos Rodriguez
- Eduardo Escobar
- Nevin Griffith
- Christian Marrero
- Jhonny Nunez
- Dan Remenowsky
- Kyle Bellamy
- John Shelby
- Nate Jones
- Charlie Leesman
- Jon Link
- Jose Martinez
- Justin Collop
- Nick Ciolli
457 comments | 2 recs |
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AL Central Standings
| W | L | PCT | GB | STRK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Minnesota
|
87 | 76 | .533 | 0 | Lost 3 |
|
Detroit
|
86 | 77 | .527 | 1 | Lost 1 |
|
Chicago
|
79 | 83 | .487 | 7.5 | Lost 1 |
|
Kansas City
|
65 | 97 | .401 | 21.5 | Lost 3 |
|
Cleveland
|
65 | 97 | .401 | 21.5 | Lost 5 |
(updated 2.9.2010 at 2:08 AM CST)
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