Entries associated with the tag "Chicago White Sox":

The White Sox' Carlos Quentin just got recognized as an All-Star, in addition to receiving a well-done profile from the Tribune's usually puffy Melissa Isaacson, who delivered a piece with some fine quotes and details from Quentin's mother, Queta. Yet through it all what's been overlooked is his pivotal place in the Cubs-Sox interleague series. (Let's call it the City Serious, in honor of Ring Lardner's Jack Keefe, as opposed to the Crosstown Classic or whatever else.) With both teams entering in first place, when the Sox got swept at Wrigley, making it seem as if they didn’t deserve a postseason date with the Cubs, they came back more determined and more focused when the action shifted to Sox Park. The pivotal moment came early in Friday’s opening game when Cubs starter Ryan Dempster came high and tight with some chin music to Quentin with the Sox rallying in the third inning, knocking him to the ground. As the baseball book requires, Dempster followed that with a low, outside breaking ball, and Quentin lashed it down the right-field line to score a run and make it 3-0 Sox. Jermaine Dye drove him in, the next two batters walked against the rattled Dempster, and Nick Swisher followed with a grand slam, so the rout -- and the Sox comeback -- was on. If Quentin doesn't deliver in that instant, the Cubs have delivered their message of dominance and perhaps everything is different.

“He came up and in,” Quentin said afterward in his typically understated, matter-of-fact manner. “I’m not surprised by that when a pitcher does it. He’s trying to make a pitch. Obviously, I don’t want to get hit. (Dempster’s) got enough control that he might have wanted to put it there. It’s neither here nor there. The job had to get done to get the run in. You dust yourself back off, refocus, and I was happy I got a good swing on the ball and got the run in and got the job done.”

He got the job done the next day too, when he hit the game-winning homer, and Sunday as well, when another Quentin homer broke a scoreless tie and sent the Sox toward a 5-1 victory to complete the reverse sweep. That might not have sealed Quentin's spot on the All-Star team, but it sealed his place in the hearts of Sox fans. 

The Cubs are in first place, the White Sox are in first place, and so, Aware One, am I -- in first place for the Golden BAT Award, that is. The BAT, or Baseball Acumen Test, as my friend and former Hot Type columnist Neil Tesser coined it, determines which Chicago sportswriter is best at picking the winners in baseball. Hey, I've won it before, in 1984 I believe, and at this point, through the first week in June, I have all six division leaders in baseball. That's right, six for six.

Yes, I have the White Sox finishing first in the American League Central -- more for the weakness of the competition, which I've thus far been proved true about, than for the strength of the Sox, which they've flexed recently -- and the Cubs in the National League Central. The others are all no-brainers, to my way of thinking: the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels in the AL, the Philadelphia Phillies and Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL. True, I'm far from being eight for eight, with the New York Yankees my wild-card pick in the AL and the Cincinnati Reds in the NL. Yet who picks second-place teams? Besides, the Reds are ascendant now that Dusty Baker has finally called up Jay Bruce and Homer Bailey (predicted, with all else, here), and who can count out my AL pick of the New York Yankees, with their deep pockets and resources for midseason trades? In any case, they don't figure in my World Series pick: Cubs and Bosox. So, no, it's not yet July 4, the traditional date for baseball league leaders to crow about their leads, but I'll take what I got -- and go from there. What else was the blog invented for other than to blow one's own horn? 

Ozzie Guillen threw not just his players, but his general manager under the bus Sunday after the White Sox were swept by the Rays in Tampa Bay, suggesting he didn't like his roster and that major changes needed to be made. But come on: the White Sox were still in first.

True, for anyone who remembers the 2005 Sox, this year's team did not look like championship contenders; there were holes, quite obvious to the fan, and therefore glaring to the opposition. True too, this year's Sox were not built to play "Ozzieball," not after GM Kenny Williams extended Jermaine Dye's contract last year. Considering the Sox were already committed to Paul Konerko and Jim Thome, it left them with a slow (if sometimes powerful) middle of the lineup prone to double plays. True again the team was not equipped with a true leadoff man: Nick Swisher and Orlando Cabrera have both failed in the uncomfortable position. So what's a manager to do?

Deal with it, dude. The GM traditionally sets the roster, and the manager has to put it to the best possible use. Look at what the Cubs' Lou Piniella did with a bulbous, misshapen, corner-heavy roster last year: he played Jacque Jones in center, shifted Ryan Theriot to short (both of which the experts said couldn't be done), and generally found a way to put the best eight players on the field.

So look, Ozzie, do the same. If you're not scoring runs, stress defense. Put Brian Anderson in center and leave him there. Play the three hot hands (or not-so-cold bats) between Dye, Swisher, Thome, and Konerko between first, right field, and designated hitter. If you want to run more, by all means put in someone like Alexei Ramirez and run and hit-and-run. Yes, it's a bulbous, misshapen roster, but the Sox are in first place -- remember? -- and it's your job to find a way to keep them there as long as possible. Given the roster, stress defense, on-base percentage, and power -- in that order -- and you'll get the most out of the players Wiliams has given you. And if wholesale changes are made and the Sox drop from first place? It's all on you, Ozzie.

I don't know what it is about sex and slumps, but using the former to solve the latter is a tradition old as baseball, from Mark Grace's superstition about going to bed with an ugly woman as a "slump buster" to "Nuke" LaLoosh wearing Annie Savoy's garters as a way to stop overanalyzing things in Ron Shelton's Bull Durham. Now comes a report from the New York Post in which the Yankees' Jason Giambi admits to an even cheekier device: wearing a tiger-striped gold lame thong under his uni. "I only put it on when I'm desperate to get out of a big slump," the slugger told Portfolio.com. (Or when he needs easy access for a shot in the ass, chimed in my pal Kate, Giambi being an admitted steroid user.) But that's not the worst of it. He has gone on to share the device with teammates Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon, and Robinson Cano. "All of them wore it and got hits," Giambi insisted. "The thong works every time." Suddenly the White Sox' inflatable dolls seem a lot less tawdry -- and a lot more hygienic.

With the Cubs and the White Sox going south the last few days, both Lou Piniella and Ozzie Guillen lost it. Yet Sweet Lou's tirades seemed real, while Ozzie's seemed a bit of a masquerade, even though his language was harsher. Piniella barely made it through a minute of a post-game media conference after last Thursday's blown save by Kerry Wood, triggered by a key misplay by left fielder Alfonso Soriano, and that was after bashing a Gatorade cooler. (No doubt he wished he'd had a water cooler on hand to get real satisfaction.) When some scribe wondered afterward if he'd thought about replacing Soriano with a better defender, say Reed Johnson, in the ninth inning, Lou blasted back, "You're damn right I thought about it. You think I'm stupid or something?" Then he stormed out muttering profanities, perhaps having learned something from the recent Lee Elia anniversary.

Guillen, by contrast, held no profanities back after the Sox' fourth straight loss before the game on Sunday, but word is he was actually quite subdued and not angry while making the comments, and the old scapegoat -- the idea that the Cubs get preferential media treatment while the Sox are "the bitch of Chicago" -- made it seem he was just throwing up a smoke screen for his players, especially as he was talking about the situation in Chicago while on the road in Toronto, where there would soon be a much better whipping boy available in a badly blown call by umpire Dale Scott (something that no doubt would have cost Guillen money in fines if he had blamed the loss on it). As it was, neither outburst worked to inspire the teams. The Cubs lost their ensuing series in Saint Louis and Monday's series opener in Cincinnati, while the Sox were swept in Toronto with losses Sunday and Monday night. Time perhaps to start shouting at the players.

I've had Ozzie Plan season tickets the last couple of years, and in 2007 for my $300 I saw the White Sox win all of two games, one in May, the other in September. Flipping through my ticket stubs brings it all back to me:  L 11-1, L 10-3, L 3-0, L 11-1, L13-3,  etc, etc. At the start of the second half of the season I bet Reader sportswriter Ted Cox that the Sox would finish behind the lowly Royals, and during a miserable August in which they went 9-20 it was looking like a sure thing. But a late September run of four wins--they had no streak longer than this all season--deprived me of a bottle of Blanton's. I wish I'd bet they'd lose 90.

Fortunately for those of us with PTSD from last year, the Sox are already into a five-game winning streak, and signs of life have included not just a sweep over the Tigers (0 and 7 after Tuesday's 5-0 blanking by the BoSox, who got their World Series rings) but a five-RBI game by A.J. Pierzynski, who capped it off with a game-winning three-run homer. That still didn't prepare this A.J.-jersey-wearing fan for the flashback to 2005 at Monday's home opener against the Twins.

The first couple innings looked like the bad old days, with Javy Vazquez laboring to give up three runs on seven hits through four and the Sox stranding eight base runners in that same span. Ozzie got himself thrown out in the third, arguing balls and strikes for no good reason that I could see. By the sixth, when reliever Matt Guerrier took over for Twins starter Nick Blackburn, the Sox were down 3-2 and Ted Cox and I were dissing the Sox pitcher in song ("Javier Vazquez / You're slow as molasses . . ."). But in the bottom of the seventh, Guerrier walked Jim Thome, and Paul Konerko followed with a single to center. This brought in Twins reliever Pat Neshek, who can't feel very happy about it. Dye, with another single to center, batted in Thome, and after Pierzynski struck out swinging, new outfielder Carlos Quentin, playing in left, followed with yet another hard-hit single.

Konerko, a runner so slow the Sox should raise money for charity by offering fans the chance to challenge him in a footrace, was at third, and with two outs, Ted was feeling tetchy: "Why aren't they pinch running for Paulie?" he griped. "They should pull him, move [Nick] Swisher to first, and play Blondie [i.e., Brian Anderson] in center."

"They're just trying to make a hero out of Joe with his grand slam," I joked. Then it happened: Crede connected on a shattered-bat drive over the left field fence. The kids to my left went nuts, waving their complimentary Sox car flags and screaming with glee. A guy in front of them was so overcome with joy and generosity that when the inning was over he ran to buy them ice cream.

I haven't jumped up and down so much in, oh, three years, and the moment really did recall that charmed season. The Sox won 7-4, but I'd point to bright spots more modest than a game-winning grand slam, beginning with Vazquez, who finally got it together and retired the next 11 batters ("I no worry about him," Ozzie said). Every single player got a hit, and--stop the presses--Juan Uribe took a walk. And there were two crucially timed 6-4-3 double plays, including the last two outs that gave Bobby Jenks (now sporting the team's wackiest chin beard) his fourth save. The Sox are in first place, with the Royals in a surprise second--they beat the Yankees Tuesday--and I'm thinking I won't be making bets like last year's anytime soon.

Having narrowly avoided the basement in last year's Baseball Acumen Test by my blind pick of the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League East (like everyone else I had the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees making the playoffs, although I must insist I got hosed by the last-minute collapse of the San Diego Padres), I courageously reveal my picks this year. And keep in mind I am a former Golden BAT winner, although it was back in my early prime in the mid-80s.

First the American League. I'll stick with the BoSox and Yankees, in that order, in the East, with the Yanks the wild card. I'll join with the majority as well in picking the Los Angeles Angels in the West. But then I'll be a homer and pick the White Sox in the Central, not because I'm so optimistic about the Sox, but because I'm more pessimistic about the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers (not enough pitching). The Sox' Ozzie Guillen is absolutely right in suggesting that Jose Contreras's return to form is essential, but by the same token Ozzie has to return to form and his aggressive ways violating the conventional "baseball book" as a manager. He has to find the right tweaks for a lineup with its considerable talent concentrated in the corner positions, and no I don't think playing Nick Swisher in center field will work. So I'll take the White Sox as a sentimental choice in the AL Central, but the Red Sox to win the pennant.

In the National League, yes, I'm picking the Cubs, even after manager Lou Piniella labeled it "an in-vogue thing ... because of the 100th year" -- that is, the 100 years since the Cubs last won it all. Still, they have good hitting (if they can find a dependable leadoff man), good deep pitching (Jon Lieber will be key before it's all over), and outstanding outfield defense, especially with Felix Pie taking the majority of time in center in a platoon with the newly acquired Reed Johnson. So I'll take the Cubs to win the NL pennant, over the Phils in the East, the Arizona Diamondbacks in the West, and -- dig this, Dusty Baker haters -- the Cincinnati Reds in the wild card, not through any fault of Baker's own, but simply because they have the talent to be this year's Milwaukee Brewers. Look for Baker to stumble into the playoffs almost by accident, much as he did five years ago, just as soon as he wakes up and makes room for Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, and Homer Bailey.

That said, I have to follow Sports Illustrated in picking the Bosox over the Cubs in the World Series. I'm trendy and a homer, but only up to a point. 

When I look at this year's White Sox -- at least, in their everyday lineup -- I see last year's Cubs. Both have abundant talent but lumpy roster configurations, bulbous at the corners and thin up the middle. Yet when Lou Piniella came in as the Cubs' manager a year ago, he was free to experiment. He used more than 120 different lineups over the 162 games -- seemingly trying something new every day early in the year -- until he arrived at things that worked that had previously been discounted, such as playing Ryan Theriot at shortstop, where he hadn't played since the low minors, and putting Jacque Jones in center field.

Can Ozzie Guillen work the same magic? Although Ozzie earned praise for his intuitive approach during the championship 2005 season, ever since he's been overly devoted to players and their set positions -- on the field and in the batting order. The Sox have two players at third and a hole at second, but has Ozzie even considered moving Josh Fields across the infield, the way Lou moved Theriot a year ago?

Apparently not. What's more, it's still unclear how Ozzie will solve the outfield clutter involving Jerry Owens, Nick Swisher, Carlos Quentin, and Brian Anderson -- four players and two spots, with Jermaine Dye apparently set in right. If Ozzie goes with a set lineup, he'll likely put Owens in center and bat him leadoff, with Swisher in left hitting second. General manager Kenny Williams faces a similar dilemma in whether to deal Joe Crede for whatever they can get for him -- not fair value, evidently -- or stick with Crede at third and send Fields back to Triple A Charlotte.

For what it's worth, here's what I'd do: Stick Crede at third and Anderson in center, purely for their stellar defense early in the season, when the weather will make homers scarce and defense imperative. I'd stick Fields at second and deal with his poor range and hope that Joey Cora can teach him to turn a double play in short order. I'd stick Swisher in left and bat him leadoff, but freely insert Owens -- with Swisher, Paul Konerko, or Jim Thome sitting -- depending on the weather conditions and the pitching matchup. Here's my 13-man Sox offensive roster:

Catchers

A.J. Pierzynski, Toby Hall

Infielders

Paul Konerko, Josh Fields, Joe Crede, Orlando Cabrera, Jim Thome, Juan Uribe

Outfielders

Brian Anderson, Nick Swisher, Jermaine Dye, Jerry Owens, Carlos Quentin

I'm sending Danny Richar and Alexei Ramirez to the minors as a double-play combination, both to be returned ASAP or in the event of a Fields catastrophe at second. Here's my opening day lineup in Cleveland against C.C. Sabathia, to be tinkered with on a daily basis after that:

Cabrera, ss
Quentin, lf 
Thome, DH
Konerko, 1b
Dye, rf
Crede, 3b
Fields, 2b
A.J., c
Anderson, cf

Look, I'm not saying I have all the answers. I'm suggesting that Lou found a way to put the best eight position players on the field at the same time last year for the Cubs and it worked out pretty well for them, and with their roster the Sox need to seek out unconventional ways to do the same. If second base is a hole and Richar or Ramirez isn't ready (don't talk to me about Uribe as an everyday player), why not try Fields at second? If a trade needs to be made, and Crede can't be moved, shop Dye instead with an idea of opening right for Swisher and platooning Owens and Quentin in left. What I know is that Anderson and Crede are so good defensively they belong on the field on a daily basis, at least early in the season, when the weather's cold. It will make the pitching better at a time when pitching dominates.

Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak was in town last weekend to tape 15 family-, college-, and sports-themed episodes that will begin airing April 28. Sajak was born in Chicago and grew up around 31st Street and Kedzie. He attended Goethe and Gary elementary schools, graduated from Farragut High School, and went to Columbia College (while working nights as a desk clerk at the Palmer House Hotel), leaving early to enlist in the army in 1968. His mother still lives in Crystal Lake.

Before a taping on Saturday I chatted with Sajak. He recently hosted the Pat Sajak Baseball Hour on mlb.com for three years (he had to end it a year and a half ago because of scheduling conflicts) and became an investor in the Golden Baseball League, an independent professional league with eight teams in the western U.S. and Canada. His son plays baseball for his high school team in Maryland.

Are you a Cubs or a White Sox fan?

You know, I get asked that a lot. I'm a fan of both teams. I've never understood why I had to hate one or the other. I grew up close enough to Comiskey that I could hear the fireworks after games, but I watched the Cubs on TV. And back when Bill Veeck was with the White Sox I used to go to the Sunday double-headers for $1.50.

Any favorite players from those teams?

Well, I followed the White Sox pennant team in '59, so there was Luis Aparicio, Nellie Fox, Ted Kluszewski. On the Cubs I liked Ron Santo, Ernie Banks, Billy Williams.

Did you play baseball growing up?

No, I didn't throw or hit or field or run well--other than that I was a good athlete [laughing].

Have you ever used performance-enhancing drugs?

[Laughing] Yeah, you can tell when I spin the wheel that I've done steroids--I've been injected a few times.

Sajak says that when he got into town last Wednesday he went to the Blackhawks game (they beat the Anaheim Ducks 3-0) and over Thursday and Friday ate lots of hot dogs at Al's #1 Italian Beef (1079 W. Taylor St.). He's "addicted" to Chicago-style hot dogs, he says, and can't find them in LA. Here's his essential-ingredients list.

Pat Sajak's Chicago-style hot dog*

1) Vienna beef

2) Poppy-seed bun, steamed (the steaming is very important, Sajak says)

3) Yellow mustard

4) Onions

5) "Tiny little peppers"

6) Celery salt

* slices of pickle, tomato, and cucumber optional

All right, having looked at the Cubs through the statistical prism of The Bill James Gold Mine 2008, let's see what it says about the White Sox. First, the bullpen was awful last season. No surprise there. Excluding the closers -- and  Bobby Jenks was exceptional -- Sox relievers posted a 5.98 earned-run average. The only stunning fact is that there was a worse team in the American League: the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, with a 6.33 ERA. Just how badly that horrendous bullpen hurt the Sox is shown in another nifty stat: the Sox were ahead more often than not through each of the first four innings last year. (Specifically, through four innings, they were ahead 71 times, behind 64 times, and tied 27 times.) That's an amazing figure for a team that wound up 72-90. Of course, from the fifth inning on, when the middle relief typically entered the game, things got progressively worse. Here's hoping Scott Linebrink and Octavio Dotel are cures for what ailed the bullpen.

Yet the collapse of the Sox wasn't just the bullpen's fault. James points out that every Sox batter with more than 150 at-bats compiled an OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage, a key run-scoring indicator) below his career average. (The only exception was Rob Mackowiak, and when you figure in what he did after being dealt to the San Diego Padres, he too came in below his career average.) That's a team-wide batting slump. And with the Sox' reliance on the home run -- and lack of team speed -- they had a miserable 13-44 record in games they were held without a homer, a .228 winning percentage.

Unfortunately, general manager Kenny Williams didn't address this problem by bringing in a run-producing leadoff man -- unless you count Orlando Cabrera, who may not even hit leadoff. The good news there is that the Sox are due for a team-wide return to the norm in hitting. Still, the law of averages is not something a general manager should generally hang his hopes on.

Reader contributor Ted Cox put me on to a rumor this morning that Steve Stone would be replacing Chris Singleton as Ed Farmer's partner in the Sox radio broadcast booth this season. Then he e-mailed me: "It's true! It's true!"

And truly, this is cause for rejoicing. Chris Singleton is a nice enough guy, but paired with the garrulous, wandering "Farmio," they were a hopeless broadcast team. Here's just a reminder of what Sox fans have had to suffer through the last few seasons, a transcript that Ted took for his sports media column at the Daily Herald (unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be available online).

Ted had received an e-mail from a reader, Bob Belke, who astutely complained, "I can't take it anymore. These guys make Santo sound informative. All Farmer offers is where every major-league player went to high school, or what he did 20 years ago."

That about nails it, as the transcript from the top of the third in a June 20 game against the Florida Marlins shows:

Farmer: Treanor, 31 years of age. Makes his home in Coral Springs, Florida. The last three years he's been with the Marlins. In fact, he signed with them and played right here in Kane County.

Singleton: I was going to ask you about Marlins starter Sergio Mitre, makes his home in San Ysidro, California. Where is that? Gotta be in southern-central or southern Cal.

Farmer: "It's down toward San Diego. They've got a border stop there too. That pitch down and in for ball one." (No, you haven't missed it; Farmer hasn't named the batter yet.) "And you know when you drive back to Los Angeles from San Diego that you're gonna have to make that stop and sometimes it takes you 15, 20 minutes to get through there. . .

[Next, a tangent on eye black.]

Singleton: Looking at some of the eye black, I guess you'd say, that the Marlins have on. They look like Dale Torborg, one of the strength coaches for the White Sox, when he's doing his wrestling in the off-season. The eye black's not just a strip. If you look under Amezaga's eyes, it's almost like a rock band, there are all kinds of jagged edges to it. Several of the Marlins players have that going on.

Farmer: You can't put that on and touch it. You have to leave it alone. That's hard to do. Uggla takes that one in the dirt for ball one. You fool with that or guys'll come and, you know, without you knowing, say, "Hey, nice going," you know, give you a little tap on the cheek, they're moving that eye black around. Cal Ripken used to wear his, he had the stick-on stuff. Did you ever see that over there with Florida?

Singleton: Oh, yeah.  That's what I used.  Just a little peel, that little strip.  Yeah, those go on and come off easy . . .

Take my word for it, this is wholly representative of just how bad the team of Farmer and Singleton was. I'd find myself yelling at the radio, "What's the score?! Tell us the score!" Stone, the longtime Cubs announcer, can be overbearing and a bit pompous sometimes, but there's no question he knows his stuff. Of course, there's still the problem of Farmer . . . 

John Rooney, any interest? 

UPDATE: Ted Cox's Herald piece on the move is up now. 

Time capsule 1980: Jane Byrne is mayor, the Cubs are still owned by the Wrigley family, and Harry Caray is still calling games for the White Sox, who are still owned by Bill Veeck and still play at Comiskey Park. The Cubs roster includes local legends like Rick Reuschel, Bruce Sutter, Dave Kingman, and Lee Smith--and Mike Royko defects from Cubs fandom?

Sure enough, in a Q & A by Sydney Weisman that ran in the Reader May 9, 1980, Royko announced with much fanfare that he'd had enough. Here's a partial transcript of his conversation with her:

I spoke with Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Mike Royko shortly after he made a major life decision. Following is an edited version of our conversation:

Sydney Weisman: What took you so long to become a White Sox fan? 

Mike Royko: It took me until there were players I did not like as people. That's really the truth. I've been watching this Cub team for a couple of years and something was bothering me about it and I couldn't figure out what it was about this team that bothered me. And then I realized I don't like these guys. I don't like whiners, I don't like people who go out and cry to the public about their problems when they have no problems. At a time when people at all levels of life are really having a hard time making it, you have a bunch of grown men, not even grown men, young men making these incredible sums of money and just crying and moaning. I don't care how unhappy they are, and what their business dealings are. I don't care how much money they make. I just don't understand people going public with this. Like Sutter did, and like [Jerry] Martin, their center fielder, these guys are a bunch of jerks. So what am I doing here, wasting my time, cheering for jerks?

SW: Can we expect to see you at Comiskey Park?

MR: Yeah, I'm going to broadcast part of one of the ball games. 

SW: With Harry?

MR: Yeah, with Harry. I'm learning to say na-na-na-na and Holy Cow. . . . I really don't know much about the Sox, being a Cubs fan all those years. I didn't feel it was right to watch the Sox.

SW: But like this weekend, you'll begin?

MR: Yeah, I couldn't begin, though, until I'd taken the oath. Now I don't even know that Dave Kingman exists. I wish them well, but I'll never see them again . . .

Royko went to Comiskey, reporting in a subsequent column that "it was an uplifting spiritual experience. Veeck bought me a couple of beers; Harry Caray welcomed me and bellowed 'Holy Cow' in my left ear." The honeymoon didn't last long, though: a few months later, when Veeck sold the Sox to Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn, Royko used the transfer as a pretext to go back to the Cubs--who for his pains went 64-98 and placed last in the NL East (though in fairness I should acknowledge that the Sox went 70-90).

The next year the Cubs would be sold to Tribune Company, Harry Caray would begin broadcasting games on WGN, and a new era would begin.

Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus is out with his annual list of the top 100 minor-league prospects, but don't waste your time hunting for all the Chicago players on it. The Cubs placed two -- Geovany Soto at 37 and Josh Vitters at 45 -- and the Sox just one, Aaron Poreda at 87. Suffice to say it's hard times down on the farm for Chicago's baseball teams.

Cubs fans got a glimpse of Soto at the end of last season, and they liked what they saw. After a Most Valuable Player season at Triple-A Iowa, where he hit .353 with 26 homers and 109 runs batted in, he batted .389 with three more homers and eight RBI while catching 18 games in September. Manager Lou Piniella liked what he saw, too, as Soto started the first two games of the playoffs in Arizona. His homer off Doug Davis to put the Cubs briefly ahead in Game Two was the high point of the series for them, as they went on to be swept in three games. General manager Jim Hendry evidently liked it too: he let Jason Kendall go in free agency to make Soto the de facto Cubs' starting catcher this season. A 37 ranking isn't exactly can't-miss territory, but if Soto can hit 20 homers while batting respectably and calling a good game, he'll fit right in. BP's Pecota projection says Soto should approach those numbers. Just as important where the Cubs are concerned, he's got the matinee-idol looks to have the Wrigley Field tube-top brigade sighing for years.

A few Cubs fans got a glimpse of Vitters as well, but they probably didn't realize it. The Cubs' top choice and third overall in the June draft out of Cypress High School in California, he was considered the top high-school hitter available, and upon signing in August they let the then 17-year-old suit up and take batting practice before a game. He's lean and slight, but the ball jumps off his bat, and the projection is he'll fill out and hit for power in playing the position once held by Ron Santo. But for now it's all speculation. He hit .067 in seven games in his Rookie League debut in Mesa, and not much better at .190 in seven more games at short-season Boise. He figures to be at least four years away, but a 45 ranking is high praise for a teenager and marks high promise.

Poreda was the Sox' top draft choice too, 25th overall last June, out of the University of San Francisco, and he had a much more impressive debut at Great Falls in the Rookie League. The lefty was undefeated in four decisions, with a sparkling 1.17 earned-run average, with 48 strikeouts against 10 walks in 46 innings. Bears fans should like him, too, as he played defensive end and tight end in high school, and has filled out to 6-foot-6 and 240 pounds. His three-quarter-sidearm delivery -- think a big Billy Wagner -- produces a fastball that has touched 100 miles an hour and a nasty sinker, but thus far has kept him from developing any other breaking or off-speed pitches. His fastest route to the majors is as a reliever, and if the Sox go through what they did last year in the bullpen, it's not unthinkable the 21-year-old could be called up this year, though the Sox would no doubt prefer to take it slow and see if he can develop as a starter.

The Sox would have had another couple of pitchers in the top 100, but instead they included the highly touted Fautino de los Santos (46) and Gio Gonzalez (56) in the Nick Swisher trade. That left them with "arguably the thinnest farm system in baseball," according to Baseball America's Phil Rogers. So, Sox fans, just consider Nick Swisher your top new prospect for years to come.

There wasn't much doing at baseball's winter meetings in Nashville, Tennessee, this week, especially where the Cubs and White Sox were concerned. Only one major free agent signed: Andruw Jones, who's going to the Los Angeles Dodgers for $36.2 million for two years. (Where did LA general manager Ned Colletti learn to spend that kind of money? Not doing media relations for the Cubs in the early years of the Tribune era, that's for sure.) Only one blockbuster trade came off, but it was a doozy, with the Detroit Tigers obtaining Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera from the Florida Marlins for six highly regarded prospects. A fan might think this would put a little urgency in the step of Sox GM Kenny Williams, but in a record-breaking case of denial he replied, "All this has done is put the Tigers in a better position to compete with us." True, the Sox are only two years removed from their world championship, while the Tigers are one year past their American League pennant, and neither made the playoffs last season, but the Tigers were a lot closer at 88 wins than the Sox at 72 last season.

The Sox made one deal early on, obtaining Carlos Quentin from the Arizona Diamondbacks for single-A player Chris Carter, and I like the trade even though it hurts personally. I can vouch for Quention, as he was on my National League-only rotisserie team, which means I now lose the rights to him. Losing him to the Sox eases the pain, however. Quentin hits for power, and more than that he has a discerning batting eye. Factor in his penchant for being hit by pitches and he's an on-base machine, something the Sox badly needed. He was hurt last year and fell out of favor in Arizona, and Baseball Prospectus weighed in preferring Carter's potential, but Quentin looks to me to be just the sort of player who benefits from a change of scenery. Pencil him in for 20 homers, 80 runs batted in, and a .350 on-base percentage in left field -- and watch him build on those numbers in the years ahead, barring injury.

Otherwise, however, the Sox stood pat, and Williams got cranky about being unable to pull off deals for Cabrera and Torii Hunter. I like that the Sox seem ready to give Brian Anderson another shot at center, but they still need a leadoff man (neither Jerry Owens nor Danny Richar seemed ready to fill that critical position last season), and the bullpen remains in shambles even with the acquisition of Scott Linebrink.

The Cubs were quiet for the most part too, but the Sox could have benefitted from the sort of minor tweaking the Cubs pulled off in obtaining hard-throwing bullpen help in prospects Jose Ascanio from Atlanta in a trade and then Tim Lahey in a deal growing out of the Rule Five draft of unprotected minor leaguers. Both have impressive stats and 90-mile-an-hour fastballs, and they bolster an already overstocked bullpen with the return of Kerry Wood.

The Cubs are reportedly lying in the weeds for Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukodome should he decide to come to America, but otherwise they seem prepared to give Felix Pie another shot in center. He could still be great if he improves his plate discipline and learns to cover that hole in his swing on the inside corner with improved bunting. So they still look like an NL playoff team, and they stake their improvement on adding Geovany Soto at catcher, which seems well placed. But if they sign Fukodome, look for Kenny Williams to insist that only puts the Cubs in better position to compete with the Sox for Chicago's baseball fans.

White Sox General Manager Kenny Williams knew he had to shore up the team's bullpen over the off-season after it imploded last summer, but I'm not exactly enamored of his first move along those lines. Williams signed National League middle reliever Scott Linebrink this week to a four-year deal worth $19 million. Yet one of the reasons no one was willing to bid more is that he's a 31-year-old who looked washed up with two different teams last season.

Linebrink can pitch, no doubt about it. He came into his own with the San Diego Padres in 2004 with a 2.14 earned-run average, and he improved the following year to a sparkling 1.83. He went on in 2006 to lead the NL in holds -- the stat created to reward middle relievers for holding a lead -- but his ERA almost doubled to 3.57. It rose again last year to 3.71, as he lost his job as setup man for closer Trevor Hoffman to Heath Bell in San Diego and was dealt to the Milwaukee Brewers, who at that point outbid Williams and the Sox for his services by offering up three minor-league pitchers. He went on to lose three more games in Milwaukee, which is why perhaps the Brewers didn't outbid Williams for him as a free agent.

While Linebrink's ERA went down slightly in Milwaukee, Bill James's component ERA stat suggests he benefited from some luck and actually pitched worse. His strikeouts also diminished, a sign of a pitcher on the decline. The most troubling stat is that while Linebrink allowed only four homers in 74 innings in 2005, since then he's given up 21 homers in 138 innings, for the most part in pitcher-friendly San Diego. Now he's moving to a tougher league and to Sox Park, a relative launching pad for homers. The Bill James Handbook forecasts a slight improvement next year to a 3.60 ERA, but that's projecting him pitching in Milwaukee. So this signing has all the earmarks of someone paying too much for a recognized name whose good reputation is out of date.

I hope I'm wrong and Linebrink rebounds to his 2005 level, and he suggests the trade briefly caused him to lose focus last summer, but in the meantime I wouldn't give up on even Mike MacDougal just yet. Williams wisely rejected getting in a bidding war for Torii Hunter, who while an excellent player will probably not be worth the $18 million a year he'll be getting at the end of his new five-year contract with the Anaheim Angels. Yet just because the price was lower for Linebrink doesn't mean the Sox won't wind up regretting it even more at the end of the deal.

As I've written before, White Sox general manager Kenny Williams seems content to take another victory lap with his 2005 championship team -- in 2008, mind you. But his deal of starter Jon Garland for shortstop Orlando Cabrera means the Sox will field a better team -- four out of five days, anyway. For that reason, it's always been an old baseball saw that you don't trade an everyday position player for a pitcher, and the illustrations of that being wrong are few and far between (although the Detroit Tigers trading Howard Johnson for ace reliever and soon-to-be 1984 MVP Willie Hernandez comes quickly to mind). Score that for the Sox. But Garland is 28 to Cabrera's 33; score that for the Anaheim Angels. Otherwise, the more you look at the deal, the more it seems a wash, just a bit of tweaking for both teams.

Garland was an essential part of the 2005 champs, no doubt. When he developed the grit to stand tough and win 18 games -- two years running, as it turned out -- it's part of what made those Sox a powerhouse. But he seemed to lose interest at times last season, and who wouldn't on a 90-loss team? He was signed only through next season (as is Cabrera, although Williams insists he wants an extension) and expressed little interest in giving the team the sort of "hometown discount" that kept Mark Buehrle in the fold. How much better would he have gotten? The brand-new Bill James Handbook 2008 projected him at 10-13 with a 4.22 earned-run average next season with the Sox -- no great loss, although if Williams thinks he can replace that with John Danks or Gio Gonzalez, more power to him. And the possibility always remains that Garland could thrive in a return to his southern California homeland.

What did the Sox get in return? A really good player, but one due for a downturn. Cabrera hit eight home runs, drove in 86 runs, and batted .301 last season while scoring a career-high 101 runs, and his .345 on-base percentage was close to a career high. But his Gold Glove was a typical product of sportswriter voters rewarding a hitter who plays decent defense. John Dewan's "Fielding Bible Awards" in the James handbook ranked him 11th in the majors, and he didn't even place in the top ten overall for the last three years combined. James projected him at nine homers, 73 runs batted in, and a .273 batting average next season in Anaheim, and he should better those numbers at relatively homer-happy Sox Park. But a player who doesn't walk much shouldn't be expected to sustain his performance into his late 30s. He's better than Juan Uribe, sure, but only for a year or two.

What does it all mean -- or at least indicate where Williams's motives are concerned? It seems clear he wants to make another run at a title with a veteran team, what with Jermaine Dye, Paul Konerko, Jim Thome, and A.J. Pierzynski all signed for the next couple of years, and if Joe Crede returns at third base alongside Cabrera that would make for an air-tight left side of the infield. But if that means moving Josh Fields to left field, where Scott Podsednik just got moved out, where do the Sox find a leadoff man, especially if they pursue Torii Hunter -- an excellent player, but not a leadoff man, and not worth the multiyear deal he's demanding -- in center? Then the only opening is at second base, where among potential leadoff men Luis Castillo has already signed with the Mets and Kaz Matsui seems set with the Astros. Is Williams prepared to bet the house on Danny Richar as a leadoff man? He ain't no Dustin Pedroia, the sort of young star real repeat champs find to replace a veteran. Regardless, it's a veteran White Sox team, even as Williams is already relying on Danks, Gonzalez, and Gavin Floyd to fill out the rotation. And in the words of another baseball saw, young pitchers will break your heart.

Fun as it's been to watch the Cubs on their dash toward the playoffs, I've been every bit as involved with the White Sox the last few weeks, even as they've trudged home, hard-pressed to match the woeful 72 wins Baseball Prospectus's Nate Silver predicted of them. No mystery there; I simply have more invested -- literally if not emotionally -- in their success.

Back in midsummer, I rashly bet my Sox pal Kate a bottle of Blanton's to her bottle of Rebel Yell that the Sox would finish ahead of the even-more-woebegone Kansas City Royals. That's a ratio of a little more than 3-to-1, to judge from the prices listed at Sam's. The Sox fell into a tie for last in the American League Central in late July, but then rallied with nine wins in thirteen games, so it looked as if they might actually catch the Minnesota Twins for third instead. Yet that was when the bottom fell out, most awfully with an eight-game skid in mid-August that sent them into the basement. It's been back and forth ever since, never more frustrating than when they split a four-game series in Kansas City last week.

So I've cheered Jose Contreras's revival and Josh Fields's heroics against the Twins' Johan Santana, which led to an AL Player of the Week Award for the rookie, as much as every homer by the Cubs' Alfonso Soriano, Derrek Lee, and Aramis Ramirez. Even Jim Thome's 500th homer was noteworthy mainly for being a game winner. With the Royals' 3-2 loss to the Orioles tonight, the Sox have a one-game lead with KC coming to Sox Park tomorrow. This week's three-game series figures to be as exciting -- to me, anyway -- as the Cubs' final and potentially division-clinching sets in Florida and Cincinnati.

So for Sox fans looking to put some excitement back in the last week of a miserable season, I'd advise finding a way to bet for -- or against -- the Sox. Even if I lose, I'm hoping that Kate will offer me a snort of the good stuff to ease the pain.

The Cubs sent Felix Pie down to Triple-A Iowa before opening the second half of the season after the All-Star break. The writing was on the wall: manager Lou Piniella had been favoring Angel Pagan of late in center field. Pie was hitting only .216 with two homers and 18 runs batted in, while Pagan was hitting .267 with three homers and 13 RBI in fewer at-bats. Yet, as Paul Sullivan pointed out today in the Tribune, the Cubs were 32-16 in games Pie appeared in. Some of that was no doubt padded slightly by games where Pie was inserted late as a defensive replacement with the Cubs ahead, but a .667 winning percentage speaks for itself, especially on a team only one game over .500 overall. Pie had six stolen bases to Pagan's three, and also had shown progress in plate discipline, with 11 walks against 139 at-bats, for an on-base percentage of .272 -- not great by any means, but not abysmal. Most important, the Cubs simply looked better with Pie in center field. He has great range and had yet to make an error, and that played a factor in the team's improved pitching since his arrival. If the Cubs sent him down because they think he was overmatched and needs more seasoning, fine, but if they think the team is better without him, they're wrong. A sharp-fielding center fielder brings a lot of intangibles to a team, and those intangibes are made tangible when a record of 32-16 turns up in games a center fielder plays. That's no accident.

Which brings to mind the White Sox and Brian Anderson. Anderson played center field like Jesus' son last season. Baseball Prospectus estimated he saved the team 12 runs over the average center fielder -- almost a run every 10 games he played in, which is considerable. The Sox looked better early in the season, when Anderson was playing more, than they did later, when manager Ozzie Guillen was giving Rob Mackowiak more time in center. There's no denying Anderson struggled early, but when he bottomed out at .152 on June 10, the Sox were already 38-23 and about to run off nine straight wins. Yet for some reason the Sox and Guillen did nothing but doubt Anderson, even after he started hitting. They urged him to play winter ball, attacked him when he resisted, and pooh-poohed it when he came home from Venezuela early with stomach problems. They never really seemed to want to play him this season with the acquisition of Darin Erstad, and at one point Guillen even played Anderson in left with Erstad in center -- inexcusable. True, he was hitting an anemic .118 when sent back to Triple-A Charlotte April 29, but that was in 17 at-bats over 13 games.

I'm not necessarily saying Anderson would have saved the Sox' season. He's hit only .255 at Charlotte, with eight homers and 31 RBI, while suffering from a shoulder injury. But it couldn't have been any worse. The Sox were 12-11 when Anderson was sent down, meaning they're 28-36 without him on the roster. Also, small sample size or not, I can't resist pointing out that the Sox' record with Anderson starting in center this season was 2-1 for a winning percentage of, you guessed it, .667.

We won't know about the White Sox until Monday's season opener, but manager Ozzie Guillen returned in midseason form when his team worked out at White Sox Park Sunday. In spite of the Sox' major-league-worst 10-22 record in exhibitions this spring, Guillen maintained he didn't call the workout for the players -- "My guys don't need this," he said -- but for the media, "the great Chicago media." As usual, Guillen was playing, clowning, giving the reporters, beat writers, and odd columnists what they wanted, while insulting them as they all huddled in the dugout while the players on the field dodged fast-moving showers during batting practice. "Wait," responded Cheryl Raye-Stout of WBEZ 91.5-FM, rising to the bait, "even your son is in the media now," referring to Ozzie Jr., who has a show on WSCR 670-AM. "And he's an asshole too," Guillen said. Everyone laughed. Guillen has done a great job drawing the attention to himself while letting his players work their way into shape this spring, but when the games start in earnest Monday they'd better hit the ground running and leave their spring lethargy behind, else the laughs all around will be harder to come by.

The Milwaukee Brewers. For some reason, I like the Milwaukee Brewers this year.

I don't know what to base that upon, except to say that I have a good feeling about them. And what's wrong with that? The vaunted Baseball Prospectus, my baseball guidebook of choice, pegged the White Sox to win 72 games this season--which might be worrisome if it hadn't picked them to win 71 games two years ago, when they won the World Series. Even the Saint Louis Cardinals last season took the worst team they'd had in years and somehow parlayed that into the playoffs in the National League's weak Central Division and ran the table from there to win the championship.

So this year I'm picking by feel--it's as valid as any other approach--and I like the Brewers. They've been rebuilding for years, and the talent has finally arrived in the form of Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, J.J. Hardy, and Corey Hart, and I think they'll get some help yet from Ryan Braun once he polishes his fielding back in the minors. I like Ben Sheets to finally put together a full season and anchor the pitching staff, and that will be enough to get the Brewers into first in the NL Central. From there, give me the San Diego Padres in the NL West, which should also produce the wild-card team in the Los Angeles Dodgers, but not until they stop dicking around with old farts like Luis Gonzalez and Brett Tomko and finally give playing time to James Loney and Chad Billingsley. For that reason, the Arizona Diamondbacks could surprise with their talented young lineup--if they get enough production from Randy Johnson (a big if for the Big Unit). Throw the Cubs into that "could" category as well, but I don't like their defense any more than their pitchers figure to. I don't like the New York Mets' pitching at all, and for that reason I don't like any team in the NL East, so I'll take the Philadelphia Phillies under the theory that I was simply a year early picking them last season. I'll take the Padres to advance to the World Series, with Jake Peavy besting Sheets, but I still like the Brewers as my surprise team. Now that the Seligs are no longer associated with our neighbors to the north, what's not to like?

I'm taking the White Sox in the American League Central, but more by process of elimination than by choice. I think the Detroit Tigers' young pitching will pay the price for going so deep into the season last year, much as the Sox did last year and the Cubs' Mark Prior and Kerry Wood have ever since 2003, and now Kenny Rogers is out for three months. The Cleveland Indians and the Minnesota Twins just don't have enough pitching, although the Tribe will have enough to claim the wild card if Joe Borowski holds up as bullpen closer.

In spite of their off-season defections, the Oakland Athletics will be the best of a bad bunch in the AL West, as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim pay the karmic price for signing Gary Matthews Jr.--and for having a ridiculous name. Give me the Boston Red Sox in the East, as their pitching is better than the New York Yankees'--if  they can get the same sort of full season out of Josh Beckett I'm predicting the Brewers will get out of Sheets. I'll take the White Sox to return as champs--and win it all, because by then they'll have found a way to mix knuckleballer Charlie Haeger into the rotation to complement all those fireballing relievers they have in the bullpen. What better suits picking by intuition than to expect big things from the knuckler?

When you swing both ways as a fan, what better place is there to watch a game between the Cubs and the White Sox than Crew, the gay sports bar in Uptown? Actually, the venue was dictated by my Sox pal Kate, who refused to watch in Wrigleyville. Bipartisan myself, I wore my 1917 Sox cap in solidarity, but all were welcome at Crew, especially baseball fans: Crew has three wide-screen TVs above its bar and the WGN-TV broadcast from Mesa got center stage, pushing basketball and arena football to the sides. Len Kasper and Bob Brenly's call was piped over the sound system.

It was as if everyone there just wanted spring to arrive. The place was packed Sunday--we got the last open table--but fans who simply enjoyed the company of the game greatly outnumbered those who clapped or groaned with each score. Sox fans did almost all the clapping and Cubs fans most of the groaning, though. Paul Konerko homered in the first off the Cubs' Rich Hill--still working himself back into shape with that long, elegant, rear-back-and-fire delivery of his--while Sox starter Jon Garland's changeup was in midseason form. A parade of Cubs relievers went from bad to worse, while the young Sox phenoms competing for the fifth spot in the rotation--knuckleballer Charlie Haeger and hard-throwing lefties John Danks and Gio Gonzalez--all impressed. Danks displayed a snapdragon curve and an ability to turn his fastball over against righties, and the high-kicking Gonzalez showed a live arm and got style points for the extra-long bill of his cap. The Cubs' lone bright spot was newly acquired $136 million man Alfonso Soriano, who aroused memories of Ernie Banks not only with his wrist-powered swing but, as Kate charitably pointed out, with his smile standing on base after a hit.

In the end, the Sox pounded the Cubs 13-2, as new manager Lou Piniella's grizzled beard seemed to grow a quarter-inch during the game. Crew has toned down its menu, but it still offers the double-fisted burger and threesome grilled cheese sandwich. By any name, the food is superior to the offerings at the average sports bar, and the sightlines are terrific. When a guy tried to make time with a couple at the next table, temporarily blocking our view of the wide-screen TV, we turned and watched the one in the corner. Still, when the Cubs travel to Tucson for the rematch with the Sox in two weeks, I think we'll try to make the trip down to Bridgeport and Cobblestones, where the muffuletta stomps any burger, even double-fisted.