White Sox spring training 2013: Following up on Robin Ventura, the ninth inning

After Chuck Garfien broke the story about Robin Ventura declining a contract extension, the rest of the media followed suit with reactions from the White Sox manager and Rick Hahn.

In our thread about it, Mr. Roosevelt tossed out the idea that Ventura might be angling for something better, similar to when a player bypasses a contract extension to go through through his arbitration years one season at a time. Ventura offered an assurance that his intentions were honorable, and purely about the task at hand:

"In talking to Rick, we have two more years to do this. We have good communication and everything is fine," Ventura said. "This is my contract. I was the same way as a player … I’ll worry about it at the end of it. I want the White Sox to think in two years that I’m still the right guy for the job. I’m not holding out for anything or disappointed and not wanting to stay here. I think at the end of the contract is when you talk about it. I’m more worried about what we are doing right now with this team and this spring training more than 2015."

Thanks to South Side Expat, we're going to be using this a lot...

The ninth inning

Addison Reed didn't take offense to Rick Hahn's suggestion that the ninth inning could be more fluid than a closer would appreciate, saying he doesn't think he has the job locked up, anyway. The most enlightening part:

Reed also got "fastball happy" at times last year, by his admission, so he focused on improving his slider.

"Hitters would pick up on that real quickly," said Reed, who threw his fastball 75 percent of the time last season, the slider 13.8 percent of the time and the changeup 11.2 percent according to FanGraphs.com. "They have scouting reports and talk with other teams. I threw fastballs the majority of the time and they know that."

New stuff

*Jesse Crain says pitching for Team Canada isn't going to throw him off. He's pitching in three games for the Sox before the World Baseball Classic starts, and the Canadian team is training in nearby Goodyear, Ariz.

*Jared Mitchell is wearing 29 instead of 82, but that doesn't mean he's under serious consideration to break camp with the club. Rick Hahn says he'll be playing every day in Charlotte.

*Ramon Troncoso took a line drive to the mouth (or "in da mout," colloquially) while playing winter ball in the Dominican a few weeks ago.

Twitter pics

I'm just going to keep updating the same slideshow, if that's OK with everybody.