It's just about time for the regular season to start

    The regular season roster is slowly shaping up, with STILL a little bit of uncertainty. It looks as if Gordon Beckham and Jeff Keppinger are both going to start the season on the disabled list, barring the unforeseen (a trade of either one of them or both or a quick healing by either one of them or both). Leury Garcia and Marcus Semien become replacements, with Semien likely being the starter.

I like the way Garcia and Semien have played during spring training (as far as getting on base), and also I like the fact that both can play several positions, which NEVER hurts as far as being able to help a team. My knock on Beckham is that he only plays one position-second base. One of the other ones who's had a good spring training, Micah Johnson, will probably start the season at AAA Charlotte, though I've yet to hear of anything official. He closed last year at AA Birmingham, and primarily was in A ball during most of 2013. As a position player, making the jump from AA to the majors is ALWAYS a long shot, and with the White Sox already having guys in front of him, it's an even bigger long shot. A huge part of me wishes they would trade BOTH Beckham and Alexei Ramirez.

Adrian Nieto will backup Tyler Flowers at catcher, barring yet another unforeseen move by the White Sox. I've yet to see Nieto play, but am anxious to do so, based on what I've heard about him thus far during spring training. Hey, perhaps he fools around and ends up being a starter before the season ends! It's looks as if they're carrying four outfielders in Avisail Garcia, Adam Eaton (both of whom will hopefully be good as advertised), Alejandro De Aza and Dayan Viciedo (both of whom have been mentioned in trade rumors).

Counting down to the regular season

      After the latest round of sending players to the minor leagues (including Josh Phegley, who probably needs to play on a regular basis [and get some work done in terms of handling pitchers and working on his defense], which wasn't going to happen with Flowers ahead of him, and Andy Wilkins, who they just didn't have any room for with Jose Abreu, Paul Konerko and Adam Dunn ahead of HIM), the regular season roster is rounding into shape.

The battle for the backup catcher position is probably considered a close one, with Adrian Nieto having never played above "A" ball and Hector Gimenez being up and down the last three seasons and never sticking on a consistent basis. I can't even remember the last time the White Sox developed a catcher in their system and he turned out to be even a FAIR player. There's still a chance they could make a trade for a catcher. Stay tuned.

Regarding first base, Andy Wilkins is one of their top prospects and actually hit well during spring training. How he was able to last THIS long into spring training is beyond me, since I feel they already knew who they were going to break camp with. Abreu, the beloved Konerko and the clubhouse-beloved Dunn have first base covered. GOOD GRIEF I HOPE THAT ABREU CAN PLAY A FULL SEASON AT FIRST BASE!!! AS IN AT LEAST 140 GAMES!

Having a closer look at spring training. What could be the end result?

  As spring training continues on for the Chicago White Sox, I look at the fact that there's so much uncertainty with this team. At the very least, regarding position players, they could have four new starters once they break camp: at catcher, third, first and center.

 Regarding the non-pitchers as a whole, I'd like to see the following done before the regular season actually starts, but this is just wishful thinking on my part: trade Dayan Viciedo, Alejandro De Aza, Adam Dunn and one of the infielders (either Gordon Beckham or Alexei Ramirez, as they seem to have a logjam in the infield and the outfield.

Take their chances with any of the following prospects: Andy Wilkins at first, Jordan Danks in the outfield, Marcus Semien, Micah Johnson, Carlos Sanchez or Leury Garcia in the infield. It's time for Dunn  to go, even though he appears to be a clubhouse favorite, which should never trump winning ball games if a guy is just plain bad and appears to be taking up space.

In the case of Beckham, they've had ample time to see if he's going to live up to his potential. He hasn't done so, so bye-bye, but he's probably another clubhouse favorite as well.

As far as the prospect Matt Davidson is concerned, unfortunately it looks as if he could be sent to AAA once camp breaks. He had a good chance to be their starting third baseman but he's hitting poorly in spring training thus far. But, anything can change in the next two weeks or so.

Regarding the catching position, I'm guessing unless they shockingly trade for a catcher who is good enough to be a starter, they're going to break camp with Josh Phegley and Tyler Flowers, with them sharing starting assignments. Flowers is good at handling pitchers, we've been told over and over again, but for the most part, that hasn't translated into him even being an AVERAGE catcher. Ideally, I'd like to see him hit at LEAST .250 and play good defense. That's all I ask from either him or Phegley.

At this point, I can't see Flowers ever being an offensive machine (for obvious reasons, it's far too early to tell with Phegley), but give the team SOME offense.