Sox Scoops 42.179: Black Sox Identify Areas For Improvement, Vow To Get To Work

[HoosierVic]

By Mike Talley
Black Sox Beat Writer
Chicago Sports Online

With the din of the Yellow Springs playoff victory celebration still ringing in their ears, the Chicago Black Sox brain trust met with local media this morning to discuss the team’s plans going forward.

Benedetta Vitale, the Sox General Manager, said the franchise was gratified to end its decade-long playoff drought this year, but is anything but satisfied with the team's progress.

“The key,” she said, “is to build an organization that can make the playoffs year in and year out. If you can do that with consistency, you give yourself repeated shots at making – and winning – the Landis Series. And that, quite simply, is our objective.”

Chicago, she said, has several areas to address in the offseason to make progress towards that goal. Among them:

• Bolstering the team’s right-handed hitting. Chicago was 62-44 (.585) against right-handed pitching in 2042, but 23-33 (.411) against lefties. With division rivals Louisville and Yellow Springs able to throw talented left-handers at the Sox, that weakness isn’t one the team can ignore.

• Further stocking the bullpen. Although Chicago has a talented pen (anchored by Gilberto Sosa, Francisco Salgado, Frits Brinson and Brian Smith), the team will give a hard look at promoting No. 1 draft pick Gilberto Cordero to the big club next season. He put up scintillating numbers at AA Beloit in roughly half a season after signing his contract: 3-0 with 23 saves, a 0.76 ERA, 1.19 FIP, and 12.2 K/9. Ike Kocher, who saved 41 games with a 2.92 ERA, 3.21 FIP and 7.0 K/9 at Single A Grand Junction, is in the pipeline, too.

• Strengthening CF and SS, with center field likely being the more critical of the two. Jim Lorenzen actually hit fairly well against left-handers (.255/.349/.469), but was disastrous (.183/.272/.361) against righties. At the very least, the Sox need to find a left-handed CF to platoon with Lorenzen. Miguel Valdez was a huge upgrade over Mark Wareham in the field, but was mediocre (to put it kindly) at the plate.

“None of this is impossible,” said Vitale. “We have talent coming through our minor league system, including a couple of very promising starting rotation prospects. But we do need to address – using our trademarked Blueprint™ for team development – our areas of need if we expect to stay competitive in the Heartland, which is without question the best division in baseball.

"If you'll excuse me now, it's time to get to work."

[DugoutDesperado]

Looks like there isn't too much overlap with the Jacksonville weaknesses, hopefully we will not be in too much competition with each other during the off-season.

[7teen]

The Blueprint is beating the Master Plan right now. This is no good!

[HoosierVic]

The Blueprint is beating the Master Plan right now. This is no good!

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