witesoxfan

Yeah, ace, I was gonna ask you how much she costs. Just messin'

Losman will be well worth it too

Atlanta would in all likelyhood not accept Konerko for Jones straight up. They probably wouldn't even consider it. And with good reason.

This is true as well. I used skewed logic. My bad. I just think that trading a player whose potential has been tapped and is coming off a tremendous year(when it is pretty much a well known fact that he will not be nearly as good next year) is not a bad idea, especially when you could get a ton for him, especially when you have a potential replacement in house.

I'd love either the move with Boston or the move with Atlanta...either helps the team immensely. Also...I think the Dodgers will make a very strong push at Delgado in FA, and I think they'll get him. He and Shawn Green are pretty good buddies from their Blue Jay days, and Delgado is in a sabermatician's wet dream.

I do agree with you completely. If he hit like he has this year, playing full-time, he'd probably end up .270 20 80 or so. But you consider that that is what we are getting from a guy that is making like $2 mill tops, and that we save about $6-7 mill, and we come out way on top.

Konerko has been our starter for like 6 years, and we've been to the playoffs 1 time in that period of time. Sometimes a change is needed.

It could get very ugly(because Uribe will almost undoubtedly have a month or two where he will hit .150-.200 or so and not be able to hit anything), so what needs to be done to counter that is to bring in some very good bench players. If we get lucky, Gload will be a decent for us at 1B...hopefully .270 20 80 .800 or so with good defense. If we're not so lucky, I'd look for .250 12 50 .700. Regardless, having someone who can hit well and plays 1B should be available off the bench. I'm not sure what Greg Colbrunn is doing nowadays, but he'd be a good option to have off the bench. As I said, Uribe will go cold, being the very streaky player that he is. For that reason alone, I'd look for a good utility infielder to have come in and give him some time off and help the team when he does get cold, regardless of what Valdez does(because, quite frankly, Willie could be and probably will be in the same boat as Uribe for a little bit of time). For Davis...we just have to hope he can hit .260 10 50 .750 or so while playing good defense, and hope Burke can have similar results to what has happened this year(not necessarily hitting around .400, but .280 or so would be absolutely perfect). Hell, we don't even know if Rowand will have the same amount of success next year. He may hit a sophomore slump in his second season as a full-time starter, and may not hit .250...we can only hope he doesn't.

Damon may not have the OBP you look for in a leadoff hitter, but he is definately a good leadoff hitter, and he could make the lineup just what it should be. Hypothetically...let's say we trade Konerko straight up for Damon. You then put Gload in for PK, and move Rowand to RF. Another thing about the deal...one of Everett and Lee would have to find a new home. I'll take Lee, thanks much. And, just for this...I'll say we sign Koskie for $5 mill on next year's total and that Crede is dealt for prospects/relievers. Damon - CF Rowand - RF Thomas - DH Lee - LF Koskie - 3B Uribe - SS Gload - 1B Davis - C Harris - 2B What I look at when I see this lineup is quite a few solid hitters...the worst hitter average wise I see on the team could end up being Koskie or Davis, and that will be around .250-.260, basically meaning there is no easy out. There is only one guy in the lineup who just flat out won't have pop in his bat, that being Willie, and there's 3 guys in the lineup who can't steal bases, those 3 being Thomas, Gload, and Davis. Maybe I'm the only one who likes the look of that lineup. I hope not.

Does anybody realize why the Twins are so strong up and down their entire system? Trading guys away when their value is high(and in some cases, not even that), and trading for guys when their value is low. The Twins traded AJ Pierzynski, after having 2-3 very solid years in a row, to San Francisco for Joe Nathan and Boof Bonsor, and Nathan had struggled previously with San Francisco. Pierzynski's been good with San Fran, but Nathan has been unbelieveable with Minnesota. Another example...the Twins traded Eric Milton to Philadelphia for Carlos Silva, Joe Roa, and Nick Punto. The Twins, again, come out on top of this deal, getting Silva, who has arguably had a better year then Milton(I believe he has 11 wins, but you have to consider that JC Romero has blown 3 saves in games where Silva left with the lead...so he should have around 13 or 14 wins), along with Roa, who's been a decent long reliever for them, and Punto, who may end up being their starting 2Bman next year. Exceptions to the rule include Brian Buchanan of 2 years ago, and Mientkiewicz this year. They traded both of those two while their value was low, however, their value has not really increased with their new teams. Buchanan has since been released by San Diego and was signed by the Mets; the player the Twins acquired for Buchanan, Jason Bartlett, has already spent some time in the majors(though it was very brief). The Twins also got Justin Jones from the Cubs for Minky, and from what I can tell just by reading his stats, he has some pretty damn good stuff and could be a major league pitcher some day. The Twins have been doing this for years upon years. Add to that that they have had very good scouting and have done well in the draft, and after a while, their system has become so strong up and down that they can't keep everyone. If we want to become like the Twins, trading PK for a group of solid players would be a good place to start. You will not get nearly as much for Gload, plus, by trading PK, you do save $8 mill. And, as has been mentioned before, there are numerous 1Bman available all the time. Having a good all-around pitching staff along with having a very solid lineup with no easy outs is pretty much the key to success.

What is meant by "I don't think both will be back" is that one of Konerko OR Lee will be dealt...meaning that one of them WILL be here.

Technically, we only had about 3-4 question marks in the pen...we knew Marte was going to be awesome(and he wasn't, so we were wrong), we knew Koch was going to be s***ty(surprise, surprise), and we sort of knew what we were going to get from Politte. Many thought Shingo would flop(due his WHIP of about 1.30 or so in Japan), and they had no idea what Adkins or Cotts were going to do. Maybe I was alone in not knowing what Harris was going to do...but I don't think I was. Konerko was coming off a year where he hit .230, and we had no idea what Schoenweis and Wright were going to do. From what I remember, we did have a ton of holes, and we came out of it very well. Maybe we got lucky. Maybe Ozzie helped them become better players. Who knows.

Well, for starters, you just stated something that never happens. Way more then half of all team's draft picks(that sign) do not pan out, or atleast do not pan out with that team. And second of all...with those extra picks, you can take risks and grab guys you normally wouldn't take, due to their potential unsignability or something that happened to them. Great examples of this are Billy Beane(who, way back in the 80s, had committed to a school...I want to say Stanford, and if I'm wrong, someone correct me...but the Mets drafted him with the 22nd pick or so because it was a compensation pick, and they convinced him to sign...now, he never turned into anything, but according to Moneyball(and that book is VERY biased towards Beane and the A's, so take this FWIW), he was probably the most talented player in that entire field), and another that comes to mind was just this year...with a sandwich pick, we drafted Gio Gonzalez, and if it weren't for our compensation pick and us being able to take a risk, we probably would not have signed him) However, trying to get picks for Maggs would be extremely dumb. The only offer we should make is an offer to resign him(in the $6 mill range), and if he doesn't resign, he's gone, and we get no compensation for him.

We have an Intrigue too, except that ours has a computer chip in it that doesn't allow it to go past 108 MPH. Once you get to 108, it just cuts out and stops accelerating.

Speculation is that Oz wants to become more of a small-ball oriented team, and that next year, if we kept Konerko and Lee, we'd have 4 or 5 free swinger/slugger types on the team(Everett, Thomas, Konerko, Lee, and Crede, though Crede may not even be here next year, who knows). By getting rid of, say, Konerko, we'd only have 3 of those types of players at the very least, and could get another small ball type player. But by getting rid of Konerko, you're really only creating another problem...who do you put at 1B? And it's pretty damn hard to find a contact/small ball type player that can play 1B. The only real option we have is Sean Casey, and I'm not even sure Cinci will let him go.

This is exactly right. Garland, going into the season, was the team's #3 starter, he's making $2.3 mill, he's had 2 and a half years of MLB service before this year, he has good stuff...and he's pitched like s***. Meanwhile, Grilli can have a very mediocre start, hell, I'll even go as far as say it is a bad start(5 ER in 5 innings is bad...that's an ERA of 9.00, and an ERA of 9.00 is never good, I don't care who you are), but when we have had absolute garbage out of the #5 slot in the rotation, you'll gladly take a start like the one Grilli gave us. Grilli looks like a battler. I think he has a shot of making the team next year as a long reliever, personally. BTW...maybe it's just me, but I think I'd rather see Diaz starting over Grilli. Grilli has been very nice in the wins category, but he doesn't have much of a future with the organization(as I said, I wouldn't mind seeing him as a long reliever next year, but I really don't want anything more then that). On the other hand, Diaz could end up being a solid starter for us someday. If he gets his head on straight, he could be a #3 for us in a couple years.

They've had s*** for pitching, so that's probably one reason why they've been bad.

Boars is not Shingo's agent. I am pretty sure of that too. Cheat has posted it before. EDIT: Shingo's agent is Joe Urbon. This is kind of a funny article too. Link Wow, were they wrong.

You are correct in assuming I meant Perez or Radke or Ortiz. Best case scenario, we do get 2/3, but we won't. Also...I do think another tools pitcher will be brought in...not sure who, but someone probably will be. Try to catch lightning in a bottle, like with Esteban. Let's just hope that pitcher isn't Shawn Estes, right?

Benetiz will get $6, tops...and Urbina won't get anywhere CLOSE to $7 mill. Think about this...Urbina, after playing a huge role in the Marlins World Championship bullpen, was signed in Spring Training for $3 mill. He's had a very off year this year. Given, it is a weak market for relief pitchers, but that will not increase the prices THAT much. Another thing...usually, pitchers take about a year to regain a lot of what they lost from surgery. Considering the year Hoffman is having, I'd take him in a heartbeat. His numbers would get worse(not because he's going from the NL to the AL, but rather because he's going from a park that hugely favors pitcher to a park that hugely favors hitters), but I guarantee you that they'd be better then Koch's. I'd like to have either Urbina or Hoffman...it's not like they're bad or anything like that.

We had more question marks going into THIS year then we will next year. Coming into this year, we had no 2Bman, no CFer, Big Mo and Sandy behind the plate(and they hit about .240 combined last year), a rotation that consisted of Buehrle-Loaiza-Garland-Schoenweis-Wright(so basically 2 holes), we had 1 real solid reliever we knew was going to be good(and even Marte has been shaky this year), and then there were question marks in Crede, Garland, and Konerko, along with having one of the best(if not the best) bench coach retiring before the season, along with a rookie manager who had NEVER managed a game before. Had you told me before the season that we would lose Maggs and Frank for about a combined 200 games, I would have said that this team would finish with fewer then 70 wins. And to think, we will finish .500, atleast, and probably, not possibly, better then that. Take that into consideration before you talk about our holes.

Hey, no one asked your opinion

Because Pedro is a true bonafide ace who has the respect of every player in the MLB and has pitched in some very big games and will win you a lot of games. I think though, what I'd almost rather see happen is to see the Sox get some very, very good relievers. You can have all the stud starters you want, but those starters will not always go 7 innings, and you will have to rely on your pen some, and if it isn't very good, you will get beaten late a lot. However, if they can get Pedro for 3-years, $45-50 mill or so, I say do it in a heartbeat. Pedro-Garcia-Buehrle-Contreras-Garland/Diaz is real damn tough.

Maybe it's just me, but I think we should do things more along what's our favorite...because best hitter will end up being a 2-horse race between Rowand and Konerko, and best reliever will be Shingo. What I'm basically saying is that for categories like best hitter, best pitcher, best reliever, we should change those to favorite hitter, favorite pitcher, favorite reliever, etc. That way if you really like seeing Damaso pitch, and several others do too, he's got a shot. And if you like seeing Juan Uribe hit over Konerko or Rowand, he's got a shot too. Best game is an opinion...some will say the 2-1 Garland-Santana duel where all 3 runs were scored in the first. Others may say the game where Carlos extended his streak to 28-games. Others may say Buehrle's 2-hit shutout(I believe it was against Cleveland).

I still wouldn't want that lineup out there on a regular basis.