scenario

Khalil Greene is an entirely different player away from Petco. Greene G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS Home 76 291 36 63 15 3 12 40 15 77 1 0 .216 .258 .412 .670 Away 77 320 53 92 29 0 15 57 17 51 3 0 .288 .322 .519 .840 Not often you see someone whose splits are that wide and favor his road stats rather than home. Clearly a case of a guy who would benefit from a trade. What intrigues me about him isn't the home runs... it's the doubles. 29 doubles in 320 at-bats on the road??? Our team leader last year had 34 doubles total - home and road.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Nov 6, 2007 -> 12:45 AM) Just making sure you're aware of Russell's 4.79 ERA in 194 innings in AA, which is a pitcher's park, to go along with some very mediocre peripherals. He may have dynamite stuff, and he may be a breakout candiate next year at AAA as a reliever full-time, but I'm not about to put the word good anywhere near him yet, even if it's talking about the pen as a whole. That would insinuate that he's a good prospect, when merely I think all you can do is classify him as a sleeper. Absolutely agreed. Russell's control is suspect at this point. To put it in perspective... Masset's AAA stats were better than Russell's AA stats.

QUOTE(kyyle23 @ Nov 5, 2007 -> 01:07 PM) Please explain the one-trick pony part Actually he's a two-trick pony - he can field and he can hit. And he can perform both tricks without ending up on the DL as a result of things like swinging the bat or doing stretching exercises on his day off. In other words, there's no way we're going to get him because it would require a major change in our philosophy of picking left/center fielders.

QUOTE(rockren @ Nov 5, 2007 -> 12:00 PM) I thought about that as well and that could very well be the case. However, I feel Fields would rank above any of those players at 3B. If they didn't agree, Fields would be a LF candidate to replace Crawman as well. Possible... but I don't think it's likely. They have the worst bullpen in all of baseball. Picture our bullpen without Jenks or Thornton... that kind of bad. So, I'm pretty sure that quality pitching would win out over in an effort to get Crawford. Besides, we (WhiteSox fans) value Fields higher than other teams do.

QUOTE(rockren @ Nov 5, 2007 -> 11:45 AM) I think the headliner would be Josh Fields in a deal like this. Nah. Tampa already has more quality 3B prospects than any team in MLB. In fact, they have too many. Not likely they're going to move their most tradeable asset to get another one. They've got other needs.

I'm not for making Owens the starter but I think the "he sucks because he had only one good month... and it was an aberration" talk is misleading. He played 3 full months after getting recalled: July, August, and September. Here's his BA/OBP by month: July .287/.333 Aug .229/.302 Sept .340/.396 So... it looks like there really were two aberration months - one low and one high... because he's probably not as good as the .340 or as bad as the .229. But... somewhere in between, which I think we could reasonably expect, would make him a very valuable addition to this team next year as 4th outfielder.

Remember the line that Red Sox fans came up with when he left for the Yankees? Johnny Damon... looks like Jesus, throws like Mary, acts like Judas. More info about Damon

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 4, 2007 -> 02:42 PM) Lucy is 4 for his last 11, after starting 1 for 17. I guess that's an improvement, but we'll see if he can keep it up. I hope Lucy can keep it up... since the AFL is supposedly somewhere between a AA and AAA competition level. I'd love to see him to start hitting like he did in his final year at Stanford (.900 OPS), rather than continuing to hit like he did in his first two years at Stanford (.750 OPS). I'd hate to think his final year at Stanford was a career year for him offensively... right before we drafted him.

I wouldn't be surprised if Brian is a Padre by the end of this week. He lives less than a half hour from San Diego and young CF's are on their radar screen this offseason.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Nov 2, 2007 -> 04:33 PM) What would you say are the odds of Garland getting dealt this offseason 60%? Considering all the talk I'd put it at 75%. In order to fill a few of the many holes this team has Garland will likely go. That is what I'm talking about. I think the odds of Garland getting traded are 99%. One year left on his contract... we won't re-sign him. No way will we offer or will he accept a smaller contract in either years or dollars than the one the Sox gave Buehrle. And no way should we eat his $12M for 2008 and then just watch him walk for draft choices. A full year of a starting pitcher with his health and productivity will get us good value in trade this offseason. For comparison, look at what Colorado got for Jason Jennings last year. I think we will do better than that trading Gar, getting a player(s) who could really help us next year. The 1% chance we would keep him is dependent on us finding a taker for Contreras instead.

My votes... Ryan Wing Casey Rogowski Jason Bourgeois Archie Gilbert I think Gilbert has the potential to be another Bourgeois or possibly even better. No sense in cutting him loose yet. http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/G/A...e-Gilbert.shtml

QUOTE(Tony82087 @ Nov 1, 2007 -> 08:17 PM) Does defense play a role in any of the rankings? I just find it odd that Daivd Ortiz can get a perfect 100 ranking.... That's a great point. Try and find A-Rod on the list. He gets dinged for poor defense, but Ortiz doesn't because all he had to do was hit. What a screwed up system.

QUOTE(Hideaway Lights @ Oct 31, 2007 -> 10:36 AM) I hope he gets another chance, because the bottom line was that he was completely mishandled here and it didn't give him a good enough chance to succeed. However, the White Sox have MUCH bigger fish to fry than Brian Anderson right now. The biggest mistake the WhiteSox made in handling him was not having a reasonable backup plan. That forced the Sox hand to leave Brian in the lineup despite his struggles when he would have been better served by a recovery stint in Charlotte. But what were they going to do? Make Mackowiak the regular CF? Ozuna? Beeeeep. There was no Plan B thought out and both Anderson and the team suffered because of it.

QUOTE(max power @ Oct 31, 2007 -> 07:07 AM) How do you consider a guy who batted .308 and had an obp of like .380 get to be considered some one who has "faltered" in only 52 at bats? Oh, yeah bias. Like I said... it's obvious you didn't watch the spring training games. Hot one week. Ice cold two weeks (which is when he opened the door for Erstad). And then hot at the end when he feasted on marginal pitchers teams were evaluating to determine if they'd make the final cut. It made his overall numbers look good, but you can't go into the tank for two weeks during spring training... and look bad doing it... and just expect management to anoint you the starter. Many of his at-bats in spring training were just BRUTAL. They illustrated the same problems he was having last year... hole in the swing... bad pitch selection. Sox management was hoping he'd show improvement in those areas. He didn't. His performance at Charlotte makes the whole 'poor Brian' argument moot anyway. When Erstad and Pods went down with injuries, the Sox needed help. Owens was batting .300 at Charlotte, Brian was batting in the low .200's. If it had been the other way around, Brian would gotten the call. (He was too busy throwing himself a pity party to focus on playing baseball.) Regardless of what you may think, the Sox management people are not stupid and they ARE trying to put a team out there that gives them the best chance to win. If Brian gets that through his thick ego and starts playing better baseball, rather than expecting things to be handed to him, he might get another shot here. But I doubt it will happen. I read an interview with him back in 2003, right after he was drafted, with Phil Rogers. In Brian's opinion, he was ready for MLB right away, but said he knew he 'probably would have to pay dues'. (Hello reality... I'd like to introduce you to Brian.) The fact is that his over-inflated opinion of himself, and sense of entitlement, are a HUGE part of the problem.

QUOTE(max power @ Oct 30, 2007 -> 07:22 PM) He came on stronger in the second half of 06 and carried it to spring training 07, then got benched for someone who put up lesser stats but got a better chance at spring training success. I get the impression you didn't watch any of the spring training games. Brian was given first shot and was VERY inconsistent. Hit well for a week... disappeared for two weeks... then started to hit well again. And you could have driven a Buick through the holes in his swing during the entire period. Erstad stepped in when Brian faltered and played well... consistently. So BA has no one to blame but himself. And then Brian went to Charlotte, couldn't hit triple A pitching, and sulked acting like he had been wronged. Sorry... His immaturity, poor play, and inconsistency are the reasons he is in his current situation. He needs to suck it up, grow up, and start playing better baseball if he wants another shot.

QUOTE(fathom @ Oct 28, 2007 -> 06:37 PM) It's a shame Sweeney is continuing to suck, as I know the Sox were hoping he'd play well this offseason so they could trade him. Not sure why people get so wound up about a 22 year old's AAA stats. Consider that if Sweeney was in AA right now, he'd be the youngest player on the Barons. If he was at Winston-Salem (high A-ball) there would only be 4 players on that roster younger than him. So... developmentally he is playing two levels above his age and competing very well. With that type of talent, I think we can afford to give him more time. Also... Just for fun go look up Grady Sizemore's minor league stats. Not much different than Sweeney's.

QUOTE(BearSox @ Oct 27, 2007 -> 11:51 PM) gosh, Crede is so freaking overrated by Sox fans. I mean hes a good player and all when and IF he is healthy, but he ain't anything special. Think so, eh? Name the better 3Bs that have played for the WhiteSox in the last 30 years. It's a very short list.

QUOTE(Calderon @ Oct 28, 2007 -> 12:07 AM) I guess this means Wasserman isn't in Venezuela? Sharp look. Hmmm... you're right. Wasserman is no longer showing up on roster of the Venezuelan team.

The shortstop for Team China, Yufeng Zhang, was 3-4 yesterday, including 2 doubles. Sign him up Kenny!!!

Shelby struggled at 2B defensively in '07: 16 errors in 54 games - a .936 fielding percentage. I think the Sox were concerned that his fielding struggles were affecting his hitting and decided to move him to the outfield to take the pressure off and let him concentrate on developing his offensive skills. Looks like it worked. Last year ('06) he wasn't nearly as bad in the infield (8 errors; .964 fielding percentage). So... who knows? If he keeps hitting like he did in the second half, I don't care what position he plays.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Oct 24, 2007 -> 04:25 PM) Link. Chris Stewart was traded for John Lujan. Went 2-5 with a 3.73 ERA at Winston Salem, at age 23. Lujan's stats are a little misleading. He pitched in 49 games. 48 as a reliever and started one game. If not for the bad start, he looked pretty good. Relief / Start W 2 / 0 L 4 / 1 ERA 2.95 / 27.00 G 48 / 1 IP 79 / 2.2 H 68 / 8 R 36 / 8 ER 26 / 8 HR 6 / 1 BB 34 / 3 SO 87 / 3 BAA .226 / .570

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 24, 2007 -> 12:49 AM) Its weird though, he's a minor league free agent come spring, and the team hasn't added him to the 40. It seems like they aren't interested. I just don't get why. Why? This was a breakout year for Bourgeois after an otherwise unspectacular minor league career. They're probably still trying to figure out if he's real or just had a career year. And sending him to winter ball is a pretty good sign they're interested in him. He'll get added to the 40, and so will Egbert. No sense in putting them on now though. That would mean waiving players who may have some tradeable value. I don't see anyone on the 40-man currently who I would just flat out release (edit: except Bukvich who was released on Friday). So Kenny has to cook up a trade or two to open slots I would guess. And as Balta said above... declining Pods, Erstad, and Uribe will open 3 spots soon enough without other changes needed.

Other Sox players found on rosters... Kanekoa Texiera playing for the Honolulu Sharks in the Hawaiian League. Ricardo Nanita playing for Tigres del Licey in the Dominican League (same team as Oneli Perez).

Shelby had the best 2nd half of any prospect in the Sox system. A .923 OPS in the 2nd half? 1.098 OPS in August alone? Safely hit in 31 of his last 33 games? Had 3-HRs/26-RBIs in the first half... then had 13-HRs/53-RBIs in the second half? Looks like the lightswitch flicked on for him offensively. Didn't even look like the same player. Let's hope he keeps it going at Winston-Salem in '08.

QUOTE(beck72 @ Oct 20, 2007 -> 05:03 AM) If the Sox think Oneli will have trouble keeping the ball in the yard, he might be a good candidate to package in a trade. He's posted good numbers but they may not translate well in the Cell. Good point. I never really paid much attention to his groundball/flyball ratio before. He was .85 this year and .87 last year. That could be a problem in our park. He does have very good control and strikeout numbers though. His K/BB ratio was better than anyone on the major league roster including Javy and Jenks. Would have been nice this year to have another bullpen pitcher who was more likely to throw strikes than walk people.