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QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Aug 30, 2009 -> 01:21 PM) That's not a very good statement about the 3rd basemen we've had in your time as a fan (and I know you have been a Sox fan for quite a while). It's definitely an indictment on the team's inability to fill the 3B position with a competent everyday player. Playing for the Sox from 1965 to 2009, played 70% of games at 3B, requiring at least 100 G, sorted by greatest OPS+: (100 = league average) OPS+ GAMES 1. 117 1254 Robin Ventura 2. 115 976 Bill Melton 3. 114 329 Eric Solderholm 4. 101 201 Herbert Perry 5. 93 798 Joe Crede 6. 90 410 Vance Law 7. 85 196 Josh Fields

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Aug 30, 2009 -> 09:13 AM) Understood, but you could do worse, teams have done worse. Just in the past two years Oakland took an oft injured Thomas back, and paid a juiced out Giambi. They hit for power, but under the circumstances they were signed, it was going to be a surprise if they produced. It's semantics really but Jason Giambi was actually their starting 1B with Jack Cust taking the everyday DH duties and I don't think there's much of an argument to be made that Joe Crede is more valuable at the plate than Cust. Sure you could do worse than Crede if you're totally incompetent (Bavasi, Vidro) but you also should be able to do a whole lot better without really even trying. A league average DH has a .340 OBP and .790 OPS this season.

QUOTE (Swingandalongonetoleft @ Aug 29, 2009 -> 10:28 PM) No one would be willing to find any, even a part time DH spot? That's an incredibly weak DH. All of his value comes from his ability to play an above average thirdbase.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Aug 24, 2009 -> 06:27 PM) I can't recall any position player who has been called up straight from A ball. Conor Gillaspie, last September.

Tyler Flowers

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Aug 20, 2009 -> 09:07 PM) This kind of surprises me. Arod? Josh Hamilton? Ichiro? I don't know if you're being sarcastic but strikezone judgement is Jim Thome's best trait it's also one of Josh Hamilton's worst (35.8% of the pitches he swings at are out of the zone, 25% is league average) and not something Ichiro really employs (dude doesn't walk AT ALL). Jim Thome strikes out a lot but it's usually on pitches in the strikezone.

Yeah, pretty much.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 20, 2009 -> 01:31 PM) I was thinking as more of a great defender and average major league hitter. Not to quibble but Crede has been a below average offensive player at his position for basically his entire career sans 2006.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 20, 2009 -> 08:43 AM) I was more curious where we were going to come in for 2009. Adding up all financial commitments for this season sans pre-arb and league minimum players -- this includes Castro, Kotsay, Garcia and Podsednik since they're all making about league minimum -- including the pro-rated contracts of Peavy and Rios the Sox are on the hook for about $98.275M.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Aug 17, 2009 -> 09:59 PM) Major league contract for Turner. I find this hilarious, personally. From BA. You give out major league contracts to two players over a 3 year span and your future picks are going to start expecting it.

It's the same game they showed last time. Apparently their rain delay archives consist of a single game.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Aug 14, 2009 -> 02:58 PM) I'm starting to come over to the oust Pods sentiment He's been having a great OBP year. Everything else has been suspect of course, as is his way. But now my worries about that high average are creeping up. He's getting a lot of infield hits, which is great...but when we face great teams, especially in the playoffs, we cant count on him being able to poke and slap at some of the greatest pitchers in the game. We've gotta get Rios a lot of starts, and get him centerfield for all close games by the later innings. He has a league average OBP for an AL leadoff hitter. .281/.351/.418/.768 would be your average line.

QUOTE (knightni @ Aug 13, 2009 -> 04:27 PM) He's making $5 mil right now. He got $4.6M over 2 years coming off a career year (.887 OPS as a backup) at age 31. He's not getting $2M a year.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Aug 11, 2009 -> 05:40 PM) It still astounds me that Pat Gillick made this deal, after everybody here knew that Garcia was in clear decline. This is probably my favorite Kenny trade. His best free agent signing was JD. His biggest mistake was not giving Freddy Garcia a physical when it was painfully obvious that there was something wrong with his arm. He was throwing 86 MPH at the time of the trade.

Miguel Cabrera gets hit on the hand by a pitch in the first (totally Cabrera's fault, ball may have been over the plate) so Porcella throws at Victor Martinez in the bottom half and misses but Victor has a few words for him. Cabrera has to leave the game after his next AB because he just can't swing the bat so Porcello nails Youk in the bottom half of the inning. It seems like a misguided attempt by a rookie to protect his teammate.

Miguel Cabrera just left the game against the Red Sox an AB after being hit on the hand by a pitch. He was taking some pretty awful hacks up there, wouldn't be surprised if he broke his hand.

QUOTE (Kenny Hates Prospects @ Aug 10, 2009 -> 08:31 PM) Abreu has incentives too. So does Branyan. That's another ~$2M right there.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Aug 10, 2009 -> 08:28 PM) Rosenthal said last offseason you could have signed Abreu, Hudson, Branyan and Adam Everett and still had $800 k left over for one season of what Rios would be averaging. Which is just flat out wrong since he's not including any of the $4.6M Hudson is going to earn in incentives this year.

QUOTE (fathom @ Aug 10, 2009 -> 08:24 PM) I would think KW is being cautious not to throw Dye/Pods/Quentin under the bus by saying how much of an upgrade Rios is defensively. He did say that Pods is not a true center fielder.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Aug 10, 2009 -> 08:18 PM) Have we ever acquired anybody from Toronto before outside of David Wells? Only 4 transactions since the Wells deal. We got Kelvin Jimenez off waivers from the Jays this past offseason. Dewon Day from in the Rule V draft in '05. Brian Simmons off waivers in '01. Scott Eyre for Gary Glover in Nov of '00.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 10, 2009 -> 07:31 PM) His deal would probably be a little shorter but I think that's very close to what he'd get yearly. He'd be by far the most talented CF on the market and the only decent option under age 30.

QUOTE (mmmmmbeeer @ Aug 10, 2009 -> 07:01 PM) I like this move. Rios needs to learn some plate discipline and I'm not so sure Walk is the guy to teach him that, but he's got some pop, speed, and D. The best CF we've had in quite a few years. I didn't read through the 60 some pages in the waiver thread nor have I read all 10 of these, but I sure as f*** would like to know where all this money was at when Bobby Abreu was on the market for, what, $5M this season? We had no where to play Abreu, the only way signing him made sense was if Dye was dealt first and I don't think that was a realistic option given Dye's $12.5M salary and the fact that a similar player was looking at a 1 year, $5M deal on the open market.

Jose Contreras made more money this year than Alex Rios will make next year.

QUOTE (jphat007 @ Aug 10, 2009 -> 06:48 PM) What lifting did he get done? Usually we would be bidding for FAs that are coming off of a good year. We're giving 12 million dollars a year to a guy we HOPE and PRAY can get his OPS back to 860 or so. He hasn't been over 800 in a year and a half. I mean, f***, Aubrey Huff has a f***ing .917 OPS this year. Defense is nice and all, but we're talking 12 mil a year for a 830-860 OPS (hopefully) and solid CF defense. I'm sorry but that makes absolutely zero sense to me. Rios is an elite defensive RF with an elite arm and the 500 innings he spent in CF last year were also among the best in the game. I suspect he'll be a bit better than 'solid' out there for us.

QUOTE (Tex @ Aug 10, 2009 -> 06:46 PM) I am certain they do also. But being benched basically ends a guy's career with a team. Who is going to be enthusiastic about that? No one is being benched.