Worst to First - The Sequel

[NYY #23]

With two picks in the top four it was time to change the face of the White Sox franchise and kick start the rebuilding process. Except when I went to negotiate with the draftees I didn't have any money and could only offer slot.

So shame on me for not looking, but this was the first time I've encountered a budget crunch. We are in 1943, and every other team I've run hasn't been a problem, so while finances were on, they may as well have been off because it didn't effect any move I made, wanted to make, or anything else. So that brilliant trade for Torii Hunter actually made matters worse, because it ate up the last of my free money. I needed to dump about a $100 grand to sign our draft picks, because there was no way I'd give up on Drysdale after drafting him.

The White Sox payroll and budget are last in the league, although our player development budget is 4 x's the league average. That couldn't change until the preseason, so we made a series of moves not necessarily to better the club, but to save money. I gave up better players to dump more money.

We traded the following players to the Pirates -
LF Willie Crawford
RF Bob Chance
2B TimTeufel
SS Marty Perez
3B Roy Smalley III

And got back -
C Jake Stahl
2B Bip Roberts

Total saved $43,660

We traded the following players to the Tigers-
C Jake Stahl
SP Jerry Nops
LF Dan Kerwin
LF Jimmie Hall

And got back-
C Mike Brumley
C Jose Molina
MR Darren Hall

Total saved $50,730

We did get back Bip Roberts in all of this, but we gave up a lot of our core. Granted we were terrible, but it was just a big salary dump.

Because of the deals we were able to sign the following players:
Don Drysdale
Garry Maddox
Jermaine Dye
Bob Jones

But we were unable to sign our third round picks or later:
Allie Watt
Will Foley
Matt Tuiasosopo

Garry Maddox ended up taking a discount below his demands, but it was a little bit too tense waiting. I made a mistake trying to negotiate with all three of the picks. I think I could have gotten 2 of 3 if I didn't negotiate with Tuisosopo, but I'm not going to worry about any of that.

Lowering our development budget will help next year, but we'll still have some holes next year. My goals for the offseason are to upgrade the shortstop position, ideally with a cheap defense shortstop. That won't be easy though.

[NYY #23]

We made one deal in the offseason sending MR Cy Voorhees to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for minor league shortstop Kelly Dransfeldt. He fit the definition of a cheap defensive shortstop.

We started off the year 11th in the power rankings with a 5-7 record. Our defense is tops in the league, although we can't hit or pitch apparently.

We did lose SP Jack Easton and CF Garry Maddox to injury, but they both will be back in a few weeks.

I expect this to be a rough year, but I think we're on the right track.

[NYY #23]

After a 15-17 month the White Sox are now 20-24 for the year, but just 10 games back. As long as we don't fall 40 more games back we're doing better than last year.

Jack Easton made his triumphant return from injury and pitched a scoreless five innings for the win.

I'm liking the 3-4 combo of Bip Roberts and Garry Maddox in the middle of our lineup. Bip Roberts won two Player of the Week Awards this month.

Don Drysdale pitched his first career shutout this month against the Indians in a 5-0 win.

Whitey Alperman of the Red Sox picked up career hit number 2000 this month.

[NYY #23]

With a 14-11 month the White Sox have now pulled within 1 game of .500 and I'm seeing some good signs this month.

Don Drysdale was 7-0 with a 1.51 ERA this month with 27 strikeouts in 59 2/3 innings and won both the Rookie of the Month and Pitcher of the Month Awards.

I've noticed that our fan interest is now up to 55 as well, when it was in the low 40's when I took over. We're at least heading in the right direction.

[NYY #23]

The Sox went 15-17 for the month although we still remain close to .500 for the year, just 3 games under. We're not in the top tier of teams in the AL (Washington, St. Louis, Detroit), but we're not the 38-63 Yankees either.

I chose to remain quiet at the trading deadline though, and it appears our financial situation is improving and we're projected for a small profit this year. Hopefully that'll mean we at least have enough money to sign our draft picks, but I'm hoping that our budget and payroll can grow from 16th out of 16 teams.



Around the League
• Erik Bedard of the Athletics won his 250th career game
• The Yankees' Derrell Griffith his successfully in 22 straight games
• Two players hit for the cycle this month - Harry Heilmann of the Yankees and Jim Fregosi of the Giants
• 29 year old Jason Kipnis of the Browns hit 3 home runs in a game against the Athletics
• Salvador Perez of the Dodgers was 6-6 in a 15-9 victory over the Reds
• JD Drew of the Yankees picked up career hit number 2000, while Kal Daniels of the Giants got his 2500th career hit

[NYY #23]

A 14-14 month still has us hovering around .500 for the year. We're just missing Garry Maddox from our starting lineup, so we'll enter the final month of the year with the most complete team we've had all year.

It's never too early to start thinking about the offseason, and heading into the 1944/1945 offseason my top priorities are pretty clear -

1) Upgrade shortstop
2) Upgrade shortstop
3) Look for an upgrade at first base

In reality Danny Thompson has done pretty good filling in, hitting .282 and playing ok defense at short. But I'd feel much better with him as a utility infielder, because I don't think he'll keep playing as well as he's been.

The A's fired manager Lester Oliveros despite the A's being just 2 1/2 games behind us in Chicago. I'm hoping I can lure him to Chicago where he will serve as our new bench coach. Seems like Oliveros got a raw deal, and he'd be an upgrade to our coaching staff.

Former Cub Jon Matlack won the 200th game of his career this month.

[NYY #23]

We picked a great month to fall apart. Despite toying with .500 all season the Sox went 9-16 during the final month and one game to fall 18 games back.

That does mean we draft 5th overall though, although there isn't a shortstop to be found in the draft pool worthy of a first round selection. And my entire draft budget this year will be enough to sign a high draft pick (hopefully). We did have a slight budget increase though so hopefully we'll have some spare change to sign everyone we draft.

The Cubs won another World Series this year, but even though my owner wants my head on a platter I'm pretty satisfied improving by 20 games, especially given the unexpected salary dumps.

We were able to convince Lester Oliveros to join us as our new bench coach. A look at our history before we deal with the amateur draft.

Chicago White Sox - 52-102 (.338) 50 GB
1944 - Chicago White Sox 72-82 (.468) 18 GB (Season Score - 15)

[NYY #23]

1B Carlos Delgado was the guy I really wanted for the draft since there were no good shortstops available, and picking fifth he was selected fourth by the Reds. That seems to be my luck with the White Sox.

That left 2B Dick Egan as the best available player, and me both unwilling and unable to draft him. I'd blow my draft budget for Delgado, but not for Egan since Roberts is our second baseman and he really can't play short all that well.

So that led to drafting LF/RF/1B Carlos May because he has some power and he's cheaper than the other options. And even though he's rated at three positions he'll likely play first base for us because his defense is a liability.

Shortstop John Deasley was drafted in the second round because there really was no better options. If I haven't said it already it's a pretty weak draft class. Both our picks were overdrafts so far which I don't like to do.

We went with two more shortstops in the third round, Jerry Standaert and Alfredo Amezaga. I'm going with the strategy of throwing things against the wall to see if anything will stick.

Catcher Mike Colbern was selected in the fourth round, and second baseman Emmanuel Burriss was our final pick in the draft.

[NYY #23]

It was a pretty quiet offseason for the White Sox. We did manage to sign all of our draft picks this year though, so that is a positive sign.

We completed one trade with the Pirates, sending RF Jermaine Dye and SP John Curtis to the Pirates in exchange for 2B Felix Fermin and 3B Ryan Roberts.

After looking things over we're going to go into the season with an outfield of Bip Roberts, Garry Maddox, and Torii Hunter, with Fermin and Danny Thompson competing at second base, and Bob Jones and Ryan Roberts platooning at third base.

After a spring training battle, John Deasley and Jerry Standaert will make the roster as our shortstops, and Alfredo Amezaga will make the team as the 25th man, capable of playing second, third, short, and centerfield.

I'm not sure how long I can afford to keep 9 infielders on my roster though, but we'll give it a shot to start the season at least.

[NYY #23]

We've gotten off to a terrible 4-9 start to the season, and I had to talk to my manager about his usage of several players. Carl Mays will only be playing first base from now on for example.

It's still a small sample size though, and I expect better days ahead.

[NYY #23]

The White Sox finished the month with a 16-16 record, which is closer to where I think we should be, but still sit 8 games back, and much closer to last place than first.

We've got a couple of players who are underperforming this year which I think is hurting our offense -

Bip Roberts (Last year - .300/.357/.421, this year .235/.292/.335)
Mike Brumley (Last year - .278/.364/.345, this year .226/.330/.258)
Bob Jones (Last year - .309/.354/.391, this year .211/.257/.284)

Defensively Ryan Roberts was playing second base last month instead of platooning at third base. I'm hoping that another talk with my manager will shore things up there.

In the former player department, Mickey McDermott will miss the rest of the season with a torn labrum. He was one of my best pitchers on the Pirates, but injuries have really taken a toll during the late stages of his career. I thought he'd have a shot at 300 games, but he's at 213-208 now and likely won't go much higher.

The one that got away - Carlos Delgado won the Rookie of the Month in the NL and is hitting .283 for the year with 12 home runs.

Jim Fregosi of the Giants picked up career hit number 2000, as did Babe Herman of the Tigers. Rudy York of the Browns hit home run number 300 last month, and Joel Piniero of the Phillies picked up win number 200.

[NYY #23]

The White Sox finished with our first winning month of the season with a 14-12 record and now just 7 games back.

I've decided to give up on the Bip Roberts in left field experiment and move him back to second base. He wasn't producing in left and we couldn't get a second baseman to produce either.

In order to do that we did need someone who was capable of playing left field, so we completed a minor deal with the cross-town Cubs. We acquired 33 year old left fielder Curtis Pride in exchange for 3B Bob James and minor league catcher Mike Colbern. Pride is not a long term solution, or even a great short term solution, but he's an upgrade in left.

I know what our holes are, but I don't have the chips to fill them, without opening up another hole. Trading Carlos May remains a possibility, but I'm not ready to do that yet. I'm planning on waiting for the draft to see what's available and consider different options in the offseason.

Right now my list of upgrades goes like this -
1 - shortstop
2 - left field
3 - third base
4 - catcher
5 - right field

We've got too many holes to fill to do anything drastic this year.

Jack Easton won the Pitcher of the Month Award this month after going 6-0 with a 1.36 ERA. Thankfully pitching has been something I haven't had to worry about yet, although if I had to add a six to my list it would be an upgraded fourth starter.

Dan Brouthers of the Dodgers picked up career hit number 2500. We haven't had a run at 3000 in a while.

Here are the current active leaders:

Matty Alou - 2874
Stan Musial - 2804
Frank Chance - 2764
Dennis Menke - 2748
Kal Daniels - 2618

Although close I don't believe any on this list will get there based on their recent performance. I could be wrong, but I think it will be a while before we see 3000 again.

[NYY #23]

The White Sox finished the month with a 17-11 record, which is our best month since joining. We've now pulled 3 games over .500 and are now just 5 games back. We still have four teams in front of us though, and we have a lot of holes. Stranger things have happened, but I would be satisfied with a .500 finish for the year.

Bip Roberts hit .279 for the month of July, which was his best month of the year and coincides with the switch back to second base.

Carlos May won the Rookie of the Month Award after hitting .381 with 3 home runs and 17 RBI. Maybe I'll have to talk about trading him every month.

This has been the month of the hitting streak, with Ron Gant of the Tigers ending the month with an active 29 game hitting streak, and Cliff Johnson of the Giants carrying a 28 game hitting streak into August.

Art Devlin picked up his 2000th career hit for the Red Sox, while Sean Burroughs of the Braves did the same.

[NYY #23]

The White Sox finished the month with a 15-14 record to move 4 games over .500 for the year. We've developed a pattern of beating the bad teams and losing to the good teams, but at least we are winning more than losing.

Don Drysdale and Jack Easton have formed a great one-two punch at the top of our rotation, and the White Sox have the lowest ERA for starters in the league so that gives me hope that we are going in the right direction.

Carlos May again won the Rookie of the Month Award after hitting .330 with a home this month, so the trade watch continues.

36 year old Dan Brouthers passed another milestone, hitting hit 300th home run.

[NYY #23]

The White Sox started the month hot, winning 7 straight games and we moved within 3 games of first place before things caught up to us. We still finished the month with a 14-11 record though, and finished the year over .500 in fourth place.

That'll hurt our draft position, but it's nice to be above the break even point.

[NYY #23]

The White Sox were drafting 11th in the amateur draft, and this draft class made last year's look strong. Six of the first seven picks were starting pitchers (Joe Corbett, Bob Veale, Jack Pfiester, and Danny Jackson were the top four).

There wasn't anybody that jumped out at me and we couldn’t get any help at the positions we needed in the first round. 4 of the 5 top players were relievers, so by default we took SP Carlos Silva. Let's just say I'm not too excited about this pick, but I truly believe he's the "best available."

Reliever Lou Fiene was picked in the second round, catcher Art Rico was picked in the third round, and relievers Brad Thompson and Walter Ockey rounded out the draft.

This was a tough draft, and looking at their current ratings and potential ratings only Carlos Silva has any potential out of all five of the guys. Some drafts you get a few guys who could help out, but with this group I don't think anyone will help next year. I'm not going to break the bank for anyone though, I'll offer slot and if they accept great, but if not the White Sox will get an extra pick next year.

We'll have to look for other ways to get better this offseason.

The Cubs lost the World Series this year to the Washington Senators in six games. Most of the core is still there. Cap Anson led the team in batting average, while Ron Cey led the team in home runs and RBI, while picking up his 2000th hit. Ewell Blackwell and Fernando still are a great one-two in the rotation, and in fact Fernando won the Cy Young after going 23-11 with a 2.46 ERA while Blackwell won his 200th game. The Cubs fell apart the year after I left with injuries, but have been to the World Series three straight years since, winning one.

The Tigers haven't been back to the Series, after a couple of injury plagued years. Last year CC went down, this year it was Lawrie and Drott. Sabathia rebounded nicely this year though going 23-14 with a 2.61 ERA to win the Cy Young in the AL. Bill Hobbs picked up his 2000th hit for the Tigers this year.

With two of my former pitchers winning the Cy, another of my former pitchers was elected to the Hall. Eddie Cicotte who pitched for me for the Pirates was honored:



While Carlos Delgado won the NL Rookie of the Year (.269, 32 HR, 106 RBI), our own Carlos May won the AL Rookie of the Year (.328, 16 HR, 88 RBI).

The Sox also had the Hitter of the Year in Garry Maddox (.319, 14 HR, 93 RBI). Definitely a nice rebound after an injury plagued rookie season.

Shortstop Jerry Standaert won a Gold Glove, the only White Sox player honored.

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Finally I made a decision to go back to a reserve roster and do away with the minors. Since players drafted are usually close to ready with the random draft I don't think it's going to harm too much with a reserve roster. I don't really use minor league stats to guide my decisions and I'm getting tired of constantly hiring minor league coaches. That maybe a bad reason, but I don't think it'll change much and if I reach the point of a fictional draft I'll reevaluate the minors.

[NYY #23]

We made a couple of minor deals in the offseason. One trade with the Yankees sending SS Alfredo Amezaga and RF Bob Thorpe and getting back 37 year old left fielder Gus Zernial and 33 year old catcher Ralph Houck.

While Zernial is 37 he has excelled in the reserve outfielder role, and is a career .269 hitter with 196 home runs. Of course he hasn't started in 9 years, but I think he can help us next year.

Reliever Grant Balfour was traded to the Phillies for 28 year old Steve Brodie. He's hit .256 and .249 in limited action the past two years, but he could see some time in my outfield next year.

We did come to terms with Carlos Silva, who accepted our slot offer, which was about $15,000 less than he was asking. We couldn’t sign either Lou Fiene or Art Rico though.

I have gotten three separate trade offers from the Tigers for Silva so far though. They are that desperate for another starting pitcher I guess, but unwilling to give up anything of value. While I don't like him, he's not going to the team I'm going to be battling this year.

[NYY #23]

With an 8-5 start the White Sox are just a 1/2 game back very early in the season. Shortstop Jerry Standaert has a 23 game hitting streak carried over from last year. I know I've said a few times how much I've wanted a shortstop, but while I've been saying that Standaert has developed into a pretty decent one.

[NYY #23]

The White Sox were 18-11 this month to move into first place. While it's just a 1/2 game lead I certainly won't complain. Each team kind of develops a certain feel too it, and the White Sox don't feel like a great team, but they feel like the type of team that overachieves. We've got a couple of stars, but we are getting contributions from a lot of different players. It's certainly been interesting, and hopefully we can keep it up.

Jerry Standaert's hitting streak was stopped at 31 games.

Gregg Jeffries of the Indians collected his 2500th hit. At 35 years old he's got some time to make a run at 3000.

Tom Herr of the Reds and Andre Dawson of the Dodgers each picked up their 2000th hit, while 31 year old Mark McGwire of the Braves hit his 300th home run.

[NYY #23]

The White Sox had another winning month, going 18-13 in June and we are holding on to a 1 game lead over St. Louis. We've had some injuries this month, with Bip Roberts, Danny Thompson, and Garry Maddox finishing the month on the disabled list.

I'm going to keep a close eye on things and plan to dangle Carlos Silva for a deadline deal. I'm just not sure which position will help us the most yet.

Jhoulys Chacin was named the Pitcher of the Month after going 4-1 with a 1.57 ERA.

George Zettlein of the Giants won career game number 300 last month, becoming the 10th pitcher to reach 300 wins.