hitlesswonder

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Feb 19, 2007 -> 12:11 AM) Miguel Cabrera'd be great, but I think what KW's really doing is clearing out payroll for Ryan Howard after the 2010 season and Albert Pujols after the 2011 season, to replace Konerko and Thome. And for half of the Marlins. And Rickie Weeks and Delmon Young. It's gonna be awesome to be a Sox fan then. The Sox are going to be an absolute dyansty from 2012 on. And even though the Sox will continue to refuse to sign free agent pithcers, it won't matter because of all the can't-miss surefire ace pitching prospects the Sox have traded for. Danks-Gonzalez-Floyd will be better than Smoltz-Maddux-Glavine because all three of the Sox pitchers will get to 300 wins. Easily.

QUOTE(Flash Tizzle @ Feb 18, 2007 -> 10:19 PM) That's....not fearless at all. Infact, I'll guaranteed you're wrong if we're in playoff contention these next several seasons. Well, if the Sox are in playoff contention then you'll be right and I'll be wrong -- Williams will almost certainly have to bring in free agent talent to contend in the AL Central in 2008 and beyond. All I'm saying is that the Sox refuse to shell out big money for players the caliber of Dye or Buehrle. So they must be "saving" for a big-name target. But I just do not see the Sox outbidding the Red Sox, Mets, Yankees, LAA, Dodgers, Toronto, or even Detroit for someone like Cabrera. One of those teams will go crazy and offer more money and years than the Sox. In the end, I think the Sox will "overpay" for mediocre talent, because that's all that they will be able to afford in the market. Their other option will be going with all homegrown players, and I think we can agree the results would be dismal.

My fearless prediction is that Ichiro, Santana, and Cabrera are not going to be White Sox. The Sox may in fact be saving money for a run at a big-name free agent (though I doubt it). But the Sox simply will not outbid other teams to bring in a player of that caliber. Those guys will sign huge longterm conracts, and all the sabermetricians on the web will say that the signing team "overpaid". Kenny Williams will not overpay, and the White Sox will be left with the satisfaction of being fiscally sensible, but not having any star players on the field (it's not like the farm system is going to produce an all-star). When A-Rod was free agent, I believe the Sox really did think they had a shot at signing him, but they absolutely wouldn't match Tom Hicks offer. I would expect similar scenarios this time around. It's pretty clear Williams is planning on following the example of Oakland. It's too bad the Sox don't have the farm system to pull that off.

QUOTE(mmmmmbeeer @ Feb 15, 2007 -> 12:42 AM) Corey Patterson Victorino Freel Clark Davanon Delucci Reed Johnson Markakis and these are just some of the non-superstar types that would be a step up from Pods/Anderson/Erstad. Sure some of them are debatable, but it really wouldn't take much to improve on what we had last season. That list is a huge mix talent. First of all Markakis may be on his way to being a superstar. As a 22 year-old rookie he hit .290 with an .800 OPS and is an excellent OF. And he had something like a .900 OPS in the 2nd half. The Sox would have to give up a ton of talent to get him -- and I doubt he's even available. Patterson, Freel, and Johnson are sort of at the next level -- they all had good years, are semi-young and would not be easy to acquire at all. Clark and Davanon I'd rank below that, but they wouldn't be free. And it's decision if it's worth trading talent to get a career .740 OPS OF or if it would be better to go with Fields or Sweeney. Delucci would have been a good signing. I'll agree with that (although he'd definitely need a platoon partner).

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Jan 28, 2007 -> 12:03 PM) Why does everyone hate Broadway? He's already in consideration for the fifth spot. What I've read is that he's a one-pitch pitcher (curevball) with a fastball the struggles to get over 90. And he was very hittable in AA: 160 hits in 154 IP. Also, only 6.47 K/9. I haven't seen him in person, and if I did I probably still wouldn't know if he was good or not. But he's just not regarded as a high-ceiling prospect. It's particularly troubling because Garza is regarded by many as a potential top of the rotation starter. Of course, the Twins clearly have some of the best scouts in baseball.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Jan 28, 2007 -> 06:14 AM) Hopefully this means we will see some more stuff guys from the draft instead of some safe picks. Passing up Garza and others for Broadway based on Broadway being safe might have finally sunk in for Kenny when he saw Garza make the bigs last year. Other players the Sox passed on to take Broadway: Carillo,Pawelek, Jacob Ellsbury, Craig Hansen, Colby Rasmus, Chris Volstad, and Aaron Thompson. It looks like there may have been a lot of talent in the 2005 draft.

QUOTE(redandwhite @ Jan 19, 2007 -> 09:11 AM) I wasn't going to start a new thread for this because I probably be ridiculed for having a crush on one of my favorite all time Red Sox, but I couldn't help but laugh at that contract. Trot Nixon will be making $3 million dollars over one year, Gary Matthews Jr will be making $11 million per over five years? His power is all but diminished due to injury, but the guy still knows how to get on base. Why on earth wouldn't the White Sox go after him at that price, for at the very least insurance for Podsednik? Hell, I'd rather have Nixon leading off with his .374 OBP in an off year where he was hurt than Podsednik. No? I'd rather have Trot Nixon in LF than Podsednik, but I'd almost rather have a glove stuck up on a tee-ball stand out there than Podsednik back on the team again. So it's possible I'm biased. I can see why the Sox wouldn't be overly excited by Nixon. He's terrible versus LHP (.620 OPS over the last 3 years), and I don't think he can really play CF anymore. Say what you will about the Matthews siging, but the ability to play CF effectively is a big difference between GMJr and Nixon. Nixon's career and 3-year OBP is .366, so I don't think last year was an off-year for him getting on-base. And I'm not sure it's likely he would have accepted the role of being "Pods insurance", when he can probably compete for a starting job elsewhere (like Cleveland). Anyway, yes the Sox would be better with Nixon than Pods, and the Sox probably weren't interested because Nixon can't steal bases which is stupid. It's a good signing by the Indians. I think they'd be my pick to win the division at this point. I do hope Williams brings in another major league OF before the season starts. The Sox only have one in the organization right now, as far as I can tell.

QUOTE(DBAH0 @ Jan 9, 2007 -> 10:11 PM) The thing is with the Indians, they don't have a lot of good young pitching in the minors which is unlike us. They've only really got Adam Miller, who's had arm problems, unless I'm just forgetting anyone else. I really like Sowers and consider him a mini Buehrle though. At the risk of sounding like a Wahoo fan -- and really I'm anything but; I've viscerally disliked them since the the bat-corking Belle, Lofton, Alomars teams and it galls me everytime the Sox sign one of their retreads -- their minor laegue pithcing is fairly strong. Sickels gives them two A- prospects in Miller and Lofgren and 3 B- prospects. He gives the Sox 6 pitching prospects in the B+/B/B- range (Danks B+, Gonzalez B, Haeger, Broadway, McCulloch, Masset B-). It's just one guy's rankings, but the systems are pretty comparable for pitching I think.

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Jan 9, 2007 -> 09:22 PM) Dumbing it down Sabathia>Buehrle Contreras>Westbrook Garland>Lee(close IMO) Vazquez>Byrd Sowers>Floyd Now that doesn't mean a damn thing, and I'm not really sure why I just wasted 3 min doing that, but thats the way I see it. I know it's heresy, but I think the Indians have a better starting staff than the Sox. Last year CLE had a better overall ERA (4.41 to 4.61), with Westbrook having a better ERA than Contreras, Lee better than Garland, and Vazquez and Byrd almost even (4.84 to 4.88). Granted, the Jake is easier to pitch at than the Cell and I don't know what the park-adjusted stats are. Still CLE's key pitchers are young and likely to improve, and they can expect Sowers and Sabathia to pitch more innings this year. I know that it'e easy to say Sabathia will get hurt and Sowers is just a rookie, but I think objectively it's at least arguable who has the better pitching. I'm not real excited by the idea of Floyd, Sisco, and Logan being on the Sox. I have very little confidence in any of those guys, although Logan at least performed OK in AAA last season. The AL Central simply looks loaded in 2007.

QUOTE(PAUL KONERKO 14 @ Jan 5, 2007 -> 08:59 AM) The Yanks got a better deal than us, RJ is declining and aging, and can't pitch that good anymore. I don't think the Yankees really got a better deal. Johnson's stats other than ERA last year were better than Garica's (e.g. WHIP, K, etc.), and they both pitched over 200 hundred innings. Granted, Garica pitched ihalf of his in the Cell. Johnson may be an injury concern with his knee and age, but it's not like Garcia looked 100 percent healthy either. I think for next season they might provode about the same expected performance. It's true that Garcia looked lights-out in his last 5 starts and he's in a salary drive this year, but you can't ignore his lost velocity and pretty lousy peformance for most of 2006. Anyway, the Yankees paid $2M plus RJ and got a serviceable reliever and three C+ prospects. Floyd and Gonzalez is a pretty comparable package to that

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Dec 29, 2006 -> 07:42 PM) You give Baldelli "very good defense" and only give Anderson "Good defense"? I accidently dropped a "very" when writing that -- I think Anderson's D is very good as well. From what I've seen they both looked good to me. I think Chris Dial's metrics had Anderson slightly better, but it was within the "margin of error". Maybe someone who has seen more DRays games could post their impression of Baldelli in the field.

QUOTE(shoota @ Dec 29, 2006 -> 07:15 PM) Anderson might be better than Baldelli over the next 5 seasons. This trade proposal sucks. Baldelli is a year older than Anderson. Baldelli is an .800 OPS CF with very good defense. Brian Anderson is a .650 OPS CF with good defense. I'm pretty sure Baldelli will be better than Anderson every year over the next 5 years. And I do expect Anderson to get better, but Baldelli would be a significant upgrade in my opinion.

QUOTE(Jenks Heat @ Dec 27, 2006 -> 09:45 AM) Gavin Floyd is a young Jon Garland. Garland's ERA in AAA was around 2.60. Floyd's is around 5.00. Floyd is 24 and Garland is 26. When Garland was 24, he had over 500 innings in the bigs and a major league ERA of around 4.7. Floyd's major league ERA is 6.96.

QUOTE(fathom @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 07:31 PM) 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. People look at the runs scored for the year in 2006 and assume offense won't be a problem. Of course, other people look at Thome, Konerko, Iguchi, Crede, Dye, and AJ and see players that are older and several of which have injury concerns. It seems unlikely Thome and particularly Dye will post OPSs over 1000 again. I'd be OK with the offense if they simply got a player with a decent OBP to hit 1 or 2. In that case, I'd be willing to gamble on Anderson improving, and living with Uribe's glove/power/terrible OBP.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Dec 25, 2006 -> 11:38 PM) So you based your opinions of the trade on a blog by a rangers fan? Im not sure I should even respond to such foolishness. Numbers are numbers, but Danks has been the youngest guy in the league every step of the way. Last year in AAA he was the youngest pitcher in the league, struggled to begin with and then dominated, the same pattern he has developed his whole career. You will be hard pressed to find ANY baseball experts that think that BMAC projects as more towards the front of the rotation than Danks. If you would find me a source, other than a blog, that states that fact, I will gladly retract. I was asking you what your opiion was based on. My opinion, since I haven't seen Danks pitch, is based solely on his numbers. They may not do him justice, but based on the numbers Danks hasn't performed better than McCarthy. What have you read that says Danks projects as an ace? I'm not being snarky here, I'm actually interested. Anyway, I thought it was interesting that both Rangers and Sox fans think they got the pitcher with the higher potential.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Dec 25, 2006 -> 08:31 PM) I disagree, I never have thought BMAC had to potential to be an ACE, he looks like a #3 to me, whilst Danks has the abiltiy to be a #1. The guys that run the Lone Star Ball blog have exactly the opposite take on the trade: I'm curious, have you seen Danks pitch? I haven't -- all I have seen are his minor league numbers, which aren't any better than McCarthy's. I agree that Brandon's stuff doesn't make anyone think of Clemens. But I think he could perform like Radke. I have no idea what Danks will do. But he's not prospect at level of Hughes or someone like that.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ Dec 25, 2006 -> 06:54 PM) I don't know if I'm "optimistic," but Kenny and his people scout these guys extensively before he goes after them. It's not like Kenny woke up one day and said "Yeah, let's just trade for this guy and see what happens." They obviously feel they see something he's doing wrong and feel like they can fix it. It's worked with guys like Jose Contreras and Matt Thornton. So who knows... I know they probably scouted him extensively. I'm not accusing the Sox frot-office of doing a half-assed job. Given their level of baseball expertise and mine, they have a better chance of beeing right than I do. But, just from the numbers, Floyd doesn't look like he's going to be a major league pitcher. The thing that's alarming is that his minor league numbers aren't even good. I don't know how the Sox scouting is set up, but they've done a terrible job drafting for several years now. So it's not like the Sox haven't been wrong about players before.

QUOTE(Steve9347 @ Dec 25, 2006 -> 08:52 PM) Jon Rauch never really had dominant stuff... a high 80's fastball and dogs*** for offspeed stuff doesn't really mean anything, he was tall, so people said "Randy Johnson." Most overrated spect in history. Please. There's no way Rauch was the most overrated prospect in history. He's not even the most overrated prospect in White Sox history. He had a betterl fastball before he shredded his labrum. He's one of the few pitchers to come back from labrum surgery and have some success in the majors. So he obviously has some talent. No, even if he hadn't gotten injured he wouldn't have been like Verlander or something, but he had better minor league numbers than a lot pitchers that people posting here are expecting to do great thinngs. For example, Gavin Floyd has performed light-years worse than Rauch did in the minors. Actually, Floyd might be a good candidate for a list of most overrated prospects...

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Dec 25, 2006 -> 01:06 AM) People forget that Floyd has shown major league success at one point in time or another, much like Brandon has...Still, Brandon is very much still considered a prospect, he just happens to be a major league ready one. McCarthy's ERA in 151 innings in the bigs is 4.39, Floyd is 6.96 in 108 innings. And McCarthy outperformed Floyd at every level of the minors. I just don't see what's impressive about Floyd other than being a high draft pick. What makes people optimistic about Floyd? I just don't get it.

QUOTE(3E8 @ Dec 25, 2006 -> 01:45 PM) Unfortunately, I think two teams in our own division (Twins, Indians) have better pitching prospects than we do. I agree. Look at Sickels rankings. The Indians have Miller/Lofgren and Twins Garza/Slowey and that's just at the top. The guys the Sox have brought in via trade are all B/B+ types in Sickels book at best. There's still no one at the level of Pelfrey or Hughes. And Floyd and Sisco have failed pretty abysmally in the big leagues. This offseason is a huge indictment of the Sox scouting and minor league system. They've weakened the team in 2007 (and beyond in the case of McCarthy) to bring in a level of talent that should already have been in the system.

QUOTE(Jordan4life_2006 @ Dec 24, 2006 -> 06:19 PM) He's like 23, right? Hard to deem somebody a bust at that age. Not everybody comes up right away and flourishes. Floyd didn't flourish in the minors either. His AAA ERA is over 5. Over his minor league career his K/9 is around 7. That's nowhere close to how well McCarthy performed. Floyd's status as a prospect is mostly due to being a high draft pick, having a nice curve and being big guy. He supposedly doesn't have the 93-94 MPH fastball he had when drafted; the PHI papers say it's down to 90. I'd rather see Haegar start than Floyd, Haeger at least showed some ability to pitch in the big leagues last season and did well at AAA. It may be harsh, but looking at what Floyd has done in the majors and minors, calling him a bust isn't over the top IMO.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Dec 7, 2006 -> 12:27 AM) Which is better...having 4 guys at 4 and 1 at 7, or 4 guys at 5 and 1 at 4? Who are the 4 guys at 4? If the Sox punt on a 5th starter this year and use Floyd, it really weakens them in comparison with Detroit and MN. The Sox top of the rotation isn't as good as either of those teams. The Sox big advantage was that any pithcer of the starting 5 was good enough to win a game. An almost certain loss every 5th game is not good. Anyway, who knows if they'll trade Buehrle, they may not. And also, I think Haegar could post much better than a 7 ERA, so I probably shouldn't have lumped him in with Floyd.

With St. Louis missing out on Schmidt, I would think Buehrle really is out the door before the season starts. And say hello to McCarhty and Floyd/Haegar in rotation. Really, I was hoping never to see the Sox have a 5th starter with an ERA of 7.00 again, but some things clearly are not to be...

QUOTE(fathom @ Dec 6, 2006 -> 09:48 AM) Tampa's asking price is insane for Rocco. From the sounds of it, they'd want two top prospects like Fields and Broadway. I'd trade Fields and Broadway for Baldelli in a heartbeat. In another system, Fields and Broadway would be way down on a list of top prospects. Fields makes Borchard's K rate look pretty and he's had all of one very good halfseason in a bandbox in AAA. From all reports, Broadway is a one-pitch pitcher who doesn't throw hard or strike people out and he's given up more than a hit per inning in the minors. Baldelli is an actual major league baseball player. I think the Rays would want more for Baldelli. Rotoworld said they wanted Cole Hamels from PHI or Adam Loewen and Chris Ray from BALT. The latter deal would be like giving up McCarthy and Jenks from the Sox. I think that might be too much.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Dec 5, 2006 -> 06:46 PM) WGN Radio had a clip of Ozzie running his mouth about how Brandon is going to AAA, because he doesnt want to pitch out of the pen and he has no right to ask to pitch in the rotation. Ozzie needs to learn how to keep his top lip and his bottom lip together more. Ozzie must be getting twitchy now that KW might trade his relative. And someone accused me of making stuff up when I said Ozzie didn't like McCarthy. Sheesh. What makes Ozzie more ridiculous is that McCarthy has only said in the press (I think on whitesox.com) that he'll do whatever the team asks him to, it's not like he's demanding to start.