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QUOTE(bmags @ Mar 19, 2007 -> 10:46 PM) where did russel come from? I know he was a 4th rounder in i want to say the 2004 draft, but it could have been the '05 draft.

QUOTE(Greg The Bull Luzinski @ Mar 18, 2007 -> 04:46 PM) I really think Gio will be the salvation of the Freddy Deal before Gavin Floyd. I completely agree as most people probably do. We know what we are getting back with Gio, a lefty with some nasty stuff and a sneaky fastball. Just give him one more year and I have a feeling he's gonna make us not miss beuhrle as much as we think we will. I really don't think Gavin will ever be anything special in the majors.

nice to see Gio looking sharp

I'm really hoping this isn't going to be hanging over Uribe and the Sox all season.

QUOTE(kwolf68 @ Jan 9, 2007 -> 03:26 PM) I honestly think Brian has to come out at least decent this year. if he plays the first month or more around .200 or worse they will definately make a move on him. I never once considered Brian the source of our problems last year because when he was horrible the other guys were getting off and we were winning anyway. When Brian seemed to get his feet up under him that's about the time a couple of our pitchers in both the rotation and pen starting trying to throw strikes with their eyes closed. Brian was totally NOT responsible for our season...In fact, the situation was PERFECT for us (and him) where the big boys carried him while he struggled and finally he started to hit a little more. All that said, he has to become more of a hitting force and will need to do so very early in the year. Brian has 20-25 homer potential I believe, could probably steal you 15-20 bases a year and play great defense...he's a kid we have to be patient with. I don't think anyone is trying to say he was the source of our problems. Obviously the main problem was the pitching staff didn't perform the way it was expected to. Most people were high on Brian's defense, but I think most people were surprised with how good he actually was.

Why haven't we been hearing anything about Mulder this offseason? I know he is going through surgery and won't be able to pitch for the beginning of the season, but it seems like someone would have signed him by now or we would have heard of talks at least.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 06:07 PM) Even if they're struggling and Danks is lights out, I still want Danks in AAA for the better part of the year. That's all I'm saying. I would rather have those guys struggle in the 5th starter spot and have Danks have another year to grow up than I would have Danks come up early in the year. well, agree to disagree

QUOTE(Heads22 @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 05:54 PM) ^^^ I think it's between Gavin and Chuck. I believe KW has gone on the record and said it's mainly between Floyd, Haeger, and Danks. I can't remember where I read that though. QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 05:59 PM) I would be very unhappy if we saw anyone other than those 2 in the 5th starter spot much before the trade deadline. Even if he did significantly better than them in ST, he's still one of the youngest guys up at the AAA level, he hasn't had more than a handful of AAA games, and he's still only had just over a season at AA or above. I want him to stew in AAA for at least a few months. I'd prefer the full year, and a callup in September if he has a good year. The last thing we want is for him to come up, get blown out a couple times or struggle with something and wind up starting to screw with his mechanics, overthrow the ball, or stop trusting his stuff. If he's dominating and someone offers us something damn useful for Buehrle at the trade deadline, ok, maybe I could live with it, but that's the only way I want to see him. I mean I completely agree that I would rather see Floyd or Haeger, I'm just saying if Danks drastically outplays them I'd rather go with the kid with the hot hand then have to choose between two pitchers that are struggling and will cause a number a pitchers to test out the #5 spot throughout the season.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 05:50 PM) I can't be the only one here who doesn't want to see Danks in the rotation at all in 2007. The 3 guys I don't want to see are: Gio, Danks, then Broadway (wanting to see Gio up the least). We just spent a lot in terms of talent in order to bring these people in to be the future. Risking the future by bringing these guys to the big leagues too fast to try to save the present is not, to my eyes, a good strategy. Even if those guys impress in ST, at least let them start the season at AAA. Don't rush them, there's no reason to do that, not for a 5th starter slot. I agree, rushing them could definitely hurt their future. The only one out of those three I would consider is Danks. He appears to be the most major league ready and I would only have him in the majors if he did considerably better than any of the other potential #5 starters. While were talking about our young pitching. The AAA starting rotation is going to be sick this year.

QUOTE(Dam8610 @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 04:57 PM) The knuckler gets the 5th spot. If no one steps up in ST then I think Haeger wins it by default. I would love to see him in the rotation, but I have the feeling one of Floyd or Danks will really impress and win the job. It would be really interesting to see a promising young knuckleballer starting for the sox.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Dec 26, 2006 -> 05:24 PM) The main bone of contention here seems to be whether the '07 Sox are as strong, on paper, as the '06 Sox. Here are some thoughts on the matter. To begin with, let's take a look at the starting rotation. We've got Buehrle, Contreras, Garland, Vasquez and whoever vs. those 4 and Garcia in '06. Buehrle has been, historically, a solid starter who had a horrid 2nd half last year. I'd be inclined to believe that we'll see the historically dependable Buehrle, especially since he's in a contract year, rather than the Buehrle of the 2nd half of '06. Summation: Probable improvement over '06 performance. Contreras: Assuming he's 41 is as assinine as assuming he's 35. In my opinion he's a solid to bet to at least match his '06 performance. Summation: Equal to '06. Garland: Jon didn't have a year as good as he had in '05. He had a bad 1st half and a very solid 2nd half. I believe at an absolute minimum he'll match '06 and I have strong feeling he'll surpass his '06 performance. If you recall, he has stated he had a dead arm early in the season. Summation: Garland will be measurably better in '07 than in '06. Vasquez: His 2nd half leads me to believe that after a half year with Cooper, that he improved over the Vasquez that pitched below his capabilities the last couple/three years. Wishful thinking maybe, but I liked what I saw of him after the break. Summation: probable improvement ... maybe. Regression is doubtful. Whoever vs. Garcia: I think Garcia will have a better year than last, but that is moot point. It's all about his '06 season vs. what we can expect from Mr. Whoever. Will we get 17 wins out of the 5 slot. Probably not. Will we have a guy throwing 86 mph and unable to hold runners on? If Heager wins the 5 spot, then yes. But that's a knuckleballer. We've got several guys who can step into this slot that have the potential to give us an acceptable performance. With all this talent, I believe one will come through. Summation: A probable drop off from Garcia. Overall, I believe the rotation will be stronger in '07 than '06. I see a probable improvement in 3 of our 4 veterans, with a drop off in the #5 slot. I don't believe the dropoff will be a repeat of '03 - '04 though. I believe the bullpen will be stronger. We'll have MacDougal all year as opposed to a half season of a terrible Cliff Politte. BMac, Riske and Cotts were questionable to bad overall. Jenks and Thorton seem to have found their niche and should be able to maintain their level of performance. So who do we have to fill slots 4 through 6 out of the pen? Aardsma, Sisco, Masset and/or the losers of the 5th starter competition out of Heager, Danks, Floyd, Broadway ... maybe Tracey, Phillips, Gonzalez. There is enough talent there to effectively fill out the bullpen. Now, let's talk about our so called holes. Backup catcher, we seem to agree, has been improved. Probably so, but it's not a lock. Pods is getting a lot of crap around here, and his '06 performance justifies that. However, I believe that he was never able to get into proper game shape due to the hernia surgery he had in the offseason. Look at spring training and his start to the season. He wasn't ready. He never had the chance to get healthy and get in shape. Pods doesn't have enough talent to get by at less than 100%. I don't expect a lot, but I do expect an improvement from Pods in '07 due to the fact he'll be healthy and ready to go. Anderson has been around the league now and he should improve just from having a year of MLB under his belt. The key word, of course, was 'should'. It's no given, but BA has too much natural talent to have such a bad year again. As for backup CF, not having Mackoviak out there will be a drastic defensive upgrade. Either of Sweeney, Owens or that dude we picked up early this offseason (name escapes me for now) will have to be better than Mack. Uribe ... I don't know. We don't know if this attempted murder thing will continue hanging over his head or not and how it will effect him. Worse case scenario, Cintron starts and we lose defensively but gain with the bat. Hopefully, Uribe will be around to a late inning defensive replacement. In general, I don't think our holes are as glaring as has been made out. As for the rest. Dye may backslide, but the dude is a pro and he's in a contract year ... so who knows. Crede's back is always an issue but he's been coming into his own as a solid major leaguer. If he can stray healthy we can expect at least as much from him. If AJ gets more rest, I believe he'll be more consistant over the course of the year with a probable slight upgrade overall, because he really hit the skids in the 2nd half. There's no reason to expect less out of PK, Thome, Iguchi or the bench. In general, I see plenty of reasons to be optimistic about our chances in '07. I enjoyed reading this post because I agree with you on most of it. I truely believe Anderson is going to surprise some people this season with his play. He is a confident player and after having a year under his belt I think he is going to turn it on and improve every season he plays. I'm expecting around a .265 average, 15-20 homers, anywhere from 50-70 rbi's. That with his amazing defense would excite fans i blelieve. If Pods struggles the first couple months of the season I wouldn't be surprised to see Sweeney eventually taking over LF. The only issue there is who will lead off? Other than that hopefully our sluggers like Thome, PK, and Dye can all stay healthy and contribute like they have in years past.

whitesox aren't even mentioned

interesting

QUOTE(danman31 @ Dec 24, 2006 -> 04:52 PM) People seem to be really down on Gavin Floyd. He was the more important pickup in that trade. i agree, people on this board are going to be surprised about gavin floyd.

QUOTE(greg775 @ Dec 24, 2006 -> 03:19 AM) I think anybody with a brain thinks we coulda got more for BMac. I appreciate the logic but wouldn't yu all agree with me on that? That makes this a bad trade. Exactly, it's not that I'm not happy with Danks and Masset because I have wanted Danks all long. It's that I feel like we should have gotten at least a proven player for a guy like BMac. There was so much hype for him the last two years about getting him into the rotation and then we make a trade to put him in there and we trade him and now have a hole at the #5 spot. I realize it's not opening day yet and KW could still make another move to fill the spot in the roatation or another hole in the line-up but moving McCarthey is the one thing I wouldn't of done this offseason.

This might not be the best trade we could have made but I for one would rather go into the 2006 season with BMAC in the rotation plus 2 high pitching prospects in our system.

Gavin is a top notched prospect that got roughed up in half a season in the major leagues...why does this not make him a top prospect still? I hope he spends the year at AAA and shows he has his s*** together and step into the rotation possibly in 2007.

well, one top pitcher down. hopefully zito will sign with someone soon and we can get a trade accomplished.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Dec 5, 2006 -> 12:27 AM) If it brought down the money or the years, I'd be very willing to make the no-trade clause last longer. Especially on Mark. Mark Buehrle might get $20 million more than that next year if he hits the open market and only signs a 5 year deal. He might get $40 million more than that if he signs a 6 year deal. Not if he has another season like last season.

The article says they probably won't be able to get a FA starting pitcher then closes by saying they are the front runner to get Schmidt. Sounds a little skeptical.

Looks like Crede is available in a trade. I'd rather see him play at least one more season with the Sox to let Fields become more comfortable in the field and at the plate. I'm anticipating another strong offensive season in AAA while working on improving his defense at the hot corner. I'm hoping this is the end of trying to move him to the outfield because it sounded obvious in this article that Crede won't be signed long term.

QUOTE(spiderman @ Nov 24, 2006 -> 05:57 PM) Figgins would be a nice acquistion, but I'm not sure he's an everyday LF - I like him more for Mackowiak's role in that he could rest guys all over the field (2B, 3B, LF specifically). I wouldn't trade Joe Crede to do that though. I'm against Dave Roberts in any form. The guy is no better than what we have. He's coming off a nice year, but I'd rather just sink or swim with Sweeney/Pods, and allocate the $$$$ elsewhere. I agree with you on Crisp - he'd be perfect for what we're looking for in CF, but I tend to think he'll be staying in Boston with Manny possibly on the move. Going back to Figgins, I wonder if a Mackowiak/minor league pitcher isn't enough to get a deal done. Figgins didn't have a great year, I'm not sure if he'll have a position next season in Anaheim or if he'll be moving around, but if they're looking for a guy who's content to be ulitilty player, Mackowiak could fill that role. Obviously, the pitcher would have to be at least a B level prospect. I don't think Mackowiak and B level prospect is enough for Chone Figgins. Figgins>Mack by a decent amount and they play the same role basically. Why would a B level pitching prospect intrigue them so much to move figgins?

QUOTE(SABR Sox @ Sep 14, 2006 -> 06:56 PM) Eh.... I'm not a huge fan of the whole "Lineup order is EXTREMELY important" type thing. I actually think Iguchi would fit well in the #1 spot. ehhhhhhh

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Sep 14, 2006 -> 06:49 PM) Pods' OBP was .353, not .330. He actually had a higher OPS. Like I said, show me how trading players and or prospects and throwing $35 million at a guy to be a major offensive upgrade (although it's still not good enough especially if he plays worse than Pods in the first half of 2006) and a minor defensive downgrade makes sense. I'd much rather throw $35 million and trade players for a new LF and keep Uribe. The offensive upgrade would be much better (from a sub .700 OPS to a .850-.950 OPS) and we would still have great D at short. Who says Rollins is available? Hell, mine as well try to get this one answered as well since I brought up LF. Who says Carl Crawford is available? we need a leadoff hitter somehow

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Sep 14, 2006 -> 06:36 PM) Jeter is no where close to Uribe defensively. Fewer attempts than Uribe, more errors, RF and ZR massively in favor of Uribe. Using the stats ESPN gives me, Uribe has the #7 Range Factor and #3 Zone Rating in baseball this season. Jeter comes in at 20 and 21 in those 2 stats. Uribe IMO has it within him to be even better than he was this season. He's had some silly errors/mistakes that have hurt his numbers, especially when it seems like he's distracted due to his performance at the plate. He has the potential to be the best defensive shortstop in baseball, and I think that in the 2nd half of last year he probably was, but he still has some work to go. But there's absolutely no way on God's Green Earth that Derek Jeter is a better defensive shortstop than Juan Uribe. Jeter is the classic example of a guy who can make plays look hard that other people could make look easy. The numbers have said that throughout his career. There are even years where with the same pitching staffs, his backups wind up recording more outs/game than Jeter does. Jeter isn't as good as Juan defensively, your right. However he does bring his all every single day to the ball field. He is a true player. a complete player