Thanks Chip. I love the Ventura comparisons, and it would appear to me at least that Beckham may actually have a higher upside than Robin in terms of average and speed. Defensively he obviously has a long way to go at third to reach Ventura’s level…but as you said, Ventura was a SS in college too.

The comparison of Q to Frank Thomas certainly seems apt as well. I can see a Big Hurt-Robin dynamic forming with Quentin-Beckham. Ventura was always the more outgoing guy, joking around in the dugout, and did better with the press. Considering their production, if Beckham and Quentin (assuming Q stays healthy!!!) can approach Frank and Robin’s combined levels, the White Sox will be in pretty good shape.

1) Beckham is very much like Ryan Braun of the Brewers without the big time power. He reminds me, at this early point in his career, a lot of a young Robin Ventura, who also played shortstop in college.

2) Quentin’s problem, besides his intensity is his injury factor. He seems to get hurt a lot, even before he came to the Sox. For Q to become an elite player, he needs to lose the “when he’s healthy” tag behind his name every time it is mentioned.

3) In terms of attitude, Beckham seems like he’s a great teammate and can handle being on a team with so many veterans. Quentin is more like the Big Hurt in that he is totally into HIS game and doesn’t seem to be entrenched in the team stuff as much.

4) The defense for Beckham will come. Ryne Sandberg struggled at second for a while when the Cubs first moved him over there and we all know how that turned out. Beckham’s biggest asset right now is how he can constantly adjust his game over a short period of time. He’s already better at third than he was when he came up. Needs to work on moving laterally a little better though.