Sox Sentinel.
Off-Season Report
The Chicago Black Sox have had a frustrating time of late, ending a miserable season with a 59-103 record, an unhappy ball club staff and to cap it all off the appointment of a GM with very little experience and a foreign passport to boot. If Black Sox fans hoped those frustrations would be eased by a productive offseason then they must be bitterly disappointed. First up Jose Sosa departed for Montreal, refusing to even discuss a new contract. In came another relatively inexperienced European Carsten Lobstein
Chicago’s troubles weren’t over there however. One of the few brightspots of last season was the outstanding form of 1B Alphonso Torres Despite being offered a lucrative extension, Torres decided enough was enough, filed for Free agency sparking a bidding war for his services. Eventually signing for Hawaii , the lure of tropical climes proved too much for the veteran infielder.
Chicago were able to persuade two of last seasons starting rotation to sign contract extensions Gary Lammond and George Fagg Two others Howard Feldmann and Sean Bergman received new contracts through arbitration. That said, when the good news is that the starting rotation that were so woeful are back, things are bleak.
Free agency brought no relief with player after player having no hesitation signing elsewhere. The only option to shake things up for Chicago appeared to be the trade market where finally the Sox managed to make a couple of moves. The team were reticent to move any of their better prospects particularly the quartet of young pitchers that at least give them a vision for the future. Admirable though that seemed it was clear something had to give with most trade offers involving the departure of one or more of the quartet.First however the departure of Torres was dealt with by the acquisition of 1B Anthony McHugh from Seattle. The young left hander is a career .303 hitter and a significant improvement defensively on Torres. Out went Pitcher Lee Gibbons and Reliever Mike Elmore
Chicago then fielded numerous offers for their young quartet of pitchers before reaching agreement with the Greensville Moonshiners. The deal sends top prospect Luis Luna and veteran infielder Masuichiro Bunjiro Incoming are 3B Hector Fernandez, promising youngsterCharlie Scott, and prospects Anthony Brown and Jesus Cruz
While the fans will clearly be upset at the loss of such popular players as Luna and Bunjiro Chicago management will clearly hope they see the long term plan. Manager Lobstein had this to say about the moves. “ The Anthony McHugh signing came at the perfect time for us after Alphonso’s departure. We tried everything not to lose him but he just wasn’t interested in staying. Its no secret our locker room is not a happy place and that will take some time to turnaround. That’s one of the reasons why when Greensville enquired about Bunjiro we were interested. That interest waned when they made it clear Luis Luna or Mike Hall needed to be in the deal. It soon became clear that any deal we were discussing would need to involve one of our fab four so eventually we pulled the trigger. We get two guys who can improve the ball club right away and two more who will help in the future. Yes we’re sorry to see Luis leave but you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs as we say in Germany”
So Chicago are at last showing signs of life and while the changes aren’t the dramatic ones needed, they are at least a small step in the right direction.
