fathom

QUOTE(G&T @ Jan 3, 2007 -> 03:05 PM) Agreed, but would have moved both if he could have. At the least, KW seems very comfortable with what he has. I really thought he's comfortable with the future of our pitching, but he was very disappointed in how the market exploded this offseason, and how that impacted his plans to upgrade the outfield.

QUOTE(spiderman @ Jan 3, 2007 -> 02:43 PM) I'd disagree about Podsednik - he did say that he's coming a down year, but who hasn't ? He also mentioned that Pods can deal with the Chicago landscape. As far as CF, Yes, he did say that, but I got the impression any names that could be had would be nothing more than scapegoats. He definitely didn't give a glowing review of Pods and Anderson. When you start saying things like "we know they can handle playing in Chicago"....that's like saying "she has a nice personality".

Two quick thoughts: - KW mentioned that they're still looking at some guys for CF. - KW seems anything but confident in Anderson and Podsednik.

QUOTE(THEWOOD @ Dec 30, 2006 -> 02:20 PM) Yeah, she is going to get a nice chunk of change here.... There's been rumors recently that Jordan is in some financial trouble. Wouldn't surprise me with him...I miss the days of Boers and Bernstein talking about the M-Jeff Ass Licking Society.

QUOTE(iamshack @ Dec 30, 2006 -> 12:13 AM) Nothing groundbreaking here, but Levine was just on Carmen and Silvy and said this is absolutely Mark Buehrle's last year with the White Sox, IF he makes it THAT far. Apparently the White Sox made an offer in July, to which Mark declined, and there has been no further negotiations since. He seemed quite certain that no further attempts to extend him would be made, especially in light of Zito's contract. I would love to see the Sox get Lastings and Humber for Buehrle.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Dec 30, 2006 -> 12:00 AM) Pelfrey and Milledge would be the minimum I'd ask for with one of our starters. No offense, but we don't have anyone that could get that package. We've seen what we've gotten for our pitchers this offseason, and that package isn't even on the same planet as what we've gotten.

QUOTE(gosox41 @ Dec 29, 2006 -> 11:26 PM) I thought the same thing. How does Pelfrey rank vs Danks? Bob Pelfrey is thought of as being better. My sources at BA tell me that they think highly of Danks, but they think the Rangers did a magnificient job of trading Masset at his peak value. They don't think he's going to have a good MLB career.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Dec 29, 2006 -> 10:16 PM) I just don't buy what Omar is selling. I'm really not sure what the opinion of Minaya is, but I think he has turned into a very solid GM, and put together a nice club over in Flushing. He has however seemed to ignore the rotation, and it's coming back to haunt him. We all know about windows, and the time a club has, and the Mets seem to be right in the middle of their window, and Omar knows it. I really can't imagine he is going to let a core of Wright-Reyes-Beltran-Delgado go to waste just because he doesnt want to part with some of the farm. Kenny needs to be on the phone, now. Like we agreed upon yesterday, this Mets scenario just infuriates me right now. KW should have waited to make any McCarthy deal until he saw where Zito was going.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Dec 28, 2006 -> 05:47 PM) Yep, thats exactly what happened. I'm going to be interested to see who tested positive because my guess is there are some big names that got off the juice following that testing. It will be interesting to see if some of the advocates against steroid use ended up testing positive.

Why do more people not think that offense was a huge issue during the 2nd half of last year? Even when our pitching was subpar during the first half of the year, we had a 6 game WC lead at the ASB. However, once our hitting became below average in the 2nd half of the year, that's when our lead evaporated quicker than SSI at a Greg Walker Appreciation Luncheon.

QUOTE(Cerbaho-WG @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 08:35 PM) Let's do, so pay attention. Danks pitched High-A ball in the California League, at both Stockton and Bakersfield, which is a hitter's paradise. The fact that Danks bounced back from a subpar half season at Stockton with an outstanding season at Bakersfield says loads. He then was promoted to AA, the hardest promotion for a minor-leaguer to handle, at 21, and pitched very well in 2006. In 2005 he was 20-years-old and in AA, so cut him some slack. God forbid he can't dominate AA at 20, the f***ing bum. And then, at 21, he was promoted to AAA PCL, which is even more of a hitter's league than the Cal League. Some ballparks, namely Albuquerque, I could hit home runs out of. Think Coors Field, no humidor, and then lower the gravity a bit. The fact that Danks averaged less than a hit per innings and a strikeout per inning, for a 21-year-old, is simply outstanding. But if you want to hold him to the standards that he should be turning water into wine, knock yourself out. Now compare our situation to others in the AL Central. Minnesota lost 40% of their rotation in the offseason and Carlos Silva is usually a lock to suck. Here's their projected starting rotation: Santana Bonser Silva Garza Baker/Slowey/??? Their oldest pitcher is also 32. They are going to have growing pains, not to mention some of their pitchers are going to flake out (Reyes) and come down to Earth a bit (Neshek). The Twins shouldn't be worried about now, but rather two to three years down the road if even 25% of their prospects pan out. They're looking very good. Tigers are looking at: Bonderman Rogers (pine tarring and fluking his way to an abberation near you) Verlander Robertson Grilli (laffo)/Maroth/Miner I'd go to war with our rotation against theirs, 5th starter and all, any day of the week. Don't forget Ledezma on the Tigers, as well as Andrew Miller. I'd take Ledezma over any of our possible 5th starters.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 06:46 PM) Not acquired - someone in-system. Terrero. Is he starting material? Probably not. But he can defend the position, which is what I am looking for right now. And the write-ups I have found indicate he has a strong arm and is a generally good defender, though has some issues to work through. Plus he has a bit of speed, and some power. Seems about ideal to me. Again, I don't think this is who KW had in mind when it came to upgrading the big league team this offseason. With that in mind, I think we'll sign another outfielder in the next month.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 06:33 PM) I don't agree. We improved, without much debate, at the following positions: Backup C, bullpen as a whole, backup CF and bench generally in terms of how we use them (Gload was a loss, but we now have the RIGHT bench personnel lined up). That leaves the highly debateable 5th starter slot. Even if you think B-Mac would be better in 2007 than Danks, we are still improved in a few spots and even or maybe down a bit in that one. So to say this team is somehow worse off, I just don't see it. Who is this mysterious back-up we've acquired? And I hope no one is considering Danks for a starting spot with the big league team in 2007.

QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 06:25 PM) It's really cute to mock Cuban birth records and Contreras' age. I do it sometimes and so do my friends. We call him "The Young Man" with our tongue planted firmly in cheek but I'm afraid I can't let this bulls*** stand. Contreras isn't that hold and he isn't injury-prone, either. He had a back injury that altered his pitching peformance for a majority of the season. That's very alarming, especially at his age. And the jokes about his age are because everyone in the industry knows that guys like him and Duque are 3-5 years older than what they say they are.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 06:19 PM) Let's see. Holes to fill on 10/1: LF, Backup C, a couple bullpen spots. I see only LF left on that list. We had 5 good SP's and a possible 6th - now we have 4 good SP's and possible 5 thru 9 (some may see this as a downgrade, I do not). Defensively, the team is solid. Bench is fine. The 2007 Major League team has improved. The offseason is also still not over. And meanwhile, the 2008 team is looking a lot better than it was. LF is the only concern left worth noting, I think. Any other upgrades would be good if the deal is value-positive for us, but are by no means necessary. Seems pretty obvious to me the team is better than it was. We're making the same exact mistake we made in the 2003 and 2004 years, when we thought we could just fill in (name pitcher) for the 5th starter position, and it would work out. Besides for adding Hall, we've done nothing to help our offense. We're putting a lot of hope into Thome, Dye, PK, and Crede staying healthy the whole season again (besides for Thome's little injuries). Also, even though we've added some guys to the bullpen, I don't think that's what KW had in mind when he said we were going to improve it this offseason. I think he thought he'd be able to get guys like Speier and Walker, but their contracts were a lot higher than he thought they'd be. All I know is that if I sit back and take off my White Sox goggles, we're not an improved team ON PAPER!.

QUOTE(SoxHawk1980 @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 06:14 PM) An improved major league team. And this isn't an improved team. We've "added a lot of talent"? Not major league talent. Adding guys like Terrero, Sisco and Aardsma is only technically filling holes. Those aren't upgrades. Actually, maybe the bullpen is a little bit better. But only a little. KW signed a good back up catcher. That small hole was filled. The nearly automatic outs in LF, CF and SS remain. We also lost 2 of our 6 good SP's. Now we have no good, major league ready #5 starter and if/when a SP goes down, we have no depth to fill that spot. The 2007 major league team hasn't been improved. I don't know how anyone could argue otherwise right now.

QUOTE(beck72 @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 05:53 PM) That isn't the entire deal. McCarthy will probably contribute more than Danks in 2007. But it's Masset + Danks vs BMac. Masset is the key. He'll likely play a large role in the sox 2007 bullpen. Since when has so much stock been placed in the performance by someone in Winter Ball? Didn't Arnie Munoz dominate Winter Ball a few years ago? If Winter Ball is so important, then we shouldn't have had all of our players return after a few weeks this year.

The reason the 2004-2005 offseason was so successful for KW and the Sox was that KW was able to point out where we need help, and he was able to fill those holes. The troubling part right now is that he's done little to fill the holes that we had coming into this offseason (LF, back-up 4th outfielder, relief depth). The best move that KW has made this offseason, by far, is signing Toby Hall.

QUOTE(SoxHawk1980 @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 05:22 PM) Say what you will about these trades KW has made. Feel free to recognize that KW has restocked our minors with some really good top pitching prospects. And yes the future of Sox pitching looks good because of it. But at the same time, let us not pretend that KW has not made the 2007 Sox team worse in the process. If the Sox don't play well this year, it's going to be very interesting to see how the fans react. While there's many smart fans on here that understand these moves, I'd have to say that the majority of White Sox fans that don't understand the behind-the-scenes nature of the sport feel as if JR and KW are rebuilding, and not reloading. As for me personally, I was hoping this type of offseason would occur after the 2007 season, and not the 2006 season. QUOTE(Gregory Pratt @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 05:30 PM) If Haeger is starting in the Majors next year, I'll bet he beats McCarthy in wins and ERA. It's amazing what some quality relief innings in worthless September games will do for some people's reputation. We went into this offseason with Haeger possibly being the last reliever on the roster to him being the odds-on favorite to be the #5 starter.

Some interesting comments by KW about getting guys that we've wanted. There's been rumors about KW scouting the Texas farm system, especially Danks and Massett, for a few months now. With that in mind, there are two other guys that we've been rumored to "want" for a while. One is Crawford, but the timing for that doesn't seem good right now. The only guy is D. Willis.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Dec 23, 2006 -> 09:02 PM) Even though this trade kina blows for this year. Our rotation could be young, cheap and filthy in the next few years. 1. Danks 2. Gio 3. Floyd 4. Broadway 5. Haeger I'll be thrilled if 2 of them are solid MLB starters.

QUOTE(greasywheels121 @ Dec 23, 2006 -> 09:00 PM) Hooray for being the Florida Marlins. We could only dream of having a GM that gets as much for his veterans as their GM does. I like KW, but this is definitely his biggest weakness in terms of trading.

QUOTE(The Critic @ Dec 23, 2006 -> 09:00 PM) It's interesting timing on this trade, to say the least. Now one of the "others" will have to step up for then 5th starter spot. Haeger seems like the leading candidate.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Dec 23, 2006 -> 08:59 PM) I was not aware you had so much inside information in the inner dealings of MLB GM's. When it comes to Tampa, I do. Tampa Bay LOVES McCarthy.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Dec 23, 2006 -> 08:55 PM) I am actually for this deal for a different reason and its because of some inside stuff I know about the situation. Danks is a studly prospect (definately the caliber of McCarthy, although not as developed so there is a risk with that) and Massett is a very good looking young reliever. Inside stuff about McCarthy?