JUGGERNAUT

So much for Thomas' lack of lateral movement preventing him from playing 1B. Guillen: "If we play him in the field, it's because we need him. I think Frank is willing to do what we think is good for the team. He knows what we want to do here. It's all about winning. I don't want him to sit for six days. That's why it's hard for us to play in the National League.'' It certainly sounds to me that if Koney is 0-2 in a game Guillen will not hesitate to replace him with Frank.

http://www.dailysouthtown.com/southtown/co...ia/x06-ard1.htm According to Arvia the White Sox missed the sweep not because of a lack of talent but boneheadedness. 1-Iguchi brain camp (surrenders DP). 2-Crede both calling for the ball in the 12th & failing to get off the bag to catch it. 3-Ozzie overusing Hermy. I warned him. You can't use a RP more than 4IP/w-out a day of rest. But he went & did it. 4-Not replacing Koney in a tie game in the 8th inning with a PR. The Timo-Gload question again. I don't agree with his assertion that playing Everett & Thomas at the same time wrecked the offense. 4/11 w 2R, 1RBI is not bad. But I do agree that in general once you get past the starters speed & defense takes a higher priority over thumpers. He waited until the bot 10th to put in Pods. Dumb. A win takes precedence over a day of rest for hitters. Replay the 8th: Koney leads off with a single. Pods should have replaced Everett. Why? He is more likely to break up a DP sit which of course is likely with Koney on. Arvia did even pick up on that. Instead he harps on the fact that Koney should have been replaced by a PR (Gload) with Everett swinging. Of course Ozzie seems to think Timo has more value to the team than Gload right now so that's a fantasy of Arvia's. But Pods is on the roster & no matter what numbers Ozzie chooses replacing Everett with Pods then was the right move. One he failed to make. As it is Everett flied out, Dye struck out, & Rowand grounded out to end the inning. In Crede's case there was never a RON sit for Ozuna in the late innings so there was no need for him to sub earlier. Arvia mentions briefly what I feel is the biggest mistake of the game for the all powerful Oz. Someone want to explain to me why Cotts was lifted in the top of the 8th in a 3-3 game? In the 7th he faced 1 batter & got a DP to end the inning. In the 8th he gave up a walk to Crisp who then went to 2nd on a pass ball. He strikes out Martinez & gets Hafner to fly out. A tie game, he's faced 4 batters & gave up one walk. The pass ball was Widger's fault. Is he trying to wreck Cotts like he did Marte by denying him the 3rd out? Does it make a difference? Yes. Ozzie managed to use his two highest NPERA ranked arms a total of 6 outs in a tie game. He then used Marte for the next 4 outs, & then went on to use Hermy for more than 3 outs. Ignoring the fact that Hermy was now making his 4th appearance in as many days. Well the rest is history but now we have to live this week with the reprecussions of Ozzie's decision: 1-Hermy is not available today. Unless you want to damage him for the rest of the season. He never should have pitched Sun in a tie game. 2-Marte is good for an inning at most. Having pitched nearly 3 innings over 2 days. So the COL series will fall to Cotts, Politte, Viz & Shingo. Hopefully Garcia will come to the rescue.

Eddie won't come cheap but the 3 team trade is the most likely way to get him. The M's declined a 2005 team option for $6M & Eddie accepted a $4M player option. I believe the WSox would have a team option for $8M & Eddie would have a player option for $6M. The original contract was between $14-17M so I think that's about right. He is an injury risk. He missed about 2 mo's last yr with knee surgery & suffered shoulder problems as well. This year he was bothered for a while by a hamstring problem. No doubt he would help (7.77MOB, 16SV's, 18K's). Better than Nathan. The WSox would then have 4 guys ranked in the Sag NPERA top 25 in AL relief: (Politte #3, Cotts #13, Eddie #18, Hermy #24). NPERA doesn't place much value on SV's but Hermy does have 13. When looking at the numbers Cotts & Hermy both have MOB > 10 & Politte & Eddie have MOB < 8. That's usually a good indicator for the guys dominating in the pen & the guys benefiting from some timely luck. Politte has really been a great surprise with 25K's. The rise of Cotts through the rankings has been equally nice. Of the 3 remaining guys: Marte, Viz, & Shingo Marte is the most likely to rise back up into top 20 form. If he does that after June & we are on pace to win 55-60 gms before the break then I don't think we need Guardado. We should have enough talent to make the playoffs with 40-45 wins in the 2nd half. Even with the team we had in 2004 we still managed 37W in the 2nd half. This is a much better team pitching wise & RON wise. Wrt the playoffs, you can use El Duque out of the pen in place of Shingo.

Crede is not as bad as we make him out to be. Over his short career with the Sox there's a pattern hitting-wise: at least one month he's an all-star, another month he's above avg, one month about avg, one month below avg, & one month he's poor. If you trade him after his all-star month he's worth a lot more. June was that month in 2004. He followed a poor May (.184A, .204O, .402S) w a monster June (.329A, .418O, .600S). He's just come off his worst month ever so maybe he's due for another monster June.

We have proven for over a decade now that we are a quality organization when it comes to producing thumping OFers. That puts Anderson & Sweeney at the top of the list IMO. On the flip side we have traded high & wide for pitching & have little to show for it. That only increases BMac's value to the WSox.

I just want to make it known I'm not advocating trading Everett. But since SS seems to think I biased the PA comparison let's look at 2000-2001. Thomas 787 vs Everett 1010. A little more than 200PA (about 2 mo). If you doubt that Everett is injury prone look at each yr of their career's: Carl http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/stats?statsId=5073 12yrs, 4703 TPA (391 PA/yr) Frank http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/stats?statsId=4527 15yrs, 8493 TPA (566 PA/yr) That 391 avg is no fluke. Look at how often in a season Everett's totals are near that number. As for Gload you can look for negatives if you want but he flat out got the job done in 2004. He's a better bat off the bench than Timo & a fine replacement for Koney at 1B. With Thomas back Timo has ZERO value on this team.

It doesn't make sense that Gload will not recover the arm strength to play the OF this year. He's got to be at least 50-75% recovered in that arm now just to be able to put up the numbers he has. Ozzie's reluctance to bring Gload up to backup Koney tells me he's losing confidence in Everett's ability to play RF. If he were confident in Everett's ability to play the corner OF positions then there is no reason to keep Timo here. Gload is a far superior backup at 1B. If Gload should prove he can play the OF then Timo would be the most likely to be sent down. He has done s*** & offers nothing.

But you have to do that any ways just to keep the RI line in service. You can't keep running it if there is any threat to safety. For me the whole Metra argument comes back to the fact that it runs partially on public funds just like the CTA. The state has controlling interests in it. If building a Metra stop there (with places to eat) means getting the WSox past the 2 million mark then the windfall is that JR & company have to pay a few million in rent. That's a reasonable incentive to the state right there. With repsect to the lots I think you go for broke with a new Metra stop. Don't just stop there. Make use of the space alongside the tracks for drag cart races, batting cages, etc. Build an entire sports complex there like we have out in the burbs. You can make up the parking space by double-decking the south lot. The sports complexes out in the burbs do well financially so I think it would succeed at the Cell as well. I like the idea maybe even more than the carnival because you can build these to operate all year round. Not the long track go cart racing but the batting & pitching cages.

Harris has done the job this year as a backup to Guch. Timo has done s***. Enough said. No stats needed here.

Eddie is the best bet. I can't believe these columnists still have Wagner on the block when PHI is in striking distance of the NLE. It's very likely now that the NLWC will come out of the NLE & the Cub will be sitting home. An accomplished pitcher being traded by PHI seems crazy. They will likely deal their bats for arms. With Thomas back the WSox need stronger RP. If they are willing to take an arm less than BMac's value plus Crede for Polanco I'd consider it. Polanco will hit Crede may not. Polanco will not let a ball get by him on an errant throw to 3B because he's too stupid to step off the bag. Eddie makes sense because the M's can use Anderson. They have a $5M option on Winn for 2006 who has 0HR in 202AB. There's nothing in his numbers than warrant $5M for 2006.

Time to cut thru the obvious hate-Thomas bulls*** in this thread. For all Jurassic lovers (I like the guy as well) he's probably more of a health risk than Thomas. Let's look at their TPA since 2002-2004: Everett 1330 vs Thomas 1601 Think long & hard about that given that Thomas only played 1/2 a yr in 2004. The difference between them is that Thomas is not prone to nagging injuries like Carl is. He doesn't suffer back problems or extended hamstring problems that require him to sit on the DL. He suffers fractures & broken bones. Thomas has 2 seasons in the last 3 with better than 600 TPA's. Everett has only 1. Trading Thomas straight up is not an option. No one including LAA is willing to eat $18-16M for 10-9 mo of Thomas' services. The Sox are not going to offer 1 dime towards the $12M a team trading for him must pick up for 2006. So that leaves between $4-6M the Sox might eat. So those saying we should trade Thomas are essentially saying it's ok for the Sox to risk everything on a more often-hurt Everett & a few million less to spend near the deadline to do so. It's a ridiculous proposition. Mariotti got one thing right in his article: To get Thomas & Everett their PA it will come at the expense of all the OFers. Thomas is at least an option at 1B if he should improve in his lateral movement. Everett apparently is not. Speaking of those OFers: Pods (.287A, .367O) - He offers next to nothing in slugging. His numbers are good for a LO guy but then so are Iguchi's (.301A, .350O) & Harris' (.275A, .373O). I don't think it's out of the question to bench him a game a week & get both Thomas & Everett in the lineup. Rowand (.289A, .352O, .783OPS) - He's on a hot streak so it's probably best to bench him only for rest. Dye (.235A, .289O, .748OPS) - He's on a bit of a hot streak as well but appears to be cooling off again. It's not out of the question to bench him a game a week to get both Thomas & Everett in the lineup. As far as DH goes this is a no-brainer. Everett (.251A, .308O, .423S) - Those are NOT good numbers for a DH. Carl as proven his worth more in a PH role in the fact that those numbers have produced 19R, 35RBI. He has 7HR in 175AB. That's about 25AB/HR. Thomas(.250A, .357O, .500S) - Those are good numbers for a DH. He's produced 3R, 2RBI, & 1HR in just 12AB. There is nothing in his first week that suggests starting Everett over him. There is nothing in his last year that suggests that either. Nor is there anything in his career to suggest it. Then of course there's Koney. Koney(.228A, .338O, .467S) - Those are NOT good numbers for a $9M 1B. But like Everett he has proven his worth in a PH like role producing 30R, 38RBI, & 14HR with those numbers. He's averaging about 15AB/HR. There is a greater likelihood of Thomas being able to play 1B the remainder of the year than there is of Carl not going on the DL again. If Carl is not an option at 1B (which appears to be the case) then keeping Thomas gives you another option to replace a struggling hitter in the lineup. Finally there is the Gload factor. He finished 2004 named AL rookie of the month for Sept. This is a big deal because it's the month of call-ups. He's a solid hitter capable of going opposite field. He has a good eye & doesn't strike out often. He kills LHers. He's better D than Koney at 1B. Quick reactions, & soft hands. He's better than Everett in the OF but possesses a weak arm. Gload 2004 (.321A, .375O, .479S) - Great for a bench player. He produced 28R, 44RBI, 7HR in 234AB. Split wise he creamed LH (.425A, .452O, .650S) & was good vs RH (.299A, .359O, .443S). I'm not taking anything away from Everett but the team overall has been successful in RON (.272A, .338O, .433S). AJ have been just as effective as Everett in these sits. Several guys have done more than Everett. Even Koney with crappy numbers has produced (.212A, .313O, .404S) has produced 21R, & 29RBI. Everett has not looked good in the field this year. Every time you play him there you increase the risk of one of his nagging injuries. If the plan is now to trade away a productive AB & prospects for a solid RP then Everett is the best option for that trade. Timo has next to nothing in trade value.

No one is going to pay Thomas $18-16M for the rest of 2005 & 2006. Not even the NYY$'s. So are you now advocating the WSox pick up part of his contract to trade him? That's ridiculous.

Harris 2005: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/splits?statsId=6798 He's made the best out of his opps vs LH & he's getting the job done vs RH. He's always been a good bat vs RH. Timo 2005: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/splits?statsId=6568 There's nothing there! He sucks against both. Harris can help you win games in more ways than Perez can. Period.

A team trading for Thomas right now would have to pay him $18M for 10 months of baseball. That drops to $16M for 9 months after June. No team is going to take on that salary for a DH who is not healthy enough to play 1B in reserve. Which leaves Everett as the odd man out. Dye is on a hot streak. He's now 2nd behind Koney in TB, & HR. He's gone from hitting .175 in Apr to hitting .275 in May. Solid hits as well. His OPS has risen from .518 in Apr to .933 in May. His Jun is shapping up to be even better. That's the only other place Everett can get AB's unless he can convince Ozzie he can spell Koney at 1B. I hope he can because he's a big part of this team's chemistry. He's a great athlete so I don't see why he can't field that position. Better than Timo I'm sure. But even so Gload's a sure handed 1B & a solid hitting LHB so Everett has competition there as well. You can't manage a 25 man roster based on the belief a guy WILL get hurt again. As much as I like Jurassic as a player it seems the best thing to do is to trade him for a quality RP to replace Shingo in the pen.

Quote: But the organization always has been high on Perez's versatility and veteran presence. Excuse me? We have PLENTY of veterans this year! Marte, Hermy, Politte, Everett, Dye, Thomas, Koney, AJ, El Duque, Garcia, Buehrle. Not to mention Sox veterans like Crede, & Rowand. We don't need veterans who have horrible numbers. TPA/PA 3.46 He rarely consumes even 4 pitches! GB/FB 1.12 - worse than Koney! AB/HR 57 - uggh. BB/PA .049 (less than 5% of his PA's are Walks!) And this year his RON, & RISP numbers suck! There's absolutely no reason to keep Timo on this team! They are log jammed in RF & DH. His D is nothing to write home about either. Between Timo or Carl in RF it's a toss-up. I might take Gload instead. As for LF, if Pods is healthy he plays. Period. There's no platooning there. He's young & he's durable. He can spell Rowand from time to time in CF if need be as well. Carl could manage LF for a game every now & then. If Ozzie keeps Timo over Harris he's dumber than a box of rocks. Is Ozuna going to back up Guch, Uribe, & Crede? That's ridiculous.

I think for security reasons they ruled out the counter space idea around the concourse. They prefer to keep those people moving rather than standing still. It's one of the reasons why they built the skills center there as well as the CF deck. They are trying to reduce the number of people who just stand around the concourse in LF & RF. I don't see any problem though putting the counter space near the washrooms, the shower, & the other stop gaps on the far end of the concourse. I really believe that if Wrigley Field did not exist the Cell would sell out every night. It's one of the best places to watch a game & according to most players one of the best places to play the game. Cosmetically I would like it to add some brick facing both on the outside & around the concourse to give it a more retro look. But I think the completion of the pine forest green seats is going to drastically change the overall feel & appearance of the park. They never should have opted for LAD blue.

This is not new. They have been following El Duque & Contreras all season long. The jealousy is obvious

Man Soo is a staple with this organization. I read a column months past where they said he helps the pitchers relax more. If you had your choice between warming up with the gentile & affable Man Soo or the hard nosed straight faced AJ .. who would you choose?

I think if you took a poll at UIC you would find most of the students there are Cub fans. Probably a good number of them have never even been to the Cell. That's why I don't include them. Do the White Sox even have promotions for IIT & UIC fans? This would seem to me to be a no-brainer. They should have promotions for U of Chicago, De La Sallle, & the other nearby high schools as well. If they don't then they are ignoring potentially 1000's more in the fan base. To appeal more to 20-30 somethings they need help from the state run Metra. This idea has been talked about before & I've even seen a column or 2 discuss it. If Metra were to build a station near the ball park & allow some restaurant/bars to rent space in it that would provide yet another reason to visit the park outside of the game of baseball. That again could pull potentially 1000's more. Especially if the places were to get good write-ups. Justification? How many people in the Bridgeport area & the surrounding area around the park commute downtown to work each day? How many would opt to take the Metra vs the CTA? This is an important question because you need to build a basis for it getting year round service. With that being the first stop on the RI line the cost would be in line with the proposed hikes by the CTA. Again I look at the potential fan base of Metra monthly pass riders. The Metra could allow these people to ride to & from the park with monthly passes for other lines or for at most $1 more. It would give the South & West suburban families another option & reason to go to the park. I think it has potential. The Red Line & Green Lines are saturated during rush hour. They don't need the ridership near the park. High schools & IIT could be serviced with Pace buses that provide door to door service from the station to their destinations for year round service. If you make it both affordable & convenient then there should be solid demand for use of the station year round.

They are just looking for mud to sling. In those same quotes Thomas mentioned that Carl needs to get his AB's as well. He didn't say one word that downplayed what Carl has done for the team or that the team comes first. Yet they will slice up his words & use what they want. It's shameful journalism is what it is. If your looking at trade scenarios Carl has much greater value than Frank right now because Carl can play the OF. I suspect he can play 1B as well if Ozzie gave him the chance. He's that kind of an athlete & has a solid arm to make a throw to 2B or home if need be. Frank's trade value is just above 0. A team trading for him has to guarantee him $12M in 2006. The fact that he can't play 1B tells you he's not 100% healthy. Who's going to trade for that risk? No one. Not even the NYY's. The WSox need a solid hitting 3B & two solid RP's. Maybe Viz & Shingo will get their act together but time is growing short on both. As for Crede let me remind you of his numbers over the past 3 yrs: Pre-AS 580AB 70R 77RBI .233A .287O .388S .675OPS Pos-AS 646AB 93R 102RBI .277A .321O .488S .809OPS June has always been good to Joe: Jun 04 19R, 15RBI .329A .418O .600S 1.018OPS If you're going to trade him wait until after Jun.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...SPGO2D33NJ1.DTL Overlooked in Chavez' quotes is his statements about his home park. Chavez: "This park sucks. It's gotten worse (for hitting balls out), I don't know how. It used to jet out to left center, and it seemed like even that one the field wanted to bring it back. It was a big park anyway; now it's borderline ridiculous.'' That doesn't exactly sound like a guy who has fun playing for the A's.

Way to go Joe! He won the game for them. He moved the runner over for Pods to be able to get the SF RBI & then he hit the two run homer. I give Crede 2.5 R credit. Maybe there is more to the 8/64 then we first thought. I've always hated the fact that baseball stats don't include a column for plays in which a hitter moved a runner over. I would call it OTB because it's bases accrued on outs. The epitome of small ball if you will. Ozzie knows because he's got it on his score cards.

BMac hasn't proven anything yet at the ML level. Whether Beane feels he needs BMac depends on what he's seen from their performance so far. Sag rankings: Zito 19, Haren 22, Sarloos 33, Harden B-35, Blanton B-71. Harden is a great pitcher. Time on the DL is the only reason he isn't leading the staff. Zito's lack luster year is driving his price down & may make him easy to retain for Beane. The weakest link is Blanton. But is he ready to trade his franchise player (Chavez) to upgrade that link? With so many big bats leaving the A's in past yrs it would hurt the fan base to give up Chavez.

Ozzie needs to be creative. Frank Thomas playing a whole game at 1B is major risk for injury. Frank Thomas playing a few innings at 1B is a much lower risk. The same can be said for Crede. Can Dye play an inning or two at 3B? He's a good athlete with a quality arm so maybe he can. That will help greatly. Because it can get Dye, Thomas, & Everett, & Konerko in the lineup at some point in the game. Outside of those changes you can always PH for Crede with Thomas or Everett for 1AB per game & use Ozuna to PR & replace Crede at 3B. This is one of the reasons why I think bullpen help is a greater need than a new 3B because you can work around the Crede hole. You can't do that in the pen. If you sit a guy (Shingo) he's just putting a heavier workload on the others.

You've only got 2 LHB in the lineup. Everett is like 1/2 a LHB. I don't like Crede at #9 because he offers nothing for Pods. Uribe will get Pods better pitches so I like Uribe at #9. For me a linuep is all about who's going to help who else the most. Uribe(9), Pods(1), Guch(2), Thomas/Everett(3) Uribe benefits from Pods, Pods benefits from Guch, & Guch benefits from Thomas. No easy outs there & they all should see good pitches. Rowand(4), Koney(5), Dye(6), AJ(7), Crede(8) You don't get much room to manuever here. You can't have the two slowest guys go b-2-b (Koney, AJ). Koney is more likely to hit a GB than a FB so you need some speed hitting ahead of him. You can use Rowand in a hit & run sit but not Thomas/Everett. Crede is a hole and can't be helped so put him at 8th.