Terrerobytes: Not all White Sox news is good news

Konerko likely to start tonight

Paul Konerko was a late scratch last night. He had a loose bone fragment in his left wrist flushed to a less painful spot. It's a minor procedure he's had before, right around this same time last season, and then played the next day.

Day Two of MLB Draft complete

With 15 rounds complete, the White Sox picks break down to seven position players and nine pitchers. Baseball America's Ben Badler observed: "Players in the first few rounds went mostly in order of talent. Aggregate spending will be down. New draft rules look like a win for MLB."

One trend from the first draft under the new rules was that college seniors were very popular in the latter half of the first ten rounds. Because those players have little bargaining power - they can't return to school like college juniors, junior college player or high school players - they can easily be signed for less than the recommended slot. Teams can then re-allocate that money to the players they picked earlier in the draft or to players they pick in the later rounds (should they decide to sign a later round draftee to a bonus of $100,000 or more). The Blue Jays were the most obvious example of this strategy; the White Sox did not use it.

Danks, Morel not close to return

While he's eligible to come off the disabled list, John Danks instead will be throwing a bullpen session today and then going on a rehab start later this week. It's undecided whether he will make one or two starts.

Brent Morel is still occasionally feeling pain in his back so the White Sox are using that to keep him on his rehab assignment at Charlotte. No timetable for his return.

White Sox trail in All-Star voting

Konerko's 671,430 votes leave him third behind Prince Fielder (1,027,070) and Mark Teixeira (697,602).

A.J. Pierzynski ranks fifth with a total of 424,646. He trails Mike Napoli (1,224,565), Matt Wieters (713,469), Joe Mauer (637,364) and Russell Martin (431,435).

White Sox tickets are over-priced

The Hardball Times' Chris Jaffe does a thorough analysis, showing that the White Sox have the 7th highest ticket prices in baseball. Considering their average attendance, they're a clear outlier.

Doing the classic family of four from the suburbs buying the cheapest seats analysis, he finds that the White Sox are only $10 cheaper than the Cubs. If the White Sox priced their cheapest tickets at the MLB average for the cheapest tickets, they'd be $35 cheaper.

There are some issues with this analysis but those wouldn't change the main point.

Pick 6 update

The overall top five are me, Jim, jacksorbetter, Nordhagen and lisa523. For the week ending June 3, Ryno took top honors, followed closely by gbrocketman in second. JustTrustMe, erik w and Akula Wolf rounded out the top five.

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