Catching up on some White Sox news and notes

Lucas Giolito

I've been in a busy stretch at my real job recently, so I haven't had the chance to write about baseball much. 

Any of the things below probably could have been a blog entry, but for the sake of time, I'll just bullet point some of the recent White Sox news and notes:

• The Sox avoided arbitration with ace pitcher Lucas Giolito by agreeing to terms on a one-year, $4.15 million contract. Barring injury, we'll see Giolito on the mound Opening Day.
  
• The Sox also avoided arbitration with right-hander Reynaldo Lopez by agreeing to terms on a one-year, $2.1 million contract. Lopez will be pitching for his job in the spring -- he is projected to compete with Dylan Cease and Michael Kopech for the last two spots in the starting rotation.
• The Sox finalized a contract with right-hander Liam Hendriks. The terms are exactly what we described earlier in the week. Hendriks will be the closer this season.
• The international signing period began Jan. 15, and as expected, the Sox signed Cuban outfielder Yoelqui Céspedes for $2.05 million. They also signed Cuban right-hander Norge Vera for $1.5 million.
• Connor McKnight has been hired to host pregame and postgame shows on ESPN 1000 AM. McKnight will fill in on radio broadcasts with Darrin Jackson when Len Kasper is doing TV work on NBC Sports Chicago. He also will host "White Sox Weekly," which is a one-hour program that airs at 9 a.m. Saturdays on 1000 AM. That show will expand to two hours when the season begins.

OK, I think we're up to date.

Len Kasper named White Sox radio play-by-play announcer

Here's the biggest surprise of the offseason so far: Longtime Cubs TV announcer Len Kasper is moving to the South Side. He will become the radio play-by-play voice of the White Sox on ESPN 1000.

Kasper will join Darrin Jackson as the permanent replacement for Ed Farmer, who died April 1 at age 70. Andy Masur filled in throughout the 2020 season, and I figured he was the front-runner for the job. 

Not so. Turns out, Kasper says he sought the Sox out because he's always wanted to work on the radio. Interesting. 

The general rule of thumb is TV jobs are better and more high profile than radio jobs, and certainly, there are few TV gigs more high profile than the Cubs. But hey, if Kasper wants to work on the radio, welcome to the South Side, Len!

Sox fans have said for years that the radio booth could benefit from a true play-by-play voice, and Kasper is that. I can't say that I have a strong feeling about Kasper's ability one way or the other -- I don't watch many Cubs games -- but I do like that the Sox are adding an experienced broadcaster to their booth.

It's better than hiring a former player, or some other "Reinsdorf favorite" for the job. Like most Sox fans, I look forward to the day when the phrase "Reinsdorf favorite" is put into retirement.

In any case, Kasper won't exclusively do radio work. We'll see him in the TV booth on NBC Sports Chicago for 20 to 25 games a season. He'll fill in alongside Jason Benetti when Steve Stone takes a few games off.

Kasper and Benetti are friends, and word is they will be creating "several multimedia projects" throughout the year. Not sure what that means, but I'm intrigued, and I'll be listening. It sounds as though Kasper and Benetti are planning to start a podcast as well. Once again, I'll be listening.

And I guess that's the point, to get people to listen, right?

Catching up: White Sox moving back to ESPN 1000

Catching up on one bit of news from last week: White Sox radio broadcasts are moving back to WMVP 1000-AM, the local ESPN sports talk station. A multiyear agreement was announced Nov. 12. 

Terms were not disclosed, but the deal includes all regular season and postseason games, plus some spring training games.

The Sox were last on the ESPN radio station from 1999 to 2005, the year they won the World Series. The team has since made the rounds, going from WSCR 670-AM to WLS 890-AM to WGN 720-AM. 

You need a scorecard to keep up with all of this, because 1000-AM will be the fourth station the Sox have aired on since 2015.

As part of the deal, ESPN 1000 will air “White Sox Weekly,” as well as pregame and postgame shows. Reports indicate "White Sox Weekly" will be a two-hour program during the season, and a one-hour program during the offseason.

Darrin Jackson will be back as the color analyst on the radio broadcast. Andy Masur's future as the play-by-play man is up in the air. He was working on a one-year contract at WGN last season. He reportedly is a candidate to keep the job, but nothing is cast in stone. 

ESPN also will hire a pregame and postgame show host at some point.

Andy Masur joins White Sox radio booth; latest on Field of Dreams game

A couple of White Sox notes from Tuesday:

First, Andy Masur will be the radio play-by-play voice of the Sox on WGN 720-AM this season. Masur will replace the late Ed Farmer and work with longtime analyst Darrin Jackson.

Farmer, who battled kidney disease throughout his life, died of an undisclosed illness April 1 at age 70.

Masur has filled in for Farmer on numerous occasions, including during some spring training games in March. Masur grew up in the Chicago area and has spent the past two seasons as a pregame host on Sox games.

The veteran broadcaster also worked in the Cubs' radio booth as an occasional fill-in for Pat Hughes when the North Siders were on WGN radio. He also spent eight years in San Diego as part of the Padres' radio broadcast team.

Reports indicate Masur has been given no guarantees past 2020, and replacing Farmer will be no easy task.

“Ed was a legend in his own right, and it was a well-deserved legendary status,” Masur told MLB.com on Tuesday. “The guy bled White Sox baseball. He pitched for them. He got a chance to grow up watching them and got a chance to be around them when they won a World Series. He had been around them as they’ve been rebuilding to what they hope to be here in the next couple of years.

“From my perspective, I go in and just kind of do what I do and hope that I make Ed proud and hope I make D.J. proud. I hope I give White Sox fans what they are looking for, as far as a game broadcast with information and making sure you know where the ball is and what the inning is and what the score is.”

Sox might play NL Central opponent in Iowa

Remember when the Sox were supposed to play the New York Yankees in the Field of Dreams game in Dyersville, Iowa, on Aug. 13?

Well, the Sox definitely won't be playing the Yankees. With this shortened season and a geographically based schedule, there will be no games against New York -- just games against clubs from the AL Central and NL Central.

The latest reporting says that Field of Dreams game could go on, but the opponent will be a National League team -- either the Cardinals, the Cubs or the Brewers.

Let me cast my vote: Bring on the Cardinals!

I'm pretty sure the eyes of Chicago will be on the six games between the Sox and the Cubs, no matter where they are played. Those games do not need an unusual venue to get extra attention.

So why not play St. Louis instead? Let's add a little juice -- and a national TV audience -- to a matchup between the Sox and Cardinals.

Some other photos from SoxFest 2020

Here's a rundown on some of the people I got to meet at SoxFest:

White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease was a big fan of my shirt, which referred to the Sox as "The Good," the Detroit Tigers as "The Bad," and the Kansas City Royals as "The Ugly."

Hanging out with somebody closer to my own age on Saturday morning -- the man who was the starting and winning pitcher in Game 1 of the 2005 World Series, Jose Contreras.

As mentioned in an earlier blog, Danny Farquhar is back with the Sox organization as a pitching coach. He'll be at Class-A Winston-Salem this season.

Hall of Famer Tim Raines was in the house Saturday. Some of Raines' best seasons came in the 1980s as a member of the Montreal Expos. He was on some talented teams there with Andre Dawson and Gary Carter. But he was still a pretty damn good offensive player when he came to the Sox in the early 1990s.

This is the first time I've ever met Tom Paciorek. I'm just old enough to remember Paciorek's career as a player -- he was a member of the 1983 American League West Division champion White Sox. That's the first season I remember -- I was 7 years old at the time. But I'll always recall "Wimpy" best for his years in the Sox broadcast booth with Ken Harrelson. He was the perfect complement to Hawk for many seasons in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

And here's me with former Sox outfielder and current radio broadcaster Darrin Jackson. For some reason, DJ wanted to know if I was a former catcher. No, actually, I played quite a bit of center field. Jackson was intrigued, saying, "So you've got some wheels, huh?" Well, not at age 43. Maybe in my younger years.

Finally, new Sox relief pitcher Steve Cishek, who is one tall dude. We've noted in the past that Cishek may have been overused the past couple of years with the Cubs, so I asked him whether he has another 70 or 80 appearances left in him for this year. His response: "I'm ready. Let's go."








I'm ready, too. March 26 can't get here fast enough.

Second impression of 2019 White Sox ... more tolerable

I'm a glutton for punishment. After Sunday's disastrous game, I gave White Sox spring training baseball another chance on my commute home from work Monday afternoon.

I picked up the game in the bottom of the seventh inning, with the Sox trailing the Los Angeles Angels, 6-5.

Moments later, the Sox tied the game on an infield single by minor-league catcher Nate Nolan that included a throwing error by Angels minor-league third baseman Jordan Zimmerman (not the Detroit Tigers pitcher).

I listened to the rest of the game, which ended in a 6-6 tie, before I made it home.

Hey, at least they didn't lose!

And they rallied from an early 6-2 deficit. I've read that Reynaldo Lopez struggled, allowing four earned runs on four hits over 3.1 innings. However, he said he was happy with the outing, and that he's not worried about his spring numbers. True enough, spring numbers don't matter for guys who know they are going to be on the team.

That said, it's nice when guys who are going to be on the team perform well. Take presumed closer-to-be Alex Colome, who retired the side in order in the bottom of the fifth inning. Or reliever Nate Jones, who allowed a hit but worked a scoreless sixth.

Backup catcher James McCann went 2 for 3 and is hitting .333 for the spring, so there's that.

The Sox are now 3-6-2 in Cactus League games. It will be nice when a game or two makes its way to TV, so there can be more to observe than just a few nuggets gleaned from a box score.

In the meantime, the next game on the radio is Thursday against the Milwaukee Brewers. Presuming I have a decent day at work, maybe I'll be in the mood to tune in and listen to Ed Farmer and Darrin Jackson during my drive time.

The White Sox have a new radio home: WGN

It is always a good day when pitchers and catchers report to spring training, but there was additional good news Wednesday for the White Sox and their fans.

WGN-AM 720 has been named the new radio flagship of the Sox. Financial terms were not disclosed, but it is a multiyear deal, according to a Chicago Tribune report.

Ed Farmer and Darrin Jackson will remain as the team's radio broadcast pairing. WGN will carry a weekly year-round program showcasing the team, in addition to all Sox regular-season and postseason games, a pregame and postgame show and some spring training games, the Tribune report said.

This is delightful news. The Sox were about to enter into the third year of a six-year agreement with WLS-AM 890, and that deal was not working out.

A U.S. bankruptcy judge put the Sox's rights up for grabs earlier this month at the request of WLS's parent company, Cumulus Media. Cumulus asked the judge to nullify several "extremely unprofitable contracts," including those with both the Chicago Bulls and the Sox.

The judge's decision led the Bulls to jump to WSCR-AM 670, and now the Sox are on the move as well.

The South Siders will be on a much more powerful station, a station with a wider audience, and it's my belief WGN will do its part to grow fan interest in White Sox baseball.

Most people who know me are aware the Sox are my favorite pro sports team, but the Chicago Blackhawks are a close second. And I can tell you that WGN's coverage of the Hawks is quite good and far more extensive than anything WLS was doing for the Sox.

Case in point: I attended a Hawks game last month at the United Center. After the game, I tuned into WGN for the postgame, and the postgame show still was on when we arrived at my girlfriend's house in Arlington Heights, about an hour's drive later. The coverage was thorough and extensive.

In contrast, when I turn on the Sox postgame after leaving Guaranteed Rate Field, the coverage lasts maybe 15 minutes. Sometimes, the Sox coverage on WLS is over before I even get out of the Bridgeport neighborhood. There's no postgame reaction, no calls, no highlights from around the league, nothing. It's like WLS can't wait to get back to the political talk, and when that stuff comes on, it's a cue for me to change the station.

I'm very happy to hear of this change. I think it's a good move for the Sox organization over the long haul, and I look forward to listening to the postgame coverage on WGN when driving home from Guaranteed Rate Field this season.

White Sox name Jason Benetti new announcer, settle questions about TV booth

Jason Benetti (left) has been added to the White Sox broadcast team.

The White Sox on Wednesday named Homewood-Flossmoor High School graduate Jason Benetti their new TV play-by-play announcer, while at the same time extending the contracts of Ken Harrelson and Steve Stone.

Benetti, 32, will call 81 games alongside Stone this season. The local product grew up as a White Sox fan and has called college basketball, football, baseball and lacrosse at ESPN since 2011. He also previously served as the radio play-by-play man for the Syracuse Chiefs, the Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals.

"Jason is one of the top up-and-coming voices in sports television," White Sox vice president of sales and marketing Brooks Boyer said in a news release. "He is a homegrown talent who will mix a love for the game with a deep knowledge of the White Sox and an informative and entertaining style. We believe Sox fans will immediately connect with his humor, intellect and personality."

"Joining the White Sox television team of Ken Harrelson and Steve Stone -- with the chance to work with Steve on home games -- is truly a dream come true for a kid who grew up in the south suburbs watching Sox games during the 1990s," Benetti said in the release. "This is beyond exciting for me."

The 74-year-old Harrelson will begin a reduced schedule this year. Like Benetti, "Hawk" will work 81 games, 78 of them on the road, plus Opening Day at U.S. Cellular Field and the two home games against the Cubs.

I like the move to bring Benetti on board for a few reasons. First, he's a professional broadcaster. He already knows his way around a broadcast booth, and he has earned this opportunity through his previous work. Those things seem like they should be a prerequisite for the job, but that's not always been the case with the White Sox -- who have inexplicably tried to force former players into the booth in the past. Darrin Jackson has improved through the years, but he really struggled when he first started with the team. And Chris Singleton's time in the Sox radio booth was a disaster. With Benetti, there shouldn't be any sort of learning curve that makes the broadcasts an awkward listen. He'll be ready to do the job from day one.

Secondly, Benetti is a guy who grew up in the area, so he's familiar with White Sox history, the Chicago market and the fan base. That institutional knowledge can only help as he works to build a connection with the fans in his first year. I'm optimistic his broadcasts will both entertain and inform, regardless of whether the White Sox are winning or losing. Too often, the Harrelson-Stone TV booth has had fans reaching for the mute button -- if not the off button -- in recent years. Benetti hopefully can provide a change of pace that makes Sox baseball more fun.

And, lastly, I think the reduced schedule will be beneficial for Hawk Harrelson. He has sounded terrible at times during these past few seasons, perhaps beaten down by the Sox losing a total of 264 games the last three years. His extension is a multiyear deal, but he admitted this could be his last year if the 2016 Sox stink it up.

"It’s a contract, that, as I told [Brooks Boyer] and [chairman] Jerry [Reinsdorf], it might be at the end of the season where I say 'Hey, I’ve had enough,' " Harrelson told the Sun-Times Wednesday. "I hope that’s not the case because that means our team didn’t do well again. If I have to go through another season like we did last year, that would probably be enough -- no, you can count me out."

Hawk has been a polarizing figure throughout his career, even for Sox fans, but I've always said this about him: He's great when the team is doing well, because his passion for Sox baseball shines through on the broadcasts. But when the team is doing poorly, as has been the case for three years, he becomes completely miserable and makes the broadcasts hard to listen to for even the most diehard of fans. I think the combination of bad play and grumpy Hawk has caused a lot of people to change the channel away from Sox baseball.

Hopefully, the Sox play well this year, and it all becomes a moot point. But if they do play poorly, it will be better for Hawk's health and demeanor if he doesn't have to watch the team flounder every day, and it will be more tolerable for fans if they don't have to listen to Hawk grump every day.

The six worst recent White Sox reunions

You've seen the best, so now here are the worst reunions between the White Sox and their former players:

6. Darrin Jackson
First Tenure: 1994, .312/.362/.444
Second Stay: 1999, .275/.288/.430
Jackson was part of the most infamous "What If" White Sox team of the modern era, the 1994 team that had its chance to win a World Series wiped away by baseball's strike that season. Jackson enjoyed what was probably his finest professional season that summer, hitting well and playing a good right field, just like Ellis Burks -- the team's previous stopgap solution in right -- did the year before.

The Sox looked much different when Jackson returned a few years later after a couple seasons in Japan, and stops in Minnesota and Milwaukee. Gone were all of the players from the previous team who might have made a title run, except for Frank Thomas, around whom the Sox were trying to build a new core of young players.

Jackson was different, too. Instead of a starting right fielder, he played as a fourth outfielder. What was so disappointing about Jackson's return wasn't so much his play in that role, or the sad reminder of the last talented team that collapsed, but that the Sox had an abundance of young outfielders who needed looks.

Three of those those young outfielders did emerge with firm holds on jobs by the end of the year (Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Lee and Chris Singleton), and among the others who auditioned (Jeff Liefer, Jeff Abbott, McKay Christensen and Brian Simmons), the most noteworthy thing any of them did after leaving the Sox was when one of them locked himself in the bathroom during a game. So in that sense it didn't cost the franchise any opportunity to let a kid run with a job. And Jackson was so well-liked he remained with the team, first in the TV booth before moving over to radio.

Still, even season ticket holders weren't interested in watching Jackson start half the games in center field, which knowing how then-manager Jerry Manuel liked to run things, might have been a job-share that persisted had Jackson dropped in a few more singles.

5. Sandy Alomar
First Tenure: 2001-2002, .264/.296/.382, then 2003-2004, .254/.289/.365
Third Stay: 2006, .217/.255/.358
Perhaps the biggest laugher in the "Trade for an Alomar!" jokes longtime general manager Ken Williams wrote in the early and middle parts of the previous decade.

The first time the Sox brought in Alomar, they needed a catcher. After trading him to Colorado, they brought him back again as a veteran caddy for a young Miguel Olivo. Then Olivo was traded, and Alomar could not credibly start over Ben Davis. That's OK. Life is rough for catchers near the end of their careers. A.J. Pierzynski fell in the Sox's laps that offseason, and catcher wasn't a huge concern for nearly a decade.

Then when the Sox began spinning their wheels during July of their 2006 title defense, they reached for the old security blanket by bringing Alomar back again, this time in a trade with the Dodgers for some guy you've never heard of.

It's not that Alomar was costly. It's not that he wasn't marginally better than they guy he replaced (Chris Widger). It's not like he even mattered in his 19 games played behind the workhorse Pierzynski. He was a backup catcher, so who cares?

It was just the pointlessness of it. Trading for a guy who was barely better than the incumbent, who probably wasn't at all better than Chris Stewart, who wasn't all that good either, and who wasn't even going to play much, all while there were much bigger issues.

4. Roberto Alomar
First Tenure: 2003, .253/.330/.340
Second Stay: 2004, .180/.203/.449
Again, it's hard to see past the pointlessness of this one. Alomar was a shell of himself when the Sox traded for him to man second base in 2003. When it turns out the contract Alomar and Williams worked out with a handshake, on a bar napkin, or whatever was alleged, Alomar took his steeply declining career to Arizona for even less money.

The decline was so steep that Alomar, Utility Infielder of '04 was even more disappointing than Alomar, Second Baseman '03.

The only happy part of this reunion story is that Williams and the Sox weren't out the money they would have been if Alomar had been cornered without his agent.

3. Esteban Loaiza
First Tenure: 2003-04, 30-14, 3.65 ERA
Second Tenure: 0-0, 6.80 ERA, 3 IP
Loaiza was the first, and maybe remains the most famous of Sox pitching coach Don Cooper's reclamation projects. A journeyman in his 30s when he joined the Sox as a minor league free agent before 2003, Loaiza learned a cutter and finished second in the Cy Young voting that season while going 21-9 with a 2.90 ERA.

His second season in Chicago was a little rougher, and with no contract extension likely to be worked out, he was traded for Jose Contreras.

The Sox must have remembered his success with them fondly, because despite only one solid season after his exodus from the team, they brought him back for a look after he was released by the Dodgers during the 2008 season.

Be it that the end was near all along, or rumors that Loaiza wasn't working out and in game shape between stays in organizations, he never recaptured his stuff.

2. Bartolo Colon
First Tenure: 2003, 15-13, 3.87
Second Stay: 2009, 3-6, 4.19 ERA, 13 unearned runs, 13 HR allowed in 62 1/3 IP
Colon couldn't quite put the White Sox over the top and into the playoffs during his first stay, but rode a gaudy win total to a Cy Young Award a couple seasons later in Anaheim. Always an innings eater, and probably an eater of many other delicious things, his massive workload that year probably set the stage for the health problems that plagued him since, and only ended once he found a unique medical treatment.

It wasn't just the results that were a letdown from Colon, though that was less than expected, too. It's that while battling injuries, he also went missing for a time, leading to some amusing speculation that it had something to do with the King of Pop's demise.

Despite a drug suspension stemming from his treatments, Colon has been back. A couple solid seasons in Oakland even helped him sign another albatross contract the Mets would be happy to unload right now. Don't look for them to unload it on the Sox now.

1. Harold Baines
First Tenure: 1980-89, 1996-97, .288/.346/.463, 220 HR
Third Stay: .166/.240/.225, 1 HR
The first reunion was great, despite the circumstances surrounding it. The third and final reunion cut deeply into Baines' playing time as he was added via trade to be a bench bat for an ill-fated playoff run in 2000. 

At the time the Sox picked him up from Baltimore, Baines was batting .266/.349/.437 with 10 home runs. This was coming off a .312/.395/.533 year with 25 home runs split between Baltimore and Cleveland. With 2,842 hits in his career, Baines looked to be one and a half healthy seasons away from reaching the 3,000 milestone that might have bolstered his Hall of Fame case.

Hindsight tells us 3,000 probably wasn't in the cards for Baines. If he declined between 1999 and 2000, then he absolutely fell off a cliff after the trade back to the White Sox. He hit only one more home run in his career, on Aug. 15, 2000, appropriately against Baltimore. With a double that night he also had his last multi-hit game.

Baines came back with the Sox in 2001, presumably in the same bench role he occupied down the stretch the previous season. Even when a season-ending injury to Frank Thomas opened the door for playing time to rebound from a .105/.150/.105 start and start marching up the career hit list, Baines couldn't answer the bell. He finished May with a barely improved line of .117/.187/.130. Because of injuries and ineffectiveness, he played three more games, collected two more hits, and came to the plate a final time on Sept. 27 as a pinch hitter, striking out to close his career.

What was most disappointing about this reunion was that if everything had worked out as planned, the Sox would storm to another division title like they had with a young team the year before, Baines would add a few more marks on his record sheet, but probably come up short of making things tough for Hall of Fame voters.

When Thomas got hurt and contention fell through, the would-be consolation prize -- watching an old hero get a legitimate run at 3,000 hits -- also evaporated.

Even if Baines had no real shot at matching the hopes of wishful White Sox fans, in a way it was still like watching the present burn and the past fade at the same time. Or like with Jackson, for Sox fans it was facing an uncertain future while holding on to a past we couldn't make more glorious.