Bring on the Cubans!

Alexei Ramirez kicked all kinds of ass the year playing second base for the Chicago White Sox and ended up finishing second in the ROY voting. Let's face it, the Sox weren't getting any younger with guys like Konerko, Pierzynski, Thome and Dye so watching a young guy flourish like that certainly gave me hope for the future of the franchise. He will most likely move to shortstop next season and up until this morning, it was unclear who would be playing to his right.


That fine young gentleman pictured above is Dayan Viciedo, a "19 year old" Cuban defector who is about to sign a 4 year deal to play on the South Side. And okay, I might be getting a little ahead of myself saying that he'll definitely start at third, but he'll certainly compete for the job with Josh Fields as the only player likely standing in his way. And reports are coming in that it was that opportunity to immediately fight for a starting job that swayed Viciedo to sign with Chicago. Plus the presence of Ramirez and Jose Contreras will only help Viciedo to get acclimated to America and to Major League Baseball. He was the youngest player to ever play in the top Cuban league's All-Star game and he can also play right field. However, critics of his play maintain that he is already overweight and unmotivated. Miguel Cabrera comes to mind. That could be good and bad.


Either way, this is the second step (the first was trading Swisher which I didn't touch on here at SPLP just because he was so woefully underperformed and Kenny Williams knew he was wrong in trading for him and cut his losses) in building upon a team that made it to the playoffs this past year. Center field is a big concern as well as another starter in the rotation (Clayton Richard?). Second base could be filled by rookie Chris Getz whose minor league numbers look pretty impressive. With all the talk about the Teixeiras and the Mannys, there are still plenty of free agents out there that could have major impacts on teams. And Williams isn't shy about making trades either. I love how it's not even Thanksgiving yet and I'm already talking looking forward to baseball again. Not to say I'm ignoring the NBA by any means. In fact, the Celtics' win last night was very, very impressive. People back home are saying that Boston's defense might actually be better than last year. Holy crap. I don't think Al Harrington and Cuttino Mobley know what they're in for. (And by the way Clippers fans, how excited are you about having Chris Kaman, Marcus Camby and Zach Randolph in the game at the same time? That was only semi-sarcastic too!)

Finally, there are six HUGE NFL games this weekend that James and AdamMan will cover in their picks post. It's do or die for a few teams with Titans/Jets and Giants/Cardinals standing as potential playoff matchups. Sooo glad I have DIRECTV. Have a good weekend everyone!