Musket Love. (by hsa)

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Have you been non-tendered because of "economics" even though you were more valuable than many of your co-workers?

Do you have a case of the Mondays?

Well, don't worry, because SSS is here to kill your productivity and make the day fly by...

Here at SSS, we've got a long history of MS Paint drawings dating as far back as Podsednik's first go-round.

So I thought we'd build on that tradition with a little art project (and competition). Open up your cheap-ass image editor and give us your best (or worst) White Sox related MSPainting.  It can be anything from Punto's hilarious slide-back-towards-third to an abstract work about Ozzie Guillen calling a certain someone a 'fag.'

If we happen to get enough worthy participants, I'll put them up for a vote into the SSS Hall of Fame, which is really just the laundry basket that I refuse to fully empty of clean-yet-wrinkled clothes.  (Oh and I've got another group project in mind for the Christmas break dead time...So look for that sometime in February).

For when the spit hits the fan later this afternoon. Whatever that spit may be...

More photos » by Pat Sullivan - AP

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It looks like the White Sox weren't involved in the Winter Meeting's first big blockbuster, but that doesn't mean they weren't making suprising moves, signing Mark Teahen to a 3-year extension. The Sox lone position of depth appears to be third base, the position that Mark Teahen was supposedly brought in to play. They moved Gordon Beckham off third to bring in Teahen, and have both Dayan Viciedo and Brent Morel at the hot corner in the upper minors next year.

When Teahen was brought over from the Royals, the thought was that he was a passable stop-gap, that he could give the Sox a year of average-bat, below-average defense at the hot corner and not cost too much in terms of talent or actual money. But by signing him to a 3-year, $14M extension, the Sox are committing themselves to a player who, with the exception of a breakout 2006 campaign, has proven to be moderately above replacement level everywhere he's played.

I wouldn't go so far as to call Brent Morel trade bait, but this deal makes his name sure to be brought up by any team seeking to make a deal with the Sox.

More photos » by David Banks - AP

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The White Sox have played over 1600 games since the beginning of the decade, compiling a regular season record of 857-764. They've taken home 3 division titles and a World Series. We've seen a no-hitter, a perfect game, a game 163 victory, a 500th homer, 300th homers on back-to-back at-bats, and two different Sox players break the major league record for most-consecutive batters retired. 

It was a pretty good decade. Sure, it could have been better. But it's hard to complain given the list in the previous paragraph.

So I'll open up the discussion to you, and eventually put together a list for us to vote on; in addition to those highlights listed above, what games of the aughts will you remember most in another 10 years?

More photos » by Tony Gutierrez - AP

Jones is here to help you fill your quota of fat jokes

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The White Sox seem to be going about their off-season in reverse. They're lining up their bench pieces to a team that still lacks two (or three) legitimate full-time major league position players. 

Today, they've reportedly signed Andruw Jones to a 1-year, $500K incentive-laden deal to fill out the bench with Vizquel and Kotsay.

"This is an opportunity to add a power bat to the roster while improving our outfield depth,"  Williams said.  "With the addition of Andruw, Mark Kotsay and Omar Vizquel, we feel our bench is taking shape to be a strong asset heading into the 2010 season."

Jones looked to have a halted his precipitous career free fall by joining up with Rudy Jaramillo in Texas last season, putting up an .850 OPS in the first-half, but not even Jaramillo could stop Jones descent in the second half when he hit just .185/.310/.333. You could easily write off that performance as simply 100 bad at-bats. But that line is closer to Jones norm of the last few years than was his resurgent first half.

At this price, Jones is certainly a gamble worth taking. He can still catch the ball all over the outfield, and can put a charge into one every now an then. But it would be foolish to think of him as anything more than an outfield version of Juan Uribe going forward.

Edit by larry: One interesting thing to note is that Jones is represented by Scott Boras.