caulfield12

QUOTE (Disco72 @ Apr 17, 2010 -> 11:54 AM) If their pitching holds up, that's the difference. Other than Nathan and Pavano, they're not paying much of anything for their pitching. I'm not convinced their pitching is going to hold up over a full season. They're kind of in the same situation we are with Danks/Floyd. Blackburn just signed a $14 million/4 years, Slowey wants the same deal, essentially. Then you have Baker and Liriano hitting arbitration as well. But they don't have the big deals like we do with Buehrle, Peavy, Jenks and Linebrink. And all that said, they can easily sustain that payroll if they want because Pohlad has very deep pockets and wants to differentiate himself from his dad IMO. FWIW, we'd be much better off with Thome/Hudson (Beckham could have stayed at 3B) and SAVED money compared to what we have now with Teahen, Pierre, Vizquel and Kotsay. Hudson could have hit 1st, Beckham 2nd. Hudson/Rios Beckham Quentin Konerko Thome Jones Rios AJ Ramirez That line-up would score 50-100 more runs IMO than our present line-up. Thome, Jones, Rios and Quentin would get 90-95% of the OF/DH ab's, with Kotsay as the 4th OF/1B/DH and DeAza 5th. Heck, you could argue De Aza might be a better option than Pierre based on what we've seen for two weeks.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Apr 17, 2010 -> 10:26 AM) I missed it, what did Ozzie say about the lineup? That the whole line-up was inconsistent...that Jones would be starting instead of Kotsay....maybe moving up Teahen and/or AJ in the line-up.

The thing that really sucks is not only can the Twins now outspend us, they have a much better farm system. The only area that we can argue superiority is the bullpen. Well, as they say, it's always darkest before the dawn. Things can shift and change very quickly in baseball.

Threets with another good outing. Here's hoping Danks stays healthy all season and sustains his high level of play...that would be a great sign for his future, although he's certainly not an obvious replacement for Pierre as a leadoff hitter. Leading to the (Ryan Sweeney-esque) question of moving Rios out of CF again or just letting Danks play a corner spot. Obviously, Pods and Pierre are lighter-hitting corner outfielders in terms of their power numbers, so the White Sox historically haven't been afraid to go that route. Yet Danks clearly strikes out too much and doesn't yet have the ability to put up 30+ steals either. Hope he ends up more like Sweeney than BA, Borchard or Jeremy Reed.

It wouldn't piss me off. It would be disappointing...and probably impossible with the Royals and Indians in our own division. We have to beat those teams about 50% of the time, no matter how poorly we've played the Indians so far. If we're going to be that bad, we might as well go out and completely tear things apart, because another 78-84 win team that's non-competitive for the division title won't do anything for the attendance anyways. Having a Top 5-6-7-8 draft pick would be so much better than 13-17, too. I'd be more excited about seeing Flowers, Hudson, Danks and Viciedo play than I ever would be about a 43 year old Vizquel, Kotsay, Pierre or Mark Teahen, that's for sure. Things have gotten to the point I'd rather see Nix play/bat than half of our line-up. That's saying something. Or I'd rather see CJ Retherford and similar players who have something to prove and a chip on their shoulders who really appreciate every day they're on a major league roster. It's not like they could be any worse than Owens, Fields, Wasserman, Brian Anderson and Andy Gonzalez. That's impossible to duplicate.

Marson's already thrown out 4 guys this season....leading Victor Martinez and AJ's totals for one year, haha. Well, there goes a run and RBI for Becks. Ugly.

You don't think Jack Z made a very silly move taking on the Bradley contract, undoing a lot of the good he'd done in 2009? At least he has a philosophy, defense/pitching first, but he obviously needs Lee for that to work...and the offense has been putrid to date.

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Apr 16, 2010 -> 03:41 PM) I don't think extending Contreras had anything to do with acquiring him. Getting something worth a s*** for an expiring contract in Loaiza had everything to do with it. I can't imagine why the Sox would have wanted to resign Contreras at that time because his career ERA was like 5.50 at the time. I also don't think Williams is going to put any pressure on Danks, but Danks has to realize that if you pitch for the White Sox, you are almost always safe from being dealt if you are in the middle of a contract, and you are very vulnerable to being traded if you are in the final year of your contract, especially as a starting pitcher. Williams dealt both Garcia and Garland in the offseason of the last year of their deals, and he dealt Contreras near the end of the year for his deal. I meant, he (Contreras) had already signed a "subsidized" contract with the Yankees and he was going to be under our control for multiple seasons at that point. I can't remember exactly, I thought that Yankees deal was something like $32 million for 4 years, his first contract. Loaiza was a one-and-done at that point, wasn't he? After 2003?

Threets looks like he could be the real deal too... He is still 28, not super old.

Well, that was the whole idea of the Garcia move....it never would have been made without the "handshake" agreement that was verified days after the trade about a long-term extension, with Ozzie supposedly in the middle of it all. It was also one of the keys to bringing Contreras on board. What will be interesting to see is if KW puts pressure on Danks to sign a multi-year deal extending into Year 1 of Free Agency...

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5098407 Best story of day, or weirdest. Fan arrested for vomiting intentionally on girl in Philly....$36,00 fine? Double wow.

Is Chris B. Young for real again? Or just an anomalous beginning to 2010? Should I write another article revisiting the Javy Vazquez trade? From Phil Rogers

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Apr 16, 2010 -> 11:58 AM) So the 3 to 4 months that would remain in the 2010 season don't count? I should have been a bit more clear. I meant that more in the sense that we get him in late July instead of early June....I think the Padres will hold onto him as long as possible and wait for the bidding war to develop, not unlike the Halladay situation in TOR. Not that I was giving up on this season, because it's still WAY too early to make any conclusions until late May. I don't think you cripple your minor league system for a MAYBE division title in 2010 and just one full season of Gonzalez. It's too big of a gamble with long term negative consequences for our orgnizational competitiveness. Also, with the market set for Blackburn at $14 million/4 years, Floyd's contract, Slowey wanting a similar deal with the Twins...will KW now offer to pay Danksie more than all 3 of them in an effort to keep him from getting too expensive in Years 5/6? How high do you go to keep him a happy camper?

It will be interesting to see what becomes of Jenks, Konerko, AJ and Buehrle. They're the last four surviving links to 2005. Hard to imagine parting with all four before 2011. It's going to be the key decision of KW's tenure about moving Buehrle/Floyd/Danks. Danks would seem like the logical choice, since he's been more unwilling to accept a "favorable" (below market value) contract from the club perspective. Santos=Jenks Viciedo=Konerko (in a perfect world, certainly not with a 600 OPS so far at Charlotte) Flowers=AJ Hudson can take the place of Danks. It really scares me to trade Danks over Floyd, simply because I think Danks is going to end up as the better pitcher looking back 5 years from now... It does make for a much more interesting trade if you're the Padres....although Danks starts to look more and more expensive in arbitration, like Jenks has become. Danks/Danks/Flowers will definitely get you Adrian Gonzalez. Or Danks/Santos/Flowers. The problem is that KW has to pull another rabbit out of his hat to replace that other spot in the starting rotation. It's not likely to be Torres, Marquez, Cassell, Harrell, Hynick, etc. What I'd like to see is whether there's ANY possibility in the world to convert Sergio Santos into a starting pitcher. It's a 1/20 shot, but it's worth kicking the tires on. Letting him "stretch" out and develop his offspeed stuff would have nothing but positive consequences for his development. If we saved all the money from Jenks, Konerko and AJ, we could use it to resign Gonzalez long-term. Or something I don't believe I'm saying, bringing back Jermaine Dye to play 1B....if we don't pay Konerko $10-15 million for 2 years and/or Viciedo is FAIL.

Threets is definitely the next guy in...supposedly he was throwing 93-95 MPH in spring training, seems Coop can work with him. Williams has never been anything but a journeyman.

I don't understand trading for Gonzalez for basically just one season (doubtful on the possibility of an extension like Garcia signed right after being traded in 2004)...you know he's going to test the market with how underpaid he is. Buddy Bell on the subject of Tyler Flowers "We are trying to transition him back to the basics to get back to where he was last season....Too many thoughts, you just can't play [the game that way]." On his offense "We think the world of him offensively. Very intelligent kid." Let's say the deal was Santos, Flowers, Hudson and Shelby/CJ/Sergio Morales/M. Gonzalez, would anyone pull the trigger on that one?

I think 4.50 is pretty unrealistic for Garcia at this point. Anything above 5.25 or so, that would be the "danger zone" for Freddy.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Apr 16, 2010 -> 08:16 AM) If the Sox were looking to actually make a trade, who on their major league roster would be involved? They might want to sell of Jenks or Linebrink as a salary dump. I could see them moving Santos right now, but that would be unpleasant. Beckham or Ramirez? Hardly likely. Either they're looking at Toronto's team or their just advance scouts. If anyone's scouting the Sox's system right now, they're going to AAA. What would be the incentive to trade Sergio Santos at this point?

There is a unofficial sports rule that no group or subgroup can be called "Fab Five" or "Fab Four" if the team's overall record is below .500.

It all depends on where the White Sox are positioned. If it's clear that Minnesota and Detroit are the class of the division, trading Hudson at midseason (like the reshuffling with Peavy and Rios) makes even less sense because last year you could make a legitimate argument we were close enough to first to justify it. Trading Flowers/Danks/Hudson is intuitively illogical if we're a .500 ballclub, because I really think Minnesota will be a 92-95 win team. DET, not so sure about 90, but they're definitely looking like they have more offensive firepower, a decent starting rotation and a pretty good bullpen. It's quite scary to think that a rehabbing Mitchell and Viciedo would be left as our only top prospects...and maybe a couple of DeLosSantos types emerge at the lower levels...someone like Thompson would have to light up the scouts' charts/reports. Floyd and Danks have proved that it always comes down to having good, young pitching...as someone else said, it's got to be a premium player (probably a hitter), but the problem is that we don't have much payroll flexibility to add a "premium" salary at this point, especially if we continue to play .500 ball and the crowd support in Chicago is more or less tepid in April/May/June. Berkman? How could we afford him, even for half the season?

I still think Linebrink has to prove he can protect 1-2-3 run leads in the 7th and 8th before any team would think about taking that contract. It would be one thing if it was just this season, but it's also 2011, correct? With the shift in the economic climate in the last two offseasons, I just think there's only about 5 teams in baseball that would dare to take a risk with Linebrink's contract at this latter stage in his career.

The same amount of time Colon and Contreras had.... Well, less time than Contreras, a bit more than Colon. We had a lot more salary invested in Jose.

I still think many really high average hitters have at least decent speed, but I'll concede your point. Maybe it's due to my "Ichiro bias." I do think speed has a lot to do with some hitters getting additional hits, like Pods or Carl Crawford...but obviously speed alone can't make for a hitter, or you would see the NFL experiments with sprinters turned receivers applied to baseball as well. Tony Gwynn could run very well the first half of his career, but Boggs wasn't fast at all. Ichiro and Walker (first half of his career) definitely could run a bit, along with Bonds, although Bonds didn't put up that average from 1985-1990 when he was still relatively slim .and stealing 30-50 bags per season.

Yeah, but $4 million isn't going to make or break the Sox. That said, Ozzie really seems to like Pierre, he's a veteran...he'll have plenty of chances to dig his own grave. And then some. They don't feature Linebrink as anything close to the primary set-up man anymore, and he makes more than Pierre.

White Sox Baseball: Expect the Expected