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The news that the Chicago White Sox reportedly are signing a player named Abreu has some folks excited. Of course, it has many Sox fans relieved to know the player in question is not Bobby Abreu, the former big-league outfielder who is 39. Instead the player in question is Jose Abreu, a 26-year-old first baseman from Cuba. Even so, the player in question is something of a question mark — although Sox officials would like to think of him as more of an exclamation mark.
There always will be room around here for Adrianne Curry (see video below).
* The price tag for Jose Abreu is a reported $68 million for six years. Sounds like a lot of money to give a player without a big-league track record. The Sox better hope the Cuban defector is not defective at the plate.
* Signing Abreu would seem to mark the end of Paul Konerko’s Sox career. Of course, if Abreu is as good as Sox management hopes, there will be a new fan favorite to cheer. In a dream world, Abreu will be the Sox equivalent to Oakland’s Yoenis Cespedes or Los Angeles Dodger Yasiel Puig.
* Any excitement generated by signing Abreu might need to be tempered by the reality that the Sox are not one player away from being World Series contenders. Heck, the Sox aren’t even one player away from being Central Division contenders in the American League.
* And the likelihood the Sox will go out and sign some proven, top-flight talent? Based on past performance, the team will not. And hope it can improve on this season. Then again, when you finish in last place and lose 99 games, it’s hard not to improve.
* The Abreu deal reportedly needs only a physical exam to be complete. Someone might want to toss in a pyschological exam while they’re at it. After all, with other teams bidding for the free agent’s services, he did select the Sox.
Thanks to modern technology (yeah, and an extremely slow upload speed), we have leftover video from Wednesday’s Chicago Bulls game; better late than never, I suppose):
Here is where to go for a daily dose of non-gratuitous video (thanks to the enterprising efforts of the editorial and video staffs at elliottharris.com):
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