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Team Stats: Batting Average

With 4 months until baseball in Chicago returns, I thought it would be interesting to look at the all time rankings in both offensive and defensive categories for all iterations of the current 30 teams for the 833 games I’ve identified that I have attended.  We start today on the offensive side of the ball with team batting average.

The California Angels, who I only saw live and in person once, are the only team to post an average over .300.  The Washington Nationals, who, sadly, have had 8 games to make a mark, are the only team to post an average under .200.  In between, there is a slight correlation between the teams’ batting average and their record in these games, though with some surprising anomalies.

Batting Average
Team Name Batting Average
California Angels 0.306
Anaheim Angels 0.292
Arizona Diamondbacks 0.278
Tampa Bay Devil Rays 0.273
Cleveland Indians 0.271
Chicago Cubs 0.266
Colorado Rockies 0.265
Milwaukee Brewers 0.263
Kansas City Royals 0.261
Florida Marlins 0.260
Houston Astros 0.260
Chicago White Sox 0.259
Detroit Tigers Continue reading →
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#52 – Ken Williams

Name: Ken Williams

Rank: 52

Position: CF/3B

Years With White Sox: 1986-1988

Ken Williams was selected by the White Sox in the 3rd round of the 1982 draft.  He made his major league debut on September 2, 1986, going 1-4 in the White Sox 3-0 victory over the Royals in Kansas City.  He appeared in 15 games down the stretch, hitting an anemic .129.

Williams got extended playing time in 1987 and turned in his best season as a major leaguer.  He hit .281 with 11 home runs and 50 RBIs, playing primarily in center field.

Looking to keep his promising bat in the lineup, the White Sox tried to move Williams to third base for the 1988 season.  To say it did not go well would be an understatement.  Williams struggled both at the plate and in the field, hitting .159 in 220 at bats and posting a .860 fielding percentage.

The following spring, Williams was traded to the Tigers for pitcher Eric King.  Following his retirement, he rejoined the White Sox organization as a scout in November of 1992.  He served as a special assistant to Jerry Reinsdorf in 1994, director of minor league operations from 1995-1996, and vice president of player development from 1997-2000.  Following the promotion of Ron Schueler following the 2000 season, Williams was named general manager, just the third African American in baseball history to hold the position.

From 2001 through 2003, Williams and manager Jerry Manuel formed the first African American tandem to hold those positions in baseball history.  In 2005, Williams helped lead the White Sox to their first World Series title in 88 years.  Following the 2012 season, he was promoted to Executive Vice President of baseball operations, the role he still holds today.

Williams’ numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:

Continue reading →

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The Straw That No Longer Stirs The Drink

adameatonThe White Sox followed up on Tuesday’s big deal that sent Chris Sale to the Red Sox with another big move on Wednesday, sending outfielder Adam Eaton to the Nationals for pitchers Lucas Giolito, Dane Dunning and Reynaldo Lopez.

Eaton joined the White Sox on December 10, 2013 after being acquired from the Diamondbacks in a 3 team trade that sent Hector Santiago to the Angels.  He quickly moved in to the leadoff spot, giving the White Sox their first true leadoff hitter since Juan Pierre in 2011.  He moved to right field in 2015, where he was a gold glove finalist.  Like Sale, he was a vocal critic of the White Sox front office following the Drake LaRoche incident during spring training 2015.  I’m sure it is only a coincidence that those two were the first shipped out of town during this rebuilding effort.

Giolito is the top ranked pitching prospect in baseball, further bolstering the White Sox system.  Lopez, the third ranked prospect in the Nationals system, showed promise during an 11-game stint in the Nationals rotation last year.  Dunning was the first round draft pick of the Nationals last year and had been ranked highly on the White Sox draft board.

Eaton’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:

Continue reading →

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Labor Peace

Last week, Major League Baseball and the Player’s Association avoided a lockout and agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement, ensuring labor peace through the 2021 season.  The big changes involve free agent compensation and a few things related to the Mid-Summer Classic.

Let’s start with the All Star Game.  After the fiasco in Milwaukee in 2002, where the game ended in a tie after both teams ran out of pitchers, Commissioner Bud Selig decided that, going forward, the winning team would earn home field advantage for their participant in the World Series.  The new labor agreement changes that, giving home field advantage to the World Series participant with the best regular season record.  Given the scheduling disparities between the leagues, this is not a perfect solution, but is a step in the right direction.

The other ASG-related change is the removal of roster slots available for the manager’s discretion.  The Commissioner’s office will now fill out the remaining spots after the fan and player votes.  Meaning, of course, that the days of the manager bringing loads of his own players, deserving or not, is over.

Changes affecting the regular season include a new 10 day disabled list, replacing the current 15 day list.  Starting in 2018, the schedule will be expanded to provide teams with four additional off days, meaning the season will now begin in the middle of the week.

On the revenue sharing side of things, the A’s will no longer be treated as a small market team, meaning they will lose the $30+ million they get today.

Finally, free agents who have been made a qualifying offer will no longer cost a first round draft pick.  The draft pick compensation will depend on which team makes the signing and how much the contract is worth.  International bonuses have been capped between $4.75 million and $5.75 million, depending on where the team falls in the competitive balance pools.

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Fire Sale

csaleChris Sale’s tenure on the South Side came to an end yesterday when he was traded to the Red Sox for Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech, Luis Alexander Basabe, and Victor Diaz, officially starting the rebuilding phase for the White Sox for the first time since the late 1980s.

Sale was the 13th overall selection by the White Sox in the 2010 draft.  After 11 total games in the minor leagues, Sale made his major league debut on August 6, less than 2 months after being drafted, giving up a hit and a walk before getting pulled.  Sale worked out of the bullpen for the remainder of the year, earning 4 saves in 21 appearances.  Sale returned to the bullpen in 2011, picking up another 8 saves while posting a 2.79 ERA.

In 2012, Sale moved in to the starting rotation full time, where he racked up 5 straight All Star nods and finished between 3rd and 6th in Cy Young award voting each season.  In 2015, Sale set the White Sox franchise record with 274 strike outs.  Last year, he tied his career high with 17 victories and threw a career high 226 2/3 innings pitched in between spats with the front office over Drake LaRoche and 1970s throwback jerseys.

Moncada, ranked as the #1 prospect in all of baseball, is the centerpiece of the deal.  A 21 year old switch hitter, he’s expected to start next season in the minor leagues but should take over second base by 2018.  Kopech, a 20 year old power pitcher, has some baggage, including punching a teammate and a PED suspension, should find a spot in the White Sox rotation should he continue to progress as he has.  Basabe and Diaz are further away, but do help bolster a White Sox system that is on the rise.

With the White Sox now officially moving towards a full-on rebuild, Sale may not be the last name out the door.  Rumors have already started swirling around Jose Quintana, Todd Frazier, Jose Abreu, Adam Eaton, and David Robertson.  Will Sale be the first domino of many to fall this offseason?  Only time will tell.

Sale’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:

Continue reading →

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FB2: Week 44

fb2_week44A mediocre week, though I did pass my goal for the year a full 8 weeks early.  Meaning I could go the next 8 weeks without taking another step and still average over 6000 steps per week for the entire year.  The week got off to a slow start on Sunday as I enjoyed the last day of the Thanksgiving vacation before heading back to work.  The entire work week was good, though unspectacular, as I finished each day somewhere between 6,417 and 8,317 steps.  Saturday was another down day, though better than Sunday.

Total steps: 43,916

Daily average: 6273.7

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Autographed Books – A Fistful Of Rain

fistfulrain

It’s week 9 of our look back at the novels I’ve gotten autographed over the years and we return to Greg Rucka and his first original novel outside of the Atticus Kodiak series, A Fistful of Rain.  Published in 2003, this is the fifth Rucka novel that I’ve covered in this series to date.

Since this book came out in late July of 2003, I can narrow down the source of the autograph to Wizard World Chicago, probably from the following month.

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Book 26 (of 52) – Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince – J.K. Rowling

After a 3 month break (thanks mostly to Angelina not giving me the next book), I returned to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth and penultimate entry in the series.  In this installment, Harry finds an old potions book with shortcuts and spells added by the so-called Half Blood Prince.  Meanwhile, Dumbledore tries to track down bits of Voldemort’s soul before falling to the Death Eaters.

The series takes a darker turn here, as Harry and his classmates come closer to adulthood and learn they will need to face the coming battles without their headmaster.  There is one more book in the series, which I hope to finish by the end of the year.  Assuming, of course, that Angelina cooperates.

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#53 – Sergio Santos

Name: Sergio Santos

Rank: 53

Position: P

Years With White Sox: 2010-2011

Sergio Santos joined the White Sox organization as a minor league free agent on January 12, 2009.  On March 20, he was traded to the Giants, and then returned to the White Sox on April 1.  At this point, he was converted from an infielder to a pitcher.  After appearing in 4 different minor league levels in 2009, he broke camp with the White Sox in 2010 and made his major league debut on April 8, throwing a scoreless inning of relief in a 5-3 loss to the Indians.  Santos ended up the year with a 2.96 ERA in 56 appearances.

In 2011, Santos became the team’s closer.  He went 4-5 with a 3.55 ERA while notching 30 saves, in just his third season as a pitcher.  That December, Santos was traded to the Blue Jays for Nestor Molina, who has yet to reach the big leagues.

Santos’s numbers in a White Sox uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:

Continue reading →

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Winter Wonderland

12-DecWe finish off the year with 2 shots of Michael from 2 different baseball games in 2 different stadiums.  On the left, he is posing with the retro racers of Paul Konerko and Joe Crede on the concourse at US Cellular Field early in the 2015 season.  On the right, he is showing off the baseball he got from Tom Ricketts at Wrigley Field during the 2015 post-season.