R.J.

Think of it this way. If this guy is linked to Padilla's representation agency, their motivation is to push the idea that their client is being pursued by as many major league teams as possible. More potential bidders equals a higher potential of earning. If a team so much as mentions a player's name the agency could portray that as "interest." It's likely that 3 or 4 of the teams named are genuinely looking at Padilla to bolster their rotation while the others might have minimal or no interest. In the case of the White Sox, I fully believe that they'll be making some calls on starting pitchers who might come cheap and provide an extra option for the rotation, but they aren't going to be looking to guarantee much money and Padilla will probably get a contract from a team with a more serious need. And for all the reasons mentioned earlier about his past with the team, he'd be an especially odd fit for us. The take home message from this is that it's possible that the White Sox are looking for a cheaper veteran to handcuff Garcia and/or Hudson.

There is just no way.

I loved this so much.

I think there's a good chance that the mystery team that claimed Rios is either the White Sox or Tigers. Given that the Sox have the first shot, better odds that it was us. The speculation in all of this is that Ricciardi would be willing to let the claiming team take Rios for nothing in return and unload his lofty salary. In many ways, that's the smart move. In many way,s that's the right move. I do not, however, believe Ricciardi is the kind of general manager to make that decision. Ricciardi is more likely to overplay his hand in this situation (of which he has none) and ask for some kind of talent rather than clearing up his payroll. If I'm Kenny, I probably make a claim on Rios. He's overpaid, but not grossly. Worst case scenario is you get stuck with a big contract, but even then the Sox have money freeing up next season and Rios is a very useful player. If Ricciardi comes to you and tries to negotiate a trade, I think you offer him a non-prospect or two and if that won't do it, you move on having successfully kept a pretty good player from falling into any other contenders hands. The way J.P. is talking about this, I feel like he's going to try to save face. He'll try to work out a trade and then, once he fails, he'll say that the Jays would never let someone of Rios' ability go for free. But they probably should.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Aug 7, 2009 -> 10:23 PM) I'd love to see what Coop could do with Rios. Put him in this ballpark and watch him take off. Coop will teach Rios a cutter.

I think this is the first time I've actually read comments on MLBTradeRumors.com and dear sweet God, those people have no idea how baseball transactions work.

The Marlins take Sequoyah Stonecipher and win the title for coolest name drafted.

The issue that made Peavy so difficult to trade was less about his contract (though yes, it's a monster and even more so in this economic climate) and more that he wasn't willing to wave his NTC to go to the AL. I would think that if he suddenly changed his mind and was willing to accept a trade to any destination that the Red Sox and Yankees would be more than willing to outbid us, even with their rotations sufficiently filled out. So saying the deal is "done" except he needs to wave his NTC is saying a deal is far, far from done.

If you're of the mindset that the All-Star game "counts" and you want the White Sox to potentially have home field advantage in the World Series, you should vote for the worst players on the ballot, right?

He'll be the Nationals closer in a month. That's not a compliment.

Again, I don't think anyone is willing to stand up and say Dukes isn't troubled and doesn't carry risk. He's very troubled. He carries a lot of risk. He's a violent person. He's prone to trouble. His behavior is a potential disaster. I want him in center field anyway. The man is very, very good at baseball. If you're telling me that Dukes isn't worth giving up a prized prospect because it's possible that he's out of baseball in two years due to his rap sheet, hey, I agree with you. If you're telling me that Dukes isn't worth being on the team because he's a bad person, I don't buy that at all. All you can do is give this guy a chance. I wouldn't recommend giving up anything valuable or paying him millions of dollars, but if there was an opportunity to bring him in for something we wouldn't miss, you can't pass that up.

I don't think about morals when I watch professional sports. I care about putting notches in the W columns. The absolute only time that professional athletes having a "lack of morals" or even being criminals is in two situations: 1. It distracts from the team. The clubhouse is distracted by it. It's a clash of personalities. Solution: release the guy. 2. It's bad PR. That's it. Like many have said, if your opinion of a team changes significantly if too many of the players are unethical, then I'd hate to tell you how many of these dudes are getting a little road beef.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Apr 8, 2009 -> 02:37 AM) Show me where Jenks has threatened to kill people That's funny because Bobby threatened to kill his pitching coach when he played for Little Rock. Bobby said it was a "figure of speech." The coach didn't recall it in that light. I don't want to pick on Bobby or even suggest that the turnaround in his life and career was something you can expect to happen in other situations, but if we had declined to take a shot on him because of his laundry list of behavioral problems, god knows what happens in '05.

I think you're forgetting some of the things that were written about Bobby's past, frankly. Dukes is a violent person and if he doesn't change his behavior he'll end up penniless or in jail. I agree. If he puts up a .380 wOBA again, I don't care. Take a shot, and if he sends any more picture messages, release him.

Just one more thing to add: if Dukes was a free agent and willing to take a deal for whatever he's making right now, would you give him a chance? Knowing that the alternative is starting DeWayne Wise in center field and watching him hit about .220? If you said no, then I think that's crazy.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Apr 8, 2009 -> 03:11 AM) The Nationals are also one of the worst run organizations in baseball and are already headed in the direction of being yet again one of the worst, if not the worst team in the MLB. Uh, yeah. But with Bowden gone, they're dong damage control. There are comments out there from front office managerial types saying how it's ludicrous that they have 5 outfielders, 3 first basemen, and basically no pitching. What I pointed out is that the investment they made in Dukes wasn't a huge one, likely because everyone knows he's a huge character issue. It doesn't hurt us to call them up and see what their feeling is on him. If they ask for Poreda, then no, sorry. If they ask for something similar to what they gave up 2 years ago (a young pitcher from deeper in the system) then roll the dice.

For reference, the Nationals gave up Glenn Gibson to acquire Dukes. Gibson was a 19 year old pitcher from A ball with good peripherals and about 70 innings under his belt. THAT, I'd give up in a heartbeat. But I'd hold on to our top 10 guys in this instance.

Dukes is the classic example - you wither care about character and personality in your players or you don't. I think we can all agree that throwing that away, Dukes would immediately become our starting center fielder and make a huge impact on our lineup. He takes walks, he's a power/speed combo player with tremendous upside. Of course he's also a terrible human being. We saw last year that guys who don't mesh with the clubhouse don't last on this team. We saw that guys who don't know their role or clash with Ozzie will not be welcome. I think this pretty much rules out nay acquisition of Dukes. On the other hand, before coming to the White Sox, Bobby Jenks was pretty widely accepted to be a psychopath too. I don't think Carl Everett won any humanitarian awards. And then there's that guy behind the plate, who has a similarly spotty reputation. If you'd refuse to acquire a guy who would be a monstrous upgrade just because he's a prick, then you're making a misjudgment. But we'd be right to remain weary of giving up too much to acquire a player who might cause trouble and eventually warrant his release. It's a classical risk/reward scenario.

GUYS YOU'RE ALL OVER-REACTING. YOU CAN'T JUDGE A PLAYER BASED ON ONE BAD GAME. IT'S TOO SMALL OF A SAMPLE SIZE. IT WAS A GOOD WIN CAN'T WE JUST ENJOY IT? GIVE HIM TIME. Wait, this is exactly what he's done his entire career? And he's 31 years old? Carry on. This guy offers nothing that can't be replaced by any number of minor league free agents, and he's getting the most at-bats of anyone on the team.

Whoaly s***...

It's bad enough that you're going to give a career minor leaguer 450 at bats. What justifies putting him in the leadoff spot? This is a truly baffling move. It's one thing to step up and admit that maybe the CF situation didn't turn out the way you had hoped it would. Maybe you thought that Jerry Owens really had the tools to play every day. Maybe you thought he could last a year at the top of the order without being completely exposed. But you were wrong. And the rest of the "competition" was more or less an excuse for why we didn't spend our last remaining assets on an upgrade. It's a botched move. But now you're being stubborn. It's over. You lost. If you're just going to close your eyes and ignore all the reasons why this move will fail because you're smarter than everyone else in the world then you're multiplying your failures exponentially. Do not tell me this is it. Do not try and convince me that you see no reason to explore outside of the organization for an upgrade. And yes, this late, you likely wont find anything. Melky Cabrera is stretched in center for what he might cost you. Juan Pierre is basically no help either. There's no way you want to pay Gary Matthews Jr. what he's making, or even 25% of it. But you had better be looking. You had better tell me that this isn't the solution to the hole you left open through the entire offseason.

QUOTE (kyyle23 @ Mar 19, 2009 -> 11:57 PM) who is the pitcher in the video? Reds farmhand Kyle Lotzkar, whose season was cut short last year due to a (surprise!) stress fracture in his elbow.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 18, 2009 -> 03:56 PM) So when your sig says "don't try this at home", are you referring to his elbow that he's about to destroy, or the fact that he's balking? While balking is certainly dangerous, I just think that a shredded elbow and multiple surgeries is much less fun.

Already taken in my fantasy league.

On a minor league deal, you have to try it. If he's got nothing left you release him. Look at his OPS last year and tell me if one of the other three can come with 100 points of it. Everyone hoped that Owens would step up and he hasn't. He's 28 years old. If it hasn't happened by now, he's not the long term answer. Wise is purely a bench player (truly, a minor leaguer) and Anderson is a lefty-killer. Platoon Edmonds and Anderson in Center, keep one of the speedy bad players on the bend, and find yourslef a long term solution in the offseason.