chitownsportsfan

I have to disagree with you Juggernaut, I think the D-rays will be looking for much more than you suggested. Maybe Duque and Fields for Crawford. I don't think the are going to give up a quality young player just to dump a little salary. They aren't that broke.

Yea, Marte for Milton (Sox trade) is a bad idea, while Marte for Milton (Pirates Trade) is a good idea.

Wow, I'd trade Marte for Milton in a heartbeat.

Well "prospects" have helped net us Jon G and Freddy, so I'd say they "developed" in that regard. As for position players in the infield, I agree, this team hasn't developed an everyday shorstop, 2nd baseman, C, or 1B in years. Ever since I've been a fan (I'm 22 now) it seems like the Sox have focused on drafting and developing pitchers, for better or worse.

Well it's our job as fans to doubt the moves of the team, otherwise what fun could we have!... Anyways, I think it's a risky move to put him there, but hell, I don't know what Uribe is going to show up--the disciplined and dangerous Uribe that we saw in late August through October, or the hacking, free-swining Juan we saw for most of 2005, and throughout his career? I'd have to bet Juan falls somewhere in the middle, unless he really works hard to become more disciplined and take more walks while striking out less.

Sports talk radio is even further down the evolutionary telephone pole than ATH and Cold Pizza. Colin is a retard, as is Eric Kasillyass.

Will someone please remind people that we already have our starting CF in house next year? One of the rookies is going to get a shot, I just can't see KW giving up any value for anyone when cheap and decent options already exist in house

wow, this topic quickly devolved.

Yea, I'm not real happy about this whole world championship at all. Freddy is what, 30 years old? He doesn't need anymore strain on his right arm then is absolutely needed by the White Sox. So now he has to pitch for his home team in some gimmicky world championship--great. If Freddy gets injured next year the "I told you so's" will be out in full force, and rightfully so. He already pitched over 200 innings last year, he needs rest, not this. That being said, I don't blame Freddy at all, if I was in his position, I'd do the exact same thing. It's just unfortunate this has to happen after he already pitched deep into the playoffs.

Yea, it seems to me that Ozzie was giving his typical "off the wall, look I'm ozzie guillen the media loves me I'm getting a haircut this is news" interview, and in reailty, nothing he said will having much bearing on next year. Ozzie may like Owens and his winter league play now, but get him in spring training when Owens just misplayed a gapper and cost the team a run and you'll get the exact 180 degree spin. Ozzie's mouth is unreliable. Who knows what goes on in that head. He's a great manager though, if inprecise mouth.

"The Sox want a new number 2 hitter, nobody said anything about you wanting one. That's why Pierre has been brought up so much cause the Sox want to move Iguchi down to make use of his power." Great, they want a new number 2 hitter, I'd like a BMW, but that isn't going to happen because it WOULD COST TOO MUCH. I'd have to sell my computer and the cheapo car I have now and god knows what else, and boy I can't even post on soxtalk anymore! Although some of you would like that, I'm not going to make it happen ;-) Similiary, just say no to Juan Pierre. He is a terrible freaking number 2 hitter, god, go get a number two hitter, but where the heck is he going to play? Juan Pierre plays CF obviously, the only position on the field open for the Sox. So if Juan comes in he is the new sparkly number 2 hitter? Great, a guy with worse stats than Gooch and Rowand comes in and hits number two. uhg, I'm going to to the bar to get even more beligerent, hopefully I have at least provoked some raw emotion in the cold winter.

Yea, it would be nice to have a backup leadoff man, but it would be nice to have alot of things, and the Sox budget is near max, if we sign another utility man, I think were maxed out, given that Marte and Duque stay. The money Pierre makes will probably max out the payroll and preclude any chance of getting a decent utility type in case Kong or Crede go down, (who knows with Reinsdorf, but it can't be wrong to assume he thinks anything much above 85 million is stretching it, which we'd have to go way over if we trade for Juan and another utiilty type.) So given the budget, I don't think it's a wise tradeoff to bring in Juan, when a fine and very cheap option exists in the sox farm system.

Huh? I think something got lost in that translation. I think Iguchi is fine in the number two spot. I don't advocate any linup changes from last year, Juan can hit 9, I like that. I'm not sending any memo to the sox to go look for a number 2 hitter; I'm sending a memo to the board that the Sox shouldn't trade for Juan Pierre. We don't need a number 2 hitter, which is why we don't need to trade for Pierre, along with a million other reasons, most of which deal with how bad a hitter Juan is, and that BA can't be any worse while coming much cheaper.

IS HE GOING TO HIT LEADOFF FOR THE SOX. Sorry about shouting, but christ almighty, listen to yourselves, we need a #2 hitter--he will not hit leadoff if traded to the Sox. He will hit number 2, which would be a mistake. I'm not sure why everyone is trumpeting his OPB, it was terrible last year--.326...wow, quite the leadoff man. Career you say: .355. I concede that .355 is a decent enough number, but it sure as heck isn't noteworthy, not for a "leadoff" hitter. He has speed, but rarely gets on to use it. I'm kinda tired of looking up all these stats on my dialup, so if anyone wants to pick up the anti-pierre cause that would be cool. His 2006 salary is going to be above 5 million, FYI, which of course is about 4.75 million more than any of our in house options. Roughly, 1/17 of the whitesox total payrole would be going to trade for Juan, plus whatever talent we have to give up, and I have to think the marlins ain't taking El Duque or Marte, they want prospects.

Players on the Sox that had a better OPS than Juan Pierre in 2005: The entire starting lineup--yes, even such "heavyweights" as Scottie Pods, Juan Uribe, Arow, and AJ. Enough really can't be said about how bad Juan was last year at the plate. Juan Pierre, Career Splits: .305 .355 .375 .730 Arow, Career Splits: .283 .337 .451 .788 Both players are the same age. Now, Arow is generally noted as a good but not great CF with an average arm. Juan is a average fielder with a below average arm, kinda like scottie pods, actually, alot like scottie pods. Why would we trade anything for Pierre? Please tell me, we already have a Juan Pierre clone in Scottie Pods, we need a number 2 hitter with a little bit of Pop for crying out loud. It's hard for me to see Juan Pierre setting the table with a career OPS ops of .730, especially considering that he has played half his career in Coors Field. Throw in the fact that NL pitching is weaker than AL pitching, and Juan is almost certainly not going to have anything close to a productive year in CF.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/stats?playerId=4486 Please tell me which of Juan's 6 (yes I was wrong) seasons was good. I say 2001, 2003, 2004. He played 3 of his career 6 seasons at Coors Field. I'm sure that couldn't have hurt his OPS. His plate discline number are way below way what they were in 2001, which suggest that (gasp!) 2004 was mostly luck. He stunk in 2005, we already have a light hitting speedster in LF, we don't need another. His OPS in 2005 was .680!

Ok, I've not nearly as familiar with Owens as I am with BA and Juan Pierre. Here is a long winded yet thorough post about Juan I made earlier. I think it might convince you that he stinks. http://www.soxtalk.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=43560

Trading Owens for Pierre would be the dumbest move KW could make. I thought Owens was projecting to be an All-Star, (the highest cieling of any position player the sox have right?) and you're suggesting trading him for a number "2" hitter who doesn't work the count, had a .326 OBP (OMG!) in 2005, has had 2 good seasons out of 7 in the majors, makes 5 million a year, and plays crap defense? No thanks.

Good post balta, I agree with everything you said. BA is dirt cheap, and his offense can hardly be any worse than Rowand's. He might hit .250 but he's a lock to have at least Rowand's 2005 OPS, what was it, like .736 or something bad like that. Defensively, I think it is mostly agreed upon that BA has a better arm than Rowand, better speed, and gets good jumps and reads. I really think at his price tag of $250,000, and that fact that Thome is guaranteed to offset any loss from Rowand's spot, that this move is a no brainer. Plug BA into CF, let him struggle, just keep telling him to play solid D, thats all we need.

Yea, I guess the speculation that the Angels offered 65 million is just uncomfirmed rumor, but still, I think this deal came with just a bit of "home town discount"

Yea, lost in this is the fact that Konerko was offered more money by both the Angels and the Orioles, yet decided to stay with the Sox for less. A great guy, I only wish him the best. Konerko did a lot of talking after the WS about how he loved Chicago and could never picture himself leaving, but as we've all experienced, oftentimes this is just talk. Well, Kong walked the walk.

I said when the sox are down more than by 2 runs.. Personally I love the strategy of bunting early in the game to get that 1st run, but after that, I think it's usefullness has been disproven, except in certain late game or 1 run scenarious. But I for one am happy to be arguing about this! It's great to be the champs, and it's great to only be able to nitpick. Great job by KW to get Kong signed and Thome into the DH!

Yea, he could hit 20 homers, but I'm hoping he does that in the 2 hole, and just stops bunting pods and uribe over so damn much, and stops giving away outs. Especially when the Sox are behind by more than 2 runs.

Good, now this team has absolutely NO need to trade for Juan Pierre. The offense is already vastly improved over last season, basically taking out Jurassic and Rowand, two of our worst run producers, and replacing them with Thome and Brian Anderson. Now anderson has no pressure on him and he can have a splits of 265/350/705 and if he plays good defense he's golden. If you want to argue about Pierre, please feel free, but I already answered alot I feel on the "Juan Pierre Dossier" thread, I know many here are in agreement that BA should be the CF next year. The Konerko signing only cements that in my mind, because now Thome is def the almost full time DH. Guch is fine in the number 2 spot, I don't know what all the fuss is. He's not going to magically hit 30 bombs if he moves down to 6 or 7.

Timo and Gload gone? Hells yea, sounds like a plan to me. Gload does nothing above average, and for his position, he's a terrible run producer. Timo's shortcomings have been well documented, and we have other guys (Willie or Ozona) that can fill the role of versatile speedster off the bench. I think were stuck with El Duque, which might not be a bad thing if he's willing to except being a spot starter and/or long man. I hope he realized that we're counting on him to show up big time at least a few times next year, (hopefully in October again) and that he's making 4.5 million, so he won't complain too much.