Kenny Hates Prospects

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 10, 2008 -> 02:55 PM) Another guy referred as a safe pick. The only thing safe about these guys (McCullogh and Broadway) is the assumption that they will be busts. Exactly. I'll never b**** about the Borchard pick because at least the guy had huge potential. Hindsight tells us that we didn't make a bad pick with Borchard because he became a tremendous prospect. The problem was we made a horrid choice by holding on to him for as long as we did. If a guy has the sky for a ceiling and flames out, then oh well, at least you took a risk worth taking. Broadway and McCulloch were not risks worth taking, Broadway especially since he was taken so high.

QUOTE (ChiSox_Sonix @ Dec 10, 2008 -> 02:56 PM) Because he's never really been given a chance and since he will not be a #1/2 pitcher and people drafted behind him by other teams have panned out better/quicker he must suck. He hasn't gotten a chance because he gets lit up in Triple A.

QUOTE (Palehosefan @ Dec 10, 2008 -> 02:47 PM) Lance Broadway? Where is the thread about Kyle McCulloch that should have been started long before this one? McCulloch was taken 29th overall in 2006. That was a horrid pick too, but not as bad as Broadway. The '05 draft was much deeper, at least it appears that way now, and we had a top-15 pick which is actually rare for the Sox. It's so valuable that you can sign a Type-A FA and still not lose it. And we used that to pick Broadway. Ugh.

CJ Henry, Mark Pawelek, Marceaux, Greene, and Broadway are the only guys in the first 30 that I think you can definitely call busts. It's still early as these guys have only had time to play 3 full seasons since the draft, but from what we know so far, the 2005 draft was extremely deep and talented. How we ended up taking a guy like Broadway 15th overall just boggles my mind.

We all remember where we were on 6/7/05 when a terrorist regime of scouts and cross-checkers bombed the subways of Sox fans' hearts with the selection of Lance Broadway in the first round, 15th overall, of the 2005 MLB First-Year Player Draft. Let's all take a moment to click on this link and reflect upon all those great players that were needlessly passed over. We can never go back in time and change things for the better. What is done is done. But it is time, Kenny Williams, that you trade Lance Broadway for a bag of baseballs so we can all move on. I don't want to see him on the 40-man roster anymore because whenever I do I'm reminded of how we could have had Matt Garza, Ellsbury, Buccholz, Lowrie, Bowden, Volstad, Colby Rasmus, and on and on and on, because that's just the first round. Broadway was the most horrible draft pick I can remember, because at least McCulloch was taken near the very bottom after we'd won 99 games and the WS. Broadway was fifteenth!!!! That's f***ing sick. Please Kenny, get this guy out of here already.

My crazy prediction for today is the Cubs acquire Jake the Pussy. That's not all that crazy, but it will be crazy as to how they do it. Cubs send Marquis + $6M to the Mets for Heilman Cubs send Fukudome + $20M to the Phils for Carlos Castillo Cubs send Felix Pie to the Orioles for Garret Olson Cubs send Heilman, Castillo, Olson, Cedeno, Sam Fuld, and Micah Hoffpauir to the Pads for Jake the Pussy Cubs are then lauded as fiscal geniuses who managed to deal for Peavy without giving up Vitters or even Sean Marshall. Jake the Pussy sings a song to celebrate and this somehow makes the front page, despite the fact that another quake hits the Pacific Rim and the resulting tsunami wreaks unparalleled devastation. Caulfied12 then has trouble posting about it with all the water in his living room and whatnot.

QUOTE (dmbjeff @ Dec 10, 2008 -> 01:50 AM) the biggest thing is this pitching youth movement. it is extremely rare for minor league talents to just step in and put up good era's, good whip's and pitch the required 200+innings you need as a SP. look at danks and floyd they struggled their first go arounds as a SP. at the moment we are asking 2 rooks to do this for us if we don't get a proven SP or 2 in there via trade or FA. i am really not looking forward to 2009. its gonna be a long year. I agree with all of this, except I would be more than willing to deal with two young guys' growing pains in 2009 so long as we had better talent to pencil in than Marquez and CR/AP.

QUOTE (flavum @ Dec 10, 2008 -> 04:42 AM) Dye is getting traded today...to the Reds. Is that your crazy prediction (because it's not all that crazy) or do you know something the rest of us don't?

QUOTE (witesoxfan @ Dec 10, 2008 -> 03:29 AM) Chris Carter's power has been compared to Ryan Howard's, though that's a bit extreme; it still paints a picture. That's who Williams gave up to get Quentin, and Quentin was coming off an injury plagued season as it was. Williams really isn't savvy per se, he merely goes out and gets the guys he wants and isn't afraid to pay the price to get it. It's been a while since I've seen Williams make a big trade and knew right off the top of my head the Sox were the winners, perhaps since the Bartolo Colon trade prior to 2003. When he made the following trades I said immediately that the Sox won, and I still believe that to be true: -Cotts for Aardsma and Vasquez (This didn't work out for either team but Cotts had turned into trash and Kenny got two live arms) -Gload for Sisco (Even if it didn't work out for us in the end, anytime you can get a big lefty with that kind of stuff for a backup 1B with barely any power you win that deal. In hindsight, I wish we'd have spun Sisco elsewhere for a prospect or two.) -Borchard for Thornton (Borchard was done, again Thornton was a big lefty with big potential still) -Marte for Mackowiak (Marte was done here, and at the time Mack-o-Whack was one of the best bench options available, It's just that he happened to be misused, but he ended up getting us Link which could pay off in a big way if he can become a solid setup man.) -Bajenaru for Cintron (nothing for a bench player who was unfairly hated here because of the amount of playing time he ended up getting, especially in 2007) -Miles for Uribe (fringe IF for a toolsy SS) -Javy for Flowers, Lillibridge, Rodriguez, Gilmore (very good value for a back-end starter) -Rowand, Gio, and Haigwood for Thome & cash (it's Jim f***ing Thome, we easily won that from the moment it was announced) -Loaiza for Contreras (garbage soon-to-be FA for another nice arm with big potential) There may be more, but those are just the ones off the top of my head that as soon as the deals went down I loved and figured we'd easily won.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Dec 9, 2008 -> 04:28 PM) I found it to be absolutely f***ing hilarious, and also brilliant. Thank you.

QUOTE (SoxFan1 @ Dec 9, 2008 -> 04:24 PM) Am I the only one who finds that a bit over the line? Probably not.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Dec 9, 2008 -> 04:20 PM) It's top speed is 82 MPH? It was made by poor people in a third-world country.

QUOTE (SmashROT @ Dec 9, 2008 -> 01:37 PM) Well I thought I'd shoot an e-mail to the Dash to kind of notify them about their logo. I used the e-mail listed on the contact page and got an undeliverable back. I'm guessing they probably haven't the slightest clue about this growing internet buzz. Oh well, nothing left to do except embrace the purple phallace with comptetitive vigor. I sent them one and it went through but they haven't responded. Doesn't matter now. Whoever got them on deadspin did a good thing. They'll find out about it. BTW, a W-S catcher stopping a ball in the dirt can now be officially referred to as a cockblocker.

This last one was stupid (no surprise). From MLB Trade Rumors:

QUOTE (Jimbo's Drinker @ Dec 9, 2008 -> 02:48 PM) would you do dye for sonnanstine? No.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 9, 2008 -> 02:16 PM) Same thing with Furcal...who made $13 million and expected 3 years and $39 this time around. Garland made $12 million in 2008 with an ERA hovering right around 5...still, for him to go all the way down to $8.33-9.0 million per season would be a shock. He's 29 and very durable. The other pitchers in his tier (Penny, Wolf, O. Perez, Pettitte, Moyer) all have significant age/injury/inconsistency issues. Yeah, Garland's value is going to fall but not far enough to where we'll be able to take advantage of a bargain. I said when the Cubs signed Dempster that if I were them I'd have rather given that money to Garland, and I think that will prove to be the case. Garland will make less over a shorter span and be a better pitcher, and he may do all of it in a tougher league. You look at the NL, and this is the place where players like Jeff Weaver, Sidney Ponson, Kyle Lohse, Tim Redding, Braden Looper, Todd Wellmeyer, Odalis Perez, and co. all go to look like studs. Garland has put his numbers up in a hitters' park in the AL. Big difference. He'll be just as underrated in this market as Carlos Silva was overrated in last year's market.

Jesus Christ... f*** you, Jake Peavy. I hope you lose your arm somewhere up Eddie Vedder's overrated ass. And... If they're going to eat that much of his contract, and then take back an arb-eligible player probably making just as much, how is that trimming salary? All the other GM's are playing this game on Level: Difficult, meanwhile Jim Hendry is the retard in the propellered hat working on Easy Mode with a list of cheat codes in front of him.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 9, 2008 -> 01:45 PM) Rasner blew, and now Marquez is compared to Garland, and the real Garland is available and I don't think many people around here would want him. Rasner made his strides last season but is I believe subject to the minor league phase of the Rule-5 draft. If he's back he'll spend next season in Birmingham as a 22-year-old so he's still got a chance. The real Garland was very valuable until he started getting paid eight figures to put up ERA's north of 4.50. He's still a good pitcher and an innings eater and I'd more than welcome him back on a 3 year, $25-27M deal to be a 5th starter, but that's unlikely. He'll get more than that.

QUOTE (heirdog @ Dec 9, 2008 -> 01:25 PM) Kinda like getting Massett (who was supposedly just a tick below Jenks) as the safe bet along with Danks in the McCarthy deal. Yeah, although I don't know where the Sox got their information and I hope the person delivering that info was one of those sent out of the organization. I'd add that Rasner was the wildcard in that deal, a low-level prospect who at the time drew comparisons to Garland.

QUOTE (G&T @ Dec 9, 2008 -> 01:27 PM) Morton's numbers don't look very good. I'm doubtful he's a MLB pitcher much less a safe bet. I don't think he's a safe bet either, just saying that perhaps some Sox people would think that. I'm just trying to come up with a reason to explain why the Sox would pass on Bailey and then go after the Braves prospects again, knowing that Hansen is off the table (he was deemed untouchable even in the Peavy negotiations).

QUOTE (DBAHO @ Dec 9, 2008 -> 01:15 PM) Hence why I think Blanco could be an excellent long - term fit for us in CF, if we're still looking for a leadoff hitter. And Frank Wren's not afraid to deal younger players, we've certainly seen that over his time as GM. But Morton and Gorkys could certainly be attainable. Might be time to change your username also. I'd like Blanco too, but I think the Braves probably like him more than we do. He's actually a pretty good player and is probably one of the main reasons why they'll be able to trade for Dye, being that he's so inexpensive. About my username, there's no point in changing it because half of these guys will be gone in trades by the end of the next offseason. I think we keep Flowers though.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Dec 9, 2008 -> 01:15 PM) We can be PRETTY SURE that either Reyes or Morton were turned down as the final piece of the Vazquel deal. If KW was talked out of acquiring "a major league ready pitcher" for Santos Rodriguez and Gilmore, why would he turn around and then acquire one of them, especially when that's EXACTLY what he was APPARENTLY looking for in order to fill out our rotation at that point, or at the very least, provide depth with Marquez/CR/AP? I read that that wasn't the case. Neither were among the 5 players of which Kenny could pick four. I read the other name when it came out but forgot who it was because I'd never heard of him. Maybe Kenny could have picked up Morton or Reyes instead of Gilmore and Rodriguez or instead of Lillibridge, but I doubt either of those guys were held in the same regard as say Gilmore.

QUOTE (G&T @ Dec 9, 2008 -> 01:15 PM) Well the Braves have to trade someone. If the Sox want Bailey+ for Dye, then they aren't settling for Morton and Gorkys. The need someone ready this year. True, but we also don't know the full details about those discussions. Perhaps the hang-up is that the Sox want more if they're to be eating salary or assuming a bad contract like Ryan Freel, while the Reds feel that to give up more they'd have to get more. On paper, Gorkys is a much better prospect than Dickerson, Roenicke, and Maloney who have been mentioned by Reds fans, and Morton may be a safer bet to become a good pitcher in the big leagues than Bailey is. Bailey obviously has the highest ceiling, but it's very possible that Kenny wants to get back a couple of players as sort of a safety net. I wouldn't call it quantity over quality, but it's possible Kenny is looking for a good player who is a safer bet along with another player with bigger potential, and that guy can be the wildcard of the deal.

QUOTE (heirdog @ Dec 9, 2008 -> 01:01 PM) What's the 411 on Jo Jo Reyes and Charlie Morton? Are they middle of the rotations ceiling guys or more? I don't think we trade JD for anything but an "ace" type prospect. I'd rather have Brian Anderson in CF with JD in right than have a young unproven CF (Jordan Danks could be up in a couple years) and Jo Jo Reyes instead of Marquez or a FA 5th starter. Yeah the both have #3-type potential but are barely #5's at the moment. And we're not getting an ace type prospect/project, unless we get one with baggage like Bailey or Edwin Jackson.

QUOTE (nitetrain8601 @ Dec 9, 2008 -> 01:06 PM) I rather go for Bailey. Hell, send JD back to the Royals and get Zack Greinke for yourself. That's just a tad unrealistic.