Fantl916

At least Javy is pitching well... ummm... wow.... as i type this Howard goes yard... well played steve, way to jinx Javy... I certainly do hope we build this rotation around Javy, Garland, and Buerhle... i'd hate to lose any of these guys. then let the youngens like Danks and Gio and other excel at the back end... our starting pitching is the only thing keeping me smiling these days

BAH! You know you're $%&*ing pathetic when you make Adam $%$ing Eaton look like Johan @#$%ing Santana... i die a little inside everytime i look at our team batting average and wonder where the averages are from the last two years... meh...

Nick Schmidt to the Padres.... BAM!

If KW stays true to the sentiment that we need more high-ceiling talent then he'll have to shell out the money for Porcello, Harvey, or Main at this point. lets hope he doesnt cop-out for a "safe" pick... gross, the thought of a safe pick makes me wanna throw-up on my keyboard...

Beavan woohoo! Porcello still possible...

haha far too skinny to be Sosa...

So after watching us get swept and reading people's reactions I figured i would make a rare, but in my mind, necessary post. Our biggest problem as an organization lies within our philosphy, and in turn it has crippled our roster over time. It is KW's fault, it is our scouting's fault. This philosophy won us a world series, and it also creating a severe disadvantage for the Sox. I'm talking about our lack of "Young Quality Major League Talent." This is the problem the San Francisco Giants faced the last 2 year, and luckily have developed some great young pitching quickly to somewhat offset it. but in our case we have talent yes, but it's old... mostly declining or soon to be, and incredibly unathletic. Thome, Konerko, Dye... our best hitters, are north of 30 years of age. our other offensive starters aren't exactly rookies either, and even still are mediocre at best (streaky if you look at crede and uribe). Pitching wise, Danks fulfills the role of great young talent, and Vasquez and Garland are young enough and talented enough to help in that category. Jenks is great, i love him. but buerhle and contreras' values are declining, and while we all love them for what they have done, neither is a dominant #1 at this point in time as i could honestly name 30 pitchers better than both of them and not even blink. our young minor league talent hasn't come through. BA has been a huge disappointment, yet then again he was never projected to be an dominant player, rather solid in all aspects... which he has failed to do. Fields may be great, who knows... but his k's make me wonder if he if borchard 2 or actually a quality bat that can produce even though he strikes out a great deal. i am excited about him yes, but skeptical. Pitchers such as Gio, Egbert, Russel, and Floyd give me hope that we can find at least 2 or 3 of these guys to be quality major league starters. Yet besides Gio none has shown thus far that they can be dominant #1's, and even Gio is projected as a fragile #2. Our scouting doesnt shoot for dominance, but safety nets, proven by our last couple frist round picks Lance Broadway and Kyle McCuloch... neither with dominant stuff, but rather solid stuff and solid makeups... a recipe for a #3 starter. Why we passed on a great arm like Joba Chamberlain i'll never know, but in that decision lies our problem inherently. Kenny has aimed to stay ahead of a curve by stockpiling castaway arms (Sisco, Contreras, Loaiza, Floyd, Aardsma, Thornton, etc.) He has built an offense around mining forgotten talents (Podsednik, Dye, Piersynski) who at the time of their move to the Sox weren't valued at their peak. Yet now we lack what every great competitive team has... Quality established young stud talent... Cleveland (sizemore, v. martinez, peralta, Hafner), Detroit (Verlander, Bonderman, Zumaya, and soon to add A. miller and C. maybin), the Twins (Mauer, Morneau, Liriano, Cuddyer) within our own division all have it. and if you look around i can name great young players on almost every team in the American League sans Baltimore (if you dont believe Bedard and Markaksis fill those roles) and the Bosox and Yankees (even tho these teams have Cano, Wang, Papelbon, Lester, Youkilis, etc). The bottom line remains is that we have not been able to develop talent that equals into major league stars (i'm talking the potentially dominant kind) since Buerhle. We, as a roster, are old and lacking trade value outside our top talents. Do we blow it up and go after other clubs minor league stars? i dont have the answer, maybe we do. do we take a couple older guys and package them with some arms to pursue younger guys who've proven something? maybe we do. But we cannot hold onto Dye, Buerhle, and Iguchi all year if we dont believe we have a chance to go far in the playoffs (which we might but A TON has to change and very quickly at that). Moreover, guys like Crede need to be shopped, URibe, Pods, Cintron, Mack too. Give the youngens like Sweeney and Fields a chance to give it a go. Start drafting high potential... if it busts too bad, if it turns out then you have a superstar. dont commit to building a roster around "ozzie ball" only to have players that dont hustle and play sporadic defense. it's gross to watch. if youre going to trade its better to trade now and be the first in the door in order to get the widest array of options. if youre going to get someone, do it sooner than later (a la Freddy Garcia) so we have them for longer. make a committment to finding and building AROUND someone not over the age of 30 (just my opinion). but really, as we stand right now, all things considered... this team needs to do something cuz it isnt good enough

I see a lot of people complaining about our rotation as the reason why we cannot compete in the Central this year... Then I read about how people love our bullpen, and how it could be one of the best/deepest in the majors... I dont think anyone doubts that we will be able to score runs with our offense at a pace no worse than anyone else in the AL central, as i just dont believe anyone has more talent on offense than the Sox. Look... everyones is making a big deal about Floyd/whomever is the 5th starter crippling us much like a couple years ago, yet i beg to differ. Floyd, or whomever else is the 5th starter, need only throw 5-6 solid innings, and then turn it over to Thornton, Aardsma, MMac, and Jenks. Beyond that, i dont think anyone here can logically think Buerhle or Vasquez will be that bad again, they're rested and ready to be solid innings eaters. Contreras will be his normal sometimes dominant, sometimes inconsistant self, and Garland may not be dominant but more often than not he keeps us in games and gives us a chance to win. Can we compete? Of course we can. Minnesota is leaning heavily on 3-4 picthers behind Santana that are either unproven or just not very good. Detroit and Cleveland have some GREAT players, but much like the Sox have to put it together over the course of the year. We aren't losing before the season starts, a la Kansas City, and in my humble opinion will be involved in a race with Cleveland and Detroit for most of the season.

I highly doubt we will deal Crede before next offseason unless we get a couple major league ready talents. It wouldnt make much sense to deal Crede when he is under our control for the next two years for Aybar + when Fields isn't ready to step in yet, regardless of the Uribe situation. Replacing Uribe's production is a far simpler task than replacing Crede's, both offesnively and defensively. If i had to speculate we will probably wait until next year when Fields is to the point where he plays periodically in both the outfield and giving Crede days rest. If he performs well the possibility of Crede being dealt would increase. But truthfully, I see Crede as a player KW may let walk after the 2008 season rather than try and trade him for prospects and leaving our ML team with a void.