Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?

The White Sox could have easily signed a DH and become the clear-cut favorites in the AL Central this year. Instead, they have chosen to follow the wisdom of Ozzie Guillen and platoon Andruw Jones and Mark Kotsay at DH (or exchanging with Quentin in RF). Perhaps the White Sox are too attached to the 'underdog' tag. I'm not sure. But they will definitely compete for the division in 2010, and their outlook for 2012 looks somewhat rosy. Here is one look at potential lineups, a particularly optimistic look for our prospects.

Lineups

2010

LF Pierre

CF Rios

RF Quentin

1B Konerko

2B Beckham

C Pierzynski

SS Ramirez

3B Teahen

DH Jones/Kotsay

2011

LF Pierre

RF/CF Rios

DH/RF Quentin

1B/DH Konerko

2B Beckham

C Flowers

SS Ramirez

3B Teahen

CF/1B Danks/Viciedo?

2012

CF/LF Danks

RF/CF Rios

DH/RF Quentin

C Flowers

2B Beckham

1B/DH Konerko

SS Ramirez

LF/3B Teahen

3B/1B Morel?/Viciedo?

There are obviously a lot of question marks. For one, it is still unclear when or whether Jordan Danks, Brent Morel, and Dayan Viciedo will be ready. It looks like Viciedo is being prepped for a 1B role, though he could end up mainly DHing. If we have Danks and Rios providing plus OF defense, perhaps we could put up with Dayan in LF sometimes. I'm not sure whether that's remotely feasible. I can see Teahen switching to the OF if Morel proves worthy at 3B. Perhaps we will pick up another free agent in one of the next couple offseasons. Someone who can play LF and 1B while ideally hitting with some left-handed pop would be nice. That's assuming we keep Konerko around and give him and Quentin the LAA-style Vlad treatment as rotating DHs. That would be a real DH rotation--actual hitters switching who gets the half-time off. I can't help but think Kenny will be looking for a plus bat at the deadline to drop into OF/DH. If Flowers is ready, Pierzynski might be involved in a deal as well, although I think his 10-and-5 rights kick in this season.

I'm interested to see how this works out. With Peavy, Buehrle, Floyd, Danks, Garcia, and Hudson, we have plenty of pitching to keep this team going. I have some optimism, but I'm also starting to wonder if it is misplaced. Here's to a good pennant run!

New laptop, more blogging

I've got a new laptop that I will be carrying around with me. Seeing as I was relying on a 7-year-old desktop with an iffy internet connection, I should find myself blogging more frequently. My schedule at grad school remains very full, but I'll try to add my voice to the blogosphere.

If you look back on past blog entries, you will see some less-than-enlightened thinking. I have really only acquainted myself with sabermetrics for about a year, over which time I've gone from a baseball fan curious about the occasional references to things I don't understand to a regular reader of the book blog, fangraphs, hardball times, and other sites, with a database on my new laptop and a zillion research ideas. Hopefully my writing will be able to incorporate my new knowledge with my own perspective.