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A/V Room: A really early observation about Matt Davidson

Plus: How Chris Sale is spending his winter, rave reviews for Rick Hahn, a Masahiro Tanaka split-decision and more

By Jim Margalus
Jennifer Stewart

Picking up where we left off in the morning, I noticed something listening to Matt Davidson in this second half of this video.

"It's awesome checking out the facility. It's really nice. Everybody here is awesome and super-interactive, and really just cool to just hang out with and talk to. Even everybody from the president all the way down -- everybody out here is just hanging out and having a good time, so it's really cool to see all the different players, even young guys, interacting. [...]

It's cool being part of something, so I'm really excited about that. I can't wait. I can't wait. It's gonna be awesome to be here with a new team.

And it carried over into Davidson talking about his first experience with Paul Konerko:

"He’s an awesome guy," Davidson said. "Really down to earth. He’s out here and showing us that he wants to help us out, so it’s really cool to have him around."

Based on his first quotes in White Sox regalia, Davidson sounds like:

  1. He's on a college campus for the first time.
  2. He found a church service that prominently features an electric guitar.
  3. His middle name is "McConaughey."
  4. A 22-year-old, you jackass.

I vote for No. 4, myself. Granted, I am amused for the other reasons, but it's rather novel to hear a White Sox player use enthusiastic-borderline-exuberant language over extended airtime, and I sincerely hope it isn't coached, drained or beaten out of him by July.

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Chris Sale's another guy who didn't mask enthusiasm, although he arrived in the big leagues with plus-plus media polish. Scott Merkin gives us an update on how he's spending his winter, and he's good for some non-canned quotes.

When Spring Training begins in one month, 2013 mercifully will be forgotten. Sale sees a better '14 version all around, a team with a little more youth and more of a necessary edge.

"You have to have a little bit of [jerk] in you," said Sale, who mentioned the game's greatest players featured that respected intensity. "With being respected comes a little bit of fear.

"If opponents aren't afraid of what they are coming into, they get a little comfortable. There's no room in sports or on the baseball field for them to be comfortable."

Jeff Passan is a big fan of the way Rick Hahn is going about his business.

Whereas other rebuilding teams often tread water waiting for their prospects to develop, the White Sox's farm system leaves a lot to be desired. And by a lot, we mean everything. So for now, Hahn wields a measure of aggressiveness because he must. It's the sort of mandate that makes GMs work harder; it's also the kind that without success gets them fired.

Frank Thomas has probably bottled up a lot of feelings while waiting for his Hall of Fame case to work its course, and people keep asking him about performance-enhancing drugs, so we're getting a lot of single-issue chatter in his first rounds of interviews as a Hall of Famer. I just hope this is a temporary stage, and that eventually the talk will transition to his excellence as a hitter. Right now, it's getting a little too Goose Gossagey for me.

This is how you hedge a bet.

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