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QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 01:26 PM) For 2007, or at least the first part of it, Erstad>>>Sweeney, Owens, and Terrero in terms of being a big league backup as well (mainly because I think Sweeney and Owens need to hang out at AAA for a while longer) Totally agree with you on this, no matter how little I think of Darin Erstad he's still a much better option than Sweeney who needs another year in the minors, Terrero who is bad and Owens who might be bad but definitely can't play CF. Atleast with Erstad we know that at a time in his career he was one of the best defensive OF in baseball. QUOTE(jphat007 @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 01:54 PM) They had plenty of time to go for other players before and either they decided not to because of money or they didn't like the player. Obviously they liked Erstad enough to give him the chance. It's not like there was anybody else that we could go after right nwo that would significantly upgrade us. Now if you want ot say we should have gone after somebody else who is now signed, that is one thing, but that time has past so as of right now, it was going to either be Erstad or Sweeney, Owens, or Terrero, or somebody else in the system, and I think they made the right should. Signing Erstad right this second isn't going to hurt the team. Not going after a right handed 4th outfield that was available early might, but they obviously didn't believe so. It was the right move at that time. Not necessarily the right move for the whole offseason. I'm not going to call the Erstad signing a good move just because they ignored the 4th OF spot for the majority of the offseason, it was a dumb move in my opinion. They should have found the backup CF first thing after the World Series but instead they waited until mid January and got a guy who I feel to be pretty bad. I'm not going to say signing Erstad is a good move just because they made the wrong decision early on.

QUOTE(jphat007 @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 01:24 PM) The 4th OF would have just been Sweeney or Owens or Terrero or somebody in that ilk without the Erstad signing, and that's who it will be if he gets hurt. It's not like getting Erstad was going to change that fact. It was going to be one of those people, and now it's Erstad. If Erstad gets hurt, it will be one of those guys anyway. It didn't have to be one of the young/bad players you mentioned there were others available this offseason that they could have gone after but instead they decided on Erstad. I don't really see why it would be Erstad or bust with this team he wasn't the only OF available this offseason.

Erstad will be guaranteed $1M. He'll make 750K in '07 with a $3.5M option for '08 that could increase to $6M if he gets 600 plate appearances in '07. The deal also includes a 250K buyout for '08. http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6407652

QUOTE(Vance Law @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 01:02 PM) This is what I'd like to see statistics on. The effect of a base-stealer on the pitcher, the batter, and the game in general. What is the batter's batting average with a serious base-stealer on first w/ no outs/one out, etc? What is the pitcher's ERA, BAA, how many pitches does he throw, etc. ? How many thrown-away into right-field pick-off attempts did the base-stealer cause? How many throws into centerfield that allowed him to advance to third. Get on this, Bill James. Jerk. This stuff seemed really noticeable when Pods was dominating in the first half of '05. I was just looking at the mlb highlight archive '05. Two games in one week in like May where Pods stole 4 bases in the game. Dang! Totally different subject. James does have all of these manager statistics in the Handbook, but I wish he had 3rd base coach stats so we could see just how many times Cora sent AJ to get gunned-down easily. I believe Baseball Prospectus did a study on the effect of a basestealer on the pitcher and found that they don't make much of a difference.

QUOTE(knightni @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 02:08 AM) He'll want 5 years 20 mil per. Not enough years.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 12:23 PM) I don't think he's going to put up great numbers, but if Levine is correct and they are paying him $750,000 for 2007, if he's as bad as you think he is, it won't hurt KW to release him. On the other hand, at that price, he will most likely bring you at least as much as Timo Perez did in 2005. What the move does is more than likely keeps Sweeney from rotting on the bench in Chicago, while getting him some more baseball experience in Charlotte, and really doesn't do anything to hurt the White Sox budget-wise. Like I said earlier in the thread, if Erstad blows/gets seriously injured and is released/placed on the DL it will hurt the team big time. Erstad right now is being counted on to fill a role that was severely lacking last year and was one of the top 3 reasons why that team didn't make the playoffs, 4th OF. If Erstad is incompacitated for one reason or another this team becomes a whole lot weaker and a giant hole is created on the roster, a hole that this team for whatever reason doesn't really see as a priority to fill.

QUOTE(RME JICO @ Jan 25, 2007 -> 10:50 AM) This seems to be another low risk move by KW. He can play 1B as well, so this is a nice filler for Gload. Erstad's numbers in 2000 were pretty solid: 25 HR, 100 RBI, 28 SB, .355 BA, .409 OBP, .541 SLG, .951 OPS Since then he has never hit more than 10 HRs, batted over .295, and his OPS has never touched .750 again. That one year stands out pretty big. I believe that's what they in the business call a statistical anomaly. Seeing as how it happened 6 years ago and he's come nowhere near any of those numbers again in fact he was never really close to those numbers before '00. That hasn't stopped Erstad from living off that one great offensive season.

Why Gage and Mario on Soxtalk on the Air of course.

QUOTE(bmags @ Jan 24, 2007 -> 08:08 PM) i don't see how signing another OFer suddenly made us a worse outfield than before. Why the cries now? It's been this way for a year and a half. *not actually a half a season, i was thinking half a year as in this offseason. Because now it appears Scott Podsednik could be out for awhile or be even worse than he was before when/if he returns and while he's out Darin Erstad is actually worse offensively than Pods.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Jan 24, 2007 -> 01:27 PM) I would add the A's to the list. Well Kotsay rebounded nicely at the end of last season and Milton Bradley is an above average hitter and if one of them went down they could always move Swisher back to the OF actually making the overall hitting of the OF improve. Anderson and Erstad have the potential to be 2 of the worst starting OF in baseball offensively next season while Dye is great. I'd say right now it's a puch between the Sox and A's and if you take away the best hitter and add the replacement the A's OF is better. It's a ridiculous premise but I'll follow it anyway.

QUOTE(WHITESOXRANDY @ Jan 24, 2007 -> 01:01 PM) What happens if Dye gets injured ? We have Erstad in LF, Anderson in CF and Sweeney in RF. That would have to be the worst outfield in baseball. Well as of right now the Nationals have a worse OF than the Sox and if Kearns gets hurt then they'll be MUCH worse. The Giants have a worse OF right now as well and if Bonds isn't re-signed or gets hurt then they'll be Much worse. I'm sure there's a few more but those 2 were the first to come to mind.

2006 was a bad year for me fantasy baseball wise. So bad. I don't think I finished better than 3rd in any league I participated in.

I was negative 1 years old when the Bears last won the Super Bowl but even so the '05 World Series will probably be the greatest sports moment of my lifetime. I love football and all and i especially love the Bears but nothing tops the White Sox in my book. Plus that '05 World Series felt like a special event created only for a select group of people simply because of how little coverage the Sox get nation wide and how they're overshadowed locally by the Cubs. This Superbowl feels a whole lot more wide spread than that.

QUOTE(SuperSteve @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 11:19 PM) Your just being difficult. BA should watch how Ozzie gets ready for a game?! Goes about stuff game day, its not like Erstad was a defensive OF... its different. And never say never.. He could always watch Jermaine Dye if he's in dire need of a mentor. As for never say never, starting Erstad at DH would be like starting Timo Perez at DH, sure he could hit .340 but seeing as how he's a bad hitter and all it's probably not a going to happen. There's a reason why they call it designated hitter, it's a position designated for a player who's good at hitting.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 11:03 PM) When healthy, they are both allstar caliber major league outfielders, albeit with a different skill set. I'd say it's a very similar signing. Erstad had one good season offensively, 1. He is not All-Star caliber as a matter of fact he was an All-Star caliber player for 2 seasons of his career (98 is debatable) and the last season was 7 years ago. He has no power, doesn't drive in runs and can't really run anymore so I'm wondering what exactly makes him All-Star caliber?

QUOTE(SuperSteve @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 11:03 PM) What if he's hitting .340 when he DH's? The probability of that happening is basically zero so I don't have much use for the hypothetical question. The guy is not the type of hitter you want DHing for him mainly because he doesn't hit well. QUOTE(SuperSteve @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 11:12 PM) With this signing, I think it more than just to play. He is a veteran who could help Brin Anderson. Who would you rather have him learning from, Pods or Erstad? The coaching staff.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 10:48 PM) This thread reminds me of the last time the Sox signed a veteran, free agent, injury prone outfielder. There was a lot of moaning about that one too. But, I think Jermaine Dye worked out ok. I don't see much of a connection at all. The talent levels aren't even close. Just because Erstad is old and injury prone doesn't mean he's similar at all to Dye nor is his situation similar.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 10:31 PM) I lied. This is my second to last post in the thread. How many more times has Erstad been on the DL in his career? How many more season ending injuries has Erstad had than Mackowiak? When was the last time Erstad played CF without getting hurt? I think I know the answer to the last one. It's 2002, which means 5.YEARS.AGO. By the previous logic (ie: citing GG that were won 5 years ago as evidence to a players capabilities defensively) Jim Edmonds, Ken Griffey Jr., Shawn Green and Steve Finley are all currently above average defenders. One more thing, if Darin Erstad starts a single game at DH next season then this was a terrible signing.

QUOTE(nitetrain8601 @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 10:12 PM) on defense it doesn't seem like it, but I do that's because of his groin. I noticed before his groin injury in 2005, even though he got bad reads, he hustled hard towards the ball and hustled when on the bases. Now he runs like he has something stuck up his arse, especially defensively. Then he should not have been playing.

QUOTE(maggliopipe @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 09:39 PM) I personally really like the signing with the obvious caveat that I hate it if Oz uses him as anything other than a 4th outfielder. But really, anyone b****ing that a) he's injury-prone and he's going to get hurt, and B) he sucks, shouldn't be too concerned with this signing. Y'all are running on the presumption of injury in the first week of regular playing time, so I guess his suckitude won't be hurting us too much, right? Actually it could really hurt the team because there wouldn't be a legit 4th OF on the roster. So yes there is a good amount of risk in this move since the Sox put off finding a 4th OF until now and the guy they're banking on is oft-injured, if he goes down the Sox will be in the same spot they were last year regarding the backup CF situation.

QUOTE(TheOcho @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 09:18 PM) But Erstad isn't expected to be our starting leadoff left fielder. Actually that might be one of the reasons why they signed him.

QUOTE(Cerbaho-WG @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 04:42 PM) The point is that he'd never face lefties. Iguchi, Konerko, Dye, Crede and Hall are pretty good against lefties I hear. Pure rumor though. You heard wrong because Iguchi was pretty brutal vs lefties last season.

QUOTE(G&T @ Jan 23, 2007 -> 03:33 PM) And that Pods is having groin surgery. Which just solidifies that Erstad will be starting somewhere in the OF by mid April.

Well Joe Cowley says it's a done deal pending a physical.

Cintron also played for Puerto Rico, not that it matters.