Update: Mark Buehrle indeed won his second Gold Glove, and the American League's best shortstop? Derek Jeter. Wait, what?
A source close to Mark Buehrle has indicated that he will defend his 2009 American League Gold Glove honors by winning it for a second year.
The source is his wife:
According to a Facebook post Monday, Jamie Buehrle expressed her happiness for her husband's honor.
"So proud of my husband," Jamie Buehrle posted Monday. "He is now a TWO time gold glove winner!!!"
This was a foregone conclusion even before he made the play that cemented it on Opening Day. Last year, Buehrle just happened to win his first Gold Glove when nobody in the AL had ever won it. Now that he's a two-time winner, he'll most likely retain the title until he leaves the league, although it's nice that he keeps deserving it.
It seems like the only question will be whether any Sox will be joining Buehrle on that list. I'm going to go ahead and guess Mark Teahen.
IN OTHER NEWS!
*Greg Walker is back in the fold, says Doug Padilla, so the entire coaching staff remains intact for one more year. Padilla openly wonders how they might split in 2012.
*Don Cooper doesn't necessarily think Chris Sale's path to starterdom needs to start in 2011:
"He's going to be on the team in some capacity for me, and I would want Sale on our team to try to win a championship," Cooper said. "By my count, we have Floyd, Danks, Jackson, [Mark] Buehrle and Peavy as starters.
"If Peavy ain't ready, I'm not sure the best thing for a young kid is to start for X amount of days and weeks and then move him to the bullpen. It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world for Sale to be in the bullpen and get more experience and then make him a starter. Years ago, that's the way a lot of organizations did it."
*Padilla also tries to pin down the realistic list of contenders for Paul Konerko's services. His thought process leads him to 3 1/2 possible destinations: the Sox, the Rangers and the Rays, with the Giants holding an outside shot depending on what happens with Aubrey Huff.
*A.J. Pierzynski, the other key White Sox free agent, is growing a moustache.
*Brett Ballantini at CSNChicago.com goes through the White Sox roster in search of the best bang for the buck, in terms of WAR.
*White Sox Observer recaps Brent Morel's season.
*U-God at South Side Sox posted his own offseason plan.
*J.J. thinks Eduardo Escobar is great sell-high material.
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Arizona Fall League:
- Surprise 6, Peoria 5
- Eduardo Escobar (walk) and Jared Mitchell (strikeout) both went 0-for-3.
- Johnnie Lowe gave up five runs on eight hits and two walks over 3 1/3 innings, striking out three. Funny thing is, he lowered his ERA to 15.15.
- Henry Mabee pitched a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout.
