upnorthsox

Barry Larkin - SS - CIN With no team's offering him a starting job, free agent Barry Larkin is considering retirement. Larkin said the Cardinals were the only club to talk to him about being an everyday shortstop and they chose David Eckstein instead. Larkin hasn't ruled out becoming a utilityman, but he's looking for the right opportunity. Jan. 4 - 1:52 pm et Source: Cincinnati Enquirer

QUOTE(Hall of Famer @ Jan 4, 2005 -> 07:01 PM) People are comparing him to Kaz Matsui like its a bad thing. I'm sorry, but wouldn't you rather have him playing 2nd than say, Willie Harris? Not to mention, we're not going to ask Iguchi to do as much as the Mets asked of him. Then again, why are we even comparing the 2? Because of the ethnical backround? No I wouldn't, and the $12-15 mil it'll cost could definitely be spent elsewhere.

QUOTE(TheDybber @ Jan 4, 2005 -> 06:41 PM) Ichiro Suzuki, Kaz Sasaki, Akinori Otsuka, Hideki Matsui anyone? Otsuka? If he was in Suzuki or Matsui's caliber I'd be psyched to get him, but he's not so I'm not.

Lots of interesting analogies, I have to agree with both sides of the Rodman comp, yes unlike the Sox the Bulls were already a championship caliber team and another may have been able to provide the rebounding but it was the also the winning attitude, speed, and D that he brought. He was also available(because of his problems) and at a cap friendly price unlike say Carl Malone who we also coulda won 3 straight with but he wasn't available(likewise Veritek would be great but AJ is the reality option who brings what we need). Another thing about AJ and why I'd like him on our team I have to go back to the most pivotol game in the most pivotol series in the 35 yrs I've been a Sox fan, Sep. 9th 2003. Yes we won that game but after an entire season of struggling to drive the runner in from 3rd(esp. with one out) AJ would put on a clinic on what to do with a man on 3rd(and how to be a winner) grounding out to 2nd to drive in one, hitting a SF to drive in another and stepping into an 0-2 pitch to keep a 2-out rally alive on a third. As I said, we won that game.........on the long ball, but not til after a reliever named Jose Paniagua had a complete meltdown on the mound and a dramatic HR by CLee to which JM after the game decided to glorify the longball by declaring CLee his 4th MVP candidate in 3 weeks. The rest as they say is history, the next day the Twinks would drive in 2 in the 5th inning on 2 SF's breaking a scoreless tie while we would fail 3 times to drive in the runner from 3rd and lose the game 4-1 along with maybe our best chance at a WS title.

Runs: WS + opponent = total at Comiskey 2000: 524 + 430 = 954 2001: 414 + 405 = 819 2002: 477 + 373 = 850 2003: 466 + 342 = 808 2004: 466 + 437 = 903 I wish they'd quit moving the fences in and out every yr.

White Sox pitching, home: 2000 ERA 4.66 HRA 104 2001 4.48 106 2002 4.26 90 2003 3.92 88 2004 5.09 127 White Sox hitting, home: 2000 runs 524 avg .293 HR 125 2001 414 .270 114 2002 477 .280 132 2003 466 .264 130 2004 466 .276 145

QUOTE (hammerhead johnson @ Jan 1, 2005 -> 08:50 PM) <!--QuoteBegin-upnorthsox+Jan 1, 2005 -> 08:03 PM--> QUOTE (upnorthsox @ Jan 1, 2005 -> 08:03 PM) <!--QuoteEBegin--> True you can't just throw out games when you're talking about a pitchers season(though you sure can acknowledge it) but we're not talking about pitchers per se we are talking about a stadium and how that stadium is playing and the conditions such as weather in a handful of games and an over reliance on lousy and rookie pitchers by the home team is as much a conditional factor as the configuration of the fences or UD rooflines. True, but there is nothing that you can do about the weather. Unless you have a dome, there are going to be days when the wind is excessive. Can you configure your park to minimize the effect that wind will have on a particular game? Absolutely. And every team in baseball outside of the Yankees has to fill in pitching staff gaps with rookies or potential scrubs. As the league has expanded and the injury rate for pitchers has increased, it's become that much more common. Hhhmmm....... Ok so you say I can't one game out of many for a pitcher as representative of him but you can take one season at a stadium out of many and declare it Coor's East........

QUOTE (Rowand44 @ Jan 1, 2005 -> 08:25 PM) <!--QuoteBegin-CWSGuy406+Jan 1, 2005 -> 02:17 PM--> QUOTE (CWSGuy406 @ Jan 1, 2005 -> 02:17 PM) <!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin-Jeckle2000+Jan 1, 2005 -> 07:33 AM--> QUOTE (Jeckle2000 @ Jan 1, 2005 -> 07:33 AM) <!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin-CaliSoxFanViaSWside+Jan 1, 2005 -> 07:19 AM--> QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jan 1, 2005 -> 07:19 AM) <!--QuoteEBegin--> It's amusing to me that Sox management decides that a power filled lineup doesnt work and we need a new direction , when clearly, if we had a better pitching staff all along we would've competed. Saying the power lineup got us nowhere is just managements attempt to redirect the blame away from themselves for not getting the Sox better pitching. I don't agree with that at all. The chubbies (who supposedly have the best rotation in baseball) lost because they have a lineup that was too full of power and less able to create runs. Yes the 5th starter was a problem but it was by no means the only problem. This team wasn't going anywhere scoring 7 runs one game and then 2 the next three. The Cubs lost because they had s*** in their bullpen, not because of their lineup... They lost because of both. Their lineup pulled the same s*** that the sox has for the last couple of seasons. The cubs lineup last year was very simliar to the lineup the sox have had for the past couple of seasons. But they were just 7 outs away from the WS with that kind of lineup too. Btw, they also lost 25 starts from their #1 and 2 pitchers due to injuries.

QUOTE (hammerhead johnson @ Jan 1, 2005 -> 07:36 PM) <!--QuoteBegin-upnorthsox+Jan 1, 2005 -> 07:22 PM--> QUOTE (upnorthsox @ Jan 1, 2005 -> 07:22 PM) <!--QuoteEBegin--> Well there's no doubt the park played alot small last yr but I'm not convinced it wasn't an aberition. Garland: 5.29 home ERA. But take away his one game vs Philly with those hurricane style winds and his home ERA drops to 4.50. Buerhle: 5.02 home ERA. But again, 3 games: KC and NY in the first homestand(when the winds and weather were outrageous) and Philly with those winds, his home ERA is 4.10 in his 16 starts. ELo: 5.94 ERA at the Cell. But he also sucked on the road and at Yankee stadium(5.00 and 7.71 respectively), in fact, he just plain sucked, period. Then there's the rookies Adkins, Cotts, Diaz, Rauch, Grilli, Baj, and Stewart who combined to go 142 IP and 92 ER for a combined 5.83 ERA. That's just too many youngsters and too many IP's. Sometimes you get exactly what you've paid for. I still expect the park to play small but there's also a good chance it could play drastically different with different weather and different pitching. I see where you're coming from, but every pitcher in baseball is going to have at least a handful of really bad starts. You can't just toss them aside. That's baseball. And even without those terrible Buehrle starts, his ERA of 4.10 would still be way higher than his road ERA. A 5.09 home ERA for the entire pitching staff on the season...those numbers do not lie. If not for Coors, we'd have been dead last in the majors. True you can't just throw out games when you're talking about a pitchers season(though you sure can acknowledge it) but we're not talking about pitchers per se we are talking about a stadium and how that stadium is playing and the conditions such as weather in a handful of games and an over reliance on lousy and rookie pitchers by the home team is as much a conditional factor as the configuration of the fences or UD rooflines.

QUOTE (hammerhead johnson @ Jan 1, 2005 -> 05:52 PM) On the road: Buehrle 2.63 Garcia 3.25 At home: Buehrle: 5.02 Garcia: 5.37 Bring in Sheets, Mulder, Hudson, and Oswalt, and watch them suck it up in Comiskey. Seriously, we have more pertinent things to deal with than the actual players, y'all. And the fact that I rarely ever hear anything discussed on here about eradicating the friendly hitting conditions at home is both disturbing and depressing. Basically, White Sox baseball in USCF at the current time is the equivalent of Arena League football. But when we go on the road (insert 'licking chops' smiley here), then we have our chance to shine. Well there's no doubt the park played alot small last yr but I'm not convinced it wasn't an aberition. Garland: 5.29 home ERA. But take away his one game vs Philly with those hurricane style winds and his home ERA drops to 4.50. Buerhle: 5.02 home ERA. But again, 3 games: KC and NY in the first homestand(when the winds and weather were outrageous) and Philly with those winds, his home ERA is 4.10 in his 16 starts. ELo: 5.94 ERA at the Cell. But he also sucked on the road and at Yankee stadium(5.00 and 7.71 respectively), in fact, he just plain sucked, period. Then there's the rookies Adkins, Cotts, Diaz, Rauch, Grilli, Baj, and Stewart who combined to go 142 IP and 92 ER for a combined 5.83 ERA. That's just too many youngsters and too many IP's. Sometimes you get exactly what you've paid for. I still expect the park to play small but there's also a good chance it could play drastically different with different weather and different pitching.

I'd love to get him in to ST on a minor league deal.

QUOTE (Jeckle2000 @ Jan 1, 2005 -> 07:33 AM) <!--QuoteBegin-CaliSoxFanViaSWside+Jan 1, 2005 -> 07:19 AM--> QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jan 1, 2005 -> 07:19 AM) <!--QuoteEBegin--> It's amusing to me that Sox management decides that a power filled lineup doesnt work and we need a new direction , when clearly, if we had a better pitching staff all along we would've competed. Saying the power lineup got us nowhere is just managements attempt to redirect the blame away from themselves for not getting the Sox better pitching. I don't agree with that at all. The chubbies (who supposedly have the best rotation in baseball) lost because they have a lineup that was too full of power and less able to create runs. Yes the 5th starter was a problem but it was by no means the only problem. This team wasn't going anywhere scoring 7 runs one game and then 2 the next three. And I disagree with your disagree, we lost in 2003 because we didn't have a 5th starter or a closer. 2002 was all about bad pitching(both starting and relief), 2001 was all about injuries with the pitching staff though most of it was bad judgement by management(relying on a hurt Parque, Baldwin, Mr. 5-inch screw Eldred, and a bad back Wells. We also never replaced our LH specialist after he went down in April) and on top of that we went half the season before we replaced the injured Frank. All thru this time it wasn't that our offense was bad but that they couldn't consistently overcome our bad pitching. Last yr was a bit different, but not much. We still had no 5th starter and we started out the yr without a closer but we also had a 4th starter who shouldn't have been higher than a 5th, a 3rd who shoulda been a 4th or 5th, and a 2nd who was a one yr wonder. On top of that, not only did we lose two 40 HR guys(and amazingly we still lead the majors in HR's, talk about consistency in the lineup!!) but we also lost our #3 and 4 hitters and our 2 best OBP guys. Name me any other team who could've lost that and still been consistent scorers. So what do we have this yr? We're not only still missing our #3 and 4 hitters, but we've also gotten rid of our #5 and(as of right now) any O from the C's spot. How does this make us more consistent? We've added ONE speed guy but he's doesn't bring any consistency, and if he goes down we're a slower team than even last yr(esp. if we do something stupid like replace Willie with Cora, then we're the slowest team in the majors). How does that make us a more consistent scoring team? We do have a 5th starter this yr which is a nice change, but he's been so injury prone that we have no idea for how long. Besides, our 3rd should be a 4th or 5th, our 4th should be a 5th if even, and our closer could be a one yr wonder. I'm actually not as pessimistic this yr as I'm sure it sounds like above, but so many things have to go right for us and so little can go wrong that you have to ask how is this really any different from any of the other Sox teams the last 88 yrs? It's the one thing that has always stayed consistent.

Well funny things happen on the trip between the trade table and the pay window, it wasn't that long ago(3 weeks maybe?) that there was no way in hell that NY was going to make a solo deal with ARI because they didn't want NY's prospects. And was it really that long ago that Colon went to the last man standing for a couple of young mediocre relievers and an injured 40 something starter. Come to think of it, would anyone have guessed just a month ago that 2 of the big 3 would be traded and then for the little they brought in return. The one thing you can say in KW's favor right now is that he's positioned himself to walk away from any deal for JV that he doesn't dictate the terms to. Frankly, if Philly is willing to give up Wolf for JV then there's no point in even pursuing it further but I'm highly skeptical of that report.

Actually that's not true and I'm surprised that everyone has seemed to have forgotten. Sept 9th 2003 Mark won the 2nd game of a 4 game set with Minny going 6 IP with 2 ER and giving the Sox a 2 gm lead with a chance to put Minny away. He'd also win his next 2 games vs Boston and KC and would pitch his 3rd and last gm vs NYY going 7 IP with 2 ER but would end up losing to Contreras who shutout the Sox even though Buehrle pitch him to a draw for 6 inning after giving up a 1st inning solo shot. He could've pitched the season finale for his 3rd consecutive 15 win season and 4 win in 5 for September but instead he let Loaiza pitch it to tie the Mexican single season win record which will most likely be the only highlight in his career.

That's assuming we were already capped out when we traded Lee which, if they are budgeting themselves at $72 mil this yr was not the case. They are currently at about $67 mil (with $1 mil for ARow but that should be double that).

Let's hope Arizona has the same thinking as you about Contreras.

As an under 6 yr player I don't believe he is allowed a no trade contract.

If I'm ARI dealing with the Sox I'd demand that Gload be a part of any package, IMO he'd thrive in that bandbox and also fill a critical role for them.

It's funny in that every yr we go thru "What do we do with Frank in the NL parks" and someone always suggests that we could put Konerko in the OF. The novelty of leading the league in Inside-the Park-Home-Runs allowed gets me chuckling out loud.

LOL!!! Something about the phrase "Outfielder Paul Konerko" just gets me giggling.

Everett? Now if KW could spin Contreras and Everett into Vazquez and then sign AJ I would take back everything I've said(and most of what I've thought) about him and offer him a few .

I was thinking about that too and if ARI would take Contreras then they could keep the money they got with JV, that might be very appealing to them.

The same can be said about Shingo and even more so.

My biggest problem with Cora is that he'd be an incomplete aquisition, whether he starts over Willie or not you'd still have to go out and get another MIFer for LHed pitchers. Cairo is the most logical choice right now and waiting to grab someones throw off in ST should not be an option.