Image taken from Google Images

The Chicago White Sox have announced they are offering Holiday Packs, giving ticket buyers discounts on four packs of Upper Reserved or Lower Reserved tickets.

And in one of the first 500 orders, fans receive a White Sox holiday ornament. It appears that the ornament is Paul Konerko and the White Sox image. Too bad it wasn’t Adam Dunn, then the ornament wouldn’t hit anything no matter where you put it on your tree!

The White Sox definitely are in the holiday mood as they are thinking more about receiving (like kids at Christmas) than giving. The Sox seem ready to give away their pitching staff, with Mark Buehrle almost certainly headed for greener pastures. Both the Florida Marlins and Washington Nationals have made pitches to the veteran left-hander and it doesn’t appear the Sox are even in the hunt any longer for the fan favorite.

And as if the nearly certain departure of Buehrle isn’t enough of a hit to the organization’s public relations, general manager Kenny Williams now says the Sox will listen to offers for still-promising hurlers John Danks and Gavin Floyd. While both Danks and Floyd had sub-par years last year, it is hard to see the Sox relying on injury-prone Jake Peavy to be their horse for next year. Danks and Floyd both still have a ton of potential, but both are rapidly running out of time to blossom. Both are continuing to rise on the pay scale while their performance numbers just aren’t there. But still, they provide some stability.

The Sox could entertain offers for the two pitchers simply based on finances. Danks earned $6 million in 2011 and is due a raise for 2012 despite an 8-12 campaign. Danks’ earned run average of 4.33 wasn’t far off the American League average of 4.08 in 2011. When you consider that Danks started out a dreadful 0-8, the second-half turnaround which included the lefty going 6-1 at one point, shows Danks might have much to offer either the White Sox or another club. If the Sox need to shed salary to make a last run at keeping Buehrle, then Danks might be the man to go. But if the barn door is already closed on Buehrle it wouldn’t make sense for the Sox to get rid of another lefty starter, depleting their own rotation, despite a talented lefty, in the person of Chris Sale waiting in the wings.

Gavin Floyd continues to be the Javier Vazquez of this Sox team – showing flashes of brilliance and not being touched at the plate at times, but never sustaining that prowess for a full season. Posting just a 12-13 mark in 2011, Floyd is due $7 million in 2012 and he has a $9.5 million club option for 2013 – quite a high price for mediocrity.

But unless Williams has some amazing master plan that brings two or three quality starters to the South Side, it is hard to imagine letting Buehrle, Danks and Floyd all depart before the 2012 season. But, on the flip side, with Sale, another lefty moving into the rotation, it is hard to image both Buehrle and Danks staying with the Sox. Three lefties in a rotation is likely one too many and not likely to do anything but lock the opposition into right-handed-stacked line-ups.

Jake Peavy still hasn’t returned to his former Cy Young self after 2010 surgery to attach his latissimus dorsi muscle and has yet to show that he can complete a full season in a White Sox uniform. While Peavy has been dominant at times, he continues to be an unreliable starter for the Sox.

Phil Humber has more promise than anyone on the Sox pitching staff, but he only has one season under his belt as a starter, and even that was shortened because of a line drive off the noggin. Humber looked solid most of the year and wound up with a 9-9 record and a 3.75 ERA. Humber would be a good 4 or 5 man in a rotation, not a go-to guy as he might be called upon to be this upcoming season.

Barring a Miracle on 35^th Street where Kenny Williams can work out trades to bring in a couple quality, veteran starters, the 2012 White Sox pitching staff could leave fans feeling like the kid on Christmas morning who expects toys and gets clothes: thoroughly disappointed.

Image taken from Google Images

This post made possible by Pro Dunk Hoops basketball goal systems

Michael Jordan – 1994-04-07 – White Sox vs. Cubs

An interview with Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray (even though Jordan was a member of the White Sox, the other Chicago MLB team).

Michael Jordan’s Minor-League-Baseball Career

This video includes his first HR, conversation with his AA hitting coach, Michael himself, Terry Francona (his AA manager). He stole 30 bases with 50 RBIs. One person even thought he was progressing enough to become a major league baseball player.

MICHAEL JORDAN – Playing on his LAST day with the Chicago White Sox – 1995

http://youtu.be/AUpmXMgiwsg

Jim Thome Photo taken from Google Images

The next time you see them together might be in Cooperstown.

Image by Keith Allison via Flickr

It was a nice gesture to have to Cleveland legends Omar Vizquel and Jim Thome bring the line-up cards out for their respective teams when the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians squared off for the last time this season Thursday night in Cleveland. It isn’t often that guys with 5,000 hits between them exchange the line-ups cards in the pre-game ritual.

It was also nice to see both of them, whose careers also ran through Chicago, off of the bench for a change.

Vizquel, a key part of the White Sox defense in 2010, has seen little playing time this season. And Thome spent a good portion of his season sidelinedwith injuries in Minnesota(before his late-season trade to Cleveland).

Both have compiled numbers this season that blemish their Hall-of-Fame careers. The 44-year-old Vizquel is headed for career lows in games played (58 through Wednesday), plate appearances (182), at-bats (163), runs (18), hits (42), runs batted in (8) and walks (9).

For the Venezuelan utility man not to get more playing time in an infield that includes Adam Dunn and Gordon Beckman, both having terrible offensive years, is unthinkable. While their White Sox infield has remained healthy, the bats of Dunn and Beckham have been sick all year long. While White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen gave both plenty of time to hit their way out of their struggles, neither could hit their way out of a paper bag this season and Vizquel was left to pine away and get another year older.

The 41-year-old Thome, a White Sox favorite for 3 ½+ years, has also had little to celebrate this season.  His power numbers are woefully down and are the worst since his injury-plagued season of 2005 with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Thome is headed his worst numbers in plate appearance (310 as of Wednesday), runs (28), hits (66), home runs (14) and RBI (46).

While Thome has three years on Vizquel, the versatile Venezuelan would seem to have much more of a chance to catch on with a team for next year than does Thome. Who is going to spend money on a designated hitter who put up power numbers this year of some second baseman?

If Frank Thomas and Jermaine Dye didn’t get picked up at the end of their careers, it is hard to imagine a different fate for Thome.

It would be great to see Thome and Vizquel in Major League uniforms again next season, especially if both are willing to take a lot less money. Their experience, knowledge of the game and work ethic would serve many younger teams well.

As sad as it might be if nobody calls this winter, they can both rest assured that the call from Cooperstown is only five years away.

After a year in which Alex Rios hit 21 HRs, swiped 34 bases and hit .284 in the middle of a potent White Sox lineup, the 30-year-old center fielder has slumped through the first two months of 2011, posting a pathetic .201/.253/.306 slash with four HRs and four steals in 225 plate appearances.

A look at Rios’ advanced stats, however, suggest that now is a great time to buy-low on the 18-HR, 30-steal, .275 three-year average player.

Rios has never walked or whiffed much, as made evident by his career walk and strikeout rates of 6.5 and 17.8 percent, respectively. His walk rate this season (6.2 percent) is identical to his 2010 total, and his strikeout rate (11.0 percent) is the lowest of his career.

Rios’ contact rate of 86.8 percent is also a career best, and is well-above his career average (83.1 percent) and the major league average (81.0 percent).

So, if he’s taking walks at the same rate as last year, striking out much less yet making much better contact, how can his numbers be so Alcides Escobar-like?

Rios’ BABIP is just .208, third-lowest among qualified batters. Simply put, he’s experienced a great deal of poor luck.

And this isn’t one of those situations where his BABIP stands alone in support of bad luck. Rios’ line-drive rate is 18.7 percent (16.9 percent in ‘10, 19.3 percent career), suggesting that he’s hitting the ball hard, it’s just not finding the outfield grass.

This isn’t likely to last long, however. Once Rios’ hard-hit balls start dropping in for base hits, his batting average will skyrocket.

When that happens, you’ll want him on your team, especially at his current trade value.

Another stat that jumps off the page is 60.9, which is the percent of first-pitch strikes he seen this season, compared to 52.7 percent in 2010. After hitting primarily third in the White Sox lineup last season, Rios has been relegated to the sixth and seventh spots in the lineup.

Obviously, the bottom of the order isn’t protected as well as the top and middle, but it does tend to yield better pitches to hit and Rios is experiencing that. Given his aggressive nature at the plate, his turn-around should be multiplied by the fact that pitchers are giving him pitches to hit early in the count.

If there’s a case to be made against a Rios turn-around, it would be supported by his career first and second half splits. In 2,301 at-bats before the All-Star Break, Rios has posted a .282/.333./451 slash with a HR every 32.8 at-bats. In 1,692 at-bats after the Mid Summer Classic, his line drops to a measly .271/.318/.422 with a HR every 43.3 at-bats.

Not a particularly promising sign for someone who tends to struggle in the second half, but Rios’ advanced stats this season are more relevant to the topic and suggest a change in luck is on the horizon.

If you own Rios, stick with him. Put him in the lineup against lefties (.255 vs. southpaws, .184 vs. righties), and monitor all other matchups until he can put together a consistent hitting streak.

If you don’t own him and can afford the bench spot until he gets hot, send a feeler trade offer out to his undoubtedly frustrated owner; he’s likely to come very cheap.

 ORIGINAL ARTICLE: FANTASY BASEBALL INSIDERS

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What’s Wrong With?: Hanley Ramirez

Buy or Sell?: Ubaldo Jimenez / Jay Bruce / Aramis Ramirez / Chris Coghlan 

Prospect Report: Paul Goldschmidt / Closer’s Corner, Week 9: Joakim Soria

2011 Rankings: C / 1B / 2B / 3B / SS / OF / SP / Top 100 / All-Breakout Team 

Top Rookies: Jerry Sands / Michael Pineda / Zach Britton / Brandon Belt / Mike Minor

Keeper Conundrum: Brett Anderson or Trevor Cahill? / Bryce Harper or Mike Trout?

Adam Dunn photo taken from Google Images

The Chicago White Sox went into this off-season with plenty of work to do. They head toward spring training with a job well Dunn.

Plenty of questions surrounded the offense heading into the fall and winter. Would catcher A.J. Pierzynski remain? Could they find a left-handed power hitter to compliment their line-up? And, most notably, could they keep the services of free agent slugger Paul Konerko? The Sox start their packing for spring training with all those questions answered – and all answered in the affirmative.

In their biggest acquisitions, the White Sox went out and got Adam Dunn to give them the left-handed line-up pop that has been missing since Jim Thome’s departure and they kept Konerko.

It seemed as if the move for Dunn was to cover their losses in case Konerko opted for greener pastures. But even before the ink on Dunn’s contract was dry, the White Sox were saying their top priority was signing Konerko and Dunn was saying he would be glad to take the designated hitter role if that kept Konerko in Chicago.

The Sox were able to keep Konerko in the fold and having him and Dunn back to back give the South Siders as potent a 1-2 power punch as anyone in the American League. However, the dynamic duo will need some dynamics from the duo in front of them – Juan Pierre and Gordon Beckham – to get off to  much better starts than their awful beginnings of 2010 to increase the power boys’ opportunities for runs batted in.

Third base will be an interesting battle with veteran Mark Teahen, youngster Brett Morel and possibly utility man extraordinaire Omar Vizquel all vying for the post.

The bench will not have the veteran faces of last year, except for Vizquel. Gone are Mark Kotsay (free agent), Manny Ramirez (Tampa Bay Rays) and Andrew Jones (New York Yankees). A young, unproven lot could include back-up catchers Ramon Castro and Tyler Flowers; third baseman Dallas McPherson, who has just 18 home runs in four seasons with three different teams; and outfielders Alejandro DeAza and Stefan Gartrell.

White Sox brass may want to pick up a veteran outfielder or two for the bench as DeAza and Gartrell have little experience. DeAza has appeared in just 19 Major League games; and Gartrell has yet to appear in a Major League contest. The current set-up provides little flexibility in outfield play and little rest for Pierre, Alex Rios and the injury-prone Carlos Quentin.

Pitching is again expected to be the White Sox’ strength with a five-man rotation with more potential than any in baseball. The five arms the Sox will rely on heavily are Mark Buerhle, John Danks, Gavin Floyd, Edwin Jackson and Jake Peavy.

The bullpen looks solid, despite a couple of its bigger names moving on. Bobby Jenks is now with Boston; and J.J. Putz has headed to Arizona. But the acquisition of former Minnesota Twins standout reliever Jesse Crain negates both those departures. Crain will team with hard-throwing youngsters Chris Sale and Sergio Santos and the unproven Kyle Cofeld, acquired in a trade with Atlanta for Scott Linebrink, to get the ball to closer Matt Thornton.

Prospects to keep an eye on include Austin Yount, nephew of baseball great Robin Yount, and pitcher Philip Hurber.

Bobby Jenks Photo by Icon SMI

How patient can the White Sox be with their closer Bobby Jenks when Minnesota continues to stay hot on their heels?

Jenks’ rollercoaster season has to stabilize if the Sox want to keep the Twins at bay in the American League Central or the Sox have to remove “closer” from Jenks’ job description and simply go with the hot hand.

Jenks’ ERA of 5.13 is abysmal for a closer. Only 10 of the 57 pitchers who have recorded a save in the Major Leagues this year have earned run averages higher. No one who has 12 or more saves is in Jenks’ boat regarding ERA – and that has to say something. Octavio Dotel of the Los Angeles Dodgers is the only other reliever in the top 20 for saves who has an ERA over 4.00. And Jenks is a full run per nine innings above that.

Yes, there are some bigger names than Jenks with higher ERAs. Trevor Hoffman, Kerry Wood and Joba Chamberlain are in that club of shame, but none are being given the ball with the game on the line. The White Sox continue to give the ball to Jenks with the club three outs away from victory.

And at times, Jenks has been brilliant. His lights-out appearances on July 28th against the Seattle Mariners striking out the side and August 1st against the Oakland A’s when he fanned two hitters brought back thoughts of 2005 for many fans. He had focus and he had presence, but those moments of swagger have been too far and few between this year for Jenks.

His inability to close out Thursday’s game against the Detroit Tigers when he gave up a hit and hit a batter before giving up a three-run home run to tie the game spoiled another amazing effort by the ageless wonder Freddy Garcia who was denied his 11th win.

Jenks continues to have control issues – something not acceptable for the guy called upon to record the final three outs. He has given up 25 runs in 40 innings of work, not exactly giving the team a reliable “go-to” guy for August and September. And it does not appear a case of overuse. Jenks has pitched the least of all closers with double-digit saves.

The Sox could hand the closer role to experienced reliever J.J. Putz, but Jenks’ flashes of brillance make that not so easy of a decision. With an impressive relieving core of Putz, Matt Thorton and Sergio Santos, coupled with the at-times dominant Jenks, could the Sox simply go with the hot hand and do a closer by committee? If one guy dominates the eighth, let him pitch the ninth too – and give him the next day off. And in come relievers B and C on Day 2.

You can play the percentage and let Thornton take the job when there are two lefties coming up in the ninth. Hand the ball to Putz, Santos or Jenks when the righties are coming up. Or use all four as set-up men/closers. It would be the nearest thing to the Cincinnati Reds‘ Nasty Boys that we have had in awhile.

With the game so specialized today and psyches so fragile, it is doubtful such a scenario will play itself out with the Sox in this divisional race. It is also doubtful that Jenks is their best solution at closer to hold off Minnesota.

The arms race: Say it with me, “Buehrle, Peavy, Danks, Floyd… Garcia”

If there’s a case to be made in this team’s chances to take the division, it starts and ends with the pitching. ESPN’s Buster Olney ranked the Sox’s staff as the No. 3 starting rotation in all of baseball. There’s enough quality where even if one guy has a dip in his projected numbers, there still might be enough from the others to keep this team competitive. Jake Peavy showed flashes in limited appearances with the Sox last year, and as of right now, he’s saying and doing all the right things to have fans believing he can be a real ace. Plus he claims he’ll be getting people to wear cowboy boots. Win-win.

Thome NOOOO!: Sox fans are pissed about the team letting DH Jim Thome walk (not to mention his signing with the division rival Minnesota Twins). It’d be one thing if it was the Tigers or Indians, but the Twins seem to burn the Sox a lot more than other rivals. Losing one of the team’s most productive hitters for such a cheap price ($1.5 million) has almost been better to forget than spend time thinking about.

Musical Chairs, or DH?: Thome’s departure creates a massive hole in the DH department, and as of right now, the Sox are still touting the extremely controversial “DH by comitee” idea. This concept features a revolving door of question marks including — but not limited to — guys like Omar Vizquel and Andruw Jones. This idea relies on a lot of long shots to pull through, and because of this, most people aren’t encouraged about its promise. I’m in the minority thinking the Sox should let Jermaine Dye take a crack at it, but those chances are extremely weak at best.

Photo by Icon SMI

Ozzie 2.0: Saying the White Sox are Ozzie Guillen is an example of a true cliche. This year, he’s joined Twitter, and we can’t get enough of it. Seriously. I’m going to go pull up one of his five most recent tweets to see if we get anything good. Ah, here we go:

[indented quote]“I wish I have my bike in this moment.”

Jackpot.

Photo by Icon SMI

Bacon: Not the food… it’s Ozzie’s butchering (pun?) of potential proverbial all-star Gordon Beckham‘s surname. The guy showed quality major league product-ivy in his rookie season, and White Sox fans are expecting more of the same in Year 2. He’d be on the short list with Peavy and Buehrle as most entertaining players on the team to watch. If his first year wasn’t an aberration, then this guy is the real deal.

* * *

It’s not crazy to think this team will win the division. It’s also not crazy to think they’ll finish in third place. The bottom line is the table is set and the food has been served, the 2010 White Sox either need to eat up or excuse themselves.

Here are a few links to the trades and signings this Hot Stove Season from teams who are either not currently covered here or haven’t been covered in a while…in alphabetical order and from the blogs currently on my blogroll. If you want to be added to my team blogrolls just send me an e-mail with a link to the blog.

Chicago White Sox

The Chicago White Sox acquire Mark Teahan from the Royals

The Chicago White Sox re-sign Mark Kotsay

The Chicago White Sox sign Omar Vizquel to a 1-year deal

The Chicago White Sox sign Andruw Jones

Cleveland Indians

Castrovince: Indians Name Manny Acta Manager

Tim Belcher named the new Indians pitching coach

Tolman, Radinsky, Smith added to Acta’s Staff

Sandy Alomar Jr. returning to Tribe

Transactions: Shoppach Traded

Florida Marlins

Scott Proctor gets a new gig

Hermida Shipped Out to Boston

Texas Rangers

Salt hurt in winter league.

Mark Buehrle led the White Sox to victory in grand fashion today, by tossing a perfect game, and his second career no-hitter.  His first came on April 18th, 2007, also at U.S. Comiscular Field.  This is only the 18th perfect game in MLB history, Randy Johnson being the last to do so in 2004. The magnificent performance improved Buehrle’s record to 11-3 and lowered his ERA to 3.28 on the year, and he could be on his way to his best season yet.

Editor’s Note: But don’t just take our word for it, good friend of Baseball Reflections.com (and our former White Sox writer) The Zoner was at the game! Check out his reaction HERE!

Manager Ozzie Guillen

I’ll let Paul Konerko and Ozzie Guillen sum up the White Sox season (15-18) through the halfway point in May.

“We stink.” – Guillen

“We’re just not good right now, that’s it.” – Konerko

That pretty much sums it up, but let’s take a look at why the Sox are struggling so much.

Offense

The offense has struggled mightily thus far, ranking them near the bottom in the AL in many

categories.

Runs Scored – 14^th (Last)

Batting Average – 13^th

OBP – 12^th

BA w/ RISP – 11^th

The batting order and lineup has been shuffled quite a bit thus far, mainly due to some minor but nagging injuries keeping starters from the lineup. In particular, the biggest adventure has occurred in an already unstable centerfield where DeWayne Wise and Brian Anderson have seen considerable time lost resulting in Plan C, D & E (Lillibridge, Owens & Podsednik). Quentin, Getz, Dye and Thome have all missed some time here and there as well.

2B/SS Alexei Ramirez

Alexei Ramirez has followed up his ROY bid last year with a huge sophomore slump, and has been benched for stretches without much improvement. He’s hitting just .223 and has only 1 HR at the time of this writing.

The result, the White Sox have had 10 games where they have scored 1 run or less (6 shutouts, 4 1-run games).  You can’t win with the best pitching staff in the league with those kinds of performances.

Pitching

The top of the rotation has been pretty good with Buehrle and Danks posting solid numbers thus far.  From there it goes downhill fast.  Gavin Floyd (7.32 ERA) has struggled with control and as a result he is getting pounded. Likewise, Contreras has already been jettisoned to the minors after a horrific start. Colon has been able to fill the 5^th starter role admirably, but with the Contreras (8.19 ERA) demotion the expectations rise for him as well. Clayton Richard is now the de facto 5^th starter, but depending on how it goes that spot might be a merry-go-round for some time to come if Contreras can’t regain form.

The bullpen is the one bright spot in an otherwise craptastic team. Dotel, Jenks, Linebrink and Thorton are living up to their salaries and are probably the best in the league at shutting down innings 7-9.

Fielding

Fielding separates the men from the boys, and clearly the White Sox are boys so I don’t need to go into an analysis right now.  They need to make themselves relevant in the batting and pitching departments before I start splitting hairs.

Overall

The offense will get better, I just don’t see any way that it will stay this impotent throughout the course of the season. I believe Gavin Floyd is the lynch pin of this team.  He needs to get back to form for this team to be successful.

SP Gavin Floyd

The outlook is grim right now, but I will remind you that it is still May and things can turn around very quickly. I’ll leave you this little nugget:  Last year at this time, the AL Central Champion White Sox had a record of 19-21, so don’t jump off a bridge just yet.