witesoxfan

White Sox Need Morel at 3B It's an overall good article discussing Morel, and I do think he is going to be the starter at 3B next season, as he doesn't have a ton of trade value considering he isn't an elite prospect, but I would say he is more than capable of being a very good, yet underappreciated player in the majors with a max value of probably a WAR of 4 or so (the article suggests he could be a 2.0-2.5 player next year (about a .250/.300/.450 with good defense) and I would say that would be pretty accurate). This further brings into question...what are the White Sox going to do with Mark Teahen? The first thing that pops into my head is RF with Quentin moving out in a trade, as I think Teahen can actually be relatively decent out there while Quentin is an absolute butcher. The other thing that the Sox could consider would simply be to hang onto Quentin and move him to DH, where his atrocious fielding won't hurt the Sox as much, and an outfield of Pierre-Rios-Teahen, while not sexy, is probably capable of a collective 8-10 WAR, which is more than adequate, and if Quentin's bat alone is worth probably 2-3 WAR or so. I understand Quentin is a psycho and he'd destroy half of Chicago in between his at bats, but you simply can't have him in the outfield. First base could be an option too if the Sox don't retain Konerko, but Quentin has never played 1B at the professional level, so there would be a huge adjustment period.

Let me preface this by saying that I don't follow the NBA whatsoever. What in the f*** are the Bulls waiting for? I don't care if you like Noah or think he's the next Dennis Rodman (which he's not) or anything, if he's not willing to sign an extension like that, and you can get Anthony by including Noah in the deal, you f***ing make that deal. You don't need a great center to win championships, you need a guy who can get boards and post up a little and get garbage buckets that can pass a little bit. Carmelo Anthony is a phenomenal player and trading for him is the type of move that a team who got absolutely b****slapped during the offseason by a team within their own conference makes to counter what the aforementioned team did. YOU GOTTA GET YOUR ASS OUT THERE AND (trade for) THAT F***ING DOG

I either want them to win the whole thing or get swept. I don't want any in between. If they make it to the World Series, but lose, people will still claim that "the Twins haven't won anything...all they do is get to the postseason and lose" even though getting to the postseason is like 95% of the battle and getting to the World Series is a hell of an accomplishment in its own right.

QUOTE (The Ginger Kid @ Sep 24, 2010 -> 11:29 AM) yes, if we had thome the sox wouldn't be 11 games out. Maybe 9. See, it doesn't work like that. The Sox may only be 2 games better, but the Twins would also be (atleast) 2 games worse. In the most conservative of scenarios, that leaves the Sox at 7 games back. Still dead to rights, but it's not 11 games. Looking at a better case scenario, Thome may have been worth 3 wins to the White Sox, may be worth 4 wins to the Twins, and Mark Kotsay, who could be worth -2 losses, leaves the Sox 2 games back right now. And, perhaps had they had Thome instead of Kotsay, they may have been up 5-8 games on the Twins at some point, and it may have either forced the Twins hand into trying something out of line for what they do (getting too aggressive and dealing Slowey or Baker along with Hicks and another minor leaguer for Cliff Lee) or perhaps feeling that it wouldn't be worth it to try and get back into the race and maybe sell off a piece or two. Beyond that, the Sox may have felt that their division lead was big enough that they didn't need to trade for Edwin Jackson, and because they already had a good DH, they wouldn't have had to acquire Manny Ramirez, and those moves right there save the Sox about $5 mill this year and about $8 million next year. I could go on and on about the ramifications from not signing Thome, and even still it's all hypotheticals and could-of's, but not signing Thome was an absolutely monstrosity of a failure, and anybody who tries to justify it because the "Sox would have lost the division anyways" is looking at this in a completely short-sighted manner and trying to make it seem like it wasn't a big deal when quite clearly it was a huge deal.

QUOTE (GoSox05 @ Sep 23, 2010 -> 02:26 PM) Bautista is gonna hit like 13 next year. I strongly doubt that. I think he probably put up a similar line as to why Carlos Pena put up following his huge breakout year in Tampa. People are going to pitch him differently next year, but he's made some type of mechanical adjustment with his swing that produces flyballs at a much more prolific rate than in the past. I could see a drop in his batting average and home run total to like a .230 and 30, but I don't think he's suddenly going to revert to the hitter he once was.

Can we seriously f***ing drop this? It's pointless bickering.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Sep 23, 2010 -> 10:57 PM) Yeah but he made a lot of right moves that postseason, some of which Rock pointed out earlier. And he does deserve credit for actually letting the starters pitch all but 2/3 of an inning in the ALCS, a lot of guys wouldn't do that. While I think he's not a good manager, I can't begrudge him 2005. I agree, and I do think there would have been a lot of managers who would have "micromanaged," if you will, and gone to their bullpens in those situations. In fact, I'd say pretty much every manager would have done so. Ozzie as of right now would do it too if he were coaching in this year's playoffs. That Sox team had some crazy juju going on, but it's not as if Ozzie managed it poorly and the team made up for his mistakes.

A baseball manager has so little influence on the actual game itself that it's not really worth arguing about. You obviously have to put your team in the absolute best position you can to win the ballgame (but I honestly believe that 25% of the people on here can do that, and this is a very narrow segment of all baseball fans, so you are probably looking at hundreds of thousands of people that can do that). Being a manager in baseball is about having the respect of your players and keeping them as motivated as physically possible for 162 games, and that's where those hundreds of thousands of people qualified to manage a baseball team fall by the way side. I would say that Ozzie once had that, within about his first 2-4 years of managing, but it has really fallen by the wayside in the past 2 years, as the Sox have gone from having small blow ups in the second half but still recovering to completely falling apart in late August or early September, and I really don't think that the talent level is the reason for it. On top of that, this feud that he and Williams have reportedly had over the duration of the season can't be a good influence on the locker room, whether or not it is full of veterans that understand the philosophical differences those two men have. I think by the White Sox saying that "it's up to Ozzie," they are really saying "we want him to go, but we aren't going to fire him and pay him the rest of his contract, and so if he doesn't find something else, we are obligated by law to pay him and he can manage this team" and I have absolutely no problem with that whatsoever.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Sep 23, 2010 -> 10:58 AM) Sure, if you ignore stats and reality. You can chop off a few guys like Oden, Marc Gasol, Mohammed who we know are not as valuable, at least right now, but that was quite the sweeping, inaccurate statement. Joakim might be a top 10 center in the league. And I love how the entire argument spawns from the possibility of acquiring Carmelo f***ing Anthony while only adding Deng and a pick or two. Deng has NEGATIVE value. But who cares? Why nab the 26-year old arguably top 10 player and easily top 5 scorer in the league to pair with the up-and-coming Derrick Rose and start legitimate NBA Championship discussion? Who wants to do THAT? Of course, the Bulls are going to screw this up, and stupidly hold onto Noah, and then sign him for way too much. (How can you not if you refuse to trade him for CARMELO ANTHONY!?) And then repeat the cycle the Bulls have been on since Jordan left and overpay undeserving players and refuse the luxury tax. HOORAY! don't hate the player, hate the game

QUOTE (Cali @ Sep 23, 2010 -> 12:10 PM) If Lirano doesnt win game 1 of the ALDS I think they're in for another first round exit...If he does you can punch a ticket to the ALCS for certain.... Game 1 is important, but it's not THAT important.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Sep 23, 2010 -> 11:32 AM) You need to watch the Fightin Sioux of No Dakota or the Jackrabbits of So Dak then f*** State

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Sep 23, 2010 -> 08:08 AM) Really though...after the W.S., we won 90+ games in 2006 and the division in 2008. Do you think that the bad season in 2007 did that much damage? Darin Erstad is a bad, bad man

QUOTE (11and1 @ Sep 22, 2010 -> 11:11 PM) Although you clearly position an ownership change as a remote possibility, I'm curious as to what, if any, evidence there is to support your hypothesis. It is certainly the most radical of the changes mentioned here, and I am frankly unsure how I feel about it. I guess it would depend on who took over..... There have been rumblings that his son is going to take over within the next few years. It's not insane to think about, considering Reinsdorf is 74 and George Steinbrenner was like 75 or 76 when he gave control of the Yankees to his sons.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Sep 22, 2010 -> 10:08 PM) I agree with your post Pitt. I just don't think he and the sons will have any trouble down there. There quite frankly won't be the audience. I guess he could stir things up in the Florida media, but there's not a lot of interest there. It's a good spot to go and frankly go away. He'll get very little attention down there locally or nationally. What type of controversy can he cause in Florida? There's only one team there and that team I'm sure is treated with kid gloves. Oz will be more of a statesman down there. I guess he could cause a lot of trouble during his series with the Cubs when he's back with the Chicago media. If he acts up everytime they play the Cubs or sox in interleague, I guess he could still get in some trouble on those days. There are actually two teams in Florida, but nobody cares about either one of them.

Jenks has simply worn out his welcome in Chicago. He had some very good years, and some mediocre years, and this year he's been bad. He still has good peripheral statistics so it's within reason that he could be a great closer for someone next year. I just don't think it's going to be the Sox unless the Sox were to non-tender him and sign him to a lesser deal, and even then, the Sox have a few good options they can use as the closer next year (looking at Sale, Thornton, and Santos) for considerably less money.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Sep 22, 2010 -> 07:46 PM) What an awesome win! Can you feel the electricity on the south side!!! We are going to get that wild card. I would make an absolute mess of myself if that happened. Right after I got done s***ting bricks of gold.

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Sep 22, 2010 -> 07:08 PM) I wish Frank Thomas would be GM. He is the best player the Sox ever had. He knows stuff This would make me very sad I like Cooper, but Dave Duncan is superior to him. Like I said elsewhere, I think Gavin Floyd would be an incredible pitcher under Dave Duncan.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Sep 22, 2010 -> 02:59 PM) With bandwagon fans, yes the Cubs do have more fans. I see that changing if the Sox actually consistently get to the playoffs and the Cubs faltering. I thought it was a pretty damn big "if," so I just made it into a pretty damn big "if."

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Sep 22, 2010 -> 11:45 AM) According to Jim Caple, Derek Jeter is the 6th best hitter in baseball because he has scored the 6th most amount of runs, deadspin breaks it down That's not deadspin breaking it down, that's the guys from Fire Joe Morgan breaking it down. They're f***ing amazing.

QUOTE (bucket-of-suck @ Sep 22, 2010 -> 01:54 AM) I think Gavin Floyd is decent a lot more often then he is "f***ing good." A guy making $2.75 million who is worth anywhere between 3-4 WAR (or, if you prefer traditional statistics, an ERA of 4 and good K and BB rates) is pretty f***ing good, and he's only making $5 mill next year. Freddy Garcia was "decent" this year. Gavin Floyd was good. Floyd is actually a pitcher that would really excite me under Dave Duncan, as I think Floyd would absolutely destroy opponents with that kind of philosophy.

You are over-analyzing. Seriously. It's not a bad thing if you go and hang out with girls and maybe they become girlfriend material and maybe they don't and who really cares in the end, but if you are thinking about it this much ahead of time, you'll think about it just as much when you're faced with the situation, and it won't be smooth. Go into situations like that with 0 expectations, have fun, and if a girl tags along for the ride, then have fun with her too. If she's worth hanging onto, then hang onto her.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 11:55 PM) Season aint over yet. I would like to see some sign that they will win another game. They've been stuck at 79 for quite some time. They might finish 3rd. Honestly, that would be fine with me, as it would be karmic justice for Ozzie Guillen alluding to the fact earlier this season that Jim Thome was the reason the Sox finished in 3rd place twice and 4th once.

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Sep 21, 2010 -> 11:53 PM) Yep. I'll be watching the Hawks preseason game tomorrow to try and lift my spirits a bit. But the Sox are definitely my #1 favorite team in any sport, so my mixture of sadness and anger is high right now since it's officially over. Atleast you have the Hawks. I don't follow the NBA or NHL, and the Bills are terrible, so I get homework to try and lift my spirits.

Not that I want to compare the White Sox to losing a loved one, but in a way, this moment is always like losing a family member who was suffering from a terminal disease. You know it's going to happen at some point, but it always hurts more when it actually happens. This sucks.

It really feels like this team needs one year of rebuilding. It's obviously possible for the Sox to put together a competitive team next year, but it seems like if they took a year off, spent $5 mill less (and used that money on international free agents and the draft instead) and signed some players to 1 year deals with the intention of trading them at the deadline for any prospects, the Sox would be better off and potentially even primed to make a huge move in 2012 with $20 million coming off the books. The problem of course would then be attendance and bringing people in, but if you have a good enough minor league system to the point that you can actually have some players step up and take on big roles with the team, you can get by with spending $85-$90 million on a roster and not only remaining competitive, but actually having a good team. --- According to Cots contracts, Buehrle's trade escalator only ran through July 15th of this year. On July 16th, he got his 10-5 rights and can turn down any trade he wants to. It really wouldn't surprise me if the Sox looked into moving him this winter, but there is no way St. Louis is an option, and I don't know if he'd want to go anywhere else. The Cards just signed Holliday to a huge deal, they need to worry about locking up Pujols long-term, and their 1-2-3 of Wainwright, Carpenter, and Garcia is good enough that adding $14 mill for a starting pitcher isn't going to be on their priority list unless the Sox ate money (which they never do). Peavy is untradeable at this point. Rios makes a bunch, but considering how long it took the Sox to find a legitimate centerfielder, I don't think they can move him. And then you get into players who are due in the $5 mill range (Pierre, Linebrink, Quentin, Teahen, Floyd, and Danks, along with Thornton making $3 mill) who are either going to easily be worth the $5 mill but are key components of the team, or are so bad that $5 mill is a huge overpay for them, and the Sox are going to have a messy situation this offseason.