Thad Bosley

The White Sox are certainly "All In" today!

If the baseball world could put up with Sammy Sosa and that obnoxious hopping he used to do right out of the batter's box as he watched one of his homers leave the park, followed by taking those little baby steps around the bases and then the point-to-the-sky thing when he reached home plate, and oh yeah, the heart tapping and mugging to the camera show afterwards in the dugout, they ought to be ok with Lastings and his removing-of-the-helmet routine as he reaches home plate.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Mar 9, 2011 -> 04:50 PM) I remember Robin and Franks debuts that year. There wasn't a whole lot else to watch on those teams. I can't imagine how Soxtalk would have looked if they had to watch that baseball being played. On Robin's debut team from 1989, yes - not a whole lot to watch there. They were a last place team. But Frank's debut team of 1990 was a terrific one. That club came out of nowhere to give the then-mighty Oakland A's a run for their money in the AL West that summer. It was the last year at Old Comiskey Park, too, which added to all of the fun that year. And for Frank's part, he hit the ground running. He batted .330 to go along with a .983 OPS in 240 bats, on his way, of course, to becoming the greatest hitter in White Sox history.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Feb 1, 2011 -> 06:45 PM) This piling-on is getting so stupid... He has a career OPS+ of 97, with some gap power and a reasonable .330 career OBP. That isn't indicative of "suck." It's indicative of "average." If Teahen's 2007-2009 seasons, where he was a full-time player for the Royals with at least 544 at-bats in each of those seasons, coupled with what we all witnessed last season, comes across to you as "average" offensive production, what body of work from other MLB players with similar amount of at-bats and at the same positions Teahen has played would qualify them as "less than average"? That's really my point, here. What some may be charitably willing to classify this guy's production as "average", I am saying it seems to me as "below average". Remember - if there is "average" production out there, there then has to be "less than average" production somewhere. I believe that's what Teahen has provided throughout his career to date.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Jan 30, 2011 -> 11:00 AM) This is true, and a lot of people are conveniently forgetting it. That said, I tend to agree with those who don't think that he's going to hit .275 with 20 HRs (even if he got the at-bats, which he probably won't). He doesn't suck nearly as badly offensively as some people here want to believe, but he's still not good enough to play a high-OPS position on a major league team. Any chance that Kenny shops Teahen and offers to eat half of his salary? Or does he want to keep him around in case Morel doesn't pan out immediately? Conveniently forgetting what, exactly? That he might have had a week or two there where he was hitting ok before he went down with his injury? Whatever. Truth is up until then he was hitting as he's pretty much hit his previous five, full years in the league, when he's featured a routine no-power/no-speed/high-strikeout offensive performance. Outside of his admittedly nice performance way back in 2006, I don't see how you can't conclude that this guy doesn't "suck" bad offensively, especially if you fairly compare him to his peers around the league at the "high-ops positions" at which he plays.

QUOTE (Lemon_44 @ Jan 30, 2011 -> 12:03 AM) I may be the only one who thinks Teahan is going to have a nice year. I thought he was just starting to get comfortable and his hitting was picking up when he got hurt. By the time he returned, Vizquel had unexpectadly played so well that is was hard to remove him from the lineup. I argued last year that there is an ajustment period that everyone goes through probably even moreso with Ozzie. He should feel alot more comfortable this year and I think could easily hit about .275 with 20 HR and 70-80 RBI. I'd think anyone would take that. By no means am I ready to hand over 3rd to Morel based on a late season call up. He shows promise but so have alot of guys. Either one will have to earn it. What makes you think Teahen might "easily hit" at this level? Prior to his abysmal 2010 season with the Sox, he had three 524+ at-bat seasons with Kansas City, where the most he was able to muster was 15 homers and 60 RBIs. I'm sorry - he has done NOTHING during his six year career now to suggest he's able to hit at the levels you suggest - levels that aren't even all that great, truth be told. Certainly not for a corner infielder/outfielder, the positions he's purportedly headed to play.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jan 29, 2011 -> 11:01 AM) Here's the pre-ST Teahen fluff piece. 350-400 at-bats for Teahen is about 150-200 more than I was hoping for.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jan 28, 2011 -> 01:17 PM) Way before my time! Ron Kittle 1983 Rookie of the Year and lone Sox representative in the '83 All-Star game at Comiskey Park Don Kessinger

QUOTE (klaus kinski @ Jan 13, 2011 -> 03:36 PM) Baines' catch that saved Seaver's no-hitter. Huh? Seaver didn't throw a no-hitter in a Sox uniform.

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Jan 13, 2011 -> 11:46 AM) I love that the Sox do this with their young guys. Is this "camp" limited to just our young guys, or could a guy who could use a lot of help on his infield defense, say, like a Mark Teahen, also participate?

QUOTE (Heads22 @ Dec 16, 2010 -> 12:40 PM) Can't say we aren't trying. What we can say is that they seem to be finding a lot of coinage in between and underneath those seat cushions!

QUOTE (Buehrlesque @ Dec 16, 2010 -> 11:32 AM) Hey, you make a lot of good points overall in this post. No doubt Beltran is a longshot. But just sayin': if Quentin ($~5.5 mil) is traded, and Teahen ($4.5 mil) is included in the Beltran deal with a Kyle Bellamy and/or Nathan Jones and the Mets pick up $6 mil or so on his contract, the whole series of transactions is nearly payroll neutral. Not saying that makes it likely, just that the Mets aren't going to get a ton of quality prospects for Beltran in any case, and this might be feasible if guys like Quentin/Pierre/Jackson are moved out. If not, of course it's not going to happen and the team will be worse off if it trades Quentin or a SP for prospects to save cash. Can we just stop with the talk about Pierre being traded? He is not going anywhere, no matter how much he is not liked on Soxtalk. If anything, in reality he's probably as much of a lock to be on the 2011 roster as anybody on this team.

I don't know why people keep coming up with these Juan Pierre trade scenarios. He's clearly not going anywhere. Guillen loves him, and unlike with guys like Quentin and Beckham, there has been no speculation whatsoever this offseason about him being moved. He has one year left on his current contract, and he'll serve out that year as the Sox' leftfielder and lead-off hitter.

QUOTE (Charlie Haeger's Knuckles @ Dec 10, 2010 -> 02:37 PM) For as much flack as Teahen takes, its because of his 3B defense (was anyone really surprised?) and his contract - but not for his bat. His valuation is based on his hitting (again, ignoring WAR). Keep his glove away from 3B and he'll earn that 4.75 million. If puttiong Teahen on the field and in the lineup 2 or 3 times a week keeps Quentin out of RF, I am all for it. Nobody should have been surprised by Teahen last season, least of all any fans of the AL Central. He played like he did with the Sox last year - meaning he was sub-par offensively and defensively - for five full seasons with the Royals prior to coming to us. That includes being lousy with the glove in the outfield. So it's bad enough that he will more or less be the 25th man on the roster next year as a result of that contract we can't unload. Just please don't suggest he be run out to the field in any capacity at any frequency approaching regularity.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 03:01 PM) The argument isn't even about SB's, as I think anyone will tell you they are valuable - in a vacuum. The issue is effectiveness, which comes from rate. A guy who steals 18 in 20 attempts is more valuable than a guy who steals 50 but gets caught 30. The negative value of a CS is more than the positive value of a SB. His success rate in stealing last year was 79%, and if I'm not mistaken, the threshold for being a good stealer is 80%. So from that perspective, he was fairly effective at the craft of stealing bases last year, especially given that he accomplished the feat more than anyone else in the league. Couple that with the very good defense he featured in left field, and I hardly think we have a "terrible" player on our hands here. Great, no. Good, probably not. Decent, probably. Terrible, no. I would save the terrible label for a guy like Teahen, who for the most part is below average in almost every aspect of the game.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Dec 9, 2010 -> 02:51 PM) Just because we don't have anybody better doesn't mean that JP sucks any less. How the f*** does a major league baseball player amass 22 extra base hits in 734 PAs? He's terrible. I don't care, And stolen bases have long proven to be overrated. Why do you think they are overrated? Any time you can put yourself in a better position to score is a very good thing.

At the end of these three years, barring any significant lost playing time, Paulie will probably unseat Frank Thomas as the Sox' all-time homeruns and hits leader.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 7, 2010 -> 05:20 PM) According to the Chicago Sun-Times' Joe Cowley, the White Sox are considering Derrek Lee as a Plan B or C at first base. We know the above, so just sign D-Lee already. Plan A = Konerko Plan B = Gonzalez Plan C = Fielder Plan D = Lee

It really is somewhat remarkable how switching out the name of "Kotsay" and replacing it with "Dunn" changes the entire complexion of our line-up, no matter where you bat him.

Good grief! All of this action in the last 24 hours, and we still have all of next week to get through. Phew!!

If Adam Dunn plays his usual 158-161 games a season throughout the length of this contract while keeping up his typical home run production, he'll be hitting his 500th career home run in a White Sox uniform sometime during the fourth year of the contract.

Not another year of this Oney Baloney crapola. Oy!

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Nov 29, 2010 -> 08:43 AM) If we swap Konerko and Dunn for about the same price (which seems likely for the duration of the contracts), I cannot see how anyone could be disappointed on the baseball side of things. Dunn is a much better bet to be productive next year, the following year and the third year in a deal. I love Konerko, but if the choice is Dunn at $12 million per year or Konerko at that same price (let's say give or take $2 million), I am running with Dunn despite how much I love Paulie on a personal level. Before last year's incredible year, Paulie was an average player at his position. Year Team G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS 2007 CWS 151 549 71 142 34 0 31 90 78 102 0 1 .259 .351 .490 .841 2008 CWS 122 438 59 105 19 1 22 62 65 80 2 0 .240 .344 .438 .782 2009 CWS 152 546 75 151 30 1 28 88 58 89 1 0 .277 .353 .489 .842 He has had a great career here, but at 35 years old when the season starts, I would expect a year closer to an .820 OPS than a .950 OPS. Sentimentality aside, the Sox need the most efficient player for the money and Adam Dunn is definitely that. Let's not forget that in this specific scenario, if we sign Dunn, we would also be losing our #1 draft choice to the Nationals next year. We're a little further down in the draft order next year as a result of that "debacle" of winning 88 games this year (sorry, Thunderbolt - couldn't resist!), but our first round drafting in recent years has been pretty good. So although you are correct in terms of talking about a more efficient use of money when comparing Dunn to Konerko one-on-one, you also have to take into consideration the probability and likelihood of missing out on several years of production from a top flight talent as a result of surrendering the draft pick.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 18, 2010 -> 01:56 PM) the Cubs know damn well they need Wrigley to continue doing what they do. Even if they tear it down, they'd just rebuild an almost identical stadium in the same place (but with better bathrooms, walkways, etc.). They'd play a year someplace else, probably multiple other fields, mostly The Cell. That's where it would get sort of interesting for them. There isn't a whole lotta real estate to play with over there, as the park is more or less jammed into that space as it is. How do they make the kind of changes they'd like in a new park with such limited space to do so? It's a similar bind as to what eventually brought the steep upper deck to the New Comiskey Park. As you might recall, the Sox were restricted as to how far they could expand (i.e. the width of the park) due to similar space constraints, and that unfortunately resulted in them going in the only direction they could go, which was up. For the Cubs to try and avoid obstructed views themselves, as well as provide additional places for dining, shopping, skyboxes, and what not, it would be interesting to see how they could accomplish that without building upwards as well.

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Nov 17, 2010 -> 04:36 PM) Jason Churchill now going in on this rumor too. Wonders is the Phillies would try and get rid of Ibanez. Maybe Ibanez + Cash for Quentin and someone else. Ibanez had a sub-par year last season, and he's going to be 39 next summer. No thankee!