This past week I've been thinking a lot about the start of this season.  Up till about ten minutes ago, I have to admit that my thoughts were mostly on the gloomy side, stemming mainly from just a few 'decisions' that have irked the hell out of me (Fields/Crede and the Owens love-fest). 

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Marquette in five -- book it.

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Surprise picks, anyone?  Sleepers?  Overrated teams?

Big Ten appears to rule the day when NCAA is discussed, so I'll share my brief thoughts on each team (keeping in mind that I probably haven't seen these guys as much as some of you guys have).

- Wisconsin - Oh boy...  I might as well get it off my chest.  I think they're terribly overrated.  They deserve the seed they got, don't get me wrong -- they beat who was on their schedule and that win at Texas is great.  They seem to play fantastic defense, too, but I dunno...  freaking Marquette handled them at the Kohl Center, and we didn't beat anybody else on the road worth a damn in the Big East.  I know Pomeroy loves them, but they love Marquette too (relatively speaking) -- I think it has Marquette at something like 12, and I can't say with a straight face that Marquette is the 12th best team in the country.  The Big Ten just isn't very good, so I'm not sure how to judge them.  A USC/Wisconsin second round match-up would certainly be an interesting game of two contrasting styles.

(And with that I await whatever comes my way -- much love, fellas!)

Indiana - I'm glad the committee gave them an eight.  The committee seems to love how teams play down the stretch (as opposed to body of work) and they certainly applied that to Indiana -- they lost three of their last four and barely squeaked by Northwestern and Ohio State.

Purdue - Purdue is intriguing to me -- I'd say they have a good path ahead of them.  They have IMO the weakest of the #3 seeds (probably debatable) as well as the weakest #2 seed in their bracket.  I'm interested in seeing who will come out of that bottom half of the West bracket.

Michigan State - I don't have a whole lot to say about them.  If they manage to win their first round game, I think Pitt will absolutely pummel them in round two.

As far as my Golden Eagles...  I like the first round match-up. Kentucky turns the ball over approximately once every four possessions so that should play into Marquette's hands very nicely.  Kentucky is without its best player, so it's really not a terrible draw.  

The potential second round game -- if Marquette is lucky enough to get there -- versus Stanford sucks, but it's the NCAA tourney, so you're going to have to play (and beat) quality opponents.  Stanford's guards seem rather weak, so Marquette's plan would have to be to pressure the hell out of them and hope to run-run-run the whole game.  The Lopez brothers would almost assuredly combine for at least 40, though...

I don't care to speculate beyond that.  I'm not kidding myself into thinking Marquette is any great shakes in this field of 65, but they should win against Kentucky.  Crean hasn't done squat without Wade...  it's time for Crean as well as 'The Big Three' to -- at the very least -- play more than one game in the tourney.  If we play past the first weekend I will be satisfied.

[whitesox.com]:

Highway Robbery says wiz...

hired as a scout by the Diamondbacks.  I'm sure by now most of you guys have heard of Carlos Gomez, the guy who had done provided a lot of quality analysis over the past year.  

Congratulations to Carlos and kudos to Arizona for stepping up and hiring a guy who, in a short time, has taught me a lot about pitching.  I wish him the best and hope that being a 'scout' is just the beginning.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/unfiltered/?p=554

Will Carroll is an unprofessional dolt.  Can we start compiling a list on everything he's gotten wrong?  Or how they've fucked up the White Sox projections the past two seasons and only this year got it right?

Surprised nobody posted this.  This, to me, is 'jackass-ery' at its finest.

http://www.dailysouthtown.com/sports/548844,091SPT2.article

While it remains to be seen how active the front office will be in the free-agent market, Reinsdorf expects the payroll to remain comparable to that of this season.

"Oh, yeah," Reinsdorf said. "It might be more than that. That's a question I don't know the answer to right now, because we still have to do our budget for next year. We look at all of our income and all of our expenses, and whatever is left over is our payroll.

"The fans came out to support us, so we can afford it. I've always said that whatever money we have, we'll devote to building a winning team."

Just for you extreme pessimists out there, it looks like the Sox won't be dropping back in payroll even after the crappy season.  Obviously the Sox are still going to have to unload one of Garland or Contreras (preferably both), but the money will be there to add someone.

I'm not saying, BTW, that one player (Rowand, Hunter, Jones) is going to fix the mess that the Sox are in, but I still believe it's the right move to go after Jones this winter.  That's not to say the Sox should offer him C-Lee money, but you get my drift.

This quote seemed sort of odd, too:

Despite a $109.7 million payroll at the start of the season, the fourth-highest in the major leagues and the highest in team history, the South Siders owned the second-worst record overall going into Saturday's action.

The Sox aren't actually paying anywhere near that $109.7 number, are they?  I thought what the Sox were paying was much closer to $95 million.

In any case, the Sox should have some flexibility this winter, which is good to know...

maybe a little too beautiful for Scott Podsednik.  Podsednik provided another adventurous moment in the outfield when he dropped a line-drive that would've ended the eighth inning.  Toronto went on to plate four in the eighth for the 4-1 victory.

• Interestingly enough, perhaps the fans have started turning on Podsednik a little bit (NOTE:  I'm obviously not talking about a majority of the posters here.).  When he came to bat in the bottom half of the eighth, a small but audible percentage -- I'm in a numbers mood, so I'll say 15% -- actually booed Podsednik.  
• Up until that eighth innng, this was a very enjoyable game from a baseball sense.  Vazquez and Marcum were on their games, combining for 13 strikeouts and just seven hits allowed.  And it's not like hitters were lacing the ball right at defenders -- there were very few hard hit balls in this game.
• A small part of me thought Konerko had been traded today (I was at the game, if my earlier comments hadn't given that away).  Apparently there was an article out a few days ago that said Konerko would sit for a few games in this series, but I didn't see it.  And when I couldn't spot Konerko from section 115 anywhere on the bench, I figured I would see a message pop-up on the scoreboard that Konerko had been sent to Anahiem for Casey Kotchman, Ervin Santana and a prospect.  Needless to say he wasn't traded, although his name has been thrown around in rumors over the past couple days.
• From where I was sitting, I was impressed with Gavin Floyd's one inning of work.  It looked like he had a really good breaking ball working -- not the curveball we've heard so much about, but a slider that was registering at 85 MPH.  I will say I was a little dissappointed that he wasn't 'letting it loose' a bit more, only topping out at 91 MPH in his one inning of work, but hey -- I'm not going to be the one to nitpick a scoreless inning from the bullpen.

I know it's been a while since a White Sox position prospect has come up to Chicago and actually looked competent, but damn -- we're actually seeing that with Josh Fields.  I guess I shouldn't really be as surpsised as I feel I am -- afterall, ZiPS projected a .262/.336/.445, and although Fields sits a bit under that as of right now, I can't help but be very excited about what we've seen so far.  

Before I saw Fields play this season, all I could really look at were the high K numbers.  I was honestly fearing a Brian Anderson like (first half of 2006) performance, with Fields swinging at sliders low and away and changes in the dirt.  Apparently, however, Fields' improved walk rate that poster 3E8 harped on has really translated.  I know his IsODiscipline isn't that great right now, but Fields' discipline at the plate has impressed me (aesthetically speaking).  It looks like he has a plan every time time he heads to homeplate -- where he wants to hit it, what he's going to look for.  I also love the fact that we've already seen him drop down some bunts down the third-base line when the third baseman is playing deep -- I always wondered why more guys don't do that, especially in situations where a baserunner is all that's needed.

So I pose two questions.  The first one -- not really a question, but -- Fields' homerun total at the end of the year.  I'll put the over/under at 19.5.  Second...  where is Fields playing to start 2008 -- third base or left field?  I'm not at all suggesting that they move Fields to LF permanently, but I also don't necessarily believe non-tendering Crede is the right move -- cutting ties after the season is selling awfully low, and that isn't exactly Kenny's M.O.

Poll

Over/Under -- 19.5 Homers for Fields

• Over
• Under

  31 votes | Results

Sleep and work got the best of me this weekend, allowing me to catch all of two innings of White Sox baseball.  I'm pretty sure that's a good thing, but...

• When I check out the box scores on my cell phone, I have to say that the first two guys who I need to check and see how they did are Jermaine Dye and Josh Fields -- Dye in hoping he can get hot in what may be his final weeks in a White Sox uniform and Fields for his continued development.  I honestly (a wink to winningugly) think to myself, "If those two shared great days at the plate, I'll be a reasonably happy person for the night."  Well, it looks like Dye is beginning to understand that the baseball season is, in fact, in full swing, as he launched two homers today for a total of three in the four-game set.  I asked for a week of "hotness" from Dye -- hopefully a 6-for-14 series at the Jake will convince a GM to give the Sox a B prospect.  On the other hand...
• Jose Contreras continues to stumble.  I did catch part of the first inning (before my eyes shut on me for the better part of four hours) and was somewhat happy to see his fastball back at 90-92.  Still, however, the end result doesn't look pretty.  What was the problem today -- getting hit hard when dropping down, no forkball?
• It is July 15th, just 16 days to that trade deadline.  It seems fairly obvious to me that Dye is a goner, but what about anybody else?  Will Kenny shock us (or me, at least) and trade Garland or Vazquez for a better package of players than he'd get if he traded Contreras?  Is Contreras even tradeable at this point and, if he is, is the better move to keep him until the winter hoping he bounces back a bit or trading him for anything right now?  And finally, is Iguchi going to be a sought after commodity?