RME JICO

If they add three, that would make the Bullpen have 7 Relievers, I doubt that will happen. It will probably be only 2 additions. RHP- Mike MacDougal LHP-Matt Thornton LHP-Neal Cotts CL-Bobby Jenks Haeger has a good shot, and Riske might be brought back. Speier would be a great FA pickup at the right price. 2007 Bullpen RHP- Mike MacDougal RHP- Justin Speier RHP- Charles Haeger LHP-Matt Thornton LHP-Neal Cotts CL-Bobby Jenks I love the idea of going from a Starting pitcher to someone like Haeger to fireballers like Mac, Thornton, and Jenks. That is some huge adjustments for hitters to make at every AB.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Oct 6, 2006 -> 08:59 PM) I really hope Ken/Oz realize that "tinkering" with the team does mean getting rid of Pods. He stole 40 bases. How many times did he get caught? It had to be at least 20 didn't it? Bye bye Pods. 19 CS. He did lead the league in that category as well. QUOTE(JohnBasedowYoda @ Oct 7, 2006 -> 11:23 AM) Yeah. Lot of Ks too 96 Ks.

This list seems way off: Baseball: Al Leiter - 3rd Jose Vidro - 7th Bengie Molina - 10th As managers Ozzie or Leyland are not even mentioned on the site, but Yogi Berra and Pete Rose are?

I have a feeling BA is going to tear it up in Winter Ball and come out strong next year. The Sox have more issues other than CF and more trading chips other than BA to use.

I think Buehrle will be re-signed to a deal slightly higher than Garland's. He would have commanded much more before this season, but after a down year, he has lost some value. Garcia seems to be the obvious choice, especially to a NL team in need of starting pitching. I could see him going to NYM, SD, LA, or even HOU. There are more options than Crawford for leadoff. This will be a very interesting off season to say the least.

QUOTE(beautox @ Oct 5, 2006 -> 08:11 AM) agreed, i don't quite understand the article who are the sox getting in return? and if BA goes to the marlins i will be sad for soxdom, but yet my second favorite team will get an amazing talent. I think they mean pick up one of the listed outfielders for someone like:

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Oct 5, 2006 -> 02:46 AM) I'm quietly waiting to post a fun fact about the Central in the playoffs since 2000. Excluding 2005, since 1999 the AL Central has only won 1 series and has lost 6 while posting a 12-21 record. Combined with this year they are now 12-24. This was also the first year since the Wild Card that two AL Central teams made the playoffs. Great representation.

KW is definitely making a statement and putting the ball in Crede's court. With Fields waiting in the wings, it seems like the Sox have the leverage on their side. There probably won't be much done about this until Nov or Dec, so Crede has time to make some decisions.

KW is definitely not going to show his hand. I found this one be interesting: Boone Logan perhaps?

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Sep 29, 2006 -> 02:38 PM) The guy is a lying asshole who plays the race card when he is questioned about. f*** him. I thnk the preception of Bonds here and among the MLB would be a lot different if he acted like Harold Baines while being on the juice. Harold Baines was on the juice?

I can't believe the Tigers brought Rogers in vs KC and he is going to be their Game 3 starter. That just shows how much they are pressing. Yanks sweep.

QUOTE(jackie hayes @ Oct 1, 2006 -> 01:28 PM) Cameron's not a fa. The Pads have already said they'll pick up his option. Dellucci should be on that list. Dellucci is definitely an option, but there were only 10 voting options. He only made 950K for 2006, so he is relatively cheap. He does have a high K:BB ratio and the most games he has ever played in one season is 132 (2006), so there are some question marks there. QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Oct 1, 2006 -> 04:39 PM) There seems to be a lack of a "none of the above" button. Sorry, there was only 10 voting options. None of the above is an option. The Sox can stay in house and use Sweeney, Gload, or Fields there. QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Oct 1, 2006 -> 09:24 PM) I rather not see us start two super young players everday in the OF. Eric Byrnes should be an option as well Eric Byrnes is an Arb player, he is not a Free Agent according to a few publications.

Maybe he should have left Vazquez in for another inning or two.

* = Top 3 of the group in that category Note - Players sorted by 2006 Salary Note - Podsednik is not an FA, but would be an option if the Sox retained him

I like Dave Roberts, he is a speedy, scrappy player with post season experience.

No way you move the big three. Those three accounted for too much production. The Sox were the only team with three players in the Top 10 in OPS for the year. That is pretty damn good. Basing it on value, they are clearly worth their pay, but that cannot be said for some of the other players or pitchers.

Nice game for Garland, except his last pitch (a 3 run jack) will be with him until next year.

No way Gload over Konerko. Gload has done a great job with the time he has received, but chances are his numbers would come down with more playing time, like Ozuna's did. I do wish Gload got more time vs RHPs though. I don't think that would have made the difference, it still comes down to pitching.

TLAK, interesting numbers as always. The only thing that does not make sense is the runs scored. The player is only going to score if someone else drives him in (except for HR), so I don't see the relevance of runs scored, since they would get credit anyway for that game with a hit or RBI. It seems like you could just remove that and not much would change. The most surprising numbers are Podsednik at 14% and Crede at 24%. It seems like that means Pods did just enough not to get an 0fer, but not much more than that. He probably had the most 1fers, like 80%. That would be interesting to see how many games players had 1 or 0 positives at the plate. I bet Pods % which jump up more than anyones.

If he can't even get guys out as a middle reliever, how is that going to translate into an effective starter? Normally it won't. He does not have enough pitches or an "out" pitch to succeed as a starter. Righties also hit him pretty hard.

Here are the latest VORP (Value Over Replacement Player) ratings for the Sox. I also listed the projected ratings that were given at the start of the season (on the left). Some players totally exceeded expectations (Dye, Thome), while others did not (Podsednik, Buehrle, Anderson, Uribe, Vazquez). Projected / Actual Konerko 27.1 / 48.6 Iguchi 20.2 / 23.6 Uribe 17.4 / -0.4 Thome 16.5 / 64.8 Anderson 14.0 / -7.6 Pierzynski 12.3 / 18.7 Crede 9.0 / 22.6 Dye 7.9 / 64.3 Podsednik 2.6 / -9.2 Ozuna -6.8 / 5.9 Gload 4.3 / 4.8 Mackowiak 4.2 / 8.6 Cintron / 3.6 Alomar / -2.5 Widger / -6.0 Projected / Actual Vazquez 39.9 / 23.1 Buehrle 39.6 / 15.2 Garcia 31.1 / 27.4 Contreras 25.3 / 32.5 Garland 23.3 / 29.1 McCarthy 21.3 / 11.3 Cotts 8.0 / 3.7 Jenks 7.0 / 16.9 Tracey -11.6 / 2.5 Thornton / 16.1 MacDougal / 11.8 Riske / 7.5 Logan / -6.4 Politte / -9.4 Somewhat surprising, Buehrle was the worst underachiever with a (-24.4), followed by Anderson (-21.6), Uribe (-17.0), Vazquez (-16.8), and Podsednik (-11.8). Dye exceeded his projections by a whopping 56.4. Thome exceeded his by 48.3. The worst offensive player was Podsednik with a (-9.2). To put just how bad that is into perspective, he ranked 1003rd out of 1028 players ranked. It is pretty easy to see where the team needs to improve in the offseason.

The Sox are just trying for a higher draft pick at this point.

These games are not the reason the Sox didn't make the postseason. These games were: 14-11 vs TB and KC, and 7-9 vs CLE.

9-2 in the last 11 games is still possible. That would make things really tight.

Article from Ken Rosenthal: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5983302