caulfield12

Don't forget Jose Contreras factoring into the equation possibly as well. He has a great work ethic, I think he might actually make it back this year. Having all that extended rest should definitely recharge that arm of his...as long as he loses a bit of weight (he's a HORSE!) and manages not to blow out the Achilles' again. Don't forget, Cabrera had back stiffness and an elbow strain. That PROBABLY accounts for the lost/missing velocity. Read through the Orioles' board for some additional thoughts/insights. http://www.topix.net/forum/source/baltimor...GP0354OSD8EPQVG

We'd be "okay" or fine without three lefties in my opinion....as long as the second lefty is not a "loogy" but someone who can pitch multiple innings, which Poreda and/or Richard would be. However, Ledezma absolutely dominated the White Sox once upon a time with the Tigers and has a pretty resilient arm, as well as the flexibility to spot start as another "swing" man. I think he might be as high on KW's radar screen as Daniel Cabrera, even. The more quality arms (like John Van Beschoten, Cabrera and Ledezma) that we throw into the 4th/5th starter mix, the better off we'll be obviously.

Can you legitimately trade Fields and/or Poreda without making any other moves, though? If you acquire Roberts and Fields is part of the deal, then who plays 3B? Betemit's okay as part of a platoon, but not an everyday player. Viciedo might never play 3B in the big leagues. Or do you move Beckham off SS and put him at 3B and hope he can make it up in July/August? That's putting a ton of pressure on him to essentially learn a new position AND contribute in the middle of a pennant race right off the bat....the last college players to really do that were Ventura, Thomas and Alex Fernandez. If you trade Poreda, then Marquez and half of CR/AP (Richard) is your rotation...I just don't think there's any way to compete, even in our watered-down division, with that rotation, compared to what the other four teams potentially have going into the season. We're not going to trade Viciedo, of course....so that means Brandon Allen, Shelby, Adam Russell, Jordan Danks (mid-season), Brian Anderson, Jenks/Dotel/Thornton, Konerko and Dye are your most enticing trade pieces/parts. Tricky to pull off. Tyler Flowers or Lillibridge are the only others, Lillibridge doesn't have the value they're looking for, so we'd turn around and trade Flowers, theoretically. YES?

Trade Delmon Young for Jonathan Broxton. Trade minor leaguers/spare parts and/or take on salary for 3B Garrett Atkins or Kouzmanoff. Or simply sign Tyler Wigginton. They could also move Cuddyer back to 3B and sign Dunn/Burrell/Rivera/Griffey, etc. to play LF and share time with Jason Kubel as DH. Decide where to put Cuddyer, LF or RF, and leave him there....probably LF, with Span in RF. Much simpler than fixing the White Sox issues at 3B, 2B, CF and at least one slot in the starting rotation.

An interesting article on the platelet injection procedure that Saito went through....ptac (not sure if that's his poster name, pretty close) might have some insights here on his possible return to "normalcy" at age 39. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/03/sports/sp-dodfyi3

The problem with that is, who's the leadoff hitter then? Alexei Ramirez? Getz/Lillibridge? It has to be one of those two options/positions on the field...

Join the debate. The Royals have non-tendered him. Who would you rather have batting leadoff or 9th? Getz? Taveras? Lillibridge? Brian Anderson? Gathright? Reggie Abercrombie? Explain.

I thought you were talking about DJ Carrasco being tendered a contract. Funny.

former Sox fan favorite Jamie Burke was non-tendered by the M's, totally expected move...even though Clement and Johjima are a complete mess.

QUOTE (Lemon_44 @ Dec 13, 2008 -> 12:21 AM) Would this be a feasable trade? Dye and Konerko for Weaver, Figgins and Morales. Nope, you have two "affordable/young" players in Weaver and Morales for two bigger, expiring contracts. Figgins fits because he'd likely be gone after 2009 and then you should be able to Type A him...however, that's not a certainty, especially if he goes Furcal on his and continues to be injury-prone. Substitute Willits for Morales and you're closer, but I still don't see moving a younger/affordable starting pitcher in Weaver for Dye or Konerko (or combination thereof).

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Dec 13, 2008 -> 12:35 AM) Joe Nelson would be a great choice as a middle reliever, he was released from Florida. Great, yet ANOTHER former Royal. No thanks, unless it's Mr. Soria.

QUOTE (Felix @ Dec 12, 2008 -> 10:46 PM) Punto is actually going to be their starting SS, not a supersub. However, he is indeed terrible offensively and nowhere near the 4 million per they gave him for the next two years. Yes, that's the plan for now, but he is a career .252 hitter, after all. If he does hit anything like the 2007 version (around .210-.220), then the Twins will have made a very bad deal...however, they'll be over to move Casilla over...just not sure how wise it would be to do this in the middle of the year. I do think that would be a much better move defensively than trying to get away with Brendan Harris at SS, let alone any infield position.

Obviously, McLane ordered the dumping of salaries, starting now, and Wigginton's certainly not a player that fits in their future plans. This is where a team like the Twins can come along and plug in either Wigginton or get the Astros to eat half of Tejada's salary and move him to 3B or leave him at SS (not a great idea on turf). The Twins' option are Cuddyer (horrible defensively at that position), Buscher and Harris for 3B. Our options are Fields, Betemit and Viciedo. About a wash...with the White Sox definitely having the upper hand going forward. The Twins turned down $20 million and 3 years for Blake, refusing to go past 2 years, FWIW. It will be interesting to see how much they're willing to pay Wigginton for one year.

The Reds still have an offer out to Jerry Hairston Jr. He would fill a need at center field and leadoff hitter. "There's not really a deadline," Jocketty said of Hairston. "We'd like to move a bit on that next week." Wonder if Hairston's even close to being on KW's radar screen?

All signs pointed to a contract offer for Bedard if he was going to be able to pitch in the first half of 2009.... Daniel Cabrera Denny Bautista Ty Wigginton (I'm sure the Twins will be in on him) and Reggie Abercrombie (another KW reclamation project?) Jonny Gomes (ditto?) Willy Taveras (see one of about 40 threads here on him) Takashi Saito, Scott Proctor, Yhency Brazoban, Angel Berroa Clay Hensley and Charlie Haeger (ex-Sox) Chris Britton and Justin Christian Tim Redding (ex-Sox) C. Trent Rosecrans e-mails that the Reds will not tender contracts to Matt Belisle or Gary Majewski. (ex-Sox) Chris Capuano (perhaps interesting to KW) Kevin Cash (another possible back-up to AJ?) Chuck James Chris Burke

That would seem to be the situation right now....still combing Seattle Times for any news on Bedard, two hours to go.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/basebal...0,3236628.story

I think we should kick the tires at least on Capuano, James (well, Kyle Davies showed an ex-Braves starter can rebound), Burke (superfluous?) and then Proctor, Brazoban and Saito to replace Carrasco on the roster. Still waiting on Bedard (likely to be tendered) and Cabrera (50/50).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Dec 12, 2008 -> 06:09 PM) Have you guys looked at the Twins roster the last few years? Nick Punto? Anyone? Anyone? The difference is that Punto just got $8.5 million to be a "supersub" by a team that could/should have spent that money on Casey Blake. They could have moved Casilla over to SS, and played Tolbert at 2B and had a much better team (on paper). It will be interesting to see if they really do "dump" Delmon Young as has been reported. "Only the Sox can have Minor League journeymen start a playoff game." Remember Josh Fogg started some playoff and a World Series game for the Rockies not too long ago. Wise was certainly not the reason we lost to TB, he was one of our better offensive players in that series, actually. It's a credit to the scouting department that they found a castoff who could replace Swisher, get some huge hits for us (DET) in the final months and actually be an igniter/difference maker. Look at all the Twins' scrubs and castoffs who have played important roles, like Tyner, Hocking, LeCroy, Lew Ford, etc. I think it's great to have one player like that on every team who gives hope to all minor leaguers that they can make it to the bigs one day, too.

I agree....the Yankees moves would put them on paper a little ahead of TB and Boston, pending any Lowe move back to the Red Sox. The Red Sox still look shaky at the back of the rotation with the likes of Wakefield and Buchholz. CC, Burnett, Joba/Wang, Kennedy/Hughes, Pettitte...that's a monster rotation. In TB, Shields is essentially their co #1 starter with Kazmir. Let's say Kazmir and CC are "equal," and Garza is maybe equal to Joba...you'll have a hard time convincing me that Price is already better than CM Wang (let alone Hughes/Kennedy), and signing Pettitte, obviously he's still a bit better than Sonnanstine (aka Kevin Slowey), even at his age. This does put the pressure on BOS to respond with either Lowe, TEX or bringing back Manny (VERY unlikely to happen, .001%)

So KW was pretty correct in stating that the trade for Swisher essentially was... thus, Betemit, Marquez and Nunez, substitute Viciedo's signing bonus for Swisher's 2009 contract >>> Nick Swisher (2009, and beyond)

QUOTE (Lemon_44 @ Dec 12, 2008 -> 08:41 PM) With Ibanez signing in Philly, that's one less guy on the Angels list of potential bats. If Tex signs with someone else, they will be very limited and will certainly look to the Sox. I've thought all along that Abreu would be on the Sox next year and hopefully it's to replace Konerko with Dye moving to 1b. Move Konerko for Weaver and Figgins,sign Abreu, and move Dye to 1B. Chester, are you really being serious?

Wil Ledezma looked impressive for DET 2-3 seasons ago....serviceable spot starter and LH long man, at least he was.

QUOTE (spiderman @ Dec 12, 2008 -> 10:34 AM) There are still too many of the top tier free agents on the market, and it's been slow moving. Once these guys go, and the big spenders are done spending, we'll see some of the mid-level clubs jump in. Amazing how far we've fallen...from Top 5 to "mid-level" again. Yikes. Well, nothing to worry about, the closest we were in the past five years to "mid-level" was 2005. Worked out pretty well, I think. As long as the Twins aren't spending money, I'm not quite so concerned. However, with Wood in CLE and Edwin Jackson in DET (although what were they thinking with Adam Everett?), those two teams are improved (more able to compete with the Sox, as KW would put it) on paper at least. In a sign of the Tigers' fall, they weren't able to come up with the prospects to get involved in the big Putz trade, and they were outbit by CLE on Kerry Wood. If nothing else, this "economic recession" probably gives the White Sox the biggest advantage/cushion going forward over the other four markets in our division, especially DET and CLE.

We do know that the Angels offered about $3-5 million (total contract numbers) than what he eventually accepted from the White Sox, they were certainly interested in him, post 2005. Moreno and the Angels have as much money as any organization to play with (although with a lot of his, Moreno's, personal worth tied in to advertising, I wonder if that will be pulled in eventually as well)...Gary Mathews, Jr., being a prime example. I don't think money would be a consideration in a trade with the Angels, it would be 100% about Konerko's physical condition and the doctors' interpretations thereof.