When it comes to the drafting of high school hitters, even slight differences in age matter. At least when it comes to high school hitters, young draft picks are a MASSIVE market inefficiency.

Based on the data above, the advantage the youngest high school hitters in a draft class have on the oldest high school hitters is just as great as the advantage college hitters once enjoyed. And this advantage does not appear to be diminishing over time.

With expected season win pct of 0.512, 0.510, and 0.508 for the Twins, Tigers, and White Sox, respectively, BP is projecting another tight division race this year.

Part 1 of this article examines the overall fit of each of six different player forecasts: Zips, CHONE, Marcel, CBS Sportsline, ESPN, and Fangraphs Fans. What I find is that the Marcel projections are the best based on average error, followed by the Zips and CHONE projections. However, if we control for the over-optimism of each of these projection systems, each of the forecasts are virtually indistinguishable.

It was in 1977, the "South Side Hit Men,'' and we were vying for first place with Kansas City, so the fans were really charged and they were responding to everything. But when I played "Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye,'' they all sang. I'd never heard anything like that, and neither did the writers, evidently, and it just made such an impact that it was written about. I remember going to the Bard's Room and someone asking, "What song was that?'' I said, "I think it's called 'Sha Na Na.''' Well, it isn't. I just knew it was a good song.

"I'm convinced that if I just do the right stuff, even though I have no capacity to understand what that is, it's all going to be fine in Chicago. I'm sure unemployment will go down, probably crime as well. Oh, and we'll probably even win the World Series this year. The whole city really revolves around me."

You may think that their offense hasn't gotten the attention it should, and that's what I thought at first too. But then I looked at the team's Win Probability Added (WPA) breakout during their 25-5 run. Here it is:

Offense: -0.5 games
Defense: 10.5 games

If you look at their performance on a contextual basis, which is what WPA does, their pitching and fielding actually made up for a below-average contribution from the bats.

Chicago White Sox Draft Review
1) Chris Sale, LHP, Florida Gulf Coast University: No one expected Sale to fall this far, 13th overall. He's a steal in this slot. Although his delivery is unconventional, he repeats it well and I'm not convinced that his injury risk is any higher than any other pitcher.

2) Jacob Petricka, RHP, Indiana State University: Raw before this year, Petricka improved his mechanics this year and got his fastball up to 98 MPH at times. He still needs refinement, but has a lot of potential as a relief arm.

3) Addison Reed, RHP,San Diego State: Very polished, Reed throws 89-92 as a starter but hit the mid-90s when used as a closer in '09. He has a good slider and changeup. If used in rotation, he looks like a number three or four starter, but if he moves to the pen he could move very fast as a closer through the system.

45 of the 75 pitchers with at least 50 WAR are Hall of Famers, and others – like Roger Clemens, like Greg Maddux, like Randy Johnson, like Pedro Martinez, perhaps Mike Mussina and Bert Blyleven, Tom Glavine, Curt Schilling, and John Smoltz – could be in the Hall by the time Buehrle calls it a day too. Making that tally something like 54 of 75 – or nearly three-fourths.

"We changed my swing," Beckham said. "If you go back and look at the tape, my hands were by my head and I was very stiff, and within a month, I had my hands shoulder level and was very relaxed at the plate and hit .330 [in July]."

A number of baseball hitting myths are tackled here, this one is my favorite:

ML: Did you ever try to hit a home run? Say it was the bottom of the ninth of a tie game and the count was 2-0, would you be looking to hit a homer on the next pitch?

ME: I have never tried to hit a home run in my life. I don't know what I would even do to do that.

For the White Sox, I think it's simple: If Peavy and Quentin both produce, Chicago will win the division easily. If neither does, the team is screwed. If one does, it'll be a fight for the flag.

If Theo Epstein is looking to snag Gonzalez from the West Coast, then he might have to surrender Westmoreland and a B-level pitcher (like, say, Michael Bowden, Stolmy Pimentel or Junichi Tazawa). That's somewhat over the $27 million value, but in the same ballpark. Or, perhaps a package led by Kelly and Reddick.

Update: this is assuming Gonzalez would play the field. If he's a DH, then he's about a 3 WAR player.

Clearly, a club intent on getting Gonzalez will need plenty of ammo in the form of young, cost-controlled talent.

In particular, I still remember the 2001 season. While playing defense, Thomas injured his arm trying to stop a line drive at first base and had to miss some time. After missing a few games, newly acquired teammate David Wells decided to attack Thomas: "If you don't have the guts to be out there, you know what, you don't need to be here. . . . Playing hurt will get you a lot more respect from your fellow players."

Someone like Thomas shouldn't be kept out over something seemingly insignificant. What is interesting about that quote isn't that Wells shot his mouth off. What I remember is the Chicago media reporting some of the other White Sox privately congratulated Wells for saying that. Something as big as Thomas wasn't supposed to be fragile.

However, a week after Wells made his announcement, team doctors announced that Thomas couldn't play. In their opinion, he had to be shut down for the year.

Yet another site that ranks us near last in the prospect department..