Write Sox

Our positional breakdowns of offseason plans for the White Sox continues with a position that is almost 100% certain to see some changes in 2015. Third base. Ever since Joe Crede's balky back forced him to retire so he could get fat on the farm (I pretend the Minnesota season never happened), third base has been a bit of a black hole for the White Sox. Gordon Beckham, Josh Fields, Omar Vizquel, Mark Teahen, Brent Morel, Brent Lillibridge, Orlando Hudson, Conor Gillaspie, Jeff Keppinger, and now Tyler Saladino and Mike Olt. None have been memorable. The only one that could have been considered good was Kevin Youkilis, and he was only here for a few months. The White Sox haven't had a serviceable third baseman since 2008, which is also the last time they made the playoffs. That's probably somewhat of a coincidence, but not an entire one.

It happened 10 years ago today.

Dear White Sox, I've had some fun with the run that Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy is currently on. He's homering at an amazing rate in the playoffs, and seeing as how he'll be a free agent that isn't nearly as good as this recent run suggests, I can only assume the White Sox will be signing him this winter. A feeling that was only reinforced when I went to the online shop on your official website. You see, I was going to jokingly create a personalized Daniel Murphy White Sox shirsey to tweet as a joke, but when I did that, this his what happened.

As we head into the winter, many of us are harboring hopes that Jerry Reinsdorf and the White Sox will break the bank to sign somebody like Yoenis Cespedes or Jason Heyward. History suggests that will not be the case.

My positional breakdowns of the options the White Sox have this winter continue with a look at a position the White Sox haven't had many questions about in recent decades. First base. Any time you can go from Frank Thomas to Paul Konerko to now Jose Abreu, things have gone rather well. It's nice to know that there's at least one position we can count on year in and year out. But just because we have Jose Abreu doesn't mean that the position is totally settled. So let's break down what Rick Hahn could do this winter, starting with what he already has on the roster.

During Game 3 of the NLCS the Mets lost out on a run when a ball became stuck in the Wrigley Field ivy. On Twitter there was suddenly a debate about whether or not the ground rules of Wrigley were stupid, and blah blah blah. They ivy was seen as a nuisance by some, and I'm guessing most of the people who felt that way were Mets fans. Personally, I enjoy the ivy at Wrigley. I'm a fan of quirky when it comes to baseball stadiums.

The Cubs lost on Tuesday night, and they're now down 3-0 to the Mets in the NLCS. I'm sure that many of you, as White Sox fans, are celebrating this fact. Don't worry, this isn't going to be some lecture on how you shouldn't care about the Cubs. If you want to hate on them, it's not my style, but do you. I have to say, though, that the Cubs winning could be in your best interest as a White Sox fan.

So I have a lot of ideas for what I'd like to see the White Sox do this winter, as well as ideas for what I think they're going to do. Instead of writing one giant piece, I figured it'd all be a lot easier for everyone to digest -- as well as easier to write -- if I broke the plan down in segments by positions. I'll look at catching, the infield, the outfield, the starting rotation and the bullpen. I'll go over the in-house options, as well as possible free agent signings or trade targets. Throughout this process I'll not only be explaining what I'd like to see happen, but I'll try and limit myself to realistic options. We'll start this project behind the plate, which is a position that's been a problem since A.J. Pierzynski left town, but really might not be as big a black hole as many Sox fans believe.

While I'm going to get into my ideas for what I'd like to see the White Sox do this offseason at some point, we're going to start with something a bit more cosmetic. The television booth. We know that Hawk Harrelson will only be doing road games and a select few home games next season. I assume that, unlike last year when Hawk said he was going to work a lighter schedule in 2015, he means it this time.

JUST WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE? You aren't going to believe this, but I've started another blog. I know, it's so out of character for me. I've always been the type of person that creates a blog, and then keeps doing it day in and day out. BUT WHAT IS WRITE SOX? Write Sox is going to be a site where I do exactly what the title suggests: write about the White Sox. WHY? Good question.  You see, last year, when I became a full-time writer at CBSSports. part of my deal was that I had to give up writing anywhere else. I was a CBS Sports employee, and all my work was to be for CBS Sports. It was a deal I fully understood, and one that I was absolutely fine with, but then a funny thing happened. The 2015 White Sox season was basically the first White Sox season in 10 years in which I didn't have an outlet to write about the team whenever I wanted to. It was hard. I didn't like it, even if the product on the field wasn't all that great. That jus