Chicago's Inside Pitch

Cubs GM Jim Hendry always plays it close to the vest on moves involving people under contract to other organizations, so it's not surprising he would neither confirm nor deny today that he has spoken to hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo, who remains under contract to the Texas Rangers through Oct. 31.

It is believed Hendry and Jaramillo have talked and that Jaramillo is far and away Hendry's No. 1 candidate to fill the Cubs' vacancy at hitting coach. (The Rangers have granted permission to other teams to talk with Jaramillo, who this week turned down a one-year contract to stay in Texas.)

If there's one thing we should know about Cubs GM Jim Hendry after all these years, it's that he tends to focus "like a laser beam," to use an old presidential campaign phrase, on what he wants every off-season.

The Hendry Laser Light Show legacy includes Lou Piniella, Dusty Baker, Milton Bradley, LaTroy Hawkins, Alfonso Soriano, Mike Remlinger and Kosuke Fukudome, to name a few. Hendry focused on getting those managers or players since taking over as GM in 2002. Some of them have been good, some not so good.

So it'll be interesting to see how hard Hendry goes after hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo, who left the Texas Rangers yesterday after 15 mostly good seasons.

http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20091014&content_id=74...

Already looking forward to the White Sox’ 2010 season?
Here is something to put on the calendar: two-night hotel reservations at the Palmer House Hilton for SoxFest, along with weekend passes to the annual winter gathering, go on sale Monday, Oct. 26 at 10 a.m. on whitesox.com.
The SoxFest hotel rate is $259 (plus tax and applicable charges) for a two-night stay. Fans may purchase up to two rooms per reservation. Fans who purchase a two-night stay are also eligible to purchase up to four SoxFest weekend passes ($75 each) per room reservation.
SoxFest will be held Jan. 22-24, the same weekend the Cubs are holding their fan festival.
The big question, of course, is which players are/aren't going to be in attendance.

Word out of Dallas this evening is that hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo has turned down a one-year offer to return to the Texas Rangers. He's under contract until Oct. 31, and it's believed the Cubs have some interest in hiring Jaramillo to fill their vacancy at hitting coach. GM Jim Hendry fired Gerald Perry in June and replaced him with Von Joshua, who was informed on the last day of the season that he would not be asked back in that capacity but that he could return to the minor leagues with the Cubs.

Jaramillo, who enjoyed a good working relationship with, of all people, Milton Bradley, was with the Rangers since 1995.

Back in the 1980s, one of my first purchases every spring was the Bill James Baseball Abstract. The stuff was so cutting edge back then, and it was the precursor to today’s explosion of sophisticated statistical analysis of baseball.

Way back when I was a kid, “AFL” meant American Football League, and what fun it was to watch the likes of Jack Kemp, Cookie Gilchrist, John Hadl and Joe Namath. And it’s cool to see the game officials in those red and white uniforms in the AFL throwback games on Sundays this year. Today, though, “AFL” means Arizona Fall League, as in baseball, and several of the Cubs’ top prospects are set to kick off the season today for the Mesa Solar Sox.

Shortstop Starlin Castro, pitcher Andrew Cashner and third baseman Josh Vitters, who might be 1-2-3 on the Cubs’ prospect list, are with Mesa, as are pitchers John Gaub, Blake Parker and James Russell, along with catcher Welington Castillo.

Last time out, we went up and down the Cubs' roster of position players and looked at each guy, trying to unearth a nugget here and there. The most interesting I found was the Kosuke Fukudome had just 9 hits against left-handed pitching.

Speaking of pitching, let's do the same thing for the Cubs' main pitchers this year.

LHP Ted Lilly: Teddy Ballgame supplanted Carlos Zambrano as the ace of the starting staff by going 12-9 with a 3.10 ERA. Lilly ranked fifth in the NL in WHIP (walks plus hits per 1 inning pitched), at 1.05. The leader was Arizona's Dan Haren, at 1.00. Lilly missed time with knee and shoulder problems or else he might have won at least 15 for a fourth straight year.

GM Kenny Williams wasn't laughing very much this season as the White Sox went 79-83 and finished third in the AL Central, baseball's weakest division.
On Friday night, Williams will try to make the audience laugh when he serves as a celebrity guest in “Night of 1,000 Noogies,” at the Park West.
The improv event also features Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen and members of The Second City comedy troupe.
Williams and Co. will appear at The Park West from 7-11 p.m.
Tickets are $125 and $75, and proceeds benefit Gilda's Club Chicago, a free support community for men, women, children, families and friends touched by cancer.
More information is available at gildasclub.org.

I feel like I should be posting the lineup today. Season-long habits are hard to break, and there's always that empty feeling on the first day of the off-season, even though you're glad in a way the grind is over. Long about Christmastime, I'll get the itch for spring training.

While you're at it, check out my latest column, posted Monday night for Tuesday's paper:

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=326656

That said, let's take a look a Cubs position players for 2009 and see if we can't unearth a nugget or two. We’ll look at pitchers next time. Let's go around the diamond, starting behind the plate:

DETROIT _ It's over, officially.
The White Sox finished the season Sunday with a 5-3 loss to the Tigers. Here are your 2009 offensive leaders:
Batting average: Scott Podsednik (.304)
Home runs: Paul Konerko (28)
RBI: Konerko (88)
Doubles: Alexei Ramirez (31)
Triples: Podsednik (6)
Runs: Jermaine Dye (78)
Walks: Dye (64)
Stolen bases: Podsednik (30)
Here are your pitching leaders:
Wins: Mark Buehrle, John Danks (13)
ERA: Danks (3.77)
Strikeouts: Gavin Floyd (163)
Complete games: Buehrle, Danks, Floyd and Jake Peavy had 1 each
Innings pitched: Buehrle (213 1/3)
Saves: Bobby Jenks (29)
Perfect games: Buehrle (1)