Extra Innings: 9/30/11

Illustration by Carl Skankberg

Extra Innings is a link dump that will run every weekday evening that features news stories that The Asylum didn't get to that day, or just posts throughout the White Sox blogosphere that are worth your attention.

- The White Sox announced on Friday that they'd agreed to a contract extension with Sergio Santos. It's for three years and $8.25 million with club options from 2015-17. Which is a pretty damn good deal for the White Sox. If the magic of the last two seasons wears off on Sergio, then it's really not costing the team all that much. [White Sox]

- Let the speculation begin for real: Terry Francona is no longer the manager of the Boston Red Sox. As I said in my post this morning, I think Francona is too expensive for the White Sox to really consider him, but that's not gonna stop a million people from writing about it over the next week. [Hardball Talk]

- This would be a lot more fun if there was an option under Alex Rios that just said "DIE." [ESPN Chicago]

- I was amazed that Stankevitz admitted that he didn't hate Coors Light in this post, but then when I saw all the different types of Goose Island that he drinks, I realized he just doesn't have taste buds. [Beerleaguer]

- Since he's gone, I'm going to severely cut back the amount of attention paid to Ozzie here, but even though this is a few days old, it's still pretty damned wonderful. [With Leather]

White Sox Production Poll: Relievers

He does everything but gain weight

Now we reach the final installment of the Production Polls for 2011 by taking a look at the bullpen. We've already covered the position players and the starters, but if you're not familiar with what this is and how it's done, I will explain further.

I create a formula and then use certain statistics of White Sox players, compared against their teammates, to determine which players were the most valuable to the team in 2011. Once the 2012 season begins, I'll continue doing these rankings throughout the entire season.

Get it? Okay, then, let's move along.

The White Sox Need A New Leader, And I Am That Leader

My fellow White Sox fans, the moment we've all been expecting for a while now finally came earlier this week. Ozzie Guillen is no longer the manager of our Chicago White Sox. Some of you are no doubt upset with this news, while others celebrate.

None of these feelings matter. Feel them now, and then get rid of them. The time has come to move on, and the White Sox need a new manager.

And that manager is me.

White Sox Production Poll: Starters

Please come back

Yesterday I introduced you to my Production Poll for the White Sox position players, and today I debut the same poll for the team's starting pitchers.

Much like I do for the hitters, I use a formula I created that uses selected statistics to determine which Sox starting pitcher brought the most value to the White Sox during the season. I broke up the starters from the relievers because although a lot of the statistics I use in each set of rankings are the same, not all of them are, and those statistics mean different things for each pitcher based on their role.

So in order to get an accurate result I had to break them up.

SSA EXCLUSIVE: Kenny Williams' List Of Managerial Candidates

You don't even want to know what I had to do to get my hands on this.

Terry Francona Reportedly Wants Out Of Boston

Terry Francona's name has come up as a possible managerial candidate for the White Sox, but generally I've considered him to be a long shot. Yes, the Red Sox had one of the greatest collapses in MLB history this month by blowing a 9-game lead over the Rays in September, and sure the Red Sox haven't picked up his option for 2012 yet, but I just felt there's no reason that Boston wouldn't bring him back.

Because it's not like anybody in Boston ever overreacts to anything.

I guess what I didn't take into consideration was whether or not the two-time World Series winner would want to go back to Boston.

Mark Buehrle Is Playing The Game

Mark Buehrle has undergone quite the change over the last year. He's gone from saying a year ago that he would probably retire after his contract with the White Sox expired to realizing that retiring when he could probably make another $50 million would be downright idiotic.

You can buy a lot of ammo, beer and land with $50 million.

Extra Innings: 9/29/11

Extra Innings is a link dump that will run every weekday evening that features news stories that The Asylum didn't get to that day, or just posts throughout the White Sox blogosphere that are worth your attention.

- The guys over at South Side Sox get together and talk about the departure of Ozzie Guillen, and what they think it all means for his future, the team's future and the future of Kenny Williams. [South Side Sox]

- Dan McNeil teaches us that nothing proves how irrelevant Ozzie Guillen is in Chicago than writing a column about Ozzie Guillen. [Chicago Tribune]

- Doug Padilla goes over the list of potential replacement for Guillen, and who is most likely to land the job. My personal belief is that Dave Martinez is the favorite, but now that Tampa made the playoffs it could throw a wrench into the process. I'd be happy with Martinez or Sandy Alomar, and I'd take Terry Francona if he somehow becomes available too. [ESPN Chicago]

- Scott Merkin thinks that a similar White Sox roster next season could produce better results. Which makes sense seeing as how this year's squad couldn't have done much worse. [White Sox]

- J.J. doesn't seem to subscribe to Merkin's theory, however. [Beerleaguer]

- The season sucked, but at least it's over, right? [White Sox Observer]

- Donny Lucy is the biggest victim of the Ozzie Guillen trade. [MLB Trade Rumors]

On The Departure Of Ozzie Guillen

Man, I picked a great time to start a White Sox blog, huh? Interestingly enough, this is the very first blog post I've ever written about the Chicago White Sox in which Ozzie Guillen wasn't the team's manager. The man was a gift to me and sportswriters everywhere.

Of course, now he'll be providing writers in south Florida with the headlines and stories that he's given all of us the last eight years.

As for how I feel about Guillen and the White Sox parting ways, there are plenty of mixed feelings to offer.

White Sox Production Poll: Hitters

Not only was he the Captain of the ship, but he may have been the only damn person on it

While you'll find as you continue to read this blog that I'm not as obsessed with statistics as a lot of my blogging brethren, that doesn't mean I don't like having fun with numbers once in a while. It's just that I don't spend a lot of time arguing about how WAR is better than every other stat, or any similar type of argument.

So with that in mind, I'm introducing you to my Production Polls for the White Sox. Essentially what I've done is I've created a formula using a number of different statistics to determine which White Sox has been more valuable to the team on a whole this season.

We Should Have Known Better

The White Sox season is finally, mercifully over. It was a long one, and it feels like that opening day carpet bombing of the Cleveland Indians was three years ago, not six months. This season, much like the two before it, comes to an end with us having to watch other teams fight it out for a World Series championship.

Though, if there's a bright side, at least it's the Detroit Tigers moving on to the playoffs this year, and we all had a chance to enjoy watching the Minnesota Twins struggle so mightily. That being said, it really doesn't do much to erase the frustration that 2011 brought for White Sox fans.

Death Of A Season, Birth Of A Blog

Welcome to the Asylum, friends.

For those of you familiar with my work, you may have been wondering why there hadn't been a new entry on Foul Balls since August.  Well, now you know. After starting Foul Balls in October 2005 and spending nearly six years writing some of the dumbest things ever written about Chicago sports -- and maybe some interesting stuff as well -- I felt a change was needed.