Merkin has a long Q & A with Brooks Boyer. Here’s what Boyer had to say on this year’s commercials:

I think this year’s commercials, if they go off the way we want them to go off, are a little more grinderish. Because you are going with a tagline of “It’s Black or White,” all based on the honesty of the team and a work ethic, I don’t think they are going to be as funny as they were. I think they are going to be cool, but we have some viral things planned that we think have a chance to be funny and engaging and so truthful.

It’s kind of, “Life isn’t always black and white, but our baseball is.” Playing on something like that is going to make it engaging.

and on the budget/payroll:

… Hopefully, we get a little bit better weather in April and May, and hopefully we have a little bit better team in September than we did last year. That certainly carries a lot of weight. How we budgeted, we feel very confident, as we sit here right now, we feel confident we will be able to support a payroll that’s north of $100 million.

There’s a lot more on the link.

Gonzales:

The formula of projected revenues minus projected expenses equaling player payroll is apparently working well for the White Sox this offseason.

Despite a slight increase in prices, season-ticket renewals are “strong” and projections are ahead of what the Sox anticipated at this point, vice president/chief marketing officer Brooks Boyer said Wednesday.

The result is that the Sox have 22 players signed for about $104.025 million for 2010. Even with $5.25 million coming from the Los Angeles Dodgers and Kansas City Royals in trades, the Sox’s cash obligations to players will exceed $100 million with the resources to add another seasoned player if needed. …

Alums! Check your mailboxes, it’s DePaul Magazine time again! This latest issue is the 4th Annual 14 Alumni Under 40 issue highlighting the diverse achievements of our alumni community including Chicago White Sox VP Brooks Boyer (COM ‘01), Secretary of Defense Office Policy DirectorLuis O. Sanchez (LAS ‘02), and musician/composer Frank Catalano (MUS ‘99). Check out more great stories in the full print issue or read the PDF at the DePaul alumni and friends website.

DallasNews.com – Interview with Rangers GM Jon Daniels. Goes over some offseason issues and such.

“Q: What do you feel is the top developmental need area right now? RH power? Corner OF?

DANIELS: Pitching. Period. We got our farm system to where it is now by focusing on high-end pitching and we aren’t going to stop.”

MLB.com – Q&A with Brooks Boyer, who is the Innovative Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer.

“Q: You tried the whole “White Sox Pride Blackout” plan with the fans during the American League Central tiebreaker against the Twins and then carried it over against the Rays during two home games in the American League Division Series. Were you satisfied with how it worked?

Boyer: The way that the season came together at the end, to have that game [against the Twins] that had so much meaning … the fact was that the Monday [makeup] game [against Detroit] ended, and as soon as that Monday game ended, we went on sale with tickets and sold them out in an hour. Therefore, it was all White Sox fans.

Lou Hernandez [White Sox director of public relations] and I talked about it on that Sunday, and we had T-shirts made up that said “Sox Pride Blackout” on them. They were going out to all the media as soon as we won and the [makeup] game was going to be played. So, we got the word out and our fans responded.

It was such a powerful thing that when we went down to [St. Petersburg], e-mails and phone calls came in telling us, “You have to continue this.” It was the postseason, where every game, every pitch matters. It seemed to work.

I don’t know if it now becomes a White Sox thing all season long. You certainly can’t do it, at least to me. There’s not a game in the regular season, as I look back on the schedule … whether it’s a Yankees game on the weekend or a Cubs game or a random Angels game on a Saturday in September, it just doesn’t have the same emotion.”