Chisoxfn

Interesting.

Was reading another site and evidently Morgado was being re-recruited to Tennesee. Interested in seeing what happens.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 03:42 PM) They won't. Sorry to disappoint you. They do not view Quentin as a RF at all. If that was the case, they would have put him there when JD was on the injury bug and this is when Quentin was healthy. Instead, they trotted Scott Podsednik out there for a few games. Sox brass does not view him as a RF at all. So what do you want him to do.. Trout Pods in RF? They aren't putting Quentin out there since he;s injured (they didn't do it when he was healthy) I have no problem with what Ozzie is doing today espeically since Quentin and Thome are playing. Now if Rios is LF and Pods is in CF tomorrow.. then we have a problem. Quentin will be moving to RF this off-season barring some other move. They just didn't want to move Dye and right now given Quentin's health they obviously don't want to mess with him.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Aug 7, 2009 -> 01:13 PM) How exactly does Viciedo's contract work? Is he a free agent after 4 years as this suggests? I've seen some say we have him under control afterwords too. If he is a free agent after 4 years, that's a pretty bad contract we gave him. Nope. Viciedo will than just revert to the rules of baseball and in that time be eligible for arbitration. The Sox will still own his rights though.

QUOTE (Requiem Schmuquiem @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 10:10 AM) As they say in real estate..... velocity, velocity, velocity. If Freddy is throwing 91+, he is welcome back. If he is still throwing 86 soaking wet, no thanks. I can't imagine someone throwing 86 striking out as many guys as Freddy did this past outing. Hopefully he's healthy. At 33 he's still young enough to succeed and we all know he's got plus breaking stuff. Its just a matter of having enough velocity to keep hitters honest.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 03:28 PM) 1. Pods, CF 2. Beckham, 3B 3. Rios, RF 4. Thome, DH 5. THQ, LF 6. AJ, C 7. Alexei, SS 8. Kotsay, 1B 9. Nix, 4 Ugh.... Whats up with Getz. Would have figured he'd get the start against a tough righty.

QUOTE (Tex @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 03:24 PM) Your a genius.... Or Should I say: You are a genius

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 03:23 PM) Where do you get the full line-ups, anyways? I don't believe they are out yet, but Twitter usually has them available first. Reifert posts them early, sometimes Cowley.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 03:14 PM) How would that be possible? Someone's going to offer him a $5 million contract for next season? He's under contract for another full season. Signed a 4 year deal with over 5M a season IIRC.

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 03:12 PM) He had a small cult following here, led by Dick Allen. I think Speier will make more than Linebrink next season. Yep, he signed a big contract and had a great debut with the Angels and than stunk the past season and a half. His velocity took a big dip so his stuff really isn't very good anymore (used to have a nice fastball). Whomever gets him will only have to pay the league minimum though so that is nice.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 03:17 PM) Well, Rios is our new 3 hitter, apparently. Who had that? Dye will get today off and with the off-day tomorrow, that will give him two full days mental break. I like it. Oz usually makes minor switches in the lineup so its to no surprise that Rios will hit 3rd as opposed to them moving Quentin and the rest of the lineup around. Eventually we'll see changes but right now I think Oz wants to see what Rios can do. Plus, Rios is swinging a hot bat (or was in Toronto) so hell I don't mind it one bit.

QUOTE (CryptviLL @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 03:13 PM) Dye and Konerko seem to be sitting. Kotsay will be at 1st. My guess is that the Sox want to get as many lefties in the lineup as possible to go against King Felix. I like the idea of sitting Dye since he'll be able to get two full days off, which will hopefully help him get a mental breather (which should do good things for his bat).

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 01:07 PM) I think he'd need regular work though and that would be hard for him to find as a righty. IMO we'd be better off staying with Nunez because we could freely send him up and down depending on what our needs are ATM, specifically with the 5th starter situation until Peavy gets back. I'd also like to call up each one of Link, Harrell, and Santeliz for a quick cup of coffee before Aug. 31 since they're already on the 40-man roster. That way, if any of those 3 or Nunez goes on a run at the end of September as September call-ups that player will be playoff eligible. However I do hope Kenny is looking at Wagner and any other power lefties he can find who might be able to clear waivers. I don't trust Randy Williams. I'd name more lefties but I can't think of any other ones that would slip through waivers. Doesn't Wagner still have a year left on his contract? Harell is currently on the 7 day DL, I believe. Link hasn't pitched well. Santeliz and Nunez are two guys the Sox like though. I think you'll see Nunez back shortly not sure when we'll see Santeliz, probably after the Barons playoff run.

QUOTE (rockren @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 03:00 PM) As a resident in the Madison area...the Crew are kind of like my 2nd team. I look forward to watching Escobar. I wonder if he'll hit enough. He might be one of those guys that got insanely hyped but just doesn't end up hitting enough to stick. Kind of like a Pokey Reese or Cesar Itzuris (so to speak). I'd have traded him while the value was high. He has a very nice set of tools though.

QUOTE (beautox @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 02:50 PM) unrelated to the sox but the pirates just signed Zach Von Rosenberg as a sixth round pick for $1.2 million, i would love to see us offer goodwin that kind of money and bring him into our system. Given what the Sox just spent on Peavy, Rios, I'd be very surprised to see them sign anyone remaining. I'd hope they'd get Morgado but even that is doubtful. I don't know what the hell Morgado is thinking. He wasn't slated to go as high as he did and didn't have a team to play for (He wasn't staying at Tenn).

QUOTE (knightni @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 01:55 PM) Jenks off of waivers. A.J. off of waivers. Loaiza off the scrapheap. AJ was a FA signing.

Time for Victory #1, since the PG of course.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 02:54 PM) Great article. Great analysis on all the players who deserve to play. Has Oz or KW been quoted as saying Rios, CQ, Pods and Dye and Thome will all continue to play a lot? Was that written somewhere? Personally it's not fair but I think if Rios has to play everyday and for that money he probably has to play every day, then you have to take out the guy who he's better than on paper. And that's Pods. Problem is Pods has been amazing. I wouldn't think juggling the lineup every day will work in this day and age of me first ballplayers. I guess I'm in favor of juggling the lineup and seeing how it goes, but we don't have much wiggle room here. We have to win and win now. That said ... on paper ... if you have to make a decision it's a no brainer. Pods must sit for Rios. Rios makes WAY more money and on paper Rios is the better player. I think it has been hinted that whoever gets less at bats they need to deal with it. Or at least that is what I'm taking out of the comments Williams has made. No one has specifically stated how the club will handle the roster but with the way the team is set-up it really makes sense to handle the lineup like Mario is suggesting. You have two older players who could use rest in Dye/Thome. One younger player whose playing hurt (Quentin). I will state that I think Rios should play the most out of everyone and I say that because defense is one of the clubs biggest weaknesses and Rios is the only plus defender in the bunch. We'll see what Oz does though. Either way we'll have a nice bench with one of Rios/Q/Thome/Dye/Pods joining Kotsay (that should be 2 solid PH candidates). Plus Wise as a pinch-runner/bunter.

It really is nice to see that the Sox positioned themselves and used there money smartly. I remember a lot of people being smart-asses in February/March after the Sox shed a ton of money in trades and lost FA's (ie, Javy/Swisher/Crede/Uribe) and really didn't reinvest it (with the exception of Viciedo). Well, quietly Kenny and Company realized that baseball was in for a rut and that if he waited patiently he'd be able to use that money which was banked on very good players. Fast-forward to July/August and the Sox took the money saved (plus some of what will be saved starting in 2010 with Contreras and at least one of Dye/Thome coming off the books) and got himself an under 30 glove caliber CFer and an under 30 Cy Young award winner while giving up a total of 1 top 50 prospect (Poreda), one young starting pitcher (Richard...best piece in the draft), a AAAAer/LongMan (Russell), and a talented A ball arm (Carter). The Sox now have the following young core that is under 30: Danks, Floyd, Peavy, Ramirez, Quentin, Beckham, Getz. Waiting in the wings you have: Danks, Flowers, Viciedo, Hudson Less Hyped but still solid: Leesman, Burdie, Shirek, Nunez (Sox like the kid), Nate Jones, etc. There is no reason to think that the Sox can't own the Central for the next 5 years (and contend (hopefully win) for the Series ever year)

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 02:00 PM) You suck at writing, Badger. I'm sure I still have that article Badger, I'll have to dig around for it but everything is still online, just in a hidden spot, I believe.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Aug 12, 2009 -> 10:23 AM) I'd believe it. With the bullpen struggles from both clubs, one of them may as well give him a shot. Very low risk move too. Its been two years since he's been good, but he was really good for a 3 year run.

Great article Mario. It will be interesting to see how Ozzie handles the options but there is no doubt in my mind that there are plenty of at bats to go around and everyone should be happy. In fact, if we play the match-ups right I think this will be a very good situation for this season. The big question to me is who leads off in games that Pods is on the bench? You have 3 possibilities: Beckham, Getz, and Rios I'm going to assume that if Pods is sitting it is most likely because we are playing a righty so in those instances I think I'd go with Rios at the top spot in the lineup while keeping Beckham in the 2 spot (he's comfortable there and this prevents any major shake-ups in the lineup). In situations where Pods is sitting against a RHP, I'd think you could make a case to go with Getz/Beckham in the top two spots in the lineup. Getz is hitting over .290 since the break with a .350+ OBP. Pressure comes from the top spot though so I wouldn't be surprised to see the Sox still go with Rios in order to keep Getz in a lower pressure situation in the back of the order.

This is going to be a huge game. Hopefully the Sox can find a way to beat one of baseballs best.

In Ozzie's Shoes: The Lineup Card By Mario Scalise There's a lot of thought that goes into making out a lineup, but once you find one that fits (and works), you stick with it, making minor tweaks along the way. So is the case for most managers. But starting tonight, Ozzie Guillen won't have that luxury. Alex Rios will be playing his first game in a White Sox uni tonight, which means somebody will find themselves on the bench. Same for Friday, Saturday, Sunday and every other game from here on out. It won't be the same person. That would be easy for Guillen, but that isn't possible. They all have a case to start...Rest of the Article Note: What is your take? What lineup would you go with?

White Sox Take Advantage of MLB Market By Steve Harnden The news of the White Sox being rewarded the waiver claim of two-time All-Star Alex Rios on Monday afternoon came to no surprise to those following the news around internet sports sites such as ESPN and Soxtalk. However, this does not lessen the effect of such an unprecedented talent being given away during the prime of his career on the mindset of the economic stability, or rather, instability of Major League Baseball....More at the Link