White Sox: Kenny Williams; His Moves and My Bold Predictions

After a disappointing season in which Kenny Williams kept insisting the Southsiders had all the right tools to win the Central Division, he’s been fairly busy all ready this off season trying to piece together a World Series caliber team. In recent years, Kenny has been pretty quiet at the Winter Meetings and often waited until Spring Training time to make his moves, but I believe he’s realized the time is now. The opportunities have presented themselves and he’s been taking advantage. His first two moves were minor, but smart. He signed a struggling Andruw Jones to a minor league deal which has tremendous upside. Jones is typically a fly ball hitter and with the short dimensions of Comiskey (yes, Comiskey, not U.S. Cellular Field or The Cell) he quite possibly could hit fifteen homers should a situation arise where he joins the Sox and gets regular playing time. What a bargain and stroke of genius this pick up could possibly turn into! Secondly, he signed veteran Omar Vizquel. He’s way past his prime, but the man’s been wearing an infielder’s glove since he was in the womb, though I think he left his bat in there. He’ll be the mentor to rising star middle infielders Alexi Ramirez and Gordon Beckham. They both have good range and strong arms all ready, but when a man who has 12 gold gloves on his mantle speaks, you listen. Ramirez has a knack to make the spectacular play, yet he also has a knack for taking the routine plays off and often boots the easy grounders or sails his throws over to first by being too lackadaisical. Beckham filled in nicely at third last year. He was a little rough around the edges at first, but with those soft hands and a few adjustments he really started to come into his own. With the decision coming early from Kenny to move Beckham to the other side of the diamond at second, he’ll have the rest of the off-season and all of Spring Training to get comfortable with both himself and to create chemistry with Alexi. Vizquel of course will be there to help both young players find themselves at their respective four and six positions. He’ll also be a nice platoon player to give guys in the infield a day off and should see a good amount of playing time as well as be a good replacement should one of those guys land on the disabled list. The most significant move to mark this off-season is the acquisition of speedster Juan Pierre. Kenny finally got his hands on the quintessential leadoff hitter he’s been after since the days of…um…that one leadoff hitter guy. Yeah, him. Pierre hits for good average and is disciplined at the plate. He’ll set the table nicely for whoever hits behind him and he’s capable of stealing 40 plus bases this year. He’s also a smart base-runner unlike that Pods character. The only downside of having Pierre at the top of the order is that he has to play the field too. He’s slightly better in the outfield than Pods is in my opinion. He has decent range and is always aware of the situation on the field, but to say he has a poor throwing arm is an understatement. He’ll be a good guy to have in the clubhouse as a veteran with a leadership role and I’ll take that any day. Ozzie Guillen said he’ll be happy to give guys a day off from the field and rotate them in the DH spot with the current roster that he has, but I have a feeling Kenny isn’t done just yet this offseason. There are still some free agents out there who could potentially fill the everyday DH spot…Thome, who was recently spotted at a nearby Detroit hotel, Xavier Nady aka “The Untie-er” , he’s not ja boy he’s Jermaine Dye, or, and keeping in mind that this is just wishful thinking, Johnny Daman or even better, Matt Holliday! Kenny made another nice pick up adding J.J. Putz to the back of the bullpen. If all pitch well and stay healthy the entire season, the games could be shortened to six innings with Putz taking the seventh, Thornton in the eighth, and Big Bobby Jenks slamming the door shut in the ninth. That or Ozzie can play his favorite game of matchups using Putz against righties and Thornton against lefties. Putz may even be the closer by season’s end should Jenks falter or get injured. The only signing I’m truly skeptical about is that of Mark Teahen. He’s relatively consistent on the field as a utility player, though this season he’ll be the everyday third baseman, as well as in the batters box; however, he still hasn’t put up numbers as good as his breakout season in ’06. With this group of guys and our staff he just may have an All-Star performance this season. Still, my favorite move of 2009 was trading for Jake Peavy. He gave us a little taste of what we’ll see next year and I definitely like what I saw. I’m sure the rest of the White Sox Pride liked it too. All in all, Kenny is doing a damn good job piecing together a team that could rekindle the magic of ’05. If everyone performs as expected, and I’m looking at you, RIOS, and so long as everyone stays healthy especially with the best starting rotation on paper, the White Sox WILL be the Central Division Champs! You can take that to the bank. It’s up to them to take it to the next levels. I’ll have a post on the Loveable or in my case, the Hate-able Losers soon. Remember to get your fix here and I’ll see you in 2010 Chicago!

Chicago Sports Rundown

Let’s get down to brass tacks Chicago. Vinny del is on his way out of the City and the Bulls' front office is being gutless. Apparently, they’ve decided to let him go, but they haven’t officially told him he’s lost his job because they want to find a long term solution before doing so. It’s a very unfair situation…unfair to Vinny, unfair to the team, and unfair to the fans. Every one knows Vinny’s job security is in question and yet there hasn’t been a word uttered. Now, I’m all for running him out of the City, but at least tell the man he’s gone or that he’s staying until the end of the year. Give him some of his dignity back and for goodness sake, stand up for yourself Vinny! Maybe he will and maybe he won’t, he probably won’t, nevertheless my hopes are pinned on the prospect of Avery coming to town and getting these Bulls on a hot streak and making a very possible run for the playoffs. However, the window is rapidly closing. The Blackhawks have been having a great season thus far. They have had a nice last week and a half beating a depleted Red Wing rivalry team twice as well as winning a great come-from-behind game in Nashville. They’ve gotten Hossa on the ice for the first time all season about a month ago and he’s been playing pretty much as expected. The fans, including myself of course, have been most skeptical of the goaltenders, which have been holding their own with much credit do to the hard work of the defensemen on all lines. Huet has been getting hot at the right times and Niemi has been nothing short of a pleasant surprise. The Hawks have locked up Keith, Toews, Kane, and Hossa for at least the next five years making a great core of talented players to build around to keep hockey exciting until then and stay competitive for the Stanley Cup. Da Bears. Da Bears Da Bears Da Bears. What can I say? I’ll start with my strongest feeling that I’ve been developing for over six weeks now. There are a lot of people calling for Lovie’s head, but I think if he goes then there needs to be a clean sweep starting at the top with Ted Philips and down to Jerry Angelo. Philips made the initial bad decision by hiring a company to tell him who to hire as General Manager. He should have done his job right and done his own research and trusted his own gut and hired an actual football man instead of a glorified accountant. As for Angelo, he’s made some decent moves like finally bringing a franchise quarterback to Chicago even though it was a bit costly and hasn’t worked out as planned so far. On the other hand, he’s made some awful moves like giving up a much needed second round pick for a defensive end that’s played so bad he’s riding the pine. The point being that Lovie isn’t completely at fault, though he doesn’t get a free pass either. For the most part Da Bears have seemed well prepared with a few exceptions like the game at Cincy, but he also has to discipline his team as he did in ’06. Da Bears were plagued with penalties and constantly shooting themselves in the foot this season. That all directly falls back onto the head coach and rolls down the hill from there. They’ve also suffered crucial injuries on both sides of the ball, especially on defense when their one, two, and three linebackers went down and missed most of the season collectively. The play calling by Ron Turner for the most part has been horrid. Forte to the one hole, Forte to the three hole, pass in the flat to the right, pass in the flat to the left. Week fifteen Da Bears were down by a million and not once took a shot downfield. Simply stupifying! However, I do understand that there isn’t much one can do with the rancid run blocking and pass protection being produced or not produced by the offensive line. Forte usually gained some decent yardage once he ran off tackle and every thing was put together, meaning he ran like he meant it and the line executed their blocks. For all you Cutler haters/Orton lovers, get real. I’m still ecstatic that we made that trade even with the results that came about. Da Bears may not have won a game had Orton been behind center with this line. Ney, they would not have won a single game and Kyle Orton wouldn’t have survived the entire season with his inability to move out of the pocket. Chew on that Chicago and I’ll be back with more on the White Sox and Cubs.