sayitaintso Posted June 17, 2005 Share Posted June 17, 2005 QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Jun 16, 2005 -> 11:19 PM) Now that would be fun as hell to see Then he would have to scream to talk to the guy batting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickster Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 QUOTE(JimH @ Jun 16, 2005 -> 05:04 PM) Interesting stuff. I know I should just leave this alone, but ... The Urbina thing I totally understand. Ugie was coming off a fairly serious arm issue after 2003 which is why he was unsigned going into '04. He and Guillen are extremely close so it makes sense Urbina would've wanted to come here. I too am aware he was living at Ozzie's place in Tucson spring 2004. I can also completely understand why Williams didn't want to sign him coming off those arm problems. In retrospect it would have been a decent signing I suppose. The Ivan Rodriguez thing ... far fetched IMO. Personally I think those guys were kidding around, that stuff happens a lot. I find it very hard to fathom that the Players Association and Scott Boras would allow it to happen. Yes I know the player is ultimately in charge of his own destiny but Rodriguez got some huge guaranteed money and if he wanted to play in Chicago that bad he could've gotten a decent deal from the Cubs ... albeit less than the Tigers paid. It turned out it was all about money anyways, seeing as he got that huge deal from the Tigers. For me, this doesn't add up at all. Garcia/Olivo/Davis ... no question Ozzie, KW, etc. had their eyes on Garcia. But a big reason he became available was due to Seattle's awful start to '04. Garcia said all along how comfortable he was in Seattle and how much he liked it there. I don't personally believe the White Sox were ready to throw the towel in on Miguel Olivo in the winter/spring of 2004. If Olivo knew his days were numbered he did a hell of an acting job when the trade was announced (total shock) and was a walking zombie his first two weeks in Seattle. Personally I believe the trade with Seattle starting growing legs in mid to late May, about 5-6 weeks before it happened. That's roughly when Seattle was tanking so badly and the Yankees started sniffing around Garcia in addition to the White Sox. I totally agree the ultimate personnel decisions are Ken Williams' call but I also think he and Guillen are pretty much on the same page in terms of what kind of team they want. It isn't a situation IMO where Guillen has to twist KW's arm ... they talk a lot and seem to be going in the same direction. KW himself always is quoted as saying that he asks Ozzie and the coaches "what they need", i.e. player additions. So the good news here is, there's an open dialogue, or at the very least there appears to be. Think back to the 03-04 off-season. Pudge only got a 1 year offer from the Marlins at $8m and they were afraid of his ailing back. He was the absolute last "big name" free agent to sign a contract that off-season. Nobody was giving him the time of day. It wasn't as if Boras was fielding offers from several interested teams. Boras actually pulled an A-Rod on the Tigers and got them to bid against themselves on the 4 year deal. They seem to be the MLB chumps. Boras got a huge deal for Pudge without any competing offers and did the same for Maggs the very next year. Why didn't KW jump on Pudge? Simple answer: $$$$$$ At that point, they were still offering long term $$ to an uninjured Maggs, still had CLee at $8.5M, PK at $8.5M, etc...... Jerry wasn't willing to loosen the purse strings. In retrospect, it's hard to argue while looking at the current results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JimH Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 Think back to the 03-04 off-season. Pudge only got a 1 year offer from the Marlins at $8m and they were afraid of his ailing back. He was the absolute last "big name" free agent to sign a contract that off-season. Nobody was giving him the time of day. It wasn't as if Boras was fielding offers from several interested teams. Boras actually pulled an A-Rod on the Tigers and got them to bid against themselves on the 4 year deal. They seem to be the MLB chumps. Boras got a huge deal for Pudge without any competing offers and did the same for Maggs the very next year. Why didn't KW jump on Pudge? Simple answer: $$$$$$ At that point, they were still offering long term $$ to an uninjured Maggs, still had CLee at $8.5M, PK at $8.5M, etc...... Jerry wasn't willing to loosen the purse strings. In retrospect, it's hard to argue while looking at the current results. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Personally I think the key for Ivan Rodriguez was both years and money, i.e. guaranteed money. A number of teams were interested in Rodriguez for shorter term money, like the Marlins as you mentioned, the Cubs for sure, the Rangers were sniffing around, can't remember others. Again looking in retrospect, I don't think the White Sox were quite willing to give up on Miguel Olivo just yet. But as you say, looking at how it turned out it's tough to complain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.