There are some things that are better left in the past. Sometimes, cutesy poo relics from a bygone era need to stay there. Not everything must be reclaimed and re-appreciated. Some things are just ugly – no amount of squinting or “look at me!” contrarian takes can save them.
The Chicago White Sox hear your plaintive pleas to not go there and ignore them. Remember those crazy/hideous uniforms with SOX written across the chest from the 80s? They’re coming back, baby.
The Chicago White Sox and starting pitcher Jake Peavy have agreed on a two year contract exgension that will pay the right-hander a guaranteed $29 million. The deal also includes a club option for a third year that becomes a player option if Peavy attains a certain amount of innings pitched over the next two seasons. He will also receive the $4 million buyout from his previous deal, in place of the $22 million that the team would’ve had to pay him for 2013 if they picked up the original club option.
It’s a good deal for both the pitcher and the team. The 31-year-old is coming off his best season since 2007, and even though the velocity on his fastball has shown a steady decrease due to aging and health issues, Peavy has adapted his repertoire to include a two-seamer and a cutter that he throws along with a regular four-seam fastball, as well as a slider, curve and change. He’s effective at mixing his pitches, and was a big reason why the White Sox managed to play meaningful baseball games late in the season.
Chicago has recently made some front office changes with the promotions of Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn to President and General Manager, respectively. The tandem should continue to find success with low-risk contracts of shorter terms, like this one. They deal quite obviously considers Peavy’s performance over the last few seasons, and projects him fairly as a three wins above replacement pitcher when he’s healthy.
If he becomes injured over the next two years, the shorter terms of the deal ensure that the dollars owed to Peavy are never too dangerous.
For years, it seems, the American League Central has had the reputation of being the weakest of the six divisions in baseball. Whether true or not, it would be difficult to put the competition in this particular division on the same scale as its American League East and American League West brothers. With the emergence of the Texas Rangers and Oakland Athletics, combined with the free agent spending of the Los Angeles Angels, the gap only appears to be widening.
The President of the United States Barack Obama is predicting a World Series between his favourite team and the city where he works.
President Obama: “I am looking forward to a Nationals-White Sox World Series.”
— Obama 2012 (@Obama2012) September 21, 2012
For the record, the White Sox last made an appearance in the World Series in 2005, defeating the Houston Astros in four games. As for the Expos/Nationals franchise, combined they have zero appearances in the World Series, although some would argue the 1994 season was their best chance.
After the Chicago White Sox swept the Minnesota Twins this past weekend, and the Detroit Tigers failed in their attempts to treat the Cleveland Indians in a similarly hostile manner, the two teams find themselves two games apart in the American League Central. Depending on one’s level of allegiance to the Tigers, the reaction that this fact is likely to cause falls somewhere in the range of mild surprise to a level of shock normally reserved for learning of a tragic death in one’s family.
To explain this simply, the Detroit Tigers were supposed to win the division, the Chicago White Sox were not; and yet with a mere 17 games remaining in their respective schedules the two franchises find themselves in unexpected territory with the Tigers in second place and the White Sox in first.
The Chicago Tribune employs a guy named Steve Rosenbloom as a sports columnist. He is paid to create all manner of Rosen-themed content. The Rosen-blog, the Rosen-vlog, the Rosen-rant, on and on ad infinitum. This week his rant subject was a half-baked conspiracy theory, suggesting the on-air anti-umpire diatribes of Ken “The Hawk” Harrelson breed contempt for the Pale Hose and, in the long run, cost the team ballgames.
There are few things in the world more satisfying than the thought of Hawk Harrelson suffering but this suggestion is nothing short of insane. Even more insane: implying team ownership might reprimand Harrelson in an effort to curb his umpire criticism. What kind of a world are we living in, I mean really?
The Detroit Tigers were the pre-season favorites to win the 2012 American League Central even before they signed Prince Fielder to replace the super-valuable Victor Martinez. At that point, pretty much everyone decided (understandably) that they were going to run away with it. If any team had a chance, it was maybe Cleveland, a flawed-but-interesting team. The Twins were almost universally expected to be dreadful, while the young hitting talent of the Royals held promise.
The one team that seemed uninteresting for once was the White Sox. They were not expected to finish last, and maybe they were thought to have a shot at second (without making the playoffs) if Cleveland stumbled, but they clearly seemed to be in a strange transitional mode. They had a new manager, Robin Ventura, who had not managed or coached on any level of professional baseball since his retirement as a player. They were not clearly rebuildling, and had a terrible farm system. They seemed stuck with “busted” and expensive veteran acquisitions from the past few “win-now” seasons such as Alex Rios, Adam Dunn, and Jake Peavy. Paul Konerko was still a good hitter, but was he really going to carry the team at his age? Was his sidekick going to be A.J. Pierzynski?
You know the rest of the story: with less than 50 games to play, the White Sox are winning the Central and have a two game lead over the Tigers. There is still plenty of time left in the season to blow the lead. Still, as of this writing, Baseball Prospectus puts the White Sox’ playoff odds at about 88 percent, with a 64 percent chance of winning the division. This despite not really making any “big moves” to obviously improve the disappointing 2011 team. Are they just getting lucky?
