caulfield12

QUOTE (SouthsideDon48 @ Oct 4, 2008 -> 09:07 AM) I would actually like it if the sox can somehow trade with the Dodgers for Matt Kemp or the Astros for Ty Wigginton. I sincerely doubt the Dodgers would make any of their young guns like Kemp, Loney or Ethier available, except at exorbidant prices. Wigginton's okay...but I prefer Blake because of his career-long familiarity with the AL Central...and I also think former AL Central players are always very motivated when they face their former teams, and CLE will certainly be a big rival of the Sox in the years to come IMO.

1) Acquiring Brian Roberts ($7+ million) for some combination of Swisher, Fields, Vazquez, Dotel and Anderson (but not Poreda)...we might also need to investigate the possibility of expanding the trade to include Mora and Adam Jones, but Roberts is the most important piece. We can also make Richard available, if they are interested. With this move, Ramirez moves to his natural position of SS. 2) Bringing back Pablo Ozuna to compete with Getz for the "supersub" role...we've really missed his energy, enthusiam, and crossing first base with his arms wide signaling "safe" to the umps 3) Jettisoning Crede, Cabrera and Uribe. 4) Targeting Casey Blake for 3B (it's always helpful to have a "warrior-type" player (like Corey Koskie) who has been through the AL Central wars...in fact, if the Twins didn't offer Punto arbitration, I would definitely look at him for the infield utility position as well. 5) Targeting Coco Crisp for CF. 6) Looking at Figgins, Furcal, Hudson and Grudzielanek as "fallback" positions (Plan B, C, D and E, like we had in CF) If we look at things objectively, it's really not so easy to find fourth starters out there on the market (both trade and FA), so we might have to keep Vazquez, at least for half of 2009, until his value has peaked after mowing down some inferior NL opponents. Then maybe someone will bite. KW is not so stupid as to just give him away. As much as I am disappointed with him, that's certainly not a logical reason to make an irrational move out of anger. Thome and Konerko stay, Swisher goes. I'm ranging from ambivalent to depressed about Dotel, on the books for $6.5 million next season, I would love to see another team come along and try to make him their closer again and take him off our hands. Double prayers answered if someone took an interest in MacDougal, though doubtful. If we use Fields, Swisher, Dotel and Anderson, along with any minor leaguers not named Poreda or Beckham (I know, I know, we couldn't trade him if we wanted to until August)...we should be able to pry lose Roberts and Crisp. This allows us to have the leftover money (saved from Swisher's and Dotel's deals) to invest in Casey Blake at 3B. I think we could sign him for around $7-8 million per season for 2 years. With Crisp, Roberts, Blake (and then any of the other players like Figgins, Furcal, Hudson, even Grudzielanek, Mora and Jones), we'd be a lot more versatile and balanced, adding speed and athleticism while not completely giving up on the power game (Blake, Crisp and Roberts would hit plenty of bombs at US Cellular) either. The main concern with going in this direction is it's actually making the team a bit older, instead of younger (especially if you trade Swisher). That said, we know KW refuses to rebuild, and we have enough younger players (or "in their prime" in the case of Ramirez, Quentin, Floyd, Danks, Buehrle, Jenks and Thornton) that I think it would still be a good mix. Maybe our rotation would be young if we didn't add another starter, but I wouldn't put it past KW to get some additional insurance for Richard/Broadway/Poreda/Carrasco/Horacio Ramirez in the fifth starter's spot.

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Oct 3, 2008 -> 09:15 PM) Wow, that actually could make a lot of sense. CC obviously is gone, and I haven't followed the situation closely enough to know if Sheets is in the Brewers plans. With that said, I have to imagine the Brewers want to continue to contend, and not rebuild. Vazquez would be a real inning eater for them, and a serviceable #2 in the NL. I'm onboard with getting Hardy, but it's definitely not going to be straight-up for Vazquez. We'd have to include something else (but not Poreda) to sweeten the pot. I wouldn't mind taking a chance on Weeks...I could see something like the old "change of scenery" trade with Vazquez and Weeks switching teams, and the White Sox possibly subsidizing a small part of his salary, like the D-Backs did when they traded us Vazquez. Traditionally, this hasn't been the way KW and JR operate, but I think they might have to consider it in order to offload Vazquez's contract on someone. As we've seen with Floyd and Quentin, one "off season" or a confused season (mentally) or injuries can be overcome...if only the right, supportive environment is there to nurture them back to confidence in their abilities.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Oct 3, 2008 -> 09:09 PM) Perhaps this isn't the thread for it, but it is positive, so here's the way I look at it: We were supposed to lose 90-95 games. We were lost in the picture after Detroit signed Cabrera and a piece of crap Willis. We were lost in the picture when the Indians kept pretty much their whole team. However, Detroit sucked and I knew it- Willis had a 5 ERA last year in the NL. The Indians, well we lucked out with their injuries however I do think Hafner and Martinez helped us by laying off the HGH. Then, we kept playing hard, and scratching out W's, don't matter how inconsistent our f'ing offense was. Nobody believed in Danks and Floyd, until June/July. At this point, everyone kept picking us to win the division. Nobody believed in the Twins. Everyone was ruling out the Tigers and Indians (after the CC trade). Come mid August and early September, Quentin broke his hand, Crede wasn't going to play again, and Contreras tore his achillies. The team could have rolled over and died. They lost their clutch hero of years past (Crede), their best clutch player this year (maybe 2nd behind Alexei) and the MVP (Quentin), and their horse (Contreras). And yet, this team made the f'ing playoffs. We depended on f'ing Nick Swisher this year, he blew a**, and we still managed to play 3+ games in October. God bless Ozzie and the team. their best clutch player this year (maybe 2nd behind Alexei) Are you referring to Linebrink or Crede here? Well, the White Sox had a chance to lay down and die, going quietly. And for that reason, I'm very proud of this team. I also can't imagine many other teams losing the league MVP with one month to go, one of the top five set-up men in baseball and a very good, veteran starter and still go on to make the playoffs. I think you have to give a lot of credit to Guillen for keeping this team from falling apart, despite all the seams coming lose the final week, such as Swisher and Cabrera. That's what so special against the Rays this year...they lost Crawford and Longoria for long stretches of this season and didn't collapse.

Does anyone think the starts on short rest are catching up with Buerhle now? I know Mark wouldn't use that as an excuse, but his pitches just weren't quite as crisp as I've seen before...his fastball averaged 84-87, usually, he's a tick faster. I just hope we can get starts for both Danks and Floyd in the post-season, it's going to be a great experience for both of them moving forward I think.

QUOTE (SleepyWhiteSox @ Oct 3, 2008 -> 08:29 PM) Hell, a week from now we'll probably be pretty darn content with how the season went. But personally, and I hate to say it, I blame Quentin's stupidity... Even with Quentin, we never matched up very well with the Rays. I also think Uribe is showing us why a healthy Crede is so dearly missed at this time of year. Finally, we don't have that one dominating presence in Contreras, where you just felt every start from August of 05 through May/June of 06 that it was inevitable the White Sox would somehow win. The Cubs and Angels are showing that no matter how well you do in the regular season, you can get knocked out so quickly you can't even comprehend what just hit you.

I love Thornton, as long as he doesn't come in with runners on base or have to pitch more than an inning or so. He's been solid this year, with a few blips on the radar screen, but very good. Unfortunately, we're spending so much money on Linebrink, Dotel and MacDougal...because our minor league system couldn't produce anything better than Wasserman and Russell. However, this season is a far cry from Jerry Owens, Josh Fields and Andy Gonzalez, thank God. Things were so bleak last year.

The White Sox obviously match up better with the Rays in Chicago. But it's no mistake that we're 4-18 now in dome games and turf. Our team is not constructed in a way to win those games. The players who would fare just as well on artificial turf as grass are probably Ramirez and maybe Cabrera. Brian Anderson, once again, showed me pretty much nothing and he's never going to be the starting CFer for the Chicago White Sox...maybe Couch will write that tonight, but I doubt it needs to be said.

Fire away! I'm not really even upset, I haven't been able to get tense like the 3rd game in Minnesota or the one game playoff against the Twins. I think our Sox just left everything in Chicago, and any momentum we had was squandered by Vazquez. All things considered, we're just not as good as the other three playoff teams, who have better starting pitching (at least none of them would have to start Vazquez), speed, fundamentals and especially the middle relievers. Pitching and defense in the playoffs >>> Softball approach

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Oct 3, 2008 -> 08:08 PM) Not bad. How about: trade Quentin for Lincecum trade Thome for _________________? sign Manny DH Manny, keep Dye in RF How many AL teams would want Thome, and could afford his contract? When's the last time we signed someone for the kind of money Ramirez will make? Albert Belle? That didn't work out so well. No way we give $20 million plus to Manny Ramirez. That's insane.

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Oct 3, 2008 -> 08:04 PM) Fire sale? We should have won 78 games this year, but instead, we won 89. We have to keep Dye, Konerko, Swisher (well, we don't HAVE to, but we will), Alexei, Danks, Buehrle, Jenks, Thornton, Linebrink, Carrasco, Quentin, and AJ, and then a few more guys I'm not thinking of off the top of my head. Unfortunately, Thome has that dopey clause in his contract. I think we should bring in Uribe, trade for a 3B (Mora, Beltre, etc.), hopefully Q stays healthy for a season, get Brian Roberts, and trade for/sign a CF'er. I wish we could get a guy like Manny to DH, but again, we have Thome, and KW would never want Manny (along with many on this board). And, if we do trade Thome and don't want Manny, get someone to play RF and DH Dye. Bring in Uribe? What does that mean? Have him player even closer to home, so he won't stop any balls from getting past him?

We are not as good as the Rays, Red Sox or Angels. What's the surprise here? We showed some cajones to get to the playoffs, and hopefully we can take at least one game, but we're not close to being in their league. Notice the difference between the Rays' bullpen and ours?

QUOTE (kwolf68 @ Oct 3, 2008 -> 07:57 PM) Didn't we already spend a zillion dollars to do #1 this year? Total agreement with #2 in your comment. Maybe we can obtain JP Howell. Howell is a former Royal. We get four from their pen and have almost no luck (Carrasco was good earlier in the season). But Howell was absolutely horrible and completely lost in KC...they simply gave up on him too quickly.

QUOTE (fathom @ Oct 3, 2008 -> 07:55 PM) Ugh...Ozzie's decision to leave Buehrle in for this inning was just pathetic. Well, bringing in Thornton to face the likes of Upton and Longoria doesn't make much sense either. If I was Ozzie, I would have more confidence in Buerhle than anyone in our crappy bullpen.

QUOTE (DonkeyKongerko @ Oct 3, 2008 -> 07:52 PM) Can I play? Our 2nd baseman makes a silly error. Japanese 2B hits the game winning homerun. Ummm...Ramirez is one of the main reasons we're here. Our offense is the reason we lost this game, period. Buerhle was probably going to give up a run that inning, anway. We had Kazmir on the ropes in the first three innings and we let him escape.

At least the idea of Brian Anderson being the savior of anything is over. Realistically, we have a healthy Joe Crede, I think he comes through with one of those clutch hits in Uribe's spot. Their pitching has just been better than our hitting, especially with RISP.

Pitch count up to 83. He should have no more than 2 innings left. Of course, the Rays' bullpen isn't chopped liver. We just can't seem to get that big hit so far this series....Uribe, Konerko, Dye. They've all had chances to break this game open and couldn't get it done.

Can Anderson swing the bat please? He looks like he is just trying to take a walk every time up there.

Well, if nothing else, we've elevated Kazmir's pitch count into the mid 60's already. Would certainly be nice if Konerko or Uribe would have come through. Kazmir seems to be missing something, his control, his fastball is off 2-3 MPH. Either we put together a big inning or take their bullpen apart in the middle innings.

According to Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Twins are interested in free agent shortstop Orlando Cabrera. Christensen guesses Cabrera could receive a three-year, $30MM contract this winter. Cabrera, 34 in November, hit .281/.334/.371 in 730 plate appearances. He has a reputation as a strong defensive shortstop, though the plus/minus system says he made just one more play than the average shortstop this year. He's much better on balls hit to his left than his right. I like that the Twins seem willing to throw around a little cash, but Cabrera seems a questionable target. Rafael Furcal is risky too, but at least there's upside. from mlbtraderumors.com

This is NOTHING compared to past White Sox controversies since the Ozzie Era began in 2004. Seriously, if the White Sox are MORE intimidated by the fans today, then they don't deserve to be on the same field (like the Cubs are demonstrating by their play). I expect a much different atmosphere today, more nervousness in the fans...because they realize how important this game is for advancing. Win, and they can look forward to another match-up with the Red Sox in all probability. Although I wouldn't be surprised if we took one or maybe even both games in Chicago to send it back down to Florida for a final game.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Oct 3, 2008 -> 04:05 PM) I have to disagree with his comment that the joy surrounding this team, beating three teams in three thrilling days to get here, is gone. I mean yeah, we lost game one, but that's still better than sitting at home. Agreed...we're playing on a surface where we have an abysmal winning percentage, with our #4 starter. And the home field advantage has been paramount this season, not to mention the White Sox had/have the worst winning percentage (overall) on the road as well. If you want to talk about the joy being gone, you should go to Anaheim and the North Side. They have more reasons to be upset than South Side fans. No matter what any writer tries to say, we've successfully eviscerated the ghost of Minnesota demons of the past, and anything positive we can take out of this series (Wise, Richard yesterday) will only help us in 2009. By my saying that, I'm not convinced that Wise will even be with the team, or that Richard will be much more than Nick Masset as the long guy out of the pen and 2nd lefty option after Matty.

QUOTE (Tony82087 @ Oct 3, 2008 -> 03:55 PM) It's a shame the Sox don't have a few higher end pitching prospects. If they had another arm or two outside of Poreda, I really think you could see a match. Remember, Cashman and Williams have a very good working relationship. One name to consider is Swisher. It's a forgone conclusion in NY that Giambi is gone, and the Yanks OF situation certainly isn't set in stone. We could pry Melky Cabrera away now, but not Cano. He's the type of player that KW targets...someone who used to be in high demand, still young, but with the potential to turn things around. Cano just doesn't fit the profile of the normal KW find...he's been a great player and an All-Star. The only similarity is he's coming off a very disappointing year.

QUOTE (watchtower41 @ Oct 3, 2008 -> 04:16 PM) Any word on Pena? Pena's in the line-up tonight. The only real change is we'll see Baldelli in the starting line-up this time.

QUOTE (scenario @ Oct 3, 2008 -> 10:56 AM) For all the complaints about the Sox being a softball team that can't score runs without hitting homers... How does adding a guy with a .300 OBP (that can occasionally knock the ball out of the park if he connects) really help us? Isn't that just more of the same 'ol that everyone curses at the Sox for? We've got bangers. We need more people who can get on base in front of them... and people not prone to going into long early season slumps. If we had Young back here, I could just picture it... people would be piling on calling him an outfield version of Uribe. Adios Chris Young... and take your 'legend' with you. All those things said... 1) Young is a very good defensive CFer, minus a plus arm 2) He can definitely go 1st to 3rd on singles, and 1st to home on doubles 3) He has a lot more upside than Nick Swisher, because Swisher isn't a natural CFer 4) A better comparison with Uribe would be Brian Anderson, if he was to play on an everday basis...except Anderson would hit 15-18 homers, not 30+.