caulfield12

QUOTE(elrockinMT @ Jun 1, 2007 -> 10:24 AM) The so called controversy with A-Rod is nothing more than some disgruntled losing team and sour grapes. A-Rod played hard and didn;'t do anything wrong. There isn't going to be any trade of A-Rod over this flap. That would be just like us trding AJ becasue of the twinkies flap. 1) AJ won a ring for us 2) He's not the highest paid player in baseball, with the most expectations surrounding him 3) He's not constantly compared to his alter-ego, Jeter...if Jeter makes the same play as A-Rod in TOR, it's 24/7 media cover with the following message: "he's a gamer," "he's the ultimate grinder," he'll do anything to help his team win, he's the ultimate Yankee, he's trying to fire his team up, yadda, yadda. 4) There are not front page stories about AJ's personal life, nor does anyone care about AJ's personal life...heck, he was criticized last year for taking his shirt off in the morning of a night game at Central Park

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ Jun 1, 2007 -> 10:10 AM) Bulls***. BTW, "your" =/= "you are. Why are Kenny and Ozzie the only options here? KW puts the pieces in place, and it's Ozzie's and the coaches' jobs to motivate an ensure the players play to the best of their abilities. Is it KW's fault Konerko, Crede, Iguchi, and Dye aren't hitting? No. How could have KW improve this situation before the season started? He should've traded Crede at his peak value along with his slimy agent and back concerns. I'm holding that against him. You could argue Iguchi and Dye as well, but they are cheap, soon to be free agents who can net us draft picks. Crede can't do that after this season. Is it KW's fault Erstad is a below average hitter? No, but he should not have signed him. Ozzie would have never had the chance to overplay him (Guillen's fault) and let him make a ton of outs if KW never signed the guy. I'm holding them both accountable. Molina being an automatic out for a month and a half? That's Guillen's fault. Bullpen? Mostly KW getting too young and cheap, but Ozzie certainly has not been managing them to the best of his abilities. There is no cut and dry answer (well, maybe Walker if they want to send a message) at this point in the season. Who would you have played in CF INSTEAD of Erstad? Anderson? Sweeney? Terrero? And you're SURE Anderson would have done a much better job than last year, and this is based on what, besides speculation? How would you manage Sisco, Aardsma and MacDougal differently right now? Even Masset, it seems the best way to "manage" him is to make him a starter, but that doesn't really help the pen. Is Logan now a proven reliever? Nobody knows what to expect out of anyone besides Thornton and Jenks. Molina is 100% KW's fault. Why do you think Ozzie never played Molina, and always brought AJ into those games in the late innings? Because he HAD to play him once every two weeks, or AJ would die a slow death in August and September. Personally, I would have gone for Wiki Gonzalez for the offense, but he's a lousy defensive catcher, not that this is anything new with Hall now on the team. We're without Pods, Sisco, Erstad and Ozuna, as well as Thome for a major stretch? What are KW's answers to those problems? Terrero, Andy Gonzalez, Owens, Sweeney and Dewon Day. How are these "non-options" also Guillen's fault? According to the Impact Factor of measuring success above and below expected Pythagorean, Guillen was great in 05, above average in 06 and 07 and one game under expected in 04. Maybe KW should name himself manager and show everyone how it's done? C'mon. And if you really believe that OG and not KW are down on Anderson, doesn't Williams have the ultimate decision-making power there? You can't tell me KW is intimidated by Guillen and would deliberately not use a player that could help the team win, can you?

QUOTE(IowaSoxFan @ Jun 1, 2007 -> 10:11 AM) I think this is very premature, but if we fail to either make the playoffs or come out of this season with the prospects to make a run in the near future, it is time for Kenny to go. This organizational has done a horrendous job of bringing in amateur talent either through the draft or through international free agency and that all falls on the shoulders of Kenny Williams. I pray that Steinbrenner will fire Cashman so the Sox would have a shot, their minor league organization has been depleted over the years by some of Georges moves but it is a strength again for that organization. Either that or whoever is running the show in Arizona, they have also done a good job bringing in Owings, Quentin, Gonzales, Young, Callaspo, and others. And if you get rid of Kenny you have to give the new guy an option to hire his own guy to manage the team, if he decides to stick with Ozzie, thats fine, if not he should bring in a guy that he trusts to get the job done. 1. JR is loyal to a fault and won't fire KW without giving him a shot to rebuild. 2. Cashman is like Phil Jackson, I don't think he can win without the biggest payroll or best player 3. The White Sox have never had budgets that allow for mistakes the magnitude of a Carl Pavano, Randy Johnson or Kevin Brown. One mistake financially of that scope and we're a .500 team for 2-3 years. If we're going to give anyone millions of dollars, it should be the Twins' Director of Scouting and Director of Minor League Operations. That would be Jim Rantz, Mike Radcliff and possibly Rob Antony (no relation to Mark/Marc)

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06012007/news/...in_new_york.htm With all the controversy of this past week, I think Steinbrenner and Cashman might be just about ready to cut their losses with A-Rod. The controversy surrounding him seems to have reached the point of no return, and it's beginning to affect his play again, just like the fielding/throwing problems he went through last year. Assuming the Yankees would take Crede and possibly Uribe, who else would you be willing to trade (if anyone) to make this deal work? Sweeney, with the above combination? Gio, with the above combination? Russell, with the above combination? Of course, after Ozzie's comments last year on A-Rod and the Olympics, can the White Sox withstand having three personalities like Guillen, KW and Rodriguez all together in one organization? It's a huge gamble, but it might be the one trade that allows us to stay competitive and not bottom out over the next two seasons, like the Indians in 2002-2004, and they had the luxury of the second best trade of this half decade, Sizemore/Lee/Phillips for Colon.

Sometimes managers get more out of their teams than they should. Sometimes they get less. While this surely will surprise White Sox fans, Ozzie Guillen is a plus-3 this season, which means he has done a good job to hang around .500 with a team that has issues. The only other managers who have helped out their team as much, according to the Impact Factor, are Arizona's Bob Melvin and Tampa Bay's Joe Maddon. The managers having the worst years are the Yankees' Joe Torre and the Cubs' Lou Piniella, at minus-6 and minus-5, respectively. It's a surprise Torre's moves aren't working, as he—like the Braves' Cox—should be on his way to the Hall of Fame. Both Torre and Cox have career Impact Ratings of plus-36, the best in history. That's better than any manager enshrined in Cooperstown. Among those guys, Bill "Deacon" McKechnie, who won pennants with three of the four National League teams he managed, is a plus-29, and famed Yankees manager Miller Huggins is a plus-26. No one's likely to catch Cox and Torre anytime soon either. Tony La Russa checks in at plus-21. Minnesota's Ron Gardenhire is plus-19. Dusty Baker was a plus-18 after winning with the 2003 Cubs but slid to plus-8 before being replaced by Piniella (surprisingly a career minus-4 after the horrible start this year). from chicagosports.com (Phil Rogers) I did a quick tabulation on the rest of Guillen's career... 2004=-1 2005=+8 2006=+2 2007=+3 Overall=+12

QUOTE(retro1983hat @ Jun 1, 2007 -> 09:33 AM) Well at least if the guy behind you is Paulie, JD or Crede, you will not be going anywhere when they swing at you. Make that Mackowiak, Terrero, Anderson and Cintron and the wind manufactured from their swings might create a wind mighty enough to blow you off the ledge, nonetheless.

QUOTE(marsh @ Jun 1, 2007 -> 09:36 AM) Need to get younger and faster quick. Give tampa what they want for upton, he's gonna be a stud offensively. put him in either left or 2b next yr depending on Iguchi's status and hope he gets better defensively. tampa has two dominant starters kaz and shields, convince them that gio and masset will give them four . Trade Crede or dye to the dodgers for some of thier youngsters, maybe ethier or loney. KW is obsessed with power guys, we need hitters not sluggers. Fire walker, the guy is living off a half season of baseball where everything went our way offensively. Perhaps even see what LAA wants for figgins, maybe this is a good buy low time after some injuries, he can handle a few diff. positions, maybe you can get him cheap. I'm just tired with this teams makeup and approach. Give ozzie the team he wants, fast, fundamentaly sound and good defensively. It's too late for us to get Upton, he might have been available last year, when they were shuffling him between 3B, SS and the outfield, but he seems to be happy and productive at 2B. They would be insane to trade him, unless we gave them Gio and Russell. At present, the asking price for Upton would be higher than for Baldelli...not even close. The one thing that makes him slightly less valuable is the fact that he's no longer considered for SS, although the White Sox might possibly prefer him there, but it's still a pipe dream. I think Kemp is another name that will come up in conversations about the Dodgers. Dye and Crede could both end up there, as well as the Angels...I think the Giants might also be looking at Crede.

QUOTE(caulfield12 @ Jun 1, 2007 -> 07:52 AM) http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...cs-home-utility "It's starting to get pretty bad up in the TV booth, too, with the Hawkeroo doing his best to trigger an international incident when he said this about the customs process inside the Toronto airport: ''You'd have thought we'd just flown in from Iran on al-Qaeda Airlines. They didn't search anything. They ransacked.'' Mariotti waging his personal battle with Harrelson, this was something to laugh about at least after last night. Rather, the folks at coolstandings.com, in their Thursday projections, gave the Sox a 1.9 percent chance of making the playoffs. This, they base on a computer simulation of the remainder of the major league schedule, played 1,000,000 times. By the same measure, the Cubs have a 33.5 percent chance of reaching the postseason. Here's the rest of another article (of course, Mariotti couldn't wait to write today's column) advocating a sell-off of White Sox assets... http://www.dailysouthtown.com/sports/arvia...011ARD1.article

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...cs-home-utility "It's starting to get pretty bad up in the TV booth, too, with the Hawkeroo doing his best to trigger an international incident when he said this about the customs process inside the Toronto airport: ''You'd have thought we'd just flown in from Iran on al-Qaeda Airlines. They didn't search anything. They ransacked.'' Mariotti waging his personal battle with Harrelson, this was something to laugh about at least after last night. http://www.dailysouthtown.com/sports/croni...221CRO1.article Article blaming North for the Guillen/Score Friday morning massacre...also pointing out that someone needs to file a formal complaint with the FCC. I wonder if Mariotti would dare stoop to that in an attempt to further antagonize Guillen, Harrelson, Williams and Reinsdorf?

QUOTE(beck72 @ Jun 1, 2007 -> 06:36 AM) I'm not sure if this name has been thrown out there, but Chone Figgins could probably be had for a minimal price. He's struggling almost as worse as any Sox. But he's a decent bet to turn it around. and versatile enough to fill in a lot of spots the sox could use--LF, CF, IF. Getting him should be worth a shot at redeeming the sox season. Yet it wouldn't cost any part of the sox future. If it's for someone like Broadway, why not? Crede for Figgins, I think we need to wait two months and maximize Joe's value. We have some options at 2B next year, we could put Ozuna there as the starter, move Uribe over to second and bring in Vizquel, possibly Cintron (my least favorite option), Getz, Andy Gonzalez, although the later two profile more utility players. From what I've seen of him in the IF, I have no desire to see Mackowiak moved back there, but I suppose that has to be an option they're look at as well as Tomas Perez, who's a journeyman type at best.

QUOTE(beautox @ Jun 1, 2007 -> 01:49 AM) i would gladly take the following off their hands for joe crede. either of their up and coming 2B Frandsen or Sanders. Frandsen is a slap hitting 2B with decent speed who doesn't strike out much but also doesn't walk much his OBP is reliant on putting the ball in play. Sanders is a bit further away hes currently at the giants single A affiliate Augusta, and was hampered all last season with shoulder a injury, he could move very quickly and possibly taste AAA by seasons end seeing how Frandsen is with the big club he should move quickly. He hasn't show much in the power department but he does have very good speed(3triples 13SB/1CS) and a great eye(20SO/19BB). Aside from both of them i wouldn't mind Jonathan Sanchez another project lefty with great stuff. Recently sent down to AAA Fresno Why not see what Cooper can do with Sanchez. So far he's been able to make Logan look respectable and Thornton look great, The book is still out on Sisco. That's a VERY rare jump to go from the South Atlantic League (considered the lowest of the A ball leagues) to the AAA level in one season. Most minor league directors would be happy if their players progressed in one season and did well in High A, let alone AA.

QUOTE(hitlesswonder @ Jun 1, 2007 -> 12:04 AM) Pierre = .312 OBP and .650 OPS Roberts = .283 OBP, elbow surgery Matthews = .800 OPS + good defense (very good year so far, although the PED thing is a cloud). Anyway, KW would still be screwed if he had signed either Pierre or Roberts. And the Matthews signing was viewed with ALMOST as many raised eyebrows as the Meche one. Both have turned out okay, so far, for both teams, especially the Royals, who took the biggest gamble and were criticized by lots of other clubs like TOR, who look very dumb now for having signed Ryan, Ohka, etc.

QUOTE(My Dixie Normus @ Jun 1, 2007 -> 01:43 AM) I am as concerned about this season as I am about the next 5-10. We are looking at a lot of talent either suffering from age and injury or leaving the team at the end of the season if not sooner. Contreras (old), Thome (old), Dye, Buehrle, Crede, Iguchi to name a few. We had a shot to be a serious club again this season. We need a shortstop and left fielder for the defense and leadoff hitter for the offense. But with the potential of all of those names being off the next seasons starting lineup, I am concerned that the Sox will tail spin for another half decade. I am not ready to throw in the towel on this season just yet if only because I really fear what the next few seasons will look like. We need to replace Uribe offensively, not defensively. He's in the Top 5-7 shortstops if you go just by fielding alone, combined with him arm strength. Unfortunately, since KW is not willing to pay top dollar (unless he trades for Jimmy Rollins), it appears we will end up with Omar Vizquel, Eckstein or a 50/50 proposition like Erick Aybar that may or may not turn out to be a regular MLB SS.

QUOTE(beautox @ Jun 1, 2007 -> 02:18 AM) The Braves are already stacked at SS Edgar Renteria is locked up till 09 and i don't forsee him going anywhere Then they've got the following: Andrus, Lillibridge & Fontaine I think Broadway would be enough to get him, and as it appears now he doesn't look to have a future on the south side. I just hope this guy is projected to do better than Tony Pena Jr., or there will be a lot of disappointed fans thinking we have another Mike Caruso situation on our hands.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ May 31, 2007 -> 11:16 PM) The question is not whether or not he'd be able to put up the same numbers in the other league it's whether Chris Young's current offensive production would be acceptable coming from Josh Fields this season which it would be. It would be absolutely shocking, that would be comparable to Magglio or C-Lee when they were rookies. Not going to happen unless his swing undergoes a magnificent shortening to "compact" status. The Trib said "probable ligament damage" regarding Erstad's injury.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ May 31, 2007 -> 11:12 PM) He also has a .779 OPS and 100 OPS+ both of which would be good for second best on this current Sox team. If Fields were to put up league average numbers for the first 2 months of this season much as Chris Young is doing now, I would be absolutely elated. not And a lot of folks would be shocked if he put up those exact same numbers facing the Twins, Indians and Tigers for 57 games out of the season...not to mention the rest of the AL is so much stronger than the NL Central and NL West.

QUOTE(fathom @ May 31, 2007 -> 11:05 PM) I was expecting more creativity from KW. A lot of us thought he was collecting young arms in order to then make a trade for a superstar like Carl Crawford. With all of the momentum the organization had earned from the 2005 and 2006 season in regards to attendance, I had higher hopes that KW would bring in one more superstar to try and keep the momentum going for at least another season. I have no problem with him rebuilding, but I thought it should have been done after this current season. I hated the Garcia trade, as he was our best chip to go ahead and add another talent to the major league team. When you look at how much the Astros gave up to get Jennings, I really think we could have gotten more than a good, but not great prospect, in Gio and the crap that is Gavin Floyd. I honestly think Gio's best value to this team would be to trade him again, as his numbers are skewed by pitching in Birmingham and padding his stats against a few real bad hitting teams. I still think we messed up by not including Perez on the 25 man roster. Thome is worthless against LHP. Also, I still think Ozzie messed up by putting Toby Hall at first base. It was a stupid decision on his half. I think the Astros preferred Jennings' "upside," and that they might have an easier time keeping him down the line than Garland, who many perceive as wanting to return to CA or possibly back to the Midwest and Chicago. I think their trade for Jennings was a little like the Royals signing Meche...they saw an undervalued pitcher, whereas Garland was coming off two very strong back to back seasons and the White Sox wanted too much for him. The most valuable asset in the game is left-handed starting, which works in the favor of the White Sox if they do sell off Buehrle or Gio Gonzalez again.

QUOTE(knightni @ May 31, 2007 -> 11:01 PM) I agree. If the team's going to lose, they should lose with kids and a $35 mil payroll, not with underachieving old guys and a $100 mil payroll. I'm not ready to write off Terrero yet, without seeing him play more regularly. He might end up being a better player for the Sox than Anderson in the long-term.

QUOTE(hitlesswonder @ May 31, 2007 -> 10:57 PM) Williams acceptance of the worst outfield in baseball before the injuries, and the reliance on the likes of Terrero and Mack after them to fill the "void" has been bad. Very bad. But one of the worst offseasons a Sox GM ever had? I don't think so. He didn't sign Navarro...he didn't trade Sosa for Bell...he didn't trade for Todd Ritchie (OK, he actually did but not this offseason) and those are just recent offseasons. In hindsight, he should have been more radical and ripped up the team, but I don't think that was obvious at the time. It's only magnified because of the bar being set so high and expecatations of many "new" Sox fans up after the WS euphoria. I would call trading for Koch, Clayton or Ritchie, even signing David Wells, not so good either. We all thought the White Sox were in a position for an extended run of competing, and we set ourselves up to be disappointed, as most Sox seasons usually end up...but you talk about bad offseasons this decade, check the NORTH side of town first.

QUOTE(CWSGuy406 @ May 31, 2007 -> 10:40 PM) Fathom, I think that you'd agree that even if Kenny put together the PERFECT, ideal winter, the Sox still wouldn't be much better than where they are now. For example -- for me, the ideal offseason would have been dumping Podsednik for nothing and bringing in someone else on a one year deal for LF -- let's say Trot Nixon. I know you didn't like the Garcia trade a heckuva lot, and I fault Kenny Williams for his questionable 'crush' on Gavin Floyd, but in reality, one year of Gio Gonzalez throwing league average 'ball and we will, at the very least, be even in that trade. That doesn't change the fact that, at the time, it appeared Garcia would have a little more value than a B prospect (at the time, Gio) and a project pitcher in Floyd. McCarthy trade? It's tough to see this trade ending up as a loss for the Sox, although I think B-Mac will wind up being a solid #3. Cotts trade? More of the same -- I don't see how one could call that a bad move at the time the move was made or even now. Cotts was a one pitch pitcher, while Aardsma was coming off a pretty good year as a Cubs reliever. The Vasquez kid is having success at Charlotte, too, and is looking like he can eventually help a big league club, if only as a LOOGY. Sisco trade? Ehh... Everybody loved it at the time, myself included, but after watching Sisco for now (about) three months -- spring training included -- it's tough to envision Sisco ever being anything more than a mediocre LOOGY. My not-trained-to-be-a-scout eye tells me his motion is very wierd -- I don't know how to put it into baseball terms, but it looks awkward, almost 'forced' (if you know what I mean). Meanwhile, Gload, a guy who was ALWAYS underutilized and (dare I say) underappreciated by this organization, would be this team's third best hitter (world's tallest midget with this offense, I know) and would have looked good filling in for Thome when he went down and right now as our LFer. Hall signing? Don't need to talk a whole lot about him, great move, unfortunate injury. Erstad move? I'm not going to talk about this a whole lot. I'm glad that Kenny didn't throw big money at any of the other free agent CFers, but I didn't particularly like the Erstad move (in a starting role). Then again, Anderson has gone down and sucked an egg at Charlotte. I guess this goes back to one of the real fatal trades of the organization, Vazquez for Young. So basically what this comes down to is that I'm not close to calling for Kenny's head yet. He's still a top ten GM in baseball (that's off-the-cuff, but if someone challenged it, I'd be willing to put my personal list of those better/equal to him). What it comes down to is, if Kenny made all the perfect moves this winter, I still don't think we'd be in sniffing distance of Detroit or Cleveland. This year's problems are mainly here for two reasons; first, Kenny tried to have 'one more go' with this core group of players. Most of this 'core' were over the age of 30 -- and sometimes you're playing with fire there. The second lies in the lack of production from the farm system finally biting this team right in the ass. That one lies directly on Kenny's shoulders. He has called attention to it, let's see if things change. Oh, and I know a lot of people are calling for Crede to have been traded, but I'd like to see some posts from the winter calling for Crede to be traded. It's easy to say it now, after he's sucked for two months, but off the top of my head, the only person actively wanting Fields up here on April 1st was beatox -- maybe I'm wrong and missed some posts, though. A lot depends on getting a comparable outfielder to CY back for Garland or Vazquez.

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ May 31, 2007 -> 10:32 PM) Detroit loses Kenny Rogers, Zumaya, and Rodney and they still keep winning. Minnesota is struggling a bit but has a payroll many millions below the White Sox, they lose Liriano and Mauer and kick the Sox ass. The Sox get the back-up catcher hurt, Pablo Ozuna hurt and a $1 million guarantee player like Erstad injured who gets hurt every year, and Pods another perrenial injury is out and they look like they may just prove BP's 72-90 PECOTA projection correct. If the Sox fail this year, injuries shouldn't be an excuse. Just look at their offense, with Ordonez the early favorite for MVP. The numbers that players on our rivals are putting up, compared to our best hitters, it's totally unreal, especially after the first half of 06. They're getting good starts from Durbin, even. He had a horrible ERA with the Royals! Just proves that sometimes you can take a player out of a losing organization, put him with the Tigers/Twins (even the White Sox) and he suddenly starts to realize his potential. With Verlander, Bonderman and Robertson, they're pretty slump proof. Ledezma has done a decent job replacing Walker. Andrew Miller could tip the balance in the Central back in their favor if he pitches as projected by many. Throw in Rogers, and they trump anyone in the AL, with the possible exceptions of the Red Sox and Angels. Still, the fact of the matter is that they're only 7 games over .500 and the Twins, A's and Yankees will be on their heels for the rest of the season.

QUOTE(santo=dorf @ May 31, 2007 -> 10:14 PM) The Sox have a zero percent chance of signing any Boras client to an extension. Hell, no team except for maybe the Red Sox or Yankees can afford one of his guys because he wants them to test the market. So let's push out our much more productive DH, along with some minor league talent to get a guy whose agent won't let him sign for longer making it a lock he'll walk after less than two seasons. Oh yeah, he's going to cost a TON of money and he is a product of a hitter's ballpark. OKAY? It makes zero sense. Garcia was close to Guillen before coming to the Sox. Boras is on the other side of the universe when it comes to his relationship with the Sox. Then what's the point in keeping Crede? KW must have SOME reason. And I said it would only be a possibility if Teixeira were to sign an extension, which I also said was HIGHLY unlikely. I have yet to see any other realistic ideas. Baldelli? Griffey? Sure, we won't have to mortgage our future for players who will probably go down in a heap, just like Erstad, except they'll cost us Gio, Russell, De Los Santos, Fields or Sweeney. Do you think opposing GM's won't laugh at KW's predicament when he tried to take the cheap approach by signing Erstad and now he needs to bend over and pay the piper for not partaking in the crazy market for Matthews, Pierre and Roberts?

QUOTE(Dick Allen @ May 31, 2007 -> 10:27 PM) Andy Gonzalez my man. He was hitting a solid .240 in Charlotte with no power when he got the call. He's due. Valido's going to turn thing around. Just like Liotta. Just like Honel. Just like Malone. Just like Brian West. Heck, maybe we can bring back Jason Dellaero or Caruso while we're at it.

QUOTE(WhiteSoxfan1986 @ May 31, 2007 -> 10:16 PM) Owens will be replacing him, and there is a damn good chance he will do a better job. Erstad and his .316 on base percentage won't be a huge loss. Yeah, I fully expect Owens to have a .350 OBP as the leadoff hitter. No pressure there, you're only coming into a five game losing streak with every writer in Chicago waiting to pounce on KW, Guillen and Walker after every single loss...pretty soon, they're going to be at the point where they fire Walker, simply because that's the way every sports franchise reacts to underachieving/underperformance. LOL. .350 That's where Erstad was as our leadoff hitter coming into the last couple of games, not sure exactly where he's at now. When Anderson, Sweeney and Fields have struggled and flirted with .200 as big leaguers, we're projecting someone who's not one of our Top 15 prospects to all of a sudden become another Juan Pierre or Bip Roberts? It took Crede and Rowand three seasons to "get it." If Crede has actually gotten it! By the way, Owens makes Johnny Damon look like Roberto Clemente or Vladimir Guerrero with that arm of his. He's not a CFer, which means we're playing Luis Terrero, a 27 year old former top prospect who the Orioles and D-Backs gave up on. This should be interesting.

QUOTE(diegotony06 @ May 31, 2007 -> 09:49 PM) I really don't think attendance will suffer like it did before we won the World Series. You figure we aren't gonna resign Dye, or probably Iguchi. Crede will probably be gone at the end of 2008, if not before, so that frees up his salary. I really believe if we become sellers this year, I think Contreras will be gone, at least I hope he is. As I am writing this, Dusty Baker is on BBTN and he is predicting the Whitesox are gonna get white hot in the month of June, and only be 1 game behind the AL central leader!! hahaha All I am saying, I would do everything I could to keep Buehrle around. I'm not sure if he is gonna get Zito money, I know their numbers are comparable, but Zito also won a Cy Young, Mark hasn't. Plus the market is better this year for statring pitchers. I guess I am just hoping we hang on to this guy. Contreras can't be traded in 2007, no trade clause. QUOTE(southsideirish @ May 31, 2007 -> 09:59 PM) I hope Buehrle stays. I really don't like the thought of him on another team. If we want to get younger we should try to get what we can for the 60 year old that is the number 1 starter for our team. If we can keep Buehrle as a one and have the rest of the rotation with (2) Garland (3) Danks (4) Vazquez (5) Floyd/Gonzalez/Massett then it is both realistically affordable and young. That is if Buehrle isn't looking for Zito money. If he is then forget the whole thing. I don't think he is though. I would rather trade Crede and bring up Fields, Iguchi and give Chris Getz a chance (not sure if he is ready, but I like his attitude, the way he plays, and his numbers), Dye and bring up Sweeney. That is if the Sox are going to start looking at young players. If they are going to trade to try to compete this year then I would like to find a way to get Ichiro, Alexis Rios, and maybe a bullpen guy to go along with Jenks, Thorton and Massett. I still have faith McDougal will get right as well. We don't have anyone that the Jays would trade for Rios besides Gio/Russell/DeLosSantos. We simply cannot trade away young/affordable future starting pitching for position players. The Blue Jays are looking to keep their young players and weather the storm, and they'll be trading Glaus to the highest bidder, or competing with the White Sox if we try to deal Crede. Getz is another version of Aaron Miles or a poor man's Eckstein. He's not ever going to be an MLB regular, utility infielder and cheap replacement for Cintron/Ozuna/Mack is best case scenario. Who would Seattle possibly want on our roster? Not Dye, not Crede, they have Beltre there. The only thing we could give them is starting pitching, but it makes absolutely no sense for them to trade away their franchise player for relatively expensive veteran pitching.