Category: White Sox

RIP: Ted Uhlaender

uhlaender I know it’s been a while, it happened on Valentine’s Day, but I wanted to say Goodbye to Ted Uhlaender. When I started following baseball way back in 1968, Uhlaender was the fleet footed centerfielder of the Minnesota Twins. Without looking, I could still remember Ted’s middle name being Otto, sometimes I have to look to remember my middle name being Herbert. Maybe Uhlaender resonated with me because we shared first names, always thought his first name was Ted, but the back of his baseball card shows it as Theodore.

Despite the 1968 campaign being totally dominated by pitchers, he managed to finish fifth in batting in the American League with a .283 average. He followed that up with his most productive season, establishing career highs with 152 games played, 93 runs scored, 151 hits and 62 runs batted in (RBI). His first playoff experience was in the 1969 American League Championship Series, with one hit in six at-bats. He was traded along with Graig Nettles, Dean Chance and Bob Miller to the Indians for Luis Tiant and Stan Williams on December 10, 1969. He started in center in 1970, before being shifted to left field the next season.

Uhlaender died after a heart attack, the San Francisco Giants said. He had worked as a scout for the team since 2002, and was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer last year. He spoke with his daughter, Katie Uhlaender, by phone in the morning of his death, shortly before she ended the World Cup skeleton sliding season with a silver medal in Park City, Utah.

I’ll be pulling for Katie, if she has her father’s competitive spirit, she ought to do alright. Ted Uhlaender was 68 years old.

Sox Waive Bye Bye to Jerry Owens

White Sox Royals Baseball The White Sox put a new spin on Abbott & Costello’s age old bit, by asking the question, “Who’s in Center?” The answer isn’t nearly as funny. Jerry Owens will be placed on waivers, “giving” the starting job to Dewayne Wise & Brian Anderson.

Brian Anderson took over the starting centerfield duties from Aaron Rowand in 2006, after Chicago won it all in 2005. While Anderson’s bat was nothing to write home about, his defense in CF certainly was fantastic. I still say, had Ozzie Guillen not played Rob Mackowik in CF in 2006, we would’ve made the playoffs with BA out there. We just missed the playoffs with a 90-72 mark. Still Brian, a righthanded hitter, batted only .225, with 23 doubles, one triple, & eight home runs in 365 at bats, while striking out 90 times. Last year Anderson showed more pop, with 13 doubles & 8 homers in only 181 at bats. His major league lifetime OBP is an anemic .277. He’s shown a decent bat in the minors, .293, 65 2Bs, 13 3Bs, 38 HRs, in 1,136 ABs, and he batted .366 as a Senior with the University of Arizona, but that was a long time ago.

Jerry Owens got his shot in 2007, which was a miserable year (72-90) on the Southside. Owens is a slap lefthanded hitter, who batted .267 with 32 stolen bases in only 93 big league games, but only nine doubles, two triples, & one homer (I think I was at that game). While his OBP was only .324, he could cover the ground in centerfield, but possessed a very poor throwing arm. For some reason, the Sox never seemed to like him, maybe it was because he returned from winter ball in the middle of a playoff fight, with Joey Cora as his manager. I guess, I was really pulling for Jerry, we really needed his speed in the leadoff slot. Jerry has a .291 minor league batting average, with 162 steals in 500 games, and a .359 OBP.

Then there’s Dewayne Wise. Wise is a 31 year old, lefthanded hitting, journeyman outfielder, that came through a few times last year in the clutch. Still he batted just .248, with six homers in 129 at bats, stealing nine bases, without being caught. Wise has 468 big league at bats spread out over six seasons, 19 2Bs, 8 3Bs, 15 HRs, 21/22 SBs, but only a .214 average, with a horrible OBP of only .254. His minor league OBP of .309 in 3,555 at bats, isn’t much better. And his defense is a step down from either Owens or Anderson. It worries me that he’ll get the lion’s share of playing time in the lefty/righty CF platoon.

Last year Owens was slated for the White Sox centerfield job, before he got injured, moving Nick Swisher from LF to CF, and Carlos Quentin from bench to LF. Yet I’m sure the Pale Hose would’ve realized the gem they had in Quentin, even if Jerry hadn’t gotten hurt. So I have all the confidence in the world this team will figure it out. Still it’s hard to imagine going into the season with Dewayne Wise as our starting centerfielder.

LET’S GO WHITE SOX!!!

Beckham’s Better

beckham There is a current battle underway for the starting secondbase spot with the Chicago White Sox, with the incumbent Alexei Ramirez sliding over to SS replacing Orlando Cabrera. So the guys battling are Jayson Nix, Chris Getz, and Brent Lillibridge. What I really don’t understand is why there hasn’t been more discussion about leaving Alexi at 2B, with Gordon Beckham taking over the starting SS position.

Beckham was the White Sox #1 draft choice out of the University of Georgia, where he led the NCAA last season with 28 homers, while batting .411 in 197 games at Georgia. Gordon is a born SS and a born competitor. He reminds me of former White Sox SS Bucky Dent in the field, but with a much better bat.

Jayson Nix is a solid fielding secondbaseman, with pop, however he strikes out quite a bit, and is not a leadoff type hitter. Nix was handed the starting job last season with the Colorado Rockies, but couldn’t get the job done. Now Jayson, at 26, understands the importance of not taking this opportunity lightly.

I really like Chris Getz. He’s a lefthanded batter out of the University of Michigan, he’s a real battler, does all the little things well, not as good a fielder as Nix, but he can bat leadoff.

Brent Lillibridge was a SS in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, but is competing with Getz & Nix for the starting secondbase job. Brent has excellent speed, but lost his stroke last season with Atlanta, batting only .220 in AAA.

Competition’s good, I hope it’s not a closed competition. Last season Jerry Owens won the starting CF job last year, but was injured, so Carlos Quentin got a shot, and we all know how well that turned out. Contrary to popular opinion, I don’t think Beckham needs to pay his dues in the minors, this kid’s from a big time college, and he’s ready to PLAY BALL!

Blackjack’s a rocker

A friend and colleague of mine sent this link to a CD.  He found out about my interest in baseball and thought I might get a kick out of it. 

smallmytable

You see, my friend was in a band back in the day and one of his bands’ songs made it onto a CD compilation along with none other than former MLB pitcher Jack McDowell.  McDowell at the time was playing with a band called Stickfigure.  His song is called “Hey Man”. 

The CD is called Small, My Table and some proceeds are going towards Riley’s Hospital of Indianapolis. 

It brought back memories of back in the late 80’s (during the off-season), McDowell came down to play at the campus town club (the now defunct Mabel’s for C-U townies).  His band if memory serves, was called “Thrash”.  I wasn’t heavy into the music scene or anything like that but he had an ok sound. 

Music obviously has a pretty important part of Blackjack’s life if 15 years later, he was still playing (and putting out CDs). 

BC’s Cole Armstrong Hoping to Catch On

cole-armstrong The White Sox used the minor league rule five draft to pluck Cole Armstrong out of the Atlanta Braves system. Armstrong was a catcher and a goaltender growing up in British Columbia, Canada. I first saw the big lefthanded hitting catcher in Fall Ball a few months ago in Arizona.

Growing up in Canada, Armstrong, like most of his baseball-playing compatriots, saw some national team action, playing for the Junior squad from 1999-2001. In fact, he caught while Martin manned third base. But this year’s selection to the provisional roster is the first time since ’01 that Armstrong has been tabbed for Team Canada.

“It’s a huge honor anytime you get asked to play for your country, but especially now with Canada having so many big-name guys,” he said. “It would be a really neat opportunity to get to play with some of them. And I haven’t had the chance to play in front of 50,000 people, so that would be a nice experience too.
Talking to some of the guys who were on the Olympic team or the qualifying team, they say it’s definitely like you come back together. Everyone knows each other. Even if you never actually played together, you know the same people. That was something I really wasn’t expecting. From day one since the White Sox picked me up in the Rule 5 Draft, they have been such an incredible organization and have given me so many opportunities that I probably wouldn’t have gotten with other organizations.”

The White Sox plan to send him to the recent Rookie Career Development Program, an honor saved for an organization’s top “big league-ready” prospects. Chicago decided not to re-sign Toby Hall, so there is an open spot on the big league roster as a backup catcher.

Sox Can’t Get Enough Cubans!

marti-gomez A fan at SoxFest asked GM Kenny Williams about the possibility of the White Sox signing two Cuban defectors, Yasser Gomez & Yadel Marti. Jaime Torres represents both players, he also represents current White Sox Cubans, Jose Contreras, Alexei Ramirez, & Dayan Viciedo. Reportedly Alexei took less money to sign on the Southside of Chicago, because Manager Ozzie Guillen speaks Spanish. Also both defectors would feel right at home, with three other Cubans already on the team.

Both Gomez & Marti played for Industriales, Cuba’s top team, they want to play for a winner, they mentioned the Yankees, but they also mentioned the White Sox. Gomez, 28, is a lefthanded hitting centerfielder, and has a career .331 batting average. Marti, 29, has a career 3.23 ERA, with 67 victories. The righty Yadel was the best of Cuba’s pitchers in the 2006 WBC, 1-0, 2 saves, and led the tournament with a 0.00 ERA over 12 2/3 innings pitched.

A scout who has seen both pitch internationally, believes they are both major league ready. In true Kenny Williams fashion, he did not tip his hand, when asked about picking up these talented Cuban stars, but you have to know, he’s salivating at the thought.

Link & Loman – 2 Longshots to Make the White Sox

jon-link1 Reliever Jon Link & firstbaseman/outfielder Seth Loman are a couple of longshots to make the White Sox, but baseball is a funny game, so you never know.

The White Sox acquired Jon Link from the San Diego Padres in exchange for Rob Mackowiak, a half eaten bag of potato chips would’ve been a fair exchange, in my opinion, so Link’s got anything, it’s a great deal. In 2003 Link was drafted by the Montreal Expos with the 45th pick, after a year of college ball where he walked 14 in 81 innings with a 2.13 ERA, the Pads signed him after taking him in the 26th round of the 2005 draft. The 6’1″ 175 pounder (slimmed down from 200) out of Columbus, OH, did pretty well at Class A in 2008. Jon had a 2.91 ERA with 64 strikeouts in 58″ innings pitched, 48 hits, 16 saves. He was particularly effective after coming to Winston-Salem, where his strikeout to walk ratio was an impressive 19/4, allowing only one homer over 17″ innings of work. It’s always tough finding quality middle relief, never know what’s inside a guy’s heart.

Seth Logan was drafted by the Los Angels of Anaheim in the 47th round of the 2005 draft out of Lamar Community College in Texas. The 6’4″ 225 pound switch hitter spent his two years with the Angels in Rookie Ball, where he batted .206 with 4 HRs in 2006 & .323 with 9 HRs in 2007, then LAA released him. The 22 year old turned to the independent Golden Baseball League where he put up some pretty good numbers. In 2008 Loman batted .350 with 19 HRs & 60 RBIs in just 60 games, slugging .709. Seth was selected by Baseball America as a Top Independent league prospect. Here’s hoping Seth Loman finds as much success with the White Sox as another Angels castoff, Bobby Jenks.

Sox Bring on Big Man to Fill Big Hole in Rotation

colon With Javier Vazquez traded off to Atlanta, good riddance, Chicago had an open slot in their rotation, in Back to the Future fashion, Kenny Williams flipped back to 2003, and Bartolo Colon. Colon was signed to a $1 million dollar contract, with an innings pitched clause that could be worth an additional $2 million dollars. Workhorse Bartolo is a big man, who pitches big innings, when healthy, 242 in 2003 with the White Sox. He was limited to only 39 innings with the Red Sox in 2008, due to injury.

It seems as though the White Sox may be out of the Freddy Garcia sweepstakes, looks like Freddy will be heading to the Big Apple, either with the Yankees or the Mets. So the Sox rotation is Mark Buehrle, Gavin Floyd, John Danks, two righthanders coming off injuries (Jose Conreras & Bartolo Colon), and possibly young lefty Aaron Poreda.

Last year Esteban Loaiza was brought in as a rotation possibility, but without his fastball, he was ineffective, and quickly gone. Hopefully Colon will make out better this year.

THAT’S RIGHT ED!

edfarmer1 I jumped so high with delight when I heard Steve Stone would be coming over to TV to join Hawk Harrelson, replacing Darrin “Yes Man” Jackson. But soon my joy was overcome by grief when I learned DJ was moving over to radio, joining Ed Farmer. I’m sure Farmer thought, what did I do to deserve this? Ed is kind of a jokester, I wonder if he’ll play around with Darrin, just to make him look stupid, not that Darrin isn’t fully capable of doing that on his own.

Last year I turned the volume off White Sox telecasts, powered up my radio, and enjoyed Farmer & Stone (even though the sound didn’t always matchup, still it was better than listening to those two knuckleheads). It was uncanny how often Ed & Steve would say something might happen, and then it would happen just as they’d predicted. I’ve got the MLB Direct-TV package, and the Sox TV guys were, by far, the worst in the business, from whining about the umpires to being complete homers, to talking about their playing careers (was there that much to talk about, did I mention Carl Yastrzemski?).

Maybe I’ll have to brush up on my Spanish and listen to Hector Molina do the games. Heck, even if I don’t understand what he’s saying, it still might be better.