White Sox Season Preview Take 2

I did a season preview way earlier in the year when the pitchers and catchers reported. There was a lot that I didn't know back then about this team. Spring Training doesn't mean much, but it can tell you a lot about how some of the younger players are going to play.

I got a good vibe from spring training this year. The wins and losses don't matter and that's not what I'm talking about. I liked what I saw with Milledge, Morel, and Beckham. With those young guys in our lineup playing at their best we are a good team. Konerko will be solid as always, and the rest of our offense seems like it will be ready to play. Our pitching was great, I'm extremely excited about Johnny Danks and Gavin Floyd. Both pitchers came to our team without experience. Buehrle groomed them and now every year they get better. The pitcher I am most excited about is Chris Sale. When he first started playing last year I knew he was a gamer. I was asking for him to be out there as much as possible, he seemed like one of the few guys who could actually win a game for us. This year he will be better and I look forward to him most likely being a starter next year.

The bad things that I noticed were very few. I remembered a few things. I remembered that Adam Dunn strikes out a lot, and that is an understatement. I also remembered how terrible Teahen is at defense and that is why he didn't get the third base job. Other than those two I can't think of anything that was a bad sign. Buehrle didn't pitch well at the beginning of spring training, but he will be fine in the regular season.

The worst thing this off-season and spring training was the Peavy situation. The worst part was that I thought he would be out for a good chunk of the season, then he made a really rapid recovery and I loved what I saw. Right as he was about to finish his miraculous recovery he started to have tendinitis in his elbow and we are back to square one. Peavy will probably be back around the same time he was expected to with the first injury. White Sox fans shouldn't be worried. He will come back when he is ready and he will be fine.

Okay, now onto the future, where I think the White Sox are going to go this year.
They have gotten some love from some ESPN guys to be a dark horse in the league, and that's the position the White Sox like to be in. They have great pitching, and it will be even better when Peavy comes back. You could argue that this pitching staff is only second to Philly. The White Sox also have added a lot of good things to their offense this year. Our outfielders are going to be better than they were last year, and if one slacks off Ozzie won't hesitate to put Milledge in. Our infield is very young excluding Konerko. Morel, Beckham, and Ramirez are going to need to grow up and play well. Beckham needs to have a bounce-back season, which I think is very possible. I'm not too worried about the offense of the other two. This team is built to win a World Series. I'm not going to drink the kool-aid and say they will win, I'm saying that they are built to win it. If we do everything right and don't have very many injuries the World Series is possible. The twins and Tigers are tough, though and we are going to need to play well in every division game. If they play well against their division, and win the division they have a good chance at going all the way. The way the team is set up with great pitching and a good offensive core, they are built for the playoffs. Stay tuned to this blog for a AL Central preview soon, and for more up to date info follow me (@the_chicago_fan) and my blogs (@tcf_blogs)




I had to post this, since I love all team commercials, like the one goal series and I hope the All in series is just as good.

The 3rd Base Battle

The White Sox have one big problem with their infield. They don't know who will be the starting third basemen. They have four good candidates for the job. They are Omar Vizquel, Brent Morel, Dayan Viciedo, and Mark Teahen. They all have a good chance, and I don't think one guy is running away with it. This is going to come down to the last few days of spring training. This competition is good and bad for the White Sox. It is good, because it will pick the best third basemen and not the one that had a good season last year and will let Ozzie see who has a good competitive spirit. The bad effect on the White Sox is that a competition doesn't always help to have a good locker room atmosphere. I think this group has a couple of mature players, so that won't be a problem but it's something to worry about. I don't know who is going to win this, but I do know a thing or two about each player.

1. Brent Morel
Brent Morel played a little bit last year, but not enough to say that he would be the starter at the beginning of the year. He has great defense and pretty good offense. He impressed a lot of fans last year when he did get to play and one of those fans was me. I was quick to say that he should be in there as much as possible. He has arguably the best defense among all the contenders and also can swing the bat pretty well. I think that qualifies him to be our third basemen, but the other players are also good. The downside of Morel is that he won't always swing the bat well and usually if you are a good fielder you put your body in danger a little too much and injuries could be a problem. I really like Morel to be the third basemen, but the other guys have pretty good arguments also. The defense is the key, if Ozzie wants defense Morel is the best, but if he wants offense it will all depend on who is hitting well at the time because all of the contenders are hot and cold hitters.

2. Mark Teahen
The first thing I have to say is that I didn't and don't like the trade that we made for Mark Teahen, we gave two of our top young infielders for a player who has done relatively nothing to help the team so far, so I might be a little bias while talking about him. He has terrible fielding. When he did play last year before the injury he committed so many errors it made me want to cry. Every time the ball was hit to third base area I would worry. That is not even an exaggeration of how bad he was at defense last year. I don't know if that was normal or abnormal for him, but if I were Ozzie I would be afraid to put Teahen out there with a young pitcher or any pitcher. Teahen's hitting is nothing to write home about, but its probably one of the top 2 out of this group. Like I said before all of these players are hot and cold hitters, so it will probably come down to defense.

3. Omar Vizquel
I liked the way that Vizquel played last year, but he is very old and I don't think he will be able to play as well this year. I was surprised that he could play as much and as well as he did last year and I don't think he will be able to pull that off again. I do like him to be a guy that will go in for whoever is the starter if they aren't hitting well during the game and can play a couple innings every other day. I just don't think that he will be fit enough and young enough to play game after game for the whole summer. If he is fit enough and he has another year like last year then, yes, play him as much as he can handle. I just don't want to push him too hard so that he just gets terrible. He is a good contender for this roll if he can handle it. He is probably the most consistent hitter of them all and he is consistently good.

4. Dayan Viciedo
Last, but not least is Dayan Viciedo. He recently injured himself, but he is one of the White Sox top prospects. If he isn't on the team this year, or the third base starter this year, he will sometime in the future. He is the White Sox utility man, but he is still fighting for this starting job. He has good fielding and good hitting, but like most of the other players he is a hot and cold hitter. He has a lot of potential and if he taps into that this year I think he can do a lot of damage. If Morel or Teahen don't turn out to be stars, I think this guy will. He is a great player that still needs to mature a little, but if he does he will be a great infielder or outfielder. I personally don't think he will get this job, because he will be wanted to be used as a utility man, so that he can go anywhere off the bench.

I thought I would share an AMAZING White Sox video with you that sort of previews the season, and it gives me the chills at the end. Watch it, its a great video.
SOX PRIDE.