Dear Ken Williams, Grow a Pair and Cut Mark Teahen

With three weeks until Opening Day, it is feeling like an eerily quiet Spring down in Glendale. Aside from the post-separation name-calling between Ozzie and Bobby Jenks and the astounding progress being made by Jake Peavy, there doesn't feel like there's much to talk about regarding the Sox. There are no real position battles, most of the rotation is just about set, and really, the only question marks on the roster at this point are the last man out of the bullpen and who will end up the 4th outfielder.

All that being said, there's a pressing issue with the Sox that needs to be talked about. Mark Teahen. And not in the good, oh you're hitting .569 against mostly A-ball level quality pitching, but in the, someone give him his walking papers and get the him the hell off our team.

When the Sox acquired Teahen last off-season for Chris Getz and Josh Fields, it was a "meh" kind of a deal, but then they went and did something stupid like offer him a multiyear contract extension. So now we're on the hook for $4.5 and $5.5 million the next two years for a guy who can't play any defensive position adequately and hasn't had a good year at the plate since 2006. Brilliant.

He's already essentially ceded his starting job at third base to rookie Brent Morel, despite the fact Morel is hitting a robust .143/.250/.238 this Spring (yes, in Arizona), Morel is still at least an above average defensive third baseman. The Sox seem to have plenty of firepower offensively as it is, but need a steady glove at the hot corner when your pitching coach preaches pitching to contact as often as Don Cooper does. Teahen, thus far this Spring, has had 18 balls hit his way and committed 4 errors, plus tripped over the bag trying to catch a routine pop-up in foul territory.

But aside from his awful play and awful contract, what scares me the most about Mark Teahen... Ozzie Guillen, who has shown himself to be tremendously stubborn in the past and play guys far, far too often despite their pitiful performance. We've all seen this show before, Mark Kotsay was one of the worst offensive players in the American League in 2010, posting a -0.5 oWAR last season yet still got 359 plate appearances, 3rd most of the bottom 60 in the league behind only Baltimore SS Cesar Izturis and Seattle 3B Jose Lopez, although in fairness to those two, I should point out they were both adequate defensive players, off-setting their lack of production at the plate. Mark Kotsay's primary position? Designated hitter. I can't make this stuff up.

This has been going on throughout Ozzie's managerial tenure. So even though every indication from Teahen's time with the Sox points to him as the 25th man at the far end of the bench, you just know that's not how it will play out. As soon as Morel shows signs of struggle, Teahen will be right back in there, bobbling ground balls, sailing throws over Paul Konerko's head, and harmlessly flying out. Jerry Reinsdorf and Ken Williams have invest $125 million into this roster, with the assumption an exciting play-off contender will bring fans out in force. And yet, they allow mediocre talent like Teahen stick for no discernible reason other than he scored a sweet deal and they can't bring themselves to eat the $10 million it would take to kick him to the curb.

Look, I realize that the 2011 season doesn't hinge solely on Mark Teahen, but I'm also pretty convinced that had the Sox not bought out his arbitration years last off-season he would have been non-tendered and shown the door. You can correct your mistake, Ken Williams, and handcuff your manager's ability to make curious lineup moves, by hanging that pink slip in his locker.

Do it. Please.

Jake Peavy Returns, Dayan Draws a Walk (Updated)

Jake Peavy makes his return to anything resembling competitive baseball this afternoon, starting against the Angels in Peoria, Arizona. Peavy is slated to throw 2 innings like Buehrle, Floyd, Jackson, and Danks before him. Normally this wouldn't be much more than a "Yay! Baseball's back" kind of story, except that we're still less than 9 months shy of Jake's last game (coincidentally, against the Angels) when he tore his lat muscle off his shoulder.

I thought today's start would have been blog-worthy enough until I read the ESPN Chicago fluff piece about the Sox starters still not allowing a hit in Spring yet when this bomb was dropped,

Peavy said he is shooting for an April 10 regular season return at home against the Tampa Bay Rays.

I was at the game last July when Peavy was injured and yeah, you could tell he was done for the year and probably more. I could see that from my seats out behind the bullpen in right field. Considering he is still blazing path on recovery that is completely unknown, you'll have to excuse me if I don't breath every inning he is on the mound this year.

Update... Sports Illustrated's Jon Heyman tweeted this afternoon that Peavy is telling everyone his target date to return to the Sox is May 1.

Dayan can Walk! The Sox beat the Mariners yesterday, 6-1 for their 1st win of the Spring, but after glazing over the box score, the big story is the strong start to Spring Dayan Viciedo is having, 2-3 with a run and a walk! This is huge news to anyone who has followed the kid's career and development thus far. In his brief stint in the Majors last season, Dayan walked twice in 106 plate appearances. Pardon my rudimentary math for a moment, but hitters in the American League averaged 1 walk every 11.77 plate appearance in 2010 (7,367 walks in 86,725 plate appearances). For 106 trips to the dish, that should have resulted in 9 walks. Add 7 walks to Dayan's numbers and his OPS is over 900, which is staggering considering his 22nd birthday is later this month.

Viciedo Shines in the Field... Wait, what?

Though the return of actual baseball is always a welcomed relief from the dredges of winter, it's hard to get too jacked up for these games when the majority of the guys playing have numbers in the 90s and are on the chopping block between a plane ride to Charlotte or Birmingham.

All of this could be yours... If you fail.

That being said, there have certainly been a few things to capture the irrational sense of optimism this time of year nurtures (unless, of course, your team is already fighting in the dugout)... Juan Pierre is a workout machine and batting .500! Mark Buehrle, Gavin Floyd, and Edwin Jackson all didn't allow any hits in their 1st start!

That doesn't mean everything we learn in the early days of March is uninteresting. Take Dayan Viciedo, who turned some heads in Tuesday's game against Milwaukee by playing right field like a Major League right fielder, taking proper routes to balls and showing off his arm, nailing a runner at 3rd on a single to right. This is a critical step in the development of Dayan, who is now entering the third year of a four-year, $10 million contract that to this point has produced a total of 106 Major League plate appearances with very mixed results. Though Viciedo has played the outfield before in Cuba, he was a 3B and 1B in his two seasons in the Sox farm system, but has been essentially shut out from moving up the corporate ladder by Paul Konerko, Adam Dunn, and Brent Morel.

Though Baseball-Reference.com's contract section states Viciedo will remain under the Sox's control until the 2015 season, I'm not entirely sure how these weird international contracts always work, and since Dayan has switched agents from the Sox-friendly Jaime Torres to Jerry Reinsdorf''s Personal Satan, Scott Boras, I'm sure if there's a way out of this deal after it expires in 2012, he'll find it.

Still, the Viciedo to RF storyline is one of the more intriguing of the 1st week of the Spring season. Since the Sox obviously feel confident enough in the near-future of their corner infielders (sidenote: Also possible Viciedo was just too terrible defensively to justify any more playing time there) what does that say about their future plans at the corner outfield positions? Pierre is entering his contract year and Kenny Williams purportedly spent a chunk of the winter trying to move Carlos Quentin for pitching help.

Chris Sale to the Bullpen

All it took was one semi-rambling post from me for the Sox to finally make a decision about Sale.

Assuming that Jake Peavy will not be ready Opening Day (and they have a plan for that, as they could go to a 4-man rotation for most of April and only need a 5th starter twice), the pitching staff should shore up something like this:

Rotation: Buehrle, Danks, Floyd, Jackson, Philip Humber/Lucas Harrell
Bullpen: Sale, Thornton, Ohman (yes, Cub fans, that's who you think it is) from the left; Santos, Pena, Crain, Gregory Infante from the right

Happy White Sox Day!

It seems coincidentally fitting that on the same day Chicago is getting a break from a cold winter with a wave of Spring-like warmth, the Sox open camp today in Arizona. Yes, winter is on its last legs. Soon, spring and summer will be here.

Last year, the Sox won 88 games in an emotionally ravaging roller coaster of a season that saw the Sox fall as far as 9 games under .500, rattle off an 11- and 9-game win streak in June, lead the division at the All-Star Break, and unravel in September. At age 34, Paul Konerko had his best season at the plate, hitting .312/.393/.584 with 39 homers and 111 RBI en route to finishing 5th in the AL MVP voting, while Bobby Jenks' swan song with the White Sox saw him post career-worsts in IP, H/9 IP, and BB/9 IP before getting called out by Ozzie's son via Twitter on the way out the door.

In between all that mess, Jake Peavy suffered an injury so rare there is no established timetable for his return, the Sox posted the best record in the American League from June 9 on (when they hit their nadir of 9 games under .500), Alexei Ramirez turned into arguably the premier shortstop in the A.L., and oh hey, we replaced the Mark Kotsay/Andruw Jones Blackhole of DH Ineptitude with Adam Dunn.

There will be plenty of time for deeper analysis of this team as the spring rolls on, but for now we can just review some of the banner headlines for the (very) early 2011 season.

What to Do with Chris Sale
This time last year, Chris Sale was a senior at Florida Gulf Coast University. Now, the 13th overall pick of the 2010 Draft is at the Major League camp, working alongside the Sox starting pitching rotation. To date, Sale has 33.2 innings of professional baseball experience under his belt so to say his road to this stage has been extraordinary might be an understatement.

To be fair, one of the major reasons Sale's name is even in the discussion as the Sox's 5th starter is the uncertainty of Jake Peavy's status. Though his surgery and rehab (to this point) have been deemed successful, there's not much known about a detached latissimus dorsi muscle, so his return date is still pretty speculative.

Still, there's reason to worry about Sale's rush to the Majors. One of the main reasons cited for him falling to the Sox at 13 in last year's Draft was some concerns about his mechanics and frame. At 6'5''/170 it's not a stretch to compare him to another lanky, rail-thin starter, Brandon McCarthy, who also pitches out of the maligned Inverted W (Sale, McCarthy). Since bursting onto the scene with the Sox in 2005, McCarthy has had nothing but arm troubles.

Farm System Completely Barren
Last year's deadline deal that sent Dan Hudson to Arizona for Edwin Jackson has been called both a savvy acquisition and a desperate move, mostly depending on your opinion of Kenny Williams. Regardless though, it is fact that the Sox farm system is one of, if not the weakest in the game. The Sox simply do not have much in terms of tradeable assets, either in terms of young players or salary wiggle room. The departure of Hudson and the promotion of Beckham leaves the Sox with 1 blue chip prospect, Sale, who will likley be spending most of his summer in Chicago. Add the fact that signing Adam Dunn cost the Sox their 1st round pick in compensation to the Nationals and the White Sox don't pick until the Sandwich Round, 47th overall, this June.

Down on the farm, Dayan Viciedo proved to the world he could hit Major League pitching during his time in Chicago. The young Cuban slugged .519 in 106 plate appearances. Unfortunately, he also demonstrated he has no eye for the strike zone yet, striking out 25 times while drawing just 2 walks. Former top prospect Tyler Flowers crashed and burned in 2010, hitting .220/.334/.434 as a 24-year-old in a AAA bandbox. The supposed crown jewel of the Javier Vazquez deal seems to have played himself out of serious contention for playing time with the Sox. The only other interesting player of note is Jared Mitchell, whose 2010 season was lost during the last week of his impressive Spring performance when he broke his ankle making a play on a ball at the wall. Mitchell did return for the Arizona Fall League, but looked rusty and rushed as he hit a meager .163/.239/.200 in 24 games for the Saguaros.