12eight

After protracted negotiations that the media turned into a tense siege, Theo Epstein has signed his name to a new three-year deal worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $4-4.5 million total.  I don't think these negotiations ever got as bad as they were portrayed; these were, after all, two lawyers and two businessmen known for their savvy in negotiation.  I would have been surprised if these talks hadn't been a bit hairy, given that; add the Lucchino-Epstein mentor/mentee relationship into the mix and the competition gets even more intense.  Hell, I still remember the first day I ever beat my father in a footrace.  I freaked out, and there wasn't even a multi-million dollar paycheck at the finish line.

So, offseason priority 1 is out of the way.  Now, we move to offseason priorities 2-8, which are, in this order:

2) Find a center fielder;
2a) Find a leadoff hitter;
3) Figure out who will play first (Ortiz? Nixon? Konerko? Youkilis? A trade?);
3a) Figure out who plays third (only applicable if Youkilis isn't the answer to #3, and if the Sox choose to let go of Bill Mueller);
4) Find a bullpen;
5) Pick a 2B; Cora's under contract, and Graffanino isn't but could be for very little money.  Pedroia is waiting; will he get a shot at the job in ST?
6) Trade David Wells (current rumor is Wells to SD for Brian Lawrence and Akinori Otsuka, to which my response is 'yes please')
7) Decide on a course for Papelbon, who arrived a half-year earlier than he was likely scheduled to - does he start '06 in the pen with a cheap FA starter (or Lawrence, as above), or do they give Paps the 5th spot out of the gate?  Will there be a Spring Training battle?
8) Be very very careful who you protect and who you don't on the 40-man - Boston finally has a bunch of desirable prospects, and I'd rather not lose any of them to Tampa Bay for $50,000.  Unless that money is coming to me personally.  Which it isn't.

There's other stuff, but I said 8 and I'm sticking to it even though I completely pulled that number out of my ass and there are two extra things there anyway.  Now if you'll excuse me, I must be vewwy vewwy quiet.  I'm hunting apartments.

So, things have been pretty quiet at 12eight for the last few days.  This is in part because I'm busy as hell; I'm now about a week away from starting a new job, and am hurling headfirst into an apartment search.  I've also been working on the new site, and it's coming along quite nicely.  I'm expecting to be able to fully move over there in a matter of days, preferably before my first day at the new place of employ.  There are some entertaining new features, and a couple experiments I'm trying out to see what happens. 

None of that, however, is to say that there has been no news.  The biggest today, at least in the baseball world (and discounting Patrick Fitzgerald's colorful baseball analogy that compared Scooter Libby to Pedro v. Posada) came from the Sox front office.  The Theo-watch continued, though word today was that the sides were nearing an agreement; I'm not at all stunned, and really didn't think all this was going to turn out to be a big deal anyway.  These were, after all, two parties quite skillful at negotiation, not to mention that no matter how many stories Tony Massarotti or Bob Ryan or Sean McAdam wrote, it was pretty plain that not a single one of them knew any more about the situation than you or I.  So, now, it appears that the Sox and their star GM have reached - or are approaching - a workable middle ground on whatever previously separated them, whether it was money or chain of command.  In either case, let's hope this gets settled tomorrow so that Theo can get back in the business of building the 2006 team.

There was, however, one notable departure from Yawkey Way today, as Josh Byrnes was announced as the new GM of the Arizona Diamondbacks.  It's an interesting job for Byrnes, as he inherits a weak MLB club with an outstanding farm system (at least as far as position players are concerned).  Word is he will be replaced internally, by current Assistant to the GM Jed Hoyer.

Two Sox players officially filed for free agency today, and they're the two that I'd least expect to see back in a Boston uniform next year.  Kevin Millar, who will likely not even be offered arbitration, and Bill Mueller, who has likely already reached an agreement with the Sox that will see him turn down any arbitration offer in favor of a new contract with a West Coast Club (Padres?  Dodgers?).  The move drastically reduces our number of Miller-variations, as well as leaving openings for corner IF positions.  3B will almost certainly be filled by Kevin Youkilis, but 1B is a major question mark.

Finally, it also appears that the Sox are growing close to a deal that would bring back 2005 relief ace Mike Timlin, on either a one or two year contract.  Timlin would be even more valuable in a Sox pen that promises to feature no small number of rookie or young arms; Timlin is effectively an additional bullpen coach, and his presence is arguably as important to the bullpen as Varitek's is to the team.

So that's about that.  Once the new site is completed, I'll announce it and post a link over there.  Once it's up, I'll start my own in-depth offseason analysis, whatever that may turn out to be.

And there it is, folks.  Congratulations to the 2005 Chicago White Sox, the Champions of Baseball.

Now we know who we're shooting for in 2006.

I'm sorry, I can't let this go without comment.  How in God's name can we actually be saying that 'Sha Na Na, Goodbye' is the White Sox 'signature song'?  This is a song that is played in every single sports venue in the English-speaking world.  I mean, come on now.  That's just silly.

I'm officially employed.

Now back to your regularly scheduled nothingness.

So, the server problems of the last few days - in which blog.com somehow managed to completely destroy their entire site along with the sidebars of every blog on their system and several comments simply by upgrading a back-end database - has convinced me (again) that blog.com doesn't have any clue what they're doing.  I'd been planning to move this site at the end of November anyway; now I'm planning on doing so ASAP.  So, check back soon for the new address and for your regularly scheduled posts.  In the meantime, check out some of the blogs on the newly restored sidebar, along with the articles I'll have up at Fire Brand of the AL on Wednesday and Friday this week.  And everybody watch Roy Oswalt pitch tonight so you can see why 've been raving about the guy for 3 years (now watch him get his ass lit up by Paul Konerko and Scott "Slugger" Podsednik).

Of all the versions of 'Sweet Home, Chicago' that they could have used instead of Eric Clapton's.

• Robert Johnson's original and far far FAR superior version,

• John Hammond Jr's very solid redo,

• Taj Mahal or Keb Mo's modern throwback Blues versions,

• Any of those by Jimmy Walker, Pinetop Perkins,

• Hell, I'd even take the versions by Fleetwood Mac, Foghat, or the Blues Brothers.

But no.  They had to go with Clapton's horrid version, from his even MORE horrid period of doing Robert Johnson covers (which resulted in this monstrosity).

For chrissakes, FOX.  This is a classic song, originally written and performed by one of the greatest American musicians ever, a man who helped create the Chicago blues sound you've been trying to cop throughout the White Sox run.  Could you maybe give his version a spin?  Please?

So, Jere took a few potshots in my direction today, and while I understand them I wanted to respond a bit.  Because I think this debate that was opened is a pretty fascinating new one for Sox fans; from fatalistically believing the Sox would always find a way to win, we now have fans who fatalistically believe they will always win.

That's why I was so confused and kind of pissed that so many people just didn't believe the Red Sox could win this year. Note the key word in that sentence. It's "believe." That people refused to "believe" this year makes me think they were all full of shit the year before. You know, the people who held up "Believe" signs AFTER we'd completed the comeback in the ALCS and were playing in the pressure-free World Series.

Well, however much 'belief' matters, of course I believed they could win in 2005.  Did I think they would?  No.  Like many others, I believed this was a flawed team, due to any number of factors - injury, construction, decline, whatever.  What I resent is the implication that somehow me thinking that the Sox didn't have it this year somehow makes me full of shit.  See, in this construction of Sox fandom, it almost doesn't matter if the Sox win or lose.  What matters is whether we believe in them.  Well, call me crazy, but to me I'd much much rather be wrong and have them win than be wrong and have them lose.  It makes it even cooler if I believe they'll win and they do - much like 2004, when going into the Yankee Series, I was absolutely positive that this team was the one.  Turns out they were, but I sure didn't think so after Game 3.  Why?  Because what had to happen was exactly that impossible.  If you're one of those who still thought they'd come back, bully for you.  But to try to hold it over other people's heads is one of those bullshit 'I'm a better fan than you' moves that makes me despise a goodly chunk of Sox fandom.

But instead of Sox fans taking on a new attitude, it was the same old crap. One blogger who just won't link to me picked the White Sox to win it all. This person seems like a die-hard fan who was pretty damn psyched about 2004. So why would they take a look at 2005 and say, "Hey, this White Sox club looks like a juggernaut"?

Dunno.  Perhaps because they did (I didn't think so, but I can't really blame anyone for looking at a 99 win team with the best rotation in the AL and seeing a juggernaut).  How is that 'the same old crap'?  Why isn't that simply seeing a team that we think could be better than our beloved Red Sox?  Why would being psyched about 2004 have anything - anything - to do with whether or not I think the White Sox are good?  What, because the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004, I can't believe they could possibly lose it in 2005?  Does doing so make me less of a fan?  How stupid is that?

I'm not saying it's not okay to make a prediction based on facts and what you honestly think will happen. But what the fuck? How about some of that "belief" that got us so far a few months earlier? Is it so important to be right? More important than the Red Sox winning? Because if you think that us "believing" had anything to do with 2004, well, just know that your non-believing had something to do with 2005.

So... what are you saying?  That maybe I secretly think the White Sox (or in my case, the Cards - I predicted they'd win it all before the playoffs started) will in it all, but I have to believe in the Sox anyway?  What does that even mean?  Does it mean putting aside rationality?  And does it alter my desire for them to win?  Because I want the Sox to win every season, every game, every inning, every at-bat.  Does that mean I expect them to go 162-0 and shoot 11-0 through the playoffs?  Of course not.  There's a difference between desire and stupidity.  What I reject is the false dichotomy that has been erected between believing and thinking, or believing and wanting.

I know it's cool to be sad all the time and whatnot, and be all pissed at the happy people.

Listen, I really can't speak for others, but that's just silly.  The implication here is that fans who didn't think the Sox would win did so not out of any type of rationality but because they enjoy being unhappy.  That's a bit counter-intuitive to me.  Perhaps it's just because we didn't think they would.  I realize we all like to think of being a Sox fan as a religion, but... this is getting too close to fundamentalism for my taste. 

I don't want to start (or continue) a blog flame war here, but - having taken a bit of flak for my predictions that the Sox wouldn't go anywhere late in this season (a prediction which, I'll point out, turned out quite true) I felt that Jere's post was a good way to frame this.  'Belief' is fine.  It's good.  It's the point.  But it's not a membership card.  It's not a ranking system.  It's certainly not the end all and be all.  Being a fan is about three things, of which belief is one.  The other two are desire and knowledge.  You want them to win, you know things about them that can either point to a positive or negative outcome.  From there comes belief.  If the Red Sox had fielded the roster of the Royals in 2005, would I have believed they would win it all?  Of course not.  Would I have wanted them to?  Of course.  Which is more important to you?

Everyone wish me luck on my job interview today.

Seriously, go ahead.  There's a little comments thing at the bottom of the post.

So, I was again 50% right.  The White Sox were indeed victorious in 5, as I predicted (though I thought they'd lose game 3 instead of game 1).  The Astros, however, defeated the Cardinals in 6 games, destroying Busch Stadium and another little corner of LaRussa's non-existent soul in the process.  So, now I turn my attention to the 101st World Series, in which...

...the Houston Astros will defeat the Chicago White Sox in 7 games.

You can read my full prediction post over at Fire Brand right now.  But remember, whatever happens, look away quickly if they start to show this again:

I apologize.  And yes, that's who you think it is.

With 2 outs in the ninth inning, Houston an out away from the World Series, FOX puts up the following advertizement:

World Series Game 1: Houston @ Chicago.

The next batter singled.

Of course, as of... now, the Houston Astros are going to the World Series.  Congratulations to them.