SSH2005

The infamous white flag trade. Tony Phillips

Someone (JimH?) here had a great quote about getting attached to certain players... "You should care more about the name on the front of the jersey than the name on the back." Players come and go. Being a GM means that you make moves to improve your team. You don't keep certain players just because they are fan favorites. Production matters in baseball. KW has made all of these moves to IMPROVE the team so we can win another World Series. I guarantee you that if Garland truly wanted to stay with the Sox, KW would sign him and you would be able to see him pitch for us. Garland wants to test free agency and is likely going to get priced out of our plans for 2007 and beyond. That's pretty much all there is to it.

You are right about the small amounts but it all adds up and our payroll still isn't unlimited even after winning the World Series. $6 million could be the difference between having Pierzynski as your catcher... or Ben Davis.

With the entire $3 million coming in 2007, it doesn't hurt us much since we dumped $6 million by trading El Duque and Vizcaino. +$11.5 million (Vazquez's 2006 salary) - $4.625 million (El Duque's 2006 salary) - $1.3 million (Vizcaino's 2005 salary; will earn more in 2006 through arbitration) ----------------------------------------------- +$5.575 million added to 2006 payroll +$12.5 million (Vazquez's 2007 salary) - $3.0 million (payment from Diamondbacks) ----------------------------------------------- +9.5 million added to 2007 payroll That's still not bad. Dumping El Duque's salary was huge. Since El Duque was purely a salary dump and Vizcaino was pretty bad last season, you could look at the trade as being Chris Young for Vizcaino and he will only add around $15 million to our payroll over the next two years. Hopefully, Vazquez will prove to be a $9.5 million dollar pitcher in 2007. We will still have control of Vazquez in 2008.

Here's a link: http://www.latimes.com/sports/baseball/mlb...orts-mlb-dodger The Dodgers would definately have the pitching prospects that KW would be interested in (Chad Billingsley, Jonathan Broxton, Scott Elbert).

It would have to be Blalock and prospects because Texas doesn't have a bullpen. Brian Anderson Jerry Owens Ryan Sweeney We won't be trading Garland for an outfielder.

Blalock is really the only player on the Rangers that would make any sense for our team.

Mench is basically a younger Carl Everett. He only hits lefties; he sucks against right-handers. He's the last thing we need. Just because he always kills us doesn't mean he's good. We can do far better than Garland for Mench.

Interesting. Here's the link for those who want to read the article: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/sports/baseball/13421777.htm "Knowing they have extra outfielders"? It sounds like the Rangers would want to offer us Wilkerson for Garland. Too bad we don't need or want an outfielder, especially not a Boras client on a 1-year contract.

He sounds like Crede.

Everett put up a .746 OPS last season. You don't think that Thome, or even Gload if Thome gets injured, can put up a .746 OPS as our DH? Rowand's .736 OPS from last season is easily replaceable. All Anderson has to is play solid defense, which is supposed to be one of his talents. El Duque had a 1.46 WHIP and a 5.12 ERA last season. Vazquez is a much better pitcher with much better stuff. He's also durable enough to actually make his starts, unlike El Duque. Marte and Vizcaino sucked last season. Do I even need to remind you of this?

Ron Villone is on the Marlins. They traded for him at the deadline last season. And Soriano has great stuff but I would think his trade value would be extremely low after missing the past two seasons due to injury.

Exactly what I'm thinking.

I can understand how Beltre would lose homeruns due to Safeco but his AVG and OBP both dropped back down to his 2001 to 2003 levels when he was basically a Joe Crede clone. Beltre has had more seasons putting up Crede-like numbers than like his 2004 season. I know players oftentimes have monster seasons in their free agent years but to me it casts a lot of doubt on how natural Beltre's 2004 season was.

The advantage of trading for Blalock is that he would be locked up to a very modest contract (4-years, $20 million), he's only 25, he's a lefty stick, and he would be moving from one hitter's park to another. It's too bad the Rangers' bullpen sucks so bad that they wouldn't have a decent reliever to throw into the deal. I also wouldn't want a guy like Beltre who had a monster season in 2004, gets a huge contract based on this one great season, and then goes back to putting up mediocre numbers after stricter steroid testing is enacted. I think there's far too much risk involved with Beltre.

Since McCarthy is ready, I'd rather have a decent package of good prospects and/or players and no Garland for a season than have Garland for one season and a couple draft picks. I'm guessing that you agree.

Ah ok, he was comparing the 2006 Blue Jays' offense to the 2005 White Sox offense. Why? I don't know.

But 12 pages is too damn looong.

The Blue Jays are better than us offensively? How? DH: Jim Thome > Shea Hillenbrand 1B: Paul Konerko > Lyle Overbay 2B: Tadahito Iguchi > Orlando Hudson 3B: Joe Crede = Eric Hinske / Corey Koskie SS: Jose Uribe = Russ Adams LF: Scott Podsednik < Frank Catalanotto / Reed Johnson CF: Brian Anderson < Vernon Wells RF: Jermaine Dye > Alex Rios C: A.J. Pierzynski = Gregg Zaun

So you are going to call him Brian "strikeout" Anderson after a whopping career total of 34 AB's? Wow, even I don't give a player a demeaning nickname that quickly. I realize he's no Brian Giles but don't hold that against him.

This is the huge key. Can Cooper get Vazquez back on track? Look at Vazquez's game log from last season. He was horrible in March/April, great in May, horrible in June, great in July, horrible in August, great in September/October. He either dominates or gets shellacked. If Cooper can help him be more consistent in his outings, he could turn out to be a legitimate #2 or #3 starter for us. Vazquez definately has the stuff. I'm just worried that Garland may not have the kind of trade value we think he should have. The A's got a great return for Mark Mulder last year in Danny Haren, Kiko Calero, and Daric Barton but Mulder had a 2006 team option in his contract. The Cardinals knew that they would have Mulder for at least two seasons. Any team that trades for Garland knows that they may only have him for one season. That hurts his trade value quite a bit in my opinion.

I doubt that the Reds would want Crede. They already have a highly rated third base prospect in Edwin Encarnacion. Also, the A's are already stacked with outfielders -- Milton Bradley, Mark Kotsay, Jay Payton, Nick Swisher, and Bobby Kielty. They aren't going to want another one. I would absolutely love to get Chavez and Duchscherer (I love that curve!) but this trade scenerio isn't realistic.

Wilkerson will be a free agent after 2006 and is a Boras client. There would be no reason to ask for him over pitching prospects.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5167730

I just looked at the two biggest Arizona newspaper websites, The Arizona Republic and the Arizona Daily Star, and neither had any articles about it being only $3 million that the Diamondbacks are sending us. Rosenthal just once again stated that it is $5 million in his latest article. He usually has the scoop. http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5167730