Frank the Tank 35

QUOTE(CYGarland @ Sep 28, 2005 -> 02:38 PM) OK. I could swear I heard that he was. Anyway we cant have Rowand AND Pods in the outfield, if were going to have Uribe AND Crede on the infield. 2 of those guys have to go, And IMO Crede and Uribe's defense are too valuable I agree that there need to be two subtractions from those four as well. I, however, think that with the offseason Pods should be able to heal up and be the same type of person he was in the first half. Plus, his value must be low right now, so it would serve us better if we just took the chance with him next year rather than getting nothing for him in return. So for me, I say trade Arow and one of Crede/Uribe. Replace Arow with Anderson, sign/trade for someone w/ a bigger salary (and more talent) to play 3B/SS.

Here's a good link for a reference point on FA's for the next several years. This site also has the players' contracts on the team pages. It's a very useful site, especially when I begin posturizing what the possibilities could be for the Sox. http://www.mlb4u.com/freeagent.html

Nope.

QUOTE(CYGarland @ Sep 28, 2005 -> 02:17 PM) Um NO!! :puke Here's MY roster for next year.........CF Pierre, 2b Iguchi, Giles LF, Konerko 1b, Delgado DH, Dye RF, Crede 3b, AJ C, Uribe SS.....Bench....Anderson, Pablo, Willie, Borchard, Widger......Pitching staff....Contreras, Buehrle, Garland, Garcia, McCarthy........BP.........Viz, Marte, Hermansen, Cotts, Politte, Jenks.........Let Everett, Pods and Blum walk. Trade El Puque and Rowand Hey, I'd love to have Pierre too... but how would you say we acquire him? I don't think the Marlins move him. Delgado maybe...but can you see Delgado AND Konerko on the team? Methinks not although it's a nice dream...especially since you have Giles on there too. There's no way the Sox spend that much IMO. I agree that Duque and Arow should go.

We got Pods for another year.

Oh, and: News Diamondbacks outfielder Chad Tracy went 2-for-4 with a two-run home run, his 25th of the season, on Tuesday against the Dodgers. His long ball accounted for all the runs in the game. Views It was the third straight game in which Tracy produced a game-winning hit. Prior to last night's home run, he had a walkoff RBI single in the 10th inning in Sunday 's 4-3 win over the Padres and a three-run double in Saturday night's 8-5 victory.

A little update: "It's been a trying season for Nomar, but he's come back strong over the last month and a half. He's hit .310 with eight home runs, 19 runs, and 23 RBI in 155 at bats since his activation."

Duque's only value may be as a meager throw in somewhere. Otherwise I'm just hoping somebody, anybody will take his contract... maybe for a small pouch of infield sand?

Hmm... seems like everyone's done bickering... just when I finished up my grad homework for the night (well, what I just decided was the finishing point anyway ). -Thome is too risky... not worth it at all. He's aging, put up horrible stats after the 'roid ban, etc. Konerko at $10 mil is a much better bargain. -By all means fire Greg Walker. I've said it for awhile now. He's obviously not doing his job folks. It's quite obvious. We may not have the best offensive players, but this is ridiculous. The players' approach to each at bat is either pitifully passive or way overaggressive not to mention probably mechanical stuff that I won't pretend to be knowledgeable about. -Goodbye Carl, Timo, Blum... you will NOT be brought back. -Trade Duque, Marte, Arow, and Hermy. Duque should just be a throwin on some deal. If not maybe the Sox could get a low level prospect, that's all I expect. Some team should be desperate enough for a 5th starter. Marte obviously has the walks problem. Arow can be replaced by Anderson. It makes too much sense. Let a rookie or two step it up, it's what winning teams do. Clear payroll for some big names. Hermanson was bound to get hit up. Not just because his back is bothering him but because all he throws is sliders. Granted that may be AJ's choice, but honestly Hermy had been operating with smoke and mirrors for most of the season. Trade him and get what value you can for him. -Hopefully the above players (plus prospects?) can nab us Tracy. Tracy is making minimum folks... that means $$ for another FA! -We have to resign Konerko. I was as frustrated as anybody with his slump earlier in the year. But there are no other options. I think Konerko would be the perfect #5 hitter... unfortunately he's our #4 or sometimes #3. -Pods. Gotta keep him. If we traded him we would not get fair value at this point. We might as well let him stick around another year and see if he can recover from this injury in the offseason. Maybe try working in Owens next year as a replacement in '07. -That leaves us with a moderate sum to sign a FA. I've been anti-Crede for awhile now. This new "streak" of his doesn't really faze me, he'll be back in a .190 slump in no time. However, is he better than Uribe? At this point, I guess so... I mean he does come up with big hits in late innings... I'll give him that much at least. So either we replace Crede and sign Mueller or we replace Uribe and sign Nomar/Furcal. I think Furcal is a longshot at best unless KW gets Uncle Jerry to really open up. But I think it would be possible to sign both Mueller and Nomar or possibly shore up our bullpen with a Mueller/BJ Ryan or Nomar/Scott Eyre combo. When healthy Nomar could really step nicely into a #3 spot for us. I envision Chad Tracy being able to do that at some point, but I don't know if I'd want to entrust it to him so soon. In any event a Nomar/Tracy combo would be two .300 hitters back to back, wouldn't it be nice?

QUOTE(qwerty @ Sep 27, 2005 -> 11:54 PM) Helton is out of the question since he said he wants to be apart of the ever lasting youth movement in colorado. ^^^^ This is absolutely correct. Helton is going nowhere.

This team is way too predictable. Pitch Carl inside breaking stuff, he K's. Pitch JD low and outside breaking stuff, he K's. Pitch Konerko and Uribe high because you know they're going for the jack. Jam Gooch high and inside, he'll K. Throw the ball over the plate to Arow, he'll beat it into the ground. Throw the ball, our catcher is out. Way too easy.

He missed his spot... a little lower and Dye wouldn't have even made contact.

Those teases! Dye K's on a low and outside breaking ball.

Pop up in an attempt to hit a dinger... that's my vote.

Groundball up the middle for a dp??

They're purposely loading the bases... they know that when we have the bases loaded we cannot score... smart managerial decision byg Detroit there.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Sep 26, 2005 -> 08:02 PM) In relief outings...pitches 1-15, opponents are hitting .182 against Mr. Politte with 6 home runs (prior to tonight). In relief outings, pitches 15-30, opponents are hitting .138 against Mr. Politte with 0 home runs. He has only faced 3 batters after going over 30 pitches thrown, and those are 1-3. Thanks... hmm, I dunno what I was thinking. Maybe I was harkening back to last year or something

I wonder what Politte's stats are when pitching more than one inning. It seems to me the only time he really gets knocked around is when he's left in for more than one inning. Anyone else notice this?

QUOTE(CYGarland @ Sep 26, 2005 -> 07:43 PM) We need a BOMB Juan Well, you know that's what he's thinking anyway.

Carl, you silly silly man, couldn't you read the writing on the wall?? Look at your stats... I hope that made you feel good. Now look at the stats of every other #3 hitter in baseball. Notice anything? That's right, you're THE worst. What's more, you bat lefty but can't hit righties? So you're good for...? Providing a veteran 0-for-4 on a nightly basis so that some rookie, who could almost certainly be hitting better than you, can sit on the bench gaining valuable bench warming experience? yyyeah

I remember I used to laugh hysterically at my Cub fan friends when the Cubs had the absolute most horrendous time getting runners in from 3rd with less than two outs the past few years. I now realize that instead of being grumpy, they should have laughed too... just like I'm laughing now... laughing at this sorely pathetic offense.

QUOTE(CYGarland @ Sep 23, 2005 -> 07:39 PM) Crede and Uribe back2back = :puke :banghead :headshake ...somebody shouldn't be here next year, they can't hit back to back like this.

I am of the mindset that several things should happen this offseason: 1) Sign Mueller, goodbye Joe 2) Wheel and deal... trade Marte, Arow, and Duque (just a salary dump for him) for Chad Tracy. It's gotta be done... one of our young outfield prospects HAS to step up and contribute. I'm very high on Tracy, he's a lefty, high average, gaining pop in his bat, and DOES NOT have an uppercut homerun swing. An alternative is obviously Overbay, but I don't think we have what interests the Brewers at this point. I think we'd all agree that the time has come for BMac to replace Duque. I'd hope we'd try to sign Scott Eyre as a LOOGY replacement for Marte. I'd consider trading Dye instead, but they'd probably want Arow as he's younger. I also think Dye will have slightly better numbers next year (since he had that huge slump at the beginning of the year), and I like his arm in right. I'd also consider trading Pods if... 3) Sign Furcal? I'm very hesitant to push for this. He's probably going to cost way too much. I was being encouraged by Uribe's performance of late... but in the past week? batting .160... ah, all good things must come to an end, some sooner than later unfortunately. As much as everyone hates the idea, Nomar has been pretty good up until the last week since his return from injury. Even with his poor start, extrapolating his numbers out, he's right in line with a regular Nomar season (except the average). Since he's been back though, he's raised his average from .145 to .267... last week in the .280's. He'd sure come a lot cheaper than Furcal and would be an ideal #3 hitter when full strength. A lot of people on this board were willing to take a chance on the oft injured Griffey, why not on Nomar? Of course the hold up would be, would he be willing to play on the South Side? Money-wise: Sox committed payroll currently heading into next season: 4.5+2.4+3.25+3+3.15+5+2.25+9+7.75+1.9+8+marginal salary (Cotts, Jenks, BMac, Anderson, Gload, Ozuna, Widger?, etc)~ $51 mil +1.2 mil (Politte option)+ ~6 (Garland's salary)+ ~3.5 (resign AJ)+ 10 (Konerko)=~$72 mil then - 2.25 (Marte) - 3.25 (Arow) - 4.5 (Duque)= ~$62 mil then + negligible amount (Tracey) + 1.5 (Eyre) + 3 (Mueller) + ?? (Furcal or Nomar)= ~$67 + ?? I rounded up most numbers to try to account for the small minor type salaries, but I guess you could just round it all the way up to $70 for the sake of argument and making sure the bench is rounded. In a perfect world I'd also like to trade Hermanson while his value is high, but I know that won't happen. So after all that, the team stands at $70 without adding Furcal or Nomar. I think a deal with Arizona could be a real possibility, maybe we'd have to throw in one more minor leaguer. Nomar could probably be had for a similar contract to this year, around $8 mil incl. incentives. Furcal will ask the moon and will probably get 10-12 per year. All in all, the Sox could have a payroll around $80, which is doable, especially if we somehow eek into the playoffs. Option 1: Pods Gooch Nomar Tracy Konerko AJ Dye Mueller Anderson Option 2: Pods Furcal Tracy Konerko Gooch AJ Dye Mueller Anderson What's nice about the Furcal deal is that he's our leadoff man insurance if Pods' recent struggles continue into next year in which case you flip flop them in the order or Pods can be involved in a trade. I actually prefer Nomar because he'd be a great #3 hitter, and I think he'll have a great season next year. Of course he's more risky, but he also costs less. Greater risk/reward type of deal there. Anyway, that'd be MY armchair GM agenda, and it's not some far out fantasy either...everything's doable.

Getting back to my original point... who would we Sox fans be willing to trade in for an upgrade? Has to be somebody...

Yeah, one or the other... but Delgado would solve the lefty problem (and hopefully the popup one). However, Delgado is considerably older so I might lean towards just keeping Konerko since we'd have to give up players for Delgado anyway. Use what players we have to trade to fit in some other hole.