caulfield12

And, in all fairness, there were at least 3 other teams that Berkman crossed off his list and blocked a possible trade to yesterday, maybe 4. Certainly, not JUST the White Sox. This always ends up as "such and such player won't come to Chicago because of Ozzie Guillen" or "Guillen was listed among the least favorite managers to play for..." or whatever. But nobody's calling Mike Scioscia a manic micro-manager when D.Lee refuses to go to the Angels. And the fact of the matter, why would we want a player who doesn't want to play for the White Sox? Fine, it's just like NCAA basketball or football scholarships, they can go elsewhere and we'll continue to take the player who New York casts aside like Jose Contreras and El Duque and beat them with heart, desire and the ever-present "chip on our shoulder/us against the world" mentality KW and Ozzie like to inculcate. If anything, I think one of the challenges Minnesota has had to deal with this year is knowing how to be the favorite and not the underdog, overachieving team that stalks the big-city, big-budget bullies. When the shoe's on the other foot, it's not quite so easy to motivate the players, as Gardenhire has learned this season.

If he keeps hitting like that at the bottom of the order, they're just going to intentionally walk him to face Andruw Jones.

QUOTE (3E8 @ Jul 31, 2010 -> 08:06 AM) Dan Hudson as a 5th round pick with signing bonus under $200k is nothing but a total success Brandon McCarthy, 17th round, 2002, $40,000 signing bonus Chris B. Young, OF, 16th round, 2001 Aaron Rowand, 1998, 1st round (35th overall), $575,000 Joe Crede, 1996, 5th round Mark Buehrle, 1998, 38th round, $150,000 signing bonus Ryan Sweeney, 2003, 2nd round/52nd pick, $785,000 Jeremy Reed, 2002, 2nd round/59th pick, $650,000 Brandon Allen, 2004, 5th round Chris Getz, 2005, 4th round, $225,000 signing bonus Gio Gonzalez, 2004, 1st round, 38th pick, $850,000 Anthony Carter, 2005, 26th round Daniel Hudson, 2008, 5th round, $180,000 Clayton Richard, 2005, 8th round, $78,000 Jon Rauch, 1999, 3rd round/99th pick...would go on to become the #1 prospect in baseball before the torn labrum and surgery Dexter Carter, 2008, 13th round Trayce Thompson, 2009

Why is there never pressure on Greg Walker to fix any hitter we get? Some are acting like Cooper can make just one small or slight mechanical adjustment in Jackson and his ERA will go from 5+ in the NL to minus 3.50 in the American League...I'd like to believe it's THAT simple, but I just hope KW and Cooper know what they're doing. Hopefully Jackson, if we actually end up holding on to him, hits the ground running. Interestingly, his first start would come against his former team, the Tigers, who are scuffling to stay in the race and are on life support these days. Thankfully, it will be in a pitcher's park where he feels comfortable.

Does anyone in Chicago have any idea what's going on the in last 12 hours? Cowley has suddenly disappeared from the map. Also, there were rumors of Lilly and Theriot going West...nothing now? I guess it might be one of those days where everything comes at the last second like a whirlwind, or there's just an eerie silence from no moves being made.

Who is left that actually is still going after Dunn? Probably not the Rays, certainly not the Yankees...so that leaves the White Sox and Giants maybe?

Without naming the Nationals, Williams did little to hide his distaste for how the trading process has gone this July. ''It's been more frustrating,'' he said. ''I'm not going to tell you why. ''There are some new general managers that do business in a different way, and some of us have to adjust to that.'' Asked if that meant the demands have been high for left-handed hitting, Williams said, ''I've found some to be high, and I've found some to be more reasonable. ''All I can say on that without venturing into areas that I don't really want to venture into is that this team is fighting hard every night, and we're comfortable and confident that if there is an opportunity to add to it in any way, shape or form, just know that we're working on it, and that it's with the mind-set that we don't want to take away from the club that you see out on the field. It will have to be done within the system.'' Williams said he ''hoped'' there might be another deal completed today but seemed ready to accept, as Guillen did, that the heavy lifting was accomplished in having acquired a starting pitcher. ''When you're contending, you want more certainty as to how you're going to be able to shape up in your rotation, which ultimately has an effect on your bullpen,'' Williams said. ''The bullpen has been one of our strengths all year, and the last thing we want to do is tax that bullpen at a time when we're going to need them the most. ''This is going to come down to pitching as we go down the stretch, and ultimately I think this is going to be decided by who pitches the best. [Jackson is] a move for today. And we've got him for next year. Our plans are always the same -- to win today and position ourselves for tomorrow.'' Toni Ginetti, suntimes.com/sports

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/i...new-carl-pavano Is Edwin Jackson the next Carl Pavano? Rob Neyer, ESPN.com Analysis of Hudson and Holmberg by BA http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/major...10/2610442.html

The part of that wheeling and dealing that's already happened was the trade that sent Jackson to the White Sox, with rookie right-hander Daniel Hudson and pitching prospect David Holmberg -- a former No. 2 draft pick -- ending up with the D-backs. But two sources with knowledge of those discussions told Rumblings there was only a remote chance of the White Sox turning around and spinning Jackson to Washington in a deal for Dunn. However, another baseball man, a guy who has had many dealings with White Sox GM Kenny Williams, was skeptical of that talk, saying: "They really want the bat. Always remember this: Kenny's M.O. is to get Adam Dunn, not Edwin Jackson. Kenny lives to walk the red carpet." Jayson Stark/ESPN

That clinches it for sure. Brad Radke or Jeremy Bonderman will be our fifth starter next year if Harrelson has his say, with Inge at 3B.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Jul 30, 2010 -> 10:56 PM) Yeah, a lot better: 4.30 ERA as opposed to 5.00, wow. He also pitched a lot worse last year than his ERA suggests, so it's evened out. Also you can't just erase 2 outings, you can do that with a ton of bad pitchers, take away a few s***ty outings and things start to look better. He's been terrible since the no-hitter, it's not like he's on some sort of incredible stretch aside from a couple bad outings early in the year. You say there isn't a ton to be fixed yet 4 other teams have have failed to tap into that potential, yet we're the special team that will turn him around over the course of 3 days because of our magic pitching coach. In all fairness, I don't think the Tigers could be lumped in with those other teams not getting him to pitch to his potential. They simply needed to get cheaper and younger, and they did so with Scherzer and Austin Jackson.

If they don't sell out for a Saturday home game with nice weather, fireworks, a possible huge acquisition and a 19-1 home streak...including 12 in a row, I really don't know what will help sell this team.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Av.h...tradebuzz073010 I feel that the last 2 months have been some kind of bizarre "Quadruple Vortex" (inside joke, ask Ranger someday)... We've gone through a cycle where arguably we were one of the worst franchises in baseball to one of the most powerful? What's going on? Can we not see the forest for the trees anymore, our mindset of "mid market" has warped our thinking? I'm not really sure what to believe anymore. From not having the ability to go the extra mile to sign Johnny Damon, after picking up Rios and peavy, now we're operating in a new environment again where scarce resources and future budget allocations don't apply? If we really are planning to keep Edwin Jackson, is JR no longer concerned about 2011's $75 million going to 11 players, the biggest chunk of that to our starting rotation? The way Passan (who's one of the best baseball reporters out there) was writing that article, he was assuming we'd also somehow end up with Adam Dunn, too. Is this the biggest KW bluff since Orlando Cabrera? Will keeping Jackson for next year force a trade of Danks1 and seemingly finalize the departures of Konerko and AJ? What the heck is going on? Will the real JR please stand up?

Would be nice if we could convince someone to take Pena or Linebrink and give us back a real hitter...but the odds of that happening are 0-5%. With Linebrink, we just need the salary relief, I'm sure KW would pay his remaining 2010 contract to get the 2011 obligation off the books...especially if we're going to try to carry Jackson too. I wonder if KW will try to put the screws to Danks in the offseason about signing an extension with the threat of trading him hanging over his head? Unfortunately, that's a huge risk to trade your ace with two more relatively cheap seasons (all things considered for a pitcher of Danks' caliber) when we don't know what we'll get out of Peavy.

19-1 home winning streaks, Dayan Viciedo, Gordon Beckham, Lucas Harrell and Alexei Ramirez say hello. Seriously, nobody knows what will happen this post-season, the Yankees are favored along with the Red Sox every preseason and they've only won one World Series this decade. I like our pitching, defense, versatility and improved athleticism...it might be a case like 2003 and the Twins beat us again, but we're not going to lose to them in the traditional Sox way this year, that's for sure. We're taking a 7-0 run from the Twins, two blown saves on the road in 4 days, and we're still standing. This team, at least in my opinion, really believes they are a team of destiny after the way they turned that 24-33 start around. It's strange, it doesn't even seem totally strange that Lucas Harrell just won a start. Heck, Matt Ginter, Arnie Munoz, Mike Porzio, Josh Stewart or Jim Parque could win as a starter the way things are going. I won't go as far as to add Broadway and McCulloch to that list, however.

Jack Z. will give Figgins another year to get his game straightened out. Agree Wakamatsu is Dead Man Walking. No way Ozzie would screw over either Vizquel or Pierre for Figgins...not going to happen. Not during the season. BTW, every MLB team could have signed Aubrey Huff cheaply and the guy's got a 950 OPS. Of course, it's in the NL West.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Jul 30, 2010 -> 09:00 PM) How the hell can you make a move like this to set up a lateral move that you don’t know for sure will be of any of interest to the other team? Kenny got played hard if this Nats stuff is true. I don't think this is the case. Same thing with the Rios roster claim...KW knows what he's doing. If there was an agreement between the two GM's and the Nationals backed out, Rizzo won't last for long before he starts to get a bad reputation. JR wouldn't have let KW take the risk this would happen as well...unless our financial concerns have been wildly overstated.

Who's to say Viciedo might not become an even better hitter someday than Dunn? The guy just rakes line drives all around the park, why would we want to pay Dunn $45 million for 3 years AND give up Viciedo? If we keep Jackson, we have to get some lower cost players in the line-up SOMEWHERE.

WOW name, but no longer a WOW player at this stage of his career, which has honestly been KW's modus operandi with many mid-season acquisitions over the years...

So Mike Scioscia is also an A--, because Derek Lee refused to be traded to the Angels? Wouldn't you rather play in the city where you have a 95% chance of making the playoffs/World Series, versus a team that has a 50/50 chance at best to make the playoffs and is missing one of its top starters for the remainder of the season, also knowing that Guillen is likely to leave you at DH instead of allowing you to play 1B in deference to his captain?

QUOTE (balfanman @ Jul 30, 2010 -> 06:36 PM) I see the moron who is Phil Rogers is at it again. Basically says that letting go of Hudson is akin to losing Jared Weaver. Hyperbole abounds on days like this. I remember the time we traded for Damaso Marte, the Pirates' GM at the time compared him to a "young Greg Maddux" and most of the White Sox fanbase was furious, thinking they could have waited and gotten Marte on a roster claim when he was DFA'ed, as the Pirates had two other young lefties at the time, I think one was Beimel.

Has KW said how he's planning to pay for that top-heavy rotation and not bankrupt the rest of the roster at C, 1B, DH, etc.? Didn't we already go with this kind of a rotation only in 2006, only to realize in the end it was too expensive to maintain...with Contreras, Garland and Javy making too much money at the back end?

The problem is if we were so high on Jackson, why didn't we come up with something better than Matt Joyce before 2009? We might not have guaranteed the playoffs, but it's hard to imagine we wouldn't have made it....then again, the chemistry was completely messed up with our team, hard to know what would have happened, we just know how he pitched as a Tiger.

QUOTE (CaliSoxFanViaSWside @ Jul 30, 2010 -> 12:26 PM) Which is why he'll be gone in the next trade. A bat is coming it will be a very good one. I don't think KW is ready to trade Viciedo or Mitchell, no matter how desperate things get with Dunn.

QUOTE (soxfan3530 @ Jul 30, 2010 -> 12:25 PM) If we somehow do get Dunn, Alexei-Rios-Konerko-Dunn-CQ is suddenly a pretty scary lineup to get through. Beckham and Viciedo lurking at the bottom can be dangerous as well...