Hold off on that Gordon Beckham White Sox t-shirt jersey until 2010

i call them j-shirts

John Ely... you Sox fans will understand who that is in 2011...

If he is anything like Daric Barton we should be in for a real treat.

I shall respond to all of these at once:

a) Jersey t-shirts NEED an official name. J-shirts is solid, I may steal that from you.

b) I'm surprised you know who that is Z, seeing as Ely's from HF and you don't go south of Madison.

c) hahahahahaha.

Phil's "nice guy" status is officially revoked... Barton will be fine, I didn't realize he didn't have ANY power, now I do. Mark Grace 2.0... Join me in man-crushing John Ely, will you, Ricky... we had a leisure studies class together at Miami. Nice kid.

Sorry Dubs, but your proclamation DB just couldn't go unheard. Anyway, Rick I agree with the strategy behind Beckham and think that that is most likely. But if he was going to be the opening day starter (wherever they would play him) why not bring him up now. The reason I say this is because there is no doubt he will have arbitration hearings within the next few years. Why not make that hearing earlier than later, because the trend we are seeing with those meetings is that nobody seems to sign for less than the last guy who had a meeting. That could be ridiculous and obviously they are taking the chance of him being a one-year wonder at best if they offer him arbitration after 2009, but chances are he will be in the opening day lineup no worse than 2010 anyway.

Barnes I understand what you are saying, but I think they would just sign him to a contract prior to that third year arb case (unless he is a super two, obviously).

I think what Ricky is saying is that if they bring him up a month or two into the 2010 season and it does take him some time to develop, they will actually get another, basically free, season out of him if his major league time is stuck at 2.150* instead of 3.0 in that offseason. It is a purely financial reason, but the Sox do have some financial issues and this is the most fiscally responsible path.

*Major League time is based on actual days in service and not by year. 172 days equals one year of service time. Another note on this is that if a player spends less than 20 days in the minors then they get that credit towards MLB time. So it is actually prudent to keep a guy like Beckham in the minors for enough days so he does not reach that 172 day mark, in order to get that extra year for almost free.

Yeah that's precisely what I was saying. Good work there.

Ya I understood where Ricky was coming from but was unaware of that third year meeting. Is it a mandatory meeting that happens with every player?

As in a player becomes eligible for arbitration after his third full year of mlb service or 172 days, three times over. That could be over three seasons or 10. I think I was unclear by meeting... I meant arb meeting. A team can either offer arbitration, negotiate a contract or they lose that player after the third year. Was that the question? I'm stupid, as you are aware.

1) It's j-shirts for sure.

2) Haha, "Thanks 'Brough"

3) Maybe it's because Garnett is now widely viewed as a punk bitch

Yes.

I call T-Shirt jerseys "Sherzeys", a mix of both t-shirt and jersey. It's fun. Here's a use in a sentence, "Hey, I am really a big fan of Gordon Beckham, I'm even considering buying his Sherzey." Try it out.