Dick Allen

If Keith Law says he stinks, he must stink. Its amazing the White Sox ever won with some of the worst players to ever wear major league uniforms. Crede can't get on base, but Fields who strikes out at least twice as much and has a lower OBP is going to be a star. If OBP is the end all why are the White Sox going to throw all that money at Torii Hunter? Crede hit over .280 with 30 homers and 100 rbi and Keith Law says he's awful. Keith Law gets paid to say that. Sign me up.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Nov 9, 2007 -> 11:09 AM) LOL, if they'd take Crede as opposed to Fields...I think they could hold a bake sale for the fans and come up with enough money to cover Crede's salary. According to Forbes, Loria made $53 million in Marlin profit last season. If they locked the gates and let no fans in, they would make money, that's how sad it is. Their revenue sharing check is bigger than their payroll. Basically the Yankees pay the Marlins more than the Marlins pay their employees including players.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Nov 9, 2007 -> 12:42 PM) Well, those were his first 53 games. Not a great stat to show considering his regression the next full season. Aren't you basing your love for Richar, Owens and to a certain extent Fields on about the same timeframe?

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 9, 2007 -> 12:38 PM) The biggest loss is defense of course. Fields may eventually be an average defensive 3B, but probably no better than that. Crede has been well above that for some time. Offensively, Fields will probably have a much better career than Crede. Probably, not definitely. Its possible that Joe had "figured it out" in 2006, and 2007 was an injury-riddled aberration, and that his back is now 100% or close to it. Not likely, though. That's what I'm getting at. He was hitting over .300 and his OBP and OPS lost a lot in September of 2006 when his back started really bothering him again. If he's healthy and the hitter he was the first 5 months of 2006, Boras will get him huge money next winter.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Nov 9, 2007 -> 12:28 PM) Don't even bother, some people just can not be swayed no matter how much evidence you throw at them. If you use minor league numbers to project OBP, I would imagine Crede had superior numbers as far as OBP goes in the minors. To say that if Crede is totally healthy, you are not losing anything if Fields performs exactly as he did in 2007 is silly.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Nov 9, 2007 -> 10:03 AM) Because he's worth more as a 3B. If they are dangling him as trade bait for Cabrera, they better have him penciled in as only a 3B. What? Saying he is a 3rd baseman, not a 3rd baseman who could also play LF makes him more valuable? You do know every team has scouting reports on Fields and doesn't get all their information on him from Kenny Williams don't you? Its not like he's losing valuable time playing LF this winter instead of 3B considering there are no games.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 9, 2007 -> 09:18 AM) Unless, maybe, he's trying to market Fields for trading, as a 3B. He may be thinking in terms of trading Crede OR Fields, and the market needs 3B's, not LF's. I'm sure every team that needs a thirdbaseman is aware Fields is a 3rd baseman. He is horrible in the OF and the team isn't even having him work on it in the winter.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Nov 9, 2007 -> 09:23 AM) I HIGHLY doubt it. Crede will have to have the best year of his career (~.900 OPS) in order to finish as a type A free agent and bring in 2 picks. There's a possibility that he finishes as a type B and brings in 1 pick though I doubt he will. Crede had a career year in 2006 and was garbage in 2007 he barely finished as a type B player, he was a few points away from nothingness. With 2007 counting towards his ranking after this year he's probably going to have to have a better season in 2008 than he had in 2006 in order to bring the Sox even 1 pick. Garland is also a type B guy. It surprised me, but anyone holding out hope for a couple of nice picks for him.................its also tough deciding what you want to do because without him a couple of miracles have to occur for the pitching staff to be good enough to win. I wish KW would just be honest with himself and rebuild. He still could do it and have a team that was better than 2007's.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Nov 9, 2007 -> 08:57 AM) Yeah right. He is trying to drive up the demand for both Josh and Crede. Wouldn't saying Fields in LF and Crede at 3rd is a viable option rather than saying we have 2 thirdbasemen and Fields might have to go back to the minors drive up demand a little more? KW has said nothing about Fields in LF. They scrapped plans to have him work on it during the winter. He's not going to play LF anymore unless perhaps in a pinch.

What is says is Josh is done in LF.

QUOTE(RME JICO @ Nov 8, 2007 -> 10:30 PM) Do we have as many question marks going into next season as we did in late 2004? We lost Maggs to Detroit, CLee to Milwaukee, Valentin to LA, and Loaiza to NYY (at trading deadline). We added AJ, Iguchi, Pods, Dye, Hermanson, Vizcaino, El Duque, and Everett (again), to name a few. On 2005 Opening Day, we had 5 new positional starters and a DH, along with 2 new starting pitchers (if you count Contreras), plus a couple of new relievers (Hermie, Viz). Are we going to have 9+ new faces for Opening Day 2008? One big difference is the White Sox in 2004 weren't a 90 loss team, and were able to add some pieces at bargain rates. Their payroll now is huge. A lot of the players they would like to move have trade values near all-time lows, and there are question marks almost everywhere. The starting rotation, the bullpen, LF, CF, is Dye more like 2005-6 or is he now like 2007 or worse? Can Crede play? Can Fields play 3rd base and make enough contact? Can Uribe put things together? Can Richar get on base enough? Is 2007 a hint that Konerko is slowing down? Will AJP have to catch 145 games? Can KW acquire someone who can come off the bench that doesn't look like he peeked in Pony league? Can Thome's back hold up? KW is going to have to juggle a lot of money here, and its going to take time. Maybe a lot of the free agent, big changes talk was hyperbole to get season ticketholders to pony up.

How come Tony Gwynn didn't get slammed for being a fat man?

QUOTE(fathom @ Nov 8, 2007 -> 06:41 PM) Steve Stone alluded to the fact today that the Sox organization is down on Danks right now, and they're actually more likely to trade him than they are Gio. He only pitched 30 innings the last 2 months of the season and gave up 31 runs. You would think he could improve on his 2007, but its no given, and his endurance has to be a major issue. Lets face it, from the middle of July on, he was a total train wreck. Some of it can be blamed on age and inexperience, still there has to be a lot of concern. The White Sox have to be very careful if they trade Garland that they bring in another starter. If Danks, Floyd and Gio are counted on for 400 innings, and the bullpen isn't lights out, you aren't going to win in 2008.

QUOTE(EvilJester99 @ Nov 8, 2007 -> 04:53 PM) Espn 1000 said Torii Hunter confirmed he will meet with KW on Sunday.... If the price to bring in Hunter includes the big money, the long years and either Jerry Owens or Danny Richar leading off, it really will be a waste of money.

The other problem the White Sox have right now is a lot of their tradeable pieces are currently in a sell low state.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Nov 8, 2007 -> 10:22 AM) Kenny did make a run at Clement the last time he was a FA and got outbid... The amount of people at Soxtalk who thought Clement was perfect for the White Sox back then was enormous. I shutter to think where the White Sox would be right now if they signed him instead of doing some other things with their money. The current record probably wouldn't be much worse, but there wouldn't be a championship and the payroll would probably be at least $30-40 million lower, although there is probably a good chance Chris Young would still be a White Sox.

QUOTE(klaus kinski @ Nov 7, 2007 -> 10:22 PM) Another day passes and no improvements. Good thing Williams went there ready to deal. I know, what's he thinking. Opening day is now less than 5 months away and he doesn't have his roster set. He's screwed.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 7, 2007 -> 06:58 PM) No chance. When a GM comes out and says he has concerns about his health, he isn't then going to sign him. I disagree. I think he still has interest and would love to sign him, but at the White Sox price.

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Nov 7, 2007 -> 06:44 PM) He also hinted in the article about still looking for upgrades. Sort of a casual reference, like, "we don't NEED to, but if the right situation comes along..." Classic Kenny. I don't know who else is interested in Eckstein, but I'm sure KW still is. If KW signs Eckstein, it will probably save the team at least as much as they will pay Uribe this season over the course of the contract compared to what he would probably have had to pay him out of desperation.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Nov 7, 2007 -> 04:02 PM) I would certainly hope so. If they could pull it off, I'd be pretty happy, even if it cost Fields. Cabrera is actually younger than Fields.

QUOTE(NCsoxfan @ Nov 7, 2007 -> 02:26 PM) Should we have to trade away Garland/Danks/Floyd, would it make sense to take a 1 year flier on Colon? We know Kenny has always liked him, and heck, he might be worth the risk for 1 yr 8 mil. Am I nuts? Not for $8 million, but something very low with a bunch of incentives makes a lot of sense to me.

I think if they trade Crede, there's still a good chance Eckstein comes here. Sorry Rock Raines. The White Sox have thought that Uribe may be better if not a regular but a guy that moves around like his first year with the White Sox.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ Nov 7, 2007 -> 10:47 AM) I'm shocked at the lack of speculation around Furcal. He really seems as perfect a fit as Toby Hall was when the Dodgers released him. I assume they know something we don't. $13 million for 2008 probably has everything to do with it. He's not exactly 100% physically right now. After the season it was determined he didn't need ankle surgery, but trading for him now would be a huge gamble.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Nov 7, 2007 -> 02:21 AM) Ozzie is very good friends with Miguel Cabrera; both are from Venezuela, and Ozzie coached him in Florida. For all we know, Ozzie and Uribe may hate the s*** out of each other. Ozzie and Uribe get along well. Uribe is one of the most popular guys on the team in the clubhouse.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Nov 6, 2007 -> 10:20 PM) Lets add Hawk to that list and I say the offseason is starting out well. Looks like you'll be 0 for 4. You're turning into Uribe.