Major League Baseball and the Players Association unveiled their new Basic Agreement today which, upon the expected approval of the owners and the players, will extend baseball's labor peace another five years. The CBA contains some rather radical changes, including major changes to free agency, the amateur draft, international signings, playoff format, league alignment, interleague play, player compensation and drug testing. Some changes are immediate, while others will be phased in.

Every CBA presents new inefficiencies that can be exploited. I've generally stayed away from the analysis of what the new inefficiencies may be and how they may be exploited because I haven't the time to read the whole agreement right now and I probably couldn't figure them out right away anyway. I'm generally discussing how the CBA affects the White Sox in the immediate future. But I do also spend a lot of words discussing some of the finer details of specifically what is being changed from the old agreement and how this affects baseball generally.

Because the changes are numerous, this is being broken into multiple posts. The first covers the amateur draft and international amateur free agents. The second covers free agency. The third covers everything else.

Amateur draft

Commissioner Bud Selig and some of the owners have long sought to control spending on the Rule 4 Draft, otherwise known as the amateur draft. High school players who have graduated, all junior/community college players and four-year college players who have completed their junior years or are 21 years old are eligible for this draft if they are residents of the United States, a United States territory or Canada.

The current method for curbing spending is the Commissioner's office’s "slot recommendations", which provide for a recommended bonus amount for each draft pick. Its name says it all: they're just recommendations. There are no real penalties for going "over slot" other than a stern talking to. Many teams thus ignore the recommendations, although some teams, including the White Sox, do generally adhere to them.

Selig was particularly irate at the spending in 2011. Though only seven teams had ever spent over $10M on the draft before 2011, ten teams did so in 2011 alone. The Pirates ($17.01M), Nationals ($15M), the Royals ($14.01M), Cubs ($11.95M), Diamondbacks ($11.93M), Rays ($11.48M), Mariners ($11.33M), Padres ($11.02M), Blue Jays ($11 M) and Red Sox ($10.98M) spent eight figures on the draft.

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Since we've previous looked at the files of a pitcher (Eddie Cicotte), an outfielder (Johnny Mostil) and an infielder (Luke Appling), the time is nigh to take a crack at a skipper.

Enter Fielder Jones, an original White Sox who began his South Side career as an outfielder in 1901, before being named player-manager in 1904. He held that position until the (first) end of his career in 1908.

Why Fielder Jones?

Ninety-nine years before Ozzie Guillen steered his White Sox to a surprising World Series title, Fielder (yes, that is his first name) Allison (yes, that's his middle name) Jones accomplished the same feat with the team known as "The Hitless Wonders." Leaning on pitching and defense, the 1906 White Sox finished dead last in batting average (.230) and OPS (.588), yet somehow scraped together the third-most runs in the American League while allowing the fewest.

They rode that formula to first place AL. Their 93-58 record was good enough to win the pennant by three games, but it paled in comparison to their opponent in the World Series -- the juggernaut Cubs, who ran away with the NL with 116 wins. Nevertheless, the White Sox pulled off a major upset with a victory in six games, exploding for 16 runs over the final two games after scoring just six over the first four.

As a White Sox OG and the skipper of the franchise's first World Series winner -- one that beat the Cubs, no less -- Jones is a pretty important figure in White Sox history. Also, since he managed over the first two decades of the 20th century, we're going to get some more of that old-timey baseball writing, like we saw in Eddie Cicotte's clips.

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With all the hubbub, ado and carrying-on over the opening of the Chicago Sports Depot, it did make me wonder how Grandstand, the store on the corner of 35th and Wallace, would fare in the future.

Fortunately, the Southtown Star's  Phil Arvia also had that question in mind. He talks to the Pete Powers, Grandstand's owner, and Brooks Boyer, and the result is a pretty interesting column that sheds some light on how the Sports Depot came to be.

There seems to be plenty of mutual respect between the two parties, even though they're running similar operations five blocks away from each other. In fact, Powers says the White Sox asked him to run their new store -- except Grandstand would've had to close to make it happen.

I can see Grandstand taking a bit of a hit, but given that Grandstand sits away from The Cell -- where a lot of casual fans or out-of-area visitors wouldn't walk by regardless -- it seems like the two can coexist. Especially if the Depot's prices have the same markup as the other stadium/street souvenir areas.

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A few days ago, U-God developed his annual off season plan for Kenny Williams to follow.  Today, I will present my plan for the White Sox as we head into the thick of the Hot Stove league.  It is pretty clear that the White Sox are going to have to drop payroll after their 2011 bust of a season.  Unfortunately it won't come from a trade of Alex Rios, Adam Dunn or Jake Peavy.  All three are owed too much money and come at to high of a risk to move at this point.  Like U-God, I'm going to also use 500 K as the base salary.  

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The Chicago Sports Depot opens to the public at 10am today. Season ticket holders and the White Sox volunteer corps had a chance to check it out Friday night. The wife and I went down there to do a little Christmas shopping and enjoy the free appetizers and open bar for a couple hours. Two days in a row at the Cell in November? Sure why not.

Go check it out yourself if only to get a glimpse of the '05 trophy and the murals on the wall. Plenty of Bears, Hawks, Bulls stuff was available and even one pathetic little Cubs kiosk. We got out of there with a new winter hat for the Mrs., some sox cookie cutters and a couple presents for the fam. I regret not getting the reebok Sox hockey jersey and the cast iron sox logos for branding your hamburgers and hot dogs.

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The White Sox had six available spots on the 40-man roster entering Friday, and even after picking players to protect from the Rule 5 draft, there's no need to take down the vacancy sign.

With several players on the bubble, the Sox chose to add only two pitchers to the 40-man roster: Charles Leesman and Deunte Heath.

Leesman was a no-brainer, since he's lefty, he throws hard, and the Sox have hopes for him in one capacity or another. That's one kind of player a team will protect.

Heath is a different case. The Sox picked him up in 2010 after he fell out of favor with the Braves organization due to this incident, and he's put up great strikeout numbers across Birmingham and Charlotte (11.3 strikeouts per nine innings). The problem is that he also walks five batters per nine, and he's not a groundballer, either. If he were selected, I doubt he could last on a team for a month before he was offered back to the Sox.

Pitchers are usually the ones who go in the Rule 5 draft, though. The White Sox haven't been picked from over the last two years, but they lost a reliever in each of the four years prior: Derek Rodriguez (2008), Fernando Hernandez Jr. (2007), Jay Marshall (2006) and Fabio Castro (2005). Rodriguez and Hernandez were returned to the Sox, while Marshall and Castro were overwhelmed with their new teams.

I don't think Heath is even as compelling as Rodriguez or Hernandez, but the Sox are in dire need of anything resembling depth. Heath has a live arm, the Sox are short on strikeout pitchers on the fringes, and so this is basically a premature spring training non-non-roster invitation.

However, there are some things to read into from the players who weren't protected.

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Remember, remember the 18th of November

South Side Revolution and plot.

I see no reason why South Side Revolution

Should ever be forgot.

Comrades, today is a great day.  Today is the anniversary of South Side Sox throwing off the callous chains of The Cheat and finally realizing the dreams of SSSers: blogosphere supremacy.

One year ago today, I spoke to you of the decay at the very center of SSS.  Like the butt cancer in The Cheat's butt, The Cheat was a cancer in our hearts, eating away at the aspirations of the People.  Many scoffed at me when I said SSS would be great again.  They jeered when I promised a new dawn, for ourselves and our children.  They now scoff and jeer at the rats in their foul cells beneath my basement.

Jealous of the paradise we have created here, many have attempted to challenge the ascendancy of SSS.  Chicago White Sox Examiner was quickly dispatched.  Beerleaguer was drowned in his product.  In front of his children, of course.  Brett Ballantini learned that SSS uses the MSM for its own ends and discards as quickly as it befriends.  And I vaguely recall a skirmish with something called the Herald Daily.  But I don't concern myself with the prattle of provincial "publications."

Yes, comrades, we have indeed accomplished much in a year.  And today we can celebrate our victory around the pike still skewering the rotten skeleton of The Cheat.  But a revolution is never complete.  Even now, amidst the revelry, the Central Committee - guided by the steady and unerring hand of Dear Leader, Jim Margalus - is vigilant to the continuing threats from outsiders, as well as from the counterrevolutionaries in our midst.  We will repel all pretenders to the Chicago White Sox blogging throne.  And we will smoke out the traitors from their vile lairs in the dark recesses of SSS.  The means of blogging will remain ours, now and forevermore.

On December 5th at the owner's meetings, the Hall of Fame's Historical Overview Committee (made up of Hall of Famers, executives, historians and media members) will vote for 10 finalists from the "Golden Era" of baseball. If these candidates receive 75 percent of the vote, they will be enshrined in the Hall. The 16-person panel has 10 finalists to choose from: Buzzie Bavasi, Ken Boyer, Charlie Finley, Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat, Tony Olivo, Allie Reynolds, Ron Santo, Luis Tiant and Minnie Minoso. This afternoon, Jerry Reinsdorf set up a free lunch and forum at U.S. Cellular Field to honor Orestes "Minnie" Minoso in hopes of increasing awareness about his great career and thereby increasing his chance at getting into the Hall. Somehow, I was allowed to attend this event.

Free lunch and a Hall of Fame discussion in the middle of November at the Cell? Sign me up! As Jim pointed out in this post about Minoso, Minnie already has the South Side Sox Hall of Fame approval, but the Sox set out to impress some of the mainstream media today and they started it out with a nice buffet.

I was one of the first to arrive and made my way to the lounge behind the scout seats, trying my best to look like I knew what I was doing. Our friend from CSN's White Sox Talk, JJ, joined me just in time. Mr. Minnie Minoso himself came over and said hello, he shook our hands and made some idle chit-chat about the weather. Sweetest guy you could ever hope to meet. James from White Sox Observer and SBN Chicago contributor Ricky O'Donnell joined us at the kids' table. Salad, some chips, rolls, a really good beef sirloin roast and some sliced turkey chased down with a can of Pepsi. Thanks, Jerry! Other South Side Sox allies in attendance were the South Side Hit Girl and Brett Ballantini.

The forum itself was hosted by ESPN's Pedro Gomez and was broken down into six segments:

• His role as a trail blazer
• Historical context
• Statistical analysis
• On the field with a few of his teammates
• His impact on Cuban players
• A brief interview with the man himself

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With Kenny Williams officially stamping Chris Sale as rotation-ready, we can officially close the first phase of the lanky lefty's career.

I think we can call it a success. A certifiable, undeniable, unquestionable success.

Really, could it have gone any better? Sale adjusted to the incredible jump so seamlessly that it's easy to forget he was drafted after Jared Mitchell, not before. The White Sox gave him 10 minor-league innings to warm him up, and then threw him into the major-league roster. Just 47 days after he signed with the Sox, he began facing major-league hitters in tight spots in games that counted.

And all Sale did was turn into a low-maintenance high-leverage man. I mean, just look at this.

If those numbers don't represent the best-case scenario for what the Sox demanded of him, they come awfully close.

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The Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, the site of this week's general manager meetings, is allegedly haunted. Which is just as well, because Kenny Williams doesn't have much of an idea of where he's going yet. Maybe some supernatural forces will push him in the right direction.

Williams arrived on the scene and gave a rundown of what he knew and what he was thinking. Some of the news is welcome, and other parts are not so much. Let's break it down in terms we're all familiar with:

The Cubs have contacted Mark Buehrle's agent multiple times -- That's bad.

For reasons that should be obvious. It makes sense for a few reasons on both sides, since the Cubs need pitching and Buehrle wouldn't have to move.

On the other hand, Buehrle has made his hatred of Wrigley Field quite clear, and he's not a guy who pretends he never said the things he said. So here's hoping this is merely one-way communication that Jeff Berry has made public in order to increase the pool of suitors, and nothing more.

Williams remained mum on Buehrle. Bah.

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