Results tagged ‘ Gordon Beckham ’
Nothing forced for No. 1 hitter, No. 2 catcher
The fact that free agent Chone Figgins appears close to signing a multi-year deal with the Mariners, as reported by FoxSports.com on Friday, doesn’t really impact the White Sox plan to fill their leadoff spot.
Sure, the White Sox long have had interest in one of the game’s best No. 1 hitters. But this projected four-year, approximately $36 million deal left Figgins out of range where the White Sox currently were able to spend. So, where do the White Sox stand in regard to a leadoff man?
General manager Ken Williams presented a somewhat tongue-in-cheek answer to this particular inquiry during a Friday afternoon conference call.
“We won’t be forfeiting the spot in the order. There’s going to be someone under the ‘No. 1′ in our lineup,” said Williams in a call to discuss the 2009 Winter Meetings, beginning Monday morning in Indianapolis.
Williams once again used the example of a leadoff hitter running against the pure speed prototype by pointing to the team’s usage of Orlando Cabrera during the 2008 American League Central championship campaign. Gordon Beckham, who had a .347 on-base percentage as part of his 2009 rookie season and would add extra-base punch at the top, a la Derek Jeter, would be an in-house leadoff candidate if the White Sox don’t make any further additions.
Judging by Williams’ comments above, he doesn’t seem worried about going to Spring Training without that de fact offensive force at the top.
“As much as 90 percent of the other teams in the league that don’t have the ideal leadoff guy,” Williams said. “You look at some of the teams that are around that have been successful. They don’t have the ideal guy.”
Jordan Danks’ chances to make the Opening Day roster also appeared to get a December boost, although Williams didn’t mention the younger brother of starter John Danks by name. With the top-notch pitching staff in place, beginning with a starting rotation as strong on paper as any American League group, Williams stressed how tightening up the defense in the outfield, going along with the changes already made in the infield, remains a priority.
Danks, 23, was deemed to be ready defensively in 2009. So, the White Sox could take a chance on him as the third outfielder, with the support of veterans such as Andruw Jones and Mark Kotsay.
This same school of thought could lead to Tyler Flowers breaking camp as the team’s backup catcher, although Williams admitted to asking around and having some talks about the spot.
“We don’t see it as a situation where we have to do something if it doesn’t fit overall,” Williams said. “We do have options, and not just Tyler.
“If it turns out we want to put Tyler in this sort of situation, the move comes with expectations that he will grow into the role similar to a young backup quarterback in the NFL. He’ll be learning as he goes, but also losing development time. After the season, that would mean he would have to continue going out and playing somewhere, whether it’s the Fall League or down in Winter ball.
“It’s not something that’s a pressing issue,” Williams said. “We will continue to survey the landscape, but where we sit right now, the way we are designed, we don’t have to make a move that’s uncomfortable or inconsistent to our overall plan.”
Be prepared
During the final days of the 2009 regular season, Ozzie Guillen made it abundantly clear as to how White Sox players were expected to come ready to play from the first day of Spring Training, 2010 in mid-February. Don’t use that time at Camelback Ranch to first get going.
Those same strong comments were made by general manager Ken Williams during his last chat with the media and by White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf in a talk with the players before batting practice on the final home weekend. Simply put, the White Sox brass was not going to tolerate another sub-par year such as the one just completed.
Apparently, a few weeks away from his team’s 79-83 finish haven’t softened Guillen’s stance on this particular topic.
“Kenny and Jerry made it clear to everyone–come ready to play in Spring Training,” said Guillen during a Tuesday conference call, in which he discussed the team, as well as Gordon Beckham’s selection as one of the 2009 Sporting News Rookies of the Year.
“We expect to win next year, like we expect to win every year,” Guillen said. “So, they better be prepared.”
Guillen’s conference call response came at the end of a question concerning Freddy Garcia. The veteran right-hander, who closed out his 2009 campaign with seven quality starts in his last eight trips to the mound, had his $1 million 2010 option picked up by the White Sox.
The starting rotation alignment has Garcia currently penciled in at No. 5, a hidden luxury when considering Garcia’s vast pitching knowledge and big-game success. But despite Garcia and Guillen basically being family members, Garcia won’t be cut any extra slack if he shows up to Glendale out of shape.
“Freddy know what he have to do, and if he’s not ready for Spring Training, then we make a move,” Guillen said. “I’m not going to babysit him. But he has to stay strong for him, not just for us. Just work hard and take care of himself. Freddy won’t have any problem.
“Everyone has that same responsibility. Jerry made it clear. It doesn’t matter how much money you make. If you are not prepared, we will find another home for you.”
White Sox react to Olympic snub
I was at Midway Airport Friday morning, getting ready to board my flight for Detroit, when a woman standing in front of me, watching CNN on one of the overhanging televisions, made the following statement.
“Chicago didn’t get the Olympics,” she said, shaking her head.
To be honest, I thought the timing was a bit odd, especially since the final announcement wasn’t supposed to come until around lunch time and we were boarding at about 10:15 a.m. CT. Everyone in Chicago had thought the final call would be between the Windy City and Rio de Janeiro.
Much to my surprise, Chicago had been eliminated as a potential host for the 2016 Summer Games in the first vote, ahead of the three other finalist cities.
Those shockwaves reached as far as White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen, who put forth that sentiment during his pregame meeting with the media on Friday at Comerica Park.
“Chin up,” said Guillen with a smile about Chicago’s valiant bid that came up short. “I was shocked because I never thought Chicago would be eliminated in the first round. I think everyone in the states was shocked.
“Don’t give up. Keep fighting for the future and hopefully one of these days we have it. But I was shocked.”
Gordon Beckham was 10 years old when Atlanta hosted the 1996 Summer Olympics. The White Sox rookie third baseman and Georgia native remembers attending events that included Michael Johnson winning gold in the 200 m and watching Carl Lewis win gold in the long jump at 35.
At such a young age, Beckham didn’t get the full impact of Olympic competition but said it was a fun experience. Even though he could still be with the White Sox nine years from now, his feelings were a bit mixed when asked about Chicago falling short to Rio.
“It would have been nice and interesting,” said Beckham of Chicago hosting the Olympics. “But it would have been a lot of… . That city would have been going nuts and it would have been really tough to concentrate on baseball when that was going on.
“I’m not too disappointed. It seems like everyone is sad and I’m sure the city put a lot of effort into the bid. It (stinks) they didn’t get it. But for me personally, I’m ok with it not being a complete circus.”
Although I’m obviously not in Chicago, I can only imagine the collective disappointment. Many of the local establishments in the downtown Chicago area where I live were opening early on Friday morning for the Olympic announcement and what they hoped would be the ensuing frenzied celebration.
Buehrle skipped; The Chairman speaks
Carlos Torres will take the mound Tuesday night in Cleveland in place of Mark Buehrle, with the White Sox left-hander possibly having made his last start of the 2009 campaign.
“They are pushing me back a couple of days,” said Buehrle, prior to Friday’s 2-0 victory over the Tigers.
“Right now, we’re not in the situation like we need to go there,” said White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen of his left-handed ace. “Right now, we don’t know what we’re going to do about it, but I think it’s not worth it to take the aggravation.”
Buehrle will continue to do his regular work in between starts. Guillen hinted that if the last game of the 2009 regular season at Comerica Park means something for the Tigers or the Twins, then maybe Buehrle would make the start.
“I’m not 100 percent sure,” Guillen said.
Otherwise, Buehrle closes out another workmanlike year. He has a 12-10 record, 3.95 ERA and his requisite 32 starts and 207 1/3 innings pitched. The only disappointment for Buehrle would be his 1-7 record and 5.18 ERA over 12 starts since his July 23 perfect game, a stretch in which he has yielded 97 hits in 73 innings.
–Along with the presentations made to Buehrle in honor of the 18th perfect game thrown in Major League history, White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf gave the team a bit of a pep talk early Friday directed toward 2010 preparedness.
“He wants guys to make sure they are going to come in wanting to win and get to the playoffs,” said White Sox rookie third baseman Gordon Beckham of Reinsdorf’s talk. “Hopefully we can do it. He’s the boss and a great person. I really enjoy being around him as much as possible. We all want to do better and fulfill what he wants us to do.”
According to Jake Peavy, Friday’s winning pitcher, Reinsdorf’s words gave him an offseason adrenaline boost past the excitement he already had built up to be ready for 2010.
“Just hearing Jerry talk to the team today got me fired up,” Peavy said. “Talking about competing this winter and being ready to come back and give everything we got to win a world championship next year.”
–Brandon Inge faced Peavy while the right-hander was pitching at a Cy Young-caliber level with the Padres in the National League. And while Peavy wasn’t quite at that level of performance on Friday, Detroit’s third baseman still came away impressed.
“He looked pretty good,” said Inge of Peavy. “His fastball is still jumping pretty good on you. Obviously, it’s not where it used to be; I faced him three or four years ago and he was touching 97, 98. He doesn’t have that kind of juice.
“Nonetheless, it comes out of his hand really well. It really didn’t matter because his slider made up for everything. It was filthy.”
Beckham could return on Wednesday
Gordon Beckham fully expects to be back in the White Sox starting lineup for Wednesday night’s series finale of a brief two-game home set with Oakland. Beckham basically has missed the last three games due to a strained right oblique, although it’s more of a tweak than a full-out strain like the one that sent Chris Getz to the disabled list.
The fact that Beckham exited Saturday’s contest in the bottom of the first inning and got treatment instead of playing on it probably saved the rookie third baseman from more extended trouble.
“I’m doing OK,” said Beckham after Monday’s 5-1 victory for the White Sox over Boston. “I think they want to keep me out one more day, but I probably could go (Tuesday). We’ll see. Hopefully Wednesday, maybe (Tuesday).”
With an off-day coming Thursday, ending a string of 20 games in 20 days during which the White Sox have posted a 7-11 record, and an important West Coast swing to Anaheim and Seattle starting Friday, Ozzie Guillen could error on the side of caution and keep Beckham out for the next two days. Guillen is being very careful with the young man who played 81 straight games and started 65 in a row, who currently leads all AL rookies with 23 doubles, 52 RBIs and 34 extra-base hits.
“I want him to finish strong,” said Guillen of Beckham. “Hopefully he can get what I want him to get, that award. He deserved and earned it. It’s our job to make sure we do the best for him to get it. We’ll talk to (White Sox athletic trainer) Herm (Schneider) about it. It’s a day game today and hopefully the long day he’ll get better.”
Perfect game superstitions and the big comeback
I’ll take full responsibility for Gavin Floyd losing his perfect game during Saturday’s 5-1 victory over the Red Sox. Or at least that’s what I was comically informed by my friend Jennifer on my Facebook page, after I apparently Tweeted too many times about Floyd’s consecutive batters retired.
There probably was a way I could have worked around saying perfect game, such as Floyd has retired 12 in a row or 18 in a row or no Boston baserunners have reached base, but I’m going to side with Mark Buehrle in this matter and state that I don’t buy into the perfect game/no-hitter superstition. If a pitcher is going to throw one, he’s going to throw one regardless of what I write.
I wasn’t even here for Buehrle’s perfect game, but I talked about it with a bunch of friends as it was happening and he still finished it off. Now, I certainly respect the people who follow the no-hitter superstitions. I myself have plenty of my own, in life, in general.
Rarely, if ever, will I do anything important when the clock reads 13 minutes in the time. And when I’m singing along with a song in the car, which is not exactly easy on anybody’s eardrums, I won’t sing the words death or die. It makes for interesting lyrical changes in a song such as American Pie.
So, who am I to criticize superstitious behavior? If I must be the fall guy for Nick Green’s hit after Floyd retired 17 straight, then so be it.
–As usual, Paul Konerko seems to have the proper perspective in regard to whether the White Sox have enough time to catch Detroit. They need to make up 6 ½ games over the final 25, with six games in their final nine coming against the Tigers.
“I think there is,” Konerko said. “I mean, it’s not going to be easy and like I said, we might need some help at some point because with those six head-to-head games with Detroit, you can’t expect to be five or six back and you have to sweep them.
“They’re a good team, so you need to kind of knock that down. But I think the best thing you can do is not think about the grand scheme of the whole season. Just think about each day and each inning and try to play as hard as we can and win that day.
“If we start creeping up on them, that would be great,” Konerko said. “But we’ve put ourselves in a hole and Detroit is a good team. It’s going to be tough, but we’ve got to keep working. We signed up for 162 here so we have to play hard every game and if it doesn’t work out, then we go home. But we have to play hard every day.”
–Jermaine Dye told me after Saturday’s game that he was ready to play on Saturday. So, the right fielder and his temporarily balky back will return to the lineup on Sunday.
–Here’s an interesting tidbit. Gordon Beckham is dining with a famous Chicago baseball legend on Saturday night. Who is it? The name will be revealed on Sunday.
–Same prediction as last year. The rejuvenated University of Michigan football team will top Notre Dame next Saturday in Ann Arbor. If the Wolverines win, I make a $200 contribution to White Sox Charities. If they lose, then the contribution is $100. White Sox Charities should benefit from Michigan’s excellence.
The World According to Beckham
As Gordon Beckham stood in front of his locker and waited for the postgame media barrage to move toward him following Sunday’s 8-4 loss to the Indians, one highly educated White Sox observer put forth the following observation.
“The new Paul Konerko,” the observer said with a smile.
That point wasn’t made to compare Beckham, who has been up in the Majors for about the amount of time it takes to prepare three or four deep dish pizzas, to the highly accomplished career of Konerko. All that was being pointed out is that Beckham, much like the White Sox team captain, has become a go-to interview before and after the game.
To use a phrase invoked many times previously in this blog and on MLB.com, Beckham gets it–he gets all aspects of being a big leaguer.
There was one especially funny moment on Beckham’s part Sunday, though, dealing with a question from ESPN 1000 ace-reporter Bryan Dolgin. The inquiry was about the White Sox last road trip, a 1-6 showing in Detroit and Minneapolis, and how the South Siders clearly need to be better in Seattle and Oakland.
Certainly, a fair enough and appropriate question. Here’s Beckham’s comedic response.
“You know, the funny thing is I don’t even remember the last road trip. Until you brought that up, I didn’t even remember it,” Beckham said. “So, if we lose, it’s your fault.”
Of course, everyone circled around Beckham let out a good laugh. The kid has the talent to be a superstar, with the leadership qualities and easy-going approach to the game built in.
So, remember, if the White Sox struggle on the West Coast, despite their combined 17-49 record in Seattle and Oakland since 2001, it’s on Dolgin’s shoulders now by Beckham’s decree.
“It’s sometimes good to change scenery and get on the road and get away from distractions,” added Beckham, taking a more serious tone about the upcoming trip.
Thursday tidbits; Clipping the Yankees
One thought went through Alexei Ramirez’s mind when he slid into second Wednesday night at the Metrodome, trying to break up a double play in the seventh inning of the loss.
“When it happened, I really thought it was a break or a fracture, but it isn’t,” said Ramirez, through interpreter and White Sox director of public relations Lou Hernandez following Thursday’s 3-2 victory over the Yankees. “I’m just glad that it wasn’t as serious as I originally thought it was. It’s just a minor injury, and hopefully I can get back as soon as possible.”
Ramirez has a swollen ligament in the sprained right ankle, but has been able to put pressure on the injured area while walking on it in the pool during extensive work on Thursday. Ramirez said a return to action Sunday is possible, but he’s not setting any date–just going by how he feels.
“I don’t want to say one thing or the other as far as returning,” Ramirez said. “Right now, I just want to pay attention to how my heel feels. The heel is basically the base of where I step and how I step, so I just want to keep working on this, doing some stuff with (White Sox athletic trainer) Herm (Schneider) and hopefully be back as soon as possible.”
–Judging by the tone of Ozzie Guillen’s voice and the look on his face at this particular moment of Thursday’s pregame interview session, the White Sox will not be making another significant move before Friday’s non-waiver Trade Deadline at 3 p.m. CT.
“Yesterday, I told the guys joking around in the dugout, I said, ‘Don’t worry guys, it’s not your fault. It’s my fault for telling Kenny Williams I can win with this ballclub,’” Guillen said. “If you look at the road trip, we were inches away from winning five, six games. The balls don’t bounce our way.
“Ball on the line, inches away, bad pitch, inches away, a line drive yesterday. That’s the way it is. We didn’t play bad; we just have a couple of guys in the middle of the lineup struggling like everybody knows. We’re lucky enough that part of the lineup is producing the way they are right now, we’re pitching well. We just didn’t score enough runs to win. But in a long season, that’s what you’re going to get.”
When asked if his team, sitting one game over .500, was better than a .500 group, Guillen provided another definitive response.
“Yes we are,” Guillen said. “In the beginning of the season was tough. I never thought we’d play .500 by the way we played at the start of the season, to be honest with you.
“But we’re better than that. We started to play better than a .500 team. But .500 isn’t going to win it. If we’re going to win, we have to be over .500 easier because if stay .500 we’re not going to make the playoffs.”
–You have to appreciate the immense talent of Gordon Beckham, who is my pick for American League Rookie of the Year. But you also have to appreciate his zest for the game and his enjoyment at the big league level.
On Wednesday, Beckham told me that he planned to get a jersey and have Derek Jeter sign it for him. Jeter was one of the middle infielders Beckham had and has great respect for as he moved to the Majors.
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