heirdog

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Nov 21, 2007 -> 03:42 PM) Young dominant closers are too valuable to trade, bar none. Especially when you have ZERO replacements waiting in the wings. I take it you haven't bought into KW's love for Nick Massett? How about Aardsma (aka Billy Koch v.2.0) or Sisco (the next Billy Wagner?). Screws are stronger than bones and tendons so don't worry about it. He's more likely to have a different injury than have the screw break or pop out. And if he does, they'll just screw in another one.

First of all, based off the current market for stud (yes stud) closers, Jenks would bring back several pieces (more than Melky or Damon alone) or several solid prospects (Hughes or Kennedy included). Second, if the Yankees did approach the Whitesox, then they will have to pay a premium to get him or no deal. Its as simple as that. If we are not blown away by a deal, then we keep our young closer that is 3-4 years away from free agency and shore up our already thin bullpen. If we are blown away (i.e. Hughes, Melky, etc.), then we consider getting that talent and finding our closer from within or outside. So, unless Kenny has a brain fart, he laughs at a one for one for Jenks with either Melky or Damon and moves on to create his dream contender for 2008.

If we are trying to build a championship by defense up the middle of the diamond, we would accomplish this with both Cabrera and Hunter. I could live with Owens at lead-off especially if he worked on bunting all off-season so he could get on base that way and then steal 70+ bases. Although the plan may be to use Crede to get that leadoff hitter and... Anyone else think that a Hunter deal would signal the end of Konerko on the Southside? Konerko could get us that #3 or #4 starter and some prospects, perhaps from those same Angels (Santana and Kotchman) or Dodgers? LF: Owens/Ozuna SS: Cabrera DH: Thome RF: Dye CF: Hunter 3B: Fields C: Pierzynski 1B: Kotchman 2B: Richar

No way we get one of those propects let alone 2 or 3 from the Dodgers unless we add more to the deal. I could see Crede, Garland and MacDougal/Thornton for Kemp/Loney, Abreu and Broxton. I would do that deal as Kemp would immediately fill an OF hole, Broxton would set-up for Jenks and Abreu/Richar would battle it out for 2B. Maybe we could get them to "throw in" Hu.

QUOTE(Melissa1334 @ Nov 12, 2007 -> 12:45 PM) whos DSL? DLS... de los Santos 1. Fautino de los Santos, RHP DOB: 2/15/86 Height/Weight: 6-0/205 Bats/Throws: R/R Acquired: NDFA, 2005, Dominican Republic 2007 Stats: 2.40 ERA at Low-A (97.2-49-36-121); 3.65 ERA at High-A (24.2-20-7-32)

QUOTE(Chombi and the Fungi @ Nov 11, 2007 -> 01:28 AM) I think Carter's problem is that he lacks "game breaking" speed. Otherwise, he has incredible hands, great route running and a great sense of the sideline. Ok old joke but I just spent a whole Saturday watching football and boxing so mentally I may not have it all to comment with any useful information...Something new and different right? What? Don't drink and post!

QUOTE(striker62704 @ Sep 9, 2007 -> 02:01 AM) Fields, Richar, Buehrle, Jenks, Wasserman and Vazquez would be my only untouchables. I think you have to add Danks to this list. He's only a rookie and while he is not outstanding at this point, would you truly feel comfortable giving up on him next year? Not sold on Wasserman (Aardsma would have been one of your untouchables in April) and Richar yet, but willing to keep faith in Richar. My ideal "realistic" team for next year would be as follows (KW, are you listening?): Batting Order SS: Vizquel 1B: Kotchman RF: Dye DH: Dunn 3B: Fields C: Pierzynski CF: Melky Cabrera 2B: Richar LF: Owens Bench: Hall, Ozuna, Sweeney, Aybar SP: Buehrle, Vasquez, Contreras, Ervin Santana, Danks RP: Jenks, Thornton, Logan, Floyd, MacDougal, Phillips, Linebrink FA signings: Dunn, Vizquel, Linebrink (ARod would be nice but wayyyyy too expensive) Trades: 1) Konerko & Garland to LAA for Kotchman, E. Santana and Aybar 2) Thome & Crede to Yanks for Melky Cabrera and 2 prospects (Brett Gardner, OF and Mark Melancon, P) Gone via FA: Uribe, Pods, Erstad That gives us more of an Ozzie-type team with lots of speed, OBP and "smart" players that are more or less durable.

QUOTE(elrockinMT @ Jul 24, 2007 -> 03:05 PM) Steff, I have always valued your insight into front office stuff concerning to Sox. Do you really think KW is a problem though? Should he have credit for winning in 2005? Or is there more to the inner workings we don't know such as someone else actually being the brains and KW trying to take credit for success built on others efforts? Really what I have seen in the last month or so is talk that other GM's are catching on to KW's tactics, but I am not sure I see Reinsdorf firing him over this years failures. But, I want to know more... And what tactics would those be? If GMs were getting fleeced by KW in the past and didn't know it, then they should be the ones fired. I don't think KW has any tactics he uses with other GMs. He goes after what he wants aggressively and the other GMs have the option to listen or hang up. From a fan's perspective, the only issue I have with KW is that he falls in love with a player and will pursue the player over and over until he has him at whatever cost (i.e. Vasquez, although I didn't mind the trade that brought him here). That type of tunnel vision could burn him at some point or make him miss some other prospects/players because he is pursuing that one elusive guy but so far its been okay.

Replace Murton with Pie and you have a deal...or we can just take the 2 draft picks

QUOTE(hitlesswonder @ Jul 24, 2007 -> 12:38 PM) Williams is the GM. The farm system is his responsibility. As Hopper said in A Bug's Life: "First rule of leadership: everything is your fault ..." I'm not saying that changes shouldn't have been made, I think they should have. But if Williams actually shifted blame to Duane Shaffer for the state of the organization, that's less than admirable. Agree with the statement above, even if you use Hopper as the source (instead of say, Colin Powell) but its accountability vs. responsibility. Ken Williams, as the GM, is accountable for everything which he oversees. Duane Shaffer as Director of Scouting (or whatever his title was) is responsible for the scouting and the draft. So as KW is accountable he must look at the person that is responsible, in this case for the draft, and make any necessary changes (e.g. drafting paradigm shift, firing those responsible, etc). If he stood still and did nothing but only accepted blame, you would say: "Hey that guy has shown good accountability." If he actually makes a change for an area that has been lacking, then you can say "Hey, he has shown leadership in diagnosing a problem and trying to remedy it." Implicit in this second scenario is Ken Williams taking blame saying that "Hey, as a leader, I let this happen so let me now make a change."

QUOTE(Steff @ Jul 24, 2007 -> 11:52 AM) Months ago Kenny openly put Duane on notice attempting to blame him for the complete state of s***tiness rather then man up and admit what anyone who's watched baseball for more than 5 minutes knew. Only yesterday did Kenny FINALLY admit his plan backfired. He definitely hid until he could hide no more. Not sure that building a bullpen of power arms and having anemic drafts are the same argument in terms of "manning up" to the poor season. Granted Kenny's plan for the bullpen backfired but most of the recent trades seem to have worked out in the Sox favor. I remember a few months ago that Kenny said that his recent plan is not working but that was because he was trying to win now and retool a farm system that sucked (mostly due to weak drafts...and that is why he put the scouting dept on notice). So, Kenny's error was trying to fix two things at once and not really addressing either fully. So what he hoped was that he could retool the pitching and leave the position players status quo and hope the either produce more or continue to produce...neither has really happened. That doesn't excuse the poor drafts, which in the end fall on the scouting dept...if Kenny had options, he may not have had to try and retool the farm system and just focused on the present.

QUOTE(Steff @ Jul 24, 2007 -> 09:25 AM) Surprise, surprise.. another Sox employee who has/had issue with Kenny. It's to bad that Kenny is able to continue to hide behind doors about this stuff. Personally, I can't wait till he is canned and all the real dirt is shaken out of the executive rugs. Kudos to Duane for comparing Kenny to Larry Himes. I'm sure Kenny flipped a few tables after reading that one. I have to admit I'm as big a Kenny fan as there is...maybe its the fact that he helped us win a championship but Steff, you seem to know more than a lot of people so I will defer to your assessment of what is happening behind the scenes but I have to challenge your one comment above... Does Kenny need to show more tact in the media? Absolutely Does Kenny need to take some accountability for this team? Definitely, and he has to a degree Does Kenny hide behind doors? Definitely not

QUOTE(BearSox @ Jul 24, 2007 -> 10:40 AM) how the hell do you know? Here we go again....

Wow, a guy just drops a rumor that Willy Mo has basically been traded to the White Sox and instead of addressing that, the debate about John Danks vs. every other young pitcher goes on... Any way, I am not sure what reliever we had to give up to get Willy Mo but I hope its Aardsma.

Wasn't Pods a rookie at like age 28 or 29 so consider Owens ahead of the curve. If you're looking for Ichiro, you will be disappointed. If you're looking for a younger Pods, you might have something here.

I don't post a lot but I like viewing other people's posts..call it post-envy. I think whatever makes the site faster and easier for the admins is fine.

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jul 5, 2007 -> 06:21 PM) Relievers with good arms tend to get other teams some good talent (s*** just look what the Sox gave up for MacDougall and I think some teams in baseball would grade Thornton higher than MacDougall would have been rated at the time of the trade). Which one of Lumsden and Cortes was an A level prospect? Granted MacDougal may not have been worth even that (he was pretty damn good for the Sox last year though) but its not like they got two of our top prospects.

Was Thome's HR really an inside the parker? I find that very hard to believe.

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Jun 28, 2007 -> 02:47 PM) The day before he was traded, he made three (two were uncredited) errors in the field, from wide throws to first, to drop relay throws, to mental errors such as throwing to the wrong base. Sounds like a Soriano...sign me up! And that solves our lack of OF depth in the minors problem too (never thought I'd say that 2 or 3 years ago).

QUOTE(GoSox05 @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 01:07 PM) I dont trust espn 100 either. I was listening there station the other morning and it sounded like aliens were invading them. If they were reporting that aliens were in fact invading them, then I could understand your distrust. But YOU hearing noises as though aliens were invading them sounds like YOU need to get a better connection.

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Jun 27, 2007 -> 11:44 AM) The Yankees seem to think they can have whoever they want. No. Its not the Yankees, its the NY media that is speculating Konerko or Wigginton. Torre just said that maybe they could address their 1B problem via trade and then the writer stated who he thinks would be good.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jun 26, 2007 -> 01:58 PM) Martinez is going to be a top 5 prospect in baseball when the Top 100 is released next season. I don't see any reason why Minaya would deal him for an old, expensive pitcher who might be an upgrade over what they have now. You'll see Milledge dealt long before Martinez. That's fair. I thought they were higher on Gomez than Martinez, and I don't think many teams are all that high on Milledge's attitude any more. So the compromise would have been the #2 guy but I guess that would be Gomez, who we likely won't have a remote chance at either.

With even a remote possibility that Buehrle goes to the Red Sox, with an extension signed for 5 years, the Yankees will jump in and stop it. They will pay the price with Hughes and also shed Farnsworth's contract (fallen out of favor in NY) while getting a young (solid defensively and may just need a change of scenery), talented CF to take over for the old and rickety Damon. Before you go there, Melky is a corner outfielder with a cannon arm. Also, I don't have to make it happen...I am just predicting what I think will happen. If I am "sniffing glue" or way off what you guys think, why don't you just tell us all what will happen...if you are so sure you know. QUOTE(Kalapse @ Jun 26, 2007 -> 01:45 PM) On top of that the most you could probably get from the Mets for Contreras is likely Humber alone. The fact that people are even mentioning Martinez' name in conjuncture with Contreras is laughable. When you have a Beltran, Milledge and Gomez, you can give something up to win now and eventually they will (as I conjectured in my prediction).

QUOTE(CanOfCorn @ Jun 26, 2007 -> 01:42 PM) Lay off the glue. What? Too little?

Buehrle and Anderson: Yankees for Hughes and Farnsworth Contreras and Iguchi: Mets for Humber, Martinez and PTBNL (fringe prospect) Dye: Dodgers for DeJesus Jr and Loney Mackowiak: Brewers for 2 fringe prospects