For a good while there, I thought the most interesting note from Friday’s press conference announcing Rick Hahn’s ascent to the GM seat would be his proclivity for shifting side-to-side in his chair after drinks of water.

Kenny Williams pledged to be non-obstructionist as a newly-minted Executive Vice President, and said “You won’t see me get in his way,” but he and Hahn made sure to imply that they value each other’s perspective and opinion far too much for there to ever be a scenario where Hahn has to cram something down Williams’ throat.

Even if Hahn had a plan to grind down the older players into protein shakes that he would serve to Courtney Hawkins and Keon Barnum, it would be subject to workshopping from Kenny Williams and Jerry Reinsdorf. Checks and balances.

The main emphasis of the press conference announcing a change, was that there would not be much change.  Hahn will continue to be a big part of the team’s contract negotiations, Marco Paddy will continue to expand the Latin American operations of the club, winning multiple World Series will continue to be the goal of the franchise.

That last one was oddly worded, since Williams said his goal was to win multiple championships during his tenure, and for Hahn to make that happen, he would need to utilize time travel.  And the vibe of this press conference was really not in line with someone announcing there were about to travel in time to bolster their friend’s resume

My ears perked up the first time when Hahn was handed an opportunity by a questioner to identify poor attendance as a hindrance to the White Sox being competitive.

He passed on it.

“More resources would obviously be better,” Hahn said, “but we have enough to win.”  It’s encouraging to hear the new GM decline to cry poor, if for no other reason than it would be an oddly pessimistic play during his first press conference, and an odd fit next to a recent move to cut ticket prices.

It would also have been odd fit next to his announcement that the Sox would be conservative in free agency, and possibly letting a lot of familiar faces walk away.

Hahn said he has talked to reps of all Sox FA. “I’m not overly optimistic we’ll be huge players in free agency” but will be looking 4value.

— Mark Gonzales (@MDGonzales) October 26, 2012

Speaking of cheap alternatives to expensive veteran free agents, Hahn also revealed on Friday that Tyler Flowers had a hairline fracture in his hand from the wayward Chris Perez fastball he absorbed during the second-to-last game of the season.  That will keep Flowers from getting extra work in Winter Ball, which could have been useful if he’s to be a full-time catcher next season, but won’t mess with any other baseball activities beyond that.

Flowers’ injury, was an interesting bit of real news in a day that was very much avoiding such a classification otherwise.

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Obviously, Matt and I working here full-time paves the way for a lot more content on the site.  One might even call the new set-up “a powerhouse of content”.  I would not, because that sounds a little forced, but there will be a lot more stuff to read through.

It’ll be almost like if someone added the content of White Sox Observer and Southside Showdown together.  It’ll be a lot like that.  It will be that.  That is what happened.

Be sure to keep a look out for the right rail of the site, or The Hub.  The feature allows us to share links and info, and generally give you a look into what we’re reading.  Or more cynically, it allows us to dictate to you what you should be reading.  In either case, I plan on updating it vigilantly.  For starters, it occurred to me that there might be some people who have never read Paul Jackson’s piece on the 10-cent beer night in Cleveland.  That is up there now, because it is the greatest.

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The White Sox are also having a transition of their own that you may have heard some reference made to.  Friday will witness the official press conference to announce the ascension of Rick Hahn to the GM chair, while Kenny Williams is put out to stud as a higher-ranking executive in the organization.

Optimism abounds over Hahn, who has been twice named by Sports Illustrated as the top GM candidate available, praised for his contract negotiating skills, and says the magic words about combining scouting and sabermetrics.

But conclusions about what the Sox will be under Hahn are acting without much hard evidence.  How much autonomy he’ll have from Williams is debatable. How much autonomy he already had from Williams is debatable. Since he spent the 2011 off-season turning down interviews for GM jobs with Houston and Baltimore, Will Carroll of Sports Illustrated postulated that this could be just “a lateral move” for Hahn.

Hahn’s open to advanced analytics, but the GM that isn’t is a mythical creature at this point.  And if you really want cold water thrown on the Hahn transition, here’s a link to him speaking positively to the thought process behind the Scott Linebrink contract and the Mark Kotsay/Andruw Jones DH platoon.

There’s still every reason to expect Hahn to be competent and qualified for his new position.  There’s also every reason to suspect from 2010 episodes of “The Club” that Williams needed to be pulled out of the chair at some point before his heart exploded, but it’s a waiting game to assess the significance of any of the shuffling.

That goes for all of us, including A.J. Pierzynski, who claims to have not heard a word on his contract status thus far.  Of course, it would have been fairly surprising if Pierzynski had some to share on the matter already, especially since the Sox have likely not taken any action prior to shifting around their organizational hierarchy.

A.J.’s doubt that anything will change about their process is worth noting…

“It’s still the same two people in charge, from what I hear,” Pierzynski said Thursday from the World Series, where he is doing color work for Fox. “They just have different titles.”

…even if the best part of Dave Van Dyck’s article is almost being able to see A.J.’s eyes rolling upon discussing the Williams/Hahn preference for dressed-up terminology.

“I’d love to come back,” he said. “At the same time, I also know they have other question marks on their roster, as far as payroll and, ‘allocation of resources.’ That’s a phrase the White Sox like to use.”

I imagine that phrase isn’t going anywhere.

Follow James Fegan on Twitter @JRFegan

From Mark Gonzales of the Tribune:

“If I had to characterize this offseason, it’s not just the product we have to focus on putting on the field,” general manager Ken Williams said Wednesday. “It’s also the product we’re delivering to our fans to make them spend their discretionary dollars on our club and come to our park. It works hand in hand.”

“But I’m not about to point the finger, especially nowadays with the economy the way it is. I know they were watching or rooting at home because I’ve heard (they were).”

It’s a surprisingly unique perspective these days in Chicago, because it identifies the people selling the tickets and crafting the product as responsible for low sales, not the consumer.

However, it would have also been odd for Williams to parrot cries of “What more could they want?” about Sox fan apathy, given how upfront he’s been about being disappointed with his team missing the playoffs for the sixth time in seven years.

“We had a shot,” Williams said. “Had we gotten in, we would have matched up against every team better than we matched up against the teams of the last two weeks. If we could have just played .500 for the last two weeks. So when someone says it’s been a successful year, I’m like, no, you just don’t know. Shoot. It’s not. The only thing I take away from this now is disappointment.”

“They’re always in it!” is hardly a quality to hang one’s hat on as a GM in the AL Central, but now that Kenny is no longer the GM, he’s in a good position to start moving from his previous life of pushing the notion of quid pro quos of attendance-for-winning teams.

The all-in theme of 2011 pushed that on with gusto.  Williams was part of the effort, but the team standing on the amount of responsibility fans should feel was worded most directly by Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf:

“The term all-in I think really makes some sense here. If we draw what we drew last year, we will lose a lot of money. We decided to make a bet that if we put this team together the way we have, that it’ll contend and that people will come out and support it.”

But Williams worked solo to buildthe narrative about the White Sox requiring high-attendance in order to be players at the trade deadline.

White Sox general manager Ken Williams said his ability to make trades and add salary for a second-half pennant drive continues to depend on ticket sales, which have been lagging at U.S. Cellular Field even though the Sox are in first place.

“Yes,’’ Williams said. “I don’t want to expound. Then I get buried because I’m crying about money.’’

This wasn’t just putting the responsibility on fans to support the team, it was doing so while pushing a notion that teams are deciding their player budget month-to-month.  Cee Angi of The Platoon Advantage dismissed this idea just this past August.

“It’s a myth to assume that less people in the stands affects player payroll in a meaningful manner, especially in the age of revenue sharing. It’s important that we don’t confuse attendance with financial success.”

That’s why it’s particularly interesting to see Williams eschewing the attendance shaming narrative, because he’s done so very much to build it.  It’s going to take more than one end-of-season statement to undo years of hard work.

Follow James Fegan on Twitter @ JRFegan.  Also check out his full-time, daily blog, White Sox Observer