A few notes in the lead-up to the winter meetings:
*Takashi Saito signed with the Braves for one year and $3 million -- which is the price Timmeh tagged him with in his offseason plan. Nice work.
A commenter at Baseball Think Factory mentioned that the Red Sox basically shielded Saito from arduous workloads, only pitching him in back-to-back games three times over the course of the season. Considering his age and arm problems, the White Sox probably would have had to go a similar route - and they already have to protect Scott Linebrink and his $5 million contract that way.
*Speaking of Linebrink, Kenny Williams thinks he might be "tipping his pitches":
"We've got to find answers because he's too good to have struggled like that," said Williams of Linebrink, who had a 1.93 ERA prior to the All-Star Game. "His stuff is too good."
To me, this sounds like Williams' quote about Nick Masset:
"You get more real answers when a guy takes a step backwards," Williams added. "Now, he's got to try and figure it out a little bit."
Anyway, I'm not inclined to believe it. For one, "tipping pitches" is the "dog ate my homework" excuse of the pitching world. It's occasionally true, but awfully convenient.
Plus, his average fastball clocked 93.6 m.p.h. last year. That was the fastest of his career, but it also seemed to be straight as an arrow. Add in his decreasing ground ball rate and uptick in walks, and I'd accept overthrowing as an issue before pitch-tipping.
*Phil Rogers gets Buddy Bell's opinion on Dayan Viciedo:
"One of our biggest concerns with him was the culture," Bell said. "The kid turned out to be maybe the best teammate we had at Birmingham ... He's a great kid."
Bell compares the 20-year-old Viciedo to the Angels' Kendry Morales, a more experienced Cuban who needed 309 games in the minor leagues before establishing himself as a big-leaguer. "He'll figure it out," Bell said of Viciedo. "He's so strong. He's going to be a good big-league hitter."
I'm still inclined to agree. Out of all the hitters I've seen this year, he provided the most reason for excitement. As a fielder... he's not much of one.
*Sports Illustrated listed the White Sox farm system in the 16-25 range of Baseball America's rankings. I suppose it's a testament to the system's health that the Sox can trade away three top-10 players and still stay out of the bottom five.
